Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I had no clue what business I wanted to create. My dad’s advice was, and still to this day is, “TRY”…try everything that interests you and see what sticks and what doesn’t and you’ll be bound to land on something you enjoy doing.
Looking back, I've tried many different business journey's that that have gotten me to where I am today as an entrepreneur.
When I was 18 years old I got exposed to a business opportunity and a tribe of Mentors that changed the entire trajectory of my life….
Growing up, I never reading a single book in school.
I hated reading….but one of my Mentors at the time told me, “say what people say, do what people do, and you’ll get the exact same result every single time. So if you want to become successful, go find someone else that has already done it and model exactly what they did to get the result that you desire.”
And then that same mentor handed me a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and told me to read it.
Amused by the title, I began to read the book and quickly my mind was captivated…
It was the first time in my life that someone told me to read a book that actually had something directly to do with my own personal growth and development that I could instantly apply directly towards my life.
This book explained the difference between Robert Kiyosaki’s 4 Quadrants….
Employee // Employer // Business Owner // Investor
Through this book I became aware of how easy it is for people to get caught up in the rat race of society and Corporate America pursuing a job where they work 40 hours a week, working for 40 years of their life, only to retire on 40% of what they made, all while building someone else’s dream and existing in a culture of competition to “make it to the top”.
To me, that never sounded like freedom.
Not to say you can’t benefit from the experience in Corporate America, but personally that never sounded enjoyable or something that I wanted to do.
So right then and there I made the decision that I wanted to pursue Entrepreneurship after college instead of Corporate America.
Entering my freshman year at Indiana University, I tried majoring in Business at the Kelley School of Business, but because I got a C+ in one of my classes, they restricted me from getting accepted into The Kelley School.
(you had to have a B or better in your first semester classes to get approved into the school second semester 🙄)
This at first being a huge obstacle ended up being a huge blessing in disguise and looking back, I see how God's hand was aligning my life for something better suited for what I'm doing today.
I tried majoring in Sports Marketing and Management, but after a semester of knowing I wanted to do something else, I eventually landed on majoring in Informatics and Computing with a minor in Business, Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing.
Enjoying learning business, computer code, database creation, information data analysis, UX/UI design, how networks work, etc…I quickly realized I didn’t want to pursue a career as a developer for the rest of my life and that I still had a passion for entrepreneurship.
Going into my senior year at IU, I was afraid if I didn’t figure out something I wanted to pursue as a business opportunity (that would actually be profitable) then I’d be forced to jump into Corporate America doing something I didn't really want to be doing after I graduated from College.
I had my desires of pursue the path of entrepreneurship!
By God's grace, my first semester senior year I came across a 6 month online social media digital marketing program through Tai Lopez’s Knowledge Society that was taught by him and some of the top digital marketing experts, in their respective niche, within the industry of digital marketing.
This online course taught individuals how to start, create, build, scale, and manage a Digital Marketing Agency, and I saw this as my golden ticket!
I had already had experience in Website Development, Marketing, and Social Media….and I had also already gone through Tai Lopez’s 67 Step Program, which was a program that had changed the entire direction of my life. With the stars aligning I saw this as an opportunity to start my own Marketing Agency after I graduated from college to pursue the entrepreneurship journey instead of jumping into Corporate America.
Did I know this path was probably going to be harder?
Yes.
Did I know that this path might not pay off right away and there was going to be many sacrifices along the journey?
Yes.
But did I believe that one day it would all be worth it?
Yes!
I figured the worst thing that could happen was I could fall back on my degree...
I realized Corporate America was always going to be there…but pursuing something I’m truly passionate about in my heart at a young age and doing what I’m feeling called to do by a higher consciousness of God / creating a brand and business that supported others and manifested my dreams into reality I thought was better to pursue now instead of later.
So I took a leap of faith a tired it.
While I was taking 16 credit hours per semester my senior year of college and a full year capstone project with 2 other student developers...I also went through this Marketing Program and aligned myself to start Novelty Growth Marketing in Spring 2017.
