Our Story

We've always dreamed of building a family brand, doing our own thing, and being wherever we want, when we want—not tied down to society's expectations.

But instead of taking action on our ideas, we would overthink, get sucked into distractions, and waste away our time.

The Beginnings

From birth to adulthood, we had both been programmed to follow the script:

Listen to your superiors.
Get good grades.
Go to college.
Get your degree.
Find a job that allows for 'career advancement.'
Don't question the status quo.

That's what we did.

People always asked me, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" "What are you going to do after your mission?" My mind was always blank.

I had nothing to say so I'd usually make something up: "I'm not sure yet, I'll probably just do something in business."

I was never lazy. I got nearly perfect grades throughout school, was obedient to my parents, and served a faithful and obedient 2-year mission for my church. But I didn't know why everyone knew what they wanted to do but me.

I didn't want to be a lawyer, an engineer, a doctor, or even what my dad does in the construction industry. Nothing seemed to interest me or even light me up. Until…

The Hotel Experience

During my first year of college, I worked at a Marriott Hotel and thought this could be my path. I'd always loved hotels and the feeling I'd get when going to a new hotel for the first time. It was always exciting for me.

We traveled quite a bit growing up so I was able to experience this more than most kids would. The role fit my personality. People loved me and I loved connecting with many of the business travelers who were regulars.

The General Manager would often tell me that I could be a "high-up executive in this industry if I wanted to pursue it as a path." He wanted to make me the assistant GM. However, this would require me to drop out of school for the time being and that wasn't an option for me.

I knew I had to finish school because if I didn't, I'd be labeled as a loser who'd be a disappointment to my parents.

However, I still got excited about potentially going into the hospitality industry as a career and started looking at MBAs and Masters programs in Hotel Management. UNLV and Las Vegas looked exciting.

I started working for my dad in his office helping him manage his commercial buildings and continued school. Ranzel found another job and she did the same.

This was all while we were living at my parents' in their MIL apartment. It wasn't long until we got fed up living within arm's reach of my parents that we had to escape.

Our solution?

Let's move to Kansas and move in with her parents for the time being while we look for our own place. We were still finishing up school online, so we thought this was a great idea.

The Land of Oz

November of 2019, we packed everything up in a U-Haul and moved out to Kansas.

Ranzel was 4 months pregnant with our first child.

When we got out there, we took a few weeks to settle in. I was jobless and the last thing I wanted to do was find a job in Topeka, so her dad and I started our own business, "R&R" Property Maintenance.

What a joke this was.

The R&R pretty much stood for Rookies & Rejects. I thought I was something else because I was a 'Co-Owner' of a business.

"I'm never going back to work for someone else," I'd tell myself.

During that time, we were preparing for Ranzel's birth. This was another turning point in our "awakening."

The Birth That Changed Everything

About a month before giving birth, she decided she wanted to pursue a natural, unmedicated birth, which I was completely on board for.

Every night, for a few hours, we would watch video after video trying to learn how to prepare for a natural birth. I was the pinch-hitting doula so I was taking notes like a mad man.

Every day, Ranzel would practice what we had been learning. Breath work, mindset with meditations, and movements with her yoga ball, diet, etc.

On the morning of March 27th around 5 AM, Ranzel started having her first contractions. She knew exactly what to do. Filled up the tub, got in, and started working through them. After about an hour or so, we jumped in the car and took off to the hospital, with her digging her feet into the back of my chair.

After only a few hours, baby was born. We got up to the room and within about 20-30 minutes, Ranzel did all the work on her own and birthed our first baby.

From initially planning to go the route of everyone else and numbing the birth experience, we planned and prepared for a natural unmedicated birth in only one month's time. It was a foundational experience for the type of mom Ranzel was going to be to her kids. An intentional life for your children starts with an intentional birth. Not just being intentional about having kids, but being intentional about how you bring those kids into the world.

For Ranzel, knowledge brought confidence and confidence yielded trust in herself. Trust in her body. Trust that things would go smoothly because she had put in the work mentally and physically.

She went from Plan → Study → Practice → Perform. Repeat.

