It Started Before the Navy
In 1981, I was putting myself through college studying computer information sciences — paying my own way, figuring it out as I went. Two years in, the math stopped working. So in 1983, I made a decision: I joined the United States Navy. Not because I gave up on technology. Because I needed a different path to get where I was going.
That decision changed everything.
Twenty Years of Service
The Navy gave me a framework that matched what I already believed: standards matter, leadership is earned, and you never ask someone to do what you haven't done yourself. I served twenty years as an Aviation Structural Mechanic — moving through duty stations that each built a different dimension of my leadership. Drill Instructor in Orlando, leading companies of 80 recruits. Flight Line Supervisor in Norfolk. And Maintenance Control Chief in Jacksonville, overseeing every maintenance job performed on the P-3 Orion. When the work was verified and complete, I signed that aircraft off as Safe for Flight. Pilots trusted their lives to that signature. I never took that lightly.
While stationed at NAS Lemoore, California, I built my own personal computer from parts I sourced through CDW. Mid-1980s. Most people didn't know you could do that. I just wanted to understand how it worked — so I figured it out myself. That instinct never went away.
The Business I Built — and Lost — and What It Cost Me
When I retired from the Navy in 2003, I didn't wait around. I immediately opened a computer sales and service store — selling custom-built machines and providing dial-up internet access at $20 a month. I partnered with AVC Technologies, an international hardware supplier, to source components for custom builds. It wasn't a side hustle. It was a real, vertically integrated technology business in a market that hadn't seen one like it.
My competition? Dell Computer — at the absolute height of their consumer dominance — and a couple of cocky local guys who thought they had the market locked up. I went toe to toe with all of them. The business was growing.
Then the call came. My mother was critically ill, four states away. I left everything — packed up my kids, left them with friends, and went to be with her for two months. The business couldn't survive my absence. I came home to bankruptcy. Lost the money I had invested, the momentum I had built, everything I had started over with after twenty years of service.
My mother survived. She lived another eighteen years after that phone call.
I would make the same choice again without hesitation. But I won't pretend it wasn't hard to rebuild from zero — again. What that season taught me is that recovery isn't optional if you're the kind of person who keeps going. So I kept going.
Into the Trades
I rebuilt by going back to basics — and in my case, basics meant construction. I wanted to learn the trades from the inside, and I did. I've framed walls, managed job sites, supervised subcontractors, and handled everything from permitting to punch lists. I've built properties from the ground up with my own hands.
Over fifteen years in the industry, I built a network of 800+ contractors across Monroe, West Monroe, and Ruston. I became the person contractors called when they needed someone who actually understood what was happening on a job site. That reputation is the foundation of everything I do now.
Eventually that path led me to operations management at a major regional lumber supplier — running day-to-day operations with a team of 10, rebuilding the team from scratch, and driving 15% growth. Not from a desk. From the floor.
Building for the Next Generation
Real estate came naturally. When you know construction costs from the inside, you see opportunity where others see risk. I own five rental properties in the Monroe area — each one a deliberate step toward financial independence and generational wealth.
But wealth isn't just property. It's knowledge, relationships, and systems. That's why I launched Canyon Digital Assets as a family business with my daughters Harper and Morgan. I'm not just building a company — I'm building a blueprint they can run, scale, and own long after I step back.
Harper handles technical operations. Morgan drives sales and outreach. I set the strategy and keep the standards high. Forty-plus years after I built my first computer from parts in a Navy barracks room, I'm still building — just with different materials.
Why This Story Matters
I'm not sharing any of this to impress you. I'm sharing it because most overnight success stories are actually forty-year stories — and the parts that shaped you most are usually the ones that nearly broke you. The bankruptcy. The two months away. Starting over at 40 in a male-dominated industry with nothing but discipline and a contact list.
If you're a veteran trying to figure out what's next, a woman trying to break into the trades, or an entrepreneur who's had to rebuild — I've been there. I'm not offering theory. I'm offering proof that it's possible.
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