Brandon Peterson: 20 Under 40

Brandon Peterson, Nebraska Wesleyan ’12, has been listed in the Freemont Tribune as a “20 Under 40,” a series on young professionals all under 40.

Peterson comes from a family of entrepreneurs, all of whom are familiar with the pitfalls of running a business. Brandon himself has experienced this failure. “But that’s one of the things about entrepreneurship: you have to go in with just a boundless amount of optimism that this is going to work,” he told the Tribune, “And if or when it doesn’t work, then you have to go, ‘Well, we tried. What did we learn?’ and move on.”

Peterson originally attended Nebraska Wesleyan to become a dentist. He enjoyed it, but during his chemistry class, the professor was talking about the many requirements to go to dental school and she said: “You’ve got to love this.”

“And I sat there, and it just hit me, and I go, ‘I don’t love this. I don’t love this at all,’” Peterson said. “And I got up right in the middle of her talking and I walked out and went straight to the register’s office, and I switched my major. And that was the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire life.”

He switched his major to business administration and psychology. Always active in high school, the same trend continued into college. Peterson joined Phi Tau as a founder of Upsilon. “I was never going to be a fraternity guy, I had no desire because of the stereotypes,” he said, “But when I was able to start it and create the foundation, then it was a little bit different. I could take something, and I could create a new perception on it.”

In 2012, Peterson was awarded the John Cosgrove Spirit and Leadership Award.

Peterson traveled abroad to New Zealand for a semester and when he returned he interned at his mother’s Planet Fitness gyms to get a taste of running a business. He would clean, answer emails, and do other managerial tasks. He would end up increasing profits for the location by 20% in five months. “It’s discipline and working hard and understanding that long-term goals are a thing you’ve got to work for,” he said, “Don’t complain, just do.”

In 2014 when he graduated he became a regional director for Anytime Fitness. He was successful but wanted to run something of his own. In 2016, a friend from college came to him with an idea.

Together, they created the nonprofit SELFiD, which stands for “Self Image Defined.” The friend, who suffered from an eating disorder herself, helps young girls with their mental, physical, and emotional health and helps them find happiness in their lives.

“From that moment, we created SELFiD at my kitchen table, and in my basement, we just brainstormed,” Peterson said. “And from there, we have a board of directors, we have people that have come across the state and across the United States that have come to support the event, we’ve had donations. It’s been phenomenal.”

“That was my first experience ever starting a business,” Peterson said. “And I’m so glad it was a nonprofit, I’m so glad that people supported it and it was just so many learning experiences that came from that.”

Since then he has created five more companies and sold one of them. “I learned that it’s usually harder than you expected it to be,” he said. “The payoff doesn’t come when you think it’s going to come. It’s usually farther out and it usually costs more.” But one of his most important pieces of advice is be first to market, especially with technology. “I don’t care what kind of (intellectual property) you’ve got, you’ve got to be first-to-market,” he said. “Because if somebody else has done it first and before you, you’re pretty much out of the running unless you have this crazy quality that’s going to be different.”

In early 2017, Peterson realized running startups wasn’t going to pay the bills. He joined DPA, Del Paterson and Associates. “I came in and I said, ‘You offer a great service, you became a national company by not quite all of the innovative marketing techniques. Let me come in and just be more of a kind of a consultant-style employee to help revamp this side of things,’” Brandon Peterson said. “He said, ‘OK, let’s give it a shot.’”

At DPA, Peterson brought in new digital marketing and enhanced marketing efforts, growing the team from 20 employees to 35 in a few years. Today, the company is launching their marketing agency, DPA Impact. They plan to expand to a new building with 100 employees by 2021.

Peterson is someone who can’t sit still for very long and is always planning the next project. “If you shoot for something better than what you’re doing right now, you’re going to hit something,” Peterson said. “Something good is going to come out of it, so why not go for it?”

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