Careerography…

(I wrote these mainly in 2006, but have been trying to get up to date.  I don't expect people to sit down and read all of this, but I found writing these experiences down to be very helpful)

How it all started (written: 07/10/2006)
I love business, or perhaps I love ideas more. I’m continually amazed how a thought in someone’s head can become a massive company pleasing millions of customers, providing stability and opportunity for millions of employees, and create millions or billions of dollars in wealth for shareholders. Everything human made in our lives, everything that makes our lives easier and more exciting, started as an idea. Your car, your computer, your cell phone, your clothes, your shoes, your meals…etc, these all were at one point only thoughts in someone’s head. How much has their thought changed your life?I have lots and lots of ideas that will change lives. Now I’m working on translating thoughts in my head into things that make a difference. People often wonder what the hell I’m doing right now, and how I got here. Well I’ll start from the top….

I grew up in the perfect learning household (let me explain). My dad, although never a great student, was what I would call a “passionate learner,” or someone who absorbs information on subjects that interest him. For him those subjects were predominantly 4 things, 1.) crime/police related issues 2.) war history 3.) Gadgets! 4.) business (more specifically entrepreneurship, business history, current business events, investing, and just about anything that related to his money, especially tax laws etc). On the other hand I had my mother, who was obsessively curious about everything (except business and money really). She really could answer just about every question I had growing up (you know how kids are with their questions…why,why,why,why). So I had the perfect environment to learn about this crazy world, and even more importantly I was shown an excitement and passion for learning new things and asking questions. I think I was also blessed genetically to get my dad’s passionate learning skill, the ability to absorb things I’m interested in, and my mom’s boundless curiosity about the universe around us, which means I’m interested in a whole heck of a lot of things and can quickly learn a lot about them.

Growing up, I asked a lot of questions about a lot of things, especially business. It was (and still is) pretty common for my dad and I to sit down in a restaurant, walk into a store, read about a new company, and quickly break down the business model (we often even did math of potential revenue numbers). I loved it, and quite frankly couldn’t get enough of it. I subscribed to fortune at the age of 14, obsessively read Newsweek, read about the stock market online daily, as well as watched CNBC (dork!).

Because of my seemingly growing business competence and understanding at that time, my parents gave me the opportunity to actively manage and invest some inheritance money. I of course couldn’t get enough of it, often spending hours and hours researching companies and stocks. I even would take my dad’s old pager to school because it gave updates of the markets every 15 minutes or so. Now I have to say, that yes that time was insane for investing (I’m talking the “bubble”), but I didn’t do too bad for a 14-18 year old, and I learned a whole hell of a lot about how companies work and make money. But then I went to college, and the bubble burst….

So my interest waned in business for a little while, but I still cared a whole lot about the stock market. In the summer of my freshman year of college, I decided I wanted to learn more about working in the financial services industry, so I set out to get an internship. But I was disorganized, and didn’t make this decision until I had about a week of school left, so needless to say all the “traditional” (through school mainly) options were off. I really wanted my dad to step up and just find me a job through some of his connections, but ultimately I’m really happy he didn’t. I instead went through the phone book and picked out numbers to just about every financial services company I could find in the Cincinnati area, and called them to ask “are you interested in an intern?” or something along those lines. Of course most weren’t, but a few were interested and amazed I just called and asked. Ultimately I ended up with a sweet gig at Lincoln financial, where I learned, made great money, and even more importantly realized I was NOT interested in that field at all. Back to the drawing board…

Part 2

Welcome to the Startup World (written: 07/13/2006)
The following summer, I went to study abroad in Italy…wow, best summer of my life. It really opened my eyes to just how big this world is, how many people are in it, and how much there really is to see and explore. I could really spend months talking about this, but that’s not the goal here. The trip also gave me an idea…

That school year I worked at Parking Solutions, a local valet company. The job was pretty great because the pay was incredible, and it was sort of fun (driving great cars, running around). I also obsessed over the business model, and couldn’t believe at how simple it was and how much cash was involved (tons!). I also knew that I would rather work in something I could learn in, even if it meant less money…

