May 16, 2024 • 38 mins
Join us on an inspiring journey with Dr. Shaan Patel, MD, MBA, founder and CEO of Prep Expert, as seen on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” A board-certified dermatologist named one of Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30,” Dr. Patel is not only a renowned dermatologist but also an education visionary. From raising his own SAT score from average to perfect, authoring 10+ test prep books, to helping over 100,000 students improve their SAT and ACT scores, his story is a beacon of entrepreneurial spirit and educational innovation.
In this episode, Dr. Patel shares his transformative journey from humble beginnings to creating a multi-million dollar business, Prep Expert. He delves into how he turned his struggles with standardized testing into a thriving test preparation empire, securing a partnership with Mark Cuban and inspiring countless students. His unique perspective on balancing innate ability with acquired skills uncovers what fuels success in the competitive world of startups.
We also explore the deeper essence of entrepreneurship, from the impact of social media on young entrepreneurs to the importance of resilience for those from less advantaged backgrounds. Dr. Patel discusses the contentious role of standardized testing and how education has not just changed his life but has also empowered employees and students to chase their dreams, securing over $100 million in scholarships.
Join us for a session that’s as much about making a living as it is about making a difference, and be inspired by Dr. Patel’s commitment to transforming education and providing life-changing opportunities to many. Get ready to be moved and motivated by a story of resilience, innovation, and the power of education as the ultimate catalyst for change.
As you're inspired to embark on your side hustle journey after listening to this episode, you might wonder where to start or how to make your vision a reality. With a team of experienced marketing professionals and a track record of helping clients achieve their dreams, we are ready to assist you in reaching your goals. To find out more, visit www.reversedout.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for
joining us.
Our goal is to help you connectto real people who found
success turning their sidehustle into a main hustle, and
we hope you can too.
I'm Adam Kaler.
I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, myco-host.
Let's get started, all right?
(00:24):
Welcome back everybody to theSide Hustle City podcast.
Today, our special guest isSean Patel, and I'm reading
through your bio, sean, and theforward is by Mark Cuban here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, he's my investor, business partner and
mentor.
It's been great working withMark Cuban, and he wrote the
forward for my new book, whichI'm excited to talk about today
too.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I love it.
Well, and you were.
Were you a winner on Shark Tank?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, so made a deal with Mark Cuban on Shark Tank.
For my business it's calledPrep Expert.
It's a test preparation company, so we do online SAT courses,
act courses, college admissionsconsulting so if there's any
parents with high schoolstudents out there, you can
check us out at prep expertcom.
(01:10):
But yeah, so we made a went onShark Tank in 2016, closed an
investment deal with Mark Cubanfor $250,000 for 20% equity and
the deal went through after theshow and it's opened up a lot of
opportunities both being onShark Tank and working with Mark
Cuban over the years.
(01:31):
And what's interesting is thebusiness originally started off
as a side hustle, went all theway through Shark Tank and now
has generated over $50 millionin revenue.
So excited to talk about allthat today.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, Not a great deal, Like knowing what I know
about startups and going throughthe whole process myself to
exit.
That was a great deal for Mark.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh, amazing.
Yeah, he's made many times hismoney back.
But you know people were likewell, you know why did you give
up 20% equity in your business?
And my thought process on it is80% of a business with Mark
Cuban is more valuable than 100%of a business by myself, and
that has been totally true.
(02:14):
Over the years We've opened upso many business partnerships,
licensing deals.
He has helped us do marketingand get it out to thousands and
you know we've helped over100,000 people at this point.
So you know it's been really,really an incredible partnership
.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, of course I mean you know just the swag of
you know being able to say heylook, mark Cuban's one of my
investors.
I mean that just that raisespeople's ears and they're oh
well, mark, invested.
Why wouldn't I invest?
Like raises people's ears andthey're oh well, mark, Mark
invested.
Why wouldn't I invest, likeMark knows what he's doing
better than I do, you know?
So it just brings a certainlevel of credibility to your
company.
So, uh, you know it was.
(02:53):
You know, just going throughyour bio here and, and you know,
understanding what I know aboutyour, your background, it
sounds like you you didn't comefrom the greatest of uh, of
backgrounds.
We were, you know, before theshow, sitting here chatting
about you know Las Vegas publicschools versus Cincinnati public
schools and how they're bothpretty terrible.
Tell us your experience inschool.
I know that a lot of ourlisteners are not.
(03:13):
You know, don't come fromaffluent backgrounds.
They're probably working nineto five jobs they'd love to get
out of and you know they'd bethrilled to start a $50 million
company.
And one of my favorite thingsis you know what guys a lot of
the people that do this don'tcome from wealthy families.
They don't come from awesomebackgrounds.
They didn't go to the greatestschools growing up.
Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah for sure.
So a little bit of backgroundon myself.
I grew up in my parents' budgetmotel in Las Vegas, nevada, so
I went to urban public schoolsthat I was zoned for and, uh,
you know we were talking.
Vegas is not exactly known forit's excellent education system.
So when I was in school therewe had a 37% high school dropout
(03:57):
rate.
Um, so it was close to 40% ofall the kids wouldn't graduate.
Um, now I think it's down tolike 23%, so it's improving a
little bit.
But you know, I have a lot ofgratitude for my parents who
took education very seriously,and so that made me take
education very seriously.
(04:18):
So I got straight A's.
I was a good student but youknow, probably like many of the
people listening to the podcast,or maybe your kids, I was not a
very good standardized testtaker, so I only scored average
on my first SAT.
I had a lot of test anxiety.
My parents didn't go to collegein the United States and so, um
, you know that's when Ibasically spent hundreds of
(04:39):
hours in the libraryself-studying for the test,
eventually was able to raise myscore 640 points to get a
perfect SAT score.
Um, yeah, so you know something.
Yeah, totally life-changingbecause it opened up the doors
to some top universities, got ahalf a million dollars in
college scholarships, so Ididn't have to pay a dime for
(05:00):
college tuition, housing, books,food, anything.
So it was pretty awesome.
And that's actually the originstory of my business, because
when I got to college, I wantedto help other students improve
their test scores to improvetheir own lives, and I thought I
had developed a lot ofstrategies, techniques and ways
(05:20):
to ace this exam that I hadn'tseen in other books, and so I
wanted to just write a book atfirst.
However, what ended uphappening is you know, this was
12, 13 years ago andself-publishing wasn't huge yet.
So I was trying to get a majorpublisher.
So I pitched a hundred literaryagents and publishers.
Every single one rejected thebook proposal.
(05:42):
They said you know, it's toocompetitive of a market, you
don't have a platform to writesuch a book, et cetera, et
cetera, and so I could havethrown in the towel and, you
know, gave up, but instead Istarted my side hustle, which
was started teaching SAT courses, and in the very first course
that I ever taught, my studentshad an average score improvement
of 376 points.
(06:02):
That's equivalent of taking astudent from the 50th percentile
, putting them in the 90thpercentile literally in six
weeks, and so it was prettyincredible.
And you know, of course I hadparents and students who wanted
more courses.
I began training otherinstructors to teach my
curriculum, and the rest ishistory.
Over the past 12 years, we'vehelped over 100,000 students at
(06:23):
PrepExpert improve their SAT andACT scores, get into top
universities but, mostimportantly, win over $100
million in college scholarshipsto lower their costs or even
eliminate their cost of college.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Wow, that is amazing.
Yeah, not everybody can be youand just get a perfect test
score and then go off to USC.
And uh and Yale, was this yourparents idea?
By the way, you are also adoctor.
And uh, was this your parentsidea to get, for you to be a
doctor, or did you come acrossthis yourself, cause now you're
an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah.
So you know, um, originally,definitely, I think I was
encouraged by my parents um tobecome a doctor, as many people
probably are doctors, lawyers,you know the traditional careers
.
But my dad was always anentrepreneur himself.
As I mentioned, he owned amotel, he's a pharmacist, he
owned a gas station, and so Ikind of grew up around that
(07:18):
entrepreneurial spirit of youknow.
He kind of had a side hustlehimself.
His gas station and motel werekind of the side hustle for him,
for his farms.
Uh, daytime, day job was being apharmacist and so, um, I grew
up around that and so for me, Ithink it was almost in my blood
to be an entrepreneur and, uh, Istumbled on, stumbled onto it,
(07:41):
really had a rejection, as Imentioned.
