Introducing Myself: Ready. Set. Start.

function generateWelcomeMessage() {
  let currentYear = new Date().getFullYear()
  let welcomeMessage = `Hello and welcome!

My name is Michael.
I'm very excited to share with you my first blog post of ${currentYear}.

Here, you'll find a wide range of topics discussed, 
from business and software development all the way to cocktails. 
I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I enjoy creating it. 

Grab yourself a drink and happy reading!

Michael Visser`

  return welcomeMessage
}

console.log(generateWelcomeMessage())

Introducing Myself: Ready. Set. Start.

Here we go! Every journey or project has a moment when you just have to start. I know there have been many moments in my life where I have had fireside chats with friends and talked about the future, my dreams, my frustrations, and what I will do to change my circumstances. Such conversations, while cathartic, can sometimes lull you into a false sense of action. However, the harsh reality hits the next day when you realize nothing has changed. So, there you are, still frustrated, stuck, dreaming about what your life would look like if you got that promotion, you got that business deal, etc., and the cycle begins again. This first post is a chance to break that cycle and start. I have no illusions that this will be any good or that anyone will read this, but if I am ever going to get to where I desire to go, there must be a beginning. So here we go!

You may ask yourself, who is this guy, and why did I just read that last paragraph? So let me give you the TL: DR on me. At the point of this writing, I am a 34-year-old software developer, foodie, and husband to my fantastic wife, Bethany; she is like the bellows to my flame. She is the reason I work as hard as I do, and she encourages me daily. Somedays, I think she sees a different man than I believe I am, but I hope that one day I have done the inner work to become the man she thinks I am. We might have the best Goldendoodle ever; his name is Walker. He’s been a great addition to our family and brings joy to everyone he meets.

So that’s who I am. Now let’s jump into what I do. No boring, run-of-the-mill small talk would be complete without those two questions: what’s your name? What do you do? Etc. So why break with the trend now? I currently oversee the data and analytics department at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX. I have had the opportunity to help build some impactful ministry processes and report on those successes to our upper leadership. That’s the short version. If you asked me to describe my role at Gateway, it might resemble that scene from A Beautiful Mind, where all the lines are intricately connected across the room. That’s me. I have million little pieces of string, all push pinned to different software and procedures, meeting notes and emails, that hallway conversation that eventually became the impetus for the project we did years later. Somehow, it’s still all there. Yet, I need an AirTag to keep track of my keys. My time there has led me to where I am today, including my current adventure as the co-founder of Threefold Solutions.

In January of 2021, a good friend and now business partner convinced me to start Threefold. So, great you started a business, but what is it? The simplest way to define Threefold is that we are a third-party integrator for Planning Center, a Church Management System (CHMS). We help churches migrate their data from what sometimes feels like MS-DOS-based platforms to something that doesn’t suck. Then, once we migrate the data over, we help churches learn the platform and provide them with best-in-class ministry processes to support their churches scale. Our journey began from a few insightful conversations we had with churches. They wanted to know how Gateway was managing their church processes, and about a year later, we are well on our way to replacing our incomes with what I expected to be “just a side hustle.”

As you might have gathered from the homepage, I harbor a deep passion for cocktails. I might even go as far as to say I have the best bar in DFW. I hope that assertion holds true to the select few of you who have had the opportunity to join Bethany and me for a cocktail. For those of you who haven’t, it will be my pleasure to share some of my favorites with you.

function basicOldFashionedRecipe(liquor) {
  if (
    liquor.toLowerCase() === 'whiskey' ||
    liquor.toLowerCase() === 'bourbon' ||
    liquor.toLowerCase() === 'rye'
  ) {
    return {
      name: 'Old Fashioned',
      ingredients: [
        { ingredient: liquor, amount: '2 oz' },
        { ingredient: '2:1 Simple Syrup (Turbinado Sugar)', amount: '1/2 oz' },
        { ingredient: 'Angostura bitters', amount: '2 dashes' },
        { ingredient: 'Orange twist', amount: '1 (for garnish)' },
      ],
    }
  } else {
    return null
  }
}

console.log(basicOldFashionedRecipe('Whiskey'))

So here is what you can look to expect from this blog. First and foremost, I aim to share my journey as a new founder, the mistakes I've made and will inevitably continue to make in the realms of business and leadership. I hope that spending the time writing down my thoughts around these topics will further cement in my mind the right way of handling these situations. From there, I will be looking to help provide different software development resources, tutorials, tips, and insights. I know there are a ton of content creators out there, but I am not planning on going the full YouTube creator side of things as of right now, but if I see something interesting that might help someone, I will mention it here.

Additionally, I will be looking to share the types of books, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc., helping shape me into the person I want to become. And for those who aren’t as interested in the entrepreneurial side of things and are simply looking for ways to impress their significant others, I plan to mix in a dash of cocktail recipes too. Expect these recipes to be top shelf.

So, thank you for your time. I hope you will learn something along the way and that I can help inspire you with a new business idea or a quality craft cocktail. Feel free to reach out to me at michaelhvisser@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out, share your experiences, ask me a question, or even drop me a suggestion for a future blog post. For those of you that haven’t yet, please look and subscribe to my email list; that is the easiest way for me to keep you up to date with the blog and any future updates I have.

I want to leave you with just one last thing. As I said at the beginning of this post, this is just the start. There is a lot for me to learn as an entrepreneur. I'm done being a spectator. This is the moment when I put myself in the game. And just like me, you don’t need permission to start. So, my encouragement for you today is to just start. Do something, anything, to advance towards your goal(s). For those of you that don’t have a goal set, you do now. Your goal for this moment is to ask yourself this question: If you knew you could not fail, what would you do? What business would you do? What art project would you create? What blog would you write? Once you answer that question, then count down from five. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Now Start!