February 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Dr. Shaan Patel.
He is the Founder and CEO of Prep Expert. On ABC’s Shark Tank, he closed a deal with Mark Cuban for an investment in Prep Expert. He has created Prep Expert to help high school students achieve their own dreams. Prep Expert has helped more than 100,000 students improve their SAT and ACT scores, get into top colleges, and win over $100 million in scholarships. Prep Expert offers online SAT and ACT courses, academic tutoring, and college admissions consulting.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, our host this weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
(00:20):
bi a Guest button and submit your information. Now let's
get your show rolling, my guests. The founder and CEO
of Prep Expert. Prep Expert has helped more than one
hundred thousand students improved a SAT and ACT scores, get
into top colleges, and went over this check this out
one hundred million dollars in scholarship. Prep Expert offers online
(00:42):
SAT and ACT courses, academic trudering and college admissions consultant.
Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. When you say
one hundred million, he is a Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Guests,
Doctor Sean Patel, How you doing, Sean?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hey, Rashaan, how are you happy to be here? Thanks
for having me?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
When it is August started, Prep Expert, How did this
get out of that mind?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
That brain?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What what initiated that thought process prep expert.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Great question. So, uh, this actually started off as a
side hustle for me and turned into a seven figure business. Now,
so the way it got there was actually as many
great businesses do, which is out of my own experience.
You know, I was like many of the students and
parents listening to this podcast and that I was not
(01:33):
a great test taker. I was good in school, got
good math and science English grades, but had a lot
of test anxiety. I went to urban public schools in Vegas, which,
if you know anything about Vegas, it's not known for
its education. So we had like a close to a
you know, thirty forty percent dropout rate, and so my
(01:55):
parents didn't go to college here in the US. Didn't
know the first thing about test prep, college a mission
and scholarships. But I did know I wanted a high
SAT score. Problem was first one I took. I scored
about average, and so I then spent hundreds of hours
in the library studying for the SAT. Eventually raised my
(02:16):
score six hundred and forty points to get a perfect
SAT score, which is something that only zero point zero
two percent of all students achieve. That completely changed my life.
Got into the nation's top universities, got a half a
million dollars in scholarships, even got to meet the President
of the United States. And so when I got to college,
(02:36):
I wanted to help other students improve their test scores.
I started prep Expert. In the very first six week
SAT course my students ever took, they had an average
score improvement of three hundred and seventy six points in
just six weeks. So that's equivalent of taking a student
from the fiftieth percentile and putting them in the ninetieth
percent tile, totally changing their college and scholarship opportunities. Of course,
(02:59):
I had parents and students who wanted more courses, so
I began training other instructors to teach my curriculums and
the rest is history. Over the past fifteen years, as
you mentioned, we've helped over one hundred thousand students improve
their test scores, get into top colleges, and went over
one hundred million scholarships. Of course, the highlight of the
company was on ABC Shark.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's not good there yet, I want to stay on
you because to be a highlight, you have to start.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Something and you have to learn how to see something.
Because That's what made.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It happened successfully when you went to Shark Tank. Now
this whole process, you know, like you said, at Perfect
Score your person that sometimes people would through stereotype, would
assume you're supposed to get that your hard, stude and
hard working. But you said, Rashan, I was a bad
taste taker and I had to learn, and through this
learning process, I developed this curriculum. And now you converted
(03:51):
that curriculum to something that you're making money off of. Now,
in the process of developing that curriculum, welcome through the
steps of the dudes and don't of what you had
to do to make it common to everyday people to understand.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know, when I was trying to create the curriculum,
I was actually I wasn't ever trying to start a course. Instead,
I was trying to write a book. You know, I thought,
I've got this great idea. I'm going to write the
first SAT Prep book by a perfect Score student. Everyone's
gonna love it. It's gonna sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
And so I pitched this book proposal out to hundreds
(04:25):
of literary agents and publishers, and you know, they put
me in my place they say, you don't have a
platform to write the book. The SAT prep markets too competitive,
there's no way this book's going to work. And so
you know, I was really discouraged at that point. And
the way that I was writing my book material was
to your point. I was trying to make it relatable
(04:49):
and easy to understand for the average student, because I
was really average test taker myself, so I knew which
strategies really resonated with me, for like how to read
passages or how to do algebra problems, and which ones
were just way too complicated complex that wouldn't resonate with
most students. And so that's really how I wrote my
(05:10):
book material. Of course, the book material, you know, when
you're writing a book, you really have to think about
your audience and how to make it simple. But that
translated perfectly into the course because I was like, I
could just take all this material and now teach it
in a course format, and it did work. It made
it super easy for others to learn. And the funny
(05:31):
story is that, you know, after about a year or
two of doing the courses, McGraw Hill, the world's largest
education publisher, who had previously rejected me, said, hey, we'll
give you the book deal. Now, we ended up doing
the book. It sold over, you know, fifty thousand copies.
