Timeline
Every life has a story. This is mine (so far).
Untethered
Still in the midst of it, this season’s name remains open to change, as it does not yet have a clear end date I can assign it. But as of 2022, it became clear that these years have marked a season of significant growth, fruition, and adventure—not to mention learning, love, and liberation.
2023
My word for this year is “Prime.” All that means I’ll let you know as soon as I do. New year, here I come.
July
On the tail-end of our second summer abroad, we ended on some good notes, experiencing a wonderful time with good friends in Phuket and capping off our familyS summer abroad in Singapore. We also happened to touchdown on our fifth continent for a brief layover in Sydney, Australia. Our learnings from summer two were abundant.
June
The month of June was spent between Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Kuala Lumpur, and Phuket. There were high highs, but there were perhaps even more low lows.
May
The kids ended their production of Seussical, which they all did great in. Riley got her driver’s license. And finally, we left for our highly anticipated second summer abroad. It was eventful.
Feb
Our kiddos were cast in their latest production, and Tolan got his first lead part, starring as Horton the elephant in “Seussical the Musical”. I also personally saw some serious miracles of provision happen for my business, Journeyage. God is always faithful, and He’s never late.
Jan
I spent New Year’s weekend very sick and dealing with significant challenges—not the ideal way to start a year. That said, I also experienced great Peace ruling in my heart in the thick of the storm.
My word for this year was “Time,” and I sought to make the most of it—with my family, in my work, and with the Lord. It was a big, BIG year. Read all about it.
Oct
We added a new furry family member to our clan—Maverick, Beckett’s dwarf hamster. He named him after the leading man of his favorite movie, Top Gun.
Sep
I spent 10 days in the UK with some of my best friends for my 40th birthday. We arrived in London on the day of the Queen’s passing, and then we made our way up to the Scotland highlands, enjoying golf, whisky, bagpipes, and more. What a trip.
Also, Riley turned 16 and went to spend her birthday in Paris with Nicole and their best friends. I know I keep saying this, but this was quite a month, too.
Aug
We returned from South Africa, Riley was nominated for best actress in Arizona, I turned 40, and my eldest ventured on her first date the day after my birthday. It was a big month.
Jul
My first book, Do Nothing, was (finally!) published. Jesus helped me eek it in just before my 40th birthday. It felt good.
In family news, Tolan turned 14, my aunt Mary visited us in Cape Town, we enjoyed several other adventures while still in South Africa.
Jun
Destined to live abroad—and narrowly making it due to some COVID snags—we flew to Cape Town, South Africa to spend our first summer abroad. We even snuck in a brief couples-only getaway, as well as a surprise trip to Disneyland with the kids before we left.
May
We capped off a busy season of theater production (Singin’ in the Rain!), heading in and out of hospitals to visit my mom after her stroke, and preparing for our first summer abroad. It was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting.
Feb
We officially moved from the suburbs to a more ethnically diverse, lower income neighborhood. Excitement ensued.
My word for this year was “Power,” and my main goal was simply put, but by no means simple: Do less better. Read how it went.
Nov
In belated fulfillment of my mom’s pre-kidney transplant wish, the whole (and I mean WHOLE) family took a 10-day trip to Orlando, where we spent a week straight at Disney World. It was exhausting, but fun.
Nicole and I also decided around this time to sell our house, planning to spend our kids’ high school summers living around the world, but keeping Phoenix as home base. It was an unexpected decision, but the future possibilities excited us tremendously.
Jun
The family and I got away for a much needed vacation in Colorado and Nevada. It was our first complete time away since right before the pandemic in March 2020. I also helped Nicole launch Stories of Color (with all my spare time on nights and weekends).
May
I ran my first purpose discovery session under the Be Do Go You label. It was a very helpful beta test that informed the direction forward with it.
Apr
We made some big changes at Journeyage to help us hone in our focus on the product even more. It was very difficult, but they were the right calls.
Feb
I launched this fancy pink website you’re looking at now. It started as a fun distraction, and it’s become something much better than I imagined.
Jan
Alt right extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol. Though the idea had been brewing a while, Nicole and I took it as our final cue to re-register as independents. A political pivot, if you will.
