The Founder’s Creed
“Never offer someone something I wouldn’t take myself.”
This isn’t philosophy. It’s practical.
Every system in Liana Banyan is designed around one question: Would I use this? Not “would someone use this” — would I, personally, right now, in my life, use this?
If the answer is no, we don’t build it.
The Golden Key
“Help each other help ourselves.”
This phrase appeared in my handwritten journals on November 20, 2021. It’s the simplest expression of what we’re building:
Not charity. Not extraction. Mutual empowerment.
The platform doesn’t give you things. It gives you the infrastructure to get things for yourself—and help others do the same.
The Fire Chief Mantra
One story has stayed with me for thirty years:
“I slipped. Is she okay?”
Those were the first words of an anonymous fire chief after falling from a three-story ladder while carrying a victim down.
Three stories. Falling. Holding someone. And his first thought was about her, not himself.
That’s the epitome of what I believe: Accept responsibility. Put others first.
This is the standard I aspire to. Not perfection—I fall short constantly. But the standard matters. You aim for the fire chief, even knowing you’ll never get there.
The Identity Statement
“For my children, I am content to be not Alexander the Great, but his father—who gathered the armies and generals that Alexander needed to conquer the world.
I don’t need to be Neo. I’m not. I’m happy to aspire to be Morpheus. One of many. Because one of us winning means all of us win, and the rest can too.”
I’m not building this to be famous. I’m building infrastructure so others can win. If I never become a household name but the platform helps millions of creators keep 83.3% of their revenue—that’s the victory.
Morpheus, not Neo. The Bishop, not the King.
Lessons From the Anecdotes
Each story from my life taught me something that became a design principle for this platform.
📖 My Father Reading to Me (1975)
The Story: My father read to me about an underwater kingdom protected by interlocking mangrove roots — a natural fortress where the roots created safe passages that only those who knew the pathways could navigate.
The Lesson: Protection comes from connection, not walls.
Platform Principle: The Liana Banyan architecture — roots that interlock and strengthen each other. No initiative stands alone. Every piece supports every other piece.
🧩 The Paper Route Principle
The Story: At age 13, I had a paper route in Montana. I learned that the people who tipped weren’t the wealthy ones — they were the ones who’d had paper routes themselves.
The Lesson: People help when they remember what it was like to need help.
Platform Principle: Cost + 20%. We take only what we need to operate because we remember what it’s like to have every dollar extracted. Creators keep 83.3% because that’s what we’d want if we were them.
🍕 Pizza for Ice Cream
The Story: As assistant manager at a pizza chain, I called Dairy Queen across the parking lot. Our pizza cost ~10% of retail. Their ice cream cost ~10% of retail. We traded at cost—both crews got 10x value, no money changed hands.
The Lesson: When you trade at cost instead of retail, everyone wins massively. The margin is where the magic is.
Platform Principle: This 2010 insight became the Localcy Currency Exchange Credit (LCEC) system in 2011, which evolved into Cost+20% over 15 years. The economics aren’t new—they’re refined.
👔 The Roommate Suit
The Story: In college, I had two roommates. One was rich—his family owned ten homes and a lake resort. The other was poor like me. When I needed a suit and couldn’t afford one, the poor roommate gave me one of the two he owned. The rich one offered one of his fifteen—after the sacrifice was already made.
The Lesson: A little generosity from someone with little means everything. The sacrifice of the second suit still makes me cry thirty years later.
Platform Principle: The $5 membership. The $50 microloans. We’re not asking rich people to give from abundance—we’re creating infrastructure where people with little can help each other with what they have.
♟️ 25,399 Chess Games (50% Losses)
The Story: I’ve played over 25,000 chess games. I’ve lost about half of them. That’s approximately 12,500 losses. Each one taught me something about pattern recognition, about seeing three moves ahead, about learning from failure.
The Lesson: Losing is learning. The only real failure is not trying.
Platform Principle: No penalty for failure. Try things. If they don’t work, try something else. The platform doesn’t punish experiments. We expect most ideas to fail — that’s how we find the ones that work.
🏠 Foster Children (5 Years)
The Story: From age 8 to 13, my parents fostered children in our home. I heard stories they would never tell an adult — because I was a kid, and kids talk to kids differently.
The Lesson: Trust comes from shared experience, not authority.
Platform Principle: Peer support in Defense Klaus. Survivors document evidence with other survivors, not officials. The Rally Group responders are people who’ve been there. “I’ve been there” opens doors that credentials can’t.
✈️ Tanzania to Montana (Last Flight Out)
The Story: My family left Tanzania on the last commercial flight before Idi Amin’s invasion. We went from East Africa to Montana — from one edge of the world to another.
The Lesson: Sometimes you have to move fast. Have an exit plan.
Platform Principle: The Underground Railroad in Rally Group. Extraction protocols. Safe passage. When someone needs to leave now, the system is ready. No bureaucracy, no waiting periods, no “we’ll get back to you.”
🏈 The Intramural Giants
The Story: In college, I faced two giants in an intramural game—they were 6'2" and 6'6", I’m 5'6". I dropped my shoulder and plowed into them. I got the wind knocked out of me. But while I kept the giants busy, my teammate walked over and dropped 6 balls into the goal—one more than the other team.
The Lesson: You don’t have to win. You have to create the opening for someone else to win.
Platform Principle: The platform takes the hit. Creators score. I’ll absorb the complexity, the legal battles, the infrastructure headaches—so the people actually making things can focus on making things.
💳 The USAA Lifeline
The Story: I have been in so many circumstances where I needed a mini-loan. USAA’s checking account let me fill up my gas tank to pick up my kids from school when I had almost nothing. No fees if I paid it back quickly. Free baby car seats. A dispute system that saved us $800 when a van rental company tried to double-charge us. They let me build a credit card from a CD when my credit was shot, then use that card to rebuild.
The Lesson: A little generosity, just a tiny little bit, made ALL the difference in my life, and my wife and children’s lives.
Platform Principle: This is why VSL (Village Savings & Loans) exists. This is why the $50 microloans matter. Not because $50 changes the world—but because $50 at the right moment changes someone’s world.
The Core Principles
From these lessons, four core principles:
1. Would I Use This?
Every feature passes through this filter. If I wouldn’t personally use it in my life, we don’t build it.
2. Trust the People
Let them make their own trades. Let them value their own work. Don’t gatekeep, don’t credential-check, don’t assume they need protection from themselves.
3. Remember Where You Came From
Take only what you need. Help because you remember needing help. The people who tip are the ones who’ve had paper routes.
4. Show Up
Consistency matters more than perfection. Be there. Every page, every time, every day.
Why This Matters
When someone asks me to invest their time or money in Liana Banyan, I can honestly say: I would do this myself.
I’m not asking anyone to take a risk I wouldn’t take. I’m not building systems I wouldn’t use. I’m not creating rules I wouldn’t follow.
That’s the creed:
Never offer someone something I wouldn’t take myself.
Everything else follows from that.
“Help each other help ourselves.”
🏰 FOR THE KEEP! ⚔️
Full S.T.E.A.M. Ahead!