For the past 3 years, through entrepreneurship and personal development, God has sent me on a beautiful journey of stepping more into my true identity in him.
There’s been many ups and downs, times I wanted to give up, sleepless nights, uncertainty, hard leadership decisions, and some of the closest people to me telling me that my decision not work in Corporate America first before starting a business wasn’t smart, but pursing this journey is something I would never take back because of the person it has forced me to become.
One of my favorite quotes I’ve heard is by Jim Rohn, “Success is not something you pursue. What you pursue will elude you; it can be like trying to chase butterflies. Success is something you attract by the person you become.”
I knew with this platform of Novelty Growth I wanted to create impact and freedom for myself and others. I wanted to create a brand that helped other people become the best version of themselves possible both personally and professionally and be a platform for entrepreneurs to Create, Network, and Grow in all areas of life.
From pursuing building a Marketing Agency from the start, as time progressed I kept seeing the difference between a brand and a business.
I saw the importance of Brand Development and making your Brand visible online with the correct systems in place, so that’s what we started to pursue in early 2017.
We set out to build a Full Stack Digital Marketing Agency that focused on helping entrepreneurs Create, Network, and Grow in all areas of life. No clue how we were really going to achieve that, but just having faith that it would all align as we work hard toward our vision, focus on developing our skill sets within our respective industry of Marketing, and helping others along the way.
We started offering full Digital Marketing Packages with Website Development, Content Creation, Social Media Management, Landing Page and Sales Funnel Creation, Facebook Advertising, and Influencer Marketing and was getting paid little to none to execute, just focusing on having skin in game and adding value to our clients.
Looking back we were executing a lot of tactics and didn't really have a real strategy in place.
1 year in, we came across an opportunity within our network to pursue experiential marketing with a focus on Events.
We saw the fact that Indianapolis had a ton of creative individuals, young professionals, and artists here in the city, but no one was bringing these individuals together to Create, Network, and Grow together.
That’s when we partnered with a brand and technology company called Plug, to create unique experience for creative individuals and young professionals that didn’t revolve around drinking and becoming mindless, but celebrating and becoming mindful. ✨
We created our own unique novelty experiences/events, partnered with already existing events in Indianapolis and Chicago to help them enhance their marketing strategy and content creation efforts.
From Fashion Shows, Comedy Shows, Art Shows, and other unique experiences all revolving around Networking and connecting with other like minded individuals, we quickly became known as one of the top event marketing companies in the city of Indianapolis and had done a great job creating a creative community and movement of creative like-minded individuals coming together to Create, Network, and Grow in all areas of life whether friendships, business partnerships, or creative collaborations.
But after pursuing event marketing for almost a year, in 2019 I was given a vision to take Novelty Growth to the next level away from events and into a new direction that focused more on Brand Amplification.
I was sitting at Grant Cardone’s 10x Growth Conference in February 2019 and a picture/thought came to my mind....
I immediately started drawing my thought on a piece of paper and this was the image that was drawn:
I saw how this was a marketing strategy that would change the game for people. So many entrepreneurs are trying to execute marketing tactics hoping that is all they need for their marketing to boom, (trust me I was one of those people) when in reality you need a full marketing strategy that will help you authentically share your brand story, connect with your audience on a deeper level, and build a scalable and sustainable business online.
This was the “Aha” moment that made me realize that an effective long-term marketing strategy wasn’t just “Digital Marketing” but a holistic approach to different types of marketing that’s built on the foundation of your Brand’s Development.
The stronger your brand development the stronger your marketing/advertising efforts.
Over the past year, this has developed into our Novelty Growth Brand Amplification Marketing Strategy:
The most important part in this process / strategy is your Brand Development.