We went number one on Amazon for US at prep
and so it was funny how my original idea to
(05:52):
do the book didn't come to fruition until I took
this other path of you know, setting up my own
courses in business.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And well, we talk about a lot on this show.
Don't next you have the word no, you know, modify
your vision, follow through, and see your dream despite rejection.
And that's the classic case right there. People rejected your
idea because they didn't understand or maybe Sean, you didn't
know how to pitch it.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Is that your case? Two?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh definitely. I mean I think through all the rejections,
as I've been through hundreds of rejections, whether it's literary agents, publishers, media,
I didn't know how to pitch in the beginning. Oh,
I was stuttering. I was not presenting myself well on
phone calls, on business investments, whatever it may be. And
that's one of the beauties of entrepreneurship is you can
(06:40):
really hone your presentation and your pitch skills, but you
have to go through sucking at it first, everyone sucks
out averse and you know there are some people who
are just naturals, but I'd say most people have to
hone their pitch, hone their ability to sell, hone their
skills to present and pitch. And that only comes with
(07:01):
a lot of practice and a lot of rejection. And
it's only those that are willing to go through the
rejection that are going to get really good.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, we know.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
When I do these type of shows, Sean, I always
like to hold people's attention. You know, I already get
them one hundred thousand students, one hundred million dollars in scholarships,
SAT ACT. We all know parents want their kids to
do well. From your words, people are listening, why should
they take Prep Expert versus the competition?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And I can put it into our brand motto, which
is change your score, change your life. That's our brand.
And what I mean by that is when you come
to Prep Expert, you're going to take our courses. Your
student's going to do well on the SAT and ACT,
but not only that, they're going to open up their
college and scholarship opportunities. We've had students win half a
(07:49):
million million, quarter million, one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships
totally eliminate their student debt. But not only that, they're
going to change their lives because in our courses, we
also teach life. We teach you about time management, how
to study effectively, how to be more productive, how to
realize your dreams. We give them a goal score in
the beginning, and we have them visualize and manifest their
(08:12):
scores and their future careers. No other test prep company
is doing this, and so we're teaching them at fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen years old, how to be better with their time,
be more productive, how to have goals. And I mean,
how valuable is that for you know, I know we're
a test prep course, but we teach you so much more.
And that's why we say, change your score, change your life.
(08:34):
We have students now, since we've been doing this for
fifteen years who are executives that NVIDIA, who are dermatologists,
plastic surgeons. They've become very successful in their lives. And
I know we're just a small portion of it, but
I'm hoping that we planted a lot of those seeds
on how to be successful very early on in their
lives as high school students.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Right I'm talking to doctor Sean Ptail. He founded in
the CEO of Prep Expert Prep expt to have more
than one hundred thousand students improve their SAT and ACT scores,
get in the top colleges, which is key, and win
over get this one hundred million dollars in scholarships. When
you talk about the process, because this is online, some
(09:16):
people might say that's very impersonal.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
You know, online you can't touch anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
How do you break that wall and make people feel
comfortable or students especially who sometimes can have a very
short attention span.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Because this is what this interview is about.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I'm excited you have a brand that can change people's lives.
But I also want people who are listening to understand
I want to go to this website right now and
help my child become a better get a better opportunity
to set to achieve and exceed. Talk to us about
the process of contacting you and the steps.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, so the process to contact me and how our
courses work is really parents or students who are interested.
