I Choose To Change My Life

I am developing an online community to introduce premier small cap companies to investors that are interested in small cap companies for www.RedChip.com. I also enjoy writing scripts and filming daily podcasts for our companies, appearing live on RedChip Small Cap Radio 1-2 times a week, writing and editing press releases on our companies, hosting the RedChip Internet TV interviews with our client companies' CEOs at our conferences and creating and managing our company's training program.
Part of my job does include interrupting hedge funds, mutual funds, institutional investors and stock brokers with outbound calls to introduce our client companies.

I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to lead RedChip from a traditional Investor Relations platform, (100% outbound calls to brokers and funds) to a more efficient and effective digital platform that introduces small cap companies to investors online. To put a phrase to why I do it: My goal isn't to get RedChip's name out there; my goal is to get small cap investor's names to RedChip.

Personally, I want to explore what I can accomplish when fear is removed and replaced with bravery. Professionally, I hope to finish "the program" with a high level of understanding of permission marketing and business strategy. I hope to improve my storytelling abilities to communicate compelling ideas that assist others in becoming brave.

Currently I have a handful of ideas; one would be to help Bioheart, Inc. become a household name. They are the first and only company to grow new heart muscle in patients that have suffered a heart attack and could bring an alternative to the millions of people worldwide (that don't respond to drug treatments) suffering from congestive heart failure. That being said, I don't want to have a goal that is too rigid and miss out on an opportunity because I was too closed minded coming in. I want to learn from you and the team and apply that knowledge so I do the most with it for the benefit of the most people. Basically, I am open to where the journey will lead me.

Inspired by Scott Ginsberg's ("The Nametag Guy") thoughts on approachability and making the world friendlier, I mailed a letter to 50 friends telling his nametag story. I included a nametag with their name already written on it, challenged them to wear it for a day and asked them to report their experience back to me. My friends said having the mindset of being approachable, combined with wearing the nametag for a day, gave them a friendlier mindset and changed how they interacted with people. After wearing the name tag, one of my friends who works for a large real estate coaching company asked if she could share my letter with their writing staff so they could distribute it to their 3,000+ members. Ideas that spread win!

In college, I decided to become a sports agent after reading an article in Sports Illustrated about how a group of football players selected their agents prior to the NFL draft. I went to work for the local minor league baseball team, met a bunch of players who didn't have agents and called the local agency who represented NFL and NBA players but not baseball players. They didn't want a baseball division because it would take too long to start and cost too much money but were open to me referring players to them.

When the first two players I referred to the agency were put on their team's Major League roster, it impressed them but they didn't want to hire me. I had 12 meetings with them over the next year and each time they reiterated that they weren't going to hire me. Meanwhile, I started looking for other work and was offered a high paying job at a highly respected institutional bond firm. That offer helped me to realize it wasn't about the money; it was about pursuing my passion to be a sports agent. I turned the offer down and decided to quit looking for other jobs. My friends and family thought I was nuts since it meant working part time so I was free to call baseball players and set up meetings with the local sports agency.

I had lunch with the one of the agents (our 13th meeting) where he told me they had made a final decision not to hire me. They were very well connected and he offered to find me a job in sports somewhere else. I told them I didn't want a "job" in sports and that I was willing to work for them for free. We sat in silence for over 5 minutes before he pulled out his legal pad and said "OK. Let's see what that looks like." We worked together for just over 15 years, growing the business from the first 2 referrals to over 35 players, generating a couple million in revenues. I became one of 255 Certified Contract Advisors for Major League Baseball who represent the 1500 Major League players, negotiated a couple record-setting deals and became one of only a handful of agents to present multiple salary arbitration cases.

When I was 17 and still in high school, a local bank hired me to write a program to tell them how many tellers they would need at different branches each day of the week based on factors like day of the week, day before a holiday, end of the month, paydays, etc. I crunched the data the bank gave me (about 1000 pages on that green and white spreadsheet paper) on my Apple IIe in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. It took me about a month and they paid me $300. I thought I was rich! The crazy thing is, when I was trying to become a sports agent, I worked part time as a teller at that bank and my schedule was set, in part, by the work I had performed for them years earlier. It was like building a prison that you later served time in. How ironic . . .

To be challenged in a way I have never been challenged, respond better than I have ever responded and matter more than I have ever mattered. And then do it all over again...

To give a more concrete answer, I wish for an invitation to speak at TED. That would mean I applied what I learned from you and did something a group of really smart people thought was worth sharing.

I met the RedChip CEO when a friend and I organized and led a 12 man group in an accountability/brainstorming/personal growth program that met every Monday morning from 6 AM to 8 AM for two years. He participated and tried to hire me several times over the past few years and eventually made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

One of the greatest honors in my life is that 17 friends have asked me to be in their wedding (groomsman 16 times, best man once).

I love to read (recent favorite is Change or Die by Alan Deutschman).

I love to laugh and make people laugh.

I would rather be 20 minutes early than 1 minute late.

I enjoy writing.

I have reached out to as many people as I can (without running a Super Bowl ad). In addition to sending a private message to my Facebook network, I have been updating my status to keep people informed of my application process and encouraging them to apply.

I have 1480 people that opted into my real estate website and I sent them an email about you and the opportunity you are offering along with a link to the application.

I emailed my work contacts (268 people).

I told my wife about it and she applied (I am so proud of her!).