In Brief
I'm John, a lifelong South Carolinian based in the Irmo and Lexington areas, suburbs of Columbia. My career has one through-line: Hawaii. I founded Hawaii-Guide.com after my first trip to the Islands in May 2002, and I've served as its Editor-in-Chief ever since - it's now one of the leading independent Hawaii travel resources on the web, helping 15M+ visitors a year. I'm a Certified Hawaii Destination Expert, a Hawaii guidebook author, and, per my college classmates circa 2003, simply "the Hawaii guy." Read the full Hawaii story here.
My wife Victoria - we married in April 2011 on Kauai, naturally - is HawaiiGuide's President & Publisher, and together we run our family of businesses full-time: GuideofUS, HawaiiGuide, GroveTop Studio, Garden & Bloom, SoilWrangler, and CritterCute. I also write about AI, philosophy, neurodivergence, and systems in The Logs, and take on select Fractional CTO and web development work. We work from home alongside our parrots, who provide plenty of entertainment and occasionally interrupt Zoom calls.
Career
Hawaii-Guide.com has been the center of my professional life since 2002 - first as a passion project built in a University of South Carolina dorm room, then as a growing publication, and since 2014 as my full-time career, when I left my position as VP of Operations at a local web development company to run it outright. Victoria joined me in 2016, marking the start of our joint venture into the digital world. Today, I wear multiple hats: Founder & Editor-in-Chief of HawaiiGuide, CEO of GuideofUS, and Co-Founder of GardenandBloom.com. My background spans over 25 years in web development, covering a wide array of skills from front-end development to SEO - all of it in service of building the best independent Hawaii travel guide on the web.
AI-Amplified Operations
I now operate as an AI-Amplified Solo Practitioner, leveraging agentic workflows and modern AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, and custom automation) to execute infrastructure projects, development work, and business operations at the scale traditionally requiring a 5-10 person agency. This approach combines human strategic thinking with AI execution speed, allowing me to deliver enterprise-grade results with lean operations - proving that the future of work isn't about replacing humans, but about multiplying individual capability through intelligent tools.
Leadership Capabilities
I focus on strategic planning, team building, and project management. My approach is straightforward: help the team grow, improve sales, and find ways to work smarter together.
Education
Education has been a cornerstone of my journey. I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2004 with a degree in Environmental & Physical Geography, including undergraduate climate-research assistant work and later NOAA weather-station analyst experience - a scientific background that still informs HawaiiGuide's weather and hurricane-season coverage. My time in college was marked by achievement and participation, including my involvement in the International Geography Society - though around campus I was mostly known as "the Hawaii guy."
Credentials/Accomplishments
I'm a Certified Hawaii Destination Specialist & Expert with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the author of Hawaii guidebooks and visitor guides. I earned my Eagle Scout rank at 16 and received the President's Award for my work at SC Educational Television. These experiences taught me the value of commitment and community service early on. The verifiable record - press mentions, certifications, memberships - lives on the Press & Receipts page.
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Entrepreneurship runs in my veins. Since 2001, I've transformed hobbies into successful ventures, exploring fields from technology and marketing to gardening and tourism. This entrepreneurial spirit has led to the founding of businesses like PROnetworks.org, HawaiiGuide.com, GroveTop.com, GardenandBloom.com, and SoilWrangler.com, each embodying my passions and interests.
Hobbies
Hawaii is more than just a travel destination for me - after dozens of visits over the years, I've developed a real connection to the islands and their culture. I'm also into photography, technology, and gardening, with a recent obsession around soil development and growing techniques. My brother David runs Heritage Fields Farm right here in Irmo, SC, which has only deepened my interest in sustainable farming and local agriculture.
Autobiography
I was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1980 to Charles and Dot Derrick. My family has roots in this area going back nearly 300 years - mostly farmers and engineers. Today Victoria and I live in Lexington with our dogs and parrots, running our businesses and building on what we've started.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my background and what I'm working on.