They can head over to expert dot com and they
can view all of our online services. So we have
online SAT courses, online ACT courses, college admissions, consulting, one
on one tutoring to your point, though, you know, many
(10:14):
parents may be concerned that you know, this is online,
it's not in person. And in twenty nineteen I probably
would have said, you know what, you're right, But in
twenty twenty, the whole world changed. COVID made everyone go online.
Students had to learn online. They're more comfortable learning online,
I would say, than in person. Nowadays. The technology to
(10:37):
learn online is so much better. We're doing this podcast
online now, and you know, there's just so much more
resources and more comfortability, especially among young people on learning
online and learning in a live online environment. And so
you know, students do absolutely fantastic in our online six
week SAT courses, online eight week online four week courses.
(11:00):
But what I love about online is we can do
it live. So it's not just the you know, a
self paced course where your student's never going to go
through the video modules. They're learning from ninety nine percentile
instructors who have all scored in the top one percent
on these exams, who have thousands of hours of teaching experience.
They can even learn from me directly. So when you
(11:21):
learn from an expert or a mentor who's done it
themselves and can give you the strategies, the shortcuts, the
curriculum to do it. I mean, it just exponentially improves
your success. And people in the business world know this.
This is why you hire business coaches consultants who have
done it before you. And I do that as an
entrepreneur myself. I will pay people, you know, tens of
(11:43):
thousands of dollars who have done what I'm trying to
do to get there faster in entrepreneurship and business. And
it's the same way in test prep and education.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Now you said it earlier, just started out as a
side hustle, Sean, And when did you say the light
bulb click? You know, I can make some money about that?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, that's a great question. And uh, you know, it
did start out as a side house. It literally started out.
I wrote this curriculum in my college dorm room in
my senior year of college, and I was like, you
know what, I'll make a little bit of money over
the summer. It's going to be, you know, just some
pocket change, and you know, great. But what I realized
(12:28):
was the students did so well in the first six
week SAT course as I mentioned they had three almost
four hundred point average score improvement incredible that I was not.
Parents didn't let me just quit. They just said, hey,
you got to do more courses. Like I literally had
people calling my phone like, hey, my student couldn't take
(12:48):
that course that you taught. Do you have another one
coming up? And I was like, well no, but I
guess I could. Right, So we started out. You know,
that's when we and then what I realized is and
this is when you know you have a good business.
This is applicable to all the business people entrepreneurship people
out there. The best marketing strategy is word of mouth.
(13:09):
So it's when people tell your customers, your clients, they
tell other customers and clients about you. Because literally, for
the first five years of my business, we spent zero
dollars on marketing, and we kept doubling our business year
over year. And that tells you that it was just
our students and parents telling other students and parents, Hey,
you got to check out this course over here. My
(13:30):
student did really well, and that's what you want as
a business owner.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
A couple of things before we get to the shock,
the shock tank experience. Okay, price points, Okay, you young entrepreneur,
you got this idea. It's a side housetle making money.
Now people are saying I need more, I need more
your one man operation basically correct.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Mm hmmah oh yeah. When I first started, I was
a customer service teacher everything.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
How did you set your price points early on? And
then we're going to talk about and what year did
this all kind of like start?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, So the way that I set my price points
early on was how every entrepreneur sets them, which I
think is the wrong way to set them. You look
at the competition and you set it a little bit lower.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
That's true. Ye, that's true. That's true.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, it's not the way to do it. And the
way that I set them now is I set them
by valuing our time. So what I you know, I
set them on a per hour basis. So I think
our courses are start at about fifteen or twenty dollars
per hour, and that's a lot of value to learn
from a ninety nine percent that's that's pretty twenty dollars
(14:42):
an hour.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, that's pretty long. It's pretty reasonable. But just gonna
let you know that.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, so twenty bucks an hour, but it's a
sixty hour course, so that comes out to twelve hundred dollars.
So you know, when you look at it at twelve hundred,
people say, oh my god. But I say, well, you
got sixty hours with the top one percent mentor and instructor.
You know, I think it comes out pretty reasonable to
your point. So that's the way I price it now
is I price it per hour because you know, once
(15:07):
people hear that per hour rate, it's it's a lot
more reasonable than hearing a package rate. And that's that
would be a strategy I would suggest for all business owners.
