Writing · Blog
In the Last 5 Years, When Did I Do Something Special?
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I came across a question in a YouTube video that stuck with me:
In the last 5 years… when did I do something special that impacted a certain type of person that I can explain step-by-step and how it felt, and would it be of interest to plenty of people?
It’s a better question than it sounds.
Not because it’s about highlighting yourself, but because it forces you to slow down and actually look at your life. Most of us move too fast. We do meaningful things, hard things, rare things… and then we move on without ever naming them.
I’ve been thinking about that question, and there are a handful of things in my life over the last five years that actually qualify.
Some are business wins. Some are deeply personal. Some changed what I believed was possible. Some changed who I am.
This is my attempt to put words to them.
One clear answer is selling a baby changing pad liner on Amazon.
The product was designed for parents using the Keekaroo Peanut Changer — a popular changing pad that’s easy to clean, but has one annoying downside:
it’s cold.
And when you put a baby on a cold surface… they cry.
This started as a first-hand problem.
We borrowed one from a neighbor, and I remember thinking, “there has to be a better way to do this.”
So I did something very simple:
That was the start.
No brand. No experience. No real plan.
Just a problem that felt real.
From there, it became a step-by-step process:
The big shift for me was this:
I didn’t invent something new. I built a better experience around an existing product.
That changed how I think about business.
The product worked.
Over time, it made over $100,000 in profit.
That money helped us:
But the money wasn’t the most important part.
The feeling was.
I felt alive.
There’s something different about building something from nothing and watching it work. Seeing orders come in. Hearing the “cha-ching.” Knowing it’s real.
It changed my belief from:
“I wonder if I could do something like this”
to:
“I can do this again.”
And once that belief shifts, everything changes.
At the same time, I learned how fast competition shows up. When something works, knockoffs follow. You’re forced to think about defensibility and how long something like this can last.
But even with that, I wouldn’t trade the experience.
It showed me the full cycle:
problem → solution → product → distribution → revenue
Once you’ve seen that work once, you don’t unsee it.
This is a completely different kind of “special.”
Not because it was impressive.
Because it was necessary.
My mom was hit by a mountain biker while standing on the side of the road. The injuries were severe. At the same time, my dad had his own health challenges.
In the first 24 hours and first week, it was all hands on deck.
I took time off work and stepped into whatever role was needed:
One of the first things I realized:
You have to let people help.
So I became the middleman — the one organizing everything so that goodwill turned into something useful.
At the same time, I felt urgency on the legal and financial side.
If we didn’t act quickly, details would get lost.
So I:
That documentation ended up mattering more than I expected. Our paralegal later said it likely changed the outcome.
The community response was massive:
At the same time, I was:
It was one of the most abnormal stretches of my life.
The outcome:
But honestly, the biggest impact wasn’t financial.
It was everything else.
Late-night conversations. Bonding with my dad as he leaned on me. Sitting in the garage with my siblings eating Pizzeria Limone surrounded by construction.
Moments that don’t make sense to outsiders… but become core memories.
I learned:
And I felt something clearly:
As the oldest, when things get hard, you step up.
Siftbooks was built for a very specific type of person:
Someone who wants to listen to audiobooks… but doesn’t want explicit content.
That might sound niche, but it’s real.
Hearing something is different than reading it. Explicit content hits differently when spoken out loud.
What people wanted wasn’t censorship.
They wanted control.
Siftbooks gave them that.
What made me build it was simple:
No one was solving this problem at scale.
The hardest problems weren’t technical. They were legal — copyright and compliance. That’s ultimately why I shut it down. The risk wasn’t worth it.
But while it was running, people loved it.
That kind of signal is rare.
It was one of the clearest examples of:
It also taught me how much faster you can move with a cofounder versus alone.
Even though it ended, I don’t see it as a failure.
It was proof that you don’t need a massive market.
You need a real problem and people who care.
For most of my time at Podium, I wouldn’t have said I was building anything that exciting.
That changed in 2026.
I worked on a Membership Coordinator agent for HVAC businesses.
The problem:
Businesses had hundreds of customers owed seasonal maintenance.
Before:
It was slow. And it left money on the table.
The agent:
I didn’t invent the idea.
But I built it in a way that shipped fast.
A previous attempt had failed with a more complex architecture.
My version went live in 2–3 weeks.
Results:
That’s when it clicked:
Businesses don’t care about AI. They care about outcomes.
They want:
This taught me:
Ship and learn beats perfect and late.
This one is quieter, but meaningful.
There have been moments where I’ve spoken or taught and felt like it actually landed.
After my dad passed away, I shared my thoughts and testimony. People came up after and told me it meant something.
Another time, I said:
“The Lord loves effort, but I also think the Lord loves discomfort.”
That stuck with people.
What I’ve learned:
You can feel the difference between something scripted and something real.
This matters to me because I was asked to do it.
Someone saw something in me.
And I want to live up to that.
What I like about this question is that it forces clarity.
Not just:
“What have I done?”
But:
Looking back, there’s a pattern in these:
That’s probably the real answer.
Not just what I’ve done.
But how I tend to show up.
This post is a work in progress.
I'd invite you to ask yourself the question - "In the Last 5 Years, When Did I Do Something Special?"