ownership – TRUE NORTH TEAM CONSULTING

Closing Out 2017 with a Blockchain Bang.

2017 will go down big in the record books.

On the personal side, I took the plunge to get engaged we just closed and moved into our 1st home, a life-changing ordeal in itself. I also personally learned that a country doing everything it can to self-destruct that’s $20 trillion in debt sorely needs software to help the drastically under-equipped IRS manage operational claims to chip away at (separate post in itself).

Sponsorship Buddy is rebranding within the next few weeks to encapsulate the force it has become, now directly optimizing workflows for thousands in the brand, agency and rights holder/property space (recently including the San Francisco Giants, who I could’ve garnered multiple rings based on a different life choice made (another post of its own). With a valuation now in the 9 figure range, one could ask how I could entertain usage of my full-time hours going to something else?

The answer? The blockchain.

I also passed up an equitable opportunity with a software behemoth fast approaching IPO and an executive spot with the most elite membership and concierge program in the world involving curation of the most customized VIP global personalized experiences.

After a few weeks spent volunteering, negotiating and absorbing, I signed on to become the #2, C.O.O. & Head of Fundraising for what we believe could be the most compliant blockchain solution in the exploding ICO market. By the way, ICOs (initial coin offerings) have overtaken traditional venture capital funding means and skyrocketed to over $5 billion in funds raised for 2017.

Everyone’s now heard of Bitcoin (the Amazon of the cryptocurrency world), but most don’t understand it or the blockchain. This distributed ledger system promises to change the world by decentralizing everything, from global monetary policies to how transactions are recorded.

There are innumerable roadblocks in the way before that happens, however. Many early ICOs were launched by the likes of 19-year-old Ukrainians arming a cartel without as much as a business or legal backing. While due diligence, transparency and sound legal business principles are on the rise, there is an impending fear of the unknown, especially the SEC coming down to ban and punish those deemed outside of the legal limits. A day of reckoning is in order in today’s new age Wild West.

At OMINEX, sister-company CrowdEngine has the SEC & FINRA compliance nailed. OMINEX plans to offer a wallet to manage such security and other crypto tokens and provide the portal to launch the buttoned-up ICO, funding your dream, world-changing blockchain project.

But first, we need believers to take a chance with us and invest in the most compliant fundraising solution seen to date (while benefitting with us along the way). We could use great Advisors, referral partners and investors to help us build out the vision before we can draft the team.

It’s been quite the heroic comeback story, 2017 vs. 2016 that is.

Who’s ready to take the world by storm in compliant fashion!? Blockchain and ICOs are possibly the most world-changing phenomenon we’ve seen, can you afford to miss the boat (more about ICOs as the new gold rush – biggest wealth transfer in human history)?

Happy New Year 2018!

Lessons in Rejection

The Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Red Wings, Baltimore Orioles, Sporting Kansas City, Indiana Pacers, New Orleans Saints & Pelicans (among others pictured above): what do these represent? All, the latest and greatest clients of Sponsorship Buddy Inc. I, as the lead hunter, should be out celebrating in the streets to land these huge, globally embraced and recognized team brands as clients of our disruptive new platform, right? Not so fast, my friend.

Early entrepreneurial life is not glamorous (nor is the sports industry). Over the past 20 months, I’ve had to learn all kinds of new skills, competencies, and levels of resiliency and discipline. I set out with a goal of transforming the sponsorship industry in much-needed fashion for the better to help create more transparency, streamlined communications, a better client experience and improvements in quality of life. In doing so, I hoped to make my mark as an innovator, disruptor, and difference-maker and put it all on the line to do so (personal life, relationships, financial stability).

Full disclosure, it’s been the most challenging period I’ve had in life and there have been some big ones. While persistently searching out believers in my network, I’ve been aggressively pursuing careers and been so close on fantastic opportunities in sports or tech in Denver, San Francisco and here in Salt Lake City, only to be passed up on at the finish line. My closest contacts have seemingly written me off while it’s been impossible to fight off bouts of despair, depression and not feel like a failure.

One of my key strengths is my resiliency, persistence, and aversion to quitting. I thought the industry would snap up this relatively inexpensive tool but learned that it was going to take completing the marathon to change the game.

Back when we were looking for our 1st major league client after the Utah Jazz (beta customer of ours), I leaned on my former group in the Memphis Grizzlies, who have been notably innovative. In speaking with Mya Donald, activation lead for the team, I said something along the lines of, “I know this is new and daunting, but this can not only put the Grizzlies on the map as a leader in the space, but do great things for your careers.” The Grizzlies bought in, embraced the tool, and four weeks ago, Mya was on-stage as a finalist at NBA league meetings citing us as a key piece to the team’s peer-nominated Relationship Management Program of the Year. To add validation, the winners of the award, the Cleveland Cavaliers, known not only for being runner up in the 2016-2017 NBA Finals, but also for a notable Goodyear Jersey Patch Campaign and innovative 365-day activation approach have followed suit as our 5th client in the most innovative of all sports leagues (NBA).

