|
It's time for that to change and
the fact is Folkening has his hands in so many timely
enterprises these days that the spotlight was going to
find him anyhow - no matter how much he might prefer to
let someone else be the center of attention.
Folkening has just co-founded a new
domain development and monetization company, Domain
Holdings, LLC with web heayweights John
Ferber (the man who build and sold Advertising.com
to American Online) and Erik Simons (their
bios are all available here).
Folkening has also rolled out an award winning large scale
domain development platform in RapidDomainBuilder.com
and he has been instrumental in getting high level political
figures to take an interest in protecting the rights of
domain investors.
Domain
Holdings LLC Co-Founders John Ferber (left) and Chad
Folkening (right) get a lot of
love from legendary domain investor Frank Schilling
at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami (October 2010).
(Photo courtesy of Barbara Neu)
It was Folkening who facilitated
the first appearance ever by a U.S. Congressman at a
domain industry conference - that being U.S. Representative Cliff
Stearns (R - Florida) who spoke at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Miami on Oct. 18, 2010 (along with former Congressman Mike
Ferguson). In addition, at press time just before
the 2010 mid-term elections, Folkening's long time friend
and former attorney, Todd Rokita, currently Indiana's
Secretary of State, was expected to win his own seat in
the U.S. Congress (Rokita has been running 10 percentage
points ahead of his opponent in recent polls).
Like many of those who have found great success in this
business, Folkening was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug at
a very early age. Not long after he was born in the early
70s as the youngest of three brothers, Chad learned from his
parents that if he wanted something he would have to earn
it. His dad was a preacher who made due on a limited budget
and made sure his kids understood the value of a
dollar.
The
Folkening Brothers: (Left to Right) Brett, Heath and Chad
"My parents taught me to be respectful and work
hard in order to earn what I wanted," Folkening
said. "I think having that kind of stable foundation
and family structure helped me to find and rely on my own
abilities. My parents provided me with the basics in
life - a roof over my head, food and love. They wisely made
me earn the other things I wanted. A friend got a dirt bike
motorcycle for Christmas, which made me want one too. My
parents didn't support that idea, but let me know that I
could have one if I earned it on my own."
"My parents were extremely frugal with money. As
they grew older that allowed them both to become hobby real
estate buyers, which would influence me in the later years
as well. Most preachers are not hobby gun collectors or guys
who fly airplanes on the weekends either, so there was a
balance there. My mom was the sports enthusiast and athlete
in the family and a stay home mom with a knack for interior
design," Folkening said. Chad must have picked up some of
her athletic genes as he went on to star at linebacker and
tailback in high school, rushing for over 1,200 yards in his
senior year at Westfield. "Athletics taught me
leadership, team work and that individual ability can change
a team's dynamics."
|
Folkening
speaking at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami
(October 2010) |
Folkening also recalled stepping out of his comfort zone
in high school, something that wound up helping him excel in
his current business. "I took a Greek and
Latin derivatives class during my study hall. My weakest
point was writing and language but a kindly teacher was
gracious enough to take her lunch period and my study hall to teach
me the class," Folkening said. He would later learn
that his father was counseling this teacher through her own life
challenges on weekends at his church. so helping Chad master
a difficult subject may have been her way of repaying the
family. "I learned to step up to a challenge and face
my own fears and ultimately learned a lot about language,
it’s influence and writing structures, which in turn
helped me later if life, in buying domains,"
Folkening said.
