Today we’d like to introduce you to Phill Naylor.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
As a very young age, I believed with every inch of my soul that I was put on this earth to do something big. Whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say “Rock Star” and they would laugh and I would return with “no, really.. I’m going to be a rock star”. At a very early age, I was blessed with the attitude that I could be anything that I wanted as long as I worked for it.
I got my first guitar when I was 8 and my father would often video tape me singing cover songs like the time I lip-synced the entire La Bamba Soundtrack with my Service Merchandise Guitar. I loved music so much and I loved entertaining people and being the center of attention even more!
I played a lot of sports growing up as well. I was a skateboarder in the summer, snowboarder in the winter. I played 10 years of baseball until I found football in 8th Grade. I would fall in love! I played varsity football my freshman year at Whittier Tech. You could say I got along with everyone.. I was skateboarding jock which typically didn’t go hand and hand.
I ended up putting all my efforts into playing football. I frequented the newspaper throughout the next 3 years, became captain my senior year and went to Boston College Football Camp where I set my sites on getting a scholarship to UMASS. Then, a tragedy happened. I broke my leg the day during practice before the first game my senior year. It was a very painful time in my life. I loved football and it was taken from me.
I did have my band though! We did very well in 15 years together. We ended up signing a contract and when all said and done played alongside some of the biggest bands in the world. I wouldn’t go as far as calling me a rock star, far from it but certainly, one of the greatest moments of my life was playing in front of thousands at the Tweeter Center and signing autographs after shows.
The band would get to a point where everything seemed to be coming together before just running out of money and finally calling it quits after a good run. Then 6+ years after graduating High School I was left with deciding what to do what my life. The pain of not playing music would start to set in. I did end up going to The New England Institute of Art for Audio and Media Technology.
I’d graduate with an audio degree and land a job at one of the biggest media technology companies in the world called Avid. I stayed there for almost 10 years and learned so much about the feature film industry. I developed workflows for the biggest movies and television in history such as Avatar, Star Wars, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Breaking Bad and was part of a team that one an Emmy for supporting the Olympics in Russia.
It was a dream job. I eventually got into marketing and hosted my own how to video series teaching internal employees and external customers how to use professional editing software. I would even work on a series of 6 books for professional editors that went on sales worldwide online and in major bookstores. It was crazy to see my name in a book at Barnes and nobles. 🙂
Through all this though, I had some inner demons if you will causing havoc. I grew up believing with every inch of my being that I was going to do something big and that just hadn’t happened. The band was over, I wasn’t playing music or being creative enough. I had an amazing job, new car, nice house, beautiful wife, 3 beautiful kids but something wasn’t right. I started gaining a lot of weight and at my heaviest, I was almost 300 pounds. I was prescribed anxiety medication which I would often abuse.
Finally, on October 12, 2013, I was found unresponsive on my living room couch by my wife and kids. I would spend 4 days in a coma with a 20% Chance of survival. I wasn’t supposed to survive. I was about to become another sad story of a talented individual gone too soon. Another victim of an epidemic sweeping our nation right now. But I woke up. I opened my eyes and from that first breath off of life support I have never been more clear about what I have to do in this life.
I woke up with a clean slate. A second chance. I could be whatever I wanted to be again. The perspective change that I received is nothing short of the greatest miracle I could imagine. My life has never been better. The relationship I have with my wife, my kids, my family and my friends is unmatched. My mission is clear.
To Inspire. To show people that your past does not dictate your future and that you can choose to change anything in your life at any time. It is never too late. I started being 100% present where ever I was. I started speaking and will continue to do so to whoever will listen!
In January 2016 I started thinking about starting a business. I thought to myself, life is so beautiful and precious. It’s not about going to work to pay bills it’s about experiencing all that it has to offer. I thought to myself, how am I going to do that working in corporate America. Then I thought If I had a billion dollars what would I do with my spare time. The answer helped people succeed and live the lives of their dreams.
So that is what I set out to do. I started thinking about going into business for myself. Would I speak? How could I help people now and support my family doing it? Then it dawned on me. The two things that I am best at Video and Social Media are literally changing history by being the most powerful tools to market businesses know to man!
So I set out to help businesses get more customers using the power of Facebook Advertising and Video. I set a big scary goal that January of 2016 of leaving Avid to start my own business. I laughed. But I started getting up 4 hours early every day. I worked on my health, lost 65 pounds (so far), I created a morning routine where I write out 5 tiny goals that would inch me closer to my big scary goal and I would cross them off every single day.
Finally, this X-Musician with absolutely no knowledge in business would leave his dream job working in the feature film industry to start his own company… SCARY!!!
Fast forward to January 2018, the business is coming off of a record month, I’m helping so many business owners get more customers with video and social media, in turn, allowing their dreams to come true. I’m setting intentions to speak more this year at schools, colleges and anyone who’ll have me to motivate and inspire the younger generation and anyone whom may be struggling with mental illness and addiction. It’s so important to me that I spread a message of hope and inspiration and that your past does not dictate your future and that you can choose to change the course of your life at any time and be successful.
I am living proof and I am not stopping anytime soon. Heck, I’m only getting started
Has it been a smooth road?
Smooth!!?? Ahhh, let’s just say the entrepreneurial struggle is real! There has been a lot for me to learn. Let’s face it. I know what I’m great at. I also know what I’m awful at too. I am a creative guy, I love what I do, but owning a business was not something I’d ever done before. There has a been a ton to learn and I’ll always be a student and there is still so much more to learn.
I think every entrepreneur goes through the same struggles. Am I goo enough? Did I make the right decision? How will support my family? Should I just go back to work…
Owning a business is hard. If it were easy everyone would do it right? Everyone can do it, in fact, everyone should do it. We live in unique times where technology is creating so much opportunity for everyone. It’s my dream to help as many people as I can realize that and be successful in business.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Lol. So officially I started out Xtralarge Media. I was a video company. I will create video content for businesses that can be used as part of an online marketing strategy. We then use that video to create advertisements on Facebook and social media to generate massive ROI. It was Video first, social media second.
Welp, the business went through some changes midway through 2017 and we rebranded making way for a package called Affordable Social Videos. This would be the division of the company that concentrated on Video for Social.
Then, late 2017 we started to have MASSIVE success with Facebook advertising and began to really push that part of the business as our clients were making a ton of money which lead into other services like video and web.
Fast forward to January 2018 and we prepare yet again rebrand a little bit with the push of something called chatbots. A chatbot is an automated assistant that we program into Facebook Messenger that can help customers with things like setting up appointments, broadcasting newsletters, answering FAQs and the list go on.
We are seeing absolutely mind-blowing results with chatbots and we are really good at creating them so we are about to announce another division of the company called Reborn Automation. This really exemplifies my story and the industry…
Marketing and Advertising are changing, it’s being reborn. Reborn Automation just fit perfectly into what we are doing now as a business and what we are about!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think we live in one of the best areas on earth! Business is great, the people are great and I couldn’t recommend it enough.
Pricing:
- Free 7 Day Facbook Advertising Trial for all new customers
Contact Info:
- Address: 10 Alvanos Dr Haverhill, MA 01830
- Website: www.xtralargemedia.com
- Phone: 6172853955
- Email: phill@xtralargemedia.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/affordablesocialvideos/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/Reborn-Automation-2102621236679052/
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