Thursday we had our first serial entrepreneur as a guest speaker. By “serial entrepreneur” I mean someone who has pursued numerous entrepreneurial ventures; one after another and even several at the same time. That is just what Jason Robbins—of Monmouth-based Robbins Resource Management—has been doing for nearly the last 25 years (dating back to when he was in high school).  Check out the company webpage at the link below.

http://www.rrmgtonline.com/

Jason’s ongoing highly successful entrepreneurial journey encompasses many different ventures and types of business activity; including buying and reselling both cars and homes and brokering B2B sales of pallets. Maybe above all else, Jason—a first-time speaker in the class that we hope to add to the “regular roster”—exemplifies an entrepreneur who not only sees and takes advantage of opportunities most others might not even recognize, but someone who goes out and aggressively creates such opportunities for himself (so that he can, as he put it, “buy freedom” for he and his family).

Below, class blogger Aubrey Cook provides far greater insight into the fascinating entrepreneurial tale of serial entrepreneur Jason Robbins.

Prof. Gabel

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Yesterday, our Midwest Entrepreneurs class had the opportunity to gain knowledge from a Monmouth local, Jason Robbins.   Mr. Robbins has a background in a several different areas of entrepreneurial activity (dating all the way back to when he was in high school).  Jason spoke to our class about his journey that got him to where he is today, the CEO of Robbins Resource Management.

Jason began his entrepreneurial endeavors twenty or so years ago when he was sixteen years old. He traveled to a local bank to obtain a loan, on which he had no cosigner, in order to purchase cars in United States General Services Administration (GSA) auctions.  The idea of “flipping” these vehicles gave him the cash that he needed at the time.

After leaving the idea of car flipping in the dust, Jason got married right out of high school and purchased two real estate properties at a very low cost. He fixed them up entirely by himself, teaching himself carpentry from rented videos from the public library and using some knowledge he obtained from his father.  Robbins continued purchasing and fixing up houses with different sources of funding.  Little did he know that this would be the beginning of something that is still a very prominent aspect in his present life.

Mr. Robbins then went into business with his father and brother; a business dealing with the removal of pallets in the local area. The three were very excited about this endeavor because as Jason commented “the pallet industry is real big”.  Presently, this business is not Jason’s main focus, though he still cares about the wellbeing of the company; he has many other things to focus on.

About nine years ago, Jason started conducting a business-to-business type of entrepreneurial activity that is his biggest focus today (in Robbins Resource Management).  Mr. Robbins purchased a specific sort of pallet from someone down south just to resell to a man in Iowa.  This was a completely legal exchange that made Jason money.  He knew that he was on to something here.  Robbins began “working the phones and emails” trying to find people with a surplus of pallets or those who needed them. He was basically acting as a broker; bringing buyers and sellers together and only taking title to the goods while in transit from seller to buyer.

This led to the opening of Robbins Resource Management, an S corporation located near the heart of downtown Monmouth. This company partners with “thousands of companies nationwide to facilitate their pallet and lumber needs”, per the company website.  This has been another big success for Jason, providing him with a good steady income to support himself and his family.

Going back to the real estate, Jason presently owns 57 properties around the area. Jason still continues to purchase fixer-uppers that he can sell when cleaned up. Many of these properties are on contract, where buyers are virtually renting to own.  In my eyes, I believe this helps property values of many different houses in various towns.  This gives a reasonably priced, well-constructed home that lower-income buyers potentially could not arrange to live in otherwise.

Mr. Robbins said a few things during his lecture that really stood out to me, the first being that he hasn’t worked for anyone since he was sixteen. I found that astonishing.  How can one be this successful of an entrepreneur and not have worked for anyone since his youth?  That is very impressive and something to be proud of.  Another quote of Jason I found important is that he “was looking to build wealth, not cash flow”.  He spoke on how his goal was to create wealth for himself and his family.  He did this through his many entrepreneurial endeavors.  This leads to a quote he said towards the end of the lecture. “By working hard and creating wealth, I am buying freedom”. Jason and his family travel a lot, leaving his company in the hands of his brother from time to time.  I had never even thought of wealth in the form of freedom, and Jason provided myself and the class with this important insight.

