Sujan Patel dropped out of college to pursue a career in marketing, heading up the SEO department of Oversee.net. Soon after, he decided to start his own marketing agency with his business partner called Single Grain, and grew it to over $3M in revenue in just a few short years. Achieving great success with his marketing venture, Sujan decided to sell Single Grain and move onto his next project geared more towards mentoring and helping others. He has made more money helping others grow their businesses using his marketing skills rather than when he was solely focused on generating the most revenue possible. Today, he continues helping businesses grow with Web Profits, a growth marketing agency focusing on the latest marketing strategies.
Secret Entourage Academy
Secret Academy Episode – Sean Ogle
Sean Ogle studied finance in college and was able to get a job at a financial analyst at a small company right before the market crashed in 2008. After dealing with numerous clients who were miserable from losing money and butting heads with his boss who wasn’t into implementing new methods or ideas, he decided that something needed to change. He proposed a pay cut to work remotely and after a month of negotiating, he was told that he should resign from the company. Instead of trying to save his job, Sean decided that this was his chance to do his own thing as an entrepreneur and travel the world. He started blogging to document his journey, and after building a strong following, Location Rebel was founded to teach others how to transition from working a job to becoming a successful online entrepreneur able to run a business from anywhere in the world. Today, Location Rebel has over 1600 members in 40 different countries.
Secret Academy Episode – Kevin Liang
Kevin Liang was 14-years-old when he went to a friend’s house and saw an elaborate ecosystem in his friend’s bedroom. Curious about how it worked and how it was superior to the traditional aquariums he was used to, he asked his friend to teach him everything about this self-sustaining set up. Soon, he was hooked and built his own ecosystem in his sister’s garage. Using Kickstarter, Kevin launched EcoQube, a small self-sustaining aquarium ecosystem using basil or mint to naturally clean the water so that no filter changes are necessary. In its first year EcoQube generated $120k in sales, which then increased to $750k the second year, and this year they are on track to reach $3M in sales.
Secret Academy Episode – Greg Mercer
After graduating from Auburn University with a degree in civil engineering, Greg Mercer found himself working a 9-5 corporate job. To escape from his mundane work life, he started selling products on Amazon. In the beginning, he was using the wholesale method but eventually transitioned over to manufacturing his own products. He was able to match and then exceed his salary as a civil engineer relatively quickly, so Greg decided to quit the corporate world and dive into entrepreneurship full time. He took his knowledge and experience selling on Amazon and created a tool to help others sell on Amazon successfully as well. Thus, Jungle Scout was born.
Secret Academy Episode – Julie Broad
In 2001, Julie Broad was getting ready to go back to school to earn an MBA, but she didn’t want to end up deeper in debt upon graduating. She decided to invest the money that was supposed to go towards tuition into purchasing two real estate properties with her then boyfriend, now husband. They ended up buying 2-5 properties a year until taking the leap to become a full-time real estate investor and starting a real estate newsletter in 2008. The newsletter led to an education business teaching others how to invest in real estate using Julie’s marketing and business background and her husband’s mortgage lending background. Today, Julie has transitioned her business out of the real estate realm and focused on speaking engagements and continuing her newsletter on http://havemoreinfluence.com/
Secret Academy Episode – Peter Beattie
Peter Beattie was working as an architectural designer when the recession hit. After having his hours cut, he decided that he needed to explore alternative methods of income. He quit his job and started designing websites for local businesses. About a year into making websites, he stumbled upon a marketing forum and realized that there was a market for digital products teaching others the ins and outs of local marketing. Peter found great success selling digital products and started VideoRevolver selling video templates to help other online marketers strengthen their own businesses.
Secret Academy Episode – Jeff Smith
Acquisition is an aspect of business that not many people know how to become successful in. There are so many variables that go into acquiring companies, and knowing how to create and grow a successful business that is attractive to other companies can be lucrative. Jeff Smith founded a successful online marketing company specializing in SEO and strategies for monetization, and it was acquired in 2009 by Geary Interactive. From there, he started several other businesses that were eventually acquired by bigger companies including a lifestyle and destination guide and a drug addiction rehabilitation portal. Today, he is the CEO of the drug addiction rehab portal (rehabs.com) and continues to invest and create other businesses in the behavioral health space. Jeff is also involved in a non-profit bringing technology to to underprivileged teens on the path towards a 4-year university.