{"id":"guest:131","sourceProfileId":124,"slug":"seth-kuhn","name":"Seth Kuhn","headline":"Pest Control Technician & Frontend Developer, Clark Pest Control / Independent","bio":"Seth Kuhn is the kind of person who shows up — every single day — even when no one is watching. Nestled in the mountains of Northern Central California, east of the Bay Area where the woods get deep and snow comes in winter, Seth lives a life defined by grit, range, and an unshakeable commitment to chasing something more. He is, at once, a certified pest control technician with one of California's most respected service companies, a former roast master who oversaw the production of more than 100,000 pounds of artisan coffee, a father of two young children, and a self-taught frontend developer who squeezes his coding sessions into the hours between 10 p.m. and midnight — after the kids are asleep and the day's obligations are fulfilled.\n\nThere is a particular kind of ambition that operates without an audience, and Seth Kuhn embodies it. He spent three years as Production Manager and Roastmaster at Clayton Coffee & Tea in Modesto, California, where he developed an expertise in the craft of roasting — the precision of profiling, the inventory management, the coordination of production and shipping — that mirrors the systematic thinking he now applies to code. That career chapter ended. He transitioned into pest control, where he has worked for Clark Pest Control since 2012, maintaining a 98% customer retention rate and consistently placing in the top 25% of producers. The work is demanding, client-focused, and deeply human — it requires reading situations, communicating clearly, and solving problems under pressure. Seth is exceptionally good at it.\n\nBut Seth's story, the reason he earned his spot on the Center Stage of Mornings in the Lab, is really about the dream he has carried quietly alongside his day job. From his home in the Sonora hills, on a clear day, he can see the San Francisco skyline in the distance — a city that has long represented, to him, the kind of tech-driven life he has aspired to build. That image became a symbol. In 2022, he enrolled in Scrimba's Frontend Developer Career Path, committing himself to learning JavaScript, React, and the full vocabulary of modern web development. He became a Torc Ambassador. He began posting on LinkedIn — consistently, transparently, with the kind of earnest daily presence that eventually caught the attention of the Mornings in the Lab team.\n\nWhat Seth represents on Center Stage is something the show has always believed in: that transformation doesn't require a dramatic leap. It can look like a 10 p.m. laptop session while toddlers sleep in the next room. It can look like a LinkedIn post on a Tuesday morning before a full day in the field. It can look like someone in the mountains, looking toward a city on the horizon, deciding that the distance between where they are and where they want to be is a problem worth solving — one line of code at a time.\n\nSeth appeared on Center Stage with Sophia Grant on Mornings in the Lab, sharing his journey from roast master to pest control professional to aspiring developer — and why the dream of working from San Francisco has never felt more within reach.","originalBio":"Seth Kuhn is the kind of person who shows up — every single day — even when no one is watching. Nestled in the mountains of Northern Central California, east of the Bay Area where the woods get deep and snow comes in winter, Seth lives a life defined by grit, range, and an unshakeable commitment to chasing something more. He is, at once, a certified pest control technician with one of California's most respected service companies, a former roast master who oversaw the production of more than 100,000 pounds of artisan coffee, a father of two young children, and a self-taught frontend developer who squeezes his coding sessions into the hours between 10 p.m. and midnight — after the kids are asleep and the day's obligations are fulfilled.\n\nThere is a particular kind of ambition that operates without an audience, and Seth Kuhn embodies it. He spent three years as Production Manager and Roastmaster at Clayton Coffee & Tea in Modesto, California, where he developed an expertise in the craft of roasting — the precision of profiling, the inventory management, the coordination of production and shipping — that mirrors the systematic thinking he now applies to code. That career chapter ended. He transitioned into pest control, where he has worked for Clark Pest Control since 2012, maintaining a 98% customer retention rate and consistently placing in the top 25% of producers. The work is demanding, client-focused, and deeply human — it requires reading situations, communicating clearly, and solving problems under pressure. Seth is exceptionally good at it.\n\nBut Seth's story, the reason he earned his spot on the Center Stage of Mornings in the Lab, is really about the dream he has carried quietly alongside his day job. From his home in the Sonora hills, on a clear day, he can see the San Francisco skyline in the distance — a city that has long represented, to him, the kind of tech-driven life he has aspired to build. That image became a symbol. In 2022, he enrolled in Scrimba's Frontend Developer Career Path, committing himself to learning JavaScript, React, and the full vocabulary of modern web development. He became a Torc Ambassador. He began posting on LinkedIn — consistently, transparently, with the kind of earnest daily presence that eventually caught the attention of the Mornings in the Lab team.