I was honored to be featured as a “Co-Creator” of Omaha and give a 20×20 talk (20 slides for 20 seconds) at the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Summit.

 

I spoke about a couple things that I hadn’t really talked openly about before. I didn’t realize how emotional it really was to me, until I broke down in tears on stage. Big thank you to whoever was controlling the slides for pausing the 20 second transitions to let me regain composure! It was truly an honor to be able to share at the YP Summit. Thank you for the opportunity.

 

It wasn’t videotaped, but here are the 20 slides and the commentary…

 

1.

I have a hard time communicating with words. As a kid, I remember feeling like I could communicate better through drawing.
My earliest memory of this was when I drew a picture of myself (like above) in Kindergarten to express what I thought was funny at the time. My teacher thought otherwise.

 

2.

Jump forward a few years… I grew up skateboarding at a time when it wasn’t cool – or even accepted as it is today.

 

(This is where it got hard to speak.)
I was picked on, spit on, jumped, and threatened to be shot at gunpoint multiple times. Our high school even tried to let us out of class 5 minutes early to avoid fights.

 

3.

This was carved in the study hall table that I sat at – the first time I got jumped after school…

 

4.

After school – when I wasn’t busy getting jumped (this was a joke, buuut I didn’t hear laughter) – I’d always go skateboarding. But, it’s pretty much illegal to skateboard anywhere outside of a skatepark, and there were no skateparks in Omaha at the time.

 

So, I collected a few tickets, got my boards taken, and got banned from some properties… where they took my photo and hung it up in their little security office.

 

5.

I was already a shy kid – so being treated like this all around didn’t help.

 

Outside of my family and small circle of friends, I felt like I really didn’t have a voice. Even when I felt like speaking up, I had trouble forming my words.

 

6.

But it got to a point where something needed to change. So my friends and I started meeting every Thursday to figure out how to get a public skatepark.

 

Had we known we’d be meeting for 5 years before getting anywhere, we probably would have rethought this approach! But thankfully, the Student Democrats from UNO stepped in and helped out.

 

7.

In 1999, Roberts Skatepark was built! (Crowd: clapped and cheered!)
This was a team effort, but it was the first time I felt like I had a voice and could contribute to our community. This place changed my life.

 

8.

I got endorsed by some of the best brands in the world, toured for 7 years, was in magazines and they even put me on the covers of some, skateboarded for crowds as big as 250,000 people, signed thousands of silly autographs… It was literally a childhood dream come true.

 

9.

One memorable tour was in Mexico where we hung out for a week and taught kids how to skateboard.

 

There was a new mayor who was going to cut funding to the skatepark and the church it was a part of. She heard we were in town and came down. She saw kids weren’t fighting, families were all gathered around the skatepark and everyone was having fun. She was so moved, she took us out to dinner and continued to fund it.

 

10.

There was something powerful with what we were doing through skateboarding.
From what I had experienced – to what I now saw was possible… It put me on a path to want to give people like myself and my friends who felt like we didn’t have a voice – a chance to now have one.

 

11.

Quite a few of my friends fell into depression and turned to drugs to try and cope with feeling like they were nobody.

 

When the public skatepark opened in Omaha, and they had a legal place that they could do something they were passionate about and be surrounded by like-minded people – having a supportive community changed them. It’s been incredible to see the impact that this skatepark had.

 

12.

My friend Mike Smith approached me a few years ago about helping him with an indoor skatepark – where kids can come and be supported to do what they love.

 

The Bay Skatepark will open in a new location this Spring. It’ll have an amazing setup, as well as a music venue, recording studio, art studio and gallery.

 

13.

Everything in The Bay has a shipyard feel to it. It’s supposed to represent a “Safe Harbor” where kids can be comfortable to be themselves.

 

The logo has a subtle compass in it to symbolize kids finding direction by learning tangible life skills through what they are passionate about.

 

14.

Skate for Change is a division of The Bay Skatepark. It’s simply a group of skateboarders in different cities who meet up each week to better their community.

 

The other cool part is – it helps kids see, with minimal effort, that they have the ability to make a huge difference. When you give a grown man living in the streets a dry pair of socks and he breaks down in tears, you can’t help but be moved by it.

 

15.

I love this city. So when Laura Burhenn approached Cody Peterson, Will Silvey Simons and myself about creating a platform to promote the creative things going on here and give the creative folks a voice – I was in.

 

In it’s 3rd year, Omahype now gets over 30,000 visits a month! (Crowd: clapped and cheered!)

 

16.

When I was on tour, I started doing design and marketing for some of my endorsements. The more I got hurt, the more design work I took on.
All of a sudden, I accidentally created a little boutique ad agency!
And I fell in love with the business – and being able to help brands communicate through visuals and not just spoken words!

 

17.

Like I mentioned, in high school I was picked on a lot. A lot were by the football players. Not all. But some. And those some wanted so badly to play for the NFL – but never did.

 

The NFL hired our agency for a couple campaigns a while back.

 

I like to think that’s my little way of getting back at those jerks.
(Crowd: clapped and cheered!)

 

18.

We really take pride in who we work with at SecretPenguin – and it makes our job really fun.

 

We get to work alongside great non-profit and for-profit brands that better the community. We also work with brands that we think make Omaha unique.

 

19.

Remember these numbers? Here’s where I’m at today. I’m 34.

 

Most of these tickets were from rolling down the street heading somewhere – just as if I were on a bike. This isn’t just from Omaha, but you can see there’s definitely still a need for legal places for kids (young and old) to skateboard – like a public skatepark downtown or in North or South Omaha, perhaps…

 

20.

I’ll end with this quote from my dad… he is incredibly loving, but very matter of fact. He’s great.

 

I was really hurt – physically and mentally – by those people that picked on me.
But rather than complain and do nothing… I want to still complain, (maybe cry a little), then do whatever possible to make this a better place to live.