This systemized approach represents the formula for success in any area of life. This birth experience is where our eyes were slowly starting to open up to how broken the system is, specifically the healthcare system.

The Corporate Trap

When Ranzel was 5 months postpartum, I was approached by my eldest brother who offered me a remote position with the company he'd been working at for the last 10 years. This was when R&R died—a much needed death.

It was a lot more money than I was bringing in with "R&R" so it was a no-brainer.

In August of 2020, I took a remote position with Ei Companies, based out of Las Vegas, NV.

When I took this job, the dreams were still there, the desire maybe even stronger. That is why I took the job in the first place.

More money + more flexibility = more time to work on 'our thing.'

I remember it like it was yesterday. Standing in our bedroom telling Ranzel, "I'm going to use this job as a stepping stone to get to where we want to go."

It wasn't long before I received my corporate branded slow-drip dose of sedation through an IV, where I had completely lost sight of the vision I had for my family's life.

Ranzel and I were getting older—and so were the kids.

Not only were we too comfortable to make changes, we were so unsure what it is we should focus on.

What is our business?
What is our 'thing'?

Thoughts would come around here and there of what we could do, but still, nothing.

Why weren't the thoughts coming?

Because we weren't actively pursuing anything.
We weren't experimenting.

Watching football or scrolling social media seemed much more exciting. We were comfortable. Had enough money. Had a great living situation with her parents.

"Why should we change? We're comfortable. This is great."

That is the solution in everyone's IV drips today.

Comfort.

Comfort leads to complacency. Complacency leads to regret.

This continued for years.

However, I'd often get surges of, "I've had enough of this, we need to figure out what we're doing and move on with our life."

But instead of taking action on our ideas, we (especially me) would overthink, while Ranzel just simply wouldn't do anything at all—probably because of decision fatigue or just mental exhaustion.

I'd try to feel productive by watching pretty much everything about productivity and business on YouTube, while having absolutely nothing to apply that knowledge to—so it just dissipated within a matter of a few hours.

Coding, public speaking, sales, marketing, design, filmmaking—the list goes on and on.

The Learning Trap

This is the same reason you don't remember anything you learned in school. You were force-fed information that you were doing nothing with other than memorizing it for your next test. Information must be directly applied to a project or goal for it to be retained. At that point, it becomes useful knowledge.

While I was doing this, Ranzel was either looking for the next giveaway to enter, the next product to buy for the kids, the next episode of her favorite show, or planning her next Target and TJ Maxx run.

Because we weren't intentional with forging our own path, we defaulted to the norm: We got our degree. I got a job. A job that paid me just enough to be comfortable and forget about the very life we'd been dreaming of building.

After two and a half years, I was a mess.

Physically, but mostly mentally.

It was affecting my relationship with Ranzel to the point where I'd lash out at her—usually for no reason at all.

The workplace (even though I worked remotely) was toxic, and my work was soul-sucking, to say the least.

Force a smile at your morning meeting and join just late enough so you didn't have to engage in small talk.
Force a laugh at the stupid jokes just because it's your boss.
Spend hours creating meaningless spreadsheets to track meaningless metrics that no one ever used.
Create unrealistic sales expectations just to appease your boss.
Sit through endless meetings to discuss things that could've been resolved with a quick phone call.

I spent four years getting a degree that was never even verified by my company, to sell a service I didn't care about, to people I didn't care about, reporting my efforts to superiors I didn't care about (other than my brother). The turnover this company experienced was not a shock to me.

When I hit corporate rock bottom after two and a half years of performative work, I finally realized—if you are not intentional with your life, society already has a plan for you, and you will follow that plan whether you like it or not.

The Breaking Point

In March 2023, I submitted my 2-weeks notice. My boss was in shock.

"Well, do you have another job lined up?" I told her I did not, but that I'd figure it out.

My plan was to pursue photography and videography.

The dream of Ranzel and I building something never died, but photo and video was my escape from the corporate hell I had been experiencing. It had quickly become a passion of mine and I knew I could pursue this for work.

