Preface
To be honest, I did this list on accident on Twitter, except in no particular order. I sent some tweets regarding my friends and who’s doing the “big things” in life. I was laying in bed the other night and said to myself, “wow, you really grew up with some ELITE level people” and I don’t think I ever took the time to appreciate the friends I had growing up, plus the ones that I made in college.
Here it is, my 30 under 30 except their are only 6. (If you ask me, it just makes it all the more exclusive).
#6 – David Riggs
First I want to say that being at the number 6, the last position on this list is not a diss. The absolute only reason I put David on number 6 was that I haven’t known him as long as most of the other people on this list.
Before I met David, I pictured myself as one of the most ambitious people I knew. Now, when I think of ambition, I think of David.
For those who don’t know David, he’s my business partner. We clicked quickly after working on a project together. We both have had similar histories of using web design to pay for college. However, it became apparent that we both had very different skillsets. He’s what is called a “visionary” (the big picture guy) and I’m what is called an “integrator” (the day to day operations).
I know the tech, David knows how to pitch. David is a PROVEN seller, communicator, and bridge creator. He does everything I hate doing in business (sales, marketing, networking). He’s mentioned to me that I do nearly everything he hates doing (project management, technical troubleshooting, and client relations).
With him and I working together, combining our businesses, we literally 10x our revenue, profit, and projects. It hasn’t been easy, but I couldn’t imagine another business partner.
I hope that in a year’s time, I could see David on this list at number one. In the meantime, let’s get after it!
#5 – Lucas Tully (BasiliskRL)
I probably met Lucas for the first time when I was in 6th or 7th grade. Throughout high school, we were on the church youth leadership team. He was always a leader in a lot of ways. Now, he and I were not super close, but I always thought of us as friends in high school.
He went to the University of Iowa, got married, became a Cru leader (from what I can recall), and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, sending him packing his bags and heading home. But it didn’t end there.
Since the video game RocketLeague came out, approximately in 2016, I’ve always known him to play it. I’ve never been great at the game, but it’s a fun game where you control a car on a soccer pitch, trying to score a giant ball into a goal. Soccer, but with cars.
Lucas started streaming it during the COVID-19 pandemic, proving his impressive skills, live for the entire world to see on Twitch and Youtube, beating other large name RocketLeague players. He made his way to TikTok, where he started going viral for many of his RocketLeauge related videos, boosting his following.
To be honest, I don’t game a lot, primarily because I’ve never cared for the toxicity that exist in most video games (seriously, gaming communities are the worst), but Lucas has managed to cultivate a stream and community of wholesomeness. Often time, people in his Twitch Chat will complain about being bad at the game, and Lucas will usually reply with something like “Nah man. You’re not bad! You’re just at a different stage than me! Keep going at it and you’ll keep improving.” He also regularly calls out people in the chat who are being toxic, calling other players “trash” or “horrible.”
Anyways, there was a lot of context I tried to fill in on this one. I’m super pumped to see how much he grows on Twitch and TikTok over the next year.
#4 – Noah Terpstra
I’ll start with this – I’ve never met a person who’s managed to piss me off more. He’s mean, often times a jerk (for his own entertainment nonetheless), and not the type of person you want to open up to, much like a brother.
Noah was one of the first people that introduced himself to me when I changed church’s in 2014/2015. Apparently we had played basketball together in elementary, which I don’t remember at all.
I never thought meeting him would lead to dozens of trips to Minneapolis, cross country drives, and random trips across the state of Virginia just to play TopGolf for an hour before going home.
The reason he ranks at number 4, much like David, is his ambition, in literally everything he does. He’s finishing up law school in Virginia, while also side hustling to protect minority homeowners in VA during the COVID-19 pandemic and sensible gun-controls.
#3 – Nathan Long
Part of the numbering here is purely because of how long I’ve known him. His grandmother used to babysit me, and sometimes she would bring him and we would hang out, as 4 year olds do.
Now, Nathan has been up to some pretty neat things in the world of video editing. I always enjoy seeing when he drops a new video, even if I don’t publically voice it.
He’s recently secured a job post-graduation and was recently highlighted on Barstool Sports for a snowball fight video, which has since gone viral on nearly every platform.
Him and I have talked business a few times, both in the digital world and in real estate, which I respect.
#2 – Alex Probert
I met him on LinkedIn before my junior year at Liberty University. I have no idea how we got connected on LinkedIn, but I mentioned that I liked one of his Youtube videos. After that, we met on a phone call, talked for nearly an hour, and I knew I had made a friend who had many of the same interests as me.
The reason he comes at number 2 is because he’s armed and dangerous. He’s out of the NCAA (his previous full time job was being an All-American kicker) and taking on the “real world” in real estate and working with me at Pneuma Media on various client projects.
This is another ambitious individual with big plans in the next year, including getting his real estate license. I won’t tell you all of his plans on this post, but I expect big things.
#1 – Wyatt English
If anyone thought they were going to beat Wyatt English on this list, think again. Student Body President of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, gearing up for law school, he’s someone making BIG moves.
He’s also the only person that reaches out if I’m ever sad tweeting, which has lead to random adventures such as visiting the White House and American University in DC.
The difference between Wyatt and us is that he’s playing chess, while the rest are playing checkers. I’m fairly sure he’s got the next 10 years mapped. The scarier part is he’s going to get through that map in 5 years.
He’s one of the only people I can go to that gives me a truly intellectual conversation, even when we disagree about US Department of Transportation funding and budgets and other political matters.