This is the year that broke my heart and compelled me to action. Though I had a word, goals, and plans for the year, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and abhorrent racial injustices on the world stage, I was just happy to make it through the year. Read my first annual year in review.
Oct
Given the restrictions on international travel, Nicole and I instead spent our 15th anniversary driving around town to the places that marked staple and favorite moments in our life together.
May
For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, George Floyd couldn’t breathe. His murder catalyzed the largest civil right protests in world history, including all 50 states, over 60 countries, and the globe’s 7 continents.
This also sparked the greatest anger and grief in me that I have ever experienced, resulting in my resolute commitment to the unquestionable truth that Black lives matter. So began my commitment against inequity and injustice for the long haul.
Apr
After learning a lot of what to do (and what not to do), the ETW team and I started developing a new product to help improve team meetings, Mindup.
Amid the 2020 pandemic, Nicole and I may have decided on adding another furry member to our family, too. Lolo, Pepper, Gemma, meet McClane.
Mar
The family and I eeked in a vacation to the big island of Hawaii riiiight before the world started going on lockdown in response to COVID-19. Phew.
2019
This was the clear beginning of a new season in which I was to focus again on co-building. I was ready.
Aug
While my brother, David, enjoyed his 35th birthday, 23-year old Elijah McClain was murdered in Colorado for absolutely zero reason. The next year, in 2020, I tattooed some of Elijah's final words on my arm to show my solidarity with the Black community.
Jul
After two-and-a-half solid years at IntraEdge and a whole bunch of world travel to help train teams in their digital transformation efforts, I left my 9-to-5 to begin working with the ETW team and focus on Journeyage full-time. Let the new adventure begin.
Jan
After meeting him a few months prior, I hired Dom Pachuilo as Journeyage’s first W2 employee. Early that month, he and I walked around my neighborhood dreaming about what would be possible someday through Journeyage. It was a day to remember.
Undoings
After seven long years of working for myself, it was time for a break. A sabbatical, if you will. This marked a severe change in my state of being—far less doing than ever.
2018
This year continued—and concluded—my much needed season of rest (and undoing), as I also ventured to conclude my first book.
Jul
How did a decade fly by so quickly? Tolan, my beautiful boy, turned 10, and we celebrated the event with a father-son camping trip.
May
This summer was chock-full of exciting milestones. But the highlight was our first overseas trip with the kids to England, Austria, and Czech just before my mom underwent a vital kidney transplant.
Apr
After a couple years of not starting anything, I started tinkering with an idea that led to me co-founding the training company, Journeyage.
Jan
On the heels of my great undoing, I felt compelled to write about what I was learning, (eventually) resulting in Do Nothing: The Simple Principles of Jesus to Accomplish Anything.
2017
This year began the most restful work year of my life and a season of true brokenness. I was, as they say, a man undone.
Jul
After little over a year since her first surgery, Nicole’s endometriosis grew back and ended in yet another surgery. This one resulted in far superior results and quickened healing, but it was no less difficult.
Apr
On behalf of the City of Phoenix, Nicole and I experienced an incredible trip to Japan, visiting Hemeji, Kyoto, and Tokyo as part of another sister city delegation. Among the dozen-plus big trips we had taken to date, this was undoubtedly our favorite. Japan rocks.
Jan
On the tail end of a tiring year and urged to “Get a job,” I responded promptly, landing a job I was very thankful for with IntraEdge. Thus began the most restful year of my life—but not before encountering the worst month of my life.
Hustles
Entrepreneurship is tough—and I learned that the hard way. Theory can’t teach you what the real world will bring you. These seven years were marked by success and struggle, wins and weariness.
2016
This year concluded a long and arduous season of entrepreneurship. I was tired, I just didn’t know how tired I was until I was on the other side.
Nov
After some early synergies and an opportunity to engage with 500 Startups batch 18, my partners and I merged Hopscratch with Trym to build toward a stronger, bolder future for the company.
Sep
Riley, my lovely and fierce daughter, turned 10. We celebrated the event with a father-daughter trip into the woods for a two-day camping adventure. This month, I also started meeting with ASU students to help them through their Venture Devils program.
Apr
Nicole had her first surgery for endometriosis, resulting in a six-month recovery that was brutal on her and our family. Surgery sucks.