So that summer, I went back to my cold calling “intern” technique and sought out an internship with a different sort of startup in Columbus, something more “creative.” That’s when I found Sparkspace, and called…repeatedly over a month or so before finally getting a meeting with the owner/founder Mark. He said he had considered an intern, but never got around to pursuing it and was happy I called. He hired me the next week for the exciting internship I wanted, in a startup environment where I could learn a lot and make a difference. He let me run wild with marketing ideas, showed me the thoughts and concerns going through an entrepreneurs head, and taught me some of the tricks needed to be a successful business owner (especially the power of networking, this is a lesson I didn’t really absorb until recently, but I recognize him showing me that repeatedly while at Sparkspace). Most importantly Sparkspace reinforced my hunch that my ideas could be valuable, and possible…which brings me back to the Italy trip.

The birth of Enviar

I had recognized the inefficiencies of the Italian computer market while abroad in 2002, and following my summer of work at Sparkspace, I finally did something that knowledge. I saw that a pda I could buy from best buy here in the US, could be sold on Ebay Italy for nearly $150 more. All I had to do was choose a model to sell, one I knew I could get, then get a picture of it and put it up for sale on eBay Italy. Now I can’t read or write Italian really (other than basics), but google translator can so I typed up the description, translated it to Italian and posted the listing. Then I waited. It actually sold for a $142 profit! So I bought the pda (I had just sold) from a website on the internet, and shipped it to the buyer in Italy. I was definitely on to something. Utilizing my dad’s credit card, I ramped up my sales and started making some good money just in time for Christmas that year. The business picked up quickly, and I started to move into a wholesale arrangement where I would take orders from ebay sellers in Italy and Spain then send them multiple unit shipments. It was definitely a nightmare trying to figure out how to get that many pda’s overseas, but ultimately we found the right size boxes and made it work. We did multiple orders of $5,000 or more, and ended up doing well over $70,000 in sales in year one (when I say we, I had my roommate Ryan helping me a few months in). While fun, and exciting, I ultimately burnt out on the whole business, as well as faced increased competition (bigger distributors here in the US starting doing the same thing, with lower prices). So I slowed down business, and kept it on the side for a little income stream (mistake, I’m working on exiting things when I’m finished, instead of keeping them around).

Part 3

Engenius Motors (written: 07/14/2006)

Right at that time I was just finishing up college and already had another business idea cooking…Engenius Motors. Engenius was based on a simple concept, in a nightmarish industry. Basically I (and my friend/partner Mark) saw a tremendous opportunity in the trade in cars market.

We realized that people traded their cars in at significant discount out of convenience. Selling your car yourself is not an easy task, so most people took the easy money and ran despite knowing how much they had left on the table. Mark and I realized that selling a car on ebay meant you could get rid of it in under 15 days, and the prices seemed to be a significant improvement over the avg trade in values. We plodded andstrategized on that business model and business plan for nearly 7 months. I kept myself afloat financially with a few pda sales here and there, as well as the magic of credit card balance transfers (this is a great trick, even if you have plenty of money). We worked on my first real business plan with a financial model, a marketing strategy, and a distribution model. We spent hours discussing how to fill all the little problem holes that seemingly would pop up everyday. And finally on August 1st, we launched by running targeted google ads in Columbus and Chicago. I actually had quite a few people contact me to sell their car in Columbus, proving the concept, but the business was very short lived.

More Lessons

A week before our launch I was put in touch with a successful local entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He was working on a similar business model, and wanted to compare notes and possibly even invest (so I thought). When I met with him I was surprisingly confident in my model, the countless hours of research I had poured into it, and my knowledge of the industry. It turns out I was right about all of those things, except 1…the legal ramifications of this model. Here’s a free lesson…A good lawyer is worth it, despite how wasteful the money seems, it pays in the end to have a good one on your side. I went with a young (read: cheap) lawyer when forming Engenius. He told me that in his research, our business model was perfectly legit as long as we represented ourselves as “marketing consultants,” and not actual “vehicle sellers.” This seemed logical to me, and eager to push forward, I accepted his answer. When I met with the entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I found out the real answer. Regardless of how you worded your business, this model was “illegal.” The Nada, the dealers association, is an incredibly well funded lobbyist group and they had been successful in putting laws in place to prevent exactly what engenius was trying to do, in order to “protect the consumer,” (in other words, protect their fat margins on used car trade ins). The entrepreneur told me of the $xx,xxx he had spent on legal fees trying to find a way around these laws. He even flew out to meet with eBay motors legal team, who told basically told him “we’d love to help, but our business is too good to risk pissing off our best customers..the dealerships.” He went on to tell me, this is a multibilliondollar a year opportunity if you can just figure out a way around this, you do that and I’ll give you everything you need to make it a success. You’d think I jumped on that…

