It was all a dream...

Almost 20 years ago, I sat on my friend Bernadette's bedroom floor trying to figure out what to do after high school. All my friends were going off to college and picking their majors while I'm over here thinking to myself, "How the hell are we supposed to know the answer to this at 17 years old?! We've barely had a real part time job". 

So I simply made a statement... "I don't know what I want to do...... I just want to be a part of something big.... like the Super Bowl or a Budweiser campaign or something." 

That was it. That was the first time I put my hopes, dreams and ambitions out there into the universe to help direct and guide me in my career path.  I've since updated the list of things I want to do/achieve every year and keep a 5 year and 10 year list. (Yes, I like to have 3 lists as my near/mid/far goals) 

December was such an incredibly emotional month for me as I busted my ass getting everything in order to start my own company. December 23rd, ELVN Digital was born (officially.. like legal, business license and all official). I was so emotional! I had no idea that I was going to be such a wreck over it. Like, I cried... everywhere...all day.. I criiiiiieeeeddd! Leaving my attorneys office, I cried. On the phone with my dad, I cried. At the bank, I cried. Sitting by myself on the computer, waterworks running down my face. It was a good cry.. a really really proud moment and happy tears. 

There had been something in the works for a while and I kept my cool with it because it was a pretty damn big deal. A HUGE deal as a matter of fact. One of the first things I would get to do was crossing off TWO things that I said in the same sentence almost twenty years prior. One of my clients I started working with owned Budweiser Beer Park AND I'd get an opportunity to help run the Houston Super Bowl Social Media Command Center!! Budweiser campaign... CHECK! Super Bowl... CHECK! HOLY $H*T! In my first 34 days of business I get to cross these two things off my list that have been near and dear to my heart for almost TWENTY years. 

I showed up today to pick up my credential, meet up with Joe (my biz partner) and met with some of the Super Bowl Host Committee team and seriously cannot believe I get to be here working with one of the biggest brands in sports for one of the biggest events in sports, period.  I have no words. 

After this, I've crushed all the big things I have ever set out to do. What the heck do I write down now?!.............. hummmmm.... I'm coming for ya, JEEP!! 😜

What a wild ride this will be! I'm so incredibly blessed and thankful for my friends, family and community that have been beyond supportive of me on this journey. I cannot be more grateful for the people in my life that have been a part of this journey.

The Next Chapter

The last nine weeks have been eye opening and refreshing. A moment to reset, to find myself and things I'm passionate about. I've been incredibly blessed to have done many things in my life/career that most people wouldn't get to do in a lifetime. For that, I'm forever grateful for the experiences and opportunities. When I landed the job with the UFC, at the time when I made that goal (I wrote it down 13 months prior if you remember), there literally was nothing bigger that I thought I'd do in my career. That would be the pinnacle, working for a huge growing brand in sports (I had zero experience in sports marketing outside of marketing the Pay-Per-View events from my Cox/Comcast cable days). 

So what's next?

I've asked myself that every day for nine weeks. Work for another big brand? I could. Work for a start up company? I could do that too. Sell/rent out my house, pack up my stuff, buy a tiny house or just explore the world for a few years? I seriously considered it. 

The one thing I have always had in the back of my mind was, could I be my own boss? Would I love it? Hate it? I don't know but I felt like if there was ever a good time to find out, it was now.  I took everything I had in my mind and in my heart to start building out this plan and I've been incredibly blessed to have people in my life that have referred me to people that I could help.  I'm blessed to have friends and a community around me who are here to help each other succeed. I'm thankful for people in my life that have inspired me to go in the direction of entrepreneurship and believe in me taking on this journey. I'm grateful for my family who have supported my decisions throughout my career even when my dad didn't want me to leave my first "good job" at Comcast because it was a solid career with plenty of growth opportunity. I wanted to widen my career experience and explore opportunities with different companies, different industries, people and culture and I've done all of those things. 

