I finally conceded to the idea that I was tired, burned out, frustrated, and, to be honest, a little pissed off.
At this point, it had been years of me spinning my wheels, chasing ideas, and committing to work I didn’t want to do.
All to make some quick cash that wouldn’t last long.
Year after year, I kept telling myself, this will be the year; this idea or new direction will be the one that changes things.
Only to end up in the same spot twelve months later. And with nothing to show for it.
It Was Time to Conceed
I spend a reasonable amount of time at the end of each year contemplating my next moves. How do I make the next year better?
In December of 2024, I had a real face-to-face with myself. No more, Mr. Nice Guy.
About to turn 42, I was sacrificing so much time with the people who mattered the most to me that I was missing out on living the life I had for the life I wanted.
I have three kids under the age of 14 still at home, another who is an adult and had started her family, making me a grandpa.
It was time for something to change! I was missing out on life.
It All Started (over) in 2016
I was working at GoDaddy after coming off of a massive business failure, with nearly $100,000 in debt, and trying to figure things out.
Let me add some context.
In 2013, I shifted gears, going from a successful one-man “agency” building WordPress websites and providing support and maintenance to working for a startup in the mobile app industry as the Director of Operations.
The opportunity was great, and the income was more stable, which I thought I needed now that my family was growing.
We had some success, but the company was bootstrapped and funded by the owner. Most of the success never materialized, probably because of pride.
Eventually, there would be no more money, and I would be out of a job.
Back to 2016
That first year at GoDaddy was good. I was a hosting support tech, and while the hourly rate wasn’t great, the commissions and holiday/overtime pay made up for it.
I was also working to get my business going again, reaching out to past clients to let them know I was back.
Then GoDaddy acquired WP Curve, a WordPress support business that had just blown up over the previous two years.
My first thought was that GoDaddy would ruin that business (they did).
My second thought was, how can I benefit from this growing trend in the WordPress space?
Getting in on the Action
By the start of 2017, I had started WP Mantis, a WordPress support and maintenance business.
My big idea was to build this business so that I could sell it in a couple of years, as WP Curve did.
The first “agency” business I built was all about me. My clients called me the fixer and knew Chris could help them.
I knew it would be impossible to sell a business tied to one person, so I decided to separate myself from the results side of the business.
I structured the business to be faceless.
I was the Director of Operations on the front end, but behind the seance, I operated as everything else: support, project manager, billing, etc., all from behind avatars.
Nobody knew they were working with me, and I expected that as I grew, I would eventually hire people to fill these roles, and I did for some of them.
Things went well, but I lost focus on the scope of the business and started chasing shinner things.
My Identity Crisis
I wouldn’t realize I was in an identity crisis until 2024, but I was losing sight of who I was.
Working behind the avatars and trying to just be the “business owner” and not the “operator” just isn’t who I am.
In October of 2019, I would make a drastic shift because I was lost.
By this time GoDaddy had made many changes, and we were being limited more and more on how much we could help the customers, with a much bigger focus on selling.
With the acquisition of WP Curve and others, we were now required to sell the customers these new services instead of actually helping them.
My income was dropping because it just didn’t feel right to me.
I didn’t realize it then, but my favorite part about working at GoDaddy was solving people’s problems and being the “fixer”.
My Drastic Change in 2019
I quit GoDaddy, dropped my badge on my manager’s desk, and walked out.
WP Mantis was still generating revenue, but not enough to cover my needs, and I was honestly a little burnt out on that.
I hit reset by going to work for my brother, doing landscape demo and installation.
Talk about a massive change.
I went from sitting at a desk and talking on the phone to jackhammers, pavers, sod, and digging trenches.
Honestly, I loved it! I was by myself most of the time, listening to books or podcasts.
I was beat to heck and tired most of the time, but I was happier.
This would only last a year because working for my brother is hard, and I was still being pulled towards building something that would change my life financially.
I Landed My Dream JOB
Over the years, I have always resisted getting a job, but if I were going to get one, this would be my dream.
In November 2020, I started working for Rocketgenius, the company behind Gravity Forms, as a support engineer.
This job would pull me back into the WordPress industry and realign me with what I thought was my path.
The first year was a bit nerve-racking because it was such a good job that I wanted to make it work.
I wouldn’t spend much time doing much on the side other than maintaining my WP Mantis clients.
Here I am again, back to solving people’s problems. Working as a “fixer”.
Fast Forward to 2024
Now, in my fourth year at Rocketgenius, which has flown by, I’m still enjoying the job.
But I haven’t stopped chasing that thing…the life of freedom through ownership.
I started Gravity Ranger, a blog where I post about Gravity Forms, which I enjoy writing.
In 2023, I decided I needed to get back into building websites, so I would start MarketingDraft with the same faceless mentality I had with WP Mantis.
After one project, I realized I didn’t want to do this type of client work.
And there would be more ideas and more failed starts.
Something else happened in the last couple of months of 2024. I read Software as a Science, which would change how I looked at and solved problems.
Experimenting with Software
Right about this time, I was frustrated with invoicing.
I needed to invoice a couple of clients, but Stripe wanted to charge me an additional 5% to send an invoice. Other SaaS solutions were charging $11/mo or more.
I didn’t want to pay any of these fees for the one or two invoices I would need to send in a month.
Then I thought, can I build my own invoicing system?
I spent about three weeks piecing together a solution with Gravity Forms.
The result was clunky, but it was a proof of concept that would prove I could solve problems with software.
I will release the details of this system on this blog and in my Byte by Byte newsletter soon.
My Golden Opportunity
As I sat thinking about this experience and my journey that has led to where I am now, I verbally shouted, “I’m a damn good problem solver!”.
Then, it all started to make sense.
My identity was clear: I was a problem solver. I have this gift, but it extends beyond this narrow perspective I’ve had all these years.
As I went through the list of open projects and existing business ventures, I asked myself the question:
“What if I went all in on Gravity Forms?”
Could I give more to this job and find ways to do more to build this company, and if I did that, would it give me the freedom I want in life? This freedom I’ve been chasing?
It is, after all, the dream job!
While I’m still working out the details, it was easy to answer yes to these questions and see a future in taking this path.
It was the first time in a long time that I had clarity and certainty in a decision about my career.
The Cost of Building a Faceless Company
The issue wasn’t that I separated myself from the action. It was that I didn’t know what I wanted.
Sure, selling a business for millions of dollars would be awesome.
However, I don’t know if that would have scratched this itch.
It might change my trajectory, but I think I would just be looking for new problems to solve.
I believe that if I had realized that being a problem solver is my identity in 2016 when I started WP Mantis, that business would be funding the dream lifestyle today.
I would be the face of the company. I would still need the help I have, but we would be much larger than we are today.
I will continue to run WP Mantis, and we might even do some growing this year.
The Chris Notes
In the end, I learned that I should have focused on building a business to help people, not to sell. Had I done that, I would have had fewer detours and been living the dream lifestyle solely from WP Mantis.
Take time to reflect on life, your successes and your failures, and don’t be afraid to ask yourself tough questions. This will lead to clarity and finding your path.
Life is a journey that will map out exactly where we should go; we just have to be willing to look back at the map occasionally to ensure we’re on the right path.
You can still get where you want to go; you may just need to change the vehicle you’re in.
Opportunities surround us, but we can only see them if we’re open to change or correction and have a clear idea of who we are.
