I started at Five Star Ford in 2004, right after I turned 20, answering sales calls in the BDC. In high school I'd spent hours in Microsoft Paint trying to make cool images, and at work that turned into custom desktop backgrounds for the people around me. Then Photoshop.
One day my boss couldn't get our website company to build a special the way he wanted it, so he asked me for a mockup to send them. He came back and said, "This is exactly what I want. I'm just going to send them yours." That was the next step, and it kept going like that for twenty years.
Early this year I hit the ceiling. I'd automated most of my own job with Excel and whatever else I could find, and I told my boss I needed more to do. That's about when I started using AI, and it fit right away. I know how things should look and how they should work. I know the pitfalls and the traps. What I never had was the code, and now I don't need to write it myself. I steer, I test, and I don't let it ship until it's right. I think the tools I've built are exceptional, and I'm excited about the side projects too. I'm probably running too many at once, but maybe one of them catches on.
Outside work
My favorite band is Tool, and I'm in a Tool tribute band. I run the live visuals. That's where my video work started: editing visuals for the shows, which I still do. It turned into real editing skill. I know what looks right and what doesn't, and I've learned to walk away from a cut, come back with fresh eyes, and fix what needs fixing.