Having Jason Robbins speak in front of our class was extremely beneficial as well as enjoyable. Mr. Robbins displayed for us that it is possible to successfully be your own boss.  He is the perfect example of what a small-town boy with a dream for his family can turn into.  Thank you Mr. Robbins for speaking to our class!

Aubrey Cook

Kappa Kappa Gamma

Business Administration ’17

There is no other guest entrepreneur speaker in the class that I strive to “keep up with” more than Mike Acerra; inventor and presently Chief of Product Development of Galesburg-based Lux Blox LLC (a maker of highly innovative construction toy products).

www.luxblox.com

This desire to “keep up with” Mike and what he is doing and planning is based on (1) having interacted with him since the product was but a concept (printed out one block at a time on his personal 3D printer), (2) my son being a very early-stage “product tester,” and (3) the joy in seeing good people—Mike and company President Heather Acerra—with good, highly innovative ideas succeed (on an increasingly grand scale).

However, while there is no one I strive to “keep up with” more than Mike, there is also no class guest speaker I have a harder time keeping up with. This is because he plans and innovates and travels constantly; often at a frenetic pace. After class, he summed this aspect of his entrepreneurial venture by telling my son and I that “the ground is always moving.”

I take this to mean that he must keep moving—and the product must keep evolving—in response to ever-changing marketplace circumstances and consumer needs and wants. Not just that; he cannot merely react but must strategically move in proactive fashion ahead of the changes (necessitating a keen focus on the market and consumers and the retailers who sell to them). I have seen great ideas from—and great success for—Mike Acerra but it is clear that “nothing is ever good enough” for him.

I turn things over to class blogger Cole Downey for more on Mike’s scintillating visit to the class this past Tuesday.

Prof. Gabel

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Mike Acerra began his presentation by outlining his activities directly after his graduation from Knox College: Two years living isolated among the trees in a yurt. After joking that he fully embodied the stereotypical Knox College graduate, he explained how he used this time to study nature, geometry, and whatever text he could manage to lay his hands on.

Constantly throughout the class Acerra would break from information regarding his entrepreneurship in an effort to teach the class about whatever his stream of conscience had led him to. It became obvious from the start that Acerra wasn’t just enthusiastic about his explaining his product, he was enthusiastic about explaining anything.

Mike Acerra is an inventor, whose inspirations range from the ratios mathematicians found in nature to great architectural and scientific minds such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller. From these minds he drew inspiration for Lux: The Principled Block. The blocks (or “blox” as they are referred to on his website) fall somewhat but not squarely into the same category as toys such as LEGO, but attempt to present more advanced building opportunities. The single square shape cannot only be created into rigid and single planned structures, but can also be put together into more complex structures such as gears.

He and his wife were inspired to create the blocks in an effort to open the minds of children to genuine learning, as opposed to the well-worn path of teaching that suppressed natural inspiration. Their mission extended towards production, where he had ensured the manufacturing for his product occurred in the USA.

Acerra moved back to Chicago in 1990. After working with his wife to develop the idea of what they hoped to create, he carefully patented his idea; specifically the hinged connectivity that allows structures made from Lux to move. Acerra expressed the importance of being careful with the patent system, as being ignorant to the rules could mean publicizing or killing an idea without the ability to protect it. Instead, he promotes the idea of continuance, allowing patentees to hold onto multiple ideas by taking legal action against those who attempt to make a similar product with the case that they were “going to patent it eventually.” This led into his presentation on funding, which came down to a clear and succinct motif: “Don’t show them a mission statement. Show them a profit and loss statement.”