Feb
The second PHX Startup Week was even better than the first, with a huge increase in attendance and improvement in the event. After two years at the helm of the volunteer effort, it was also time to pass the baton.
2015
After a year of independent consulting with companies, it was time to jump back into the startup fray.
Oct
A decade flies by when you’re having fun. Nicole and I enjoyed an incredible 10th anniversary trip to Paris, looking back on quite a ride to-date.
Sep
After meeting a bunch of entrepreneurially spirited folks through my Phoenix community efforts, I rallied together an awesome crew to help launch a new business in a box startup, Hopscratch. Kirk, Adam, Brian, Paige and I made quite a team.
Feb
For a week-long event held in multiple cities across the Phoenix metro area, the first PHX Startup Week went off without a relative hitch. This is the first time that I had the opportunity to serve the City of Phoenix, too.
2014
This was the year in which I dove headfirst into dynamic community building beyond the walls of a small group or team. What an exciting time.
Nov
With the newly formed #yesphx efforts taking shape and building steam, I set out to explore how we might launch a massive event that would rally the ecosystem together. That’s when I found out about Startup Week and the effort to expand its footprint beyond Boulder, Colorado, where it started. I reluctantly agreed to lead the project with only three months before its initial launch. Go time.
Oct
Though I loved what we had built and who I had built it with, the time had come for me to leave the team at User10 and figure out what was next. I didn’t know what that would be, but I did know that it was time.
May
After a decade in The IZZI, it was time for the Cottrells to expand our available space and move to a new house in Moon Valley. We never looked back.
Apr
After a dinner with fellow entrepreneurs around town, I shared a conversation with a few local founders and investors discussing the Phoenix entrepreneurial scene. Inspired by the conversation, I went home to brainstorm how to amplify what was already happening across the city. The result was #yesphx.
2013
User10 was really starting to crank by this time, but as a team of product nerds, we were more interested in building something for ourselves than purely helping others build something. This is the year we started Storybyte, which also led to more community connections, which ultimately led to my entrepreneurial support within greater Phoenix.
2012
Other than hustling to make my newest consulting company go, it was a fairly uneventful year. The big moves I made that year included rebranding Why. to become User10, starting to track my movie watching on IMDb (seriously, that was rad), and turning 30.
This year, the people of The Foundation—the people I consider family to this day—became a very substantial part of our lives.
2011
Honestly, 2011 was a bit of a disappointment on the heels of my first real startup failure. Still, there was important new life in other areas, and for that, I was grateful.
Nov
After months of consulting independently and co-conspiring with my frequent collaborator, Mike Alonzo, we decided to give it a full go and co-found a boutique agency, Why. It was the answer to what was next for us.
Aug
Days after my 29th birthday and Nicole’s 31st, we were given the greatest gift possible, Beckett Samuel Benjamin Cottrell. He was a spicy little nugget.
Mar
As SoChurch’s fate hung in the balance and we couldn’t find the additional cash we needed to reach our next milestones, I started consulting independently to pay the bills. It’s not what I had envisioned.
Jan
After casual conversations for at least a year, we found out that Nicole was pregnant with our third child. When our 4-year old daughter, Riley, handed me the pregnancy stick to share the news, she exclaimed, “Surprise, it’s your temperature!”
2010
This was another 🤯🤯 year, including the start of my full-time entrepreneurial work, lots of travel, and even some aesthetic changes.
Oct
After 5 years of marriage, Nicole and I spent our anniversary in a tattoo parlor acquiring our first ink. Having not eaten at all that day due to some strange circumstances, I may have passed out.
May
With SoChurch picking up some steam and several things changing in our lives, I took the leap to leave my 9-to-5 at GoDaddy and begin working full-time as an entrepreneur. It was time.
Were working for myself not enough, this month also marked Nicole starting Modern Reject, a trip to Walt Disney World with my future sister-in-law, Sarah, and the month that I decided to become a cranial nudist. What a month!
Jan
After a substantial amount of prayer, Nicole and I took the first step of faith to start a new local church, The Foundation. At the time, we had no idea what it should—or would—look like, but we obeyed anyway. Quite frankly, it was a gigantic failure that Jesus redeemed.
