Our business mission mantra: surround yourself with people smarter than you. Build systems. Then give yourself permission to live.
Michael’s story doesn’t start with a five-year plan or a college acceptance letter.
It starts at 15 years old, in a bad crowd, in high school, quietly realizing: this is not going to end well. School wasn’t his thing. And instead of suffering through it, Michael did something that made most parents panic and most guidance counselors clutch their pearls: he went home, looked his parents in the eye, and said, “I want to drop out.”
And somehow… they said okay.
The very next day, Michael went to work at his father’s business.
That decision—terrifying, unconventional, and wildly misunderstood—turned out to be the beginning of everything.
The Metal Shop, the Math Tutor, and the Fork in the Road
Michael didn’t just show up to his dad’s company and clock in. He built something: standing up an entire metal fabrication department making fences, mailboxes, and street signs. He was still legally a kid and already learning what most people don’t grasp until middle age: when you build value, you matter.
Meanwhile, back in 9th-grade math class—before any of this—Michael had met Ashlee. She was tutoring him. Because, in his own words, he wasn’t very good at math.
Ashlee was the goody-two shoes. Michael… not so much.
They drifted apart when he dropped out at the end of 10th grade. He lost touch with almost everyone. And about six weeks later, his best friend was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to four years in prison.
That moment landed hard.
It wasn’t just shocking, it was clarifying. Michael could see it plainly now: that could have been me.
So while some doors were slamming shut, another one was quietly and mercifully opening.
Losing Everything at 18 (Except Each Other)
Michael was born and raised in Fuquay-Varina, just south of Raleigh—small-town North Carolina, where everybody knows everybody and the stakes of your choices are always visible. His family roots ran through Wisconsin (Go Pack Go), but this was home.
By the end of 2007, things began to feel… off. Jobs slowed. People weren’t paying. And by early 2008, the full weight of the recession crushed the business completely.
Michael’s dad, who had built the company over 20 years, went bankrupt. The company shut down.
Michael was 18 years old, staring into the void.
And then—timing only God could orchestrate—he and Ashlee reconnected. They started dating just as everything else was falling apart.
Surf Families, First Dates, and Winning Over the Parents
Ashlee’s family lived for wakeboarding, surfing, ATVs, boats, and anything with an engine or a wave. And here’s the thing—Michael had been that guy his whole life too. He didn’t have to learn to love it. He already did. Two people who already spoke the same language, finally finding each other.
Their first official date? A Thursday night movie and ice cream. Simple. Sweet. No drama followed by a four-day hangout involving an ATV park, a wakeboarding session, a boat day, and something loud, fun, and slightly chaotic. Michael was right at home.
Ashlee's dad was not the kind of man you showed up to impress with a firm handshake and a polo shirt. Full of tattoos, permanently shirtless, maybe a couple of AK-47s within arm's reach. Michael didn't flinch. He backed a 32-foot enclosed trailer into his driveway full of four-wheelers, and the man trusted him immediately. Turns out the fastest way to win over a tattooed, shirtless, heavily-armed surf dad isn't charm. It's showing up with the right trailer.
Solar Dreams, Accounting Brains, and Figuring Life Out
While Michael recalibrated after the recession, he and his dad swung big by drafting a massive solar business plan aimed at major commercial players like Lowe’s and Home Depot. They got seed funding. They got traction. Then the government incentives fell apart. So did the business model.
Meanwhile, Ashlee was off at Meredith College, quietly becoming a powerhouse:
- BS in Accounting
- BA in Music
- A double bassist and a singer
- A woman who knew exactly what she was doing
Her music paid for school. Her accounting degree would pay for life.
Michael went to work for a utility contractor tied to a large energy company, grinding through the recession and learning. They got married in April 2013. Their daughter arrived in 2014. Life was real now.
Rebuilding What Was Lost
In 2014, something unexpected happened. Developers who used to work with Michael’s dad started calling. His father couldn’t face it. The loss still sat heavy. But Michael felt something unresolved, something unfinished. So he restarted the company.
