Growing up, my parents required that we play a fall and a spring sport. I’m sure the theory was that it would help keep us out of trouble. Knowing this, I decided that I would go out for football in middle school. I was confident that I could be a receiver. I mean, I played baseball my entire life. Surely I can translate those skills to catching a football. The plan made sense. I had thought it out and was ready for tryouts.

Once the tryouts began, they broke us up into groups to assess our skills. Running backs over there. Quarterbacks over there. Big kids on the other side of the field. Kickers go over there. And receivers… we lined up in our own group. One by one, the kids going out for receiver would step up and try and catch a football that was shot in the air from two spinning tires. Some of the kids caught the ball. Some of them dropped it.

Finally, it was my turn. My planning and practicing was about to pay off. The hard work I put into practicing at home was going to finally allow me to show my stuff. There was one problem… the helmet… it didn’t fit. I looked up as the ball was shot into the air. And as I did that, everything went pitch black… the helmet had fallen down over my eyes as the weight of the face guard had pulled it down. Three seconds later, the ball and my dreams of being a middle school wide receiver had bounced off my helmet.

Dreams are like that sometimes. You prepare. You work hard. You do everything you can do and just like that, they bounce away. I was ok that I had failed that day. It taught me a lot of good lessons that I carry to this day. Lessons that will help and guide me on this next journey… Three weeks ago I gave my notice at what was then my current job. I’ve had a desire to own my own business for some time now. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot as an adult… and even as a kid when I took toothpicks, soaked them in cinnamon and sold them in bundles of five on the playground in elementary school. At some point you either have to jump or give up. And now’s the right time to jump. Starting today, that journey begins… well, it began about eight weeks ago… but it officially begins today. I’m launching a company called Savvy Social… From social media content management, to community management, branding, photography… we’ll be able to handle all of a company’s digital marketing needs (as well as traditional marketing too). My career in advertising began 20 years ago. And now, it begins again… If you, or someone you know, needs help with marketing, we’d love to partner. I’m excited about the road ahead. I know there will be ups and downs… successes and failures… balls that bounce off my helmet. The lessons that I learned that day on the middle school practice field will serve me and our clients well. When you get a chance, check us out: savvysocial.net or we’re on Facebook as well… https://www.facebook.com/savvywithsocial and don’t forget about Instagram https://www.instagram.com/savvywithsocial/

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