Part 4

Call True (written: 07/15/2006)

 

I didn’t. True to my ways, while working on Engenius, I had a multitude of other business projects cooking. While working on Engenius, I did an incredible amount of research on the automotive industry, including how dealerships worked. I called many dealerships, looked at thousands of dealership websites, and saw just how little dealerships cared about customer service. Have you ever called a car dealership? Disaster…You call, you wait on hold, you speak to an operator and tell them what you are looking for, you wait on hold, you get an uninterested sales rep who tells you “come in to the dealership, we’ll talk.” What?! I’m a potential car buyer, but you make me work to get a hold of you like I’m trying to sell something to you. I was really interested to find a better way.

Around this same time, I discovered the power of Linkedin. Linkedin is a business oriented social network, that basically lets you see people’s names, current occupation, as well as past experiences. You can search by area, keyword, company, and more. I decided to pour through all the entrepreneurs on linkedin located in Columbus. I contacted quite a few, and eventually got meetings with a few including a programmer/business wiz, Jeff. He had a wide range of business experience, including time spent in the Airforce, an MBA in entrepreneurship, and a consulting company he started and sold for $6 million. A pretty impressive list of achievements. We met a few times just for the heck of it, and I got to understand his current (at that time) conference calling business a little bit better. I quickly realized that he had the resources and programming skills to build a solution I was looking for in terms of improving customer service for car dealerships, so I casually pitched him the idea. He loved it, and quickly built the application. I was tempted again…So when Engenius hit a wall, I quickly transitioned to what eventually became Call True.

Call True, believe it or not, was the most organized and official company I’d built to date. I had a few lessons learned from past experiences under my belt, and the eagerness to build something lasting that worked. I also for the very first time, had a team.

In early August I had started talking to an old friend, Brian. He was fresh out of college and searching for a job opportunity in Columbus and Cincinnati. Brian is about a natural a salesman as you’ll ever meet. He has an uncanny ability to make small talk, bull shit, and get people to like him quickly. He was also incredibly excited at the thought of working in a startup environment, and more than willing to take a risk (iemake no money for a little while). He decided to come aboard on, and so Brian, Jeff, and I set out to change the world with our click to call company, Call True.

Click to call is an incredibly simple concept. It has become a reality that 80-90% of people that find out about a business or product they wish to contact or buy through the internet. For example if you’re looking for a car (sorry to keep returning to this theme), you may browse through newspapers or go to a lot, but more than likely you’re going to start with a google search or at a website like cars.com. You’ll probably read a few car reviews, check some prices, and most likely find a car in your area you’d like to check out in person. To do this, you’ll probably send an email to the dealership through their website (disaster, they take forever to respond) or you’ll call them right off of the 800 number listed on their website (and go through the mess I mentioned earlier). I knew this, and I knew that we had a better way than the 800 number, click to call. Instead of having that 800 number posted on the dealership site, we put a button. You, as the interested car browser, clicked the button, entered your phone number, and received an instant call back from a sales rep that actually knew something about that car! No waiting on hold, no work on your end, all you had to do was answer your phone and get the answers you wanted. Believe it or not, it was just as easy for the dealership and sales rep to speak with you. Our program automatically called the right sales rep (based on which car you requested a phone call on), told them you were on the other end interested in the car, and asked them to press 1 to be instantly connected with you. They pressed 1, and then your phone rang…easy connection, happy customer, happy sales rep. And it was remarkably cheap!

