Sometime in 1993, two skater kids met through mutual friends that were probably drinking 💥SURGE💥 soda, eating gummy sharks out of the Jr. High vending machine, and wearing JNCO jeans.
After school, with his Blue Steel modeling and my long hair, Shawn missed his calling to be a Backstreet Boy, and I started touring with a grunge band. Actually, we both just went to college.
He accidentally fell into culinary arts. Literally. He thought “culinary” meant something else. Without having considered food as a career, he was already in the class so he stuck it out.
I had no idea what I was going to do, so I took random general and communication classes.
I stumbled into internet marketing when I launched a car enthusiast website in 2001. It went on to grew into thousands of active users. Learning how to fuel that community is what got me into web design and search engine optimization. The continued growth of that car site ultimately led me to dropping out of college a semester short of graduation, and using the internet marketing skills I self-taught, and started an SEO agency in Utah.
SEO National is now a multi-million dollar agency with 50+ team members around the world.
Shawn and I lost touch into adulthood, but reconnected a few years back. He went on to become a world-seasoned chef, and wrote a best-selling book called The First-Timer’s Cookbook.
I can count on my fingers how many friends I still stay in touch with from more than 25 years ago. Shawn is one of them. While it’s sometimes tricky to physically connect or have as deep of conversations as often as you’d like, the friendships that you can pick right back up where you left off no matter now long it’s been between the last “hello” are the ones that mean the most.
After years working in food and hospitality, Shawn took a leap of faith and started his own restaurant. I had the opportunity to support him by building his website, which always amazes me how things come full circle later.
Shawn was able to successfully exit that restaurant, and is now a PHD graduate student, and adjunct lecturer at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee.
I get to speak to aspiring entrepreneurs all the time, but the younger ones are the most impressionable. They’re the ones whose stubbornness of adulthood hasn’t fully solidified, and might actually listen to gold that someone is handing them.
Shawn recently asked if I’d be willing to speak to his class. To give them real life insights to entrepreneurship. I would have done it for free anyway, but the “real life insights to entrepreneurship” double sold me.
I’ve been a college student. For nearly a decade I was on the board of advisors for digital marketing curriculum at universities. I know what is taught in school about entrepreneurship. I also know what is completely glossed over… and it’s those real life insights. That you learn by doing, not by over planning.
Entrepreneurship is probably the single greatest thing you can do to learn who you truly are.
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What are your breaking points?
- What motivates you beyond money?
You usually pursue entrepreneurship for financial rewards, but it quickly reveals everything outside of money that you’re really passionate about.
“𝑫𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒏,
𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆. 𝑰’𝒎 𝒔𝒐 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔.”
The rewards (and struggles) that come from pursuing your own dreams is a gift that I’ll likely evangelize until the day I die. I strongly believe that entrepreneurship is one of the greatest self-development journeys you can experience.
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