Growing up in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, Christian Anderson, better known under his online alias and artist name Trust’N, began his career in a place with little to no industry. Anderson’s journey in the entertainment space began as an artist and he’s had a successful career thus far independently, owning multiple charting releases in his music catalog. The creative gained initial traction with his EP “Lapse”, on which he collaborated with fellow Madison based artist and producer BKWDS. The project made its way up the Apple charts, peaking just shy of the top 10. His most recent single “Lucy” went viral on TikTok, peaking at #8 on the Apple Music hip hop charts.
.jpeg)
While the young entrepreneur began his career as an artist, he’s been able to scale businesses beyond what he thought was possible. After having a proven track record of success, Anderson started taking on marketing clients of his own, helping his friends get the same type of services he was using to push his own career independently. The young creative began juggling his classes and work, slowly scaling his business from his college dorm room.
As the waves of clientele began to increase, Anderson turned to his roommate Bryce Vander Sanden for some help. “I don’t know Bryce was just there, and I trusted him. We had grown really close actually by this point. I’m thankful he lived with me back then,” explained Anderson. Vander Sanden began taking on some of the businesses’ responsibilities, bringing his own unique skill set to the table. “Bryce is literally one of the smartest people I know. He just graduated college with two degrees in Finance and Accounting, and he’s kind of always just brought something different to the table. Usually, I’m the crazy one, and he’s the calm one. It works because we are opposites,” explained Anderson in more detail. Vander Sanden is the only other individual who owns a stake in the company, officially having the Co-founder and Vice Chairman titles.
After business began to pick up, the duo reached out to the small business center at their university for some help. With the help of the University of La Crosse’s small business center, the founders hashed out the finer details and began their first LLC, Lost Boy Entertainment. “Bryce came to the first meeting with me and that meant a lot and showed me that he was truly committed to starting a business with me,” recalled Anderson.
Doing their best to find balance, both students took their normal amount of classes while servicing thousands of clients. “It was challenging to stay on top of everything while finishing up my two degrees for sure,” recalls Vander Sanden. Vander Sanden recently made the move out to LA to join Anderson just over a year after the Lost Boy initially left Wisconsin for Hollywood.
Being in Wisconsin, Anderson and Vander Sanden faced the challenges of having little to no local industry in the entertainment space. Wisconsin is usually categorized as a “fly over” state and has never been known for producing relevant talent in the music industry. Regardless of the situation, Anderson began building a mass network online through his social media. Serving thousands of clients and a good word of mouth helped push the Lost Boy brand early, laying the groundwork for Lost Boy Entertainment LLC to be the industry leading public relations & digital marketing firm it is today. Anderson eventually decided it was best to run the business full time, dropping out during his last year of college. “I was only taking six credits,” recalled Anderson. “I just knew that I couldn’t sit through another semester of classes and put my growing business on hold. I was making way too much money to do that.” On the other hand, Vander Sanden stayed behind to finish his studies and juggled responsibilities.
Fast forward a couple of years later, and the young entrepreneurs have expanded the Lost Boy brand into a multi-million dollar holdings company. Called Lost Boy Holdings, LLC, the investment holding company acts as an umbrella, managing all of the Lost Boys business pursuits in the entertainment & media, e-commerce, real estate, and fashion industries. The company boasts an impressive list of clientele, including major corporations, brands, influencers, and artists like Target Inc, P&G, Kool-Aid, DoorDash, Snoop Dogg, Trippie Redd, Tory Lanez, G-Herbo, and Gucci Mane, among others. “We’ve been doing a lot of really big stuff,” said Anderson, Chairman of the holdings company. “We just can’t always legally talk about everything we do. But we know by the clients we have that we are the best at what we do. We’re the ones behind the scenes making it happen. The biggest artists in the world trust us to deliver,” explained Anderson.
What started out as two college students with a dream in a dorm room has now grown into a full-scale business. Lost Boy Entertainment LLC alone has done more than 1.5 million in revenue since its initial inception date around two years ago, becoming a staple for press & digital marketing services in the industry.
Without Anderson’s networking abilities, the company would not be as successful as it is today. “You know a lot of people just come to me now, and I prefer to have someone screen who I’m meeting, but back then, I was networking all day every day,” explained Anderson. “I really wasn’t doing much else.” Anderson got busy in the DMs, connecting with thousands of people across the entertainment space. That hard work early in his journey has paid off ten fold, making Anderson one of the most connected users across social media.
The Lost Boy brand is inspired by Disney’s film Peter Pan. It has impacted thousands of users across the web, promoting youth hustlers and encouraging others to chase their dreams the same way the young entrepreneurs are doing themselves. “I grew up loving Peter Pan,” explained Anderson. “He was like my childhood hero. Most people like Batman or Superman, but it was always Peter Pan for me. Whenever I watched that movie, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I wanted to be just like the Lost Boys in the film. They literally don’t care what other people think about them, and every day is just based around having fun. I also really related to never growing up, I think sometimes society puts pressure on the youth to stick to a certain path in life. I just want the brand to show you don’t have to do that and that anything is truly possible if you put your mind to it. Everyone on my team believes that.”
Anderson and Vander Sanden’s journey is proof that you don’t always need everything right in front of you to build value around yourself. The owners are constantly looking to expand their network even more, actively pursuing new business opportunities along the way.
You can find out more about Lost Boy Holdings here: lostboyholdings.com
Photography by: Lost Boy Holdings