A change in perspective

Despite a few mistakes and some slow programming work, we declared ourselves open for business on October 10th (just two months after I walked away fromEngenius). We had a few pretty successful (meaning they felt good) meetings prior to that, including a meeting filled with BS and luck at State Farm, but October 10th is when we actually had a working system to sell. It moved very quickly. Brian proved his sales skills, quickly getting one of the bigger car dealerships in Columbus on board, and getting a yes’ from about 10 more. I had one of the bigger Realtors in town on board and excited, as well as a great meeting with Abercombie and Fitch that looked promising, and things seemed to be moving very quickly (in the right direction). It all pretty much changed for me on Oct 22nd, when I found out just how sick my mom was. I definitely touched how difficult the next few months were on this blog, many, many times so I won’t delve too deeply into it here, but it really took the wind out of my sails. I was devastated.

That following Wednesday I moved back to Cincy to help my mom and Tom anyway I could, and I just wanted to spend time with her. I felt confident she would recover quickly, and Brian and Jeff would keep things moving while I was gone. I did continue working on Call True from home, but the truth is I was way too drained to really offer anything up to it. I would spend countless hours in front of the computer screen, trying to forget where I was and what I was going through, as well as try and keep my passion behind Call True. At this same time, Jeff took a job as a CTO of a great company here in Columbus, so Brian was really left to fend for himself on Call True. While things were moving forward, we definitely needed some programming work done, and once jeff took that job and I stopped pushing him to get things done, everything pretty much stalled. And I didn’t really care. Call True needed passion and energy at this time, two things I did not have. Although it continued on, limping up until a few months ago, it pretty much died there in November never to regain the energy excitement it started out with.

Part 5 

Drained of Energy (written: 07/17/2006)

While I was at home, I did not have had the energy or excitement to work on Call True, in fact at that point it drained me of energy, I did work on a little side project. While inCincy, I read an article in Business 2.0 about what I would later call adwords arbitrage.

From idea to profit in 2 weeks or less

Basically this author was making some good money at Christmas time by running keyword ads (keyword ad meaning he would pick a keyword, say “red toy truck” and whenever you searched google for “red toy truck,” his ad would show up, if you clicked on it he had to pay google and you went to his website), in little niche spaces and directing people through affiliate links (basically he was sending people to Amazon.com for the product they searched for, but Amazon paid him a commission for any sales he generated for them). This is a remarkably simple business model, and really reminded me a lot of daytrading. If you could “buy” leads on google for say $1 but were paid a $8 commission on that product, as long as I sold a product every 7 people I would make money. And because of the power of the internet, I could do this a lot of times for a lot of products, and even if I was making 5 cents per item, it could really add up.

I went to work learning the ins and outs of affiliate networks, adwords, and started buying ads in late November. I quickly blew through $150 without making a dime, and learned that as simple as this model sounds, it’s not easy to execute. But I didn’t really feel like working on Call True, so this was a nice distraction. I went back to work, tweaking my ads, my bids for keywords, and about a week in I finally started to see some commissions coming in. By the following Friday I made my first profit, $25 and knew I could make it work from then on out. I continually refined my approach, constantly improving my margins and sales numbers ramping up until mid December where I hit record daily profits of $400, $600, and even a $1100. Unfortunately, I had maxed out all of my available credit and had to settle for the money made at that point. I won’t say how much money I ultimately made, but it was enough to pay off allEngenius related debts, as well as keep me on my feet financially really all year. I will also say that the company I did the affiliate work for loved the $198,000 in sales I generated for them in a month. It opened the doors for quite a few local consulting gigs because people had no clue about online advertising, and were eager to tap into it (it really is amazing). The truth is though, I wasn’t all that excited about what I had accomplished simply because of what was going on at that time. I ended up losing one of the most important people in my life, my amazing mother a week before Christmas.

