Business Owner | Podcaster | Author | Artist | Psychedelic Advocate
I started my first business when I was 10 years old. I’ve moved around the country and I’ve travelled internationally some. I’m feel like a sponge: just soaking it in and wringing it out. I love people, good music, good times and good conversation. Perhaps we’ll connect.
I grew up in rural southern Rhode Island. Swamps, ponds, and beaches were my stomping grounds. My brother, Erik, and I started a landscaping and lawn care business before we were teenagers that is still in operation today. As a kid, I played sports, played in several bands, and spent a lot of time outside.
When I was eighteen I moved to Colorado for 6 years where I grew cannabis commercially, and started a clothing and apparel company.
In 2009 I travelled abroad to South America to pursue plant medicines in the Amazon, and I travelled around and worked in the states including growing cannabis in Northern California and gourmet and medicinal mushrooms in Washington state.
I moved to Louisville and co-founded Weightless Float Center — Kentucky’s first sensory deprivation tank center— in 2015, when I was 26. Weightless is a float tank center, day spa and bath house featuring flotation, infrared sauna, steam sauna, massage, cold plunge, and hot tubs. As co-owner of a small, local business I share the roll of CEO of Everything. From marketing and advertising to web design, staffing, training, maintenance, bookkeeping and more, I’ve learned out of necessity, not as hobby. I feel fortunate to have snowballed these skills, as it provides me with a unique perspective gained only through business operations. In addition to Weightless Float Center, I remain active in the cannabis industry with a company I founded called Weightless Hemp Extracts—an extract and CBD oil company— which then became Altaer Botanicals, a retail line of cannabis and functional mushroom products, that is now co-owned and operated by myself and 2 business partners. I am currently opening a coffee shop and dispensary.
In 2019 I founded an organization called Louisville Psychedelic Network; LSN is exactly what it sounds like (perhaps?): we are a network of people in Louisville who are sharing info, news, and events involving psychedelics. My relationship with psychedelics has always been an open, fun, and candid one, and I do not hesitate sharing my thoughts, experiences, and understanding about how psychedelics have changed my life, the lives of those I know, and the past, current, and future application in the world. LSN became a place—both online through our social media presence, and through live events— to connect with other psychedelic minded and curious people. LSN has since spawned a sister organization, Psychedelic Science Awareness (P.S.A.).
PSA (Psychedelic Science Awareness) is an academic speaker series centered around medical research in the psychedelic space — ‘psychedemia’ (n.) - academic psychedelia, is what we like to call it. We feature doctors, researchers, clinicians, and founders to discuss the cutting edge work they’re doing in their respective fields. The sit down events are hosted in a casual environment with drinks and food available, as well as a Question and Answer sessions after the presentations. Some recent guests and topics include Dr. Joe Tafur and his Ayahuasca research, Dr. Steve Katzikas on ibogaine therapy in Kentucky, Dr. Alan Kooi Davis on interdisciplinary approaches, Dr. Monnica Williams on racial justice within the psychedelic space, and Dr. Robin Fromm-Tap on his local ketamine infusion clinic and his approach as a therapist. Our events will continue on a quarterly basis and seek to spread more awareness about the science of psychedelics, and the researchers spearheading the work.
I’ve seen my world change a lot in just my lifetime, and drastically in the past several years; economic downturns, media censorship, crypto currencies, new social media and web3 and AI are just some of the big waves we’re riding right now, and staying ahead of the curve is paramount to level headedness and low stress. It can feel like a lot, and finding sources of information we can trust alleviates a lot of that worry for me. I enjoy sharing what I learn, and if you’re interested in where my thoughts come from, it’s likely their ingredients to be sourced from the multitude of resources available to us all.