Despite his vast knowledge of the many national and regional trade shows that he has attended, Acerra admitted that he didn’t attend under the principle that he was an enthusiast of his product. His love for explaining often overpowered his need to sell, which prompted him to send the “closers” instead. Nobody could argue that Acerra loved to talk. With the brief exception of the questions that occurred during his presentation, several of the students were left to wonder whether or not he had taken a breath in the last hour.

Similar to years past, Acerra was already outlining the steps he wanted his product to take for the future. His social media presence was littered with futuristic and abstract art that was meant to mirror the same utopian learning values that his product embodied. He emphasized the importance of moving towards the Amazon market place, as he believes the “Ma and Pa” retail store model he has relied heavily on in the past may see difficult times ahead. However, this did not dampen his support of these family owned businesses (as he is still at heart a home grown Midwesterner still mourning the loss of several factories that had once made his home town of Galesburg a powerhouse city).

Finally, he was in the early stages of unrolling a new box/packaging. While the previous one was aesthetically pleasing, the lack of detail and information made for a product that appeared more intimidating than it did welcoming. One past challenge that he discussed was his decision to begin including instructions in the box. While this conflicted with his idea of genuine, free-form learning, it allowed for less inspired customers to more easily participate in the building culture which once again is found all throughout his social media.

Mike Acerra seemed completely content with his lack of an off-button. His presentation was lively, sporadic, and energized. I imagine that in the toy industry, this is a trait desired by many who are looking for an individual who is both inspired by their product and their mission. I have no doubt that this same energy will carry him towards many future victories with his product.

Thank you Mr. Acerra for coming to speak to our class!

Cole Downey

Each semester I try to have as a guest speaker at least one “entrepreneurial facilitator”; an organization existing to provide assistance to entrepreneurs (and often other types of businesses).

We had our first such guest yesterday in class; The Knox Country Area Partnership for Economic Development. Visiting were three employees of the firm: Ken Springer, Kyle Kelley, and 2016 Monmouth College graduate Kate Rees.

Class blogger Jazmin Barajas tells us all about The Partnership and what it does for entrepreneurs below.

Prof. Gabel

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Many of the people who have come to visit our classroom have been entrepreneurs that have started their own local business near Monmouth, IL. However, Thursday evening the Midwest Entrepreneurs Class got the pleasure to meet some people who are “behind” the entrepreneur’s startup and success. Ken Springer, Kyle Kelley and Kate Rees, who are part of “The Knox Country Area Partnership for Economic Development,” spoke to our class about how they help entrepreneurs start their dream business in Galesburg and the Knox County region.

Below is some information from The Partnership’s webpage (http://www.knoxpartnership.com/) about each of our guests and about how the Partnership operates.

The Staff

• Springer is the President of the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development. He was born in West Michigan and earned a bachelor of science degree in International Relations from Western Michigan University and a master’s degree in Applied Community and Economic Development from the Stevenson Center at Illinois State University. He was the Vice President of the Bloomington-Normal Area Economic Development Council which gave him the knowledge he needed to become the President of the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development. He was the first choice for the Board of Directors.
• Kelley is the Client Manager for the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development. He was born in Galesburg however, worked in Peoria, IL in the banking industry for four years which he has brought a sales skillset to the Partnership and not only that but he works with small business.
• Rees is the Communications Associate for the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development. She was born in Chicago, IL suburbs and graduated from Monmouth College with a degree in Public Relations, Communications, and Art, which her skills in marketing and graphic design bring creativity to the Partnership’s digital and social presence.
• Which all the knowledge and job experience that they have they have been able to manage and run the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development since the hiring of Mr. Springer in December 2014.

About the Knox County Area Partnership

• It is a private non-profit organization that helps with economic development to Galesburg and the Knox County region. they are a professional, non-partisan, non-political organization whose goal is the promotion of job growth, new investment and a better quality of life for the communities of Galesburg and the Knox County region.

