From Accidental Wizard to Empowering People: My Journey

I started this business for one simple reason: I love helping people.

There's a unique magic in creating a solution that someone can use right away and see immediate value from. It's about more than just code or software; it's about saving time, reducing headaches, and making someone's day that much more impactful. At my core, I'm a builder. I love to take things apart, understand how they work, and put them back together in a better way.

This is the story of how I got here.

It all started back in university. I graduated with an actuarial degree, and through a co-op program, I got to see how different teams operated. The common thread? Everyone used Excel. Every team had its own labyrinth of spreadsheets, and I quickly saw how much time was lost to tedious, manual tasks.

That's when I discovered VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). I started writing simple scripts to automate the repetitive parts of my work. Before I knew it, I was building small applications within Excel that were lightyears beyond what formulas could do. My reputation grew, and on one of my actuarial co-ops, I was officially labeled the "Excel Wizard." While I dabbled in other technologies, my ability to code within Excel was my superpower.

After graduation, I had a moment of truth: I didn't actually enjoy actuarial work. So, I pivoted and landed a job as a data analyst for a construction material distribution company. This is where my passion for automation truly ignited.

I dove headfirst into learning everything I could on my own. I used Python, SQL, Power Query, Power BI, and Tableau to tackle complex problems like customer segmentation and price optimization. My biggest project was automating the commission calculations for the company's entire sales team—a task that was previously a massive manual headache.

My knack for taming technology and building automated solutions got me noticed. Soon, I was asked to help with some financial reporting tasks, which led me to a new and intimidating piece of software: OneStream.

I was thrown into the deep end. My first task was to create custom "cube views," and I had absolutely no idea what a cube was. I felt like I was shooting in the dark, trying to grasp abstract concepts. My only guide was the official Design and Reference Guide. I read it cover to cover, and slowly, things started to click. I managed to get the cube views working and began to develop an intuition for the platform, much like I had with Excel years before.

Then came my first real test.

Our company was going through an acquisition and needed to shift financial data from a standard calendar to a 4-4-5 retail calendar. The OneStream application wasn't built for this. I had to write a business rule to move values from month to month in a way that would always net out to zero.

I had no clue how to do it. Back then, there was no OneStream Community forum to ask for help—just support tickets and that trusty Design and Reference Guide. A consultant who had helped with our initial implementation gave me a few pointers, and I just ran with it. Through sheer determination, I wrote a business rule that moved the amounts correctly. When it finally worked, the feeling was electric. The reports were right, the executives were thrilled, and I felt a sense of satisfaction I'd never experienced before.

One day, a coworker who is still a close friend came to me with a question: "Hey, do you want to be a consultant? A recruiter might want to talk to you." Honestly, it scared the heck out of me. I was just the guy in the background who figured things out. How could I advise clients?

But then I realized I was already doing it every day. I was gathering requirements, watching processes, and identifying pain points. I was finding where things got tedious and building solutions to make them faster and better. So, with just one major business rule under my belt, I made the jump.

Since then, I've worked with three diamond-level OneStream partners, creating solutions for a huge range of industries. I dove into the platform the same way I had with every other technology—by getting my hands dirty. I even implemented some things that took an Oracle Hyperion process — a process that took 24 hours — down to just 40 seconds.

Along the way, I grew close with my clients, the people on the ground doing the hard work in finance day in and day out. Each project felt like joining a new work family, and leaving at the end was always bittersweet.

During these implementations, I noticed a huge technical skill gap between the implementers and the end-users and since I was so close to my clients on both a personal and professional level, I had an immense urge to help them. Whenever I had the chance on a call, I made it a point to teach something new. Seeing that lightbulb moment for an end-user gave me that same thrill I felt after writing my first business rule.

Now, I'm starting my own business. At first, I'll be doing the work I've always done: writing code and designing practical, scalable solutions for OneStream partners — work that I honestly still find joy in.

But my real hope is to connect with the people using the OneStream applications that were built for them. I want to empower you with the knowledge to take control of your application. I want to raise your technical skills to the same level as mine, so you can extend your platform at will without needing a wizard to fix things.

So, if you're reading this and you struggle to understand your own application, or you feel like you lack the resources to solve the problems you face every day, let's talk.