As I got into it, we did some work for a few Marriott hotels, restaurants, and social media brands. It was great and all, but I really only loved working with the hotels. I felt absolutely alive. The other work felt just like that, work, so finding other social media brands to do work for quickly faded.

My next thought: "I'm pretty good with the camera. I can create content about camera gear, photo and video tips, and be a value-first creator."

But for whatever reason, I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Everywhere I turned on social media, everyone was:

• chasing trends

• using the same music

• the same editing techniques

It just felt so inauthentic.

And the people who were creating content about things I thought I could create content around, my thought was, "and what exactly are these unique camera angles for? These speed ramps? The cool transitions?"

"You're spending hours and hours shooting content for these reels that will disappear into a big black hole by tomorrow."

I know it's all to capture more attention.

Attention = more views.
More views = more followers.
More followers = more opportunities financially.

But it all just felt so empty. There was no real meaning behind it.

For me, it's never been about, "Where can I make the most money?" It's been, "Where can I feel the most aligned with my values?"

Finding Alignment

Living a life you're told to live = emptiness
Doing work you want but with no meaning = emptiness
Doing work you love and with meaning = happiness

I knew if I worked long enough with the social media thing, I could've made it work if I wanted to.

I had studied and analyzed why certain videos would perform, and why others wouldn't.

I knew that content should be framed from the viewer's standpoint.

Not, how can I look good for my audience with expensive lighting and camera gear, but what value can I provide my audience so they will share/save this.

Although creating with my camera is a passion, the social media route was not for me.

A pool of mostly inauthentic and insecure creators who got their ego boost from numbers.

So, I ultimately didn't even bother and ended up just deleting Instagram. It was a few weeks of feeling like I'm missing out, but after the initial withdrawal phase, I felt incredible.

I felt free.

My mind wasn't looking for that next dopamine hit you get when you open up Instagram.

The problem—my mind still craved dopamine.

This led to me creating an X account, where I was surrounded by value-first creators; providing actionable insights and value I could apply to my life.

I knew I eventually wanted to create on X.

Another Birth, Another Awakening

During this time, baby number two comes around and Ranzel planned her birth from the beginning.

She had a fully unmedicated natural birth once again and pushed baby out in just under three hours from first contraction.

It was proof to us once more that we should trust our bodies and our own gut instincts, not what society's systems are telling us.

This is where we began our journey of living a more holistic and natural lifestyle. No food dyes, no processed foods, eating a whole food diet, and being more intentional with our parenting.

More outside time, less screens.
More natural remedies for sicknesses, not dye-filled syrups from the pharmacy.

When you give your body the right inputs, it is designed to heal itself.

The Sports Photography Journey

Now, back to my work.

I always wanted to shoot collegiate and/or professional football and basketball. I had never shot anything in the sports industry, but I knew I was capable of doing it. Being in Kansas, this is the Mecca of college basketball. KU and K-State, the BIG12 championship which is held in Kansas City every year. I knew if I wanted to somehow shoot for the BIG12, I'd have to come up with some sort of portfolio. Again, the problem is I had never shot anything sports related.

My plan? Get in touch with some photographers from KU through social media. So that's what I did. I then asked him if I could shoot with him during one of the football games. He said he wouldn't be around but that I could reach out to their communication department and request a credential.

Credentials are reserved for actual media members. Not some freelance nobody who's trying to get content for his portfolio. But I reached out to the SID for KU, submitted an application, and it wasn't long until they had accepted my request for a credential. I couldn't believe it.

"Your credential request has been granted for the following games: BYU."

This was my shoe in.

After shooting at the KU BYU football game, I created a portfolio of my work, and got in touch with the Director of Content for the BIG12. It was months and months of follow ups with no replies. I assumed he wasn't impressed or interested. It was about 9 months after my initial outreach that I had received an email from him:

"Hey Weston-

Hope everything is going well. Apologies on the delay but wanted to check your availability to cover some games at KU & K-State coming up."

A wave of excitement.

I soon signed a contract with the BIG12 and for the next year I shot everything from Soccer, to Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Basketball and Track & Field, and developed a great working relationship with the BIG12.

I was in my element.

