From Loss to Building
Something Different

For twelve years, I worked in nonprofits helping women and children at risk. The work mattered, but the pay didn't. When my family needed stability—more than a paycheck, a foundation we could count on—I made the hardest decision of my career: I left mission work for the business world.

For the first time, I wasn't just surviving financially—I was actually succeeding. Building real results, gaining confidence, providing security my family had never known. I thought I'd finally figured it out.

I was fired in a parking lot by people I'd called friends. Not because of performance—because two adult owners couldn't get along and I was caught in the fallout. People whose home we had been to, who knew our story, who understood what this stability meant to us. It wasn't just losing a job—it was a betrayal that shattered everything I thought I knew about trust, friendship, and work relationships.

The months that followed brought financial free fall and something I hadn't expected: I couldn't function the way I used to. Job hunting felt impossible. Uncertainty was overwhelming. We listed our house for sale on May 10th, 2024. By September 9th, we had to sell it—the first real home my family had ever owned.

I spiraled into depression, questioning my worth, wondering if I was fundamentally broken.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Why the betrayal hit so hard. Why traditional job hunting felt impossible. Why my brain processed rejection and instability differently than others. I wasn't broken—I was just different. And I'd been fighting myself and a system that wasn't designed for me for decades without knowing it.

Therapy also taught me something else: I'd been carrying shame around not being able to express emotions verbally. As a man, as someone who was supposed to "just handle it," I thought my silence meant something was wrong with me.

But I wasn't silent—I was speaking in a different language. Through art. Through writing. Through music. And then something clicked: creating things brought me life. Not just "art," but creating listings, supporting images, websites, strategies. The same creative outlet that helped me process emotions became the foundation for how I approach business.

When someone reached out asking for help with their Amazon business, I realized I wasn't just offering consulting. I was offering what I'd desperately needed in my darkest moments: someone who understood what it felt like to have everything on the line, who knew the founder struggle from the inside, and who brought creative thinking to business problems.

Solace & Co isn't just another Amazon consultancy. It's what happens when you stop hiding your story and start building from it. I'm still figuring it out, still rebuilding, still some days just holding ground.

But I'm not doing it alone anymore. And neither should you.

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