Welcome to My Blog!

Updated: the scope of the blog has shifted paths but this is where it began so I'll leave it all here!

Hi there! I am so happy to have you here. My name is Chris, first time blogger on board! I am an entrepreneur, adventurist, over committing DIY-er, momma’s boy, self-help book collector and health enthusiast.

I have spent the last 5 years building a brewery, restaurant and most recently a cafe brand with my brother-in-law and father as my business partners. Check out Farm by Beer Tree Brew (est. 2017), Factory by Beer Tree Brew (est. 2020), Downtown by Beer Tree Brew (est. 2022) and Batch Coffee (coming September 2022!)

Mountain Biking at Dead Horse State Park - Moab, UT

I primarily handle the brewery operations side of the business and my brother-in-law handles the restaurant & taprooms. Dads got his own full-time gig.. I guess that should be plural because that man loves doing all the things and has a few different business going on, including Willet Hop & Grain farm. We send all of our spent grain from the brewery up to feed the cows at the farm. The cow manure gets spread on the hops, hops get used in the beer, and the cows supply beef to the restaurants. Pretty neat and sustainable cycle!

I graduated college in 2016 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a MS in Manufacturing and Mechanical Systems Integration. I moved back home and went to work for corporate America right out of school and fortunately was able to quit by April of 2018 to go full time at the brewery. Funny enough, my brother-in-law became my boss at that company for a period of time before he left in October 2017 to open the brewery full time.

The Future Wife and I catching those golden hour rays - Rehoboth, DE

I have been engaged since June of 2021 to my absolute best friend in the world, Lily. We are currently planning a non-traditional wedding, which thanks to Covid has become more popular! We are renting an Airbnb and having just our immediate fam join us for a small ceremony and celebration. We’re going to throw an informal reception at the brewery a month or two after that. Update - We got the knot tied, wahoo!

We’re all about living in the moment and enjoying our time together with our closest loved ones. Not the stress, coordination and $$$ of a 200 person wedding ceremony. Yikes!

In April of 2021 my life hit a little speed bump. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). UC is an inflammatory bowel disease (a type of auto-immune disease) that causes ulcers and inflammation in the colon. There is currently no official cure. Simply put, without harping on the details, this diagnosis changed life as I knew it. If you want to read more about my diagnosis and journey, I'll be posting it and linking it here.

This diagnosis lead me to re-evaluate my life and change the way in which I was living. And it didn’t happen overnight. Shit, I’m just now scratching the tip of the iceberg. The change began as a shift in mindset and has slowly begun transforming all aspects of my life. With work. Lots of work, dedication and commitment to myself and my health.

My learning is just beginning. And what has helped me the most is the central reason for creating this blog: humility. This word has so much meaning but I want to give it some more context. First, I need you to picture life through the lens of an experiment.

We perform hundreds of thousands of experiments throughout the course of life. Picture your days as a child. Your hypothesis is that the square block will fit in the circle hole. You try it, it doesn’t fit. You change your hypothesis so the square block fits in the square hole. It fits, and you learn this and move to another experiment. Every decision we make throughout life is an experiment. It works, it doesn’t, or it is inconclusive and requires further experimentation or analysis. No matter the outcome we walk away with some piece of knowledge.

When we embrace humility, we are effectively setting pride and arrogance aside and removing a good portion of bias from the constant ongoing experiments in life. This allows us to view the experiment with an open minded perspective. At worst, our failures become a learning opportunity. At best, our successes become a learning opportunity. See what I did there? No matter the outcome we constantly evolve our mindset and knowledge and continuously grow. It is an open minded approach to all experiences in life.

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I am here to share my journey of embracing humility through all life experiments in an ongoing quest to become a healthier, more knowledgable, and happier version of myself. Each topic I cover will be from my perspective as an individual with an auto-immune disease, entrepreneur, and adventurist with supporting research and evidence as to why I am presenting specific materials.

Some of the topics I plan to cover include, but are not limited to:

• generating health

• routines

• mindfulness

• food

• habits

• stress management

• relationships

• productivity tips & tricks for keeping a healthy mind

If you are someone who:

• thinks there is more to life than just going through the motions

• tire of living in a state of constant stress

• struggling with the emotions and life changes of an auto immune disease

• feeling stuck in a cycle of life you can’t seem to get out of

• seeking a healthier, more fulfilling life

Then I think we can be pals.

If you want to follow along on this journey with me, I’d sure love to have you. I’ll be posting weekly and constantly evolving my humility mindset. There will be a mix of blog posts and vlogs as well as a weekly newsletter that is short and contains a link to the weeks post, a few interesting articles, books, music, quotes, podcasts, and a mix of other things that I stumble upon that I think is worth sharing! Sound cool? Subscribe!

Cheers my friends,

Chris