Montplaisir was a jack-of-all-trades for NCAA Division II Moorhead.
Minnesota State University Moorhead has athletics.
Big Ten Conference fans will be tuning in to watch their favorite teams play in college football's annual smorgasbord of bowl games, many of them witch chicken wings dipped in ranch that they'll wash down with a cold Busch Light.
There is a good chance that they will scroll through their phones and find a video of Montplaisir cracking open a Busch Light, or at least have a few.
The face of the You Betcha series is a former prep football player who went on to play four years at NCAA Division II Minnesota State Moorhead.
A guy who was benched for a year and a half, and who started a channel with over half a million subscribers, has turned Montplaisir into something of an unofficial ambassador for the region, thanks to a project he and a friend launched during a bar discussion about social media.
A foundation in football.
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Montplaisir was named North Dakota's AA Senior Athlete of the Year in 2010 after throwing for over 1800 pounds.
Montplaisir moved across the North Dakota-Minnesota border to the Minnesota State University Moorhead, an NCAA Division II program.
He started his collegiate career as a quarterback, but was benched after a mediocre start to his freshman season. Montplaisir moved over to wide receiver and caught four catches for 34 yards.
Montplaisir moved to the defensive side of the ball after opening the season at linebacker, and then to the tight end position as a senior, when he started all 11 of the Dragons' games and had three catches for 73 yards.
Montplaisir says that he was the "running tight quarterback receiver". I played every position under the sun.
Montplaisir was aware that he wouldn't be playing football in the future, so he started selling t-shirts. Montplaisir had an interest in the marketing side of business after he left Moorhead and formed a marketing company with a friend from Fargo.
Montplaisir says that the marketing company is in big air quotes. I and him were trying to convince people to let us run their social media. We were busy but never really left because we were still figuring it out.
The moment when the universe came to an end.
Montplaisir got the idea to launch YouBetcha during that time.
Montplaisir was hired to produce a video for a client, he struck up a friendship with one of the client's employees, Ryan Sheeley.
The topic of social media content shifted to the Midwest at some point during the conversation, as the duo discussed the many stereotypes of the region.
Montplaisir said that they came up with the idea of an entertainment page that was based on the Midwest. Some of the content that we have, it just shows that the Midwest is the best. We think it should be celebrated because we love being here. There's no one that puts out content that's like we're proud to be from here.
Montplaisir hosted a YouBetcha Bar at the Showboat Saloon in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., in May of 2019.
The boat is a saloon.
Montplaisir did a side-by-side comparison between two beers, one of which is a craft brew that is only available in Wisconsin, and the other which is a popular beer.
It was a smashing success. The video has been viewed five million times since it was first uploaded in June of last year.
Montplaisir said that it has been up and down the road with the state of Wisconsin. I hope they know that it's fun.
There are no hard feelings in the state of Wisconsin, according to the site's popularity. The Showboat Saloon in Wisconsin Dells was the location of the first YouBetcha Bar takeover.
Mentality is gridiron.
Montplaisir started out with a few fun videos, but soon turned into the You Betcha brand and an actual business.
Montplaisir says that it went quickly.
Montplaisir uses his days on the football field to help keep things running smoothly.
Montplaisir says that being part of a football team is the best way to prepare for business. The better you can do your role, the better the team is going to play. You have to find good talent to find good employees.
You have to do a trick play once in a while. Sometimes you get burnt and sometimes you don't and sometimes, when you don't know what you're doing, you wonder how a good football team would approach this problem.
The approach paid off. YouBetcha is now a full-blown media company that produces videos, podcasts and merchandise and has grown to 18 employees.
NIL and the future.
The YouBetcha brand has grown beyond digital content to a wide array of merchandise with the same themes.
OhYouBetcha Facebook.
YouBetcha is a big hit on college campuses in the Big Ten. When NIL legislation took effect last year, Montplaisir received a lot of inquiries from college athletes looking to establish a partnership or develop brands of their own.
Montplaisir is keeping a close eye on those relationships as his company continues to grow and evolve.
There are ideas for a Big Ten athletes' show.
We haven't done a lot of things because there wasn't a lot of value. I want it to be something that adds value.
Montplaisir is a big fan of the rule change and happy that players are able to use their ability and notoriety to make a few bucks, but he isn't sure that it would have made much of a difference during his playing days.
Montplaisir doesn't think he would have made any money playing Division II football. I don't know if my dad would have paid me, but I'm glad that the NIL thing happened, and athletes are now able to be paid for being as big a star as they are.
I don't think anyone would have paid me.
Montplaisir plans to use his experience to continue his company's growth, which is fine in the grand scheme of things.
Montplaisir says that the Midwest loves a whole network of content. The end goal is to build a media company that makes sense for today's world and the Midwest and let's build a big network.
