Professional Kitesurfer to Poker Player to Activist to Entrepreneur - This is My Story

“Activists Create Awareness, Entrepreneur Create solutions“. I’m Both.

Hello, my name is Randy Hereman, born April 30th, 1987 in The Netherlands.

I’ve always been sport obsessed. If it was in my local area, I tried it, got good at it and moved on to the next sport. Nothing made me as passionate enough to continue… Until I saw my first Kitesurfer.

When I was 13 years old I discovered kitesurfing. A water sport that uses the wind and a kite to create massive power to jump as high as 20 meters. At the time it was new and really expensive.

I needed to make money and with the internet and PC’s becoming more common, I learned how to make websites.

As a 13-year-old, you might imagine, it’s hard to get serious clients. My uncle was my first and only client but I learned a lot and developed several forums and membership sites from scratch.

By the time I was 16 I got my first kite and one year later turned professional.
I traveled the world, mostly hanging out on windy, sunny beaches.
I competed at the world's highest levels and my best results were 2nd and 4th during the PKRA in Belgium in 2006.

Short after that success, I got asked to be the main start in a Nescafe TV Commercial.
This was definitely one of the most fun experiences of my kitesurfing career.

After the competition season was over in 2007, I was training in Brazil when I did a big jump, fell down from 10m’s high and broke my ACL (cross knee ligament).
Was this the end of my kitesurfing career?

After intense training, I got back on the water, without an operation. My level was as high as before but my confidence definitely got a big hit. I finally, for the first time in my life, hit a limit. I broke something. For a top athlete in extreme sports, when this happens for the first time, it’s tough because suddenly you realize the risks you are taking on a daily base.

As the year went by, my confidence came back and I was fearless… Pushing harder and harder eventually I found my limits again and the same knee, the same problem. This time I chose to operate.

In the 9 months recovery period, I discovered online poker. A new way to get money. My sponsors at the time dropped me completely because I was injured.
Claiming, they would get me back when I was back on the water.

Kitesurfing is not a sport of big budgets. With no savings, no sponsors, I needed to make money. Online poker came to my attention. Learning a skill to make money online.
All you need is the internet.
Simple, right?

Working on my recovery 3-4 hours a day and studying and playing poker 8-12 hours a day was my day job.

After 9 months I went back on the water.
The next season I competed in the world cup competitions again but the passion was gone. The idea that the people who sponsor you don’t support you was a big shock to me.
Why don’t I make my own money, now I know about poker?

In 2009 I made enough money to sustain myself and decided, after a 4-month training in Brazil, not to leave anymore.
Together with my girlfriend at the time, we decided to stay in Brazil.

in 2011 we opened up Gecko; A Sandwich & Smoothie bar. This would help us get a visa to officially stay in Brazil and create some job opportunities.
Cumbuco is a seasonal place and looking back now, we didn’t really strategically start that business. We only considered our own perspectives, a big big mistake.

Because poker was our main income, we had to make a choice. Do we want to good quality of life, surf, kite & work or do we only want to work and always be tight on a budget.
The goal was to get our visa, we had that for the next three years so we decided to close shop and sell it. Best decision ever!

In the summer of 2014, my relationship ended and I moved back to The Netherlands.
A good thing because that’s where I met the love of my life, Iratxe. The Girl From Spain.

We met in a local bar, I asked her out for lunch, she said yes and one month later we lived together.

I still continued to play poker but I was not happy. I wasn’t happy for the past 2-3 years but I didn’t recognize it myself.
I got trapped in the trap of life that almost everyone I know is trapped in.
The feeling that you don’t have a choice. Feeling like you don’t have the energy to search for a new way and believing that if there was a better way, I would already be doing it.

“You don’t know what you don’t know”.
That’s how I live life. Know what you know but also be aware of everything you don’t know and be open to receive new information all the time. It allows you to connect the dots and understand and be open to new opportunities.

April 2016, I discovered Veganism.
First I cried watching “BlackFish”, a documentary about killer whales and how we use them for entertainment. It broke my heart.
This led me to watch Forks over Knives, Cowspiricy and The Gary Yourofski Speech.
The same week we were both Vegan.

Then Iratxe explained to me what youtube really was; An opportunity to create your own TV station and build up a viewer base.
Before that, I just used it as a search engine and to find funny cat videos.

When I do something, I do it 300%.
Two months after being vegan, learning and studying from vegan YouTuber’s and medical experts (nutritionfacts.org for example), I started my own YouTube Channel.

How come I, who was so aware of what was happening in the world, the problems that exist, knew absolutely NOTHING about this?
If that’s me then imagine how many amazing people are living on this planet and still contribute to something they fundamentally disagree with. I had to be part of the solution. I had to contribute to creating awareness around this amazing cause. I started ItsNotSalad.com, my first YouTube channel.

Starting with a few recipes I quickly saw that I’m not that talented compared to the competition on YouTube. This is not my specialty. I don’t really enjoy this.
I saw Ed Winters, also known as Earthling Ed on YouTube, having amazing debates with random people and I thought to myself, I can do that too. And so I ItsNotSalad became more of an activist channel.

Leonardo DiCaprio directed a documentary that got released at the end of 2016. I saw the premiere on National Geographic and everything I’ve learned in my life clicked together.

YouTube is only a stepping stone to the things I could do and only a few days later, I launched Project Lillyta. A new channel, a new start, a new focus.
I have to become an entrepreneur. I have to create a new path and take people with me on that path to create awareness and provide humanity with solutions.

This search led me to many start-up idea’s and ventures to slowly achieve my goals. I know Lillyta’s goal from the launch video is long term plan, 10? 20? maybe even 30 years… But, you have to start somewhere and the moment you do, you will make progress.

Today I’m known as The Vegan Entrepreneur. I run an FB Group and http://theveganentreprneur.tv - My vlogging channel, to help out new and starting entrepreneurs.
I run my own digital marketing agency and am the founder of BuilderAllU.com, a platform to help and teach people how to use the best marketing tool software for start-ups, small digital agencies, artists, small business owners, and freelancers.

In the next two years, I hope to build great teams and launch several projects.
A few up and coming projects in my pipeline are:
VeganPromo.com
VeganInfluencer.com
Lillyta.com
VeganFreelancer.com

Creating a new crypto currency to support these platforms and create something revolutionairy.
If you like my story and you think you can contribute to one of these projects, send me an email.

This is my story, written on July 2nd, 2017.
I hope the story will continue and become a lot more interesting. I have a feeling it’s going to be an interesting story for sure.
Thanks for taking the time to read all the way through. I appreciate it.

Much Love,
Randy