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I spent twelve years talking to people before I got paid to write code
Restaurants, automotive sales, and six years behind a bar. Then software. Most people read that as a career change. I read it as the reason I am good at this one.
Here is what twelve years of customer-facing work actually teaches you: how to explain something complicated to a person who did not ask for a lecture, how to tell what someone needs when they have described it badly, and how to stay level when four things break at once and everybody is looking at you. That is not a soft skill. That is most of the job when you are the technical point of contact for thirty accounts.
The other half of it is that I get to new things early, and I would rather advocate for the person in front of me than follow a process that is not serving them. In automotive sales that meant moving into the online channel before most of the industry took it seriously, then ignoring the script I was handed and leading with actual questions instead. It made the sales managers uncomfortable. It also made me the top salesperson in my department every month I was there. I have not found a reason to work differently since.
I was homeschooled from seventh grade on, which mostly meant nobody was coming to teach me, so I learned how to learn things. That habit is why I can be handed an unfamiliar stack on a deadline and come back with an answer instead of an excuse.
I genuinely like building things and taking puzzles apart. I am honest to a fault. I would rather walk down the hall and ask the question than guess and ship it wrong.
How the two halves met
In 2021 I was working the bar at The DNVR Bar, a high-volume sports bar in Denver, helping their media team with digital content when they needed it. By 2022 I had designed and built the full WordPress front end for DNVR and PHNX, both properties, from scratch.
Then, 48 hours before the PHNX launch, the site came off AWS and the developer who owned that infrastructure stopped answering. I was the front-end guy. I was not on call for any of it. I learned enough AWS under deadline to describe exactly what was broken, took it straight to the CEO, and found and oriented a replacement developer in time to launch with hours to spare.
That is the clearest version of what I actually do. The technical work and the people work were the same job, and neither half would have gotten there alone.
Technical work
Feb 2024 - present
Prospecta Marketing
Senior SEO Specialist and Account Executive
Promoted twice in two yearsCTO succession trackA fully remote digital marketing agency serving more than 100 clients. The title says SEO. The day job is front-end development, WordPress and Webflow CMS architecture, custom plugin development, internal tooling and serverless automation. I am the main technical point of contact for 30-plus accounts at a time. Small team, almost no formal onboarding, which meant figuring it out was the job description from week one.
Mar 2021 - present
Tangent Apps
Full-stack developer
Concurrent with full-time workMy own consulting company. Vocation Action Network, Lacroix Hockey and Drill House Sports Center, Ahead of the Curve Media, DNVR and PHNX. I run these alongside full-time work, not between jobs, which is why the dates overlap everything else on this page.
2021 - 2022
All City Media
Front-end developer
Designed and built the full WordPress front end for DNVR and PHNX, a sports media startup, including their first build outside the home market. Then spent the 48 hours before launch working directly with the CEO to diagnose why the infrastructure had gone dark.
The twelve years before
Listed properly rather than buried, because it is half of why I work the way I do. Every one of these was a job where being good at it meant being good with people under pressure.
2022 - 2024
El Five, Denver
Bartender
Front bar and service bar. Best-selling cocktail award, Q4 2022 and Q3 2023.
2021 - 2022
The DNVR Bar, Denver
Bartender
High-volume sports bar. Helped the GM with operations and inventory, and supported the DNVR media team with digital content.
2020 - 2021
TAG Restaurant Group, Denver
Bartender and interim manager
Two locations. Interim shift management across front and back of house, plus inventory and data entry.
2019 - 2020
Renaissance Hotel Downtown, Denver
Bartender
Craft cocktail bar. Collaborated on the quarterly beverage menu.
2018 - 2019
The Kitchen Bistro, Denver
Server
High-level service at a four-star farm-to-table restaurant. Where I learned that most of hospitality is anticipating the thing before anyone asks for it.
2017 - 2018
Asbury Automotive Group
Online sales and leasing consultant
I lasted a couple of months on the showroom floor before moving into online sales, which the industry had barely started doing. The job was handling a stranger's objections over the phone well enough that they arrived already decided. Top salesperson in the Honda and Acura department every month I was there, closing 13.5 percent of fresh leads against a 12 percent target, whether I closed the deal on the phone or handed off a qualified buyer to the floor. I got there by breaking the script the sales managers wanted read: listening first, and taking the customer's side when those two things conflicted.
2012 - 2017
Chick-fil-A
Training director
Shift management and daily operations at a franchise clearing more than $3M in annual net income. Built a growth template that let people move from cashier to director on a defined path.
What I work with
Languages and frameworks
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- PHP
- Python
- SQL
- React
- Next.js
- Astro
- Node.js
- Express
- Tailwind CSS
Platforms and infrastructure
- AWS Lambda
- DynamoDB
- S3
- EC2
- Vercel
- Cloudflare
- WP Engine
- WordPress
- Webflow
- Docker
- Git
Search
- Technical SEO
- Answer engine optimization
- Structured data
- Core Web Vitals
- CMS architecture
- Site migrations
- GA4
- Search Console
One calibration I would rather state than have you find out: I am genuinely proficient in Next.js and TypeScript, and no employer has paid me for either. The evidence is an interview take-home, and it is labelled as one. Everything else on this page is production work somebody paid for.
This site is part of the evidence too. It is built the way I would build a client's: structured data on every page, a generated sitemap and feed, no third-party scripts, and a zero-flash theme. How this site is built
Education and certifications
- B.S. Computer Science, Western Governors University
- February 2026
- Meta Front-End Developer
- Certified
- HIPAA
- Certified
- AWS Solutions Architect, Associate
- In progress