Paul Kirwin

“It hit about 2 A.M. in the middle of Montana; driving alone on Highway 287, smoking a cigar. POW! ‘I want to be in the news business.’ By sunrise, I was on fire with enthusiasm. Six months later I was a mobile radio news reporter driving a reworked milk truck for KREX in Grand Junction, Colorado. I was on my way.”

Paul Kirwin is the founder of 3point5, now known as SwarmBuilder,  the fastest growing Internet-based training platform in the sporting goods business. The training is focused on retail salespeople and features audio and video to ensure an educational and entertaining experience. The site currently hosts 200,000 retail salespeople and growing at 200 new salespeople a day.

Paul received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Colorado in 1975. He started his career as a straight commission salesperson for an employment agency. After two years of learning how to be successful at cold calling he used that technique to enter radio news, moving quickly into television news as a reporter, anchor and producer for ABC and CBS affiliates.

With his news business experience started Kirwin Communications in 1985. Using video as the key media, the company introduced some of the most significant and successful outdoor sports technologies in the world, among them new product introductions for Salomon, Rossignol, Marker, Specialized, Converse, The North Face, Malden Mills, and HEAD. The company was also involved in introducing Disney’s Vacation Club shared ownership concept at Disney World, winning the coveted Disney Bravo award for excellence.

Mr. Kirwin is a Rocky Mountain Emmy award winning writer and director for his work in television documentaries, and short promotional pieces. Under his direction Kirwin Communications won regional and national awards in most media including addys for video, radio, billboard, print and cross-media.

He lives in Park City, Utah with his wife, Alison, of twenty-five years. Both are active in the environment, local projects, and many sports.

Paul is currently building a new media company called Channel Signal™.

He was recently named one of  the top ten most influential people in the outdoor recreation business for 2010  by SNEWS.