Name: Avry Stroeve
Business: Author and Coach on Social Media Addiction
CU Senior in Entrepreneurship and Management 

“Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you’re up to these days?”

My name is Avry Stroeve. I’m graduating from CU Boulder in one week with a business degree in entrepreneurship and management. As soon as I graduate I’m focusing all my effort into building my sales skills, traveling, writing, and continuing to practice other hobbies. I believe we’ve been given a gift to enjoy and appreciate – that gift is life and the biggest way to enjoy and appreciate it and have freedom to do what you want with your life is by having all three time, location, and financial freedom. So that is what I’m focusing on designing my life around. It’s being able to make money from anywhere in the world (first through remote sales and then eventually through other channels) and traveling and experiencing as much that the world and this life experience has to offer. 

Specifically with my writing, I published my first book at the beginning of 2022 titled From Drifting to Winning and it’s a book aimed at helping young adults and teens break their social media addiction as well as other habits that don’t benefit them or make them feel good in life. My goal is to help people start focusing their time on developing beneficial habits around their physical, mental, and social wellbeing that will help them live a more fulfilling life. From Drifting to Winning is about forming a strong foundation from which they can improve and develop themselves. It’s an easy read for anyone struggling with social media addiction. It’s meant to be put down and picked back up after implementing each habit before moving on. 

• Why did you decide to write the book?

“I was working at a health and wellness center called Restore Hyper Wellness when I met an author named David Strauss. I set him up for one of our IV drip sessions and it was a pretty slow day there. We started talking about the books he had with him and the conversation quickly got on the topic of self development because that was a core theme in his work. At that time I was learning a lot from Tony Robbins and reading Atomic Habits by James clear which we related on. Before I left he told me “Avry you should right a book.”

Editor: From then on, Avry began to wonder if he had enough life experience to actually write a book. After all, what life experience or skills would a 22 year old have to write about? As has been documented well, the younger generation has a new kind of battle – a war involving impulse control, social media, and quick hits of dopamine. Avry outlines 7 pillars to overcome screen zombie syndrome and escape a life wasted on watching the world go by in his book, From Drifting To Winning.

• Can you tell us a little bit about the content in the book?

The book is organized into three parts with a challenge at the end to help you integrate the concepts that I talk about in the book into your own life.

The key things in part 1 are developing a mentor mindset and redefining what success means. What I’ve learned is that success is more akin to a feeling or an attitude – not a final destination. A good life is a string of days well lived – to have more of those, it’s crucial to build habits that support you and help you grow. This book will help one figure out what those habits are for them.

The second part of the book features the 7 pillars of self development (this is the core of the book). This section focuses on how to take inventory of one’s time, commit to goal-oriented habits, cultivate strategic relationships (aka building a network), develop financial literacy, discover the power of your mind, optimize your health and performance, and create a positive environment both in your physical world and digital world. 

• “What’s your major and what are you studying, what year are you?”

Senior in Entrepreneurship and Management 

• “What led you to choose that major?”

I’ve been interested in business for a while now and really got into it sophomore year of high school. I’ve done a few things in drop shipping, clothing brand, podcasting, high ticket affiliate marketing, and a few others but I didn’t really know too much about business and I definitely didn’t know about consistency and pushing past the beginning obstacles instead of switching paths whenever something didn’t seem to work. So I’ve always been drawn to that side of life of owning my own business and starting my own thing, or at least being part of a starting venture. There’s this really fun entrepreneurship program at CU that’s similar to shark tank where you build out a whole business idea from A-Z throughout the semester and then pitch it to investors and real judges at the end. I thought that was pretty cool so I decided to take that route. 

• “Have you been able to make any connections at Leeds that have helped you with your business?”

I’ve made a lot of friends as well as connections with teachers that have not necessarily helped me directly right now but I know that in the future I can always come back to any of them and call on any of my friends who might be able to help me in many different facets and areas depending on where I am and what I choose to pursue. 

• “What’s been the most useful class you’ve taken so far at Leeds and why was it useful?

Professional selling class. It was useful because it taught me so much about the basics and fundamentals of sales and at the end we did a role play for an actual scenario and this role play is exactly like how role plays are in real life for sales jobs and sales trainings so that was super fun. 

• “Obviously, balancing school and your own venture are not the easiest things to do. What’s your strategy to manage both?”

There is a LOT of free time when we are not in class especially as business students with Fridays off. I think it just comes down to what takes priority for you in life, what you’re working towards, and then figuring out how this time that’s not spent working on school is best served. In practical terms, for me this means focusing on money making activities, feeding my mind with good content, putting myself in situations where I “coincidentally” meet high level business men and women and build my network, also focusing on hobbies I enjoy and health and fitness. 