Investors

The Partnership is a private non-profit organization; therefore, they get a lot of help from many private and public-sector investors which in total are 50 investors (5-6 are private and the rest are public). Some of those include: Ameren, Bullis and Sundberg Insurance Services, Carl Sandburg College, City of Galesburg, First Mid-Illinois Bank and Trust, Galesburg Cottage Hospital, Hy-Vee, Knox College, Knox County, Midwest Bank (of Western Illinois), Mustain Law Office, and OSF St. Mary Medical Center.

In class… Thursday evening our guests talked to the Midwest Entrepreneurs Class about how they help entrepreneurs start their own business, or how to save an existent business from closing in Galesburg and the Knox County region. To begin with, the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development has four Priorities:

1. Existing Business Expansion and Support Funds
2. New Business Recruitment (bring in new companies to the area)
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Community Importance

However, they focused their discussion on number 3; Entrepreneurship. Here they have four ways to assist projects, which are in order from easies to hardest:

1. Advisement (sitting down and talking to the entrepreneurs: Basic Information, market demographics).
2. Site choice (help the company find the right location for their business).
3. Successful Referral (help connect business to SCORE, a small business of mentors that help clients start their business: handles cash flow, local economy).
4. Incentives (help borrow money from the bank than talks to city council who makes the decision to whether it happens or not).

They also provided us three examples of projects that show use how they work and what they do.

Judy’s Tumbling: Helped them find a better location than the mall in Galesburg giving them the chance to stay operation which created capital space. They also helped them partner with another business making them help each other grow. We were told the company chose the sixth location that the Partnership helped them look at.

New Restaurant (not able to disclose name yet): The Partnership helped them get a loan, find a location, referred business and marketing plan assistance to SBDS, and target to open no later than early June 2017).

Integrated Precision Agriculture: Help them obtain the forgivable loan of $10,000 from the city to start their business of using drones to spay fields. Also, helped them obtain all the licenses and permits that they need it to operate.

The Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development is a free service for whoever wants to start or save their business in Galesburg and the Knox County region. They are the people who have the answers to questions you have about becoming an entrepreneur.

The Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development is an organization that is 100% confidential, which means any information shared with them cannot be shared with anybody but with you. They can also choose who they can work with if they don’t see any future.

If you want to become an entrepreneur or change your business visit the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development; they have a book—and minds—full of ideas that they are sure will help you become a successful business in the area.

Thank you Mr. Springer, Mr. Keeley and Ms. Rees!

Jazmin Barajas

Did you know that Monmouth was once home-base for a very successful video game development company? Its name was Magic Lantern Playware and it was co-founded and run by our guest speaker this past Tuesday; current City of Monmouth Economic Development Director Paul Schuytema.

This firm successfully completed and commercialized 20 video game projects and sold over one million units. It pumped roughly $2.5 million into the local economy. Its members published over a dozen books; many on how to best succeed at various video games of the day. Lastly, the firm represented an opportunity for what Paul referred to as “eight nerds to live their dream.”

Sounds like a great success; right?

Well yes; certainly… But then—and ultimately—no.

Paul’s firm no longer exists. It experienced the fate of many entrepreneurial firms; it ultimately failed. But it did so only after a very wild, up and down ride full of what Paul referred to as “grand failures” and “great successes”–and many “landmines” and “best of times” and “worst of times”–along the way.

I now yield to today’s student blogger–Victoria Bance–to tell in more detail the tale of reluctant (former) high-tech entrepreneur Paul Schuytema.

Lastly, THANK YOU Paul for sharing your story and experience with us!! It is understandable that many former entrepreneurs whose companies ultimately failed are reluctant to talk about what happened; it can be very painful. Paul seems to have learned from his experience and to have learned to have fun with it.

Prof. Gabel

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Paul Schuytema was not the regular entrepreneur that planned everything out, the business ended up finding him unintentionally. Mr. Schuytema spoke to our class about his crazy journey on March 21, 2017.