Foundations
The first decade of my adult years were rife with change, joy, and learning. From new work to new homes, marriage to fatherhood, this season was foundational to the rest of my life.
2009
After years of growing my family and career, this would close out my years of 9-to-5 experience as I entered into a new season of hustle.
Sep
With blippr behind me, I needed a new project to set my mind on. With a few buddies, I roped them in to helping build a new platform for social church communication that we called SoChurch. It would be a few months before it became “a thing,” but the seeds were planted.
Mar
After countless late nights, several red eye flights, and continual back-and-forth between lawyers, Chris and I ended up selling our experiment-turned-business, blippr, to Mashable. He took on a role as Chief Architect at Mashable while my day-to-day as CEO dissipated.
While I’ll write the full story soon, I will share this: we signed the final contract on a cement light post in a local Circle K parking lot. That’s the glitz of startup life.
2008
On the flip side of a roller coaster job year, this season of new beginnings and leadership opportunities at GoDaddy led to a wonderful reprieve while my family and side hustles were being built up.
Jul
Around 10pm one warm July evening, Nicole gave birth to our second child and eldest son, Tolan James Cottrell. Wow, wow, wow.
Jan
At a leadership retreat up north with our church, Nicole and I met who would become our best friends, Ben and Jennie Forsberg. Friendship is a gift.
2007
As much as 2007 ended on a high note, it definitely had its fair share of low moments.
Dec
Nicole and I learned that we would soon be the parents of not just one child, but two. Despite the joyful news, this month was a tough one as I remained between jobs entering into our least extravagant Christmas ever. Finally, right before the end of the year, I began a new opportunity at the company I had previously declined, GoDaddy.
Nov
Recently returned from our first overseas anniversary trip to London, Brightspot Media closed its doors on every single employee the day before Thanksgiving. Happy holidays.
Jul
With Judge-O-Rama off the ground and my job at Brightspot Media underway, Chris and I exchanged a chat message that quickly led to our next experiment, blippr, a micro-review service of books, games, movies, and music. Fun.
May
After an incredible three-year run at iCrossing, amid significant organizational and people changes, I lost my job at iCrossing. But on the way out, I heard God whisper, “I’ll take care of you.” And He did. Within two short weeks, I had offers from Brightspot Media and GoDaddy. I took the former.
2006
This is what you might call a mind-blowing 🤯 year. Get a load of these milestones.
Dec
To close out the year (and begin a new chapter) I did what any rational new dad and young husband would do—start a business.
Partnered again with my high school friend and development mastermind, Chris, we decided now was the right time for a new user generated content (UGC) offering—or as it was often referred to then, “Web 2.0.” Our first foray into the new world of the web would be something playful, Judge-O-Rama.
Sep
Around dinner time one lovely September evening, after a whole lot of work on Nicole’s part, we met our firstborn daughter, Riley Grace Cottrell. Nicole was a rockstar, and I was the new female duo’s fawning fan. I liked my newest title a whole lot, too: Dad.
Jan
Sometime roughly six weeks after we were married, something awesome happened—Nicole got pregnant. Of course, we didn’t find out for a few weeks, until January.
While Nicole stared at the ➕ sign on that little white stick in the bathroom, I ran to our bedroom and began jumping on the bed, exclaiming, “I’m gonna be a dad!” I was convinced it was a boy.
2005
Considering this is the year I got married, it’s safe to say that this was a really, really, really good year.
Oct
Nine months after getting engaged and less than a year after we began dating, Nicole and tied the knot on a beautiful Phoenix afternoon. My life would never be the same—thank God.
Jan
After just six weeks of dating Nicole, I was done. I couldn’t help it. In a spur of the moment decision on a brisk, rainy evening, I got down on bended knee and asked if Nicole Llin Goings would marry me. After some uncommon tears, she said, “Yes.”
2004
My new career was going off without a hitch, but my relationship with a serious girlfriend was an entirely different matter. Breaking up is hard to do, just like the song says. But sometimes, it’s necessary.
Fortunately, that break up allowed the most important relationship in my life to form, when I later started dating Nicole. It was a whirlwind, but I knew our fate almost instantly—she was “the one.” I’ve written elsewhere about our love story.
