On 6/12/18 I filed my business documents to form Parkour Entrepreneur LLC in the state of Pennsylvania. And yes I 100% did that so I could have a cool founding date like Storror. My travels landed me in Philadelphia so I could organize my own set of values and goals for the sport just like the Founding Fathers did for the United States in its infancy centuries ago. (And the rent is cheap).
I want to be able to talk about parkour teams and businesses and know what I’m talking about. So I’m documenting what I’ve learned from the brands and individuals that help make up the Parkour Economy.
So this is some of the moments that stand out to me over the past year. As well as things I hope to improve upon in the coming year. Should be fun.
Thanks for engaging with my articles and having conversations with me about the history and future of the sport. You’re a passionate bunch if you stick around to listen to my rambling – and I love you for it.
June 2018 – 0 Articles (0)
I finally launch the website and file the business documents for Parkour Entrepreneur LLC. Over the course of that month I refreshed the home page almost 50 times which accounted for all of our traffic besides few random peeks in the Philippines and Thailand.
I mostly spent the month trying to figure out WordPress and deciding on which types of articles to focus on.
July & August 2018 – 0 Articles (0)
I received only 20 views over these months and again about half of them were just me refreshing the home page like a mad man with no clerical progress made. But I did spend time with the homies in Colorado so I could refresh before starting a job as a server in a fancy steakhouse to finally defeat my arch nemesis – credit card debt. .:Blog on pause.
September 2018 – 3 Articles (3)
I finally embarked on my mission to post weekly content with blogs about how to support your friend’s business for Free, a personal experience about failure and some thoughts on how to budget for a parkour team.
Super thankful for people sharing these first articles around so much because without your support I wouldn’t have anyone to share this information with in the first place.
October 2018 – 5 Articles (8)
Continued posting strong with an article about how to run a Facebook ad your business or brand (which nobody read) and released my first paid guest blog with Max Henry sharing excellent data from Google about what people search for online about parkour. Super thankful for Max’s hard work on that one.
Then I wrote about my opinion on why there is no female parkour brand. I got to speak with several female athletes on the matter and get their thoughts on the matter but the article demonstrated that people want more journalism than opinion on these sort of topics. Now I know.
Then I shared what I’ve learned about how to shoot parkour event photography, which also no one read. I finished the month off with a thought experiment on what parkour businesses can learn from yoga. Overall October was one of the most consistent months for me this year.
November 2018 – 6 Articles (14)
What got fewer views than the Home Page the first week? My article about how to create a viral ad, so I know my audience really enjoyed that one. But it is also the first week I that see older articles getting consistent new reads. Then I talked a bit about how Max Cave doubled his Instagram followers during filming for Roof Culture Asia.
Then I reached a personal milestone by starting an affiliate relationship with Parkour EDU, who were one the main companies I wanted to ally with. And paired that with a BuzzFeed style list of some of the Craziest Kong Pres. Which people really enjoyed. Noted.
(Also you can use the code “Parkour Economy” for 15% Off Parkour EDU).
Then I wrote another opinion piece about what it means to be a sponsored athlete and finished off with a really fun insight into how Marcio Filipe conquers fear. Which is a list based article style I prefer over the more popular BuzzFeed style.
December 2018 – 5 Articles (19)
Then I visited my friend Andrew Obenreder in Mexico City (right before the creation of the first issue of Müv Magazine – so cool!) And while I was there released a rough timeline on what the FIG is going on and released another fun list of some of the Dirtiest Descents which had more trouble getting shared around.
Spread a little Christmas cheer with how I hope to become a better athlete and dropped another banger list with some of the Gnarliest Flip Precisions. You guys must love those cheesy titles… Or the lists of high quality movement – not sure which it is yet.
Finished off with an article about the 7 American Parkour athletes with the most Instagram followers which I would love to find a way to do more frequently and vary it up a bit as well. And my credit debt was almost completely vanquished at this point.
January 2019 – 3 Articles (22)
Then to bring in the New Year I dropped the blog’s first 30 Under 30 most influential people in parkour after receiving the results from our survey. I hope to improve on this list over the years to better reflect our community (our little Forbes List).
This article set the blog record for being first of my pieces to reach over 1,000 views the first week of posting. The survey just went live for our much requested 30 Over 30 List!
I also wrote about some of the career paths within the Parkour Economy and David Ivey shared some financial advice for the community on the blog.
February 2019 – 3 Articles (25)
I started off the month sharing my opinion about whether or not gyms should charge traveling athletes and which kind of parkour event you should run if you’re interested in becoming a community leader. But more importantly I kicked my credit debts ass! (Then bought a flight to Fools Jam and totally added more on). Low key this was a big deal for me and I’m super proud to have paid off just over $10,000 in debt in under 8 months.
I also caught up with Bryan Riggins about how he stays calm drilling descents and other challenges. I’d love for more athletes to reach out to me about their techniques as well! But the weekly posting was becoming shakier and harder to maintain with regular life.
March 2019 – 2 Articles (27)
This month I rambled about the difference between parkour culture and community and asked Wenxin Yang more about Bridging The Gap. I was so focused on Fools Jam at the end of the month and saving money before moving from Philly that I wasn’t posting as much during this time period. Mostly just trying to be prepared for life’s next step.
Please let me know what other parkour series you want me to ask questions about here on the blog. Because March made it clear without your support I have no real content.
April 2019 – 1 Article (28)
I don’t really enjoy writing about FIG because I believe we should focus more on helping our own businesses than talking about what FIG may or may not be doing. That being said I felt it was important for my readers to hear from the athletes themselves on why they’re competing for the FIG. Which again proved the need for me to commit to more proper journalism.
It’s this sort of journalism I hope to do more of on the blog. I want to hear both sides of a story – you decide how you feel about the news on your own. This one topped the new record set by the 30 Under 30 List for total views in the first week of posting.
Also my weekly posting routine had completely dissolved like a Mento in Diet Coke.
May 2019 – 1 Article (29)
I didn’t make enough sales with Amazon affiliate links this time around. Now I’ve learned I need more consistent traffic to warrant a relationship braving the Amazon. But I’m working on creating a “Store” that documents which audio/visual equipment is most used and enjoyed in the parkour industry – and I’m hoping that resource will be exciting enough to merit Amazon Associates.
I also wrote an article about the paradigms of parkour gyms to help codify the difference between a parkour gym and another movement facility that lets parkour rent a space.
June 2019 – 1 Article (30)
I awoke one morning to the picture below and reached out to Victor Bevine for a statement about what was going on at this certification.
39 Weeks and 30 Articles (31 if you count this one)
(Lilac wants credit in the article for figuring out how many weeks it was)
So how did I do? You tell me.
I’ve learned a lot on my journey to optimize blog/life balance – and I am certainly not there yet. Here’s to the climb my friends, thanks for the send.
For now I’m just working on being consistent again and building traffic. You can help me by sharing my articles and sparking conversations about how we can all help grow the Parkour Economy. I couldn’t do it without each and every one of you.
Don’t forget to submit who you think the 30 Over 30 Most Influential People in Parkour are in this survey. Thanks!
