Many people dream of taking their passion in life and starting their own business based off of that. After graduating from high school, Chris Green decided that instead of going to college like all of his peers, he wanted to take his passion for car audio and turn it into a real business. So at 18-years-old, he incorporated USP Motorsports and started contacting wholesalers to open up accounts. With zero inventory, Chris bought products as he got orders for them and eventually saved up enough money to acquire a brick and mortar location. A slow, steady growth and transition into e-commerce transformed his business into a million dollar venture. Today, he runs USP Motorsports with the same passion and drive as he did from day one.
Secret Entourage Academy
Secret Academy Episode – Mark Ferguson
Having a father in the real estate business, Mark Ferguson wanted to do something in a different field so he studied and earned his degree in finance. Unsuccessful job searches led him to join his father in the real estate business, and in 2001 he became a licensed realtor. After a few years of selling homes and also flipping houses on the side with his father, Mark became frustrated at the fact that he wasn’t making as much money as he should have been given the effort and time he was putting in. Something needed to change. He calculated that he would need to sell 100 houses a year to make what he wanted, and instead of complaining about how impossible that was, he took that as motivation to actually sell that many houses per year. Thus, he went from selling 20 homes a year to 150 homes the following year. Using the knowledge he’s learned from working alongside his father and a real estate company, Mark started investfourmore.com as a resource for people wanting to learn about the real estate business.
Secret Academy Episode – Brian Foley
Upon graduating college, Brian Foley moved 30 miles away from Malibu to Santa Monica, CA. Remarkably, he was able to fit everything in car EXCEPT his mattress. After making numerous phone calls and hearing many excuses later, he decided to rent a UHAUL just to move his one mattress. Unfortunately, his truck driving skills proved to be less than stellar when he accidentally hit his new roommate’s car while parking. This experience gave birth to an idea that there should be a service available where people who needed trucks could link up with people who had trucks to move furniture or other big items. Thus, Buddytruk was born.
Secret Academy Episode – Dave Grutman
After graduating from University of Florida with a degree in finance, Dave Grutman decided that he wanted to bartend in South Beach, Miami before going home to settle down and sell title insurance. He ended up bartending at a restaurant in Aventura Mall under owner Jeff Soffer that would change the course of his career. Working there opened his eyes to the world of hospitality, and he knew that was the path he wanted to take. He honed his skills by managing a restaurant and opening his own nightclub in Fort Lauderdale. Dave then teamed up with two others to start Miami Marketing Group, a company that would offer branding, marketing, and events. Eventually, Jeff Soffer approached Dave to help create a nightclub within the Fontainebleau that would transform Miami nightlife. Thus one of Miami’s hottest nightclubs, LIV, was born, with STORY following soon thereafter.
Secret Academy Episode – OJ Whatley
As a 25-year-old financial consultant working for Merrill Lynch, OJ Whatley was used to working with clients who had more money than he could ever dream of. He was always a lover of watches, and oftentimes he had clients who wanted to give him high end luxury watches as gifts. In 2000, he decided to take his passion for watches to the next level by creating WatchUWant, an online marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned luxury watches. OJ started out selling watches exclusively on eBay, until 2006 when eBay for an unknown reason decided to terminate his account along with 47 live auctions. It was then that he realized the importance of diversification in his business, and worked to build a watch empire that now brings in $20 million revenue annually.
Secret Academy Episode – Alun Hill
When Alun Hill first discovered Udemy, an online platform for learning, he thought this might be an easy way to make some extra money on the side doing something he liked to do. He was already an accomplished travel journalist, business strategist, and TV/radio broadcaster and the thought of putting in work one time (per course) to make money continuously down the road appealed to him. He started out taping courses in the corner of his living room, and the first 20 months of being on Udemy yielded only $3,000 of income total. In January of 2014; however, he decided to take it more seriously and found ways to dramatically increase his viewership and students. Now, he has over 103,000 students making $1,000 a day using a third party platform to sell his knowledge.
Secret Academy Episode – Sam Oh
There’s a time when a lot of us want to make a few extra bucks on the side and usually one of the ideas that pops in your head is to flip items from buying low and selling high. While browsing Craigslist for items to buy and resell, Sam Oh came across the unlocked mobile phone market. His fascination with automation made this business venture a very streamlined and lucrative one while earning five-figures a month in passive income by selling unlock codes. After generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in that niche, Sam sold his business and transitioned into selling various products that would be fulfilled by marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. While running these businesses, Sam also teaches aspiring entrepreneurs how to follow his footsteps on his Money Journal website.