Value your time and price it out appropriately for your clients,
because if you just tell them the twelve hundred dollars
price at first, I'll say, oh no, I won't pay that.
But if you say it's twenty bucks an hour, that's
a lot more reasonable to when you break it down.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(15:50):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, because.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's what you did with me. You lay what you're
twenty bucks an hour?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I like that price total sixty hours, twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
See I'm already in because you got me in with
the twenty dollars an hour.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Okay, I could work with that. Sixty hout. I could
work with that. Now.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, you're making money now now you want investors. See
that's the part of this conversation I really need and
it's all online. I'm trying to figure out why did
you need investors or why did you feel the need
to grow like that.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So the reason that I needed investment was actually when
I first started, it wasn't online, it was in person.
So we were in Las Vegas, where I grew up,
and you know, we opened a second location. But then
I you know, opening locations, as you know in person
locations is expensive, so we needed investment to start other cities.
(16:50):
So we started opening in California, in Texas and Florida
on the East coast. And the problem was that is one,
it was expensive. But the bigger problem I ran into
much later was twenty twenty, I couldn't have twelve kids
in a small classroom because of the six foot rule,
so we had to shut all our locations and then
(17:12):
we pivoted fully online, which is where we're at today.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The year you launched it was what would you say,
what was that year you launched it?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
We launched originally in my first set of courses was
in the summer of twenty eleven, so we're coming up
on fourteen years yet.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Okay, cool?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And then the shop tank experience.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
How did they come about and why? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So I was really looking for investment in about twenty
fifteen sixteen time frames.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
This was a brick and mortar This is the brick
and mortar style.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, investment you wanted because that was the model that
you had prior to COVID.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, that was really the play I thought brick and mortar.
And to your point, parents wanted in person before COVID.
They didn't really they were scared of online courses, you know,
they were like, we got to be in person. So
twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, I was looking for investment to
expand brick and mortar, expand our marketing because I feel
like we had really maxed out what we could do
(18:12):
with our couple locations in my hometown of Vegas, and
I wanted to go further. So I went to a
Shark Tank casting call pitch and I stood in line
with five hundred other entrepreneurs and I was the last
person in line. Because I'm always late. I was late
to this interview and consistency. I waited eight nine hours
(18:36):
to give a one minute pitch and the casting call
producer was totally unimpressed with my pitch. I was like,
We've done a million dollars in sales. I've been in
the New York Times. I was saying all this stuff
that I thought was impressive, and his face was stone cold.
Until the very last second. I pulled out my book,
my sat prep book that I had done with McGraw hill,
(18:57):
and he noticed my face was on the cover and
he could believe that I was a published author. And
I think this is another great lesson for entrepreneurs. Having
a book can produce so much authority for you. You
become the expert in your field. And you know, he
was like, can I have the book for my nephew?
And I gave him the book and two weeks later
(19:18):
they were calling me to be buying me out to
La to be on the pitch Shark Tank. And it
never would have happened if I didn't have the book,
which kind of pieces everything together. You know, originally one
of the book, book didn't happen, Book happened, Book happens.
I get on Shark Tank. So it's kind of this
weird string that I would have never been able to
connect the dots until looking back.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Now, now let's talk about brick and mortar versus own
line when it comes to the quality of instructors that
you're able to get because your own line. Because brick
and mortar, they basically got to be in the city
where they ad to go to that location. But because
your own line, basically these instructors can reside anywhere. I
(19:58):
would like to believe that you were able to raise
the quality of people that you brought on board to
be instructors for your prep expert correct.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh big time. Yeah. Anytime you can increase your applicant pool,
you're going to be able to have a higher quality
of person fill that role for you. So instead of
having to look in the certain cities we were in previously,
now I can look in all fifty states, and what
that does is we have a pretty high bar. As
I mentioned, you know, we only hire ninety nine percentile scores.
(20:31):
We only hire people with a ton of teaching experience.
We have them do trials of online teaching for us
before we hire them to see that they're personable, that
they can teach well, that they can really command a classroom,
et cetera. And it's really raised the bar by being
able to do it online. So that's another big benefit
that you pointed out for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Now let's talk about online because you're talking about it.
