I grew up with no electricity and no running water. My step-dad was Cherokee, and I was raised in that tradition. I learned to read, write, and speak Cherokee growing up. I went to six universities and never finished a degree. My first job when my wife was pregnant with our first child was at a furniture warehouse for $5.15 an hour.

In 2012, my parents died seven days apart. They left me with a negative bank account, unpaid taxes, and credit cards they'd been opening in my name since I turned 18. I didn't inherit anything. I inherited the hole.

I built my way out.

In 2011, I started an agency building digital infrastructure for Virgin Galactic, NASA, ESPN, Discovery Channel, and LifePoint Hospitals. I contributed to the training guide for Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve. That work put me in rooms I had no business being in.

Then I went looking for what it felt like to own something. I ran ten businesses. An apparel brand. A winery and vineyard estate. A wine bar. A restaurant through COVID. A magazine. A coffee shop. Some worked. Some didn't. All of them taught me the same thing: the principles underneath every business are identical.

Today I'm the equity owner and operator of Fresh Chile, a top 1% Shopify store with over $25 million in lifetime sales. I run MOVE FWD, a modern agency with 15 people across 5 continents. I've generated over $50 million in online revenue from New Mexico.

I spoke on the same stage as Gary Vee at Commerce Roundtable. Ezra Firestone invited me to his private mastermind. Johnny Hickey at Perfect White Tee writes us five-figure checks every month because the content we create performs.

I walked away from a seven-figure acquisition because they wanted me to compromise my values. I sold bitcoin to make payroll. I paid off $43,000 in student lunch debt through an apparel brand.

I'm an operator. I'm a storyteller. I built this playbook because my DMs are full of smart, capable people asking the same question: what do I do now?

This is my answer.

"Chris is Shopify's best storyteller. He built a top 1% Shopify brand, runs a real agency, and tells the whole story behind it. Not the highlight reel. The real thing. This is the playbook I'd hand to anyone trying to figure out e-commerce in the AI era."

• Chase Dimond, Founder of Structured | $200M+ in Email Revenue | #1 E-Commerce Influencer, Shopify