Station Entertainment

Advisor and Investor

Station Entertainment is one of the fastest growing sports and entertainment agencies in the country. We represent top influencers and athletes- TheStation.io

Chief Executive Officer

UC Irvine

Advisory Board Member - CX

Helpware

Chief Experience Officer

Helpware.io is a BPO company that has created a unique platform that combines machine learning with human review to enable content moderation, tagging, and image/video annotation, triggered by a simple API call. With offices in the Irvine, Kiev, Manila and Guadalajara, we have the global scale to tailor custom solutions to our many powerhouse clients.

Vice President

Director, Customer Success

SCMT Creative

•Founder and Partner of a strategy firm focused on creative and brand strategy 
•Led successful projects for both big players and fresh startups
•Worked with some of the most exciting creative minds in all of California

Director of Strategy

DealerSocket

-Managed the content strategy team and planted the entire infrastructure for a brand new department
-Content strategy rollout for over 250+ people Sales Org
-Developed messaging to be used by Sales and CSM teams
-Blog strategy for DealerSocket
-Training material creation for internal sales team

Senior Content Strategist

-Reported weekly to executive team on implemented and forecasted revenue.
-Contributed to major overhaul of entire departmental infrastructure for 150 person department.
-Responsible for training rollouts, system implementations, SOPs, KPIs
-Mentorship to new hires
-Implementation of rollout for complete product relaunch
-Led trainings and classes of 5-150 people

Strategic Services 

As a mentor I helped new Consultants come into their role by coaching on process, training on products, developing ideas together to consult on, and exploring how to look at reporting analytically.

Consulting Mentor

•Consistently managed over 40 clients in Los Angeles and Hawaii, totaling over $1 million in annual revenue.
•Implemented campaigns for sales and service that generated over $1 million at stores.
•Provided analysis and innovative marketing/ process ideas to high-ranking management in the automotive industry.
•Led teams of 2 to 6 people for CRM implementations across the US and Canada.
•Gave presentations and trainings to groups of 25 to 50 people.

Strategic Services Consultant

S.T.O.R.Y. (Start Them Off Reading Young)

I started this company with three other college students because of a vision to help combat illiteracy.  We sold clothing, and for every item sold we donated books to children.  As President, I established contacts, bookkept, marketed, managed buying and orders, planned, strategized and made decisions to keep the company growing.

Founder and President

Startup Advisor l Investor l Ex CEO & CXO l Building Startups With Purpose

Transforming workplaces: wellbeing programs for happier and mentally healthier employees | Speaker | Facilitator | Stress management | Mindfulness | Mindset | Relaxation

Co-Founded a startup that grew from $3M to $15M and another from $0 to $7M.

Now I help founders and startups to scale quickly through amazing client experience.

I climbed corporate ladders before becoming a Co-Founder. 

I burned out multiple times and ended up in the hospital because of it twice. 

My entire focus became my obsession around both client and employee experience. 

The first startup scaled 10X in headcount in two years.

The second startup went from $0 to $7M in just over two years.

My mission: help founders build businesses that can scale based on amazing experience.

My Experience:
→CEO/Co-Founder of Station Entertainment
→Former CXO /Co-Founder of Helpware
→Advisory Board Member for University California Irvine, CX Division
→Former Co-Founder for SCMT Creative
→Climbed corporate ladder, 3 promotions in 3 years at DealerSocket
→Bachelors in High Technology Business from San Jose State University

Today I consult, advise and talk about how to grow startups and how to revolutionize client experiences. Please reach out if you'd like to chat!

I had someone recommend that I post more about my personal life and interests...

So here are a few things about me:

-I'm a big Dodgers fan, but not a Dave Roberts fan
-I like to surf, but almost ALWAYS get stung by jellyfish
-I have a Jeep Wrangler
-My wife was a yoga teacher, I used to hate yoga... now I love it and she barely does yoga anymore
-Favorite Movies: About Time and Meet The Parents
-Favorite Show: Seinfeld... nothing else is even close
-I workout daily and listen to audiobooks to get pumped
-I'm a night owl, hate mornings
-I function very well without coffee somehow

It's been good to meet many of you, I look forward to getting to know you more!

Trenton Hughes

10 things I would tell my 22 year old self:

1. You are not your job 

2. You will never be able to solve someone else's problems 

3. What makes you happy > what ppl think you should be doing

4. Put yourself out there more, meet people

5. No one is thinking of you as much as you think 

6. Helping others brings real joy, money doesn't 

7. You aren't obligated to spend time w/ ppl that don't treat you right, even if they are family

8. Have more fun now

9. Retirement isn't the goal, enjoying your day to day is 

10. You don't have to follow the script, you can create your own.

Any of these resonate with you guys?

