My Story

I haven’t always been successful. As a matter of fact, up until a few years ago I was the complete opposite. Well, maybe that is just the way I perceived the events starting in 2008-2009. I started college at the age of 18 at Indiana University of Bloomington (Go Hoosiers!) after losing a scholarship to play hockey for James Madison University. Up until 18 years old, I only felt as if I knew how to do two things well: succeed at hockey and inspire other people to do what they wanted to do. The education system never supported this viewpoint of my strengths and constantly reminded me of what my future would behold if I didn’t start paying attention in the classroom. You see, I learned at a very young age that if you do good work and treat people right, you don’t have to be the human encyclopedia. However you do need to be loving, passionate and fearless to create lasting change. What I also learned was than I enjoyed learning more than 95% of my fellow classmates. I just didn’t appreciate the style, format and unbelievable redundancy built into each lesson. I welcomed myself into the doors of Junior High School a few days later.

So at the age of 18 when I enrolled in my first class of college, I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the thought of four more years of structured learning. But I figured, what the heck I ought to give it a try. As you might have seen coming, it didn’t take me very long to realize I had just landed in glorified high school and all the partying I go out of my system then, was now just starting to bubble-up out of everyone around me. So there I was, discouraged, alone, lost and overly frustrated feeling like the box I was sitting in wasn’t just closed, but made out of wood and nailed together with only one breathing hole for fresh air, straw-size.

Again, it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy education, I just didn’t enjoy the injection process that was filled with all the final decisions of what I could learn, when and how fast. I became extremely depressed after challenging the system and attempting to manipulate it to work for me when I entered the darkest part of my life. My mind began to entertain suicidal thoughts while at the same time searching endlessly for an answer to turn my life, purpose and drive around. It wasn’t but a few weeks later after I had hit rock bottom, that God rescued me, my thoughts and my future. Within an instant, I felt alive and full of joy, hope, confidence, laughter and opportunity. I was then prompted to start a company called, L.I.F.E. Industries, which stood for Live, Inspire, Fulfill and Educate. It was a life-coaching company. I figured if I couldn’t explain what happened to me in words, maybe I could communicate it through actions to others who were needing the same experience, consisting of clarity and freedom. Now at this point in my life I found the third thing I was good at: business.

At the age of 21, I moved to Kansas City and started my life over. I rented out an apartment, enrolled in the University of Kansas, and began building my people-centered life-coaching company. Six months into that I contracted a rare flesh-eating bacteria that hospitalized me for what could have been the last week of my life. It was there that God came through again, teaching me about His power to heal and restore. I left that hospital on a Friday, and headed straight to the church that prayed for me. I enrolled in their School of Ministry two weeks later and left with two years of rock-solid ministry training. I got a call from a family member offering a full-scholarship to finish my undergraduate degree at yet a third school, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Bloch School of Business so I took them up on their offer and enrolled a week later, just in time for the spring semester.

This was when everything changed for the better. Here I was, reading more than ever and connecting with other entrepreneurial minded students when my family called and asked me to come home for the holidays. I obliged and found myself being questioned over and over again on future plans after graduation. Who was I going to work for and what position? Ludicrous question, I know. That is nearly impossible to answer these days. Let me remind you that at this point, I had restored and successfully operated a real estate company for going on 5 years and my thoughts of working for others were dwindled down to nothing by the HR department at the well-known telecom company here in KC just a few days after arriving here. I politely requested 48 hours to come up with an answer and as I was sitting in my family room, the first version of FolioMatch was birthed, developed and pitched to the hardest audience ever: family.

Bravo to the father with discernment and love, who instead of reprimanding my response (because I completely avoided the original question) looked up and said, “You know what, that’s brilliant and I think that could make a lot of money someday.” Now it took me a couple weeks to digest the fact that it could make money because I had spent 5 years chasing money anywhere and everywhere it went in order to pay bills and stay afloat. But once I got back to school, I felt the Lord confront me in my tracks. As clear as day again, I was encouraged to think about something beyond money, which was my original company LIFE Industries and my dreams of helping others connect with their own destinies.

So just like that… 6 awards later, constant speaking engagement and trips around the nation, being mentored by top executives in NYC as well as local billionaires in town, winning Student Entrepreneur of the Year and capitalizing on KC-backed programs such as Digital Sandbox, SparkLab KC, Launch KC and the UMKC Regnier Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, FolioMatch has come to be what it is today.

Not to forget mentioning the fact that I’ve been connected with the love of my life, the most incredibly talented team, a wonderful support system of mentors and the most solid partners a young entrepreneur could ask for. 😉 See, this is my story… which if encapsulated inside a resume would never do it justice and writing a book seems to overdue it. Even though I’ve founded FolioMatch, I still find myself sitting down and updating my story, my projects and any other experience I have along the way. Including, hey, maybe the experience I just had writing this story down. Who knows! An experience is an experience by the one who defines it as one!

More story coming…. and thanks for using FolioMatch!