Codie Aljets Pt. 1 - From Birthday Cakes to High Detail Metal Art

Codie Aljets, metal sculptor and owner of Sage Country Customs out of Gunnison, Colorado, joins Shep to dig into how he got here. Codie grew up in Dorsey, Illinois, a town of about 150 people, where his family ran a mechanic and body shop. He was always drawn to the creative side of that world, but it took years and a lot of detours before that instinct turned into a career. From three-dimensional birthday cakes to cutting shapes out of inherited hand saws with a plasma cutter, to a corporate sales job that landed him in Nashville and laid him off the week before Christmas, Codie spent years chasing the mountains and figuring out what he was actually wired to do.
In Part 1, he walks through how he landed in Colorado and the jobs that shaped him along the way: blacksmithing, sculpting concrete playgrounds, and becoming a firefighter and live fire instructor. He opens up about his cancer diagnosis at 39, the moment he realized building things was what mattered, and why the hardest part of being an artist has nothing to do with the art itself. Stick around to catch Part 2!