Meet entrepreneur TJ Shedd, CEO of HIT Network and BitBoy Crypto.
TJ Shedd’s life journey can be summarized as a constant pursuit of knowledge, critical thinking, and adaptability. His upbringing as a homeschooled student put him in good stead for this, teaching him that education should be “more about understanding than memorization.”
By the age of 17, he had completed his schooling and decided to attend real estate school. After completing the course, Shedd formally joined the industry in 2008; a time which was one of the worst markets in history for that sector.
However, he was fortunate enough to work with an experienced agent who had been selling properties for over 30 years. Together, they built a small team and successfully sold properties in Atlanta, with sales exceeding 15 million dollars per year. Shedd became an expert in distressed properties and even helped Bank of America set up their short sale distress sales system.
Journey Into Web3
After several years, Shedd decided to switch careers and move to California to work in media sales. He sold television, sports marketing advertisements for an independent TV network called Mav TV, which was owned by Lucas Oil.
It was this move in location that sparked Shedd’s interest in crypto, and he started to attend various conferences and meetups which were nearby in Los Angeles and San Diego. He was intrigued by the potential of this emerging industry, which reminded him of Jeff Bezos’ realization about the internet’s potential. Shedd became a crypto enthusiast and went all-in:
“Back then, you could walk right up and talk to Charles Hoskinson or Adam Back and just talk to them. They were very approachable and they’d answer any of your questions! I could see that this industry was going to be massive.”
Drawing on his background in media and blogging, Shedd put his skills and network to work in the crypto industry, launching Coinbound – an agency that connected brands with creators for advertising purposes within the crypto industry. Coinbound proved to be an experience that laid the foundation for TJ’s future successes:
“In 2019, it was almost impossible to do any type of paid advertising when it came to the crypto markets because there was a strong shutdown on Google and Facebook. They just blacklisted everybody. So the only way you could really advertise is to go to different YouTube creators or podcasters and put some kind of package together. What our business did is created relationships with several of those different creators, and pre-negotiated pricing to roll it up into a big package. Essentially, we made it easy for the brand so they didn’t have to go one by one by one with each individual creator to get that established.”
BitBoy and Beyond
Some time later in 2020, Shedd partnered with Ben Armstrong, the creator of Bitcoin Crypto, and together they launched TJ Bitboycrypto. Their YouTube channel quickly gained traction and the duo became some of the biggest winners of the bull market, gaining around 1.5 subscribers by May 2021. Shedd and Armstrong also invested in several blockchain projects and created TJ HitNetwork, described by Shedd as “a network of content creators mainly focused on Web3.”
Today, Shedd runs a handful of brands, including NFT Alpha, Metamoney, and Bitlab Academy. Another exciting project he is working on is Vumio, an all-in-one NFT marketplace that aims to provide superior customer service and user experience – something which he believes is sorely lacking in the space, and is taking the opportunity to correct that:
“So we feel like there’s some things lacking in that space, especially when it comes to customer service and user experience. That’s the main focus of Vumio; to provide actual customer support where you’re getting a real human on the phone or email within 24 hours. Where real people actually address your problems and you’re not just emailing the void.”
Final Thoughts
Shedd’s exceptional ability to embrace change and seize new opportunities, as demonstrated by his successful transition from real estate to media sales, and eventually to Web3, is a powerful reminder that adaptation and a willingness to pursue new ventures are crucial factors for success in any career path.
Furthermore, his continuous prioritzation of content creators and user experience serves as a compelling example that sometimes the most effective path to success lies in helping others: “Creators are the lifeblood of the crypto industry,” he says. “They are the ones who are creating the content that is educating and informing people about blockchain technology.”
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