Back to Normal…sort of

I came back up to Columbus at the end of January, and despite the difficulties I had to deal with, I actually felt pretty energized. I think I was really hoping things would feel “normal,” again and I thought coming back to Columbus would make that happen. The truth is, it did feel normal for awhile. It was so much easier to pretend things hadn’t really changed, and I tried to resume my Call True activities. We still had a few customers, but we really needed to rebuild the program and at that point we didn’t have anyone available to do the work. Jeff was far too busy to work on it, and I was constantly struggling to put effort forth into Call True. Brian was very patient in dealing with my issues at that time, and Jeff’s complete disappearance and I continued to reassure I’d get this thing back on course. I didn’t. We are now in the works to sell the company, or what’s left of it, to a few interested party. Ideally I’d like to put it into the hands of someone who can put the passion behind it, and keep Brian involved as I know with the right team behind it (mainly programmers) he could sell it to success.

Part 6

Jul 06 (written 07/20/2006)

The Present
In addition to working on Call True for the last few months, I have had a few projects pop up here and there. I was briefly working on a business plan for a mobile real estate search service, a domain real estate company, an automotive leads business, a mortgage leads arbitrage business, a face to face networking business, and a few more. I also (of course) am actively involved in a few things currently. I’ve been working with my friend Jason on his exciting ecommerce store concept for the last few months. I have a few side projects with a contact in Wisconsin, including a website called textbolt.com. I don’t ever see anything I’m working on with him as making it big, nor do I really want them to. I just want them to be useful to a lot of people, and if it becomes a recurring income stream then great, if not my time and money loss was minimal.

I of course have continued to fill my brainstorm folder with potential business ideas, but something has changed for me in the last 6 months. For one, ideas don’t quite excite me and propel me to immediate action as they used to. I used to jump into action on an idea the same day I got it, which may be one of my best and worst qualities wrapped into one. I am very impatient, and I can make a lot happen very quickly, but it also means that I tend to really crowd my plate with things that don’t necessarily complement each other, and I have a literal wasteland of started projects. I’ve been told many times, including at the seminar I went to in January on finding and utilizing your unique ability for success and happiness that I am indeed a quick starter. My excitement, my passion, my value comes in the art of the start. I can see this certainly is true in the above, and I’m getting a little better each time. I can also see that if I do not get or have someone around who can work with me to sustainability and systems, then ultimately my ideas flop on the table. Out of frustration with my disappearance of energy and passion for these ideas, I tend to hold on to them and “grind” them out becoming more and more tempted by the constant flow of exciting new ideas running through my head. So what’s next?

I’m not quite sure what my next moves are, and that’s sort of why I wrote all of this out. I wanted to gain some insight into my talents and preferences based on my actions. Things for me are definitely up in the air at this point, but I am fortunate to have a wonderful supporting cast around me. I have people who, although may be a little nervous about some of my moves, always are behind me. I’ve realized that my perspective on life (although I admit it’s been tested over the last 6 months) does provide me with an empowering perspective. I always feel as if there is nothing I can’t make happen if I really put myself to it. I’m eternally optimistic. I think that is why I can’t help myself from pursuing all of these business ideas, they all seem so easily possible. I’ve also never feared being in a position I couldn’t get myself out of. I was never afraid of debt, never afraid of not being able to get a job, and never afraid to go and live where I want to, because I can always go out and get what I want, need, or both.

The Big Move

So I’m headed to New York in September. I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing up there. I do know that I’ve always wanted to live there, before my sister even lived there. I’m under the new philosophy that when you say to yourself “I’d like to do that,” or even more so “I will do that,” and then don’t, you slowly kill your ability to dream. You reinforce within you that dreams are just dreams, and will never be reached. When I visit that city I fill with energy and excitement. I love all the people, I love all the diversity, and I love the opportunity. I was up there a few weeks back and had a few meetings with some incredible and successful entrepreneurs. They reinforced my belief in the ability of people to create, innovate, and work in passion. I can feel the entrepreneurial itch picking up again within me, but for now the plan is put myself in position where I can enjoy New York, while building my network of contacts and skill set in preparation for my next company. It seems that the best way for me to achieve all this is to find a job in the city that is either in a startup, or in a large company where I can innovate like a startup. I (as are my entrepreneur friends) have no problem at all finding and contacting key people when needed. I don’t know if it something that develops when you’re trying to build a business, but getting a hold of someone and actually getting their attention has become quite easy for me. So finding a job in a city full of opportunity does not worry me at all. The truth is, however, I have no intention in staying employed for any long period of time. I only wish to ease into the city, and get my passion back, before moving forward.