Folkening remembers getting serious about business when
he was just 14 years old. "I asked my parents to let me
“borrow” their lawnmower and use their phone number to start
my own business," Folkening recalled. "They
agreed, so one Sunday at church, I stuck fliers on the
windshields of the cars in
|
| the parking lot and picked up a
couple of older clients. They were in the
same neighborhood and they were small yards so I
charged them $10 to $15
a yard. Soon I had a total of 10 yards to mow
and my mom would have to drop me off on Saturday and
pick me up later so I could get them all done. At
the end of a long day I could walk away with $120 cash
money and worked my tail off all day to get them
done!," Folkening said. |
"After a month I had enough money to buy my
motorcycle, a YZ 80. It needed some work, but with my
dad’s technical and mechanical inclination, we fixed it up
and it was a screamer. My
friends worked down the street at the world’s largest Dairy
Queen all week long and came home with less money then I
had just made in one day. I knew then that I would not
work for anyone else, unless it was another entrepreneur,"
Folkening said.
|
"My little “company” started to expand over the
next few summers, taking on more and bigger yards. I
needed to scale and get better equipment. Plus I already
burned up my parent’s mower and had to replace it. So I
bought my first walk behind mower and a trailer. I wanted to
get more clients so I did the guerilla marketing
thing. I went to home building job sites and got the scrap
wood they were throwing away, then picked up some 99-cent
sign templates and a 99-cent can of spray paint at Wal-Mart.
I made about 20 signs that had Student Services, Inc.
and my new phone number on them. The trick was to put the
signs a little higher on the telephone poles so the city
workers couldn't just come by without a ladder to take them
down," Folkening laughed.
"I put them at the best spots around town and that
was the last form of advertising I ever had to do. I
would get a job, provide a great service and price and
establish repeat customers and word of mouth. At the homes
where I was working, I noticed the realtors were changing
their signs from metal ones to plastic so they gave me 20
metal signs which I used for my on-site jobs. If you went
into one of my neighborhoods, you would see 3 or 4 of my
yard signs - Student Services, Inc and my phone number. That
was all I needed to have enough business every day of the
year in some of the best neighborhoods in the Midwest. I
worked extremely long days,
literally running from sites to the trailer, then back to
another yard and working from 7 am to 10 pm
every weekend. I also expanded the business by landscaping,
painting houses, power washing, and even baby sitting."
After graduating from high school Folkening enrolled at David
Letterman's alma mater, Ball State University, in
Muncie, Indiana. "They had one of the best entrepreneurship
programs in the nation, ran by Dr. Donald Kuraco,"
Folkening said. Despite his football success in high school,
Folkening had decided to give up the game so he could
concentrate on the entrepreneurship program and enjoy the
college experience. "I made it through three semesters
but on the first day of the fourth semester, while walking
to class very early on a cold, slushy day, I realized I
couldn't spend two to three more years in Muncie to earn a
degree," Folkening said.
|
Above
and below:
Chad Folkening introduces himself to
fellow
attendees aboard the Carnival Imagination
cruise ship for the DNCruise
conference.
(October 2010).
|
|
"I was already running a successful company and had
to travel back home, one hour each way, on most late
summer weekends to maintain my client’s landscaping
needs. A little bit of the football bug was still there too,
so I transferred a week later to Butler University
(in Indianapolis) to go for the scholarship they
offered and to see if it was the college (Ball State) I was
having issues with or something else."
Folkening quickly learned that the choice of colleges
wasn't the cause of his unrest. "Things didn’t
change," Chad said. "I made it through the semester, but knew I was not
coming back to college. Later that summer, I did
something stupid. I was drinking and driving and wound up
totaling my vehicle while alone in the car. I spend eight
hours in surgery and had 242 stitches put in my
back. For months, I was in in pain but I finally picked
myself back up, switched my Student Services business back
on and tried to move forward in life," Folkening said.
|
"Soon after, one my clients, a very large and
successful commercial property owner hired me to manage one
of his neighborhood entrances. It was cold, the ground was hard
as rock and I just could not get a shovel into the
frozen ground to dig a hole. My helper (who I later sold the
company to) also tried and stopped quickly after hitting
frozen ground as well. We had not gotten anything done when
the owner pulled up and asked why the job wasn't done. We
told him that the ground was frozen solid. So this
70-year-old man, Bob Sinner, opened up the trunk
of his Mercedes, grabbed a shovel and proceeded to dig
the hole! I learned then to stop making excuses and
that if you pushed through the pain or a a rough situation,
you could come out strong on the other side," Folkening
said.
