From a jewelry store basement to the Caribbean.

I graduated from college in 1995 and went straight to work for a startup nutritional supplement company outside Chicago.

Our corporate headquarters?

The basement of a jewelry store.

Seriously.

The owner was a successful jeweler with a passion for health and wellness. He had a business idea, a handful of products, and a brand-new company. I came aboard as a sales rep.

Within six months, I was running the place.

Not because I had some brilliant business education or a grand master plan. I just had a habit of noticing things that weren't working and figuring out how to fix them.

A sales process needed improving? I'd work on it.

An operational problem? I'd find a solution.

Something needed to get done? I'd figure it out.

I didn't realize it at the time, but that experience would shape the next three decades of my career.

I learned that growing a business isn't about having all the answers. It's about knowing how to find them—and being willing to do the work.

Over the following years, I worked my way through just about every corner of sales, marketing, and business operations.

I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where I became an executive sales manager for a national nutritional supplement company. I recruited, trained, and supported independent salespeople, learning firsthand what motivates people, what makes a sales organization productive, and why some businesses struggle to convert opportunity into revenue.

Eventually, I returned to my original company—this time as an owner.

My responsibilities expanded to practically everything: marketing, operations, sales, customer acquisition, and business development.

I produced 30-minute television infomercials, managed call centers, trained sales representatives, wrote scripts, and developed the systems that turned advertising into actual customers.

This was direct-response marketing before everyone had a Facebook Ads account.

You spent real money to put an offer in front of people. Then you found out pretty quickly whether it worked.

I loved that.

Around 2004, I also launched my own consulting business, beginning a long-term relationship with a television network where I managed digital marketing, websites, email systems, and customer databases for more than a decade.

By then, I was developing a philosophy that still guides me today:

Marketing isn't about looking impressive. It's about making something happen.

As the internet evolved, I became fascinated with search engines, content marketing, and the idea that a website could generate customers around the clock.

So I started building my own.

I developed several product-review and affiliate marketing websites in the health and nutrition industry. They began ranking prominently in Google for highly competitive search terms, attracting customers who were already researching products and preparing to buy.

Eventually, one of those websites was attracting approximately 300,000 unique visitors a month.

And those visitors were generating substantial affiliate revenue.

It was a beautiful business model.

We had built something that could attract an audience, earn trust, influence purchasing decisions, and generate sales without requiring someone to pick up the phone every time.

That experience eventually led my business partner and me to launch our own line of consumer products.

We combined our marketing expertise, established online audience, and product development capabilities to build a business generating approximately $300,000 to $500,000 in monthly sales at its peak.

Not bad for a couple of guys who understood how to turn website visitors into customers.

Then Google changed the rules.

Around 2018, major changes to Google's search algorithms devastated traffic across much of the health and nutrition review industry.

Websites that had performed beautifully for years suddenly found themselves losing rankings, visitors, and revenue.

Including ours.

It was a painful reminder of something every entrepreneur eventually learns:

If you don't control the rules of the game, you'd better be prepared when somebody changes them.

By then, I'd also spent more than two decades in the nutritional supplement business, and frankly, I was ready for something different.

I was tired of the hype, the exaggerated marketing claims, and the constant noise.

So we pivoted.

We took what we'd learned—and some of the capital we'd generated—and began investing in entirely different industries.

Over the following years, I became involved in building and growing a golf cart dealership, acquiring and expanding a vehicle warranty business, and launching a publishing company.

One of those ventures is Golf Carting Magazine, which I co-founded and still own a stake in today.

What began as an opportunity in a growing industry became an established lifestyle publication with print distribution and a significant digital audience.

I've also spent years involved in real estate investing, including wholesaling and creative transactions, where understanding people, negotiating effectively, and solving complicated problems are essential.

Different businesses. Different customers. Different challenges.

But here's what I've learned:

The fundamentals rarely change.

You need a compelling offer. You need a reliable way to attract customers. You need a sales process that converts. You need systems that keep the business moving. And you need to know which numbers actually matter.

The tools change. The technology changes. The marketplace changes.

Human behavior? Not nearly as much as people think.

Today, I live in Bocas del Toro, Panama, in the Caribbean, with my family.

I've worked hard to build a life that gives me the freedom to live where I want and spend my time doing things I enjoy.

But I still love business.

I love walking into a company, understanding how it operates, finding the opportunities everybody's overlooking, and figuring out how to make things work better.

And now, with the extraordinary capabilities of AI, I believe we're entering one of the most exciting periods for business owners in decades.

Not because AI is some magical solution to every problem.

It isn't.

But when you combine powerful new technology with real business experience, good judgment, and a willingness to execute, the possibilities become pretty interesting.

That's why I started Growth Mercenary.

I'm not looking to build a giant consulting agency with hundreds of clients.

I'd rather work directly with a handful of ambitious business owners who appreciate practical thinking, straight answers, and someone who's willing to roll up his sleeves.