So after hundreds of hours, phone calls and meetings, I've decided to move forward in this entrepreneurial space. I was going to do consulting on my own and work with a couple of clients but decided I'm going to jump in all the way and start a company. Coming up with your business name is not the funnest thing in the world. Do you go with a acronym? Do you come up with some clever name? Make a name up? This part sucked, not going to lie. My partner Joe and I kept going back and forth on this and I said to him, "I don't know what it will be, but somehow I want to incorporate Eleven, like Eleven 11 or something like that". He asked me what was with 11? I couldn't really explain it... 11:11 shows up in my life every single day. I randomly look at the clock at 11:11 a.m. and 11:11 p.m. every day. Go to the store and the check out price is $11.11, my loft downtown was unit 1111. I see 11 in so many different places and I have a habit of taking a screenshot on my phone or taking a picture whenever I see it.  Joe says to me "You know my first long standing client is Larry Fitzgerald and he's #11 for the Arizona Cardinals, right?"  I didn't even think about that! Somehow we have to figure out how to make 11 part of this.  So I said, "What if we spell it "ELVN" and as we started to do our research, we found the URL and social handles were all available. There were no service marks or trademarks with anything similar so we were getting closer.  "How about ELVN Digital?" I said.  Joe and I both agreed we liked that. 

As we started to get comfortable with the idea of having a name we liked...  I kept thinking, "what's our elevator pitch on the meaning of the company name?"  (as most people probably won't care about my 11:11 thing or Larry's #11 jersey). I thought about this more and I said "Whenever someone asks you to grade your service experience or rate how much you like something, they always ask you on a scale of 1-10. I'd expect that people are thrilled with the service we provide and we should always be thriving for an 11. We go above and beyond. Not only that but the two ones represent Joe and I as the founders of this business. This isn't some sort of a fluffy company mission/vision... it's true to the core of who we are and our work ethic. 

So from here we needed to come up with a logo... I reached out to my buddy David and had spewed all sorts of stuff at him including my Pinterest board of inspiration for fonts, color, design, logos, etc. He came back with a sketch pad of ideas

Sketch ideas for ELVN Digital

One of the logos really stood out to me and I loved the use of negative space. So we started to refine one of the designs and trying various colors until we landed on something we loved. 

Official Logo 

Once I saw the logo. I was like, "Wow. This is it. We're moving forward".

I set up time with my attorney to file the business license, service mark for the logo, etc. My attorney has his back towards me as he's entering all the information into his computer and says:

"What's the company name?"

 "ELVN Digital" I replied and gave him the quick story on 11:11. 

He turns around in his chair giving me this deer in headlights look and I just stop talking all together trying to figure out why he's giving me this crazy eye. He's got Google Maps pulled up on the screen and he points to the map and says: 

"This is my house in Iowa where I grew up. The house address is 1111". 

"SHUT UP!" I yelled. I couldn't believe he was telling me this. I mean, SERIOUSLY?! What are the chances of that??!!

We keep chugging along with the paperwork and I still can't wrap my head around his 1111 connection. I'm texting Joe about it in disbelief and also thinking to myself, this is meant to be. While the attorney is submitting all the documents online and forwarding documents to me, he says to me "it will take like 15-20 mins until we will get everything confirmed". So I just keep going through the emails he sent me and organizing all the stuff on my computer until he says everything is done.  A few minutes later I hear the "ding" notification on his computer that he has an email.  He turns to me and says "sweet. You're all set! Here's your business license, your service mark has been filed for your logo, that's it. You're all set." As he forwards me the final documentation and I open it on my laptop, I looked at the top right of my Macbook screen and the time was 11:11 a.m. 

I said to my attorney when he said everything was set, "Look at the time". 

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It was 11:11am at the exact time I received this

I don't know what it all means but I feel like whatever it is, it's good and it's telling me I'm doing the right thing. To whoever it is, whatever it is, thank you for showing me in numbers, specifically 11:11 that you are there and encouragement that this is all going to be great. 

