Meet Chase Mccammon

We were lucky to catch up with Chase Mccammon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chase, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I get more work ethic from my father. I never understood it until I was older. But, I based my whole life on how to stay motivated because of my father. He worked 7 days a week for years to make sure our family did not go with out. And let me tell you. A lot of my friends thought we were “rich” growing up. Little did I, or they know. He was still scraping by pay check to pay check. He did a very good job and keeping his stress and struggles to himself regarding finances. I never once heard my parents argue over it my whole life. But we struggled. They just kept it to themselves. My mother was always my biggest fan in anything I ever did. She always drove me to do better. Or gave me insight on what I needed to Improve on. She passed earlier this year in April. She was a major motivating influence in me starting my company. My sister being a big wig at T-Mobile. And my brother working in as an executive in aircraft. I felt in my heart I needed to do something to give my mother to brag about. I was a troubled rebellious teenager. That most parents would have thrown in the towel on. Not mine though. So I dug deep. And knew my own potential. Kept it all to myself for a year. And then starting showing everyone what I was up too. At first, it was a negative response. Depends on how you look at criticism. And also knowing how or when to receive it appropriately. I always wanted my own business. I now know, I can not fail unless I just stop now. And that took some years to get to this cushion. My mother was there every step of the way. Never urging me to quit. Always telling me to find a way. I know I made her proud before she left. But our work has just begun.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

What we do is provide a card shop feel within our digital community. A large portion of our community is small town rural people. We do not have direct access to an LGS, Target, or Wal-Mart close by. So we wanted to form an online version of that where users could chat with video and voice online. A huge portion to collecting and opening TCG (trading card game) packs. It is a lot more fun with your friends. So we reimagined that a few years ago online. With opening packs on stream so the user could experience the same joy as when they were younger. We focused mainly on community building before our sales numbers. We figured that would naturally fall into place after we had a strong repeat customer basis. We started during Covid when everyone was urged to stay indoors and away from any outside contact for a period of time. Some more than others. My wife, works in conjunction with the state where she is required to do home visits. Since Covid restricted this. It also restricted the amount of hours she could work. So, we got creative. And I started selling off some of my “sealed” collection of Pokémon booster box’s and old vintage cards. We gained some popularity among the Pokémon community and were urged to start a business by some of the biggest names in the industry today. So we did just that. We had full intentions of closing our LLC at the years end. But that did not happen. You start to realize you are touching people lives from afar. You may not realize it now. But someone somewhere looks up to you. Going on this journey taught me that. And how my actions can also reflect those opinions. We started streaming regularly and gaining some traction.

After one and a half years. We started pushing our brand towards our local community more. Since we started our company with essentially “$0.00” in initial investment. We had to get creative. And change our whole life habits. Still to this day. We have never invested a single dollar of our personal money yet. But, that is changing soon.

Using this type of model is the HARDEST way to start a business. So if you are reading this. Know there are better ways then the way we chose. We worked with what we had at the time. And we worked diligently to get where we are today on a very very tight budget.,

Fast forward (2 years in business) we start touring around doing Collect-A-Cons. And collectibles convention that tours different large cities in the US. This move was the best move we ever made for our small business. We did not know it at our first one. But it was the best way to grow your brand and network with other creators. We were very small. Barely 1000 followers. And after our first Collect-A-Con we made a name for ourselves. We networked with the RIGHT people who helped us sharpen our skills. You have to become EVERYTHING for your business to succeed. That can be overwhelming at first. If you take one step at a time. You can do it all I PROMISE! I had to become a business owner. And Graphic Designer. A video editor. The list goes on. Become those things. You will be impressed with yourself. Honing my skills I learned in college in cyber security. And always being the Tech guru in the family. I used those skills later on by aiding GIANT content creators on their studio build setup’s. Helping larger creators with the more technical things they lacked. Helped me gain their knowledge in business, content creation, and brand building. You never know who you will meet in an elevator at one of these either. Famous celebrities I looked up too my whole life. I have been to dinner with now. It is wild our business catapulted into where it is today in just a few short years. We hope to open our first brick and mortar in 2025. With a new name and logo to go with being in a more localized market. So stay tuned for that!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Going to college and learning cyber security. I was always a big tech nerd. Always fixing peoples computers at the age of 14. Tech just came naturally to me. When I was young, I would take apart RC cars and solder the motors to my Konnect’s. I would make a race car from those and strapped an RC motor to them. I soon learned you could program these boards and started soldiering them together. (This was before we had gas powered RC cars)

Another skill was being in sales. I taught me how to gauge a person and how to control the conversation using soft skills and humility to see if a product suited their needs. Working for a company called Ghost Armor here in Wichita (Justin & Shelly Leep) taught me so much in sales skills. I was a super shy guy before starting at ghost armor. They took me in with open arms and got me into a confident salesman. We did well for many years with that company. And after my departure. I still stay in contact with them. I would not be where I am at today had I not taken a back set in their journey and listened. Every time they pulled me aside to give me criticisms, I listened. Even if it stung a little. To me, that showed someone cares. They could have easily just let me get them their monthly sales and not cared about my growth. But, they were different. And I would work for them given the chance they started another company again.

Final was being a Dad. It taught me how to navigate children. And how to be a role model in my current industry. Becoming an inspirational figure in my community for kids has always been a long time goal of mine. And we are just getting started.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The biggest challenge I am realizing I have to overcome. Is that you can not help everyone. That keeps you in a repeating cycle and you will only go so far. What do I mean by people? We get a lot of emails and messages about people what to start doing what we do. Because they only see the monetary value being made and not the other 90% that goes into running a business like this. We always give an olive branch to those who are willing to learn. But what if I told you 99% of those who realize how much work this takes. Do not end up going through with it. You see, being an entrepreneur in not for everyone. And when I realized that. I focused on our brand and moving it forward. Be comfortable in the place you are currently. Never see someone doing it bigger and get down on your progress. Comparing yourself to others will also keep you from staying focused on the prize. Financial freedom.

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Image Credits

These are all my photos

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