| Unfortunately, pushing through that pain was nothing
compared to the tragedy Folkening would soon have to deal
with. "My business was going good again and I wanted to
expand but finding reliable workers is hard. My oldest
brother Brett came home from college during the
summer and needed a job so I offered him one, but the
hourly rate was not what he hoped for. I came home one
weekend day and he was making some nice signs that said
student workers for hire! I was kind of shocked
but not really surprised," Folkening said. "He
attempted to compete, but after a month he realized it was
not that easy and required a lot more operations and maintenance
work than he was expecting. So, we agreed to have him
come in with me and run the mowing and landscaping division while
I would focus on the painting, power washing side."
"After
about a month, I was getting ready to offer Brett half the
business so I could focus on expanding markets and
clients. We partied together one Friday night and he slept
on my couch that evening. On Saturday, hung over from
drinking, we decided to postpone the day's work until
Monday. Later that same day, on July 30th, 1993,
Brett, just 25 years old at the time, was killed in a motorcycle accident." |
Brett
Folkening
childhood photo |
"My world changed forever
that day and it has been the hardest thing in my life to deal with,"
Folkening said. "All plans stopped and I just got by
the remainder of the year with the help of the friends and
great clients I had. That life changing experience, along
with my own accident the year before, were the pivotal
moments in my life."
"After deciding to quit college
early, running a business and losing my brother I was
looking for a new direction, "Folkening said.
"I decided to get my
bartenders license and wanted to spend the winters somewhere
warm, work at night, hang out on the beach and just
read, play pool and learn from the street. I had a
bartending job lined up in Miami so while on my way
from Indiana to Florida, I stopped at a friend’s campus at Florida
State University in Tallahhassee. I figured it would make a good pit
stop. When I got there we went out and noticed a vacant
fraternity house on campus had a sign on it saying
“For Sale or Lease.”
"I immediately had a vision and
saw an opportunity," Folkening said. "I always had
a passion for real estate. This was 1994 and I
was using Earthlink for my internet access. I knew the
Internet was going to be huge but at that time I was
really focused on this piece of real estate. So I spent the
next three months sleeping on my friend’s couch, putting
together a business plan and pursuing a deal. The building
had a $665,000 price tag but with the renovations we
needed to make it would end up costing $1.2 million."
That is obviously a lot of money but Folkening had crunched
the numbers and was confident the property would generate
enough revenue to cover the mortgage and expenses and
generate a profit. "My friend's
father, who was a large real estate developer, agreed to
back us with some starting capital," Folkening said,
"so we made a
non-refundable $7,500 payment to secure a 45-day
purchase option on the building."
|
Folkening
made his first foray into real estate
when he tried to buy a vacant fraternity house
on the Florida State campus (pictured above).
Photo courtesy of Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida, USA. |
"We planned two penthouses on top
for corporate alumni guests, 22 single room apartments and a
bar and restaurant in basement. We went to work
getting vendor pricing, quotes, doing our due diligence, etc,"
Folkening said. The biggest obstacle he and his partners
faced would be getting a new law passed that would allow a change
of use for this campus building that was near FSU's Doak
Campbell Stadium. They wound up starting a a student
group to lobby in support of their efforts to expand
housing. "We were going to have three buses on election
day taking students to the polls," Folkening
said.
"On December 23, 1994, about 30 days into our
purchase option, we decided to visit my friend and partner's
family in Boca Raton for the holidays. While out and
about that evening we were the victims in a hit and run
car accident. A heroin addict on parole had stolen the
car that smashed into us then took off. We chased him for
|
| 30 minutes with police
later joining in a pursuit that ended when he
crashed into a pole. They found guns and drugs in
his car. So on Christmas Day, finding myself
in a neck brace, banged up, separated from my family
and friends and still not sure if we would get that
critical change of use approved, I decided not to
ask for an extension on our purchase option and saw
that opportunity evaporate." |
Like any good entrepreneur, Folkening
bounced back from this disappointment and started thinking
about how he could put the lessons learned from his
first real estate foray to good use in his next
venture.
| "I went back home to Indiana and
put another summer into Student Services to get back the
money I lost on the Tallahassee deal and some extra cash
that went into savings," Folkening recalled. With the
next summer approaching, he decided to make a quick
three-day trip to |
| Charleston, South Carolina to accompany a
friend who was driving down there for a job interview. While
looking around town, Folkening came upon another vacant
building at 348 King Street that caught his eye and drew him
into another real estate adventure - one that would have a
better outcome, but also wind up being derailed by another
cruel twist of fate.
