How did I get here?

Reflection..... It’s something we all need to do once in a while. For me, writing this is the first time I have reflected back on this journey from day one.

So...how did I start? I started with one. One single business card. It was my junior year of high school in my Business Management class. A local entrepreneur named Steve Glynn came into our class and was pitching this innovative summer camp idea and was looking for interested high school students to be a part of it. That was really the day that changed it all. I asked him for his business card.

After that class, I texted Steve expressing my interest in the camp and wanting to get more information on it. We then exchanged texts for a few days going back and forth with this idea of an innovative summer camp focused on business. At the time, though, Steve and his team weren't ready to bring students on board and told me he would contact me again when ready.

Five months later, I got a text from Steve. They were finally ready to bring students onboard and I got invited to join the team in a “hackathon”. I had no idea what that meant at the time but Steve explained that we would all network, share our different ideas and get to know each other.

At this hackathon, there were 5 students and a team of 6-8. The team was made up of developers, strategists, business developers, and more. We had 5 hours to meet each other, exchange our ideas, share some of our background, and discuss this innovative summer camp idea further.

At this event, there was another team member named Ivan Rahman. Ivan and I met at this hackathon and at the time, discussed investing and finance. At this point, that is what I wanted to go into. After this event, we got each other's contact information and stayed in touch for the next few months.

After the hackathon I stayed in touch mostly with Steve and Ivan. Nothing too exciting happened that summer or fall other than me keeping in touch with them talking about future ventures which I wanted to pursue and whether college was worth it or not.

At the time, I was 17 and entering my senior year of high school and still working at the local baseball fields in the summer and ski hill in winter. It was that following February when a big change happened, although I didn’t realize it at the time. I went to my first networking event. Ivan really pushed me to go and get out of my comfort zone. So I did...and brought my dad with me because I was terrified.

This was in February of 2018. At that event I realized something that would ultimately change the whole rest of the year. Opportunity is never in your comfort zone. Because I went to that one event, I realized something that would be necessary for my success...getting uncomfortable and pushing your comfort zone is how you grow.

My last semester of high school is when I made my decision not to go to college. It took a bit of convincing of my parents and a lot of trust, but they would ultimately give me one semester to prove that I wouldn’t need college.

So I did just that. At the time I was the manager at a local baseball field complex called The Rock making $10.50 an hour. This was amazing...at the time. I was doing something I enjoyed, making “good money”, and not hating my job. While working at The Rock, I was testing a lot of different business ideas that I had, including starting my own investment firm helping other kids manage their money, becoming a real estate agent, starting a dropshipping store, and more. Through this whole process, I was documenting my journey through video.

I worked throughout that summer on the dropshipping store and finally quit working at The Rock in early July. I was creating the whole store, finding products to dropship, contacting suppliers, building marketing channels and getting all the finances in order. I soon realized I wasn’t passionate about building this type of business. The store ended up not being successful, but I learned a lot.

It was now early fall and at the time I was still documenting my journey with video. I was posting as many videos as I could on Instagram hoping something would stick, but it didn’t. The important takeaway from filming hundreds of videos since I started in April of 2018 was that I was getting comfortable talking in front of a camera.

In August of 2018, my life changed. I posted one of those videos on LinkedIn, the platform I absolutely hated at the time. I got...100 views!!! It was crazy! I thought I was famous on the spot. Okay, not really, but this was still important for me. Throughout August, I kept posting videos on LinkedIn, telling my story and what I was trying to do with my life, truly documenting the process I was going through.

Because I stayed consistent with video, in September of 2018, using just my iPhone, I was able to land my first video client, Joe Poeschl. Was I the best videographer in Milwaukee? No. I didn’t even have a camera at the time. But because Joe saw my videos on LinkedIn, he trusted me to help him film his own videos. We signed a 4 month contact starting in September and going until December. It was $5,000, the first contact I had ever received. We worked throughout September, filming videos a few times per week. I was learning on the job and getting better every day we filmed.

In October of 2018, I launched BLNK SLATE MEDIA, my own videography company, one day before I turned 19 years old. Throughout working with Joe, I kept posting content on LinkedIn and was growing pretty rapidly. Word spread throughout the city and I was gaining followers and more importantly, leads through my videos on LinkedIn. By the end of October, I received my 6th video client and had made just under $6000 in my first month of business.

On to November of 2018, I was now in business. With a little cash under my belt and clients lined up, I could reinvest all the money back into the company, upgrading equipment, building a small studio in my dad’s office and really focusing on growing the company and learning along the way.

By the end of the year, I was comfortable in the video realm and knew it would work out if I stayed consistent and kept growing. I gained a few more clients that month, all through my LinkedIn video content, which was gaining more and more traction. I’d built a solid brand on the platform and people started to recognize my content on their feeds. Something was finally working. After running around earlier that year, testing as many things as I could, investing thousands of dollars into different ventures, video was the thing that stuck. After three months in business, I had made almost $20,000 to end my 2018...not bad for a 19 year old who had bought a camera 3 months earlier.

As 2019 began, I made it one of my goals to “public” speak more this year. A few weeks into the year, I was invited to speak at 1 Million Cups, an organization in Rockford, Illinois that allows business owners to share their journey. I was able to tell my story and explain my journey...how I got to the point where I am at today. At the time I was speaking, other kids my age were going back to school from their winter break and starting the second semester of the year. It’s safe to say that I didn’t have to go to school after all, because all of this has happened in the first semester of what would be my freshman year of College.

This year will be a special one for me. Before I turn 20, I’m going to take the first company I started to six figures. I will get to continue making a living doing what I love and inspiring others along the way. The most exciting thing for me?...I haven’t even started yet.

Here’s to the ones willing to make a dent.

Those who do things a little differently.

The ones who see the world as a blank slate.