Follow your gut.
A trip down memory lane, to one of my first blogs about sports cards.
I recently went golfing with a few new friends of mine in the hobby.
Over the past few years, I have made it a habit to go golfing with clients and contacts I meet within the collectibles industry as much as possible. I love doing it because it gives you a chance to really get to know the people you are golfing with, and for me - it also offers an amazing opportunity to learn about life from those who are a little older than me, or ahead of me in the game of life. I love to ask questions and learn from other’s experiences.
What was unique for me on this particular golf grouping however, was for the first time since I can remember I started golfing with guys in the hobby - I was not the youngest one in the group.
In our foursome was a senior graduating college this past weekend. He had gone to one of the top schools in the country, and was graduating with an impressive degree with a top notch job already lined up out of college.
What was cool for me was he also has a huge passion and interest in sports cards - both as a hobby, but also as a business and alternative asset class. Although his interest aligned with modern cards, a lot of his views on the market and the business were still very correlated to how I think about the vintage market and my business as well.
But what I most enjoyed above all else - the golf, the card talk - etc. - was getting asked about and talking about some of what I learned when I first started getting into cards, and reflecting on some of those really difficult times when deciding to take the risk to go all in on my card business. I am turning 30 in a couple weeks (idk how that happened?!) and it occurred to me that the kid I was golfing with was looking to me much like I had looked to other guys I have golfed with or learned from over the past 8 years since I’ve been out of school. I loved getting to offer some advice and perspective about the things I have learned over the years.
It’s made me reflect a bit this past week and look back on some of my older blog posts when I was writing my finance and career blog - thebonkerbeat.com
I found one of my first blog posts 4 years ago, where I could tell even in my writing at the time - that maybe I was onto something with this whole crazy sports card business idea.
I wanted to drop that blog post below for you guys to read - and for anyone else that might be considering wanting to start their own card business, or any other venture for that matter.
The post is called “Follow Your Gut” - and talks about the most important thing to consider when facing bigger decisions or challenges in life, is to listen to that thing deep inside you that is nudging you one way or the other.
When I wrote this, I was just starting my last job in NYC before I would eventually go all in on my own business two years later. I was fresh off of moving around a few different jobs in a short amount of time, and was just starting the Bonkers Cards channels.
All of my content up to this point had been about the stock market, the job market, career advice or personal finance and investing. But there was something inside me that was telling me to take cards more seriously, and start allocating more time to card content and less to finance content.
I guess you guys know how that turned out.
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Follow your Gut.
Jan 30, 2022
4 min read
I’ve been a little less active lately here on the BonkerBeat the last couple of weeks. There’s been a couple reasons why and I think they all sort of go back to a common theme that I’ve picked up as an important lesson I wanted to share.
As I’ve documented on the blog I’ve recently got back into collecting baseball cards. I have been enjoying it so much that I decided earlier this month to start up a YouTube Channel and TikTok account to document my card adventures. I have been making videos covering trips to my local card shop, tips to new collectors on where to find good deals, and some history on the legends of baseball’s past. In just one month my channels have gained nearly 1,200 new followers and 100,000 views, way more than I ever would have expected in such a short amount of time. More on this later.
When I was younger I used to study baseball in every single possible way. I’d read baseball history books, watch baseball games every night, and play baseball year round. It was my life. As a kid collecting baseball cards was a huge hobby of mine, and I have enjoyed it even more now coming back to it with a little more change in my pocket thanks to having a real paycheck and not just birthday money. And speaking of that paycheck, I’ve also really been enjoying my new job.
I’m about 5 months in or so now to my role at Michael Page and I haven’t felt this happy at work in a really long time. Just this past week I landed what looks to be my second placement for another awesome candidate that I know will do great things in his next firm.
I’ve been really enjoying getting to know the people I work with, and the work itself has come more natural to me than I would have even expected. I still have a lot to learn and expect many of bumps ahead on my journey here at Michael Page, but I can feel with much more certainty now than ever before I am where I am supposed to be in my career.
But I didn’t necessarily feel like that just 5 months ago. I had to make a decision on where I would go next in my career, since I knew I was so unhappy and lost in my prior career path. When evaluating what I wanted to do, it was extremely scary. I was facing moving on from my 3rd company in 3 years, and I did not want to show on my resume that I looked “jumpy”.
I had a few different job options I had to make a decision on. I could have stayed where I was at, and hope that things turned around and I’d grow to like the work I was doing. I could’ve moved companies to another competitor within the CPG space and do a similar type of role in hopes that the work culture would be different. Or, I could make the jump into a completely different career path and take a shot at recruitment in finance. I knew very little about recruiting from a business perspective, and only had my personal experiences using recruiters to help get me jobs at my prior companies.
And you know how I decided to make my career change?
I followed my gut.
That feeling inside me that deep down was telling me what to do. Not the thing anyone else was telling me to do. The thing that I WANTED to do. Sometimes that gut-feeling is buried so deep inside us that it can be really hard to feel what it’s saying to do. I’ve been there. It can be quite paralyzing. But eventually with time, you start to recognize an internal sense of direction that builds inside you. The challenge many face however is that this direction may be different than what other people may think is best for you. I urge you to silence what others think is best. Don’t get me wrong, you should have mentors in your life that you can trust to help provide you feedback and direction when you are lost or need someone to talk to. But these mentors and symbols of support should help you walk down your OWN path. Not anyone else’s.
I am going to continue to write blogs here on the BonkerBeat because I genuinely love doing it. I have always liked writing and think that my strengths have always been in communication rather than anything else more technical. I plan on still making weekly content tailored towards my recruitment experience, and helping people sift through their corporate journey. I will also still do my best to write about the market and personal finance when I can because I still do very much enjoy following financial news and trends, and those subject areas are the foundation of why I started writing this blog.
But I’m also going to spend a lot more of my free time making content on my BonkersCards accounts too. In just the first month or so of making card content and videos, I have seen a really strong response in the community that I am trying to build. In about 30 days time on Bonkers Cards, I have amassed 1/3 of the following that my BonkerBeat content collected in nearly a year. And I genuinely love doing it. So I’m going to follow my gut, and see what happens.
I don’t know exactly where it will lead me, and I don’t know if I’ll feel the same way 6 months from now or 6 years from now. But when it comes to chasing your passions, you shouldn’t listen to anyone else besides yourself.
You’re the only one who can feel your gut.
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I’d appreciate it greatly if you headed over to my YouTube channel and subscribed, getting subscribers at first can be challenging when starting out. The link is below:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6SGfwS89aDUluF3ittZO3A
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