Um, you know, I got I would ifI had just gotten the I
mentioned.
Um, yeah, I got I would if Ijust got in the book deal.
At first I probably would havejust been like, uh, you know I'm
not going to start any courses.
Um, what ended up was funnystory is mcgraw hill, the
world's largest educationpublisher, who originally
rejected my book proposal afterthey saw what I was building
with the courses at prep expertand saw my success, they ended
(08:05):
up coming back and saying we'llgive you a book deal after all.
So we ended up publishing thebook.
My first SAT prep book sold over50,000 copies, went number one
on Amazon for SAT prep and Ijust came out with a new one, as
you mentioned, calledPrepExpert Digital SAT Playbook.
That one's self-published andit's already hit number one for
(08:26):
SAT prep and the new releasecategory.
We're hoping, as the word getsout, we'll hit number one across
all categories for SAT onAmazon and that's the one that
Mark Cuban wrote the forewordfor.
But I'm excited to haveself-published it.
You keep a lot more of theroyalties when you're
self-published yeah, when you'reself-publishing.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, when you do it yourself.
Well, you've also built up apersona for yourself, and I talk
about this on the show a lotand how important a personal
brand is and building up thatpersonal brand.
How much did being on SharkTank elevate that personal brand
for you and were you able toleverage it afterwards?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Oh, a hundred percent .
Yeah, I love that you give thatadvice to entrepreneurs because
it's really, really important.
I think that personal brandsare going to be more important
over the next 10 years than everbefore, and the reason for that
is because you know there'sincreasing competition in all
industries because there's AIcoming there's, you know, so
(09:22):
much easier, it's so much lowercost to start businesses, so
you're going to have a lot morecompetition.
So the only way to stand outfrom competition is to
differentiate yourself, and whatbetter differentiator is?
Somewhat like yourself.
You know you are adifferentiator as a personal
brand and so for me, appearingon Shark Tank was a huge help.
We're the only test prepcompany to have ever appeared on
(09:44):
Shark Tank, obviously the onlyone that has investment from
Mark Cuban.
So those are huge, hugepersonal brand differentiators
for us.
On top of that, I continue tomake content from a personal
brand perspective to show myauthority and expertise in the
space, which really helpsdifferentiate us in a
(10:06):
hyper-competitive industry oftest preparation.
So personal branding a hundredpercent.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, and I think you're also in an industry that
people, uh, can relate to.
Everybody's, you know gonethrough school.
Everybody, you know, feared theSAT and the ACT growing up.
Is there anything that you cansee your company doing going
down the future outside of SATand ACT, that could help these
(10:34):
parents of these kids betterengage with these young people,
get them more interested inschool?
Do you ever see yourself kindof going down that path?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I think that's the natural transition for me
because, like you mentioned,with my personal brand, one of
the things that I really push isnot just being good with test
preparation, but being good atproductivity, time management,
delayed gratification, all theseskills around success, and I
actually put it into my SAT bookand people are like oh, I
learned a lot more than just SAT.
I learned how to study and howto be productive and all these
(11:14):
things, and so I think that'sthe natural.
Next progression is to branchout and help students take not
only academics more seriouslybut life more seriously, Because
, because I love to help kidsbecome entrepreneurs and, you
know, all these skills translateover.
To be an entrepreneur You'vegot to have self-control, you've
got to delay gratification, yougot to work hard, Um, you know,
(11:34):
and so I love teaching thoseskills and uh and teaching young
people.
So I think that you're youhundred percent hit it on the
right spot.
That you know, and especiallyfor those people that are
starting side hustles, you gotto have all those key skills as
well.
I know I certainly had themwhen I was starting the business
while in school.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, yeah, and and some of that stuff.
I think there's something in us, like you had mentioned being a
natural entrepreneur, justfeeling like you.
You had it and and, but beingable to have that.
Your dad is an example and notwanting to disappoint him either
, you know I but I think there'ssomething natural in people
Like, even if you didn't havethat, I feel like you, sean,
(12:13):
would have still been asuccessful person.
How much do you put into thingslike personality types when it
comes to success?
Uh, being in the educationspace and everything.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, super important .
You know everyone learnsdifferently, everyone works
differently.
What I will say is things thatare not natural can be learned,
though.
You know, I think some peopleare gifted with it for sure.
But you know, a lot of times,in order to have success in life
, whether it's with a test likethe SAT or it's a business as a
(12:47):
side hustle, you just have to dothe hard work.
And you know that's not no onelikes to hear that.
Everyone would rather scrollTikTok or watch YouTube, and,
you know, do the things that areeasy.
But, um, you know, craftingthose skills early on are super
important.
So for me, you know, sitting inthe library studying for the
(13:07):
SAT, I learned a lot ofself-control.
I learned a lot about hard work, and that translated over to my
business.
Now I can, you know, first hourof the day I'm working on the
hardest task in my business,trying to be as productive as
possible, just like I was whenthe first hour of the day for
SAT studying when I was in highschool, and so you got to learn
it some way.
I'm not saying, you know, testprep is the only way A lot of
(13:27):
people learn in the school ofhard knocks, right, like, just,
you know, working in in either acareer or on your business, et
cetera, business, et cetera.
But the earlier you learn thoseskills, you know the success
compounds over time, right, andso the earlier you learn those
skills, the more likely you willbe successful, um, at an
earlier age, because it's justgoing to take time at the end of
(13:48):
the day.
Yeah that's.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That is a really good point.
And you know, when you comefrom not a lot, come from not a
lot, I think you don't reallyhave room to fail, right, like a
failure sets you back a lotmore because you have less
people around you that can helpyou, I think.
And one big problem I seenowadays, though, with the kids
(14:10):
is this almost like resentfulattitude towards success, and I
think it's because they don'tfeel like they can attain that.
Or possibly there's so muchpressure on social media and you
see, these guys, these fakeinfluencers and people that are
like 20 that said, oh, I built a$8 million ad agency in six
months using my techniques andthey're selling a course.
(14:32):
Right, if they really did that,they wouldn't be selling
courses, they'd be buildingtheir agency, right, but people
don't get that right and theysee all the success and they
feel like they have to competewith that and there's no way I
can.
I can do that, but successstarts one step at a time.
Right, like you said, itcompounds, like if you're gonna,
you're gonna climb mounteverest.
You got to put one front footin front of the other, right?
Do you see, in your over adecade of doing this.
(14:57):
Have you seen a change in thestudents and have you been able
to evolve your curriculum withthat?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
I have seen a change in thestudents and a lot of it.
It's not something I'm a hugefan about, like what you said,
which is, you know, there's alot of comparison making and
it's not their fault.
I mean, we're taken over bysocial media.
There's a lot less of, there'sa lot shorter attention spans,
(15:26):
so we've had to make ourcurriculum, you know, quicker,
faster to digest, et cetera.
You know, definitely had tomake adjustments.
But I want to go back to thepoint that you stated, which is,
you know, these social mediagurus.
It really kind of burns my soulto see some of these people that
are actually successful,whether it's multimillionaires,
(15:58):
billionaires, like my businesspartner, mark Cuban.
It literally is the executionand the action you take day in
and day out.
You cannot control the outcomes, but you can control your
actions and your efforts and ifyou take that one step at a time
, you will see success.
I was talking to a youngentrepreneur who had a test prep
(16:20):
company and they're like youknow, I'm doing a couple hundred
thousand in sales this year andlast year I was doing a hundred
thousand.
But why isn't it going faster?
And I said you're growing yourbusiness, you're doubling your
business year over year, youknow like that's great, but
people want to go even fasterand faster, because it's what
they're seeing in comparisons.
And so you know you really haveto be grateful for the progress
(16:44):
that you make.
And you know, take thoseactions one step at a time, like
you said.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh yeah, I think self-awareness is a big thing.
I mean you mentioned delayedgratification.
I tell the kids, when I go talkto these kids at high schools
and stuff, I say you know, Iusually talk to kids in
underprivileged schools and Isay being poor is an advantage.
Like I don't think youunderstand that because you
don't have stuff.
Right, you see all these otherpeople with stuff and you don't
(17:08):
have stuff.
You're used to not having stuff.
You're used to being broke.
Like going back to that doesn'tscare you as much as it does
someone who grew up in a muchbetter environment or better
situation than you.