It has definitely been a wild ride, with many ups and many downs, but always lessons. I have learned more in the last 12 months about myself, than I have at any other point in my life. I am learning that we really have nothing to fear, and nothing to hold us back from getting what we want, except ourselves. I have learned that I have the power to call things into my life, both good and bad, simply by thinking about them. (how’s this for strange, as I’m writing this, I just got an email from the owner of one of the startups in NYC I tried to contact last week about working with?!) I am extremely excited about the next year for me, I can’t wait to live, learn, and grow. I feel even more confident about my perspective, work ethic, skill set, and determination to create. I will continue to live with a childlike curiosity and awe for this beautiful universe around us, trying to enjoy and learn all I can. I will continue to tap my experiences and knowledge in my pursuit of creating value for my family, friends, customers, employees, shareholders, the environment, and myself. This crazy little world ain’t so bad, as my mom said: All is well. I’m starting to live it.

Part 7

Off to NYC (written: 02/10/2010)

Why didn't it work?  A few things.  One he wanted me to build a portolio and a team without really spending any money, something that was very hard to do, and the opposite of what he had promised me.  But I tried anyway.  I brought on 3 people that I had found on the internet in a rev share  situation.   They all had some programming skills, had managed a few sites on their own, and were really self-sufficient.  Through this team, we found and acquired a few smaller websites that fit our criteria.  We had anticipated spending a decent amount of money fixing up the sites, and increasing their monthly cash flows.  It turned out we didn't have as much budget there to work with as we had thought.  We struggled to generate a significant bump in ad revenues without really spending any money on new development and designs, and my team members quickly started to lose interest in the whole thing.  TJ (who had brought me on) had moved on to a much more exciting opportunity, and my other 3 guys were beginning to doubt they'd ever make any money, or have a chance to make money working with Sheffield.  At the same time, our investor was starting to get really antsy.  He demanded to know why we weren't generating better returns.  Now first let me say, our first site purchase was a mistake.  It was a small wrestling community, that had just really seen a spike in traffic due to a news item that had temporarily ranked well in google.  It was just not a good buy, but it was a small purchase.  But the truth was, we didn't have the resources we thought we would to make significant changes to the sites to optimize revenues.  Without the ability to optimize revenues, we struggled to make improvements, the revenue numbers weren't exciting enough for our team to stick around so they jumped ship, and the whole thing fell apart.  It was an ugly situation that hit bottom in December of 2007.  I'm not proud of how I handled it...I hid.

Now I will say, there was as lot more going on for me there.  I remember being overwhelmed with sadness about losing my mom.  I was coming up on the 2 year anniversary of her death (December 18th 2005), so I really felt that.  Looking back, I was very depressed about that.  I didn't want to do anything really.  I especially didn't want to get yelled at about how things weren't working.  So I hid.  I'll admit that I've certainly had my moments where I've struggled to face heavy criticism.  I have worked on that, and improved upon it significantly in the last 3 years.  I learned in December of 2007 that hiding from something you feel bad about really does 2 things: 1.) it makes you feel worse 2.) it makes the situation worse.  As I tell myself now, the monster under your bed is often times nowhere near as scary as you originally thought, and sometimes there's no monster at all.  I hid though for 3 weeks until the 1st week of January.  I finally built up the courage to pick up the phone and call the owner of Sheffield.  I  apologized to him for hiding, then told him I was depressed related to my mom's passing,  that I was upset things had not worked well, but also that I didn't feel like it was a good working situation for me.  He wasn't happy, told me to take some time to think about it and then get back to him.  I told him I'd help him transition things smoothly, but would move on after that.  Ultimately it ended up being a salvage job where we tried to just unload the sites we had for whatever we could get, but the whole operation, believe it not, was profitable due to the big ebay score at the beginning of 07.