The past 18 months of the pandemic, as trying as they have been, has proven an entrepreneurial breeding ground allowing determined action-takers and thought leaders to creatively build their visions for the betterment of our society. Lucky us. A prominent quote comes to mind for such times from the late great Henry Ford; "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right."
For today, or at least the duration of this article, let's move past Henry Ford and shine the spotlight a hundred years forward to today, onto Travis Chappell. Never heard of him? Well, today is the last time you'll be able to utter such words.
Travis has dared to quantify and scale one of the most nuanced skills of our generation given the influx of internet power and reach- networking and personal development. In the few years since his specific focus on this fundamental concept, he's interviewed and received praise from many of the top business, personal development and influential leaders of today on his Build Your Network podcast. Most recently, Travis has launched a software company, Guestio, to continue the vision of connecting and networking. What's fascinating about Travis's stark rise within this space, as he'll openly admit, is that he didn't have any experience in software, let alone raising the private capital to launch such a vision. Yet, he did it anyway, like a true entrepreneur.
Travis lived what most would call an uncommon upbringing, well before he was throwing Silicone Valley punches. He grew up in a very religious environment, having graduated kindergarten on the same campus he graduated college, and obtained an unaccredited degree in Bible and Church Ministries in that process. Not the typical start to tech entrepreneur stardom one would expect. That said, there are interesting factors and experiences throughout Travis' life that hint to the entrepreneurial spirit and business minded endeavors that have manifested into his projects of today. In high school, Travis became consumed with "the hustle" as most in the business world endearingly call their introduction to business ownership. He launched and operated a landscaping business, where he first discovered the power of building teams to create immovable value in the customer experience. He recounts, "I remember sitting in class one day during my senior year of high school, barely paying attention, but instead calculating how much money I was going to make on a couple landscaping jobs I had going. See, I had done nothing but sell and manage those jobs, but I was still going to make more than the college students I was paying to do the labor on the jobs. That is when I realized the value of selling and creating customer relationships." Having tired of the landscaping business, Travis was met with an opportunity in door-to-door sales during his early college years which gripped his ambitions for a number of years after. Eventually though, the hustle didn't outweigh his deep longing for a meaningful creation- one that he would have to humble himself to pursue.
Welcome, Build Your Network Podcast. In the wake of the podcast boom it's almost too easy to get swept into the wave of ordinary talk, but Travis had different plans. Inspired by the work of John Lee Dumas' 'Entrepreneur on Fire', Travis felt a mission to highlight and experientially exemplify first-hand one of the most crucial principles of our connected world- networking. What I can appreciate most is Travis's humility in understanding his own limitations in this field and using his podcast as the medium to document his experience of learning the skills of adding value to people to grow his network, and in-so-doing, yours as the listener. Through this journey, the value has proven true with a consistent Top 25 rating on the iTunes downloads chart and over two million downloads. He has interviewed and been connected to some of the most influential people of today like Shaq, Rob Dyrdek, Matt Barnes, Tomi Lahren, and Grant Cardone by practicing the skills of growing value, and in the process making these typically inaccessible people, accessible.
Most recently, Travis has dived head first into his software start-up, Guestio. With Guestio, Travis is creating a marketplace to seamlessly connect show hosts and content channels to guests, while providing real monetization efforts. This can be a massive game-changer in the scalability of podcasts, and truly lends a hand up to an aspiring show host looking to quickly make a name for themselves in this industry. What's astounding is prior to this, Travis had no experience in software and no experience raising capital. Well, he's proving that to be a non-issue. He raised $1.5 million in a seed round from investors like Matt Barnes, John Lee Dumas, Joel Marion, David Meltzer and Spacestation Investments, and Guestio was recently featured in Tech Crunch.
Hey world, Travis is just getting started.
Be sure to get as close to Travis as you can by visiting his website, www.travischappell.com, listening to Build Your Network Podcast and following him on Instagram @travischappell.