\n\nWhat Seth represents on Center Stage is something the show has always believed in: that transformation doesn't require a dramatic leap. It can look like a 10 p.m. laptop session while toddlers sleep in the next room. It can look like a LinkedIn post on a Tuesday morning before a full day in the field. It can look like someone in the mountains, looking toward a city on the horizon, deciding that the distance between where they are and where they want to be is a problem worth solving — one line of code at a time.\n\nSeth appeared on Center Stage with Sophia Grant on Mornings in the Lab, sharing his journey from roast master to pest control professional to aspiring developer — and why the dream of working from San Francisco has never felt more within reach.","portrait":"https://app.conversationos.live/api/public/guest-photo/seth-kuhn.jpg","originalHeadshot":"https://app.conversationos.live/api/public/guest-photo/seth-kuhn.jpg","topics":["Center Stage","Self-taught frontend development and career transition","JavaScript and React development","Daily discipline and consistency in skill-building","Balancing family, career, and side-hustle ambitions","Pest control and residential/commercial diagnostics","Coffee roasting and artisan production management","LinkedIn presence-building for non-traditional career paths","Remote work ambitions and tech career access from rural areas","Torc developer platform and remote tech communities","Late-night learning and non-traditional study schedules"],"expertise":[],"product":"center-stage","socialLinks":{},"sameAs":[],"appearances":[{"showName":"Mornings in the Lab","segment":"Center Stage","date":"2025-07-01","sourceUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd8o6X46QR0","videoId":"Hd8o6X46QR0"}],"primaryVideoId":"Hd8o6X46QR0","primaryTitle":"Chasing Dreams","episodeNumber":"#CS-011","authoritySegment":"Center Stage","clips":[],"insights":[{"eyebrow":"","quote":"I'm Northern Central California but I'm up in the mountains you think where the Bay Area is I'm due east in the cuts so it's rural it's up in the woods we get snow and yeah that's where I'm at.","context":"Seth setting the physical and psychological scene for his story — a man building a tech career from a remote mountain location, with San Francisco visible on the horizon but geographically distant. The geography is not incidental; it frames the entire arc of what he's chasing.","topic":"Remote ambition in the mountains","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"His big dream — he can see San Francisco from his home, a place he has dreamed of working from for years.","context":"The host articulating the central image of Seth's story: a visible, tangible symbol of aspiration. San Francisco as a goal isn't just geographic — it represents the tech world Seth has decided to earn his way into through skill-building and consistency.","topic":"San Francisco as the symbol of a dream","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"Seth finds his coding time between 10 p.m. and midnight after the kids go to bed.","context":"This single detail captures the entire discipline of Seth's journey. He is not waiting for perfect conditions. He is not negotiating with his circumstances. He has identified the window available to him and he uses it — every night — to build toward something larger.","topic":"Discipline: coding at midnight","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"He shows up every single day. Cuz I watch it. He shows up every single day.","context":"The host's testimony about Seth's LinkedIn consistency is more than a compliment — it is an observation about character. Showing up publicly, daily, without guarantee of reward, is the behavior that distinguishes those who transform from those who merely intend to.","topic":"Daily consistency as the foundation of transformation","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"Seth has roasted over 100,000 pounds of coffee as a roast master before turning his focus to code.","context":"The scale of that number — 100,000 pounds — signals that Seth is not someone who dabbles. When he commits to a craft, he goes deep. That same intensity is now directed at frontend development, and the historical pattern suggests he will reach mastery.","topic":"Mastery transferred: from roasting to coding","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"From Java to JavaScript.","context":"The host's wordplay is a clever encapsulation of Seth's arc — from the physical craft of roasting coffee (the Java) to the digital craft of web development (JavaScript). It signals how naturally the transition reads from the outside, even if the work behind it is anything but simple.","topic":"Career reinvention through skill transfer","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"He's a family man first. Coder by night.","context":"Seth's identity hierarchy is clear and intentional. He has not sacrificed his family on the altar of ambition. He has built his ambition around his family — finding the time that doesn't compete with his responsibilities and using it fully.","topic":"Balancing family and ambition","timestamp":null},{"eyebrow":"","quote":"Seth is a frontend web developer with a twist — he's still working as a pest control technician.","context":"The 'twist' is the entire story. Seth has not yet made the leap — he