After two months of negotiating with
the owner Folkening had his property, along with a concept
name and a business plan for Aberrations Art Cafe.
After four months of jumping through what seemed like
endless hoops put up by city officials, the business was
finally up and running. "After three months of
successful operations, I decided to make a run up to Indiana
to visit friends and family after being away for eight
months. |
Downtown
Charleston, South Carolina |
| We were only open Wednesday through Saturday, so I
knew I could get back in time without missing a beat,"
Folkening said. |
Soon after he arrived back in Indiana
disaster struck yet again. "My best friend and partner
in crime - my three-year-old black labrador - was hit
by a car. I quickly become consumed by one
thing and that was my dog and his survival. I know it
sounds crazy but I learned how material things do
not bring you happiness. I could go anywhere with my dog
and be happy. It was a very special relationship and really
my blessing after losing my brother," Folkening said.
"Two weeks later I had to go back
to Charleston with my dog still in the emergency room and I
wound up getting an offer for the business and decided to
take it. It was just a really great venture and experience,
something you can’t learn or do in college,"
Folkening said. He immediately headed back to Indiana,
resumed Student Services and, best of all, watched his dog Indian
slowly get better. Upon returning home Folkening also had
an epiphany that would set him on the Internet course were
he would finally find his life's calliing.
|
|
"I had a lot of time to think
while painting houses and mowing grass again and I realized
that in Charleston I had been paying $5,000 a month for
a business that was limited to the visitors in a very limited
area, something that was not open 24/7 and that gave me no
significant return from an increasing building value. That’s
when I started to do more research on domains,"
Folkening said. "With a $100 domain (the
registration price in the mid 90s), you could own it forever,
be open 24/7 and have a global market opportunity and
customer base. I also knew technology would catch up and the
balance between hardware and software would only instill more
value to the domain name as the central location where
they both merge together." |
|
"It was a logical next step and a
good investment risk as I merely integrated the new 21st
century virtual real estate with my past physical real
estate experiences. I funded my initial domain
purchases with my profits from Student Services Inc. and
decided at the end of the summer to sell my client base and
equipment to my long time friend who had worked hard with me
during the summers for the previous four years. He now makes
a great living and is content with keeping it a two or three
man show."
"I went into full time buying
of domains in late summer of 1996. The old model
of employees, equipment and overhead was making less money
and more work than what I could do with a domain purchased
for $100, knowing it was worth $1,000 or even $10,000.
I wrote a killer business plan in late 1996 that I am still
amazed at - the model for a virtual, web-based
Entrepreneurs Network. I stuck to this model and
shifted to an all virtual, domain asset buying strategy,"
Folkening said.
"I remember one day in late 1996 or early 1997 reading
about a company that had a market valuation of like $50
million. Basically over night, the stock dropped to
around
a $5 million valuation simply because Microsoft
said they were entering their market. I quickly decided to diversify
my strategy and target the small business and
deregulated Telecom and Energy markets,"
Folkening said.
| "My roommate at the time was a
nerd/coder who was doing live video streaming and some
virtual reality stuff that was just amazing back
then. I realized just how powerful the Internet was |
| and would become and decided to take the domain and
IP/data
infrastructure approach with technology opportunities. I
formed an umbrella company, Hunter Investments (Editor's
Note: Hunter was the middle name of Chad's
brother Brett who had died in the motorcycle accident. Chad
also has a son name Hunter today) to hold my three companies
under something more meaningful. I called the Internet
division Web-Based.com. I later lost that domain years
later after forgetting to renew!"
