Tomm Penner

Background

About Tomm Penner

There are things in life that you aspire to do; you seek them out and you pursue them with tenacity, grit, and determination. There are other things that seem to seek you; you can't outrun them even if you want to. Playing guitar, to me, is the former. Marketing, the latter. Painting, somewhere in the middle. When I was 11 I started bringing candy to school to sell to friends at recess. It was my first side hustle. In my teens, I thought about being a red-seal chef - cruising the world on a ship serving guests. Eh.I got a job in a restaurant and that dream faded. As a 17-year-old eating dinner with my family."I think I'd like to be in radio or a realtor", I told my parents. Wouldn't you know it? My high school announced a student position at a radio station just a few days later. I was determined, and I landed the job!(Google: Les Brown Ya Gotta Be Hungry). So began my first official role in Marketing. I'm an entrepreneur at heart (remember the 11-year-old candy salesman?). After a few years in radio, I took a scary leap and left my career to open a local advertising agency called Advertising Revolution. It never took off the way I wanted. Let's call it,"failing forward". Failure is not something that I've feared. Never trying is what freaks me out. Remember the kid who wanted to be in radio or real estate? So did I. I studied to become a realtor in the summer of 2008 and landed a job with Choice Realty. Things were going well. I was getting on my feet, but I wasn't content. There was a burning desire in me to do something that my community needed and never had. I had a dream to open Winkler's first hunting and fishing retail store. I quit my job as a realtor and founded Dominion Outdoors in 2010. The store started out tiny but grew steadily. In 2012, we opened the first gun range in the area and an online store. In 2015 we moved to a 3,800 sq. ft. store. These were formative years for me as an entrepreneur. It was the "school of hard knocks", but my dreams were coming true. In 2017 we were awarded the Chamber of Commerce 'Business Builder' award. What I dreamed of had been accomplished. I sensed it was time to move on. I sold the store and exited successfully in 2018. Through a few connections, I became involved in the FinTech space in 2018. I was placed in charge of Marketing at ECHO Payment Systems, responsible for all customer acquisition for our challenger banking product. In 2022, we acquired CARD.com where I spearhead customer acquisition. I haven't pursued Marketing. It has pursued me. Guitar playing.still a work in progress.