By Ulices Samaniego

HARD-working, determined, and passionate are the three words that can best describe Josh Hermann. What for many would be a journey that might have seemed impossible turned into a learning experience for Hermann that led toward achieving his goals.

“I treat every day like it’s a Monday and every day like it’s a Friday,” he says. ‘I really look forward to working because I’m self-employed.”

Josh Hermann is a York College alumnus from Denver who is the president/owner of his company MyRtrmnt, LLC. It’s a cloud-based ticket sales company to live events throughout the U.S. and Canada that specializes in data analytics on ticket sales on (and for) both the primary and secondary marketplaces.

“We sell tickets to all sorts of events throughout the country and even parts of Canada,” he says. “This could be sporting events or concerts whether it be in a small theater, large arena, football stadium, Broadway shows, or comedy shows. I’ve even sold tickets to something like Disney on Ice before, so family shows as well.”

Since graduating in 2009 with a sports management degree, his journey has been a constant grind to success.

Working from the ground up, Hermann knew it wouldn’t to be an easy journey, but he was determined to succeed. Hermann has never settled for less throughout his journey, even during college taking on internships for companies such as Ripken Baseball and ticket sales with the Harrisburg Senators, a minor League baseball team. From there Hermann would land his first job working with the Philadelphia 76ers, working as an inside sales rep. This position would be a great learning experience to help open up connections for his later success.

“When I worked for the Sixers, I had clients that were ticket brokers. Working with them really opened my eyes to new opportunities and I quickly learned what they were doing,” he says.

One of the biggest factors to success was his willingness to take advantage of opportunities. Moving around taking on new jobs would play a big role. A key step for Hermann is when he would go out to California and work as a Premium Seating Account Manager at Cal Athletics. His time would be short but full of success. With those connections established, Hermann was able to build solid relationships that would help prepare him to eventually launch his own company. 

“I then was hired by one of my old clients at a company called DTI that really opened my eyes. I learned a lot and eventually I branched off and became essentially a client of theirs by becoming a reseller of my own that worked through their consignment company,” he says.

Hermann would start MyRtrmnt, LLC in the summer of 2015 and later have it registered as an LLC in 2016. The name MyRtrmnt stands for My Retirement.

Even though Hermann’s field of work is not what he had in mind while in college, he has found great passion and love for what he does. While in college he wanted to be a sports agent, going as far as creating a self-initiated “Sport Law” minor while at York. But he soon would realize that’s not what he wanted and would slowly figure out his true passion.

Says Hermann: “When I was growing up, tickets were resold on eBay and StubHub was just becoming what it is [now].  Ticketmaster wasn’t the monstrosity it is now either. I think if the industry was similar to today and I was more aware, it’s possible the stars would align – I love to be a hustler.”

That doesn’t surprise Dr. Tim Newman, who taught Hermann at York College. “Josh is a smart guy with an entrepreneur spirit. He’s a hard worker, always willing to help others. He’s just a great kid, who always has a great spirit,” Newman says.

Like many other businesses, Hermann and his company were affected by the pandemic. Hermann described the year 2020-21 as being “nuts.” Since there were no live events for months during the beginning of the pandemic, this meant Hermann had no business. Hermann continued to work and stay strong through the pandemic.

Hermann says this about his experience: “I worked on my business by reverse reconciling my purchases that were unsold and cancelled/postponed events during that time.  This was productive but painful.  We slowly got back into it in ’21, scaled nicely, and then crashed and burned again [twice] as demand disappeared from high surging new variants. Hopefully we’re in the clear now as the growth has been tremendous and sales are booming right now.”

Even though Hermann is passionate about his company and what he does, there is something that rises above everything else. Hermann says, “What I’m most passionate about is my friends, family, and my fiancé.”

Hermann never forgets his roots, recently being one of the 2021 Spartan of the Year award recipients. He was recognized for all he’s done and achieved. Specific snapshots of his involvement as co-founder and active board member of the Justin Sheftel Memorial Fund, actively employing York College interns for both part-time and full-time work experience along with being an annual donor to the York College Sport Management Program.

“I’ve worked hard in my life, and I continue to work hard but more importantly I take a lot of pride in my experience at York,” he says. “York really pushed me during my time there; it was pretty challenging which made me very driven. So, it’s very humbling to receive this award and let all my efforts and hard work be recognized.”

Ulices Samaniego is a senior majoring in integrated marketing communications.

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