You're more resilient, is what?
And that self-reflection.
These are things that I'velooked back at since I've kind
(17:29):
of moved up, you know, over timeand I look back and I'm like
actually, you know, being poorwas a benefit because I'm
running this fast and thesepeople are just starting here
and I'm going past them whenthey're just starting out in
life, because I learned a bunchof stuff from the school of hard
(17:50):
knocks.
And did you, do you feel that?
Do you, did you experience?
Some of that Is there?
Is there something in you whereit's like I'm not afraid of, of
failure?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, I think that that's a really important point.
I definitely have seen that inmy own life where a lot of times
, when my back is against thewall, I'll come up with some of
the best solutions and work thehardest and get the best results
.
But when your back's notagainst the wall and you're
living this kind of cushy lifeand you know that's when things
(18:22):
go wrong or you don't try ashard, you don't put in as much
effort and you can fall behind.
And so I think it's really,really important what you said
about failure and resilience.
I you know I've alreadymentioned the hundred rejections
I got with the book proposal,but I failed and failed and
failed so many times.
But the few times I succeededis what everyone sees and what
(18:46):
everyone talks about, and soit's really important that you
learn how to become okay withfailure and that you become
really good with resilience.
I'd say the best entrepreneursare the most resilient ones,
because you're going to fail,things are not going to work
like you plan, things are notgoing to go as fast as you plan,
(19:06):
but as long as you are okaywith that and you're okay with
some failures, some setbacks,and you know how to have
resilience around that, you willsucceed over time, yeah, and I
think once you're successful,what hurts the worst are the
people that barely knew,actually, the people that knew
you, who think that you gotlucky.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
They didn't see the hundred rejections that you had,
and it's they love you when you, when you're struggling to be
successful.
But then, once you aresuccessful, it's almost like
there's some resentful thinggoing on and it hurts, and it's
like not only do you have to beable to control all your
(19:48):
emotions and fight throughthings and work hard while
you're being an entrepreneur andbuilding up your company.
Now you've got this whole newthing you have to deal with,
that's other people, and I'msure you dealt with some of that
.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Oh yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the real
challenges is when you arebuilding up from nothing to
something and you know, becomingsuccessful, those closest to
you will not always have thebest interest at hand and, um,
it's a sad part of life, but Ithink it's a very true part of
life in that people comparethemselves against.
You know the people they know,like they're.
(20:25):
Usually you don't care if, likea celebrity or someone like
that, becomes successful becauseyou don't know them, but if you
know them and they're close toyou, you start really comparing
yourself, and we do thisourselves.
Other people do this, and itcan make other people feel bad
as you, as you are becoming moresuccessful.
Now, should it be that way?
Absolutely not.
(20:46):
But you know, when people tryto tear you down, it's it's
really, really hurtful.
But again, I think that goesback to you have to be resilient
, not only in in business, butalso in your personal
relationships.
Um, there's a lot of peoplethat I would have considered
friends 10 years ago, that Idon't even talk to anymore,
right, and so I have to be ableto cut those negative
(21:07):
relationships out of your lifeand I think you know, overall,
I'm better for it and I thinkoverall most people would be
yeah, but that's really hard.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
That's something that I don't think people are
prepared for when they when theyget to the level that you've
gotten to and obviously MarkCuban, I mean, can you imagine
the number of people that emailhim on a regular basis or reach
out to him or, you know, contacthim or cause you didn't loan me
some money, now you're theworst person on earth?
That's how lottery winners endup losing their money.
(21:36):
I think when you don't earn itthe way you earned it or the way
Mark earned it, it's uh, itgoes fast, it is fast as it
comes in, it's going to go out,and I think that's kind of why,
uh, it is the way it is.
I think that's why success ishard, because it prepares you.
That whole path that you taketo success prepares you for the
(21:57):
stuff you're going to deal withas a successful person.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It's not all sunshine and roses is way more fun than
the actual success itself, in myopinion.
Like I love the challenges, Ilove the setbacks, because it
(22:23):
just gives me the opportunity tofight them, work through
solutions, but, more importantly, tell a great story later,
right, like I told the storyabout the 100 rejections.
It would have kind of beenboring if I just said, oh yeah,
I got the book deal right awayright.
It would have kind of beenboring if I just said, oh yeah,
I got the book deal right away,right.
And so you know, I think,create your story, use those
(22:44):
setbacks, failures, rememberthem and tell a great story
later, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
And the idea that you're what I love about your
story.
You turned a problem that youhad.
I mean, most people would havesat in that library.
First of all, they wouldn'thave studied that many hours.
I'm sure they wouldn't haveshot for a perfect SAT score.
They'd have been like, hey, Ijust want to pass the SAT, I'm
trying to get into the localcollege, I'm fine, I'll take
whatever, uh.
But you sat there and youworked through that Uh, and you
(23:16):
freaking turn that into abusiness.
Like most people don't seeopportunities in the problems
that they have.
But that's where the innovationis, it's you're sitting here.
You've deal with the sameproblem over and over again.
Why doesn't the light bulb gooff in certain people's heads?
And it went off in your head.
Do you remember that momentthat you were like, wait a
(23:37):
minute, everybody probably dealswith this problem.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think for me it was
definitely after I startedgetting all those scholarship
offers, you know, like a fullride at USC, a full ride at you
know two, three otheruniversities.
I was like whoa, you know, thisone test totally is changing my
life.
I'm sure that I could helpother students change their
lives.
And you know, I just wanted towrite a book at first but of
(24:03):
course it turned into a wholething and I pivoted, and that's
how entrepreneurship goes.
But, to your point, I thinkthat the best businesses and
startups often get created fromfounders who have experienced
the problem themselves right.
So, for me, I started mybusiness.
I had this SAT prep problem,didn't have great solutions, so
(24:26):
I created a business to start up.
But if you look at Uber, forexample, I think Uber was
started by the two guys notbeing able to handle a cab in
Paris or France or somewhere,and so they were like we're just
going to make it so that allcars can be cabs, and so, you
know, there's a million storieslike this, but I think that
that's a great inspiration foranyone who's thinking about
(24:47):
starting a side hustle.
What problems have youexperienced?
What solutions do you thinkwould be good, Because if they
come out of your personalexperience, oftentimes you're
just going to be way morepassionate about it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
You're going to be way more knowledgeable about it
and you'll start a betterbusiness for it.
Yeah, and I think you know our,our whole saying on this is
turn your side hustle into yourmain hustle, which is something
that you did, and now you're ina position to help so many
people.
That's gotta be just extremelygratifying for you.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah yeah.
Our motto is, um, you know,change your score, change your
life, and you know, at thispoint, we've helped tens of
thousands of students changetheir, or over a hundred
thousand actually change theirscores and change their lives,
and what I love about businessin general, though, is you get
to do good and do well.
What do I mean by that?
(25:41):
Like business, you get to dogood in terms of like you do
well for yourself, youremployees, you make money, you
get a salary, you help theirfamilies, et cetera, but you
also do well for society,because usually, a business or a
service is going to be helpingin some way.
Right, that's the whole reasonit exists is to provide a
(26:01):
product or service that helpspeople, so there's nothing
better, in my opinion, thanentrepreneurship, because you
get to do good and do well.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I mean, think about how you've multiplied success.
Right, we look at our startup.
You know we've had five or sixpeople that worked for us early
on.
That, you know, went on tocreate their own startups.
They had some.
You know we've had five or sixpeople that worked for us early
on.
That, you know, went on tocreate their own startups.
They had some equity in ourbusiness.
They took that money.
They started their own startupin sales, software or whatever.
(26:30):
I mean there's been five or sixother exits from people that
were working for us that mightjust have gone on to work at
regular companies.
So you look at that and you'relike man, like three guys in a
Panera Bread up at University ofCincinnati's campus eventually
built something that led toother exits and investment money
(26:51):
coming in from the coast andall this other stuff.
Like your efforts that you'redoing aren't just going to like
bless your life.
They're going to affect thelives of all these people and
the difference between somebodygoing in and getting a regular
old test score and just going totheir local college to getting
into a Yale or getting into oneof these other schools that
(27:14):
completely changes their life.
So what you've built obviouslychanged your life, changed your
family's life, made your familyproud of you.
But think of all the otherproud mothers out there now that
are going to see their sons.