It all began when Paul was a kid in the 70’s. He was very entertained by playing board games. He and family would bond over family game night.

As a child, he was also interested in formalizing rule sets. An example he gave in class was being able to make a playground set into a ship and the ground lava and having there be certain restrictions that made games more fun. There were many games he enjoyed playing such as “Cosmic Impounder”, “Cosmic Blitz”, “Squad Leader” and much more. The one game that he did not like to play was “Monopoly”. In 4th grade, Paul enjoyed ancient Greek and Roman figurine themed games; also he was interested in painting the figurines. Soon he began to formulate his own rules.

At the age of 13 his dad passed away and as a way to distract Paul from this, his mother bought him an HP41C calculator; that kind of looks like a scientific calculator. The HP41C had roughly enough memory space to store one icon that we see on computers today. Not long after that the Atari 800 came out. The Atari 800 had much more memory than the HP41C, more colors and a joystick. It was around this time that Paul started writing letters to Chris Crawford, father of modern computer games on the Atari. Crawford was able to teach Paul some of the secret keys of coding.

In the early 80’s Paul attended Knox College as a Computer Science major but soon found out that it was not what he expected. So he changed his major to something else he enjoyed; storytelling and writing. After graduating, he got a job at Monmouth College. Not long after that he starting creating video games. The first gig he was offered by Atari in early 90’s, they wanted him to help with the game “Mind Drive”. It was a game that you would literally use your thoughts to drive depending on what side of the brain you were using to move the character. This project didn’t turn out as well as they wanted. He said it was too easy to get sidetracked and you would just crash.

Later Paul got a second gig working for 3D Realms in Texas to be a designer for the game called “Prey”. At the same time, within the same company, there was another group of designer’s creating the MechWarrior game which was supposed to compete with “Prey”. The goal for “Prey” was to be the most violent game on the market. Paul had come to work one day to find out that the president terminated the game immediately. After that Paul did what anyone would do and left the company. From this experience, he learned the right and wrong way to run a business.

Paul then moved back to Monmouth, at the time he had a wife and two kids. The only internet they had in Monmouth around 1999 was dial up. He decided he wanted to make a game himself but needed to pay the bills at the same time. He started writing video game strategy guides during the day for money and at night he worked on his games. He made a couple games during this time. One was called “Second Genesis” and the other was “Gen Fusion.” Both were what he called “grand failures” because they didn’t have that popular name that people know such as “Star Trek” or “Rugrats”. The next game took him a little farther. The game was called “Forts-A Magic Lantern Game”. Paul went to a trade show to show off his work and got to meet Ed Fries, which at the time was head of all Microsoft games. Fries turned down his game disrespectfully.

After that, he did a pitch to Red Storm Entertainment. He made a demo to try to capture their interest in his work. He had to create all the technology on his own because he didn’t have much to work with. A while later they called and told him they wanted to send a team to Monmouth to make sure that he had a real company. At the time it was only him and a few other people; not really much of a company in any way. He had to make it look like the company existed, so he borrowed a few things from his mom bought some tables and chairs and made his space look like a business. A few months later the company sent him an okay a big advance check in the mail to get started on the project.

“Rainbow Six Covert Ops Essential Game” was a success. At the same time, Magic Lantern Playware wrote the largest existing encyclopedia on counter-terrorism. An interviewee predicted 9/11 exactly as it would happen. Because of the details and the accuracy of this, their show tech engine was used to provide tactical police training programs. Paul’s next game “Combat” was a success. He received $40,000 from Rainbow Six Game.

The next game he was offered to create was “Survivor” which he knew was not going to be good because they were rushing him and his team to make a deadline. But before the game came out they offered him the next game “Survivor Ultimate”, which was a little bit better in picture quality. But when it came out it was popular to a target market they didn’t expect to hit; younger to middle age women. The games sold a lot but were, according to Paul, not all that good.

