Author Archive for Peyton Brogan

One of Our Own, Making it On His Own

 

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Grove City freshman and young entrepreneur, Justin Corbin has already made his headway, deep into the political scene. Born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, Justin was inspired at a very young age by his brother David- who made and sold his own Duct Tape wallets. Justin was initially driven to make his own money to buy what he wanted without the help of his parents. His sense in independency led him to selling 150 para chord bracelets at five dollars a piece which he simply bought for cheaper at local stores. Pressing on to his Boy Scout days, Justin furthered his ability to sell by raising over $5,000 worth of popcorn.

Justin thought he always wanted to be a chiropractor but after a Patrick Henry College political science camp he found his interests shift to getting involved in the political scene. He then discovered a problem, having a hard time as a young American, getting active in the political world so him and his brother created an outlet serving many of his piers getting their voter registration which would later evolve drastically to become his largest company as of now.

Justin’s work ethic and talent with people was prevalent in his senior year of high school when he took a job with Dunkin Donuts (now just Dunkin) in January and by July he was managing the store along a with a Baskin Robbins.  Also, by that time he had an internship set up with U.S. Representative Tim Murphy which developed after a random encounter with him at a local Macy’s. That fell through after a short time due to him dropping out of his campaign from a discovered affair he was having. Through another encounter with a customer at his Dunkin Donuts, he got connected with republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Mike Turzai who was soon to run for Governor and gave Justin and his brother David the job of running his campaign social media outlet, Snap Chat. And that was the first job and the beginning of Jumpstart Strategies which exists now to engage Americans as informed voters. Jumpstart quickly spread in awareness as it took over running the social media tactics for many major political campaigns in Pennsylvania. Justin Corbin discussed his success in discovering that, “Every campaign is won online” and later said that he found, “a niche that no one else has covered.”  When asked about the potential problem of his age running such large accounts he said, “I actually had a much easier time selling this to politicians as they know my aged people know how to work social media because we are on it all the time.” Jumpstart has found itself facing little competition but heavy opposition from the other side of the aisle as they decided to protect their name serving only the Republican party. Unfazed by these attacks, Justin has discovered traits about himself he picked up from his hostage negotiator father, Brian Corbin who taught him how to stay level headed and non-emotional in high pressure situations. Jumpstart has led him to interactions with President Donald Trump and numerous occasions with VP Mike Pence.

Young and fearless, Justin Corbin is driven to set himself apart from the pack and to be successful at whatever he does. This has led him to coin his company as ‘Winning Decisively’. Justin says he tells himself every morning, “You didn’t wake up today to be mediocre.”

Flaming Young Star

   Passion and perseverance have been the flaming factors of young Michigan entrepreneur, Forrest Gillespie. Born 1999 in East Lansing, Michigan, Forrest Gillespie started his first company, ‘Gillespie Inc.’, at the age of 15-  caring to the lawn care needs of his fellow neighbors. Hiring a couple of his neighborhood pals, Forrest took on a lifelong passion to make money from his self originated business. Trying to expand beyond his family reputation and neighborhood border lines, he struggled to pick up clients saying, “As such young guy, it’s tough to get people to trust me with their yard.” Forrest continued on for a couple seasons but as that dwindled out, he pushed on to a different product.

   Looking for a different business to start, he took an unorthodox approach that consisted not of looking for a problem or a gap in a market but rather a simple online search, “I just Googled, ‘top businesses to start as a young entrepreneur’ and candles came up as number seven which sounded dope.” And so FlamesByForrest began producing and selling candles to local customers.  Looking to separate himself from the the pack he advertised his product as, “Premium soy candles with craft recycled paper labeling” giving ten percent of proceeds to pancreatic cancer research- which was sparked from a recent family passing. It was soon after where Forrest got connected with the nationwide Young Entrepreneurs Academy which helped him with professional guidance on his company along with seed funding that he used to up his manufacturing equipment based in his family’s basement.

   Fast forward to a year ago today, Forrest Gillespie began his enrollment at Hope College in Holland Michigan with a Business Management major. Determined to grow his candle business with his new studies, he made the move to go online selling to regional customers on Etsy . This was led from the problem he had years ago with Gillespie Inc. as he says, “I went online to expand my market but also to deal with the problem of initial consumer confidence.”

   Since being at Hope College this last year, Forrest has played a role in the Business Club along with co-founding the Entrepreneurship Club. FlamesByForrest has grown slowly but gradually, selling now online and at one local retail store. He’s recently sold his 800th candle giving back now over six hundred dollars to pancreatic cancer research. His curiosity to seek new businesses hasn’t ended there though. As of July 2018, he has joined a team to co-found a new start-up, Hoplite, aimed to provide full service marketing to small businesses.

When asked about his future he replied, “In seven years I see myself still with Hoplite, having sold FlamesByForrest, and hopefully having landed a management position in a larger corporation with my first million secured.”