Sports + my camera.

But, I still knew this wasn't what I was going to do forever. This was an escape from the corporate rat race, but I loved every minute of it.

Shooting for the BIG12 was something I had dreamed about but never thought I'd actually do.

It showed me that I could pursue big goals even if I had no experience, no credentials, and no roadmap.

All it took was belief in myself, persistence, and doing the work.

The Cycle Continues

During these two years of photo and video work, we would still continue to talk about the life we wanted to build for our family.

I would push to plan with Ranzel but that was like pulling teeth. We'd plan a little here and a little there, but still, nothing.

This cycle repeated itself for years:

1. Get frustrated and angry with our current living situation

2. Complain about it to each other

3. Go back to being distracted

This is a weak mind.

A mind that had been programmed to live the life we were living.

It seems so simple.

You know what you want to pursue, so just start doing it.

Just start.

The problem is, throughout my childhood into adolescence, we were never taught how to think—only what to think.

I was taught how to be agreeable. To not ruffle any feathers. To please people.

So when the thought of, "I want to build my own thing" came up, there's no wonder I didn't know what to do.

You can't blame yourself and put a label on yourself— "I'm just not cut out for it." You are, you just need to switch one thing.

That one thing is your mind.

You need to upgrade the quality of your thinking.
You need to throw out the old mental hard drive and start fresh with a new one.
You need to reboot your thinking.

Transition from consumer to creator

The Search for Mentors

To do something that 99% of people aren't doing, where do you turn?

You weren't taught how to think independently and search for anything outside of societal norms.

We did not have the mental know-how to critically think; how we would bridge the gap from our current situation to our ideal situation.

So, simply the thought of wanting to start our own thing is about as far as we would get.

That is when mentors come into the picture.

I consumed YouTube and Podcast content from just about every self development person out there. Lewis Howes, Rob Dial, Jay Shetty, Tony Robbins, the list goes on and on.

While I'm sure they're all great people, their content in my opinion is just "feel good" content.

They give you a spark of motivation that lasts a few hours but that's it.

The only creator who has had a profound impact and has produced actual changes in my life is Dan Koe.

His thinking and philosophy resonates with me to the core.

The Breakthrough Moment

During this time, I would infrequently jump on Instagram on my computer to post work with the BIG12.

So, in November of 2024, I came across this post from Dan.

That is when everything clicked.

I grabbed out pen and paper.

The more I was writing, the more clear my mind was becoming.

I started to understand what it is I truly valued.

What made me, me.

I've always had this burning desire to create content and put it out there. I just didn't know what exactly that content should be because everything I had done previously just felt empty and 'look at me.'

Dan teaches that not creating on the internet is not an option if you want to thrive in the digital age. I never knew the words to put on my feelings about content, but Dan conveyed my feelings perfectly in his newsletter: Death of the Personal Brand and What Comes Next

Building the Foundation

Shortly after, on Black Friday, I purchased Dan's Writer's Bootcamp curriculum.

I consumed the content, and started creating what Dan calls, KoreNotes. Ideas you have from your reading, studying, and purposeful content consumption that you flesh out, and make your own.

I started to have a mini library of unique ideas that were personal to me.

My mind started to expand and I felt like my values and beliefs were becoming solidified.

Ranzel and I both had the same desire to create content around how the system is designed to break you, based on our own personal experiences. Hers with birth, and mine with corporate America.

So, although I was creating this mini library of ideas, I still hadn't done the most important part.

Put my ideas out there in public.

I wanted to do this alongside Ranzel, and for whatever reason, distractions were still getting the best of us.

The Creative Surge

I started experimenting with new AI tools and completely built the frontend for three applications.

One for creators, one for health conscious families, and one for creating and storing family memories.

Things that were directly tied to problems we were experiencing as a family.

It was addicting.

I would stay up all night, often going to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning.

I couldn't put my computer away.

Building something I knew I needed, and something I knew others could benefit from.

This was not good for my health, so I had to enforce limits on myself. But it felt incredible to simultaneously be building my library of ideas and learning how to code applications with AI. I was no longer consuming. I was doing (although the applications are not fully functional haha).