They never thought like, wow,he went to a crappy school, but
he took this SAT thing and itcompletely changed his life.
It's going to change theirfamily's life.
(27:35):
I mean, the multiplying effectof what you did is insane.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah, it's incredible .
I love to see how our studentsare doing years down the line
Now.
We have students who aredoctors, lawyers.
We have students working atNVIDIA.
We have students who went toPenn, harvard, stanford, all the
top schools.
We have students who got.
I had one student who got $1.4million in scholarship offers.
We had other students get halfa million, quarter million.
(28:05):
I mean, that's the life.
We all know how expensivecollege is now right.
So, yeah, I mean, it's just,it's crazy.
1.7 trillion in student debt.
Um, so that's really.
My mission now is to eithermore so than get students in top
colleges, help them reduce oreliminate their college costs
through merit-based scholarships, and we're really successful at
that.
So so, yeah, it's my passion.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I would almost imagine like uh, so if I'm a
college and I want to, you knowI'm, I'm Alabama, I'm going to
recruit from IMG Academy or I'mgoing to recruit from some of
the sports focused high schoolsaround the country.
I could almost imagine that ifsomebody takes an SAT or the ACT
or whatever takes your course,I can almost see your course
(28:47):
almost being one of those earlycredentials for that young
person on their resume.
Yes, I got a perfect score onmy SAT, but also it's because I
went to this and I took thiscourse and it's almost like a
credential.
It's like a Microsoft certifiedcredential when you're in high
school.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
see yourself as that in a way.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, I mean we've helped a lot of athletes
actually achieve their athleticscholarships as well, which has
been really cool, you know,because a lot of times they need
a minimum SAT or ACT score toqualify for their athletic
scholarship, whether that's infootball or basketball or tennis
or whatever it may be.
But the credentialing idea is areally interesting one and I
think it's something I'll haveto think a little bit more about
(29:31):
because I think that, goingback to what we were talking
about before, about these, youknow more important skills.
You know test prep.
People think I'm a hugeadvocate of tests.
I not a huge advocate, I justthink it's a necessary evil.
On standardized tests, like yougot to have a test, um, we went
to test optional for a bunch ofyears actually, many people
probably know and what ended uphappening was it actually
(29:53):
disadvantaged, low income andunderprivileged students more,
which was totally the oppositeof what everyone would have
thought.
And if you think about it, itmakes a lot of sense because if
you get rid of test scores,you're going to value
extracurricular activities more.
And who can afford the bestsummer programs?
Who can afford to startnonprofits?
Who can afford, you know,sports like water polo and golf,
(30:17):
it's going to be the wealthiestof the families and so, um, you
know, standardized testing, Iget it.
You know, some people canafford the best tutors, like
myself, um, but you can also goto the library and study, like I
did, you know, and you selfstudy and do well on your own.
So it does, you know, it's notperfect by any means, but I
(30:38):
think it's, um, you know,necessary unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, yeah.
It is one of those necessaryevils in life.
Nobody likes to do it.
Some people are just comenaturally to.
They roll out of bed, they goto school, they take a test,
never study, and somehow theyget good grades.
I don't get it but, but but youprobably know, but I think you
know the best thing about whatyou're doing too, doing too, is
it takes a specific type ofperson, it takes a specific
(31:03):
skill set to be good at takingtests, and I don't know if it's
like critical thinking abilityor there's a process.
I'm sure that you tell peopleto go through, and they just
told me.
When I took the ACT, they saidif you don't finish it in time,
just put C for everything.
That was my strategy.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I remember that used to be a strategy.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
You're right.
One out every four times.
I mean it's a 25% chance.
But but yeah, what is your?
How does this help them outsideof the SAT?
I mean you're going intocollege with a new set of skills
by studying this.
That can only benefit you incollege as well.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, the number of skillsyou need to do well on tests is
significant and that's why Ithink most students are not
naturally good standardized testtakers.
I think some people are sure,but you need study skills first.
You need to be to be able tosit down, focus for long periods
of time, study content, studypractice questions, understand
(32:08):
why you got them right and wrong.
You need to be able to applynew strategies that you learn
new content.
You need to, you know, be ableto, I would say, lower your test
anxiety is a huge one, right?
Um, just, uh, you know, getreally good with test anxiety
and uh testing, test stress, etc.
(32:30):
So we help with all of that,but it's like it's not just one
thing, it's like we have ahundred things we teach and
that's what gets you theultimate result.
Um, but that carries over, likeyou said, to your high school
classes, to your college classes, even to your work in your
career as an entrepreneur.
And that's what I love about itis because the students always
(32:50):
who finish my course are like Ididn't just learn about the SAT,
I learned about it.
I'm doing better in my highschool classes, I did better in
college, you know, I learned howto study, I learned how to be
more productive, I learnedbetter time management, and so
all of those skills it's like.
What's sad is that and you knowwe were talking about school
districts before is schoolsdon't really teach it.
And, um, you know, they justexpect students to study.
(33:13):
It's like, well, how do youstudy, how do you have time
management, you know, and it'slike, oh, figure it out on your
own.
And that's not what we're about.
A prep expert.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
So I got a friend.
He just moved from Canada andhis son is doing pretty well uh,
here in the States now at theschool he's at, and he's in one
of the better schools in thecity.
I could see him as somebody whowould be asking me hey, he's 10
years old, can he start doingthis now?
(33:43):
Like, what age?
What age would you recommend,uh, or do you have, like, is
there different tiers as part ofyour program that uh, uh, you
know they could start engagingwith your content?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Um, at prep expert, as Imentioned, we offer online SAT
and ACT courses.
Most you know collegecounselors will tell you not to
start your test preparationuntil 11th grade year.
But I actually think that's alittle bit too late, and the
reason for that is because inthe fall of 11th grade is when
(34:12):
your student's going to take thepreliminary SAT, so your PSAT,
which can help you qualify forbig national merit scholarship
money if you score well on it.
So I usually recommend gettingstarted in the ninth grade or
the 10th grade so that yourstudent has time to prepare, get
all the strategies down andhopefully do well on that PSAT
(34:32):
in the fall of 11th grade.
And so, yeah, I would usuallyrecommend ninth or 10th grade is
a great starting point forparents and students.
Now I don't want the parentswho have 11th graders and 12th
graders to freak out.
It's not too late.
You can still do well on theseexams.
You just you might've missedthe PSAT, but there are plenty
of other scholarships outside ofnational merit you can qualify
(34:53):
for with your SAT or ACT scores.
So you guys can head over toprep expertcom and see all the
online course schedules andcollege consulting we have there
.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
So prep expertcom tell us about the book again.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, oh yeah.
So I just released a brand newbook called prep expert digital
SAT playbook winning strategiesto achieve your dream score, and
that book can be found on prepexpertcom or on Amazon.
Basically, it offers tons ofelite strategies to help you ace
the new version of the SAT thatjust came out this year, in
(35:27):
2024, which is a digital version.
So it's no longer a paper andpencil test, it's digital.
You still got to go into atesting center.
Everyone's like can I take itat home now?
No, you can't have chat, gptopen answering all your
questions, uh, but there's brandnew format, brand new question
types, brand new content.
So you really need to use thenewest material available.
(35:50):
So, uh, my book's a greatoption.
If you're not ready for acourse, um, if you're ready for
the course, you know we have thebest instructors in the
industry.
We have a 200 point scoreimprovement guarantee.
You learn a lot more strategiesand techniques, obviously in
the course, and you knowsummer's a very busy time for
(36:12):
students to do their test prep.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
So might be perfect timing for this summer coming up
.
I love it.
Well, guys, get over there andcheck it out.
We'll put all these links inthe in the description of the
video and on the podcast.
If you're listening on whereveryou listen to podcasts, you're
going to see that man.
This has been great.
Sean, you are the first personwho has won at Shark Tank that
(36:35):
I've had on the show.
We've had a couple of peoplehere in Cincinnati restaurant.
One of them owns a restaurantthat actually got some
investment from some sharks.
But this has been a pleasureand I love what you're doing.
I love that you're helping thekids.
You know the kids are ourfuture.
If we're going to keep growingthis economy, we need you know
we need kids that can understandthis stuff and that can go on
(36:56):
and be a success in school andthen hopefully, you know become
entrepreneurs like you someday.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, absolutely no, I totally agree with you and
thanks for having me on.
