Prestige Mobile Media was my first real business. Looking back, it was messy, extremely hard, and ridiculously educational. It was the kind of business that forces you to grow fast, learn faster, and laugh at the chaos along the way. The story of PureWay is yes a failed business but man what a great idea and a real milestone for me in my journey as a entrepreneur.
The story is a clean, corporate version of entrepreneurship.
This was the “figure it out and keep going” version.
And honestly? I’m grateful for every minute of it.
The Idea
Before Prestige, I had already been grinding for years trying to find my business… it started with a windshield repair business, door to door sales – 100% commission baby, side ventures that taught me everything school never did. But Prestige was the first project that felt like a real company.
The concept was bold for its time:
Mobile Ads on vehicles, letting businesses advertise wherever the people were.
Mobile. Flashy. High-energy.
And very quickly… complicated.
But that’s what made it fun.
The value offering for Prestige… average billboards cost between $12-18k/mo and give you 350,000-500,000 impressions per month. Traditional billboards are dull, boring and you see them all over the place..
Prestige was a mobile truck that had ads that scrolled and this was new, sexy and caught the attention of traffic as they were waiting at stop lights, driving past the truck or as the truck was parked in high trafficked areas.
Long story short the cost per impression was reduced 3x, and the new/different marketing style resulted in higher impact, higher returns for advertisers. Easy decision when you go through the numbers.
Building Brick By Brick
Prestige was the kind of business where you wear every hat. Then invent a few more hats along the way. One day I was selling ad space, the next day troubleshooting a truck issues in a parking lot, and the day after that trying to figure out why a route plan took our drivers directly into a dead zone during prime traffic times.
It was nonstop movement:
- Buying and maintaining vehicles
- Selling, pitching, negotiating
- Hiring and training
- Mapping routes like a logistics commander
- Navigating local rules and ordinances
- Fixing things nobody warns you break
It was exciting, exhausting, and way harder than the original idea made it look.
But it taught me more than any easy win ever could.
The Big Lessons That Stuck
Prestige Mobile Media didn’t crash and burn.. It evolved, it taught, and eventually it outgrew me. The concept was a real business, I just was the wrong person to execute the business to its full potential.
Here’s what it left me with:
1. Know what business you’re actually in.
Prestige looked like an ad company… until I realized I was basically running a logistics operation with screens attached. Huge wake-up call and the analytics ended up being more impactful then I realized, I should have invested more in showing the numbers/impact of the ads during peak traffic hours to justify higher rates during different times of the day.
2. Cash flow is the real boss.
No amount of ambition fixes a tight month. Prestige taught me financial discipline fast. It also taught me to account for the worst case scenario.
3. “More” isn’t a strategy.
We kept trying to expand, more clients, more services, more locations.
What we really needed was more focus. Increase profits and maximize the potential on existing assets vs. grow before the business matured into a real profitable, health business.
4. Team culture doesn’t appear on its own.
I learned how important it is to set the tone early. A team takes shape around whatever standards the leader tolerates. My rat pack team was not very disciplined, I thought fun meant happy employees. Well fun became many many headaches and the team energy was a distraction that limited growth for sure.
5. Exits aren’t failures.
Closing that chapter felt like a failure but my exit with Prestige was the best education and exactly what I needed to accelerate my growth as a entrepreneur.
What I Learned About Myself
Prestige stretched every part of who I was as a person, father and young entrepreneur. It showed me that:
- I can build something from scratch
- I can operate under pressure
- I need structure before scaling
- I might not be the right guy to do everything in the business
- Systems are a must early on so when the time is right you can hand off tasks to others.
All of this eventually shaped the way I built PureWay and how I lead today.
Prestige wasn’t the “big win,” but it was the foundation for every big win that came later.
Why This Business Still Matters Today
Prestige Mobile Media is a major contributor to why I lead the way I do now.
It’s why PureWay focuses so intensely on:
- Simplicity
- Systems
- Customer proximity
- Team standards
- Real impact over flashy ideas
Prestige gave me the reps. PureWay allowed me to put those reps to work in an industry where the stakes truly matter.
Final Thought
Every entrepreneur has that one business that teaches them the most. The business that humbles you, grows you, and gives you a story worth telling.
Prestige Mobile Media was that for me.
It wasn’t glamorous.
It wasn’t perfect.
But it was fun, intense, formative, and exactly what I needed.
And it gave me the confidence, grit, and clarity to build the companies I’m leading today.