My Story

As a Greater Peoria native,

I grew up as an only child - always longing to be part of something bigger and seeking to make an impact from an early age. As I grew older, I carried on the sense of pride for community and entrepreneurial spirit passed down from my parents who were business owners themselves. I witnessed firsthand the power of relationships as I idolized my mother’s lifelong career in the floral industry. My father’s propelling career from firefighter to fire chief served as an example of goal-crushing ambition and steadfast leadership.

Eventually, I would go off to college where I majored in Music Education, only to be nagged by the fire in my heart for creativity and entrepreneurship – leading me down what would become a new and unexpected path which would include leaving school early, starting a family and starting a business of my own.

In 2012 with one successful business under my belt (The Waterhouse) and various other resumé highlights, I had the confidence to start what would become my greatest professional accomplishment, ONEFIRE – an innovation agency of over 30 talented ideators who partnered with corporations like Caterpillar, Maui Jim, Rheem, UI Labs and countless others to provide strategy, production, and delivery of innovative experiences. My continued focus on culture, values and our team made ONEFIRE one of the region’s fastest growing companies. In 2015, my contributions to Greater Peoria were recognized as I was honored as one of the region’s 40 Under 40 emerging leaders.

As ONEFIRE continued it’s rapid growth it became apparent that the startup and innovation ecosystem in Greater Peoria was lacking, so I co-founded Startup Peoria – an organization dedicated to providing local entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to ideate, collaborate and launch successful businesses. The impact this organization had in Greater Peoria was quickly noticed on a both a local and national level. Locally, I was invited to serve on the executive board of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council and was appointed by the City of Peoria to serve as their representative on the board of the Downtown Development Corporation of Peoria. Nationally, my impact was also recognized as I was invited by Startup America to represent Illinois as a respected pioneer in community building and subsequently became a founding member of the Startup Champions Network.

In late 2015, I was unaware that I would become a widower in nine short months when my high school sweetheart would pass away from cancer after 14 years of marriage. Suddenly, I found myself a single father; trying to balance baseball practice with dance rehearsal while running ONEFIRE. So, in late 2016, I made the difficult decision to step away from ONEFIRE to focus on my children and pursue a life reset in the Dallas, Texas area.

Family and the desire for familiarity brought my children and I back to Greater Peoria in the Summer of 2017. After getting settled, reacclimated and back into the workforce, my love for community building was reignited and the Peoria Innovation Alliance was launched in May of 2019.

And while PIA brought fulfillment to my career, my health continued to struggle. So, after a life-long battle with obesity I made the difficult decision to pursue bariatric surgery in November of 2020; only revealing the deep rooted attachment and addiction I had to food and the emotions that went along with it.

After navigating the early stages of both the physical and mental challenges that came with this life-altering surgery, I was fortunate enough to take a 3-week personal retreat to the Southwest; documenting my journey of recovery, reflection, and self care along the way through a series of vlogs called “Rediscovering Me”

Even though my journey has taken me to unexpected places with many twists and turns in the road, I now find myself focused on the present; enjoying where I am rather than where I’ve been or where I’m going.