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2011 Forty Under 40: Trevor Yager

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About me...
Trevor Yager
Owner
TrendyMinds
36
Web sites:
Social media:
On my hip:
iPhone
Most-used apps:
Flipboard
Outpost
Highrise
Facebook
Twitter
Kindle for iPad
Favorite stuff:
Fall Creek Place and Mass Ave; books about branding, advertising or small business; TV shows, including "Modern Family," "Glee" and assorted crazy reality shows
 

In 1996, before anyone knew what the Internet would become, before social media existed, Trevor Yager started TrendyMinds, offering silk screening and embroidery services. He was a senior at Anderson University then, and he’s been growing what is now a full-scale marketing services business ever since.

TrendyMinds still offers its original services, but now it also provides Web and social media as well as print and brand design. Over the years, it has helped NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick, businesses such as Home Depot and Bank of America precursor MBNA, health care companies and many others get their message out.

“Some people like a niche, a specific tool or an industry,” Yager said. “That’s not us. The way I’ve always looked at it is, I would never use one tool to build a house. Why would I use only one tool to help spread the message of a company or organization?”

In addition to its for-profit ventures, TrendyMinds offers a pro bono program that in 2010 gave back $150,000 in in-kind services, Yager said. Not-for-profit organizations apply for help and each employee votes on which is most deserving. Over the years, they’ve helped the Madame Walker Theatre Center with printed materials, created a website for IndyHub, and developed public relations and marketing plans for School on Wheels.

Yager serves on the boards of the Indiana Arts Commission (“There’s a huge need to help keep the arts alive in this state, especially with funding cuts”) and the Damien Center, and he and his life partner adopted a 7-year-old son last summer.

He’s proud of all that, as well as how TrendyMinds has grown. “It’s been slow and sustained growth,” said Yager, who wanted to limit the company to 10 employees but now has 13. In the next year, he expects to “fill out some areas and add complementary services to help our clients.”•

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  • All the Best Trevor!
    Congratulations on what you have achieved. You are a wonderful example for all of us.

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  1. Well, we could blame ABC because they haven't advertised the INDY 500....not during the HUGE TV rating shows like Dancing with the Stars (of which IICS driver Helio Castroneves is a former champion). He never won a CART championship, did he?

    We could blame the new car...because it's ugly and has a V6 that has less horsepower than the pace car. CART (to my knowledge) never had that problem with cars they presented at the speedway years 1979 through 1995.

    We could blame the fencepost, but that would be crass. Or maybe Danica? Or maybe Jean Alesi....or boost increases from constant rules tampering. Maybe we could blame Penske who still is winning everything as usual.

    Maybe we can blame the world for not understanding the the great Indy gods who regularly twist things in such ways that we mere mortals must only accept, but never question.

    So, it does beg the question....who is responsible if the series and Indy continues to flounder? Are the responsibilities so diffuse and complicated that no one really is to blame for it's fall from grace?

    I urge the speedway to sign on for 7 more years of ABC coverage and 7 more years of NBC Sports Network coverage. It been win-win so far....*cough* *cough*

  2. "They're problem was thinking they were bigger than the institution that made their existence possible. That turned out to be a mistake."

    The above quote made by Disciple shows his continued inability to grasp a simple concept: CART is dead. Twice. It provided a brilliant stage for some of the best open wheel racing in all the past century of racing. It's gone DOOD, get over it.

    PLEASE explain, Mr. Disciple of INDYCAR, why you continually hammer home, even on the eve of the 2012 Indy 500, this same point...over and over? Seriously, why does the legacy of CART haunt you so much?

    The same problems that affected the sport for over a century of AOW racing STILL affect it now. Your answers (or lack thereof) belittle the very sport you claim to love. Indy rots in your hands yet you request status quo. You negate salient points with drivel...always.

    Indy is not going to die. But, it is dying...are you willing to accept that? "Indy is a hot mess"....it's true. Yet you want it that way? What is wrong with you?

  3. I just want to make sure I am reading this right - Wellpoint is eliminating 112 employees. Wellpoint is a customer of Repucare. Repucare is creating 82 jobs. I sure hope they are hiring Wellpoint employees. Does not make sense!

  4. Triscuts...love um!

  5. Of course the fair will go on. Don't you big city reporters understand county fairs? Get outside the beltway and see what life is really like!

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