Life & Work with Jesse Liila of Chandler

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Liila.

Hi Jesse, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Current Status:
Three paths in motion:

1. Re-engaging with Caliber Companies

I’m currently in exploratory talks to re-engage a consulting relationship with Caliber Companies, advising on their digital assets treasury strategy. I worked there as a content marketing manager from 2021–2023 and had several conversations with the C-suite about the future intersection of blockchain, digital assets, and private equity real estate.

In 2022/2023, I was too early. They were focused on going public, and I fizzled out because I truly believed a bigger, more impactful role was taking shape. I left at the end of 2023. Fast forward to 2025 and they launched their digital asset treasury with Chainlink, and they may plan to move into asset tokenization soon. It’s surreal to see ideas I pushed years ago now becoming part of their roadmap.

2. Building BrickFi

In July 2025, I started building a platform called BrickFi, a company designed to help asset owners raise capital in non-traditional ways by tokenizing portions of their assets. The idea is simple: unlock access to liquidity through blockchain while creating dual-benefits from both the real world and the digital world. Things like dual-yield generation, hybrid value accrual, long-term growth. The list goes on.

I’ve already met with several asset owners who want to explore blockchain, including one who gave me a tour of a building in Downtown Phoenix that has an incredible story but needs nearly $10,000,000 to complete. That same owner also has properties in Sedona and Mexico he believes could be tokenized one day.

Phoenix is turning into a surprisingly receptive city for this movement, and I feel like I’m right where I need to be.

3. My Screenwriting Path

I wrote a comedy feature called Uncle Dick’s Fortune back in 2020. It placed well in several competitions including the Big Apple Film Festival (semi-finalist) and Screencraft Comedy Competition (quarterfinals). The script is currently being pitched by SL Entertainment, who has legitimate Hollywood contacts.

What’s funny is that I met the CEO of SL Entertainment while bartending a private event for him. Life has a weird way of connecting the dots when you keep moving.

What I Do While These Opportunities Build

While these paths are slow-burning, I believe something meaningful is coming from them. In the meantime, I work at Liquid Caterers, managing event logistics, client relationships, and some content marketing. I also work many of the events themselves — bartending, facilitating mixology classes, supporting tap trucks, coffee carts, etc.

What I Do While These Opportunities Build

While these paths are slow-burning, I believe something meaningful is coming from them. In the meantime, I work at Liquid Caterers, managing event logistics, client relationships, and some content marketing. I also work many of the events themselves — bartending, facilitating mixology classes, supporting tap trucks, coffee carts, etc.

The event work has been good for me. It gets me out in the world, around people, in a space where you genuinely never know who you’ll meet. It’s been refreshing.

About My Background

I graduated from Winona State University in 2013 with a degree in public relations. From 2014–Q4 2023, I worked as a content marketing manager and copywriter for tech companies and private equity real estate.

I met my ex-wife in Minneapolis in 2015. We moved to Phoenix in 2016, married in 2019, and divorced in July 2025. We have two sons who are the absolute loves of my life.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
From Q4 2023 to Q3 2025 – The Hardest Period of My Life

When things fell apart at Caliber, I lost the best job and benefits I’d ever had. Very soon after, my marriage collapsed too. The woman who vowed to stand with me through our darkest times decided she couldn’t — or wouldn’t.

That period stripped almost everything away from me:

– My identity

– My marriage

– Time with my boys

– My financial stability

– My retirement

– My house

– My dog

– The timeline I thought I was building for my family

I became a shell of myself. Depressed. Numb. Constantly questioning what I had done wrong, and why everything was unraveling all at once.

Yet, every day, I still showed up for my boys. I kept looking for work. I kept moving, even though I couldn’t find a “win” anywhere.

Around September 2024, I picked up two jobs just to stop the bleeding at the meat department at the Ocotillo Safeway and events bartending for Liquid Caterers. From October to January, I was working 60–70 hour weeks. Some days I’d wake up at 4am for the meat department shift, work until noon, then leave for an event from 3–11pm. There were days I’d be awake before everyone and come home long after they were asleep.

It was painful to be physically close to my boys and my wife but emotionally miles away. During this time, she would sometimes agree to reconcile, then change her mind days later. I experienced emotional rug pulls over and over.

I tried everything I could including acts of service (my ex-wife’s love language), keeping the home spotless, trying to regulate her stress, trying to show I was still a provider in every way except income level. I was wrong. None of it changed anything.

I moved out in January 2025. Even then, my ex-wife continued the cycle with moments of connection immediately followed by reminders that we were still divorcing. It was emotionally destabilizing in every way.

In hindsight, I wasn’t perfect either. I said things in arguments I regret. But she was also emotionally immature, status-driven, and deeply influenced by a group of women who encouraged each other toward empowerment-through-divorce without acknowledging their own contributions to their marital issues. It created an ecosystem where breaking things apart was celebrated more than fixing them.

February 2025 was the final emotional breaking point. She called me crying, telling me she loved me, missed me, wished things were different — but still insisted the divorce continue. It was one of the hardest conversations of my life because I wanted those things too. I just couldn’t keep being pushed and pulled.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What I Do While These Opportunities Build

While these paths are slow-burning, I believe something meaningful is coming from them. In the meantime, I work at Liquid Caterers, managing event logistics, client relationships, and some content marketing. I also work many of the events themselves — bartending, facilitating mixology classes, supporting tap trucks, coffee carts, etc.

The event work has been good for me. It gets me out in the world, around people, in a space where you genuinely never know who you’ll meet. It’s been refreshing.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
This used to be a hard question for me to answer as my world was burning all around me.

Today, what makes me happy is being present with my boys. Taking them to the park, shopping, birthday parties and just trying to create new experiences for them the way I can right now. They are truly the most amazing kids and I’ve never been prouder of them.

I exercise to keep myself grounded, happy and to help stabilize my nervous system. I still have moments of grief about the familial timeline I won’t ever get to experience, but I know where I’m heading will create a new timeline I can be proud of.

I think events bartending keeps me happy too. It forces me to get out, to meet people, to practice being present and to connect with people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brickfi.io
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseliila/
• Twitter: https://x.com/liiladynasty
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brickfidefi