What is your entrepreneur story? How did you come about building your business?
So I started as a private baseball instructor and coach for 5 Star National (top 3 travel ball organization in the country) from 2013–2017. I was placed in charge of the social media marketing for this company and I was fortunate enough to generate some massive results for them so I figured why couldn’t I do this for myself? In March 2017 I started focusing on my own personal brand and growing it. Flash forward 6 months later and I was growing at a 10k follower/M rate and getting a lot of attention from others looking for help. The next phase was realizing I had worked and helped over 100 other people over the next 3 months — it was booming. At this point, I decided to start a business. It kind of fell into my lap. I tell people all the time I speak to as a mentor — you don’t always have to have an A to Z strategy in place before you start taking action towards your end goal. Just starting DOING! The rest will fall into place.
What is your business model — how were you able to grow so fast?
My business model was simple. Go find big-time marketing companies with proven track records and loads of clients who weren’t yet offering social media marketing services. Show them enough value and get them to the white label. I traveled all over the country in my free time connecting with marketing company decision-makers. Once they saw what I could do — the rest was history. The white-labeled under their own names added us to their pitch decks and had their own sales team already in place to sell our services. All we had to do was focus on the fulfillment aspect. Of course, we still sold our own clients at better margins, but fast growth can 100% be associated with our partner firms. We now currently have 9 partner agencies from all around the world including Australia and Bulgaria. We are in negotiations now with our potential 10th and 11th partner firms.
Can you give me an overview of who you are, what is your educational or overall background? What are some of your achievements?
I am 28 years old. 7 figure earner. I was my high school Salutatorian (Lanier County HS — Lakeland, Ga — a really small town of just 3300 people — only 92 students in my graduating class) in 2008. Played college baseball — that was my entire life before this move into entrepreneurship. I graduated Summa Cum Laude (3.95 or higher GPA) with a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Carson Newman University in 2012. Found out quickly a desk job was not for me! While in college, I was a member of Alpha Chi National Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society.
What have you learned through your experiences as an entrepreneur that can be used by aspiring business individuals?
Everyone has the same opportunities in life to be successful. We all come from different backgrounds and from all aspects of life — the ones who succeed will be the ones who don’t let themselves become a product of their environment and they figure out a way to stay relentless chasing their dreams. Like most things in life, there is also a formula for success. For example, if someone wants to lose 20 lbs — there are studies that show if you eat fewer carbs and exercise more, you can drop the weight within this particular formula. The same goes for success. They are certain ‘habits’ and best practices one can do each and every day to best position themselves for success. Study the people who are already killing it within your industry and learn from them. Get yourself a mentor. We all need a mentor and someone to hold us accountable.
What makes your business so unique and successful?
Honestly, I think it is our team. Our team truly cares about our clients. The best compliment I consistently receive is the fact I, as the Founder/CEO, still take the time to text my clients back personally if they have a question or issue. This can be challenging with 600+ clients but nothing in life worth having comes easy. Our team truly goes above and beyond for our clients to provide extreme customer satisfaction.
What have you learned through your journey as an entrepreneur?
That time and financial freedom isn’t just a thing you hear about! It truly is something that is attainable if you truly want it. It won’t be easy but once you get there, the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices you most definitely had to make to get there. It will require a ton of WORK and DISCIPLINE! But as the saying goes, Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.
What skills and attributes make you as successful as you are?
Self Discipline, Consistency, Team Building, Networking, Leadership
Why is online business, marketing, etc important?
Everything is moving to digital platforms. It is the future. Just walk around and look at where people’s eyes are — on their phones or some other screen. If your brand doesn’t have at least some sort of digital presence in 2019 and moving into 2020 — you are definitely missing out!