We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul Cassarly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul below.

Hi Paul, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

After I decided to launch my own business, I figured that I needed to find out who was going to be my customer. I segmented demographics, and came up with two different under-served groups: churches and veterans.

After some searching in my local area, I decided to get in touch with a local Methodist church. They were in desperate need of a new website, and so I not only was able to help them build out a new website, but I took new photos of their church and even taught their secretary how to navigate the backend system.

They paid me $500 for the whole project – not bad for a first client!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Paul Thomas Cassarly, and I grew up with my dad and two brothers in Altoona, PA. My creative career started when I was just eight (8) years old and began learning the trumpet. My musical career fueled my love for creating art in all its forms, and I loved the discipline of it as well as the feeling of accomplishment. This led me to a short professional career in “The Commandant’s Own” U.S. Marine Drum & Bugle Corps, then once I left active duty service in 2015, I began seeking ways to serve my hunger for creating.

In August 2017, I ended up starting my own company, Cassus Media (“cassus” was originally a Latinization of my last name, as I’m a Roman Catholic and have a respect for the language – however, I also explain it can be thought of as “Cass” and “US” because we’re an American company). We started out as just myself building websites for clients, but this quickly expanded into other offerings because I found that I had a natural talent for creating all different media assets for clients, and provided them out of their necessities.

As a Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) with the U.S. Federal Government and a Veteran Business Enterprise (VBE) with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we’ve found ourselves as one of the very few veteran-owned businesses that provide creative and marketing services. What sets us apart is that we only focus on serving small businesses – our contracts for commercial clients are very small, and our government work is growing exponentially as well.

We now have a small team that we employ as subcontractors, and we’ve served clients all over the United States, Canada, and Europe. Some of our clients have led us to work in projects led by Microsoft, DuPont, Bank of America, and other Fortune 500 companies, as well as notable celebrities.

Cassus Media is most proud of the fact that we don’t lock anyone into any kind of terms (unless they’re making payments on a website project, of course), and we’re extremely flexible with anyone who needs our services. We help everyone, from individuals to government organizations, and our company policies don’t change based on who we’re working with.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

If you listen to ANYTHING, I want anyone reading this to check out The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale on Spotify. Back when Earl had his radio show (he was a Marine Veteran too, by the way), he had a passion for giving advice and resources to his listeners. This is probably one of the most powerful and time-tested audio pieces I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. If you want to be rich, become financially independent, or at the very least get out of your 9-5 job and have a go at entrepreneurship, this is something you’re definitely going to want to hear.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Money isn’t evil, and it won’t make you a bad person.

The saying goes “money is the root of all evil”. Others go further and clarify that, no, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. I go even further and say that if you love money more than people, then that’s the root of all evil.

The truth is, money is simply a medium of exchange. People used to barter their goat for a couple chickens. Now, we use a fiat currency to buy chickens ready to eat at Sam’s Club. It’s a TOOL, a resource, and nothing more than that.

Start looking at money objectively instead of being afraid you’ll turn into Ebenezer Scrooge, then you’ll be on your way to financial success. Besides – you can’t help other people if you can’t even afford to pay your own rent, so do something about it!

Contact Info:

• Website: cassusmedia.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cassusmedia
• Facebook: facebook.com/cassusmedia
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/cassus-media-llc
• Twitter: twitter.com/cassusmedia
• Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UCpqmqshAmdHqcsGYqm8M6iQ
• Yelp: yelp.com/biz/cassus-media-altoona