Jeremy Wilkins woke up in a Baltimore jail cell on April 20th, 2004. He was 18 years old, and that morning changed everything.

In this conversation, the man known online as Deck Master J shares the story he's kept private for over 20 years. You'll hear about the kid who was repairing computers with spare parts at age eight, building robots in middle school, and playing soccer year-round before depression and bad decisions nearly destroyed him.

Jeremy explains how he cut off everyone he knew, moved to western Maryland alone, and rebuilt himself through construction. From Office Depot to Home Depot to insurance restoration to kitchens and baths to home inspections, he tried everything before landing at Legacy Decks and discovering his true calling.

Now he's training the next generation of builders through the Deck Van Gogh brand and developing software tools to help contractors sell and manage projects more efficiently. This is an honest conversation about failure, reinvention, and the trades saving someone's life.