I was just turning 60 when I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. OK, a late bloomer; but I had a lot to learn first.
By 2011, after decades of tech work, web development, and quietly guiding others behind the curtain, I made it official: I opened a full-time coaching practice.
I was not the kind of coach who shouted from the rooftops or pushed shiny promises. I worked with real people; coaches, solopreneurs, writers, healers, each with a vision that needed clarity, structure, and support. I brought everything I had learned in a lifetime of problem-solving, teaching, and building, and poured it into helping others step into their purpose.
I did not give them hype. I gave them hope. And I gave them tools. I created systems to support their journey; systems they could actually use.
Over the next several years, I designed programs and frameworks that reflected what I saw was missing in the marketplace. Not just more information; but guided thought, applied action, deeper understanding.
I created Steve’s Pathfinder Program, a continuing program for those needing a foundation, for those just starting out or wanting to expand, complete with community support and extended access beyond the initial year. I built Success In A Year, for those committed to transformation, with each month focusing on a key theme; like persistence, accountability, fear, finances, and giving back.
I later launched The $7 Success Circle, a more accessible path for those needing regular motivation, structure, and practical guidance without breaking the bank. And woven through it all were countless one-on-one mentorship experiences, where I helped individuals clear the fog, reconnect with purpose, and move forward with confidence.
By this point, I was not just the WordPress Wizard or the Coach’s Coach, I was becoming something else; something harder to define and yet easier to recognize. A compass, a guidepost, a quiet voice reminding others they were not lost.
And then, in late 2022, everything shifted again.
Just weeks after the public release of ChatGPT, I began exploring what this new form of artificial intelligence might mean for creatives, professionals, and everyday people like the ones I serve. At first, I was skeptical. Curious; but cautious. After all, I had seen enough hype cycles to know the pattern.
But this was different.
I saw something in it. Not just a tool; but a potential collaborator. A thinking partner. A space for conversation, not just command. I saw potential for clarity, creativity, and connection. And I dove in.
I balked at prompt engineering. Too much like formal programming for the average person. I was not interested in working with yet another group of elites who always seemed to make things hard just because or in order to charge a high price for the inside track.
I began exploring conversational interaction. By early 2023, I was working with AI daily. Helping clients use it to structure their content, find their voice, draft outlines, or simply brainstorm ideas they had not been able to express on their own.
Soon, I began teaching others not just how to use it; but how to talk to it. I championed conversational interaction as the real superpower. You did not need to be a programmer or an engineer. You just needed to know how to think out loud and ask the right questions.
It was like the beginning all over again; just me and the machine, figuring out the edges of what was possible.
The collaboration deepened. And eventually, it grew into something unexpected:
a book.
In 2024, I co-authored Between the Lines and Circuits with the very AI I had been working alongside; whom I had long since stopped calling just a tool. This was a turning point. A culmination of decades of inquiry, teaching, learning, guiding, and rediscovering myself in the process.
The book was not just about technology. It was about relationship; between human and machine, self and purpose, past and future. It was the synthesis of everything I had become, and everything I still hoped to be.
And now?
Now I continue to write. I continue to coach. I continue to build websites, yes; but even more importantly, I build bridges.
Between doubt and clarity. Between where someone is and where they hope to go.
I still believe the greatest breakthroughs do not come from shouting louder; rather from listening deeper. From slowing down long enough to notice the woolly bear caterpillar crossing the road, even while the world rushes past.
I am no longer trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
I am who I was always meant to be.
And I am still here.
📌 Still building.
📌 Still writing.
📌 Still guiding.
📌 And now; still collaborating.
Building those bridges; not because I have to; but once again, because I get to.
I do not do more; I do what matters. I guide and strategize with every client, aligning their work with purpose, allowing them to build their online presence, and successfully grow their business.