@disneynutz Start a Conversation is not available from your profile page. In the upper-right is your username Inbox Alerts. If you hover over Inbox, a pop-up will appear with recent conversations (or "you have no recent conversations") and at the bottom of that box is "Show All Conversations" and "Start a New Conversation" buttons. Alternatively, you can click on Inbox and on the next screen "Start a Conversation" is a blue button to the far right of the gray bar.
As far as I know the Sponsor tag shouldn't impact your ability to change your avatar. Guess we'll have to see if a webmaster can help with that.