Jason Hargrove

For My LinkedIn Profile

Posting this here because LinkedIn just doesn’t give one enough room to tell one’s story: http://www.linkedin.com/in/soulular

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###### My Lifelong Dedication of Passion & Craft

### Act I - Teeny Bopping Into the Big Leagues

Jason Hargrove began freelancing as a graphic designer at age 13 out of sheer passion for design and client demand. During this early period he had little ambition to purse a professional career in communications. Instead his long term interests were focused squarely on computer systems, specifically in the area of human interfacing. It was this that lead him to pursue an education in Computer Systems Technology at the Northern Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton, Alberta.

Alongside his base passions in communications and IT, Jason illustrated an early interest in entrepreneurship and business. By the time he had enrolled at NAIT he had created three companies that would give him a basic foundation in brand identity, visioning, planning, business management, human resource management and account management. While most of his peers were flipping hamburgers or pumping gas, Jason was exercising day to day responsibilities very similar to those of the present day, nearly two decades after he began.

It was during the dot-com boom in the late 90s that Jason forged his professional career that would harmonize his passions in communications arts and IT. Working in the Edmonton, Seattle and Vancouver markets primarily, Jason built a portfolio and a personal brand name that centered primarily on web interactive. Though it gave him valuable experience working within larger firms and agencies, the work that he was doing wasn’t fulfilling his long proven passion in entrepreneurship. Unsurprisingly, the dot-com collapse of the early 2000s provided impetus for change.

### Act II - Learning on the Job / Redefining the Job

In his early twenties Jason set out as a sole-propietor based in Vancouver, BC. His business was digital media and his clients were primarily in the entertainment, online gaming and dating industries. Much of his work during this period was early social networking in nature. His most well known clients of this period were NHL teams such as Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators.

The work Jason did for these higher profile brands inspired a new body of interest in brand positioning & communications, and so Jason eventually created a new company to specialize in this. In 2003 Soulular Brand Experience was born – giving way to “The Soulular Level” mentality that would shape the rest of his decade.

Based primarily on his own theory and hands-on experience Jason would go on to establish processes for building and maintaining brand identity in application to personal, small, medium and large brands. Well known clients included the RCMP, BCIT, ELS Language Centers (Berlitz), Techvibes.com (the original incarnation), Massive Technology Show, and Nokia Group.

It was a valuable period of growth and experience for Jason that opened many doors for him in Vancouver. As rewarding as it was, he’d eventually long for change once more.

### Act III - World Stage, Here We Come

By the time he was 27 Jason had spent 14 years helping other people build and position their brands. At an age when many of his friends were just setting out in their careers Jason began to seek a reinvention.

With the proliferation of open source software and social media, and the significant evolution in consumer and enterprise usage of the Internet, Jason saw considerable opportunity for the application of his skill set to his self-owned brands. To the surprise of many he closed his company and at age 28 moved to Toronto, Ontario. There he began an intense period of development in stealth mode.

Nearly two years later he is poised to launch and in private beta he has been actively recruiting worldwide clients, strategic partners and freelance staff from what he affectionately refers to as, “the old days”.

To be continued…

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http://www.linkedin.com/in/soulular

Purgatorio

Ignorance sits up upon her pedestal and casts forth a wicked gaze. No words. It’s dull malice in her eyes. I avert mine and look out across the landscape adorning my porch and ochroid vista.

Weariness rolls over the hills, limping crops and penises and flowers in vases. There are marigolds on the veranda in a pot that has seen far too many wet winters. The townside is sleepy. My hair is unkept.

Thought of Age has me traveling Duplicity. I am a hundred and fifty two years old and in my prime. Flipping fingers and pages written by my own hand and illustrated with the simple power of an aurous mind.

At floor seven and a half point five – and at the fourty-ninth stair I pause to say hello with much melodrama and flair. True to form, on Heaven I ascend.

“All hope embrace ye who enter here.”

Climb, Jason, climb.

– JH™

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Aft:

I wrote this as an email just now. Very “where I’m at”, rounding corners.

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