What could go wrong doing high-fives between cars going 90 miles per hour?
This pic was taken April 12, 2004 on the long, empty stretches of I-15 between Nevada and Utah after a group of friends got together to go race in Vegas for the weekend.
I’m closest, in a white Honda Civic EX that I used to own. It was modified with a Greddy turbo, 3″ exhaust, Corbeau seats, Niche wheels, and handful of other upgrades.
Used to have meetups like this all the time because the first website I ever built was a car enthusiast community called EliteRides.com. I still own the domain, but have since archived the content.
“ER” grew to thousands of active community users. As it grew, I asked myself how I could make it better? That’s how I got into web design. As hundreds of members turned into thousands, I asked myself how I could monetize it? That’s how I got into marketing.
Amazing how little things make a big impact on your life. Looking back:
- EliteRides got me into cars
- Cars got me into web design
- Web design got me into a communications class in college
- Communications got me an internship in radio
- That radio internship landed me on-air
- For my Utah friends, I was a DJ for U92 and Power 107.9 for 7 years. If you ever heard “Damon Kelly” on air, that was me.
- Radio DJ + EliteRides got me producing a car show at one of the radio stations major concert and car show events.
That concert was the first evening I invited my wife to hang out. She shadowed me at the concert, and joined me for the after party. A concert that I wouldn’t have been involved in without taking an internship in radio. That internship wouldn’t have happened without taking communications in college.
… And I dropped out of college a semester before a degree, because I saw that I had it all in front of me.
That perfect storm led to a personal life of happiness. Two days after the concert I asked Hottie to go out on a formal date. This year will be 20 years that my wife and I have been together since that concert.
All because I liked cars, became curious about the internet, never forced my self to feel obligated to choose a path, and was always open to following my gut into the next adventure.
- I got into cars, knowing nothing about them.
- Got into college, knowing nothing about what I wanted to pursue.
- Got on-air, interning knowing nothing about radio.
- Built a successful online community, knowing nothing about web design.
The perfect storm of all of the above created the skills that led to what would later become SEO National… one of the most respected SEO companies in the world for our transparency.
It’s okay to not know what you’re doing. As long as it feels right, sometimes it’s better to just keep going into that unknown.
