Built By Design
You didn't end up here by accident. And where you go next shouldn't be either.
What story are you writing with your life?
Most people spend their lives accumulating experience, skills, relationships, and wisdom — and never stop to ask what all of it is actually for. They keep moving, keep building, keep showing up. But for whom? And toward what?
This is the question at the center of everything I do.
Through my books, my podcast, and my writing, I explore what it looks like to stop living by default and start living by design. Not by throwing everything away and starting over. By using everything you've already built to create something that is authentically, unmistakably yours.
The Framework
We've been handed a lot of frameworks for success. Most of them start with what. What skills to build, what career to chase, what the market needs. They're not wrong. They're just incomplete. They skip the most important step. Figuring out who you are before deciding what to build.
This framework starts there. With who. Because when you know what you value, what lights you up, and what you're genuinely built for, the what takes care of itself.
I've spent twenty years watching people build careers that look successful from the outside and feel hollow from the inside. And I've watched others — people who took the harder, messier, less obvious path — build something that actually fits. The difference was never talent or timing. It was self-knowledge. Knowing who they were before they decided what to do with it.
That's what this is about. Two books. Two stories. One framework. Whether you're ready to write your own story or need proof that someone else already has, you're in the right place.
The Books
Own Every Minute — Coming Soon
Mark and Tiffany Baker did what most people only daydream about. They walked away from the conventional path, achieved early retirement, and poured everything into revitalizing their community in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Their story isn't about luck or perfect timing. It's about clarity. Knowing what they valued, what they wanted, and having the courage to build toward it before the world told them they were ready.
Own Every Minute is proof that a life by design is possible. And that it's never too early (or late) to start.
Living on Purpose — Coming Soon
You've spent your whole life building. The career, the resume, the reputation. Now it's time to build for you.
Living on Purpose is for the person who has done everything right and is finally ready to ask what they actually want. It's not about starting over. It's about recognizing that everything you've lived through — every role, every pivot, every season that challenged you — has been preparation. Your experience isn't something to overcome. It's your competitive advantage.
This book gives you the framework and the permission to use it.
Notes from the Messy Middle
Every guest on this podcast is someone who jumped off the conventional path and figured it out their own way. Not perfectly. Not linearly. But intentionally.
These are the conversations that happen in the middle of the process — before the highlight reel, before the success story, while it's still messy and real. If you're navigating your own in-between, this show is for you.
The Podcast
The Writing
Communicating with Purpose on Substack
This is where the framework gets developed in real time. Every issue is part reflection, part strategy — honest, grounded thinking for people who want their work and their life to mean something.