As a computer engineer working at a consulting firm, David could no longer see himself working behind a cubicle. It was not until his god father advised him that he was still young and that his mid twenties was the time to explore other options. David finally quit his job after 10 months and after a brief hiatus in Brazil, David created an online marketing agency in NYC with $5k in the bank which grew to over $100k in monthly revenue. David’s latest venture is 15Five, an engagement tool to help facilitate better transparency and communication between managers and employees. While only 3 years old, 15Five is now used by clients like Sony, GoDaddy, Amazon, and more.
Secret Entourage Academy
Secret Academy Episode – Matt Kepnes
Matt Kepnes always dreamed of being a history teacher one day. Unfortunately the weak economy landed Matt a cubicle job that wasn’t quite the dream he had imagined. After working a full year just to get two weeks worth of vacation time, Matt went on a trip to Costa Rica that opened his eyes to the possibilities of travel. Shortly after, Matt quit his job and then traveled for 18 months across several continents around the world. Now Matt documents his entire travel journeys but also gives the best tips for traveling on a budget at NomadicMatt.com where he has an audience of over 700,000 visitors a month. For the last few years, Matt has successfully lived in multiple different locations in the world and funds his entire lifestyle through his blog and other business ventures like his book deal that just came to fruition.
Secret Academy Episode – Eric Siu
By chasing opportunities and not jobs, Eric Siu went through five jobs in a single year after college. It was not until he got introduced into the world of SEO where he found a new found passion and career. This resulted in relentless learning and testing that eventually landed him the role of VP at TreeHouse where he single handedly grew the team and monthly revenue by 98%. At age 27, Eric is now the CEO of Single Grain, a full service digital marketing agency that works will with top tier clients spending no less than $20,000 a month like Yahoo, Sony, and SalesForce.
Secret Academy Episode – Justin Cooke
After the real estate market came crashing down in the US, Justin Cooke got a job in the SEO industry when he realized the need for outsourcing. From there he packed his bags and moved to the Philippines where he opened up an outsourcing staffing company that provided affordable labor. With his own team, he ventured in the world of website development where he was able to churn out niche websites for under $100. What he soon found out was that people were willing to pay upwards of 24 months worth of income. From there Empire Flippers was born where he shows people how to create a profitable site and then flip them, either through online market places or through his brokerage company. With an ever changing landscape, Joe has managed to earn over $200,000 in 2012 and over $500,000 for 2013.
Secret Academy Episode – Deborah Sweeney
After working as the general outside counsel to MyCorporation.com, Deborah Sweeney went in-house with MyCorporation.com to find that it was in the process of being sold to Intuit. As the original owners left and the acquisition took place, Deborah found herself as the lead general manager for MyCorporation.com division under Intuit. Unfortunately due to the dot com bust, Intuit had to downsize and Deborah presented that MyCorporation.com was better run as it’s own entity. This lead to Deborah re-acquiring MyCorporation.com where she became CEO and has lead the company into tremendous growth since 2009.
Secret Academy Episode – David Risley
For over 16 years David Risley has built a business around blogging. His first major break through was with his hobby blog PCMech.com that was sold for a large sum at the height of the dot com boom. At one point, David had two blogs both earning over $100,000 each. Since then, David has built several more blogs but also now teaches how to start your own blog the right way at his Blog Marketing Academy.
Secret Academy Episode – Damien Bullard
At the peak of his college career, Damien Bullard was faced with two options: take the advice of his dad and start a business, or go to medical school and be in tremendous debt. Damien chose the path less taken and decided to work in car sales; a complete 180 degree from his initial plan. His success in the car dealership world allowed Damien to become General Manager by the age of 25. Having worked in every department allowed Damien to truly understand the business model behind dealerships. Unfortunately, in 2009 his dealership group closed, forcing him to let go over 80 employees including himself. Vowing to never face the same decision again, Damien knew an opportunity existed with the finance department of all dealerships and launched Credit Forget It. Credit Forget It offers credit optimization and identity theft protection services to dealerships and their customers. To this day, there has never been any external complaints and Credit Forget It has helped over 100,000 consumers and become nearly an 8 figure business in the process.