Trevor Turnbull

Welcome to TrevorTurnbull.com!  I am an online entrepreneur with experience in sales, online marketing, advertising, and social media. I am the co-founder of Sport Fan Connect, partner in Athlete Fan Connect, founder of Social Connect Blueprint and through T3 Connect Consulting, I provide value for clients by delivering measurable results and return on investment through social media training, social media marketing strategy, social platform development, social contest implementation, social media measurement and on-location social media activation to help improve the connection between and add value for clients, fans, sponsors and advertisers.

As I am finding myself more and more submersed in the world of social media everyday, I figured it was time for me to start sharing my knowledge and all of the amazing things I come across on a daily basis.

My life has changed directions many times and because of this, I feel I am well traveled and experienced in many aspects of business and life.  In my teenage years, I’d say I was best defined as a “hockey player”.  Like many Canadian guys, my dream was to play in the NHL.  Even though I’d say I was pretty good, the odds of etching out a long career were slim and I realized after my Junior hockey career wrapped up in Minot, ND at the age of 20, it was now time to get an education.  Well, at least, I thought that was what I should do……I was willing to give it a shot anyways.

University Years

So, following Junior hockey, I enrolled at Minot State University and navigated my way through classes for about a year and a half as I played hockey for the Minot State Beavers, while still holding onto the hockey dream (at that time) of playing NCAA

Div 1 hockey.  When the opportunity to play hockey for the Iowa State Cyclones presented itself, I was quick to respond.  The intention of this move was to go to a school that was going to participate in NCAA Div 1 hockey the following year.  Long story short…….it didn’t happen.  However, the experience was great and I was able to win the ACHA National Championship with the Iowa State Cyclones.

I made many lifelong friends and learned many valuable life lessons in my time at Iowa State, but when the opportunity to play for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies hockey team arose, I felt it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.  With all the bouncing around, I was seriously contemplating my future beyond hockey.  It was during my first year at the U of S that I decided to head into the College of Commerce.  After all, I figured I could do this “business thing”…..how hard could it be?

My days at the University of Saskatchewan were amazing.  I was able to play a couple of years with the Huskies and ended up with a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Marketing Major).  We did end up winning the Canada West title my first year, but fell one game short of making it to the University Cup championship game hosted in Saskatoon that year.

It was during these latter years of University that I started to realize what I was good at……that being networking and building relationships.  So, with my background and skill set, I was naturally destined to get into sales!

Working Years

My first job out of University was a with Pattison Sign Group in a Business Development role.  I was lucky to work under an experienced sales manager during my time with Pattison and was able to gain some valuable business and networking experience.  I established many great relationships with a number of clients including the Saskatoon Credit Union, Prince Albert Raiders and Credit Union Centre.  In December 2005, it was time to move on to a new company called Knight Signs.  Same industry, same role….but the big difference being….I was on my own in a Saskatchewan/Alberta territory.  I was fortunate to establish many great business relationships while in this role with the Affinity Credit Union, TCU Financial, TCU Place, City of Saskatoon, West Edmonton Mall, Sketchers and a number of other big brands.  The need to motivate myself every day in a remote office was a great experience that helped shape my entrepreneurial drive that would push me to excel in my future endeavors.

Online Entrepreneur

In May 2007, I decided to give in to my Entrepreneurial drive and started my own business with a partner called Onewebsite Solutions.  Onewebsite was a website development company based in Saskatoon that focused on small business websites that are easily managed by their owners through the use of a Content Management System (Wordpress).  My desire to enter the online industry was fueled by the desire to enter an industry that was seeing rapid growth.  The advancements in technology from my high school days (mid – 90s) to now are mind boggling.  It’s amazing to think that I never used a computer back in high school and now, I don’t know how I would function or work without it!  The experience I gained from owning and operating Onewebsite was something that could never be taught in a classroom.  While in this venture, I had many roles including business development, networking, accounting, planning, researching, contractor, janitor and just about anything else you could possibly imagine.  My time as a business owner allowed me to relate to everything businesses, big and small, must consider on a daily, weekly and yearly basis.

In September 2008, I decided to transition out of my daily ownership role with Onewebsite and pursue a career in the industry I spent 2 years familiarizing myself with.  It was this experience in the web business that led me to zu.com communications.  zu is an interactive agency that was established in Saskatoon in 1995.  zu has come from humbling beginning developing 1 page “brochure” websites, to developing custom websites for some of the biggest companies in Canada including CN Rail, Rogers, PotashCorp, Cameco and the Calgary Stampeders.  My background in consultative sales in a business development role, as well as my experience as a business owner,  made for a perfect fit with zu.  While with zu, I was fortunate to work directly with the Calgary Stampeders in implementing a social media strategy and an award winning website that aggregates content from popular social websites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr (http://stampsconnect.com)

In September 2009, with the experience and contacts I made working with the Calgary Stampeders, I decided it was time to venture on my own again and pursue my passion in the sports and entertainment industry.  As social media has started to dominate the traditional and online news headlines, it has been my desire to figure out how I can monitor these trends and figure out ways to implement them into businesses marketing mix.  Because of this, I have found myself constantly researching the latest trends in social media as they relate to sports teams, athletes and events. This passion led me to co-founding Sport-Fan Connect. Sport-Fan Connect is all about discovering the connection between Sports and their Fans as it relates to social media.  It started as a “dream sports trip” turned researched project and quickly transitioned into a platform to help document the changing landscape in communications.

I am wondering what that exact moment is when we truly, truly love our jobs. Is it during the day, or at the end of the day, or is it years later looking back on all we accomplished? I think perhaps truly loving something is the ability to love it at that moment. It is an elusive ability, something I have never been able to quite accomplish. I must go home, and take my experiences like a squirrel, and consider them, before I can truly enjoy them. I must work on this. The daily journey is everything. Being able to enjoy enjoyment while it is happening.

Jerry Maguire – http://www.thisisawar.com/PurposeJerry.htm

My background in hockey, combined with my experience as a business owner and account executive have fueled my passion to work with sports teams, athletes and events.  I believe there is a tremendous opportunity for these entities to embrace social media to build on their fan base and retain fans through the highs and lows.  As we all know, we are in some tough times right now with the economic situation.  By engaging in the conversation with hard core fans, season ticket holders and casual fans, sports teams, athletes and events will be able to realize the viral power of social media and at a much cheaper cost than traditional one-way marketing.  At the end of the day, the sports and entertainment business is still just that……….a business.  So, because of this, I spend a lot of my time figure out ways to help sports teams, athletes and events monitor, measure and implement strategies to maximize their return on investment (ROI) from social media marketing.

2009 has been an exciting year in the world of social media.  I am fortunate to have met many great people over the years through my participation in sports, as a business owner and in my role as an account executive.  Every day, I continue to meet more people that provide valuable insight into their experiences and I want to be able to return the favor by providing content that I believe others will find interesting.  I hope the information I provide on this blog will be of value to those looking to understand how they can maximize their efforts in online, social media and mobile marketing.  I would love to hear your comments and look forward to the conversations to come!

Trevor Turnbull
trevor@trevorturnbull.com