I came home and I was full of emotions. We got the business license filed, company bank account opened and I came home and just cried. It was happy tears and super emotional, overwhelming and one of the proudest moments of my life. 

I went into my closet and I dug up this letter my dad wrote me in 1997 when I attended the Flowing Wells High School Leadership Retreat... 

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Letter from my dad from 1997

The last line of this page reads "Shanda I can see you as a CEO of a corporation"

Just shy of 20 years since he wrote me this letter.... I am that, of my own company. 

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It's official

I'm excited to see some nearly 20 year old goals coming to life at the same time. Many of you remember my story about writing down my goals back in 1998 and saying "I wanted to be part of something big like the Super Bowl or a Budweiser campaign".  I'm happy to say that a few of the first couple of clients we get to work with are Budweiser Beer Park here in Las Vegas and Super Bowl Houston heading up the Social Concierge team.  I get to officially check TWO nearly 20 year old goals off my list that I said literally in the same sentence and I couldn't be more proud. 

We are looking forward to an amazing year ahead.

Happy Holidays. 

:)

A lot has happened in the last 24-48 hours and it's been quite the whirlwind. I was laid off from my job at UFC on Tuesday. Before you say "I'm so sorry to hear that", it's ok. Be happy for me. I had the opportunity to be a part of something amazing for six and a half years. I got to be a part of MMA being legalized in New York, the first ever women's fight in the UFC, the introduction of flyweights and bantamweight division, the last WEC event, the purchase of Strikeforce, the first UFC event in my home state of Arizona, crossing milestones like 10 million and 20 million on Facebook, 1,2,3,4 million on Twitter, 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 million followers on Instagram, launching Snapchat... I mean I could literally go on and on. It's been amazing. I'll always be grateful for the time I had with the people behind the scenes, the athletes, cornermen and teammates, the partners at various arenas, sports leagues and teams, the celebrities, fans and media and literally everyone I came in contact with. You all have played such an incredible role in my life and have been a part of the successes we have had.

I don't know what is next and I have no doubt it will be on to do something amazing once again and I look forward to keeping in contact with you all. On to the next one.

Much love,

Shanda

Be you.

I am on a three hour delayed flight leaving Seattle heading home to Las Vegas after an AMAZING three days with Simply Measured at their 2nd annual LIFT Social conference.  There are few times in life when you come across some of the nicest, genuine, humble, kind and caring people all under one roof.... And I got to spend three days in this bubble of amazing bliss.  

I'm honored to have been asked to speak at LIFT Social for the second year in a row.  I psych myself out going into it because I worry, "maybe I'm not good enough", "maybe I'm not smart enough", "maybe I'll forget everything I wanted to say in my presentation", "what if I don't memorize my slides and I suck on stage"..... It all goes through my head. We're human, right?

Fuck it.  I'm not going to memorize my slides.  I'm not going to tell you ONLY the amazing successes I've had.  I'm going to tell you about the things I failed at and plans that didn't go so well.  I'm going to tell you how I approached a situation and figured out what I was trying to solve for versus expecting to cast a wide net and make something make sense or start vomiting numbers and stats.  I'm going to tell you how I started at square one and experimented along the way and turned every stone to find an opportunity.  I'm going to tell you things that you can understand and apply to your real world life, work, school.... whatever.  THAT is what I decided to do. 

So I did. 

I took the stage for my one hour session to a packed grand ball room.  I couldn't see too many people because the lights were bright and but I could spot two familiar faces in the crowd. So... here we go.... It's show time. 

My 60 minute session and Q&A comes to an end and I leave the stage thinking "I hope I didn't make a jackass of myself" as I make my way down from the stage and the long walk to the production guys to drop off my mic, I have attendees sticking their hands out to high five me from both sides of the isle.  

How. Freaking. Surreal. Is. This. 

So many people approached me afterward to thank me or tell me they were inspired and I literally want to cry.  I want to burst into tears with every single "thank you" that was said to me because I'm so humbled and so grateful for the opportunity to share what I love, who I am, I can inspire people to chase their dreams and believe in themselves .....  these people get it.  They can take something from what I said.  That's what success is.  It's not money. It's not fame. It's not being the most popular person in the room.  It's being real.  

