Tracy Rheaume

SUCCESS STORY

Featuring: Tracy Rheaume

GREETINGS TRACY

A dynamic entrepreneur, Tracy Rheaume proves success isn’t just about school, it’s a combination of passion, persistence, and creativity! Tracy has launched several successful businesses all right here in the 321! We’ll dive into some of them, but first here’s a little background on Tracy.

He was born on an Air Force Base in Germany. Being in a military family, they moved around a lot during his early childhood, finally settling in Rockledge when Tracy entered the 5th grade. He graduated from Rockledge High School in 1995. Although school was not his forte, he did go onto Arkansas Tech University and started a business degree. After 1 year at ATU, he left and gave a few junior colleges a try. Admittedly, not giving his best efforts, school just wasn’t for him. He didn’t enjoy it, in fact, he resented it.

Tracy wasn’t going to let his distaste for school stop him on his path to success. He had dreams, he just knew they most likely weren’t going to come from the conventional route. He may not have worked hard in school, but he was a hard worker when he found something he was passionate about. He stepped into the world of finance first and became a licensed financial advisor for Prudential Financial.

Through connections at Prudential, he was introduced to a global drinkware company. For the next two decades, he worked in promotional ventures designing and promoting souvenir drinkware for clients such as MGM Casino Group, Caesar’s Entertainment, Hard Rock Cafés, Bubba Gump, and Carnival Cruise Lines, to name a few. He found success in this industry, financially and as a creative outlet.

His love for sports, combined with his entrepreneurial spirit, led him into even more ventures, the first one being 321SportsCast. This is your go-to social media platform for celebrating athletes of all ages, sports, and abilities in Brevard County with live broadcasts, interviews, awesome sports photography, as well as team, player, and coach spotlights.

But that’s not all…Dingers Baseball & Softball Training Center is another great business centered around local athletes. It’s located in the heart of Rockledge and is a nonprofit, state-of-the-art indoor baseball/softball training facility offering unlimited hitting for members, personal instruction, clinics, camps, birthday parties, and more. It is the home of Brevard County’s only Armcare Center to keep those throwing arms in optimal shape. Tracy and business partner, Jason Dehler, opened Dingers in an effort to provide a top-notch training center for the baseball and softball players in the 321.

Wait…there’s more!! Tracy, along with two other partners, also started a Travel Baseball Organization! Club 321Baseball is a thriving Baseball Club consisting of 13 baseball teams, ages 7 to 15, which travel to national tournaments, near and far. A perk the Club 321Baseball league offers is access to train at the Dingers facility for almost nothing…talk about a Home Run!

And last, but not least, Tracy stretched his entrepreneur skills even further and owns a crowdfunding platform for team fundraising. Connect Sports Fundraising is a gamechanger when it comes to fundraising. It’s a seamless, easy, quick, and efficient way to raise funds for sports teams, bands, chorus and theatre groups, project graduations and any other organization needing to raise money quickly. It’s the #1 platform in the country in terms of performance and how quickly it pays out. Coaches have zero work to do! Connect Sports Fundraising is also an approved vendor with the Brevard Public School System.

Whew, now that you’ve learned about Tracy’s background and his tenacity for success in different businesses in the 321 as well as nationally, check out his thoughts on what fuels him!

ENJOY TRACY’S RESPONSES

TOP 3 BUSINESS TIPS

Surround Yourself With Successful People
I try to surround myself with people who have great work ethics and great values.

Be Presentable
The way you present yourself and the way you speak to people will have a huge impact on who helps you along the way. We all need people to help us reach new levels. No one can do it all by themselves. If you appear in a certain way, more opportunities of willingness to help will present.

Be Relentless
You’re bound to get knocked down, early and often, and face many challenges, but you have to be so relentless none of that will bother you or make you want to give up.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Balancing it all. In my opinion, the four categories of success are health, wealth, love, and happiness. My weakness is trying to find the balance between all four, successfully making money intertwined with friends, exercise, and relationships.

