I'm on a Winning Streak

At the beginning of January I was experiencing the most momentum of my life. It's too soon to share all the details but a lot of it was in social contacts or interactions.

A lot of phone calls, meeting with some of the big influencers I follow, having conversations, working on a project at work, being introduced to important people.

In the first few months of the year Charlie Rocket and Grant Cardone came to Jeffrey Gitomer's office. And major entrepreneurs like Andy Frisella, Jack Canfield, David Meltzer and Dallin Larsen were all guests on the podcast Sell or Die.

Even though it wasn't my podcast rubbing shoulders with these top entrepreneurs and successfully getting through the DM's and booking them on the show was impactful for my vision. 

However I don't take too much credit because without Jeffrey Gitomer's years of credibility they would never have agreed.

At the beginning of January, I was experiencing some of the most momentum I’d ever had. I can’t share all the details yet, but a lot of it came through social contacts and conversations—phone calls, meetings with influencers I followed, introductions to important people, and work on a growing project at the office.

In the first few months of the year, Charlie Rocket and Grant Cardone came to Jeffrey Gitomer’s office. Around the same time, major entrepreneurs like Andy Frisella, Jack Canfield, David Meltzer, and Dallin Larsen appeared as guests on the Sell or Die podcast.

Even though it wasn’t my podcast, being involved in the process—helping connect with guests, navigating conversations, and seeing how these interviews came together—had a big impact on my vision.

At the same time, I don’t take too much credit. Without Jeffrey Gitomer’s credibility and decades of work, those conversations and opportunities likely wouldn’t have happened.

On January 22, I wrote this in my journal:

"Two days of mental high, felt invincible, know that in 6–7–8 years I will be great."

A few days later, as a kind of life bonus, Mike Lindell—the “MyPillow guy” you see on TV—followed me on Twitter. I entered a contest he was hosting and, days later, won an autographed cardboard cutout.

It might sound small, but at the time it felt huge—especially because I was a fan of MyPillow.

February 2nd. Everything that had been on my vision wall for the past six months was starting to show up in real life.

I had my sights set on finding a way to attend the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte, NC, and hopefully even meet my childhood idol, Michael Jordan.

Over the next two weeks, a series of events unfolded.

First, I reached out to the Charlotte Hornets organization to try and secure a courtside seat for a regular-season Bulls vs. Hornets game. No luck.

So I went with a friend, Chris, and we tried our luck at scalping tickets outside the arena. It was a sketchy process, and again—no luck. The game started.

Right as we were about to give up, I noticed two guys walking in with a stack of tickets. I stopped them, asked if they were for sale, and bought two on the spot.

We ended up sitting next to them. The guy told me he had the hookup for tickets, and it turned out his dad was a Chicago Bulls legend who played a key role in their first three-peat. We exchanged numbers, and he said he might be able to help me get into the All-Star Game. I left feeling like I was on a winning streak.

The next day, I went to a brewery with friends wearing an Illinois State University shirt. A girl stopped me and said she went there too—small world. We started talking, and I asked what she did for work.

She worked for the Charlotte Hornets as head of the charity and special events division. I was already surprised by the coincidence, but then she pulled out her phone and showed me an Instagram story—she had been walking with Michael Jordan the day before.

Over the next few days, even more doors opened. I had three additional potential ways to attend the game.

I asked a high-level friend if he was going to All-Star Weekend. To my surprise, he told me he had been invited to play in the Celebrity All-Star Game—but declined.

My boss was friends with Mark Eaton, the NBA’s all-time blocks leader, and thought there might be a way in if he ended up going.

Finally, on Saturday before the game, I met an entrepreneur in sports marketing at a Topgolf meetup. He had already attended the first two days of the weekend but was leaving and skipping the main game. I asked if he still had his tickets, but he had already given them away.

In the end, I never actually made it to the game.

But I learned something powerful: when I set a clear intention, opportunities started appearing everywhere. Whether you call it visualization, focus, or mindset—it felt like once I locked in on something, the world responded.

It almost didn’t feel real.

Surprisingly, I went on Instagram one day and found out that someone I knew from high school had put out a diss track about me. I was actually surprised by it—I genuinely wish them nothing but the best.

In a strange way, it felt like a sign I was doing something right, because before that I hadn’t really received much public attention or “hate.”

Around the same time, another goal I had set for myself was to get on five podcasts. Within back-to-back days, people started offering to set up interviews for me.

Not long after, my friend Cole—founder of Southeastern Young Entrepreneurs—offered me a role as an editor and writer for his site. I was also consistently publishing LinkedIn articles during this period.

At this point, I had also become less active in Vasayo and knew it was time to move forward. It was an incredible company with great people and a strong founder, Dallin Larsen, but I felt called to create my own things.

I was getting really excited about the book I was writing and wanted to dedicate more of my time and energy to that direction.

End of February, I headed to the Big Island of Hawaii for a 7-day vacation.

I successfully went snorkeling for the first time and was just feeling good overall.

Around this time, my posts started having dates because I began journaling all of my wins.

“I began to feel momentum shifting. Everyone wanted me to help them out, but I didn’t have the time.”

Only four days later, I left work early. I was dealing with migraines and head pressure, and I started wondering if my post-concussion symptoms were somehow coming back. I assumed it was from too much screen time, stress, and burning the midnight oil catching up to me.

This was the start of a stretch of real adversity for me.

Feeling down, I tried to get answers from neurologists and past doctors. I tried resting. There were a few short stretches where I felt better, but overall there was very little improvement.

By late May, after being out of work for over 70 days and with my lease ending, I decided it was best to resign from my job and focus on getting myself right.

At the end of the month, I moved out of my apartment and headed back home. Before leaving, I met up with my friend Chris and we recorded two episodes for his Next Level Minds Podcast.

When I left my job, I started attending a local church I wish I had started going to sooner—Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church. It was my first time visiting, and I was given a Bible that became a huge resource for me.

When I returned home, I also felt like I needed to visit Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. I was searching for healing, or at least direction. I went, and it ended up being an amazing experience. He’s heavily scrutinized, but his sermons helped me stay positive through what was coming next.

These next few months were when things started to get dark for me.

Back home, I began developing heavy anxiety. The environment was turbulent—there was a lot of chaos, addiction, and constant drama around me.

I came back hoping to recover and reset, but I was sleeping on an air mattress in an empty room. My first week back, I was attacked by a bulldog. Not long after, I went to the barber and found out my hair was starting to fall out.

Add in arguments, police involvement, mistrust—and it became a difficult combination to navigate.

Around this time, I had my first panic attack. I was desperately searching for normality.

All I wanted was to feel normal again.

Unfortunately, normal didn’t come back for a while. I got stuck in my own head and became overly sensitive to everything. I started fearing anxiety itself, and a lot of everyday things began to feel like triggers.

At that time, my phone, social media, computers, TV, and even exercise would bring on heavy head pressure and headaches, so it was hard to fully decompress.

It went on for months. By September, I finally got health coverage and started seeing more specialists and looking for solutions.

I tried everything—tapping therapy, prayer, meditation, an organic diet, acupuncture, physical therapy, vestibular exercises, counseling, prescription medication, vitamins, allergy testing, workbooks, and more.

This recovery process was long and slow and continued through the end of the year. It was all about gradual exposure and slowly extending the time and intensity of my daily activities.

As things began to clear, my vision for my book—and how I wanted to move forward—started to come into focus.