Hunter Investments later
became eCorp,
the corporate name Folkening's operations continue to
operate under today. "Here we are 14 years later and I
am still doing and building businesses on the
Internet utilizing domain names as the core access points,
operating system and business model," Folkening noted. |
Chad
Folkening and domain pioneer
Garry Chernoff at the 2009 DOMAINfest
Global conference in Los Angeles. |
Chad recalled that the major competing
players when he started in the mid 90s were Scott Day,
Garry Chernoff, Elia at Anything.com, Ray
King (a Canadian investor - not the SnapNames founder of
the same name), KingWeb and a few others. He also talked
about his domain acquisition strategy. "I focused
on various verticals by creating new domains that were
unregistered along with going after dropping names and
buying a few larger domains on the aftermarket. Applications.com,
Streaming.com, Automations.com, Telecom.com,
Integrations.com, SatelliteTV.com, DSL.com,
HostingServices.com, MobileWeb.com, etc. were
all infrastructure related domains I acquired that defined
my niche strategy in the early days. Back then it was free
to lock down a domain, so you grabbed as many as you could,
bought what you could afford and hoped no one caught on to
your strategy."
To promote his burgeoning portfolio,
Folkening would later take the proceeds from the sale of a
couple of his domains and buy an RV that he turned into a mobile
billboard. He plastered it with stickers for
MobileWeb.com, DSL.com, Handyman.com and others, then set out
on a Florida road trip. Domain fans will especially
appreciate the license plate of Chad's RV.
Above:
Folkening promoted his domain names on this RV he bought
in 2002.
Below:
The RV's vanity license plate. The plate alone is
probably worth a tidy sum now!
When Folkening and other pioneers began
building their portfolios in the mid 90s the monetization
options that people take for granted to day (like parking
and affiliate programs) were either non-existent or in their
infancy. The lack of ways to generate a return on domain
investments was of no concern to Folkening though. "I just knew that technology and the Internet was
the future. I really was not worried about monetization
as long
as the value of the domain asset was increasing in value.
For the price of a few mixed drinks you could buy a domain
worth that of a house so i was not concerned with
monetization - just acquisitions," Folkening
emphasized.
"The original revenue model was
never intended to sell domains but that ultimately was how
it was financed. I used a lot of strategies to acquire names
that included non refundable $1,000 or $5,000 fees for
30-day buy options, gathering knowledge of who's who and who
would do what - for example buy, sell, partner or trade. We
actually tried in 1998 to form a $100 million
acquisition company to buy/partner with everyone in the
industry, or at least the top 10 players, and aggregate
portfolios. Todd Rokita, the Indiana Secretary of
State who was my counsel at the time, flew to Las Vegas
to meet with Ray King and other top domainers to
merge and take out the next two-three big portfolios. The
deal never panned out so I just continued to buy and sell
domains to build up my own supply," Folkening said.
|
Folkening
in Chicago for
the 2008 GeoDomain Expo |
Folkening was
involved in developing his domains long before
others were
forced to look into development by the drastic
decline in PPC revenue over the past couple of
years. He said the domains he owned dictated what he
had to do with them. "DSL.com became our
first main development when we noticed it was
drawing a ton of traffic and we had to do something
with it. I bought that domain on the aftermarket
because I knew that the next generation of
applications would not be accomplished without high
speed connectivity," Folkening said.
"We were also one of the
first companies to do XML integration for satellite
access with DirectTV through our SatelliteTV.com
site. I knew you had to have broadband to
get to the next phase of the Internet and this was
our strategy. It was around this time that I made my
first million dollar mistake, trading DigitalCameras.com
for Connectivity.com and $5,000. We
wanted to leverage the domain to consolidate access
pipes and integrate user profiles with data access
points. I guess we were swinging for the fences
instead of trying to hit singles," Folkening said.
|
"Next up was Handyman.com I
believe. Again, traffic patterns justified turning it into
something more. We have done a lot of other development
projects for my corporation but recently started
consolidating these individual projects into a more cohesive
network plan. Next up on our development plate is Staffing.com,
Streaming.com, Applications.com, Felony.com
and others."