You said the word classroom, So I'm going to look
at it as a session, an online session. The instructor,
what's the smallest session and what's the largest session that
you have in these training courses.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, so the smallest session is usually like ten to
twenty students, and the largest session, some of our summer
courses can get to like sixty students something like that.
So they do get larger once you get into the
more popular timeframes. With that being said, every student gets
to ask their questions. We have teaching teaching assistants, we
(21:29):
have office hours that they can attend to get even
more of their questions answered, and we really try to
make it like in on a classroom experience. You know,
we have the students call us mister or doctor or whatever,
you know, because it's important, you know, it's important that
we go back to the basics of just you know, teaching, respect,
(21:51):
classroom and and students love it like you'd be surprised,
you wouldn't. You'd be surprised if you read our reviews
up expert of the students like, I love this course.
I really didn't think I was gonna like the cos
I didn't think I was gonna like that, say, tea
prop course. But I learned so much about you know,
test prep. I learned so much about life, and I
improve my score for hunder points and it's it's incredible,
(22:13):
Like it's really really I love that we can do
good for students and do well for ourselves at the
same time.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I would tell you this just on a personal note, Sean,
You're very likable, you know, very engaging, and I think
that reflects your business model prep expert, you.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Know, I hope so it does reflect it, you know,
very so. I would.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I'm not shocked that you said that there's a level
of enthusiasm and the level of care that you put
into the whole process and people that you want to Yes,
you are making money, but you also, like you said
in the beginning, changing lives and then that's your legacy.
You're building a legacy through academic training. That and that's
what is the model which should drive this country and
(22:54):
in any country that that wants to be an academic success.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Now that's if you want to be a leader. I think.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I know people talk about getting rid of test. I'll
tell you China and India aren't getting rid of test.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So we want to compete.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
We got, you know, on the show.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I wanted to make sure people understand their options out there.
Like they said, there are some people I brought on
the show, but your model was really engaging to me
because I did my research.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I liked those the extra the purpose.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
It was like a.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Student comes to you and they don't feel and I
didn't feel they were going to be left with that
one angle to be achieved success. Like you said, there
are other ways you can communicate. They felt like, no,
you're not in a building, but you're in a home,
and this home is here to help you win. Now,
you first went to Shark Tank. Let's get back over
(23:44):
there because I want people to this amazing story because
it changed your life financially. You can pitch at at
one minute pitch, you pull out the book at the
last minute. Two weeks later they call you, Okay, what
did you do differently and how did you prep for
the actual show or did they help you?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
The producers haamp you out.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'd spent hundreds Just like I spent hundreds of hours
prepping for that SAT I spent hundreds of hours prepping
for my Shark Tank pitch. I watched tape, I watched
all the Shark Tank previous episodes. I wrote down every
question that Mister Wonderful was asking, that Damon John was asking,
that Mark Cuban was asking, and then I prepped you
know answers. You know, one really unique thing I did
(24:24):
that I thought was really important for my pitch, and
why I think a lot of people remember it is
I have the most boring business in the world. It's
test prep, all right. So, and I know that Shark
Tank is an entertainment TV show, and I knew that
they don't air all of the pitches, so I had
to make sure that I was interesting enough that they
(24:46):
would air my pitch. So I wrote down every interesting
story about my life related to how I started the business,
about entrepreneurship, about how my dad came to the US
with seventy dollars, and I was like, I'm going to
share these stories within the questions so that I can
make my pitch a little bit more interesting than essaykeeprap
(25:08):
and make it about the American dream. And you know,
all these larger themes. And it worked. It totally worked.
It was one of the most remembered and seen Shark
Tank pitches ever. And you know, the takeaway for entrepreneurs
out there is make your business, make yourself interesting. Think
the art of storytelling is so so important in any
(25:28):
business or any path you pursue.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Now again, now we're talking about pricing again.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
How did you say for that amount of money, I'm
gonna give up this amount of my business. How did
you come to that decision when it came to prep expert,
this is your baby, now decide it's a business. Now
the money can come your way, but you also have
to give up some of your brand.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
How'd you come to that decision?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, so at the time, you know, we weren't a
huge business. I think we were doing about half a
million in revenue per year, so I had priced it
at so I used the strategy, which was I knew
the Sharks were going to negotiate on the equity, so
I would be comfortable at a quarter million for twenty percent.