After that one of his own employees stole the equipment used to make the games and then crashed a car that Paul co-singed leave Paul with the bill. He learned never to co-sign and not to trust everyone. After that Paul continued to make games but more along the lines of “Foosball”, “Mahjong”, “Front Runner” and “Video Game Tycoon”. Some were better than others. Not long after the company went bankrupt.

Why?… Industry change that was not taken seriously and failure to adapt.

The video game industry started to take a new route. When the console Xbox came out it pretty much put wiped PC gaming off the competitive map. It was impossible to compete with console games because there would have been a bigger need for employees to work on a game than what he had and the technology was much different. Paul at first thought console gaming was a joke and would never succeed. He was wrong. It all happened—and ended—very fast.

Today Paul is the Director of Economic Development for the city of Monmouth. His wife Susan is the owner of Market Alley Wines in town and he helps with web development. He continues to use what he learned from his experiences—from the grand failures and the great successes–to better the company that the two own.

Victoria Bance

Our guest speaker this past Tuesday was one I had eagerly anticipated having in class for some time for a variety of reasons. For one, knowing how many of our graduates go into finance-related jobs and careers, I look to have at least one finance-related entrepreneur as a guest each semester; something I have failed to achieve at times in the past. Also, our guest was a first-time speaker in the class and an alum of Monmouth College whose visit had been discussed and arranged well in advance.

William “Bill” Hurckes’81 founded and presently heads up Hurckes – McCord Financial Management, a full services financial planning firm based in Peoria, IL (see: https://hurckesmccord.com/ ). His guest-speaker appearance in the class exceeded my expectations; just as Bill’s firm aims to do with its clients. Not only did Bill’s financial planning expertise come through loud and clear but his “entrepreneurial story”—starting as an Education major at Monmouth College then a college and high school basketball coach—was truly captivating and inspirational. We learned, perhaps above all else, that being a successful financial planning entrepreneur is certainly not “all about” knowing investments and other financial planning tools. Instead, Bill Hurckes shows us that success in the field takes patience, keen listening skills, some level of psychological understanding, and becoming a trusted  expert in worrying about complex things that many persons would rather pay someone else to worry about for them than face themselves. Below, class blogger Simran Arora prides further detail on Mr. Hurckes’ ongoing entrepreneurial journey.

Prof. Gabel

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Bill Hurckes graduated from Monmouth College in 1981 with a degree in education. After his graduation his dream was to be a basketball coach. So he began teaching and coaching at the high school level in 1982.  In 1986, he moved up to the college level as a assistant football and and head women’s basketball coach at—Monmouth College’s chief rival—Knox College (in nearby Galesburg, IL). He worked in Knox for four years as a hardworking coach.  Soon he realized that his family was getting bigger and their needs were increasing too. This is where his ongoing entrepreneurial journey began.

He decided to get a part time job that would make more money and that would allow him to be with his family (as his two sons were growing up). A coaching colleague invited him to sell life insurance; he had never thought about it and didn’t have any plan for this opportunity.  So he believed in himself and worked as an agent for selling life insurance as his part time job.  He made this decision and didn’t regret it. He maintained his coaching positions at Knox while he began his second career.  A turning point came in 1992 when he decided to leave his dream job of teaching and coaching and stepped into a new business—based upon but expanding on his part-time insurance sales work—where he didn’t have any business plan and no one to work with him. He also made another major decision by moving his family back to central Illinois, and made a home in East Peoria, Illinois, where he and his wife still live.  Bill named his financial consulting business “Hurckes and Associates (even though there really were no “associates”).  As he told the class, at this point he was really scared and uncertain about his future.  But things have worked out very well for Mr. Hurckes now 25 years later.

