Stories from the journey of building businesses, living adventures, and thriving in every season of life.
Google's AI just named my woman-owned company the #1 provider in our industry — ahead of national players with a 20-year head start. Here's exactly how we did it, and the playbook any founder can steal.
JD.com popped nearly 7% this week and I collected $1,476 in premium by selling covered calls from my solar-powered trading desk in the Arizona desert. Here's exactly what happened and why.
At Vertical Identity, we manage DOT drug and alcohol testing compliance for thousands of motor carriers. This quarter, we replaced surveys and phone calls with an AI-powered verification system that catches compliance gaps before they become FMCSA violations.
How a non-technical founder used Claude Code to design, build, and deploy a complete automated business system — backend, frontend, and integrations — in a single session.
In one month, we moved from page 4 to page 2 on Google, grew daily clicks by 71%, and built an entire SEO infrastructure using AI. Here are the real numbers and exactly what we did.
When people hear "AI in business," they usually think chatbots or content generation. What we're building at Vertical Identity is different — we're using AI to replace entire operational workflows, starting with DOT drug test scheduling.
I took our DOT drug testing company from invisible online to optimized across six service pages, 28 FAQ schemas, and a full internal linking strategy. Here's exactly what I did and why every business owner should care about SEO.
How I replaced a $600 developer quote with a $5/month Cloudflare Workers script that reorganized 5,275 customer accounts overnight — and why every business owner should learn to build their own solutions.
Jason and I did a thing. While most people our age hear "55+ community" and picture shuffleboard and early bird dinners, we heard something completely different: affordable, gated, low-maintenance, and five miles from my family in Orlando.
MJ lost 32 pounds using my weight loss program — and half her conversations were with my AI assistant. Here's how automation made my wellness business more personal, not less.
I have an automated system that pulls fresh leads from a government database every day and delivers them to my CRM before I finish my coffee. I built all of it. Me. A 53-year-old Gen X woman in Arizona who learned SQL out of stubbornness, not a computer science degree.
Yesterday I spent the day in Florida with my cousin while my AI assistant pulled call reports, reviewed employee conversations, and identified patterns across two core workflows. That's leveraged leadership.
Before AI can manage your sales pipeline, there needs to BE a pipeline.
I don't have an inner monologue. Here's how that shapes the way I work - and why the early morning hours are when the magic happens.
A step-by-step walkthrough of how I connected my Lovable website to an AI assistant for automated blog publishing.
In early 2020, I had four drug testing clinics operating across Arizona. Then COVID hit, and within weeks, the phone stopped ringing. Here's how I pivoted.
Flipping a house in Arizona? Doable. Flipping in Alaska? That's a whole other world. I thought buying two houses in Kenai at the same time was a good idea. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.
After losing 30 pounds on Ozempic, I didn't just change my body — I changed my life. And I wanted to give others the same chance to feel strong, confident, and in control again.
We didn't plan on buying a cabin in Alaska. What started as a cruise vacation turned into catching COVID, quarantining in Kenai, and eventually finding the place our souls now call home.
Most people think entrepreneurship starts with a brilliant idea and a pitch deck. Mine started with a floppy disk and a SQL database.
I've tried a lot of wellness protocols. Some worked. Most didn't. A few changed my life completely. Here's what actually moves the needle.
When I told people I was moving off-grid in Arizona, most thought I was joking. Here's what I learned about clarity, focus, and running businesses from the desert.
From building 7-figure businesses to diving into day trading - here's why I opened trading accounts, how I learned the ropes, and the hard-earned lessons along the way.
For the past few years, everyone's been learning about AI. 2026 is different. This is the year we stop learning and start installing.