From Film Sets to Tech Communities: My Debut Year

They say a fifteen-year career in the film industry prepares you for a lot of things—lighting, storytelling, the controlled chaos of a live set. But nothing could have prepared me for 2025.

The 24-Hour Window: A Reflection on Time ⏰

I recently closed out the year with an epic twenty-four hour marathon stream. And in those final seconds, as they ticked away, I found myself reflecting on what that window of time actually means. We tend to treat twenty-four hours as just another day at the office. But when you stop and look back, 86,400 seconds is an eternity of possibility.

physics_of_a_day.sh

// Perspective check: What happens in 86,400 seconds?
ISS_ORBITS: 16_loops (Astronauts saw 16 sunrises while we worked);
NATURAL_WORLD: bamboo_grows_4_feet;
BEE_ACTIVITY: 50000_flowers_visited;
LIGHT_SPEED: to_neptune_and_back_3x;
HUMAN_HEART: 100000_beats_pumping_life;

But the most incredible part wasn't the physics. It was the choice. Time is our only nonrenewable resource. Whether you spent five minutes with me at a booth in Mexico or five hours in a Twitch chat, you gave me something you can never get back. I hope that in those minutes, I was able to give you something—a tip, a laugh, or just a feeling that you belong here. None of this mattered without the people. You are what made this debut special.

Preproduction: The Year Begins 🎬

The year began with the preproduction of my new life. This all actually started last year when I started my job at Torc, but 2025 kicked off with a bang. We laid the groundwork for the Tech Commute—I scheduled 50+ episodes over the course of the year—and I hosted my first ever tech meetup in Denver with the company Warp Terminal.

In March, my first major deep dive into AI came at All Things Open AI. Coming from film, I didn’t just see nodes and logic; I saw storytelling, structure, and creative problem-solving. That shift in perspective shaped everything that followed.

The Global Sprint: People Over Places ✈️

April through June were a bit of a blur of boarding passes, but the highlights were deeply personal. At Talent Land in Mexico, I saw 30,000+ developers congregate. I met so many great people down there (and ate some great tacos). Shortly after, I did my first lightning talk at DevOps Days Atlanta. I was super appreciative and honored to have been asked to talk about the very thing that sustained me all year: building community.

At React Miami, Taylor got his ass bit by a dog. That was a moment, for sure, but the vibes were fantastic. Moving into summer, I spent well over 100 streams on camera. That's several hundred hours that you committed to hanging out with me, learning about tech, and sharing stories about soft skills.

Returning to Render ATL was a full-circle moment. Render in 2024 was my first ever tech conference, so going back and hosting one of the stages was an incredible honor. I was extremely nervous, but the energy of the room carried me through. Oh and somewhere in here was a pit stop back in texas for Commit Your Code it was a whirlwind: Cascadia JS in Seattle, hosting a hackathon in NYC with Carter, and Laracon in Denver. The Laravel community is like nothing I’ve ever seen—I'm already waiting for the 2026 announcement.

I finished the year at Magnolia JS in Mississippi and All Things Open in Raleigh. Walking onto the stage in Jackson was nerve-wracking, but receiving a compliment from Josh Goldberg was one of the most grounding and humbling experiences of my career. At ATO, sharing the stage with my friend and boss Taylor Desseyn felt less like a talk and more like an honest conversation with a room full of friends.

My Proudest Production: Building with Heart 🎅

Perhaps my proudest production this year wasn't anything I built for the company. It was at my desk with my kiddo. We vibe coded a Find Santa app using React, OpenAI, and Eleven Labs. In the first twenty-four hours, we handled over 800 voice requests from families all over the world.

It gave people a reason to use tech for pure joy. What moved me most was how the community stepped up to help keep the lights on—we raised a couple hundred dollars via Buy Me a Coffee to cover the API costs. It proved that when you build with heart, the community builds with you.

The Numbers: A Year in Stats 📊

Numbers are nice, but they are just another way of measuring the time we spent together. Every chat message was a connection; every stream hour was a shared experience.

year_in_review.json

{
  "streaming": "102+ hours",
  "engagement": "23,176 chats (Top 10% on Twitch)",
  "content": "50+ Tech Commute episodes",
  "travel": "10+ conferences & 4 meetups",
  "collaboration": "5 total hackathons",
  "impact": "Countless new friends"
}

Looking Forward: 2026 Goals 🎯

2026_roadmap.todo

[ ] READ MORE: Finish 1 book/quarter (Broaden the lens)
[ ] BUILD MORE: Stay fresh with code; build for the "living room"
[ ] LISTEN MORE: Spend more time in the seat, hearing your stories
[ ] CREATE VIDEO: Documentary-style travel vlogs & insights

Final Scene

From film sets to tech stages, this year taught me that the medium changes but the mission stays the same: tell stories that matter, build things that help people, and create spaces where everyone feels like they belong.

The transition from fifteen years in film to one year in tech wasn't just a career pivot—it was a reminder that at the core of both industries is the same thing: people. None of the travel, the talks, or the code mattered without the human hearts beating 100,000 times a day, choosing to spend their nonrenewable resource with me.

It’s always been about the people in the room.

Thank you for giving me your time this year. I can't wait to see what we build in 2026.

Happy New Year.