"The development formula I used was based on my three C's:
Content, Community and Commerce. I really looked at these as
the foundation and then added more C's; Computers,
Connectivity, Capital, Collaboration, etc. We now just use Consumer
Networking as the term we have been branding."
Folkening went on
to build his own development platform to speed up
construction on some of his domain assets. At the 2010
Domainfest Global conference last January in
Los Angeles Folkening entered his new platform,
dubbed RapidDomainBuilder.com,
in a Pitchfest contest and it wound up being
declared the Best Service Innovator
by the panel of judges.
"With RDB,
we build value through development and
effective management of your domain network using
targeted and customized frameworks with additional
engagement and monetization features,"
Folkening said. "I developed it to create value
across the entire "domain channel"
including the end user and am excited to see it
producing great results in producing real web-based
businesses from your domains and getting the true
value out of unique assets."
"10 years ago technology
was not available that is available today and we are
on the cutting edge of technology utilization,
development and customization. My partner (John
Ferber) and our current staff have built systems
that do billions of dollars in the
advertising space each year and were on a mission to
duplicate that major accomplishment with
domains," Folkening said.
|
Folkening talks about his
RapidDomainBuilder.com platform
at DOMAINfest Global 2010 and wins
the conference's Pitchfest contest
award for Best Service Innovator.
|
| "When we started
there was no other offering on the market that
could build and manage unique domain assets on a
large scale. We are creating value beyond
the standard revenue streams."
|
Gaining Ferber as a partner brought a
new dimension to Folkening's RapidDomainBuilder project.
Chad explained how he got together with the Advertising.com
founder. "John, who was already a friend, approached me
with an offer to help develop some of our premium domains. I
said sure, but first you should see what we have been
working on. He loved RDB and we ended up merging our
teams and some assets and forming a new company - Domain
Holdings."
"Along with RDB, we build and
manage some of the top generic domains in the world with
custom development, SEO-Content management and also create
and implement monetization solutions. We also have a
development division that builds enterprise solutions for
companies around our RDB technology platform."
"We have
some really big plans for Domain Holdings, LLC. We
have a strong and growing team of experienced professionals
who are working hard at implementing our ideas and visions.
As with most products, they end up on a completely different
path or application than expected and its hard to see where
the offering will end up five years from now. Our current
focus is on creating the best domain development,
management and monetization system in the industry.
Additional versions will allow us to drill even deeper into
the vertical markets of niche industries through domains and
expand those opportunities and applications," Folkening
said.
|
|
"With
the merger we also bring to the table some
additional web-based products that we will be debuting to the industry
in our phase 2 launch in the coming months. Our team
is working hard and motivated to be the best true
solution for domain owners that want to build
real businesses and synergy within their
domain portfolios," Folkening added. |
|
As you might expect, Folkening is one
of the leading evangelists for domain names, never missing a
chance to tell young business people how much a good domain
and an online presence can turbo charge their enterprise. In
fact when he met the love of his life, Bianka Krausch,
six years ago while she was working as a concierge in the
Donald Trump organization, Folkening convinced the
popular model to build her own company online. Bianka
launched an online agency at ModelStore.com
and it soon became the go-to source for hiring the area's
top models. The ModelStore provided the many stunning models
that assisted at various functions during the recent
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami conference.
Bianka
Krausch (ModelStore.com) and Chad Folkening
As the value of his domains have grown,
Folkening has also kept an eye on the political winds, especially
since the interests of domain owners are currently under
represented in government and regulatory circles. He
hopes to see that change and hopes other domainers will see
the wisdom in backing candidates who will give domainers a
voice in determining their own futures. Folkening's
attention to politics related to his business dates back to
the 1990s.
