Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Caston.
Jason, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born and raised in the South suburbs of Chicago, IL. At the age of nine, I started hacking videos games after my mom got me a Tandy computer. This is when I began to enjoy programming. As I got older, the main things that were fun to me were sports and video games. I continued to experiment in hacking games and expand my programming skills.
Not all of my experiences with computers gave me the results that I wanted. There was this one time I took apart this old Atari system I had, took apart this old computer system I had, connected the two motherboards with wire, and then plugged it in to see what would happen. This ended up taking out all of the electricity in my apartment.
School came very easy to me in high school. I was on the chess team, basketball team and I was a mathlete, quite the mix of geek and athlete, AmIright? When it came to my senior year I only needed two more credits, so I had the benefit of coming late and leaving early, however, I wanted to use one of those credits on a computer class, but there weren’t enough students enrolled so I was unable to take it and I had to wait until college to take my official first computer class.
In college, while I was being introduced officially to computer programming, the Internet came along and websites started to be a thing. I decided I wanted to see myself on the internet so I learned HTML and built my first website. Only later did I find out that I could get paid to develop websites which is where my web dev career started.
When I left college, my only goal was to work in downtown Chicago. My mom worked downtown and all I could think about was working in one of those amazing buildings. In 2001 I obtained my goal and thought this is the life, momma I made it! And then, in 2002 everything changed when I got fired for the first time (note, that I said first time, there were about 20 more times after that). I was out of work for three months when my friend, Nick Hale, said the words that would change the way I viewed work for the rest of my life. He said, “You should start your own business” and from there, an entrepreneur was born.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I always say that my entire life has been serendipitous, things tend to always work out for the better and in my favor, but smooth it has not been at all. When I got fired for the first time in 2002, I was perplexed because I was under the impression that if you came to work, worked hard, arrived early and stayed late, then you would always have a job. But this is not quite how life works. Life only becomes what you make it when you go after what you want. Prior to that, life is just what is happening to you. So once my friend gave me the idea to start my own business teaching what I know (I realize this is now called consulting), I decided that that was the path that I wanted to take next. Growing up, I thought that starting a business was something that only rich people did so it never dawned on me that I could do it, therefore, I had to learn to elevate my mindset while also learning how to start and run a business.
For the next few years, I read as many books as I could, such as Rich Dad Poor Dad, 21 Laws of Leadership, Cash Flow Quadrant, E-myth, and The Power of the Corporation. These books help me understand how to use corporations and businesses as a way to generate wealth for my family and future generations.
From there, I learned about the power of multiple streams of income because no matter how often I had a job, I always had my own business alongside it.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Composio Inc. and Caston Digital L.L.C. – what should we know?
Let’s talk about my two businesses. The first one is Caston Digital and I have had that one for ten years. During this time I have had the opportunity to write five books highlighting the methodology (web, social, mobile, e-commerce, and multimedia) I’ve created to help faith-based organizations connect with, engage, and grow their digital presence. I have worked with all of my favorites pastors, churches, and faith-based studio executives and I have trained over 5000 people on how to use digital platforms. As a result, I have been given the opportunity to speak around the world (Dubai and Hawaii I’m coming back!).
One of the questions I was asked a lot while out speaking and teaching was, “How did I write and publish my books?” I was asked this question so many times I thought that I could really help people achieve this themselves and thus Composio was born. Composio was founded in 2017 and it is an all in one automated platform that helps authors write, publish, and market their books from a single place. Composio streamlines and simplifies the self-publishing process so instead of going to one place to write, another to publish, and another place to market, we have created a platform that lets you do it all.
On a more personal note, Composio fills a bucket list of mine to be the founder of a tech startup similar to the major tech companies I see in Silicon Valley the place and Silicon Valley the TV show!
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Self-awareness is the most more important characteristic of my success. Self-awareness is defined as conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires. Thus, the more I realized who I was, why I thought the way I thought and what motivated my feelings and desires, I was able to consciously evolve into the person I wanted to be and create the life I wanted to have. I have a saying, you are only alive as you are able to live in the moment and life is a series of moments so live it to the fullest.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://Composio.co, http://castondigital.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/composioco
- Facebook: facebook.com/composioco
- Twitter: twitter.com/composioco
- Other: twitter.com/jasoncaston
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
