Blaze Digital Origin Story

I believe that we are all meant to do something great in our lives. I believe that when we are actively searching and taking actions that the good Lord above is there to guide us. Teaching us the lessons we need to learn so we can become the person we need to be, to accomplish our destiny.

My name is EJ and I am the founder of Blaze Digital Solutions. With this being my first post and start of my journey, I felt it was appropriate to tell the story of what got me here.

The Beginning

When I got married my biggest desire was to be able to provide for my family and to prove to all those who have tried to bring me down that I am worth something. 

Being young I was always trying something new and trying to figure out what I was going to do for a career and tried everything from massage therapy, personal training to landscaping, network marketing and everything in between…at least that’s what it seemed to me. 

One night I was sitting in my office at home when I started to browse the internet and came across some ads that were talking about making money online. At this time I had heard of a few people making money by writing articles and things like that, but I wasn’t anything close to a good writer and it scared me. 

I hadn’t really done anything like this and didn’t have any higher education under my belt…a lot of these guys that were making it had college degrees. I definitely felt very intimidated to say the least. 

I knew I had to make a change if I was going to not only provide for my family, but to prove my worth to the people that wanted to see me fail the most. 

Learning The Ropes

The ad attracted me and I got sucked into my initial look at internet marketing. 

From here I was hooked…it seemed every free second I had I was reading and buying books and small courses of how these guru’s were making money. When reading through one of the books I had bought called the Jack Rabbit Factor it hit me like a brick…I need to make this happen.

At this time, it was 2008 and the big financial crash was taking place…I had to find a job so as I was looking around I got tipped that a place called Orange Soda was hiring…lo and behold…it was an internet marketing company…this was my opportunity to learn and do what I knew I was destined to do. As I learned and grew in this company I met many great people that led me to go and obtain a college degree. 

I ended up going to Dixie State University where I was able to obtain undergrad and during that time I created my first internet based company. This was a huge learning curve and my first real experience doing the entrepreneur thing. 

I was able to raise some money and struggled big time. I realized that after all I had done I really was not very good at marketing. At this time I was in a desperate place to make money with this business and decided to hire a marketing firm to take that off my plate. 

Now for the money we paid, we got 0 results as far as a return from the efforts. I did get some value as they helped me with getting my website more squared away. At the end of the day it was a loss and I had to hang up that hat and get a job. 

I always felt that I was meant to do something that was internet based, but because of my lack of ability to market I found a job at a local internet marketing firm. This time I was destined to stick to one thing and ride the job out until I could get a grasp on what I needed to do next. 

During this time at this new job I really excelled in my abilities to develop websites and create things that helped the sites convert and perform well. This made me feel really fulfilled. After some time had passed there was a mass exodus of some of the top people and I ended up being the only guy left that knew something about running ads and doing SEO…my first thought was…THIS IS MY CHANCE! 

I knew it was going to be a tough task, but I gladly volunteered to take it all over and prove my worth. 

As time went on the better I got. I was working with some big companies and helped small companies grow to over $1,000,000 in annual sales…then it was two companies..then three. I will have to say I was living on a high that I had the privilege to serve these companies and meet some amazing people along the way. 

Search For Purpose

After a few years had passed things got a bit stagnant. I was limited by what I could do and felt sort of strangled by my current responsibilities to learn and really focus on taking things to the next level. My income resided around how much the company made, and the company itself was at a point where it had lost its identity. 

The leadership was at a loss for which direction they wanted to take it and I felt at a loss because I knew deep down the clients were starting to suffer and my ability to provide for my family on a whole other level was at a plateau. 

This made me feel worthless and I started to not care about what I was doing. I really started to lose motivation to come into work…it became the thing I dreaded as I woke up instead of being the driver for me to get out of bed like it used to be. 

Because of this I had lost my way mentally and got depressed and knew I needed to fix my situation.

My Mission

This led me into reading a few books such as Start with Why by Simon Sinek. This book changed my life! From here I was able to really dig deep into WHY I was put on this earth, this ultimately became my mission.

“To inspire and mentor others so that they can grasp their potential, achieve success, and live a happy fulfilled life.” 

From this moment on I started to look at everything very differently. I started to make subtle changes in my life to align everything more towards my personal mission. 

It’s Time To Blaze

In January 2020, I was sitting through Sunday School and a literal epiphany came into my brain and struck my sole like a lightning bolt from the very heavens above. The thought that came into my head was that I needed to leave my current job. 

I was so confused and frankly scared out of my mind. The relationships I have built, the people that counted on me…how could I leave?? I tried to brush it off, but as the next week or two went by the feelings intensified immensely.

I was still in doubt. I started to talk with some close friends of mine to explain my situation and to try to get someone to talk me out of it. I didn’t want to leave. But I finally came to the point where I had to look at my situation for what it was and match it with my life mission…it wasn’t aligned. I knew I had to make a change no matter how bad it hurt. 

I talked with my wife and as I talked with my good friend and mentor Brian the decision was made for me to leave my job and start my own company where I can put everything I have into completing my mission. 

You see no matter what we do in life we all have a mission, a calling, a purpose. For us to fulfill that purpose we must fully align with it and push forward with everything we have and the grace of God will take control from there and lead us to where we need to be. 

This is where Blaze Digital Solutions was born and the rest is history. My mission is simple and Blaze Digital is my vehicle to inspire and mentor as many people as I can to push beyond their own limitations and achieve the greatness that God has given all of us. We must set a Blaze everything in our way to get to where we need to be. Mission success is the only option.