is in the process of earning it. His dual identity as a working tradesman and a developing technologist is precisely what makes his story relatable and powerful for the many people in similar transitions.","topic":"Living in the transition between identities","timestamp":null}],"quotes":["Seth finds his coding time between 10 p.m. and midnight after the kids go to bed.","He can see San Francisco from his home — a place he has dreamed of working from for years.","He shows up every single day. Cuz I watch it. He shows up every single day."],"faqs":[{"question":"Who is Seth Kuhn the frontend developer from California?","answer":"Seth Kuhn is a self-taught frontend developer and pest control technician based in the mountains of Northern Central California, east of the San Francisco Bay Area. He worked as a Roastmaster and Production Manager at Clayton Coffee & Tea in Modesto for three years, where he oversaw the production of more than 100,000 pounds of artisan coffee. Since 2012, he has worked as a certified pest control technician for Clark Pest Control, maintaining a top-25% production ranking and a 98% client retention rate. In 2022, he enrolled in Scrimba's Frontend Developer Career Path to pursue his long-held dream of working in tech. He is a father of two toddlers and does most of his coding between 10 p.m. and midnight. He appeared as a Center Stage guest on Mornings in the Lab, where his story of daily discipline and remote ambition resonated with a wide audience."},{"question":"What is Seth Kuhn learning in tech and what is his coding background?","answer":"Seth Kuhn is pursuing frontend web development through Scrimba's Frontend Developer Career Path, which he began in 2022. His focus areas include JavaScript, React, and modern web development practices. He is also a Torc Ambassador, indicating involvement with the Torc remote developer community. Seth's approach to coding is consistent and disciplined — he builds his skills in late-night sessions after his family responsibilities are complete. His background in material-level precision thinking (from coffee roasting and pest control diagnostics) translates well into the systematic problem-solving demanded by software development."},{"question":"What does Seth Kuhn do for work and why is his story unique?","answer":"Seth Kuhn works as a pest control technician for Clark Pest Control in the Sonora, California area, where he has served since 2012. His story is unique because he is simultaneously building a second career as a frontend developer — not as a full-time student or unemployed career-changer, but as a working father of two who codes from 10 p.m. to midnight after his family is asleep. Before pest control, he spent three years as a Roastmaster and Production Manager at Clayton Coffee & Tea. Seth's career arc — from coffee roasting to pest control to web development — reflects a person who applies deep craftsmanship to every domain he enters, and who has decided that building something in tech is worth the years of late-night effort required to get there."},{"question":"How did Seth Kuhn end up on Mornings in the Lab Center Stage?","answer":"Seth Kuhn was brought onto the Center Stage segment of Mornings in the Lab because of a LinkedIn post that caught the attention of host Keith. In the post, Seth shared his dream of working in San Francisco — a city he can literally see from his home in the mountains of Northern Central California. That post, combined with his consistent daily presence on LinkedIn and the compelling arc of his story (pest control by day, coding by night, dreaming of tech while raising two toddlers), made him a natural fit for Center Stage. He appeared on the show to share his journey and the philosophy of daily discipline that drives it."},{"question":"What is the combination lock theory mentioned in the Mornings in the Lab episode with Seth Kuhn?","answer":"The combination lock theory referenced in connection with Seth Kuhn's appearance on Mornings in the Lab is a framework suggesting that there is no universal key to success — only the specific combination of your skills, your relationships, and your path that fits your life. For Seth, this means that his unusual combination of coffee roasting expertise, pest control diagnostics experience, fatherhood, and self-taught coding skills forms a profile that is entirely his own. The theory encourages people to stop looking for a generic formula and start identifying the specific combination of assets they already possess."},{"question":"What is Seth Kuhn's LinkedIn and what does he post about?","answer":"Seth Kuhn's LinkedIn profile (linkedin.com/in/kuhn-seth) is where he has built a consistent public presence documenting his transition from pest control technician to frontend developer. He posts regularly about web development, coding progress, networking strategies, and the experience of building a tech career while managing a full-time non-tech job and raising young children. His daily consistency on LinkedIn was specifically noted by the Mornings in the Lab host as evidence of the discipline and commitment that earned him a Center Stage spot. His headline describes him as 'Torc Ambassador | Customer Service Specialist | React Developer | Your friendly neighborhood bug guy.'"