Joe Huff always knew he wanted to help others, but philanthropy was never in his cards. So rather than centering his life about trying to figure out how to get money to give back to others, he took the entrepreneurial path that lead him to founding LSTN Sound Co. A company that creates beautiful and functional audio headsets, and for every purchase Joe and his company help to give back to communities all over the globe, by blessing these peoples with the ability to listen to not just music, but the world around them for the first times in their lives.
Secret Academy Episode – Brad Lea
You’ll find that the more and more you hear these entrepreneurs stories, most of them never planned on working for themselves one day. Brad Lea was the GM of one of the most successful Dodge car dealerships in the country at one point, and making about $300K a year with no issues. However, the people around him saw great potential in his teachings to his employees, and often sought help from Brad for training in their own lives. After realizing the large demand for this type of training, Brad developed his own technology for online training. Knowing full well that everything in business boils down to sales, Brad used his master closing skills to help propel LightSpeed VT to the point where it is today.
Secret Academy Episode – Isaac Lidsky
Some of you may already know my guest today, Isaac Lidsky was on one of America’s favorite TV shows Saved By The Bell starring as Weasel in the hit SitCom series. However a diagnosis of eventual blindness rocked his world, he left the acting industry he had known since he was a child to pursue business in a greater realm. On the cusp of the economic decline in 2008, it became clear to Isaac that the potential to buy a small business was better now than it ever had been before. The real estate market had crashed and thus his idea to buy a residential construction firm came to fruition. Now Isaac has had time to learn and gain expierence in an industry that we don’t usually talk about here in the Academy, and he wants to share that knowledge with us.
Secret Academy Episode – Honoree Corder
Being an entrepreneur you know that some of the best advice can come from previous experience. By being able to hear what someone else has been through in their own life, you can apply their actions, mistakes, or lessons into your own. Honoree Corder believes in this too, and has written over 25 books all based on her past experiences, all centered around helping others through her mistakes, successes, and life lessons. With over 15 best sellers under her belt, Honoree has opened up her own publishing house and has dedicated her time to writing, coaching, and helping motivate people that feel that authoring a book is exactly how they can portray their message in an effort to help future generations.
Secret Academy Episode – George Palmer
Sometimes a business idea can come to you by just thinking of a problem you face and then creating your own way to solve it. That is exactly what George Palmer did with SendOwl. After watching people online and those he knew personally struggle to sell their digital product or service, he decided to create his own marketplace platform called SendOwl. He built the platform with simplicity and the user in mind, making it extremely easy to use and pretty much a “one click” ordeal. The beauty of SendOwl is that it is just a huge facilitator for transactions, and that allows them to obtain income on a pretty passive basis. In a business space where competitors pop up left and right, the way that George and his team are able to thrive is from his constant desire to be the best at what he does and see his customers happy and fulfilled in their choice to work with SendOwl.
Secret Academy Episode – Brett Goldberg
Let me ask you a question. Would you ever create a product and go into a marketplace that is already dominated by two large giants, or titans in the industry? Probably not. Hence why Pepsi and Coca-Cola reign supreme in the Soda world. However, Brett Goldberg didn’t let the titans in his marketplace stop him, and thus begun his David and Goliath journey with Tick Pick. In the ticketing world we know the two big guys: StubHub and TicketMaster, but for a long time a lot of people weren’t happy with the way those two sites were run. Brett saw the complaints on message boards, review sites, etc and decided to turn those peoples complaints into this business model. Brett undercut StubHub and TicketMaster fees and has been able to alleviate that aspect on both buyer/seller for their purchase/selling of tickets via his platform, which makes both sides happier in the short and long term. Some people are scared to stand up to the big guys. especially when capital and marketing advantages aren’t on their side. They let their business idea fall short out of the defeated attitude that comes with the dominated market space and they go back to working a regular 9-5 with no end in site, but not Brett Goldberg.
Secret Academy Episode – Walter OBrien
When we think of the term “hacker” we think of some kid sitting behind his computer looking to get into as much trouble as he can digitally, wether it be for fun or for harm. But believe it or not, Walter O’Brien was that very same kid. He actually hacked into NASA at the age of 13 and stole the blueprints for a space shuttle and got caught but the NSA and Interpol. Oops! But Walter wanted to use his powers for good instead of evil, he evolved his skills to become a hacker that helps people solve their problems on a technological basis. Wether it is strengthening your websites source codes, making sure back-ups don’t fail, or strengthening firewalls to be impenetrable, Walter and his team at Scorpion Computer Services do it all.