This has been a lot of fun andlooking forward to hopefully
being on again in the futuresometime and hopefully a lot of
the parents listening head overto prep expertcom, I hope.
I hope to help their familiesand their children succeed
Unbelievable.
We'll say hi to.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Mark for me?
Yeah, of course.
Tell him the Steelers suck.
He's from Pittsburgh.
Don't tell him that He'll hateme forever, all right, well,
thanks so much.
Thank you, thanks for joiningus on this week's episode of
Side Hustle City.
Well, you've heard from ourguests.
Now let's hear from you.
Join our community on Facebook,side Hustle City.
(37:41):
It's a group where people shareideas, share their
inspirational stories andmotivate each other to be
successful and turn their sidehustle into their main hustle.
We'll see you there and we'llsee you next week on the show.
Thank you.
Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for
joining us.
Our goal is to help you connectto real people who found
success turning their sidehustle into a main hustle, and
we hope you can too.
I'm Adam Kaler.
I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, myco-host.
Let's get started, all right?
(00:24):
Welcome back everybody to theSide Hustle City podcast.
Today, our special guest isSean Patel, and I'm reading
through your bio, sean, and theforward is by Mark Cuban here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, he's my investor, business partner and
mentor.
It's been great working withMark Cuban, and he wrote the
forward for my new book, whichI'm excited to talk about today
too.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I love it.
Well, and you were.
Were you a winner on Shark Tank?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, so made a deal with Mark Cuban on Shark Tank.
For my business it's calledPrep Expert.
It's a test preparation company, so we do online SAT courses,
act courses, college admissionsconsulting so if there's any
parents with high schoolstudents out there, you can
check us out at prep expertcom.
(01:10):
But yeah, so we made a went onShark Tank in 2016, closed an
investment deal with Mark Cubanfor $250,000 for 20% equity and
the deal went through after theshow and it's opened up a lot of
opportunities both being onShark Tank and working with Mark
Cuban over the years.
(01:31):
And what's interesting is thebusiness originally started off
as a side hustle, went all theway through Shark Tank and now
has generated over $50 millionin revenue.
So excited to talk about allthat today.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, Not a great deal, Like knowing what I know
about startups and going throughthe whole process myself to
exit.
That was a great deal for Mark.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh, amazing.
Yeah, he's made many times hismoney back.
But you know people were likewell, you know why did you give
up 20% equity in your business?
And my thought process on it is80% of a business with Mark
Cuban is more valuable than 100%of a business by myself, and
that has been totally true.
(02:14):
Over the years We've opened upso many business partnerships,
licensing deals.
He has helped us do marketingand get it out to thousands and
you know we've helped over100,000 people at this point.
So you know it's been really,really an incredible partnership
.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, of course I mean you know just the swag of
you know being able to say heylook, mark Cuban's one of my
investors.
I mean that just that raisespeople's ears and they're oh
well, mark, invested.
Why wouldn't I invest?
Like raises people's ears andthey're oh well, mark, Mark
invested.
Why wouldn't I invest, likeMark knows what he's doing
better than I do, you know?
So it just brings a certainlevel of credibility to your
company.
So, uh, you know it was.
(02:53):
You know, just going throughyour bio here and, and you know,
understanding what I know aboutyour, your background, it
sounds like you you didn't comefrom the greatest of uh, of
backgrounds.
We were, you know, before theshow, sitting here chatting
about you know Las Vegas publicschools versus Cincinnati public
schools and how they're bothpretty terrible.
Tell us your experience inschool.
I know that a lot of ourlisteners are not.
(03:13):
You know, don't come fromaffluent backgrounds.
They're probably working nineto five jobs they'd love to get
out of and you know they'd bethrilled to start a $50 million
company.
And one of my favorite thingsis you know what guys a lot of
the people that do this don'tcome from wealthy families.
They don't come from awesomebackgrounds.
They didn't go to the greatestschools growing up.
Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah for sure.
So a little bit of backgroundon myself.
I grew up in my parents' budgetmotel in Las Vegas, nevada, so
I went to urban public schoolsthat I was zoned for and, uh,
you know we were talking.
Vegas is not exactly known forit's excellent education system.
So when I was in school therewe had a 37% high school dropout
(03:57):
rate.
Um, so it was close to 40% ofall the kids wouldn't graduate.
Um, now I think it's down tolike 23%, so it's improving a
little bit.
But you know, I have a lot ofgratitude for my parents who
took education very seriously,and so that made me take
education very seriously.
(04:18):
So I got straight A's.
I was a good student but youknow, probably like many of the
people listening to the podcast,or maybe your kids, I was not a
very good standardized testtaker, so I only scored average
on my first SAT.
I had a lot of test anxiety.
My parents didn't go to collegein the United States and so, um
, you know that's when Ibasically spent hundreds of
(04:39):
hours in the libraryself-studying for the test,
eventually was able to raise myscore 640 points to get a
perfect SAT score.
Um, yeah, so you know something.
Yeah, totally life-changingbecause it opened up the doors
to some top universities, got ahalf a million dollars in
college scholarships, so Ididn't have to pay a dime for
(05:00):
college tuition, housing, books,food, anything.
So it was pretty awesome.
And that's actually the originstory of my business, because
when I got to college, I wantedto help other students improve
their test scores to improvetheir own lives, and I thought I
had developed a lot ofstrategies, techniques and ways
(05:20):
to ace this exam that I hadn'tseen in other books, and so I
wanted to just write a book atfirst.
However, what ended uphappening is you know, this was
12, 13 years ago andself-publishing wasn't huge yet.
So I was trying to get a majorpublisher.
So I pitched a hundred literaryagents and publishers.
Every single one rejected thebook proposal.
(05:42):
They said you know, it's toocompetitive of a market, you
don't have a platform to writesuch a book, et cetera, et
cetera, and so I could havethrown in the towel and, you
know, gave up, but instead Istarted my side hustle, which
was started teaching SAT courses, and in the very first course
that I ever taught, my studentshad an average score improvement
of 376 points.
(06:02):
That's equivalent of taking astudent from the 50th percentile
, putting them in the 90thpercentile literally in six
weeks, and so it was prettyincredible.
And you know, of course I hadparents and students who wanted
more courses.
I began training otherinstructors to teach my
curriculum, and the rest ishistory.
Over the past 12 years, we'vehelped over 100,000 students at
(06:23):
PrepExpert improve their SAT andACT scores, get into top
universities but, mostimportantly, win over $100
million in college scholarshipsto lower their costs or even
eliminate their cost of college.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Wow, that is amazing.
Yeah, not everybody can be youand just get a perfect test
score and then go off to USC.
And uh and Yale, was this yourparents idea?
By the way, you are also adoctor.
And uh, was this your parentsidea to get, for you to be a
doctor, or did you come acrossthis yourself, cause now you're
an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, yeah.
So you know, um, originally,definitely, I think I was
encouraged by my parents um tobecome a doctor, as many people
probably are doctors, lawyers,you know the traditional careers
.
But my dad was always anentrepreneur himself.
As I mentioned, he owned amotel, he's a pharmacist, he
owned a gas station, and so Ikind of grew up around that
(07:18):
entrepreneurial spirit of youknow.
He kind of had a side hustlehimself.
His gas station and motel werekind of the side hustle for him,
for his farms.
Uh, daytime, day job was being apharmacist and so, um, I grew
up around that and so for me, Ithink it was almost in my blood
to be an entrepreneur and, uh, Istumbled on, stumbled onto it,
(07:41):
really had a rejection, as Imentioned.
Um, you know, I got I would ifI had just gotten the I
mentioned.
Um, yeah, I got I would if Ijust got in the book deal.
At first I probably would havejust been like, uh, you know I'm
not going to start any courses.
Um, what ended up was funnystory is mcgraw hill, the
world's largest educationpublisher, who originally
rejected my book proposal afterthey saw what I was building
with the courses at prep expertand saw my success, they ended
(08:05):
up coming back and saying we'llgive you a book deal after all.
So we ended up publishing thebook.
My first SAT prep book sold over50,000 copies, went number one
on Amazon for SAT prep and Ijust came out with a new one, as
you mentioned, calledPrepExpert Digital SAT Playbook.
That one's self-published andit's already hit number one for
(08:26):
SAT prep and the new releasecategory.