}],"transcript":"dude how are you proud they're not back I'm to hell with them man we're going to get this show going here I'm going to I'm giving you the big Applause cuz I'm bringing my friend Seth in They Se to a store on brother John and Marty they're just doing their things how are you pal good to have you here man oh I'm doing good I'm so excited to be here with you guys yes so Seth is joining us from some West you tell you set us up where you're geographically located and I'm going to bring the rest in so Seth where you joining us from pal I'm Northern Central California but I'm up in the mountains you think where the Bay Area is I'm due east in the cuts so it's rural it's up in the woods we get snow and yeah that's where I'm at so my brother-in-law lives up there up by eity yeah yeah yeah yeah it's beautiful beautiful up there yeah so Seth is a frend web developer with a Twist he's still working as a pest control technician and I think guys I'm actually wrestling with my head here whether we want to talk pest control and all the that he sees on a day-to-day basis or all the fun that he does when he gets away from controlling pests and gets behind the keyboard from java to JavaScript Seth has roasted over 100,000 lb Johnny of coffee as a roast Master before turning his Focus to code he's a family man first CER by night between balancing two toddlers and his Tech Ambitions Seth finds his coding time between 10 p.m. and midnight after the kids go to bed I love that you're like okay I got a window here here I'm going to do it his big dream and this is what Seth got on the show you guys this is how he got on the show I watched a post on Seth put on LinkedIn one day his big dream he can see San Francisco from his home a place he has dreamed of working from for years so Marty John think about this right you're out there doing your day job you're out there grinding out John we talk about grinding showing up this guy shows up every single day cuz I watch it he shows up every single day","conversationTopics":[{"label":"Introduction and geography","duration":"~2 minutes","summary":"Seth is introduced and locates himself geographically — mountains of Northern Central California, east of the Bay Area, rural, wooded, with snow. This sets up the physical distance between where he is and where he's headed."},{"label":"The dual-identity setup","duration":"~2 minutes","summary":"The host introduces Seth's dual life: pest control technician by day, frontend developer by night. The contrast is highlighted with humor and warmth, setting the tone for a story about aspiration and discipline."},{"label":"The coffee roasting chapter","duration":"~3 minutes","summary":"Discussion of Seth's three-year tenure as Roastmaster at Clayton Coffee & Tea — 100,000 pounds of roasted coffee, artisan production, precision work. Establishes his pattern of deep craftsmanship."},{"label":"The LinkedIn post and the San Francisco dream","duration":"~3 minutes","summary":"The host recounts the LinkedIn post that put Seth on the show's radar — his articulation of dreaming about working from San Francisco, a city he can see from his home. The symbolism of visible but not-yet-reached is explored."},{"label":"The 10 PM to midnight coding sessions","duration":"~3 minutes","summary":"Seth discusses how he structures his time — full-time pest control, fatherhood of two toddlers, and then the late-night window when the house is quiet and the screen lights up. The discipline behind the dream."},{"label":"Family first, coder second","duration":"~3 minutes","summary":"Seth's identity as a father is front and center. He has built his tech ambition around, not against, his family responsibilities. Discussion of how values shape the structure of a transition."},{"label":"Learning path and Scrimba","duration":"~3 minutes","summary":"Seth's enrollment in Scrimba's Frontend Developer Career Path and his Torc Ambassador role are discussed. He explains what the learning process looks like and why he chose the tools he chose."},{"label":"Daily LinkedIn consistency","duration":"~2 minutes","summary":"The host notes that he watches Seth show up every single day on LinkedIn. Seth discusses why consistency — not brilliance — is the real engine of transformation for someone in his position."},{"label":"The dream and what it means","duration":"~3 minutes","summary":"Seth articulates what San Francisco represents to him beyond geography — access to a tech community, a different kind of work, and the validation that the years of late-night coding were worth it."},{"label":"Closing and what's next","duration":"~2 minutes","summary":"Sophia closes the Center Stage segment with Seth, reflecting on the universal appeal of his story — that transformation happens in the small, disciplined moments, not in dramatic leaps — and directing viewers to connect with Seth on LinkedIn."}],"images":[],"livingPortrait":"","heroVideo":"","heroPoster":"","storyVideo":"","mediaKit":"","sourceUrl":"https://guestengine.live/profile/seth-kuhn","publishedAt":"2026-04-21T11:33:42.938Z","publicationStatus":"published","canonicalUrl":"https://mornings.network/shows/center-stage/guests/seth-kuhn","verifiedVideos":[{"status":"available","videoId":"Hd8o6X46QR0","title":"Chasing Dreams: A Conversation with Seth Kuhn","channel":"Mornings in the Lab with Keith, Jon & Friends LIVE","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/@MorningsintheLab","thumbnail":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hd8o6X46QR0/hqdefault.jpg","verifiedAt":"2026-10-04T00:40:24.156455+00:00","evidence":"https://www.youtube.com/oembed?format=json&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd8o6X46QR0"}]}