I’ve been building websites for most of my life.

I started playing with graphics and HTML in elementary school, building sites on Geocities and Angelfire. By middle and high school, I was making websites for bands, school clubs, and others. At 14, I built my first paid website for a handyman who was friends with my stepdad.

By high school graduation, I knew I’d be a web designer. Two decades later, that early hobby is still my profession.

A career built one website at a time.

After high school, I studied graphic design at SCAD before deciding it wasn’t for me. I moved to Atlanta, crashed on my brother’s couch, and started freelancing.

I worked with startups, entrepreneurs, designers, and development teams. Over time, I’ve run an agency, tackled six-figure ecommerce projects, and served as Web Director for First Advantage.

I know what it’s like on both sides of the table.

At First Advantage, I worked with executives, marketing, IT, sales, agencies, and international teams.

One major initiative was moving the company’s marketing websites from platforms like Kentico and DotNetNuke to WordPress. I had to make the business case: lower costs, faster development, easier launches, and more flexibility.

That changed how I think about websites. They have to work for the people managing, marketing, selling through, and using them.

Eventually, I missed building my own business. I left my full-time role, kept First Advantage as a client, and went back out on my own.

Somewhere along the way, WordPress became my thing.

Around 2015, I needed a way to build sites clients could manage without giving up flexibility.

I didn’t like WordPress at first. Pre-built themes felt restrictive. But after customizing themes, building my own, and creating complex systems, it clicked.

WordPress gave me enough structure to avoid rebuilding everything from scratch, but enough freedom to build something custom.

I like solving complicated problems. I don’t like making things complicated.

I don’t believe a website is better because it uses the newest framework, the most plugins, or the most expensive software. I believe in finding the simplest solution that does the job well.

Sometimes that means a proven plugin, sometimes custom code. The goal is thoughtful work without unnecessary complexity.

I’m not pretending to be a giant agency.

I’ve tried the team thing more than once. I learned that I’m best at owning the work, process, and client relationship.

So I stopped trying to make 397 Digital look bigger than it is.

When you hire 397 Digital, you’re hiring me. I bring in help when needed, but I’m the person thinking through, designing, building, and solving the project.

I tend to become the web guy people call.

Sometimes that means designing a website, untangling something another developer built, or turning a half-formed idea into something real.

I like learning how businesses work and making complicated things manageable. Clients have called me a designer, developer, strategist, problem-solver, collaborator, and partner.

A good website can do a lot. It can’t fix everything.

Experience has taught me when a website isn’t really the problem. Sometimes the right answer is improving what you have, a smaller project, or spending your money somewhere else first.

I’d rather have that conversation up front than sell someone a website that doesn’t solve their problem.

Outside of websites…

I’m happily married to my wife Chelsea, who I met in Atlanta in 2015. We’re raising two daughters in the Birmingham, Alabama area after relocating here to be close to family in 2022.