We're hoping, as the word getsout, we'll hit number one across
all categories for SAT onAmazon and that's the one that
Mark Cuban wrote the forewordfor.
But I'm excited to haveself-published it.
You keep a lot more of theroyalties when you're
self-published yeah, when you'reself-publishing.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, when you do it yourself.
Well, you've also built up apersona for yourself, and I talk
about this on the show a lotand how important a personal
brand is and building up thatpersonal brand.
How much did being on SharkTank elevate that personal brand
for you and were you able toleverage it afterwards?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Oh, a hundred percent .
Yeah, I love that you give thatadvice to entrepreneurs because
it's really, really important.
I think that personal brandsare going to be more important
over the next 10 years than everbefore, and the reason for that
is because you know there'sincreasing competition in all
industries because there's AIcoming there's, you know, so
(09:22):
much easier, it's so much lowercost to start businesses, so
you're going to have a lot morecompetition.
So the only way to stand outfrom competition is to
differentiate yourself, and whatbetter differentiator is?
Somewhat like yourself.
You know you are adifferentiator as a personal
brand and so for me, appearingon Shark Tank was a huge help.
We're the only test prepcompany to have ever appeared on
(09:44):
Shark Tank, obviously the onlyone that has investment from
Mark Cuban.
So those are huge, hugepersonal brand differentiators
for us.
On top of that, I continue tomake content from a personal
brand perspective to show myauthority and expertise in the
space, which really helpsdifferentiate us in a
(10:06):
hyper-competitive industry oftest preparation.
So personal branding a hundredpercent.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, and I think you're also in an industry that
people, uh, can relate to.
Everybody's, you know gonethrough school.
Everybody, you know, feared theSAT and the ACT growing up.
Is there anything that you cansee your company doing going
down the future outside of SATand ACT, that could help these
(10:34):
parents of these kids betterengage with these young people,
get them more interested inschool?
Do you ever see yourself kindof going down that path?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I think that's the natural transition for me
because, like you mentioned,with my personal brand, one of
the things that I really push isnot just being good with test
preparation, but being good atproductivity, time management,
delayed gratification, all theseskills around success, and I
actually put it into my SAT bookand people are like oh, I
learned a lot more than just SAT.
I learned how to study and howto be productive and all these
(11:14):
things, and so I think that'sthe natural.
Next progression is to branchout and help students take not
only academics more seriouslybut life more seriously, Because
, because I love to help kidsbecome entrepreneurs and, you
know, all these skills translateover.
To be an entrepreneur You'vegot to have self-control, you've
got to delay gratification, yougot to work hard, Um, you know,
(11:34):
and so I love teaching thoseskills and uh and teaching young
people.
So I think that you're youhundred percent hit it on the
right spot.
That you know, and especiallyfor those people that are
starting side hustles, you gotto have all those key skills as
well.
I know I certainly had themwhen I was starting the business
while in school.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, yeah, and and some of that stuff.
I think there's something in us, like you had mentioned being a
natural entrepreneur, justfeeling like you.
You had it and and, but beingable to have that.
Your dad is an example and notwanting to disappoint him either
, you know I but I think there'ssomething natural in people
Like, even if you didn't havethat, I feel like you, sean,
(12:13):
would have still been asuccessful person.
How much do you put into thingslike personality types when it
comes to success?
Uh, being in the educationspace and everything.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Yeah, super important .
You know everyone learnsdifferently, everyone works
differently.
What I will say is things thatare not natural can be learned,
though.
You know, I think some peopleare gifted with it for sure.
But you know, a lot of times,in order to have success in life
, whether it's with a test likethe SAT or it's a business as a
(12:47):
side hustle, you just have to dothe hard work.
And you know that's not no onelikes to hear that.
Everyone would rather scrollTikTok or watch YouTube, and,
you know, do the things that areeasy.
But, um, you know, craftingthose skills early on are super
important.
So for me, you know, sitting inthe library studying for the
(13:07):
SAT, I learned a lot ofself-control.
I learned a lot about hard work, and that translated over to my
business.
Now I can, you know, first hourof the day I'm working on the
hardest task in my business,trying to be as productive as
possible, just like I was whenthe first hour of the day for
SAT studying when I was in highschool, and so you got to learn
it some way.
I'm not saying, you know, testprep is the only way A lot of
(13:27):
people learn in the school ofhard knocks, right, like, just,
you know, working in in either acareer or on your business, et
cetera, business, et cetera.
But the earlier you learn thoseskills, you know the success
compounds over time, right, andso the earlier you learn those
skills, the more likely you willbe successful, um, at an
earlier age, because it's justgoing to take time at the end of
(13:48):
the day.
Yeah that's.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That is a really good point.
And you know, when you comefrom not a lot, come from not a
lot, I think you don't reallyhave room to fail, right, like a
failure sets you back a lotmore because you have less
people around you that can helpyou, I think.
And one big problem I seenowadays, though, with the kids
(14:10):
is this almost like resentfulattitude towards success, and I
think it's because they don'tfeel like they can attain that.
Or possibly there's so muchpressure on social media and you
see, these guys, these fakeinfluencers and people that are
like 20 that said, oh, I built a$8 million ad agency in six
months using my techniques andthey're selling a course.
(14:32):
Right, if they really did that,they wouldn't be selling
courses, they'd be buildingtheir agency, right, but people
don't get that right and theysee all the success and they
feel like they have to competewith that and there's no way I
can.
I can do that, but successstarts one step at a time.
Right, like you said, itcompounds, like if you're gonna,
you're gonna climb mounteverest.
You got to put one front footin front of the other, right?
Do you see, in your over adecade of doing this.
(14:57):
Have you seen a change in thestudents and have you been able
to evolve your curriculum withthat?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
I have seen a change in thestudents and a lot of it.
It's not something I'm a hugefan about, like what you said,
which is, you know, there's alot of comparison making and
it's not their fault.
I mean, we're taken over bysocial media.
There's a lot less of, there'sa lot shorter attention spans,
(15:26):
so we've had to make ourcurriculum, you know, quicker,
faster to digest, et cetera.
You know, definitely had tomake adjustments.
But I want to go back to thepoint that you stated, which is,
you know, these social mediagurus.
It really kind of burns my soulto see some of these people that
are actually successful,whether it's multimillionaires,
(15:58):
billionaires, like my businesspartner, mark Cuban.
It literally is the executionand the action you take day in
and day out.
You cannot control the outcomes, but you can control your
actions and your efforts and ifyou take that one step at a time
, you will see success.
I was talking to a youngentrepreneur who had a test prep
(16:20):
company and they're like youknow, I'm doing a couple hundred
thousand in sales this year andlast year I was doing a hundred
thousand.
But why isn't it going faster?
And I said you're growing yourbusiness, you're doubling your
business year over year, youknow like that's great, but
people want to go even fasterand faster, because it's what
they're seeing in comparisons.
And so you know you really haveto be grateful for the progress
(16:44):
that you make.
And you know, take thoseactions one step at a time, like
you said.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh yeah, I think self-awareness is a big thing.
I mean you mentioned delayedgratification.
I tell the kids, when I go talkto these kids at high schools
and stuff, I say you know, Iusually talk to kids in
underprivileged schools and Isay being poor is an advantage.
Like I don't think youunderstand that because you
don't have stuff.
Right, you see all these otherpeople with stuff and you don't
(17:08):
have stuff.
You're used to not having stuff.
You're used to being broke.
Like going back to that doesn'tscare you as much as it does
someone who grew up in a muchbetter environment or better
situation than you.
You're more resilient, is what?
And that self-reflection.
These are things that I'velooked back at since I've kind
(17:29):
of moved up, you know, over timeand I look back and I'm like
actually, you know, being poorwas a benefit because I'm
running this fast and thesepeople are just starting here
and I'm going past them whenthey're just starting out in
life, because I learned a bunchof stuff from the school of hard
(17:50):
knocks.
And did you, do you feel that?
Do you, did you experience?
Some of that Is there?
Is there something in you whereit's like I'm not afraid of, of
failure?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Yeah, I think that that's a really important point.
I definitely have seen that inmy own life where a lot of times
, when my back is against thewall, I'll come up with some of
the best solutions and work thehardest and get the best results
.
But when your back's notagainst the wall and you're
living this kind of cushy lifeand you know that's when things
(18:22):
go wrong or you don't try ashard, you don't put in as much
effort and you can fall behind.