• “Do you think, knowing what you know now, you’d have taken the same path?”

I don’t think I necessarily would have needed college if I had figured out one thing and stuck with it. However I wouldn’t say not go to college. There’s so much opportunity to utilize that I honestly haven’t taken full advantage of, but at the same time I don’t need it. So I don’t know, I can’t say for sure but things are working out the way they are and I’m done in 1 week so there’s no point in questioning that now, just move forward. 

• “Would you recommend that other entrepreneurs attend CU or college in general?”

Network – find likeminded people who have similar visions for how their life could be as you in college (clubs, getting to know people in your classes – talk with people strike up conversations)

Just because you don’t go to college doesn’t mean you won’t be successful/ can’t be. It’s your choice. You can go to college and find massive opportunities. You can also save up some money and join an online community or course and go straight into learning valuable skills. I think in some ways I’d be a lot further ahead than I am now by taking that route, but I wouldn’t give up the connections I’ve made at CU. 

• “If you had to pitch your service or product in 1 sentence, what would you say?”

From Drifting To Winning is a book aimed at helping young adults and teens become the 2.0 versions of themselves through developing beneficial habits around their physical, mental, and social well being that last a lifetime. 

• “In your journey as an entrepreneur, what’s been the biggest personal challenge you’ve had to overcome, or are still working to overcome.

Mindset – I am my greatest inhibitor/ limit. You are the only thing standing in your way – your mind is the biggest obstacles, but also the most powerful thing that will get you to where you want to go. 

• “Do you make use of AI in your daily life or in your business? If so, how? If not, why?

Yes. I use it mainly to help with school work. I don’t like using it for writing because I actually enjoy writing and it takes away from the raw genuine content that comes from my mind. However, I’ve used Chat GPT 4 for coding help, including a project to write a script that created AI generated music through midi files that could be loaded into garage band. I’ve used AI tools to help me splice up videos quickly into smaller clips as well. It takes out a lot of the busy work of life. 

• “What’s the end goal for your venture? Where do you see the finish line?”

There is no finish line. Life’s an infinite game – it wasn’t meant to be won, the whole point of the game is to just keep playing. So just keep writing and becoming the best I can be at sales, writing & also travel a ton and live life and meet new people and make money and leave a legacy for my kids. Obviously I hope that my writing will evolve into something impactful for youth, but I think the biggest reason for me to keep releasing what I write is for my kids and to help my kids navigate the world, and their perspectives about life, and their character development, and their belief in themselves, and them achieving what they want to in life. It’s for them and if people fuck with it they fuck with it. 

• “Looking back from when you started to where you are now, what has been the most surprising or unexpected aspect of your entrepreneurial journey?”

How hard it’s been to overcome mental hurdles and put the right habits in place. Once a lot of the negative repetitive thinking and negative habits are in place it’s difficult to turn them into a positive direction.

• “What’s the next step for you in your business?”

I’m writing another book that takes a deeper approach into the mind and how we can unshackle ourselves from bad habits. Developing great sales skills is another ambition I am seeking to work towards by getting hired for a remote sales position.

• “If you had unlimited funding and unlimited time, what would you do in the world?”

Invest in world changing companies and new technology, host health and wellness events all around the world, and continue writing about what I find most important. 

• “Are there any specific problems you are still trying to overcome that you would like to consult our audience and readership about?”

I would love to hear from the people reading on what their thoughts are on the problems affecting a lot of our youth people. What habits do you think are the best to develop, what habits are good for our generation to know? Do they have any philosophical questions that you love thinking about/ are trying to answer? Book recommendations are always appreciated as well. 

Instagram: @avrystroeve

Email: avrypublishing@gmail.com

Website: fromdriftingtowinning.com

If YOU Are An Entrepreneur at CU, I’d Love To Tell Your Story

My name is Bennett Black and I am a columnist on AboutBoulder who tells the fascinating stories of entrepreneurs at CU. I am an entrepreneur myself and provide marketing services to home service businesses. If you’re looking to be featured in one of my next posts, you can DM me on instagram @bennettblack.io

Bennett Black

Bennett Black is a CU alumni and the founder and CEO of Bold Slate. His unique style of journalism aims to tell the real, unadulterated stories of CU's brightest entrepreneurs. Join weekly on Wednesdays at 11am to read new CU entrepreneur stories on AboutBoulder.com.