Brand Development is not just your logo, mission, and colors, but a full understanding of the value your brand brings to the marketplace, the position your brand takes to differentiate itself from others and create a blue ocean to operate which eliminates competition and encourages collaboration, as well as a clear understanding of how to communicate your brand’s value, identity, story, and message in a way that is understood and creates a deeper more meaningful relationship with your audience.
A couple months later after this realization, God aligned me with two amazing people who are now senior partners and executive leaders within this company, Jeremy Miller and Luke Reks.
Jeremy and I really connected on Digital Marketing as a whole and believed that we had a lot of synergy together on our perspective of what an effective marketing strategy looks like in the 21st century. He taught me all about his Facebook Advertising and Personal Branding experience that was learned from his previous position at Blitz Metrics and building his own marketing agency Inspired Blue Media.
Connecting with Luke, I saw his passion for story-telling content creation and his drive and hunger of wanting to develop more of his skill set.
All of us sharing a similar passion for branding, marketing, advertising, and personal development, in December 2019 we came together to rebrand Novelty Growth away from Event Marketing and more focus in on Brand Amplification and eventually turning Novelty Growth into a Self-Education / Coaching Platform that truly helps entrepreneurs Create, Network, and Grow in all areas of life both personally and professionally taking their life, business, and brand to the next level by focusing on their story, WHY they do what they do, the message and identity they’re trying to portray to their audience, and the concept of personal development, leadership, and relationships.
Together we defined Brand Amplification as helping Entrepreneurs really understand the meaning of their own Brand Development, how to connect with their audience by creating meaningful purpose driven story-telling content around their brand, and amplifying that content properly through different digital amplification strategies to create more Awareness and Engagement for your brand and Conversions for your business.
Through this rebranding process, God eventually aligned us with Mike Pirtle, a Brand Development specialist and founder / CEO of Enthrall , which opened my eyes to the depth of what Brand Development truly needed to be.
Going through his Brand Construction System, we were able to refine our own brand identity as a brand that wants to help other entrepreneurs authentically amplify their brand identity within and without.
Within being their own company and personal self, and without being to their target demographic, audience, and/or other individuals, so everyone is on the same page communicating the same brand message, mission, vision, and meaning whether a company or personal brand, both are important to focus on if you want to grow as an entrepreneur.
This Brand Construction System with Mike was a huge catalyst for our team to align more into our true purpose as a brand and company.
As a result, Jeremy, Luke, and I spent the entire year of 2020 refining Novelty Growth’s brand and business and working on becoming extremely clear on the value we bring to the marketplace AND the internal execution through systems on our value proposition for us to scale and make long-term intentional impact in the lives of other entrepreneurs.
Which lead us to where we are now:
A Brand Amplification Creative Marketing Agency and Self-Education / Coaching Platform that focuses on Brand Development and Personal Development, specializing in Brand Amplification and helping develop a Growth Relationship Mindset for individuals wanting to pursue entrepreneurship.
Now, in 2021…..God is calling us to start launching our brand / platform at a larger scale by educating entrepreneurs on the strategies we’ve developed / and are continuing to develop as we grow.
From our 7 Step Brand Development Process that sets Brands up for successful Amplification Strategies, to our 3 Part Personal Development Life Enhancement Program:
Our mission is to empower and equip entrepreneurs to elevate to the next level by stepping closer into their true identity, passion, and purpose in life through focusing on Brand Development and Personal Development.
Our vision is to see every individual pursue what they are truly passionate about and feel inspired to identify, embrace, and tell their story along the way.
Our goal is to change the way people perceive Marketing and Personal Development, as well as help individuals wake up to a higher conscious awareness of the true power and greatness they have within as a human being and child of God, as well as a better understanding of the purpose of relationships.
At Novelty Growth we consult and implement our 7 step brand development process and 3 Part Personal Development Life Enhancement Program for purpose driven entrepreneurs and companies so they can authentically share their story, scale their business online, and live a happier and more fulfilled life while falling in love with their own unique/novelty journey of growth within entrepreneurship.
We are looking forward to what the future holds and this is still just the beginning!
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