Follow the Leader – Travis from Young Go Getter

by Rebecca Thorman on August 277 Comments

This post is part of the “Follow the Leader” series, where you get the chance to peek into the professional and personal lives of fellow young leaders to learn how they get it all done. If you would like to be the next young leader profiled, email me.

Travis - Young Go GetterTravis from Young Go Getter is a bit mysterious. He assures me this really is him in the photo to the left. I’ll assume we can’t see his face because teal just isn’t his color. No matter. Travis is crazy successful and while I was still learning my right hand from my left, Travis was already starting businesses.

Tell Modite readers about yourself:

I am a 22 year old Canuck with a nice big diploma from ad school buried in my filing cabinet. I’ve been an entrepreneur for about 8 years and a partner at YGG for a year and a half or so.

I work full-time as a freelance creative with my clients and squeeze in a bit of blogging on several different sites.

(click twice to enlarge and sharpen Travis’ to do list for this week)

Travis - Young Go Getter To Do List

Define leadership:
The ability to determine what needs to be done, who’d be best at doing it, and being able to step aside when it’s not yourself.

What does balance mean to you?
Balance is having symmetry between madness and silence. It’s when you’re able to push yourself almost to the breaking point, then punch out for the day with no hesitation.

What’s not on your calendar?
Birthdays. I’m horrible with birthdays. And the bad thing is, for most of my friends, I’ve known them for years and years, so if I were to ask them their exact birth date now, I’d look like a total ass.

How do you think we can encourage young leaders? Keep them engaged?
Make an example out of yourself. Most young go getters nowadays have all the war stories and resources they need to build an enormously successful business or create a meaningful impact on the world.

In the same sense that “you have to see it to believe it,” product demos have molded our acceptance in the marketplace. Leading by example will always have a much more encouraging effect than words on paper.

Seeing the results of entrepreneurial action and quotations proving themselves true, always seem to get my ass in gear.

How much time do you devote to blogging and promoting your blog?
I spend a lot more time developing and promoting our blog than I do writing, which is changing in the coming weeks. But for YGG, I spend an hour or two on most days developing new features or fixing bugs — and about two hours either writing content, participating in the Forum, or talking to some of the people I’ve been able to meet thanks to the site. Kind of like yourself, Rebecca.

Last words of advice?
Life isn’t as difficult as they make it out to be. Heck, you can Google any issues you face, chances are others have as well.

Do your best to get that big picture out the door and let the details handle themselves.

Go Young Go Getter, Go!

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  • http://littleredsuit.com Tiffany

    Great profile. Love the quote on balance. Beautiful.

  • http://www.xanga.com/raychung22 Ray

    This is so ironic. I just started a “Gen-Y Leader Spotlight” myself. Good stuff. We need more of these! Keep it up!

  • http://modite.com/blog Rebecca Thorman

    @ Tiffany – That was my favorite quote from Travis too. I think it really defines young workers today.

    @ Ray – this was the second in my follow the leader series. Be sure to check out the first here.
    I checked out your Gen Y Leader Spotlight series – looks promising and I am looking forward to future spotlights!

  • http://www.younggogetter.com/ Eric

    Silence and madness. Nice Travis, very nice…

    As for birthdays – all I have to say is thank God for iCal and recurring reminders.

  • http://www.jeremysalter.com Jeremy Salter – a work in progress

    Travis,

    Would you rather continue to look like an ass year after year when you miss your friends birthdays, or look like a jerk once when you have to ask (and then make sure you record it to some recurring event in your calendar like Eric mentioned).

    Facebook has been a great application for me to export friends’ birthdays into my own calendar and then make sure I contact them via phone or person (so much more personable then a simple Facebook message) because birthdays truly are a special day to whomever may be currently having one! It doesn’t matter what age they may be turning, young or old, it’s still a special day and it deserves to be recognized!

    So get on top of that, and it can often prove to be a great way to get back in touch with someone you haven’t spoken to in awhile.

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