2003
This year turned out to be a big one. From buying a home to starting my career, it ended on a high note compared to how it began.
Dec
While I had every intent to return to school at ASU in the spring of 2004, I ended up securing an interview with a company called iCrossing as I spoke with one of the frequent customers I served at Bank of America, Jay.
Handling his weekly deposits, I asked Jay what he had been up to that day. “Hiring and firing,” he said.
“Want to hire me,” I quipped?
Without hesitation, “I would.”
My interview that week went well, and thus began my introduction to sales. Really, it started my career.
Oct
Though I was seriously dating a girl named Sandy at the time, one October evening after church, my friend Dave introduced me to a girl he had met at the local sports bar, Zipps. Her name was Nicole Goings. Though I didn’t know it then, we kinda sorta had a pretty stellar future in store for us.
Sep
The 90-hour work weeks paid off fast, because in September of that year, just after I turned 21, I bought my first house with my brother. We named our college pad The IZZI. We even had branded shirts and business cards made to spread the word. People still mentioned our parties over a decade later.
Jan
2003 sure started off poorly, entering into the year with an epically bad case of mono as I was wrapping up the Fall semester at Arizona State University. A bit tired of school—tired of anything, really, because mono sucks you dry—I started working three jobs so I could save up and buy a house. As a merchant teller at Bank of America, valet at Paradise Valley Country Club, and barista at Starbucks, followed by a later job at Chipotle, it was an exhausting season.
2001
While I didn’t quite experience the Space Odyssey that Stanley Kubrick promised, I was offered a big job upgrade, moving on up from the cheap golf course job I had been working for three years to the very exclusive Estancia Club that boasted billionaire members.
Even more memorably, this is when I graduated from Scottsdale Community College and traveled overseas for the first time to my ancestor’s homeland, Scotland. Hello adulthood.
Childhood
With an amazing set of parents and a home I lived in all the years I can remember, my childhood was blessed. Here are the highlights.
2000
Though Y2K wasn’t as big a deal as everybody feared, the new century marked some major milestones for me, personally. Finally, I was 18. This year also resulted in my first major car accident after I got T-boned near my house (adios, Camry). 😞
On the upside, that accident did lead to me spending more time with my buddy, Chris Heald, who had to pick me up if I wanted to get anywhere. And that led us to working on our first “official” business together, Teen Genesis.
1998
My grandma, Marcy (my dad’s mom), gave me my first set of wheels—a maroon 1990 Toyota Camry. Freedom.
1997
As much as I enjoyed my neighborhood hustles and household chores, I decided I could earn more working a real job at that time. So, I started my first W2 job at Pavilion Lakes Golf Club washing golf carts, picking the range, and cleaning players’ clubs. I loved every second of it.
That Fall, starting with English 101, I also began taking classes at Scottsdale Community College, on my way to an early associate’s degree. The school’s mascot? An artichoke. (No joke.)
1993
My grandma, Jean (my mom’s mom), gave me a book, Better Than a Lemonade Stand! Small Business Ideas for Kids. I devoured it—and thus began my first business ever.
1987
In the back of my family’s minivan, after my mom told me that her brother (my uncle), David, made a decision to follow Jesus, I decided to do the same. I prayed quietly to myself before announcing the decision to my mom, and that was that.
That sure was a good day—one for the ages.
1986
As my dad’s business, Stratford Software—and my brother and I—grew, we moved from Phoenix to Scottsdale, right in the heart of Gainey Ranch. At the end of a cul-de-sac on North Vía Del Sendero, complete with a playground directly behind our home and park sidewalks that stretched on for miles, it was a kid’s dream come true. This was the home I lived in the rest of my childhood.
1984
My parents decided that it would be better were I to have a playmate. Just two days after my second birthday, my brother, David Stewart Cottrell, came on the scene. Thanks for the present, mom and dad.
1982
1982 was a really good year. EPCOT Center opened at Walt Disney World, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” debuted, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. took the box office by storm, the first artificial heart was implanted, Japan sold the first CD player in history, and Time magazine’s man of the year was the computer. Oh, and that summer…
Aug
…Dave and Kathy Cottrell drove to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona only to later (a week later, in fact) leave with…me. A baby version, at least.