On April 5, those in attendance at Lincoln South Rotary Club heard from Brent Comstock of BCom Solutions. He is a nationally-recognized speaker with a deep knowledge of rural communities, entrepreneurship, and digital strategy.
Brent admitted that one of the most fascinating parts of his business is getting to know clients - or potential clients - what their passions are, what they do and why they do it. A benefit of that is that his company can better serve clients because they have a deep understanding of how they can help them.
He continues to focus no rural America because that is where there is a need. The divide between rural and urban America is great. Rural American can easily be left behind in the areas of technology and digital support.
He started his company while in high school. He said his first customers were grandmothers - a group from a local church. They realized that they needed to work to stay connected with their grandchildren. Technology was spreading people apart. So, those grandmothers learned about social media - not just the basics but how to understand who / how to post and what / how to avoid.
Brent's company has worked in 38 states and 11 different countries. But, he still likes to come home. He said that many others his age - that grew up in rural America but left - do not do that - they do not return home - they don't feel that they have anything to return to.
What are the challenges of rural America? They don't know what they have. They don't know the impact that they have on the world.
He knew that he could build a company that was not a cookie-cutter advertising company. He wanted to build a company that invested in sharing stories of rural America - to show rural communities to the rest of the world. He wanted to tell stories and have people understand the impact that tier stories have on the world.
They wanted to differentiate their company from the other 100,000 marketing/advertising firms in the US. They were not going to simply create an ad or build a website.
Defined, BCom is a "digital marketing firm that builds impactful digital marketing solutions for campaigns, causes, and companies. We use our digital expertise in web, social media, and email marketing to help you achieve results".
BCom has been the digital backbone for many political campaigns around the country. And
Brent Comstock is an entrepreneur, rural economic developer, and keynote speaker.
A small-town Nebraska kid turned successful tech entrepreneur, Brent has served as founder and CEO of the nationally recognized company, BCom Solutions for nearly ten years. In this role, Brent has served as the senior digital adviser for local, state, and national political campaigns, billion-dollar fundraising initiatives, and large corporate advertising programs.
In addition to leading the team at BCom, he speaks to organizations and Fortune 500 companies including National Rural Economic Developers Association, Adobe, the National Rural Broadband Association, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Through his keynotes he leads the charge for broadband expansion, tech entrepreneurship and youth retention in rural America.
Brent’s entrepreneurship experience spans the globe, as he recently served on the founding team of Change Ventures -- a venture capital firm that invests in Baltic region start-ups. In 2016, Brent was recognized with a Congressional Award for Economic Development and in 2018, was the inaugural Rural Spirit Award winner for his commitment to building successful rural communities.
Brent is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University where he was a Robertson Scholar.