MY STORY.

I know what it means to be the person others count on. The problem solver. The one who will stay with a question for hours, research every possibility, and keep looking until there is a way forward. For as long as I can remember, that has been my place in people’s lives.

I am proud of that. But there is something difficult to admit: I spent years figuring things out for everyone else without giving myself the same attention. My own growth could wait. There was always another problem, another responsibility, another person who needed an answer.

Eventually, I had to recognize how much of my own life I kept putting on hold.

I had a hard upbringing, with a father whose life revolved around work. That is part of my story, and I am still learning how to put parts of it into words. Some lessons came through experience. Others came through mistakes and the difficult work of finding my own path.

As men, many of us become practiced at holding things in. We know how to keep going, take care of what needs to be done, and answer “I’m good” without saying much more. It can be hard to explain what is happening inside when people have always known you as the one who can handle it.

I want to make more room for that honesty in my own life.

My career is something I take tremendous pride in. I have spent 30 years in leadership, credit, collections, accounting, business management, process improvement, and business controls. I have invested deeply in that work—in understanding the details, finding solutions, and helping people move forward.

Behind those years is a curiosity that has never left me. I still want to learn. I still want to understand what could work better. That is what draws me to new technology and AI, and to the possibilities they create. As much as I value progress, I want kindness to remain part of how I work and lead. I remember where I started. I want that memory to keep me grounded in how I treat people.

And then there is music.

Music reaches a part of me that can be difficult to explain in conversation. I listen to the lyrics, the story, the meaning behind the words. Sometimes I hear an experience I recognize so closely that I have to sit with it for a moment.

A song can bring back a part of my life I have not thought about in years. It can put words to a feeling I have kept inside. It can remind me of a hard lesson—or help me understand that lesson differently.

That connection is personal. What I hear comes through what I have lived. Sharing that perspective means letting people see more of me than the person who has the answer.

FT20—Forward Twenty—is part of that decision.

I want to give my own voice, ideas, and growth the attention I have spent years giving to others. I want to take the experience I am proud of, the lessons that were difficult to learn, and the things that still move me, and build something worth sharing.

Through honest conversations, music, leadership, practical knowledge, and new ideas, I want FT20 to offer people something they can carry into their own lives. A useful answer. A different perspective. A moment of recognition. The encouragement to take a step they have been putting off.

Especially for the person everyone relies on—the one who keeps showing up while leaving very little room for themselves—I hope my story feels familiar enough to say: your life deserves your attention, too.

I am still learning how to live that myself. How to make room for what matters to me. How to speak more openly. How to keep helping others while allowing myself to grow.

I am proud of what I have built, and I am ready to discover what else is possible.

That is the heart of Forward Twenty for me: having the courage to move forward with more of myself present—with the lessons, the curiosity, the kindness, and a voice I am finally giving room to be heard.