And so I think it's really,really important what you said
about failure and resilience.
I you know I've alreadymentioned the hundred rejections
I got with the book proposal,but I failed and failed and
failed so many times.
But the few times I succeededis what everyone sees and what
(18:46):
everyone talks about, and soit's really important that you
learn how to become okay withfailure and that you become
really good with resilience.
I'd say the best entrepreneursare the most resilient ones,
because you're going to fail,things are not going to work
like you plan, things are notgoing to go as fast as you plan,
(19:06):
but as long as you are okaywith that and you're okay with
some failures, some setbacks,and you know how to have
resilience around that, you willsucceed over time, yeah, and I
think once you're successful,what hurts the worst are the
people that barely knew,actually, the people that knew
you, who think that you gotlucky.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
They didn't see the hundred rejections that you had,
and it's they love you when you, when you're struggling to be
successful.
But then, once you aresuccessful, it's almost like
there's some resentful thinggoing on and it hurts, and it's
like not only do you have to beable to control all your
(19:48):
emotions and fight throughthings and work hard while
you're being an entrepreneur andbuilding up your company.
Now you've got this whole newthing you have to deal with,
that's other people, and I'msure you dealt with some of that
.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Oh yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the real
challenges is when you arebuilding up from nothing to
something and you know, becomingsuccessful, those closest to
you will not always have thebest interest at hand and, um,
it's a sad part of life, but Ithink it's a very true part of
life in that people comparethemselves against.
You know the people they know,like they're.
(20:25):
Usually you don't care if, likea celebrity or someone like
that, becomes successful becauseyou don't know them, but if you
know them and they're close toyou, you start really comparing
yourself, and we do thisourselves.
Other people do this, and itcan make other people feel bad
as you, as you are becoming moresuccessful.
Now, should it be that way?
Absolutely not.
(20:46):
But you know, when people tryto tear you down, it's it's
really, really hurtful.
But again, I think that goesback to you have to be resilient
, not only in in business, butalso in your personal
relationships.
Um, there's a lot of peoplethat I would have considered
friends 10 years ago, that Idon't even talk to anymore,
right, and so I have to be ableto cut those negative
(21:07):
relationships out of your lifeand I think you know, overall,
I'm better for it and I thinkoverall most people would be
yeah, but that's really hard.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
That's something that I don't think people are
prepared for when they when theyget to the level that you've
gotten to and obviously MarkCuban, I mean, can you imagine
the number of people that emailhim on a regular basis or reach
out to him or, you know, contacthim or cause you didn't loan me
some money, now you're theworst person on earth?
That's how lottery winners endup losing their money.
(21:36):
I think when you don't earn itthe way you earned it or the way
Mark earned it, it's uh, itgoes fast, it is fast as it
comes in, it's going to go out,and I think that's kind of why,
uh, it is the way it is.
I think that's why success ishard, because it prepares you.
That whole path that you taketo success prepares you for the
(21:57):
stuff you're going to deal withas a successful person.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It's not all sunshine and roses is way more fun than
the actual success itself, in myopinion.
Like I love the challenges, Ilove the setbacks, because it
(22:23):
just gives me the opportunity tofight them, work through
solutions, but, more importantly, tell a great story later,
right, like I told the storyabout the 100 rejections.
It would have kind of beenboring if I just said, oh yeah,
I got the book deal right awayright.
It would have kind of beenboring if I just said, oh yeah,
I got the book deal right away,right.
And so you know, I think,create your story, use those
(22:44):
setbacks, failures, rememberthem and tell a great story
later, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
And the idea that you're what I love about your
story.
You turned a problem that youhad.
I mean, most people would havesat in that library.
First of all, they wouldn'thave studied that many hours.
I'm sure they wouldn't haveshot for a perfect SAT score.
They'd have been like, hey, Ijust want to pass the SAT, I'm
trying to get into the localcollege, I'm fine, I'll take
whatever, uh.
But you sat there and youworked through that Uh, and you
(23:16):
freaking turn that into abusiness.
Like most people don't seeopportunities in the problems
that they have.
But that's where the innovationis, it's you're sitting here.
You've deal with the sameproblem over and over again.
Why doesn't the light bulb gooff in certain people's heads?
And it went off in your head.
Do you remember that momentthat you were like, wait a
(23:37):
minute, everybody probably dealswith this problem.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think for me it was
definitely after I startedgetting all those scholarship
offers, you know, like a fullride at USC, a full ride at you
know two, three otheruniversities.
I was like whoa, you know, thisone test totally is changing my
life.
I'm sure that I could helpother students change their
lives.
And you know, I just wanted towrite a book at first but of
(24:03):
course it turned into a wholething and I pivoted, and that's
how entrepreneurship goes.
But, to your point, I thinkthat the best businesses and
startups often get created fromfounders who have experienced
the problem themselves right.
So, for me, I started mybusiness.
I had this SAT prep problem,didn't have great solutions, so
(24:26):
I created a business to start up.
But if you look at Uber, forexample, I think Uber was
started by the two guys notbeing able to handle a cab in
Paris or France or somewhere,and so they were like we're just
going to make it so that allcars can be cabs, and so, you
know, there's a million storieslike this, but I think that
that's a great inspiration foranyone who's thinking about
(24:47):
starting a side hustle.
What problems have youexperienced?
What solutions do you thinkwould be good, Because if they
come out of your personalexperience, oftentimes you're
just going to be way morepassionate about it.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
You're going to be way more knowledgeable about it
and you'll start a betterbusiness for it.
Yeah, and I think you know our,our whole saying on this is
turn your side hustle into yourmain hustle, which is something
that you did, and now you're ina position to help so many
people.
That's gotta be just extremelygratifying for you.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah yeah.
Our motto is, um, you know,change your score, change your
life, and you know, at thispoint, we've helped tens of
thousands of students changetheir, or over a hundred
thousand actually change theirscores and change their lives,
and what I love about businessin general, though, is you get
to do good and do well.
What do I mean by that?
(25:41):
Like business, you get to dogood in terms of like you do
well for yourself, youremployees, you make money, you
get a salary, you help theirfamilies, et cetera, but you
also do well for society,because usually, a business or a
service is going to be helpingin some way.
Right, that's the whole reasonit exists is to provide a
(26:01):
product or service that helpspeople, so there's nothing
better, in my opinion, thanentrepreneurship, because you
get to do good and do well.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I mean, think about how you've multiplied success.
Right, we look at our startup.
You know we've had five or sixpeople that worked for us early
on.
That, you know, went on tocreate their own startups.
They had some.
You know we've had five or sixpeople that worked for us early
on.
That, you know, went on tocreate their own startups.
They had some equity in ourbusiness.
They took that money.
They started their own startupin sales, software or whatever.
(26:30):
I mean there's been five or sixother exits from people that
were working for us that mightjust have gone on to work at
regular companies.
So you look at that and you'relike man, like three guys in a
Panera Bread up at University ofCincinnati's campus eventually
built something that led toother exits and investment money
(26:51):
coming in from the coast andall this other stuff.
Like your efforts that you'redoing aren't just going to like
bless your life.
They're going to affect thelives of all these people and
the difference between somebodygoing in and getting a regular
old test score and just going totheir local college to getting
into a Yale or getting into oneof these other schools that
(27:14):
completely changes their life.
So what you've built obviouslychanged your life, changed your
family's life, made your familyproud of you.
But think of all the otherproud mothers out there now that
are going to see their sons.
They never thought like, wow,he went to a crappy school, but
he took this SAT thing and itcompletely changed his life.
It's going to change theirfamily's life.
(27:35):
I mean, the multiplying effectof what you did is insane.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah, it's incredible .
I love to see how our studentsare doing years down the line
Now.
We have students who aredoctors, lawyers.
We have students working atNVIDIA.
We have students who went toPenn, harvard, stanford, all the
top schools.
We have students who got.
I had one student who got $1.4million in scholarship offers.
We had other students get halfa million, quarter million.
(28:05):
I mean, that's the life.
We all know how expensivecollege is now right.
So, yeah, I mean, it's just,it's crazy.
1.7 trillion in student debt.
Um, so that's really.
My mission now is to eithermore so than get students in top
colleges, help them reduce oreliminate their college costs
through merit-based scholarships, and we're really successful at
that.