Not lightly. Not easily. And not without pressure.
Ashlee initially refused to work with him. She thought, very reasonably, “We’d end up divorced.”
The first few years were difficult, but slowly, something started working. From 2015 to 2019, the company grew from $0 to $3.5M. Michael kept replacing himself, and after the birth of their son, Ashlee stepped in and brought structure to some of the chaos.
Envelopes, Systems, and the Adults Entering the Room
Michael ran the company on instinct. Vision. Hustle. Ashlee walked in and thought, Where is literally everything? Proposals on envelopes. No employee documents. No systems. She didn’t flip a table. She got to work. One process at a time. One system at a time. One professional touch at a time.
They brought in —Pamela for HR, Fernando for IT—and built something real. Still, by 2019, despite growing revenue, they were broke. Enter a mentor named Dan.
The Dan Chapter
Michael got on a call with Dan the next day and they clicked instantly. Dan looked at the numbers and said, “This isn’t as bad as you think.”
And just like that, Michael had a mentor at exactly the moment he needed it.
Dan became more than a business advisor. He walked them through grief when Michael’s father passed away, cash flow, leadership, and scaling. Weekly calls. Quarterly meetings. Hard truths. Accounts receivable. Gross margins. Cash flow discipline.
By 2021, they landed on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list, completed acquisitions, and bought a farm—with Dan right there alongside them.
Selling the Thing You Swore You’d Never Sell
Michael always said he’d never sell the business. It was legacy. It was his father. It was his last name. But Dan has a subtle gift—he doesn’t push, he plants thoughts.
“What if the business is an asset?”
In December 2024, they sold the majority of the landscaping company to a private equity company. Debt-free. No cash flow stress. A chapter complete.
Michael rebuilt the company his father lost. Stamped it in time. Closed the loop.
What Comes After the Hustle
After the sale? They lived. A wakeboat. A camper. 4-wheelers. Side-by-sides. Michael calls last year the funnest year of his life.
They designed their lives for presence, not pressure.
Ashlee, always practical, loved the lack of fires. Systems worked. Teams ran the show. Businesses looked… predictable.
Michael kept dreaming. The farm evolved. The wedding venue Carrollock Farms thriving. Oxford emerged. Clotine began taking shape.
Their business mission mantra: surround yourself with people smarter than you. Build systems. Then give yourself permission to live.
Where the Dream Gets Fueled
And this is where Dan enters the story again. Selling the company made something clear to Michael: he’s a visionary. He loves building, dreaming, and connecting dots, but he no longer wants his entire life tied to operating a single business.
So instead of starting over alone, Michael is now working with Dan to build Clotine. Clotine gives him leverage instead of pressure, freedom instead of constant fires, and the ability to help build businesses without becoming the bottleneck.
It’s the engine behind the dream: the farm, the family compound, the time with his kids, and the freedom to design life first, and let business support it, not consume it.
Michael rebuilt his father’s legacy once. Now, alongside Dan, he’s helping build something that fuels the future: his family’s, and many others’.
The Big Dream (and the Little People)
They homeschool their kids Censabella, and Elijah with teachers and a nanny from Mexico. Both kids are bilingual. Both growing up on the farm. Their daughter sells eggs from her chickens, bracelets, jewelry—a budding entrepreneur. Their son loves music and is already a talented piano player and he's caught the bug for cool cars just like his dad.
And the dream? A 300–400 acre family compound in Florida. Tiny homes. A clubhouse. Generations living, building, contributing—together. No cold winters. No retirement speeches. Just family and legacy done differently.
Full Circle
Michael dropped out of school at 15. Ashlee tutored him in math. Today? They’ve built—and sold—a eight-figure story of grit, systems, faith, and timing. They rebuilt a legacy. And now they’re designing a life.
Not bad for a kid who hated math.
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