The more I did and the less I consumed, the more confident and less anxious I would feel. We are meant to create. Overconsumption leads to feelings of anxiety, depression, and worthlessness.

Although I felt that I was making progress towards what I was wanting to do, we still weren't moving.

Our living situation was still the same.

We knew we had to get out.

It was like a ticking time bomb that was about to blow the roof off.

We knew it was our time to move on with our family, and start our own life.

We said, "Okay, we have six months to figure this out and be gone." We even had a talk with her parents about what our plans are. Guess what? Still, nothing.

I felt like I was in a pressure cooker, trying to blow off steam any minute I could. It was unhealthy for myself and my wife.

The Wake-Up Call

During this time of anger and stress for myself, Ranzel ended up getting sick and was hospitalized with pneumonia. This was a bit of a wake-up call to the both of us.

Your health is all you have.

If you don't intentionally focus on the areas of life that matter most (your mind, body, spirit, your relationships, your finances) you will eventually be forced to pay attention when they're on the verge of collapse. The longer you avoid the hard work, the bigger the price tag will be when the crisis hits.

While she was away, it was just the kids and I. I had no time to even think about writing or working on the applications.

My attention was 100% on the kids.

I had realized Ranzel and I have been paralyzing each other as parents.

Although difficult, I was able to do everything.

What made it more difficult was trying to appease my mother-in-law and keep the house clean at the same time.

The Philosophy Emerges

Time was ticking.

Our little motivational talks we'd have with each other weren't producing any momentum.

We needed something that would get us moving.

A rigid daily schedule we could stick to.
Strict phone blocks.
Sleep and wake times.
Deep work sessions.

We needed urgency.

If we did a little work here and there, it wouldn't be enough to get the boulder of our life moving.

It was the first week of June and one night I couldn't sleep. I started a new thread in ChatGPT and just started talking to it about my own personal philosophy on life. How most people are chasing empty success rather than creating fulfilling success.

Creating is building something that lasts.

It's creating a family that is thriving emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. A family that is connected with one another rather than simply existing with one another.

A business that serves others and adds value to their lives.

Ideas and systems that spark change.

Chasing is running on a hamster wheel for status and the validation of others.

It's a hamster wheel for a reason.

You'll never live in alignment with your inner and outer self if you're always chasing.

• Chasing status

• Chasing degrees

• Chasing titles

• Chasing money

• Chasing applause

• Chasing clout

And at the end of your life, it won't matter how many degrees you earned or how big your nest egg is. If you didn't create what really matters, the only thing you'll die with is a whole bunch of regret.

Everywhere I'd turn, I'd feel like I was surrounded by people chasing illusions of success, and no one else would question it.

"Oh my goodness congrats, Doctor!" "Did you see? They just got through medical school and now they can add M.D. to their name."

"They just bought a Tesla! Wow, they have so much money!"

“Yeah they’re so rich. They’re treating Mike and Marie to Europe.”

The ones praising the success were just as delusional as the ones flexing the success.

The problem is, no one seemed happy.

Why?

Because they were trying to prove their happiness by seeking the validation and applause of others.

When you can't enjoy your "successes" in silence, you did it for the wrong reason.

This is the very life I will run from.

Empty success.

The 90-Day Sprint

Anyway, this conversation I was having with ChatGPT was providing more and more clarity on how Ranzel and I can move forward and start creating momentum.

During our conversation, I was led to doing some math.

People say that you can change your life with one hour of deep work for 365 days.

365 hours of focused work.

We needed consistent 4-hour deep work sessions daily. 365 divided by 4 hours is approximately 90 days (91.25). We had 90 days until we were leaving on a family cruise to Alaska.

We had to make something happen before then.

We decided to commit to a 90-day sprint, and do 365 hours of work in 90 days.

We're three days in, and it's the first time in years I've felt motivated to wake up in the mornings. It's felt great.

We'll see where we're at in 90 days, but I know for a fact we won't be where we are currently.

This is our story of breaking free from the script society wrote for us and finally choosing to create the life we've always dreamed of. The 90 days start now.