Lately I've met with dozens of founders with exits, net worths in the millions...

Here are my observations:

-Most of these people are down to earth, regular people

-Almost all of them have burned out or gone through emotional crisises 

-Almost no big egos amongst them, very easy to talk to, curious people

-Most of them have no interest in going the VC route again 

-They are generous with their time and advice and genuinely want to help others

-They prioritize family and health 

-All of them will probably never stop working in some capacity 

-Almost everyone is trying to build something that brings them more fun and fulfillment this/next time around

Entrepreneurship is not easy. 

To any of you in the entrepreneurship game, I'm rooting for you! 

I know it can be lonely.

Doesn't matter what stage you are at, it takes a lot to be at the stage you are.

I'm here to help, to cheer you on, and I want to see you succeed. 

Even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes, others do too.

One of my biggest lessons I learned in hiring over the years:

Instead of trying to find the "cool" candidate or one who has the sexy experience...

If you really want to win, find the one that:

Is fired up about your mission
Aligns with your values
That is hungry
That wants to learn and grow
That's supportive of others

That's where you'll really find success in hiring amazing people that work out long term IME. 

Any other big ones you'd add to the list?

Wasn't expecting to talk about this quite yet but word has gotten out...

I would love to get your feedback/interest levels!

We are building a peer community for earlier stage entrepreneurs and are pretty excited about it.

The Founders Club...

Think Hampton or Vistage but for earlier stage founders and entrepreneurs. This includes SMB and ETA. 

Some of the things it'll include:

-Peer group of 5 similar stage entrepreneurs to vent, network, learn, grow, brainstorm every month

-A physical awesome business book mailed to you each month as part of a founder's book club

-Awesome speakers free each month

-Tactical newsletter on how to grow your business

-In person founder weekend retreats

-Entire group space to ask for vendor referrals, help with founder related items, keep up with founder ideas/news

A lot of these groups charge $8k+ a year. We are looking at starting closer to $175 a month. 

Would love to hear what you all think!

We just dropped the waitlist last night and had well over 100 signups... I'll drop it in the comments 

Here's the typical formula for startups that make it:

First two years: founders are focused on outbound selling every day

Following years: Enjoying inbound leads based on all their early efforts

The problem is most ppl give up before they see this shift come to fruition

EQ is far more important as a leader than IQ in my experience. 

You don't need to be the smartest person...

But you do need to understand people and how to work with them. 

Empathy, communication, compassion are all huge in this world. 

And if you can communicate candidly on top of that... 

That's a winning combo.

If you only had $5k to start a business, what would you start?

A lot of people think they need a lot of money to start things...

Let's show them some ideas

People keep asking me what the plan is with The Founders Club...

So here it is:

It's our first portfolio company of 3 this year. 

We dropped the waitlist last week & had over 150 sign ups...

I'll be honest, we are going for something really big:

We are trying to build an organization of thousands of members that becomes the go to place for earlier stage entrepreneurs...

But the only way we do that is by bringing immense value for each individual member.

Ensuring that what they get compared to the cost is immensely above expectations:

1. A facilitated peer group that each meeting they come away with a ton of knowledge, ideas and support

2. Connections that are worth their weight in gold

3. Introductions that have real ROIs

4. Learnings from speakers and books that are better than the cost of college courses 

5. And most important, the support to genuinely grow both personally and your business.

6. Which means we have to be selective with who makes it in

That's what we want to deliver, real value with people committed to growth and community. 

And we'll work our butts off until each member feels they are getting that value. 

We'll also want feedback from everyone that joins on how to make it the best we can.

At the end of the day it's about the community, but that starts with ensuring each individual is taken care of!

So if you have feedback, please let me know!

My wife is about to launch an ecom bag business

For every bag she donates to animal foundations.

What tips or insights do you have for new ecom businesses?

She's a killer designer and passionate about animals, so it's pretty exciting to see her so excited about it.

Entrepreneurs: Would you pay to go on an awesome weekend retreat with other entrepreneurs? 

And what makes you say yes or no?

I feel like this is something I would love to do, so I'm seriously considering making it happen...

You have 6 months to build a $1 million business...

What type of business would you build?

I'm hearing a lot about this debate in the sales world again, so what do you think?

Should sales people still do cold calling?

Taplio

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