Operator first. Everything else follows.
Fifteen-plus years running a real business taught me where people and companies actually struggle. That experience shapes everything I teach and build.
Who I am
I co-founded Ajoya, a Colorado cannabis dispensary, in 2010, and I’ve operated in the industry ever since. Running a regulated retail business through more than a decade of change means I’ve lived the full range: hiring, compliance, reporting cycles, cash flow, customer education, team management, and the daily grind of execution.
That experience taught me two things. First, most people making cannabis decisions are guessing, and guessing produces bad outcomes. Second, most businesses don’t fail on strategy. They fail on follow-through: weak systems, scattered information, inconsistent reporting, and decision fatigue.
Everything I do now comes out of those two observations.
Why cannabis education matters
Behind the counter, I watched thousands of people try to make health and wellness decisions with almost no reliable information. Confusion about form factors. No understanding of dosage. Stigma keeping people from asking honest questions. Patients considering cannabis as alternative medicine with nowhere credible to turn.
Education became my way of fixing that. Not selling more product. Helping people understand what they’re using, why they’re using it, and what result they’re trying to create.
Why AI systems matter
Inside my own businesses, AI stopped being a curiosity and became a toolset for execution. I started building agentic workflows that handle the work that used to depend on memory and manual chasing: daily briefings, KPI reporting, retention scorecards, financial reporting, meeting prep, email triage, and follow-up review.
The results were practical, not theatrical. Less manual reporting. Better visibility. Fewer dropped balls. A stronger management rhythm. Once those systems worked inside my own operations, other business owners started asking me to build them too.
What I’m building now
Today my work runs in two lanes. I teach informed cannabis use to consumers, patients, and communities. And I design and build agentic AI workflows inside real businesses for owners who want cleaner execution, not another software subscription.
How Ajoya informs the work
Ajoya is my proof environment. It’s where the cannabis education is practiced daily and where the AI systems get tested against real customers, real teams, and real reporting cycles before I ever recommend them to anyone else. I’m not selling ideas I read about. I’m sharing what I run.