"Around 1998, before ICANN existed,
the government was really not sure how to administer the
rapidly growing Internet," Folkening said. "I was
invited to join some others on a visit to the White House
to talk with President Clinton's Senior Advisor Ira
Magaziner about the web. Two years before that, when I was chasing Telecom domains,
Congressman Cliff Stearns,
who I just had lunch with at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami, was one
of the delegates that wrote the Telecom Act of 1996 (legislation
that also covers the Internet). Congressman Stearns is still on
the scene and will have major input in an upcoming rewrite - the Telecom Act in
2011," Folkening said, also noting that Stearns
will become Chairman of the House's powerful Energy and
Commerce Committee (again with Internet oversight
responsibilities) if Republicans regain control of the House
in the upcoming election.
U.S.
Congressman Cliff Stearns (left) and former Congressman
Mike Ferguson speaking at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami
Oct. 18, 2010.
Folkening's former attorney, Indiana
Secretary of State Todd Rokita, is also in line for a
seat on that key committee if Rokita wins the U.S. Congressional
race he was in at press time (Rokita held a comfortable lead
in the polls going into the election). "Todd is
interested in learning more about our industry and
supporting us when issues arise. If anyone in our industry
wants to have the ear of a someone on a committee that is so
important to our industry, someone that will listen and
acknowledge our concerns, Todd Rokita is our man,"
Folkening said.
Chad
Folkening and Indiana Secretary of State Todd
Rokita at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami 2010
"Things like taxation,
international lawsuits, Net Neutrality, Cyber Crime and
policy changes all need a strong industry voice behind these
issues and concerns. Please review your online and domain
strategy and if it revolves around domains, then please
review ToddRokita.com
and donate to his campaign," Folkening implored (donations will be needed even
after the election to help cover campaign expenses).
"Who you
gonna call when you have a concern that effects everyone in
the domain business?" Folkening asked. "Why not call the leaders getting
stuff done? We need to work as a cohesive group to really
show the power of domains and its impact on our livelihood. Our industry needs
to start looking ahead and seeing how politics is
business and business is politics and position
our industry to have a louder voice in governments and
policies that effect or will effect out business."
While Chad is totally immersed in the
domain business, he still has a soft spot in his heart for
physical real estate. "Real estate is my passion,
especially unique commercial properties," Folkening
said. "In 2002 I purchased and renovated an old
historic school that was considered a derelict building.
I turned it into art studios and recently sold
the property for assisted living condos."
"In 2005 I noticed an article in
the Indianapolis newspaper about a local 26,000 square foot
estate that had been featured on HGTV's Extreme
Homes program and was still on the market after
several months even though the owner had dropped the price
several times. The next day I made an offer. The estate had
not sold previously because of the condition of the property
and the presence of several easements that potential buyers
had reservations about. I eventually acquired the
property and all of the easements and have spent the past five
years renovating and remodeling the estate,"
Folkening said.
Above
and below: The 26,000 square foot Indianapolis mansion
Folkening
purchased in 2005 and spent the past five years renovating.
Above:
Google Earth view of the Indianapolis estate
(courtesy of Google.com)
Below:
Night view of the pool area at Folkening's Indiana home
"I have since used the property to
develop systems and processes for my online developments
such as PropertyManagement.com, HomeManagement.com,
HomeChallenge.com and other ideas that can and will
be implemented by leveraging the estate," Folkening
noted.
Having such a
showplace brought Chad another bonus as well. "Being
from Indiana, not a lot of people want to come visit
me, so having the estate helps motivate more
visits and helps get business done!," Folkening
smiled. "It's one of the most unique homes I
have ever seen. We just had the Grammy award
winning band Baha Men, who had a smash hit
with "Who Let the Dogs Out" stay at
the house for over two weeks while touring. There is
even a video
online from their stay there."
The house fits perfectly with
Folkening's philosophy of life. After going through
so many ups and downs, he has learned that you never
know what lies around the next corner so you have to
pause to appreciate the blessings you have. "My
motto is to try every day to be Happy, Healthy and
Having Fun - in fact I have it written in
gold Chinese letters on
the floor in my house!" Folkening said in closing.
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