Johnny Loops here!

I'm 31 years old, and I'm a former semi-professional poker while I was a student, a current [very and barely] semi-pro daily fantasy sports player, former tech/strategy consultant and finally, and currently a digital marketer living in various cities. My location varies based on client needs. (I think I got that all straight)

(Side Note: I am running a #contest that locks in less than 24 hours for the USOPEN. Potentially someone could win up to $500, but at a minimum someone will win $10. There is currently ONE person in it and time is running out. You can find the details here: https://steemit.com/contest/@wetthebeak/usopen-contest-steemit-freeroll-usd500-possible-first-prize-prize-up-for-grabs )

My background is in Finance but I went into Strategy Consulting after school and after some reflection I followed my passion and self-taught myself Digital Marketing, landing my first “high profile” client a few years back managing their social platforms that totaled over 3.5MM followers (grew them beyond that) and developing brand aligned partnerships with businesses in exchange for sponsored content posts. Influencer Management if you want to put a name to it. And no, before you ask, I can’t name the client. When you partner/work with one at a certain level of status, NDA’s come into play (especially when they have an agent).

Amongst content strategy and planning, I'm a big into data, data, data, testing data, and funnels. Other skills that I perform mainly for smaller clients are installing, maintaining, and drawing insights from Google Analytics, PPC campaigns, Inbound Marketing...you get the deal.

It was a scary jump to make and follow what I was really interested in and don’t get me wrong, it still is scary. I never knew exactly where my income would be coming from and for a while when I was building skills and pitching to potential clients (which rarely stops btw), things got REAL tight and still do. Expenses running your own show add up QUICK!

In the spare time that I find, I volunteer my digital marketing services for non-profits that I support and I am really excited to allocate extra time (when I should probably be sleeping) to help @steemitqa with @thedailysteemit experiment. He can tell you more about that though, just ask!

Diving Deeper

Starting your own gig:

Everything above sounds all exciting and glamorous. I’m here to tell you that it’s not and has produced quite a bit of anxiety at times. I manage it well with exercise and meditation but it’s creeps in from time to time. Another downside, when I took some time to reflect on whether I wanted to actually make the leap to starting my own thing, it created a gap on my resume. I have tested applying to “dream jobs” and the HR Gatekeeper more than half the time flat out disqualifies me for it even after explaining I wanted to explore a passion. It's a depressing thought and feeling to be honest. I like to test this (well, I test pretty much everything being in marketing which is all about data if now if you weren’t up to speed) just in case things go completely south. I’m coming up on the end of my biggest income generating contract so for all I know things can go completely south fast for me. As in next week. This is possible scenario I could have no income at any moment. I would hope that my skills and experience would allow me to bounce back and find some clients to get by until I found a larger one to replace the income lost. I’m rambling, guess that anxiety is creeping in writing it down now (and sharing) so I’ll move on.

DFS:

I love advanced stats and theory. I am a winning player on most sites but a net loser on some, which full-time DFS pros would definitely laugh at because the competition is allegedly softer on this one particular site. (I tell myself that it’s because they make you choose less players so less decisions = less skill but I know it’s just variance and I’m lying to myself). I am not even close to the skill level that these guys are on. In that particular community, they get so much hate. Early on, building statistical models and testing over and over and grinding on a daily basis for a sport like baseball in tough. To win at their rate, is impressive. These days, I continue to do it because I have decent success so why not? But mainly I just love sports and competition. I admittedly play much less now though as I have less time. I’m not even sure if I would meet the formal definition of “semi-pro” if there was one. It’s fun, it’s makes the games more exciting, and it takes my mind off things.

Part 1 with part 2 another time?

I should wrap up soon because I need to get some work done, but I’ll leave you with this. BE A LIFELONG LERNER and life is tough, never hesitate to reach out to those around you for help if you need it. The first part is important but the second part isn't a joke and I'm very adamant about. In general, people want to help you if you're willing to put in the effort.

Give me a follow, upvote, resteem, etc you know the drill and I’ll be checking in on the comments throughout the day.

Thanks for taking the time to get this far and enjoy your day!