Everyone Has Got a Story to Tell and Everyone Should Tell It
This is a personal story about my adventures as an entrepreneur, the trouble I’ve managed to get into, the failures I’ve had, the growth, the progress, successes and finally where I’ve landed.
I recently launched a personal branding company, but in an effort to get everything right I forgot about the core value of the brand and how it relates to me — we build a brand around your story and the experiences that have come along with it. I started putting out content to support the company, but never got around to telling people who I am, and why I have anything to say in the first place so here goes.
As it relates to entrepreneurship, I started at a relatively young age. I was working as a golf caddy by 11 and got into the lucrative marijuana trade for a short period by 14. I was no bigger than a house cat at that age, but still somehow managed to thrive in a market run by much bigger, badder kids.
Like most kids, I grew up in a middle class family with the “get a job” mentality, but something inside me knew from a young age — it wasn’t right for me. For a lot of years I knew I would carve my own path to success, I just had no idea how it would sort itself out. By 16 I started working in the construction business with my old man, while it was his own company, he struggled to keep my interest because of his view on scale. I have always been a strategy thinker with a how big can I make this company mentality, whereas pops was a, keep it small and pay the bills, type of guy.
I shuffled off to school by 18, took business admin, then switched to marketing after the first year. I absolutely hated college but there was something about human psychology that drove me towards marketing. It’s really all about understanding your audience and I felt that I had a knack for that sort of stuff, so I pursued it. After I graduated I bounced around a bit from job to job and while I consumed a lot of great skills, from a lot of great people, it was pretty clear to me I was just filling my own tool belt to build my own company(ies) someday.
Through my 20’s I spent a lot of time working at restaurants because it afforded me the luxury to build my own businesses on the side. The money was good and the hours were manageable. It was this period that I would really call the minor leagues for me, I failed a good 20 times, lost a lot of thousands of dollars, which I really couldn’t afford — I even sold two of my cars to keep the dream alive. I built a record label and a media company — we managed to get some Grammy pre-noms for the wife in all of that — I owned part of a clothing brand, and food distribution company. I got in at the start-up phase of a tech-marketing business and started to dabble in restaurant ownership while I lived down south.
While the marketing and media stuff was always a more passionate avenue for me, I really started to hit my stride with restaurants. Over the years I managed to accumulate all of the necessary experience to be quite proficient in the business. I often call them my trade, as I will keep building, buying, selling or maintaining them as an entrepreneurial safety net. While living in Grand Cayman we had a quick buy and sell unit then jumped into a passive ownership agreement with some guys who had five restaurants at the time. This period also came with some trouble, personal growth, but ultimately a much better person came out on the other end.
While I was always into fitness and sports, before leaving Cayman I got heavily into body building and started doing some writing. By the time we got back to Canada, I started to compete in Men’s phsyique — I entered eight events in 10 months and capped off my tour by competing at the Arnold’s Sports Festival in Ohio in 2015. Shortly thereafter I completed a book called “The Complete U-Turn.” It was a personal development book on health, fitness, the body and mind. When I look back, it’s pretty clear I wrote it more for my own transformation and good than anything, but I’m still very grateful for having completed it and knocking that off my bucket list.
Closely following this was the tech-marketing company, along with more restaurants. With a couple of partners we started a unit in the Toronto area, it was a great test of my skills as this place was an absolute beast. This was my version of Navy Seal training. I really found out what I was made of through those 8–10 months. It was a great success to have, but also a great lesson in a lot of ways.
In the midst of all this I started my current company that builds personal brands. In the past, I found that I was a little behind the curve when it came to some of the technical stuff in marketing e.g. creative design, software and the science that has entered into the field over the past decade, but now that I jumped into personal branding, I’m finally ahead of the curve. This game is all based on psychology, nuance, and social trends. There is a strong analytical aspect to it as well, but this is also right in my wheel house. I have a solid 3, 5 and 7 year plan all which are predicated on my strengths, and my ability to keep motivated, ambitious and hungry for success.
As I move ahead, I will be putting out content that will hopefully help a lot of people jump into the personal branding arena for themselves. I will also be putting out motivational content that resonates with me in an effort to keep you motivated, but to keep me going as well. As always, I’m open to feedback and advice from you just as I hope you will take some from me over the years. If you ever want to drop me a line, shoot me your thoughts or just have a chat, I will do my best to make myself available for you.