LIFT Social is hands down my favorite social media conference and it's crazy to think this is only their second one. The product is phenomenal.  The people are even more phenomenal.  I have to admit when I took over the role as Social Media Manager for UFC 3 1/2 years ago, the product was something I inherited.  I didn't know what to do with it or how to read the reports.  I remember we came up to a renewal and I was like "no one is using this, I don't know what it is or what to do with it.  I don't think I'm going to renew it".  My rep, Lauren Berry asked if we could set up a couple of tutorials, once a week for a couple of weeks and she would break it down to me.  So I obliged.  Each week I felt like all of this was a foreign language and I didn't know what I was looking at or what I was supposed to do with it.... But each meeting more and more made sense.  I had a work trip coming up in Seattle because we had a fight scheduled at the Key Arena and Lauren said "why don't you come spend the day at our office".  So I did.  I met with product people, engineers, account managers, the guys who built the platform.... and everyone was incredible helping me understand what the tool could do.  That meeting was a game changer. I figured out that I didn't understand what I was looking at and what to do with the information because I hadn't figured out what I was trying to solve for.  The problem was I hadn't defined what I was trying to get out.  I then started to understand more of what the data was saying and it helped guide me to make business decisions to change things or add things to my social strategy.  It helped guide me if things were going well or if I should stop doing something immediately. From there, I learned how to put the data into context to tell a holistic story and understand the 360 degree effect. These little successes over a year wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the team who believed in their product and hadn't genuinely cared about what I did or didn't understand and help me make sense of it all.  There came a point in time when I started asking questions that they yet hadn't developed for the product or I had use cases where specific data could help me solve for some other business objective and I was then helping them to think about ways the businesses use their product to make their platform best in class.

So this is what a win-win relationship is like.  

Over the next 3 1/2 years the business relationship has grown as did the personal relationships.  I made my second appearance speaking at the summit and it's a feeling I can't even put into words about how I feel coming out of it. Grateful. Blessed.  Smarter today than I was yesterday. Humbled. Honored.  So many feels.

The attendees I met over the last few days were incredible. I handed out my business card like I was passing out candy on Halloween.  "Take my card. If you have any questions or want to chat about whatever, give me a call".  I meant it.  

I learned not just things to help me in my line of work in social media but I learned a lot about people.  We want to be inspired and have someone motivate us in a way that gets us excited to get up the next day and say "Fuck yeah! Let's do this!"

Yes, I cried. I felt overwhelmed, excited,  happy and the part that matters most....  I had the opportunity to inspire people and these people inspired me.  

The Power of Written Words

When I stop to look back at all the things I've done and accomplished in my life (personal and professional), I realized everything I've accomplished, I wrote it down. Let's go back to 1998. It was my senior year in high school and I honestly had no idea what I was going to do once I graduated.  I hadn't applied to any colleges, in fact, I didn't really grow up in an environment where that was even really a thing people talked about. I didn't even really understand the whole process and was quite intimidated by it. In my family, graduating from high school and going straight to work was pretty much what was expected or the norm. I remember once even meeting with a Marine recruiter. I'm pretty sure I only met with him because I wanted a pair of combat boots.

The only thing I knew was I wanted to continue to do something with my life.  I spent my entire high school life as a dancer.  All I wanted to do was dance. Maybe I'd get a chance to be a Fly Girl on In Living Color (flashback, right?),  maybe I would get a gig on tour with someone? I knew it was going to be a lot of work and a very tough career choice but I thought that was what I wanted to do.

