I spent eight years as a wildland firefighter in Southern California. That’s the short version. The longer one is that I was looking for a way out for years before I actually left — and the career change into AI consulting started in a bar in winter, over beer and lunch with a former captain who invited me on a river rafting trip in Africa.

I had never been river rafting. I went anyway.

Eight Years in Wildland Fire — and Why I Left

Southern California fires move fast. Tones go off and you’re out the door before you’ve had time to think about it. In busy season, that’s the whole job. In the off-season, you’re at the station in complete boredom — engine cleaned, side projects done, nothing left to do.

I liked the work. It was hard and it meant something. But it was destroying my body, and little by little I started doing the math. The math didn’t add up.

How International Work Opened the Door

I had done international work before — Nicaragua, health disparity surveys with migrant farm workers, time spent learning from curanderos and Native American communities. I studied cultural anthropology. That world had always pulled at me.

When I saw an opportunity in Mexico, I took it. Not Cancun, not Puerto Vallarta. Development work in a rural community in Hidalgo, living inside the culture. I figured I’d see where I could pivot from there.

That’s when AI started coming across my radar.

Why I Landed on AI Consulting

Everyone was talking about how many kinds of work AI would replace. My thought: learn it.

I had never been interested in building things online or in code because it didn’t feel like building. I build hand-wired tube guitar amplifiers. I do woodworking, built my own amp cabinets, done home remodels. I work with my hands. Writing code never felt like that.

Until I tried it. When I realized I could build real tools and actual websites, I saw the ceiling was gone. That was enough.

What Building an AI Practice Looks Like from Rural Mexico

Right now it looks like this: early mornings and late nights in a village in Hidalgo, learning tools and applying them — to my own business, to other people’s businesses, to development work where I’m building project tracking and data collection tools.

I set up Claude Code and a morning briefing agent that gives me weather, only the news I care about, tasks that can’t get forgotten, memory updated automatically. When the internet works, I code and plan in bursts. When it doesn’t, I go old school — notebooks and voice notes on my phone. Every skill I learn gets documented so I never have to learn it twice.

Where This Is Headed

In two years I want to be helping businesses in the US and Mexico figure out how to actually implement AI so they don’t get left behind when everyone else gets more efficient.

I speak Spanish. I’ve lived in both worlds. I have eight years of solving complex problems under pressure with limited resources — that transfers. Career change to AI consulting isn’t a typical path. But it’s the one that makes sense from where I’m standing.

That’s the plan.