Penn State Alum & TikTok Star Uses Entrepreneurial Spirit To Further Career
Recent Penn State alum and State College townie Nate Woodman is a jack of all trades. It’s hard to believe how much he’s accomplished since graduating back in May.
He’s started his own clothing business as a side hustle, achieved Tik Tok fame, and…oh yeah, he’s a Forbes Under 30 Scholar, which he achieved before graduating earlier this year. No big deal, right?
Woodman was a member of the Schreyer Honors College and graduated with a degree in energy business and finance with an entrepreneurship and innovation minor. Woodman’s always had a business major mentality and an entrepreneurial spirit thanks to his family.
Growing up, Woodman swam locally on the Science Park Dolphins swim team. The team’s mascot later served as inspiration for his clothing brand, Dolphin Apparel, which he founded in 2015.
He came up with the idea after realizing the Science Park Dolphins didn’t have any apparel. Woodman already had experience creating motivational shirts for his winter league swim team and decided to go through with the idea.
“I thought, ‘Well, wait. Why don’t I sell dolphin shirts that align with that swim team?’ If I hit that market, if I could sell to those families — the people that I know and am friends with — that would work,” Woodman said.
Woodman wanted to make sure that the apparel had three key aspects to ensure that the clothing business would be a success: a good price, other people’s interest in the cause, and, most importantly, giving back.
He’s partnered with a few dolphin conservatories that use funds to allow people to adopt and care for dolphins and maintain the quality of the facilities caring for them. So far, Woodman adopted three dolphins: Addie, Milo, and Splashy.
“I thought, ‘Hey, why don’t I take a portion of profits [and] send them right to charity?'” Woodman said. “You’re getting a premium shirt at a great price, you’re investing in me, and you’re investing in [the conservation of] dolphins.”
Woodman’s successes don’t stop there. He earned a spot in Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholars in fall 2019 after the magazine contacted him after hearing about his entrepreneurial adventures.
After Woodman received his nomination, he got to share more about his life story and the impact he’s made through his clothing business as well as his work with KCF Technologies, a State College tech company, where he interned with the CEO Dr. Jeremy Frank and VP of Sales Blake Bonfanti.
“[I was] able to tell my whole life story of: Here’s my passion of giving back, my passion of investing in other people as well, and really my passion of thriving off of the success of others,” Woodman said.
From there, he flew out to Detroit and spent a few days there being recognized for his accomplishments along with his fellow scholars.
As Woodman wasn’t impressive already, he’s achieved TikTok fame over the last few months of quarantine. He is currently over #157K followers strong and has a total of 3.7 million likes on all of his videos.
His inspiration to make a Tik Tok account under the name “Send It Legend” came from quarantine boredom plus the influence of his two roommates. Woodman and his roommates decided to create accounts and document their lives in quarantine.
Woodman decided on the name “Send It Legend” as a Tik Tok handle as a combination from the Larry Enticer “Send It” video and the trend of calling people a legend after they do something well.
Woodman moved back home in July. Around the same time, he saw that a lot of parents on Tik Tok were becoming famous. So, he decided to hop on the trend and make a Tik Tok with his mom.
“My mom is a creative mastermind,” Woodman said laughing. “She’s a genius, and she’s in on anything. She was up for it.”
His first viral video, which features his mom saying that she’ll do his chores for a week if the video goes viral, reached 1.1 million views.
His second and most popular TikTok features Dixie D’Amelio’s song “Be Happy” playing in the background while the car ahead of Woodman’s also says “be happy.”
So far, the video garnered 2.6 million views and unfortunately, Dixie D’Amelio hasn’t seen it yet. Sad!
Now that Woodman has an ~adult job~, he doesn’t have as much time to grind out some viral content. But he’s trying to pump out a few videos here and there to keep his viewers satisfied.
Woodman contributes growing up as a State College townie to part of his success, noting that the locals have had a big influence on him personally and on his career.
“Everybody is invested in the success of one another,” Woodman said. “It’s been a great blessing to grow up there and meet people and connect.”
He currently works at Vanguard in Malvern, Pa., and recently, he spent a month in California working with Oren Klaff, one of the world’s leading experts on sales.
Woodman’s best advice he could give to current college students: Don’t be afraid to reach out to people in your field.
“Don’t be afraid to reach out…to these people that you want to work with someday or people you admire…,” Woodman said. “If you show up and you’re ready to learn and have already been exposed to their work before, amazing things can happen.”
Woodman said he’s unsure of what the future holds for him, but for right now, he wants to enjoy the process and knows that he’ll be ready for whatever is next.
Based on everything he’s accomplished thus far, Woodman will definitely be able to just “send it” when his next opportunity comes.
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