The last couple of weeks of school, Ms. Webster (my psychology teacher) had us write down our 5 year and our 10 year goals. Just a few weeks prior to this exercise I remember spending the night at my friend Bernadette Rubal's house. (I loved staying an Bernie's house, her parents were so nice, I admired their family being so supportive of each other, all the kids were very bright, going off to college on scholarships, went on family vacations... Pretty much complete opposite of my life).  I remember laying on Bernadette's floor  saying

"I don't understand how we are supposed to know what we want to do for the rest of our life at 17 years old. I'm supposed to make a commitment, spend a bunch of money on getting a degree in something I've never even tried out?!" 

Don't know if it was a phobia to commitment or more like wanting to test drive a career choice. I followed up that comment with

"I don't know what I want to do.  I just want to do something big.  Like work on a Budweiser campaign or work for the Super Bowl".  

I didn't know  what capacity  I wanted to be involved with something like the Super Bowl.... I just wanted to be involved in something massive.  (Still cracks me up today that I said Budweiser. I don't even drink but I appreciate the brand and the marketing campaigns they've put together).

So I wrote down this list of 5 year and 10 year goals. Some of the things I wrote down

• Go to college
• Buy a house
• Get married
• Kids

You know.... the things you think are the typical goals to go after. I'll have to find the list to remember everything I wrote down, but I remember about 5-6 years after graduating and moving into my first home I purchased  (with my then husband), finding this list of goals and being kind of surprised that I was able to cross everything off (except the Kids goal and I changed my mind on that one anyway, so it was as good as being crossed off). I had accomplished my 5 year and my 10 year goals in about 7 years.  At that point I realized the power in writing down goals and putting that out into the universe.

So fast forward to 2008. 10 years after I graduated high school.  I was sitting at an airport in Tucson Arizona on a flight headed back home to Las Vegas. (I'll fill in the 10 year gap of what all I did with my school and career in another blog post). I was working for Cox Communications and I wasn't necessarily in love with marketing and selling cable, Internet, telephone, HDTV and DVR service, Pay-Per-View, HBO, Showtime etc.... it was something I was good at doing. I sat down and wrote on a small piece of paper a new set of goals for the next 5-10 years. I was doing some serious soul searching at this point so I wrote down a list that looked something like this....

Careers

• Continue to grow with Cox and go from local region to Corporte office
• Get back in music industry  (work in  radio again, work for Coachella, Lalapolooza, Redding Festival, concert promoter)
• Sports Marketing (UFC/HDnet)

When I wrote down the Sports Marketing goal- that was a TOTAL SWAG! Literally had no idea what all would be involved.  Didn't have a sports marketing or sports anything degree, didn't play sports, barely watched sports. While working in cable I used to order UFC and Boxing fights because it was more of a gathering for me than me caring about the actual event or who won.

Part of the reason I wrote it down also was my boss at Cox (Andrew Simon) had left Cox and was working directly for Mark Cuban at AXTV (formally HDNet).  Andrew was amazing and super smart and shared a common interest in MMA. (He knew waaaay more than I did about the sport and the athletes but I did enjoying going to fights and watching it on TV).

While still working for Cox, I was invited to a dinner with Starz movie channel. I went to the dinner, had a great time with the cast of Spartacus but once things settled down for the night I left and went home.  Got a text message about an hour later from a number I didn't have in my phone saying "Doug Hartling is going to call you".  I didn't know who that was and didn't know who the number belonged to so I ignored it and assumed someone text the wrong number.

The next day I get a call from my rep at Starz and she tells me she and her colleges invited a former co-worker for drinks after our dinner, he lived in Vegas and was working for UFC. He mentioned over drinks he was looking for a marketing manager. Megan from Starz says "I don't think she's looking, but you should call Shanda at Cox".  (Hence the "Doug is calling you text).

I was able to make a connection to something I wrote down on my goal list 13 months prior and this was a big one.  A really big one.  Something I thought I'd spend the next 15-20 years of my life chasing after and here it was, the universe had connected the dots and all my hard work was giving me an open door.

I believe on visualizing things you want to do/see/accomplish etc and there's something magical about writing it down and crossing it off the list.  It's not about looking at the things you haven't yet done, celebrate the things you have done.