Things have been busy, and I'm loving it. I'll break it into four pieces.

I alluded to a big decision looming a while back. The decision has been made. And actually, it's been made for a while, but I only communicated it one week ago. I'll be leaving my day job to go full-time on Identechal, a software company that I co-founded with my twin brother. I am stoked! There's so much that I don't know, yet it's been a dream of ours ever since we started our career.

I received confirmation from the Lord towards the end of July that I'm supposed to leave. I've been moving forward through the year with that intent, but some questions had come up in June about staying at my job, and I wasn't sure what to do. On paper, staying was the right choice. Everything about it made sense: good experience, pay, resources, connections, etc. On one Tuesday, early in the evening, I was praying, pacing around my apartment telling the Lord my thoughts.

And He responded:

The conversation was much longer than that, but that summarizes it. I then asked Him something that I've never done throughout my walk with Him. I asked that He would confirm that I've heard Him correctly through His body, someone who loves Him and has a deep relationship with Him. A week-and-a-half later, at the end of July, a friend had been impressed by the Holy Spirit to pray and write down specifically what the Lord wanted to say. He prayed specifically for roughly 20 people, writing down what he heard. When he shared the word he had heard with me, it opened with "I know this is an affirmation for you. You are about to enter a new season..." It continued, but I'll keep that to myself for now. I knew what I needed to do.

As my brother and I prepare to go full-time on Identechal, and with a number of other lesser factors, we've decided to live together again! Sure, we'll cut our expenses down a fair bit, but the energy we have when we're together is just superb. We call it "Identechal mode." Cheesy, I know. But we really do just work so well together, especially in-person.

I've lived in this apartment for just under two years and have used the second bedroom as an office. My brother's taking that as his bedroom, so we decided to place both our desks in a corner of the living room. I'm not the one who moved, but we've changed enough about the space that it feels like I did. The layout is fantastic (thanks, Mom!), and I actually feel like I could have some guests over now. I've not put much (any) effort into making the space conducive for hosting during my time here, so this feels pretty special.

Since the start of my development career, I've been blessed with incredible opportunity to grow. Each environment has given me unique perspectives on business, exposure to different leadership styles, learning what to do and what not to do, knowing who I want to be like and who I don't want to be like. In the middle of Autumn last year, my brother and I were going on a walk and we both acknowledged that things felt different, both recognizing we were entering a new season of our lives. Little did we know, in just over a month we would get a glimpse of the runway for us to start our business.

Making the original decision in November of '25 to step away from our jobs set a tone for 2026 that has affected every part of my life. Reflecting back on it, I grew so much in 2025. It was an incredibly fruitful year in terms of learning how to lead, manage stress, live on my own, and depend on God. We still have another quarter of 2026 to go and I can optimistically say that it's been just as fruitful, likely more. I wouldn't say I'm moving up in my career. Rather, I'm moving up in my pursuit of being the man I want to be.

Tied into everything, my focus is to grow Eripio, our mission-driven coffee company. We launched it in November of 2023, and it's accomplished what we set out to do: fund faith-based organizations fighting human trafficking. And awesomely, I know it can be so much more than it currently is. The Lord directed me last year to focus on Eripio, and while I have stepped up to the task more this year, I get distracted too often. Boundless dreams have sat with me over the years, and it's time to go all in.

As I close things out at my job and prepare for transition, I plan to take time to get clear on how I can step into what's next well. The world tells us to sprint, but you'll get nowhere fast if you don't have a direction.

Jacob Brokaw
jacobbrokaw.com