So so, yeah, it's my passion.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I would almost imagine like uh, so if I'm a
college and I want to, you knowI'm, I'm Alabama, I'm going to
recruit from IMG Academy or I'mgoing to recruit from some of
the sports focused high schoolsaround the country.
I could almost imagine that ifsomebody takes an SAT or the ACT
or whatever takes your course,I can almost see your course
(28:47):
almost being one of those earlycredentials for that young
person on their resume.
Yes, I got a perfect score onmy SAT, but also it's because I
went to this and I took thiscourse and it's almost like a
credential.
It's like a Microsoft certifiedcredential when you're in high
school.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Do you?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
see yourself as that in a way.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, I mean we've helped a lot of athletes
actually achieve their athleticscholarships as well, which has
been really cool, you know,because a lot of times they need
a minimum SAT or ACT score toqualify for their athletic
scholarship, whether that's infootball or basketball or tennis
or whatever it may be.
But the credentialing idea is areally interesting one and I
think it's something I'll haveto think a little bit more about
(29:31):
because I think that, goingback to what we were talking
about before, about these, youknow more important skills.
You know test prep.
People think I'm a hugeadvocate of tests.
I not a huge advocate, I justthink it's a necessary evil.
On standardized tests, like yougot to have a test, um, we went
to test optional for a bunch ofyears actually, many people
probably know and what ended uphappening was it actually
(29:53):
disadvantaged, low income andunderprivileged students more,
which was totally the oppositeof what everyone would have
thought.
And if you think about it, itmakes a lot of sense because if
you get rid of test scores,you're going to value
extracurricular activities more.
And who can afford the bestsummer programs?
Who can afford to startnonprofits?
Who can afford, you know,sports like water polo and golf,
(30:17):
it's going to be the wealthiestof the families and so, um, you
know, standardized testing, Iget it.
You know, some people canafford the best tutors, like
myself, um, but you can also goto the library and study, like I
did, you know, and you selfstudy and do well on your own.
So it does, you know, it's notperfect by any means, but I
(30:38):
think it's, um, you know,necessary unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah, yeah.
It is one of those necessaryevils in life.
Nobody likes to do it.
Some people are just comenaturally to.
They roll out of bed, they goto school, they take a test,
never study, and somehow theyget good grades.
I don't get it but, but but youprobably know, but I think you
know the best thing about whatyou're doing too, doing too, is
it takes a specific type ofperson, it takes a specific
(31:03):
skill set to be good at takingtests, and I don't know if it's
like critical thinking abilityor there's a process.
I'm sure that you tell peopleto go through, and they just
told me.
When I took the ACT, they saidif you don't finish it in time,
just put C for everything.
That was my strategy.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I remember that used to be a strategy.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
You're right.
One out every four times.
I mean it's a 25% chance.
But but yeah, what is your?
How does this help them outsideof the SAT?
I mean you're going intocollege with a new set of skills
by studying this.
That can only benefit you incollege as well.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, the number of skillsyou need to do well on tests is
significant and that's why Ithink most students are not
naturally good standardized testtakers.
I think some people are sure,but you need study skills first.
You need to be to be able tosit down, focus for long periods
of time, study content, studypractice questions, understand
(32:08):
why you got them right and wrong.
You need to be able to applynew strategies that you learn
new content.
You need to, you know, be ableto, I would say, lower your test
anxiety is a huge one, right?
Um, just, uh, you know, getreally good with test anxiety
and uh testing, test stress, etc.
(32:30):
So we help with all of that,but it's like it's not just one
thing, it's like we have ahundred things we teach and
that's what gets you theultimate result.
Um, but that carries over, likeyou said, to your high school
classes, to your college classes, even to your work in your
career as an entrepreneur.
And that's what I love about itis because the students always
(32:50):
who finish my course are like Ididn't just learn about the SAT,
I learned about it.
I'm doing better in my highschool classes, I did better in
college, you know, I learned howto study, I learned how to be
more productive, I learnedbetter time management, and so
all of those skills it's like.
What's sad is that and you knowwe were talking about school
districts before is schoolsdon't really teach it.
And, um, you know, they justexpect students to study.
(33:13):
It's like, well, how do youstudy, how do you have time
management, you know, and it'slike, oh, figure it out on your
own.
And that's not what we're about.
A prep expert.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
So I got a friend.
He just moved from Canada andhis son is doing pretty well uh,
here in the States now at theschool he's at, and he's in one
of the better schools in thecity.
I could see him as somebody whowould be asking me hey, he's 10
years old, can he start doingthis now?
(33:43):
Like, what age?
What age would you recommend,uh, or do you have, like, is
there different tiers as part ofyour program that uh, uh, you
know they could start engagingwith your content?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Um, at prep expert, as Imentioned, we offer online SAT
and ACT courses.
Most you know collegecounselors will tell you not to
start your test preparationuntil 11th grade year.
But I actually think that's alittle bit too late, and the
reason for that is because inthe fall of 11th grade is when
(34:12):
your student's going to take thepreliminary SAT, so your PSAT,
which can help you qualify forbig national merit scholarship
money if you score well on it.
So I usually recommend gettingstarted in the ninth grade or
the 10th grade so that yourstudent has time to prepare, get
all the strategies down andhopefully do well on that PSAT
(34:32):
in the fall of 11th grade.
And so, yeah, I would usuallyrecommend ninth or 10th grade is
a great starting point forparents and students.
Now I don't want the parentswho have 11th graders and 12th
graders to freak out.
It's not too late.
You can still do well on theseexams.
You just you might've missedthe PSAT, but there are plenty
of other scholarships outside ofnational merit you can qualify
(34:53):
for with your SAT or ACT scores.
So you guys can head over toprep expertcom and see all the
online course schedules andcollege consulting we have there
.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
So prep expertcom tell us about the book again.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, oh yeah.
So I just released a brand newbook called prep expert digital
SAT playbook winning strategiesto achieve your dream score, and
that book can be found on prepexpertcom or on Amazon.
Basically, it offers tons ofelite strategies to help you ace
the new version of the SAT thatjust came out this year, in
(35:27):
2024, which is a digital version.
So it's no longer a paper andpencil test, it's digital.
You still got to go into atesting center.
Everyone's like can I take itat home now?
No, you can't have chat, gptopen answering all your
questions, uh, but there's brandnew format, brand new question
types, brand new content.
So you really need to use thenewest material available.
(35:50):
So, uh, my book's a greatoption.
If you're not ready for acourse, um, if you're ready for
the course, you know we have thebest instructors in the
industry.
We have a 200 point scoreimprovement guarantee.
You learn a lot more strategiesand techniques, obviously in
the course, and you knowsummer's a very busy time for
(36:12):
students to do their test prep.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
So might be perfect timing for this summer coming up
.
I love it.
Well, guys, get over there andcheck it out.
We'll put all these links inthe in the description of the
video and on the podcast.
If you're listening on whereveryou listen to podcasts, you're
going to see that man.
This has been great.
Sean, you are the first personwho has won at Shark Tank that
(36:35):
I've had on the show.
We've had a couple of peoplehere in Cincinnati restaurant.
One of them owns a restaurantthat actually got some
investment from some sharks.
But this has been a pleasureand I love what you're doing.
I love that you're helping thekids.
You know the kids are ourfuture.
If we're going to keep growingthis economy, we need you know
we need kids that can understandthis stuff and that can go on
(36:56):
and be a success in school andthen hopefully, you know become
entrepreneurs like you someday.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, absolutely no, I totally agree with you and
thanks for having me on.
This has been a lot of fun andlooking forward to hopefully
being on again in the futuresometime and hopefully a lot of
the parents listening head overto prep expertcom, I hope.
I hope to help their familiesand their children succeed
Unbelievable.
We'll say hi to.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Mark for me?
Yeah, of course.
Tell him the Steelers suck.
He's from Pittsburgh.
Don't tell him that He'll hateme forever, all right, well,
thanks so much.
Thank you, thanks for joiningus on this week's episode of
Side Hustle City.
Well, you've heard from ourguests.
Now let's hear from you.
Join our community on Facebook,side Hustle City.
(37:41):
It's a group where people shareideas, share their
inspirational stories andmotivate each other to be
successful and turn their sidehustle into their main hustle.
We'll see you there and we'llsee you next week on the show.
Thank you.
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