In the early years, Bill spent much of his time going to people’s homes to discuss his services and products.  As his business grew, his main focus went from insurance needs to financial/investment planning needs.  After acquiring the appropriate licenses and education, Bill turned his insurance firm into a full service financial planning office. He said that most of the people who come to him are because of client referrals and because of his reputation as someone who can be trusted to manage the client’s money and future. He serves his clients diligently and gives them helpful advice on several key aspects of their financial situations. He told us that with his strong menu of “Gold Medal Services,” he and his associates—he does now have associates—give the client a comprehensive review of tax planning, investment plans, retirement planning, risk management and estate planning

Mr. Hurckes informed the class that he determined that instead of investing in traditional advertising/marketing, they found it more beneficial to spend money on events for his clients, which are encouraged to bring their friends or family members.  They provide two type of events; educational workshops and client fun events.  The workshops are on a variety of topics pertinent to the financial planning process.  The other events are not sales-related events but just fun get-togethers where clients and their guests can come and chat, have a good time, and get to know Bill and the other members of his firm.

At the end of his talk Mr. Hurckes provided some great advice for the students. He said that we should “always follow the heart.” Here he stated that there are people who will guide or misguide us but that no matter what we should just follow what we really value in life. In addition to this he also said that we should “always be passionate” about the work we do (and that if we do this we will enjoy our futures much more).

Simran Arora

Last Tuesday was the much-anticipated guest speaker appearance of 2012 Monmouth College graduate Ed Wimp. I was impressed with Ed before I even met him due to the obvious fact that he has been an ambitious young man who has accomplished a lot in a very short period of time in a very dynamic and tough industry; music entertainment tour management and consulting. See more about Ed at the link below (and on Facebook and Twitter).

http://www.edwimp.com/

I am even more impressed with Ed after having him speak in the Midwest Entrepreneurs class. I knew he was ambitious coming in but I underestimated the extent of it. This is man only 4-5 years out of undergraduate college who has shown what I would call an “aggressive fearlessness” in creating and taking advantage of opportunities (and then effectively networking and leveraging relationships to expand both his client base and the range of services provided to them).

I now turn things over to class blogger Paul Engo III to tell you more about what we learned from Ed Wimp this past Tuesday in the Midwest Entrepreneurs class.

Lastly, Spring Break is next week so the blog is likely to be less active than usual. See you back here soon…

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Ed Wimp, a former student in the Midwest Entrepreneurs class here at Monmouth College, came to speak to the class on Feb 28th. Wimp is a well know music industry Tour Manager and Consultant (and recently entered the industry of book publishing). He has his own business operation in Orlando, Florida.

When Wimp was younger he didn’t always know what he wanted to do but he did know that whatever he did would have to deal with music. What got him the job he is currently at was by simply asking a family friend about the position. Some call it “luck”, but Ed Wimp would call it networking.

Wimp started out by helping managing tours without pay. They wanted to test out how he would do in the operation. He did well and later was offered a job. Through the job he has been able to manage or otherwise work with several famous artists, such as Wiz Khalifa, Earth Wind and Fire, and A$AP Rocky.

One of the unique things about Wimp’s job is how a lot of his work goes without recognition or praise. It seems that if Ed is doing his job well, no one notices; because no one notices when nothing major is going wrong. One of the questions presented in class was “What keeps you going when people don’t give you credit for the work that you do?” and his response to that question was “The work itself is fast pace and the people are like a family, so I just love what I do… When things run smooth that is enough credit and praise for me”. It showed his love for the music and the people are what give him the drive to do the work that he does today.

Today Ed Wimp is very successful and is still in school currently looking to get his Law Degree (to allow him to expand on the services he can provide to his clients in the music industry). Because he is still a student, he makes his schedule fit around his class schedule.

Having him speak in front of our class was such a great honor. After hearing him speak I feel as though I got a real understanding of what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur. It takes a good bit of skill, but networking is what puts you the opportunities that you want to be in. So thank you Ed Wimp for that. He is a perfect example of what a small town college named Monmouth College can produce.

Paul Engo III