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I
have often talked about
the boundless world of opportunity
offered by the world wide web. It's just
a matter of finding your niche. As I
detailed in our current Cover
Story marking DN Journal's 10th
anniversary, the internet killed my previous
business - music retailing - but it also opened
the door to something that turned out to be even
bigger - domain investing and this
publication. Ten years ago I found an unfilled
niche (the need for a domain industry trade
magazine) and built a new career around filling
that hole.
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The
Internet has given a lot of
displaced people a new lease on life
including a local TV sports reporter named
Dan Eassa whose story was told in
our local newspaper, the Tampa Bay
Times, this morning. Prior to
owning brick and mortar record stores I
had been a TV sports reporter for nearly
20 years in this market myself, so I
could relate to Eassa on that level
- but what really resonated with me was
how, after losing his job, he created
a new future for himself online - one
that he has full control over -
something that he did not have - and never
would have had - working for someone else
in his old job at the local ABC-TV affiliate,
WFTS Channel 28.
Three
years ago Dan Eassa (now 45) was a 42-year-old
father of two with 17 years of
broadcasting experience when Channel 28
told him his position was being |
TV
studio image from Bigstock |
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eliminated.
Just a few months earlier his wife had
been laid off from her teaching job
at a private school. When it rains it
pours. |
After
months of desperately searching for a new TV job
and coming up empty, Eassa, a former college
football player at Pace University,
decided he had to take the bull by the horns and
make something happen himself. As a
sports reporter and former college player, he
knew how important college recruiting had
become to coaches, players and parents who
wanted their kids to get unbiased advice
that would help them make one of the most
important decisions of their lives - yet there
was very little authoritative information online
on the topic.
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Football
player image from Bigstock |
So,
with plenty of time on his hands, the
unemployed Eassa turned himself into an expert
on the subject. He read and memorized every
word of every rules manual available
at every level of college football. By
June 2011 he had created a non-profit
organization and website to guide everyone
involved in the football recruiting
process through a maze that multi-million
dollar college programs rely on for
talent. He even gained the support of big
time NFL players like Derrick Brooks and
LaDainian Tomlinson. The
site took off and Eassa found
himself being invited to speak about
recruiting at schools and prep association
meetings all over the U.S. Over the
past two years he has spoken in 35
states and been paid as |
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much
as $2,000 per appearance. He also
draws a salary from the organization he
created. His wife has found a new job too.
When one door closes, another one opens. |
Dan
Eassa is the first mover in a new niche that
he created and now he is the go to guy
nationwide when people need information
on what the recruiting process entails including
things like how many of the promises recruiters
make are based on fact and how many on fiction?
What constitutes a violation of NCAA rules? Is
there really any such thing as a free four-year
ride (Eassa says there is not - exploding
one common myth). This
is just a brief recap of writer Joey Knight's
full
story about Dan Eassa in the Tampa
Bay Times. Read the entire piece for more
remarkable details about how Dan went about
creating a new future for himself and his family
(and while you are at it, check out this 2012
piece from Forbes Magazine called 7
Steps to Find Your Niche - and Dare to Risk).
If Dan could do it (and he did), if I could do
it (and I did) and thousands of others could do
it (and they have) you can do it too!
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