Michael Jordan quoted – ‘Success comes with a price!’ What that price is, can be different for everybody, but in the end, everyone is going to be sacrificing something one way or another.

INSPIRATION BEHIND THE JOURNEY

Definitely, my kids and my fear of failing them. I have 2 daughters, ages 23 and 12, and a 13-year-old son. They are what motivate me through the roof every single day.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re going to be an entrepreneur, be ready for late nights and early mornings. Your brain never rests. Holidays, birthdays, and family events will never feel the same because your brain never shuts off. This is why finding the balance between it all is important.

THANK YOU TRACY

Thank you, Tracy, for sharing your insights in the business side of your world. To my readers, I hope you can find a circle of SUCCESSFUL people to surround yourself with…as they say, ‘if you hang around with 4 millionaires, you’ll be the 5th’! Take pride in yourself and always be PRESENTABLE, work with what you do have and no matter what, always be RELENTLESS…the road to success isn’t always easy, don’t give up and keep working hard!

Please check out Tracy’s websites and social media platforms to learn more about each of his businesses, especially if you’re in the sports world or involved with a group that relies on fundraising! Support a local 321’er and he can help support and promote YOU!

TOP 10

Reasons To Dress For Success

It’s important to dress the part! According to Linked in, here are the Top 10 reasons to do so!

1. Science Says So

2. First Impressions Count

3. Promotes Self-Respect

4. Boosts Self-Confidence

5. It Draws The Right Kind Of Attention

6. It’s A Step To Overall Self-Improvement

7. It will Keep You Productive

8. It Shows Your Attention to Detail

9. Competitive Edge

10. It’s Fun

ATHLETES

Don’t Take Shortcuts

Have you ever found yourself not pushing to 100% during practice drills? Or not go all the way to touch the line in runs? Or stop doing a particular movement, just because coach wasn’t looking…those are shortcuts!! Shortcuts will not get you anywhere in the long run!

You play how you practice. Practices are usually carefully planned by coaches in terms of what a team and/or individuals need to specifically work on! And if you’re not executing the drills fully or giving your best effort during practice, how can you expect to during a game?

What you do during practice will reflect in your game play, remember that! Even naturally, athletic players need to strive to better themselves with each practice. Show your coach and team the respect they deserve and show up to practice with the mindset of getting better, as an individual and a team, not how you can create shortcuts!

PARENTS

Trade Schools vs Conventional College

I think it’s best to say in this day and age, the traditional college route right after high school may not be in the best interest for everyone! Talk to your kids about trade schools and the opportunities they can provide!

We are entering a time where the people in most trades are hitting the retirement age! What will we do if we can’t readily call a plumber when we have a busted pipe, or an AC person when our AC in the hot Florida heat stops working, or an irrigation specialist when we have a sprinkler shooting water everywhere!! How about when we can’t figure out why our ceiling fans won’t turn on or a light switch isn’t working properly, who’s going to be the electrician to fix it? What if we want to dig a pool, or tile the patio?

There are TONS of trade schools out there! Teach your kids about the trades and see what excites them! Encourage them while in junior high and high school to take classes within these different markets.

Yes, college is great, but don’t discredit or discourage your child from pursuing outside of the 4-year or more degrees! Wouldn’t it be great if EVERY child was required to learn some sort of trade before graduating. Therefore, they would have their plan B in place for them without even knowing it!

LIFE

Balancing Act Of Life

Ever feel like you’re walking on a narrow balancing beam, or in a juggling act in the circus with a crowd of people just waiting for you to mess up? This is what can happen when we have balls bouncing around in all different directions between work, family, and life in general.

This is where that handy-dandy calendar comes in to play I talked about in a prior newsletter. Don’t just have a calendar for all of your busy times to be accounted for! Remember, to fill in time slots for family and fun! We all have 24 hours in a day, learn to balance them wisely. If not, you’ll find yourself running on a thin line, stretched too thin, and even perhaps alone because you weren’t able to fit in anything else but work!

You only get one life…balance wisely!