ABOUT MOI...

I’ve racked up 2,000+ weeks on this planet (I'm still slightly in denial), changed college majors more times than I care to admit, and tried to “build passive income” with more failed projects than success stories.

Turns out, life’s a fuck‑ton harder and weirder than the brochure promised.

I did the hustle‑porn thing for quite a while. The optimization hacks. The “wake up at 6am, 80/20 the shit out of everything, grind 16‑hour days so I can relax in an oversized mansion someday” routine.

I ENDED UP GENUINELY HATING IT!

What I know now:

• I’m only satisfied by work that usually takes an absurd amount of time to complete
• I don’t actually want a perfectly optimized, frictionless life
• I want something ridiculous, romantic, explorative, occasionally hyper‑inefficient, and most importantly, fully me

So I stopped trying to niche myself into tiny boxes and decided to go all‑in on what I love most: creative chaos, quirky comedy, indie music, life design, and societal conundrums.

That was the quickie version. Here’s the "too fucking long, don't bother reading" version.

Wake Up Call #Uno

Long before I was writing kids’ songs or roasting institutional control (publicly), I was doing what you’re “supposed” to do. You know, super-dee-duper-dee grown up important shit like:

• Studying business and political science at university
• Working in the bowels of hell (aka finance & insurance)
• Trying to build an MLM fitness business I sure as fuck should have never started in the first place
• Checking all the “good American guy - doing all the right shtuff” boxes

I spoke Portuguese from living in Brazil, Spanish from working as a church volunteer leader. I earned a master's degree from a top 250 global university. I was loaded with plenty of evidence that I was “on track" for a kick-ass American dream kinda life.

Then, out of nowhere, in my early 30's, I was diagnosed with cancer.

I found myself thinking (way the hell too much), “If I died tomorrow, would I be ecstatic about the life I lived and the legacy I left?”

The answer was indubitably un-fucking-comfortable!

That crisis didn’t turn me into a bio‑hacking monk or an indie rock god (though I did occasionally consider both options). It did something far more annoying and useful:

IT WOKE ME THE FUCK UP FROM AN AUTOPILOT, HIGHLY CONTROLLED LIFE.

My First Legit Media Biz

After that, I stopped trying to force the wrong businesses and built something I fully owned and could take 100% responsibility for:

First up, a kids’ educational media brand that didn't completely suck (I thought most of them did).

I built the brand as a one‑man studio:

• I recorded the voice-overs
• Wrote and produced the music
• (Poorly) Animated the videos
• Managed the whole thing from scratch

Over 7 years, that little experiment grew to:

• 250,000+ subscribers

• 80 million+ views

I eventually grew to hate the whole operation. I burnt myself out. I grew as an individual and moved closer to being my true self, which no longer aligned with educating children across the world online. So I sold most of it.

On paper, that’s the “dream” story: build something from nothing, exit, receive a big-ass congrats, big fucking deal...

That brand wasn’t the art and expression I’d wanted to make since I was a teenager. It was the thing I did instead of going all‑in on my actual dreams.

The Art I Kept Avoiding

Since adolescence I’d wanted to make:

• Raw, personal music
• Comedy (in all its experimental glory)
• Dark & absurd shit about how bizarre life and society really are

But every time I got close to giving myself permission, life intervened:

• College
• Friends
• Dating
• Religion
• Money
• The oh-so-shitty “real world”
• Everyone’s opinions on what was “smart” and “responsible”

I let it pull me away from art and creativity, over and over again. The worst kind of broken record.

After I sold the kids’ channel, I finally launched my personal brand the way I’d always wanted: social commentary, comedy songs, the stuff that actually felt like me.

Then I did what a lot of people do (and what I promised I'd never do):

I got extremely BURNT OUT and BORED AS FUCK.

I stopped creating. I never built a sustainable long‑term strategy around it. I learned the harshest fucking lesson of all with media content creation: Regardless of the topic, the tone, the posting schedule, dream career or not:

AS A SOLOPRENEUR, IT'S PRETTY MUCH ALL THE SAME PAIN IN THE ASS, BRUTAL-AS-FUCK GRIND!

Leaving the Script (Again & Again)

In parallel with all of this, I was:

• Working towards escaping a life-long religion that was controlling me rather than building me up
• Learning languages, traveling to 25 plus countries
• Leaving the US for Europe with my family to find a life that actually felt aligned with my personal beliefs and life design goals
• Building and maintaining a healthy physique over ~15 years of consistent effort

Surprisingly, I escaped one “correct” script (career + religion + geography)
only to accidentally build another one (only this time I had full ownership over it):

The low‑leverage, high‑effort, algorithm‑dependent content treadmill (that left virtually no time for actual living)!

I was working absurd hours as a solopreneur, releasing music and comedy into platforms that paid peanuts (or worse).

Not surprisingly, it wasn't sustainable.

While finding myself in yet another entrepreneurial existential crisis, I managed to rack up 3 concussions within 6 months (2 while at the gym). My MRI, doctor, and therapist all told me I'm fine. My conscience disagreed with them.

Wake Up Call #Zwei: Art vs. Leverage

That recovery time forced me to admit some highly uncomfortable truths I didn’t want to admit or accept:

• My entertainment dreams needed a dramatic update

• My path to financial freedom had gone from hopeful to a deep-seated shameful shit-show

• I kept trapping myself in the “feed the algorithm” machine with no high-income monetization levers

• I’d never actually learned how to build a kick-ass community from scratch

• Aside from a few sporadic wins, I sucked ass at systematically outsourcing to buy back my life

Having way the fuck too much time to stew turned my brain into an "always strategizing, never executing" cluster-fuck.

The Ai media landscape sure as hell didn't help either. That existential crisis required some serious research, meditation, acceptance, and a strategic overhaul.

I’d escaped most of the old traps and somehow managed to trap myself again in indecision and half‑built projects.

That’s the “wake-up call” you’re catching me in now.

What I’m Doing Differently this Time

This CAREER is me finally committing to me, myself, and I:

• I create the art and commentary I actually want to make
• I accept that high‑leverage isn't "selling out" and even if it is, I don't give a fuck what others think, right?!
• I build a business that supports my life, instead of consuming it
• I do it in 25-35 hours a week, not 75+, so I can still explore, travel the world, focus on my health, learn languages, and chill with my family

A WORK IN PROGRESS

I'm going for entertainment without the crazy hours, without the shitty content treadmill, and with no apologies for higher ticket, higher leverage products and services.

It will either work beautifully, live in the mushy middle somewhere, or it will fail spectacularly, but I'm sure as fuck going all-in on a more balanced existence regardless.

Life's painfully fucking short and I don't want to live with regrets. Paying down my regret taxes one week at a time - at the core, that's still my current season of life. I'm just taking a new angle and it feels pretty fucking great so far!