Taking excerpts like these to market, we’ve now established ourselves as an industry-recognized brand with success stories throughout the major and minor leagues, not to mention being in the process of signing our 1st brand and agency clients. We accomplished our set growth and vesting goals a year ahead of time and have solidified our brand and platform as a force with huge upside from here while maxing out my equity shares in the company.

As we look to solve the sponsorship industry’s communication issues one client at a time, I’ve realized that I have a long ways to go to become a great communicator myself. I realized that my emails, like everyone’s texts or emails from time to time, can be misinterpreted and come off the wrong way. Instead of leaving tone, reasoning, and objectives up for interpretation, I insisted on a face-to-face meeting to speak my mind, and after a 2nd fishing trip meeting to close out the summer and further collaborate on ownership stake and employment terms. I’m now about to be in a much more secure place while being in control of day and destiny.

Lessons learned: don’t take rejection to heart. It only takes one (you). Even when everyone else loses faith in you, what you believe in and set out to do, you can accomplish anything with determination. Be mindful, self-reflective and don’t be afraid to ask for constructive feedback, advice or someone else’s time to hear you out.

Surviving on an Entrepreneurial Wild West Island.

After weeks of back-and-forth months after my consulting deal was up, we were at a crossroads of a) parting ways with only the entrepreneurial experience to show for it for b) forging a partnership, potentially lifelong. Both sides have nearly walked away at different times and everyone knew it was decision time, this was make or break and the call was going to be tense. That “Castaway” feeling of I’m alone, trying to scratch and claw my way to survival, hoping someone will venture into the vicinity and throw me a life raft can feel very real.

Doubts can be constant. Today’s social media age make peer comparisons dangerous. Why am I at point X when I’ve invested this much into myself whereas my former cohort John or Jane Doe is at point Y? Trust in others and myself with belief in the ability to turn up calculated returns is something I’ve banked on for years. But sometimes it feels like being stuck in the ocean trying to fight the current of a riptide, not going anywhere and expending energy reserves quickly.

Egocentrism is the inability to understand any perspective but one’s own. In this country, never has this come more into question than today’s political and social environment. Why should I think about someone over there when my own quality of life is in question? What happens when those relationships you’ve invested in and trusted would work out instead turn out quiet or egocentric? You’re left to your own story and ingenuity, losing hope with line after line being cast out only to be brought back with nets empty.

Despite better reason and needs to meet, we made the trip to Arizona for a wedding at a lavish venue, the JW Marriott of Tuscon pictured below. Sacrifices were made to get there – a bag of sandwiches made to avoid having to stop for food, not staying at the host resort and instead choosing a Marriott nearby. Bootstrapped startup life personalized.

JW Marriott Tuscon wedding photo — Alli & I before the wedding @JW Marriott Tuscon

After catching up with the Joneses, and being there to celebrate the big commitment day for the newlyweds, we took a day trip to the famous wild west town of Tombstone. Despite all the Hollywood takes, never was story given due justice authentically. The Boothill Graveyard was filled with stories of men that met their fates through every means from defending their honor in gunfights at the OK Corral to getting poisoned and everything in between and their stones were stolen over time by gravestone robbers looking to get their hands on valuable relics. This made me think, how does one avoid the fate of George Johnson pictured below, who was hanged by mistake? “He was right, he was wrong, but we strung him up and now he’s gone.”

In a brutal town where the odds are stacked against you like Tombstone, George may have been on to something in life. Maybe he was looking like one of the few who’s investment was going to pay off in a big way. However, his story was lost and he became known instead for his curious cause of death. George hadn’t secured himself to avoid the traps laid down all around him and succumbed to a noteworthy fate.

On the scenic way back in Navajo country (another example of a people pushed aside), we stopped at the picturesque Horseshoe Bend in the Glen Canyon area of northern Arizona (featured above). I looked out and felt like I was stuck on that rock island pushed out further and further by the sands of time, with a storm coming nonetheless.

Months after the fact and despite undue strife, my partners came through for me on my concessions and I officially tied the ownership knot. Lessons learned include not making assumptions and instead communicating better and building and executing sound social and business contracts. Don’t be afraid to be real and speak to feelings and emotions as it leads to more authentic connections. I went from fighting the riptides to grabbing a line out and back to the island. Now, it’s a matter of navigating around the hangman’s noose and traps while continuing to better equip and target those lines cast with the hope of netting that meaningful storybook foundation off the island.

Ever feel that way?

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