Today we’d like to introduce you to Fox Black.
Hi Fox, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up outside of Philly. I ran away from home when I was 17 and never went back. I spent some time in Vermont making some pretty rad choices. I visited the UK and just never got on the plane back. I was out there for about a year before being forced to come back to the States. I then went to medical school and was an EMS for about a year until I walked away from that. I worked food and beverage until about 2019. With the perfect scenario of events, I eventually started working for the Department of Defense, specifically with the NSA division. That definitely sounds more impressive than it actually is. I was like a glorified technical engineer/auditor. That job led me to meet some people at corporate AT&T, where I eventually got a job as a corporate-level recruiter. I got bored and made enough money to have a nest egg, which led me to apply for teaching positions. With a crazy scenario of events, the teaching job that I landed actually led to me taking over GadgetBoy. There is so much context within all of this, and I truly think that the adventure began after I took over the Gadgetlad. Just some notable side notes are that I’ve been sober for 12 years. I have lived all over the place. I definitely try to be unapologetically myself, and I’ve only recently in my life seen the value in helping others and doing something bigger than what’s in front of me. Oh, and this is like a super major one: everyone close to me in my life knows that I repeat this often. I have no idea what I’m doing, but everyone keeps telling me I’m doing a good job.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Touching back on not knowing what I’m doing, I will state that the challenge is learning how to do everything. Also, early on, everyone was giving me advice, which I was very much taking. But how I know that I’m on my own path is that I can’t see it. An early challenge for me was trusting my own judgment in decision-making skills. Another large challenge is thinking exceptionally pragmatically and realistically about how my business works and how business works in general. Having dyslexia, my comprehension is unique and special, and I need to essentially work everything out from scratch in a way that makes sense to me. So put plainly, the world is trying to teach me, but I actually can’t be taught unless I do it myself. It actually turns out to be more of a strength than a challenge. But something that comes to mind often, especially when it comes to interacting with other professionals.
We’ve been impressed with Gadgetboy, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Gadget Boy is a retail and repair shop for all things technology. Computers, phones, pressure cookers, it doesn’t matter. I like to say that we are in the business of solutions. There are three different arms of the company. The first is repair, and that is what we mainly market and focus on. The second is retail. So if we can’t fix it, we can get you something new. We also have a great relationship with most distributors on the planet, so we can normally beat local pricing. The third is Gadget Boy University, and that mainly focuses on external work outside of the brick-and-mortar consultations, on-site repairs, and teaching classes. A big contributor to that is the local retirement communities. We normally teach classes at three different communities each week. Aside from the more mainstream things that we offer, we do a ton of community outreach. I’m a diplomat for the Columbia Chamber. I attend all city council meetings, especially the ones for education. We do community outreach with the local police department, and we provide street interviews to the Five Points area on most weekends. We host video game tournaments multiple times a month, and those bring out a pretty large crowd and are actually a pretty large portion of our social media content.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
failing and making mistakes are way more valuable than achieving. That life that we’re working for only costs everything we currently are and comfortability is just a barrier.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Gadgetboysc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gadgetboysc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/61561111554202/mentions/
