I'm finally going to the summit this year since I was able to secure a ticket (couldn't get a ticket last year and it was in my own backyard!), so I figured I should stop lurking and introduce myself. I want to make the most out of the summit so I'm going to basically live within these forums for the next week.
The entrepreneurial seed:
I've always been an entrepreneur. In middle school I would go to Sam's club with my mom and pick up bubble gum in bulk, then sell it for $0.25/piece or $1/pack to my friends in school. Gum wasn't allowed, so I was essentially a "pusher," ha! Luckily that didn't lead me down the path of dealing drugs, just knowing that I wanted to make money and not spend 40 years at a job, then retire to finally be able to spend my free time as I wished...just in time to start suffering all the ailments that come with old age. That idea of a life NEVER appealed to me and I couldn't wrap my head around how some people are okay with doing that...it's INSANE to me! But hey, us entrepreneurs all need worker bees to help US attain our goals, so more power to them if that's truly what they need to do in life to feel fulfilled.
My professional career:
While I was still in college I built a website about how to build computers (my first job ever). Once I built it I thought "Alright, how do I get people to find the site now?" That's when I discovered SEO and Google AdWords. I read through forums and did a mediocre job at both of those things. When I graduated college I was able to find a local company, iCrossing, that did all the things I was doing for my piddly little website, but for large Fortune 500 companies. I was mind blown that there were companies out there doing this since I thought SEO was only done by those people I had encountered in the forums, you know, people holed up in their basements trying to trick the system and get their sites to #1 in Google. Once I found iCrossing I knew I HAD to get a job there. I found one I wanted in the SEO department and applied for it, then I emailed the president, CEO and HR department to make sure I was on their radar. Sure enough, when I went in for an interview the head of HR had my email to the president attached to my resume. When I went in for my second interview and found out the guy interviewing me was in the same fraternity as me at Arizona State University I knew I was in. One month in I was pulled from SEO to go to paid search since the one person they had was leaving the company. I knew very little about it but was thrown in the deep end and two years later was managing that whole department with 7 people working directly for me.
My transition:
I switched from that company (since it was growing very quickly and becoming bureaucratic) to a smaller agency in Tempe. After 6 months there, I finally got a client on my own (who I still proudly work with today, 7+ years later) and was able to quit my job to give myself 6 months to prove that I truly can be the entrepreneur I thought I was and run an actual business.
Today:
Here I am, 7+ years later. Yes, I'm a business owner that survived a recession right after starting my business. Yes, I make my own schedule for the most part. Yes, I've had neighbors and friends that honestly thought I was dealing drugs because I was doing well and didn't go to a traditional job. What I'm not doing, is scaling and moving over to the fast lane. I first listened to MJ DeMarco speak at a business club I was a part of a few years ago and immediately got the Millionaire Fastlane. It wasn't just a book that, like many other books, confirmed my entrepreneurial mindset but rather shifted it into thinking about scalability and how I wasn't truly as free with my time as I thought. Like anything, it's taken some time to finally acknowledge the level of discomfort, by not truly having my time to myself, that's required to make a big life change.
I'm proud to be an entrepreneur, but I won't be able to be truly happy until I can finally move over to the fast lane and take FULL control of my time.
Looking forward to getting more out of this forum and meeting some of you in person at the summit this week!
-Brian Renner
The entrepreneurial seed:
I've always been an entrepreneur. In middle school I would go to Sam's club with my mom and pick up bubble gum in bulk, then sell it for $0.25/piece or $1/pack to my friends in school. Gum wasn't allowed, so I was essentially a "pusher," ha! Luckily that didn't lead me down the path of dealing drugs, just knowing that I wanted to make money and not spend 40 years at a job, then retire to finally be able to spend my free time as I wished...just in time to start suffering all the ailments that come with old age. That idea of a life NEVER appealed to me and I couldn't wrap my head around how some people are okay with doing that...it's INSANE to me! But hey, us entrepreneurs all need worker bees to help US attain our goals, so more power to them if that's truly what they need to do in life to feel fulfilled.
My professional career:
While I was still in college I built a website about how to build computers (my first job ever). Once I built it I thought "Alright, how do I get people to find the site now?" That's when I discovered SEO and Google AdWords. I read through forums and did a mediocre job at both of those things. When I graduated college I was able to find a local company, iCrossing, that did all the things I was doing for my piddly little website, but for large Fortune 500 companies. I was mind blown that there were companies out there doing this since I thought SEO was only done by those people I had encountered in the forums, you know, people holed up in their basements trying to trick the system and get their sites to #1 in Google. Once I found iCrossing I knew I HAD to get a job there. I found one I wanted in the SEO department and applied for it, then I emailed the president, CEO and HR department to make sure I was on their radar. Sure enough, when I went in for an interview the head of HR had my email to the president attached to my resume. When I went in for my second interview and found out the guy interviewing me was in the same fraternity as me at Arizona State University I knew I was in. One month in I was pulled from SEO to go to paid search since the one person they had was leaving the company. I knew very little about it but was thrown in the deep end and two years later was managing that whole department with 7 people working directly for me.
My transition:
I switched from that company (since it was growing very quickly and becoming bureaucratic) to a smaller agency in Tempe. After 6 months there, I finally got a client on my own (who I still proudly work with today, 7+ years later) and was able to quit my job to give myself 6 months to prove that I truly can be the entrepreneur I thought I was and run an actual business.
Today:
Here I am, 7+ years later. Yes, I'm a business owner that survived a recession right after starting my business. Yes, I make my own schedule for the most part. Yes, I've had neighbors and friends that honestly thought I was dealing drugs because I was doing well and didn't go to a traditional job. What I'm not doing, is scaling and moving over to the fast lane. I first listened to MJ DeMarco speak at a business club I was a part of a few years ago and immediately got the Millionaire Fastlane. It wasn't just a book that, like many other books, confirmed my entrepreneurial mindset but rather shifted it into thinking about scalability and how I wasn't truly as free with my time as I thought. Like anything, it's taken some time to finally acknowledge the level of discomfort, by not truly having my time to myself, that's required to make a big life change.
I'm proud to be an entrepreneur, but I won't be able to be truly happy until I can finally move over to the fast lane and take FULL control of my time.
Looking forward to getting more out of this forum and meeting some of you in person at the summit this week!
-Brian Renner
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