(26:15):
But I went in asking for a quarter million for
ten percent, having knowing that I'm going to have that
ten percent negotiation room. And Mark Cuban must have read
the room perfectly. You must have been in my head
because he said I'm only doing a quarter million for
twenty percent, and I said that's my limit, and we
shook hands and we ask you yeah, so laid out
(26:36):
to a t. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
You know this whole thing about you know, social media,
word about website traffic. What type of website traffic does
you do you generate? Now that let you know, Wow,
there's a lot of people through curiosity, through trying to
get understand this brand is really blowing you away. Talk
to us about the social media aspect of marketing, the
(27:00):
website traffic part of the business.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Oh amazing. Yeah, So, I mean, just to give you
an idea. When we first started, I think our first
year in business, we had about ten thousand hits to
the website and now fifteen years later, we get about
two million hits to the website on an annual basis,
which is pretty incredible. You know, what is that twenty
x or something like that.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And so you so call, you so called, don't worry
about you so call.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And we've produced over fifty million in revenue. Now I
think I told you we did half a million a
year when we were on Shark Tank. We are just
crushing it on every We have a you know, email
and social media list of two hundred thousand followers, and
that's just a function of doing good work for a
long period of time, building a brand. I think a
lot of people don't talk about building a brand enough.
(27:50):
You know, as I mentioned, our brand is change your score,
change your life, and a lot of people like to
follow that message because they know the importance of education
and how it can change your lives. I'm a result
of that myself, my own personal story, but also all
my students and hopefully in the larger scheme of things. Really,
what I want to embody is the American dream. Go
(28:11):
back to meritocracy, go back to working hard and getting
rewarded for it, whether that's in business or in education,
and that's what we embody.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Wow, you know this is a I looked up and
I went wow. Twenty six minutes and it's just it's
just been a fun interview.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Like again, I have just compliment you on your personality,
compliments you on your vision. Is a great story, but
also you're changing lives and that's what really excites me
about being able to be a part of your life,
you know, be able to share this information to people
who are trying to give their child or themselves an
opportunity to exceed with that note. I know parents come
(28:50):
to you, do adults come to you? You know, who
are post high school gets into these course And what's
the difference in those type of people versus the parents
bringing their child to be part of prep expert.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah. So for the most part, it is parents of
high school students. But there are some adults we've had
who will come to us who are going to go
back to school and they need an SAT or ACT score.
And you know what's funny is those are often the
most motivated because they've been out in the real world
and the real world is not as kind as the
education worlds as I know having been in business and education,
(29:27):
and they so they work the hardest, they do the best.
We've had really remarkable stories of adults doing well with
our courses.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Too cool, close out this man, what's the future? Brother
for prep Expert? You already talked about the thens, the doctors,
the teachers, the lawyers, probably congressmen who you actually took
taking your course, and it really is it really is
a system where you can take control of your lives.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
You know, I was a poor test taker.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I think I made like seven to fifty on my
SAT Okay, Yeah, I got a degree in mathematics and
minor in sociology, so I was just a poor test taker.
So you could have really changed my life if I
knew about you when I was in high school, but
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Those type of things didn't exist, but it exists today.
So what's the future and what's the brand deal of
the scale?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah? Yeah, So I think, as I mentioned, over the
past decade, we've helped students win over one hundred million
in scholarships. So over the next decade, I want to
take that a step further. I'm on a billion dollar
scholarship mission. I want to help students win over one
billion dollars in scholarships, get those thousand, two hundred thousand
dollars full ride scholarships through their test scores, through college admissions,
(30:39):
and change their lives. Because if I can financially remove
your student debt when college is so so expensive, I've
changed your life forever. Because now you're financially free after
college or after your graduate education to pursue your passions.
You can have more freedom in the careers and the
entrepreneurship choices you make. And so that's really the future
(31:02):
vision that I have is to help hundreds of thousands
of students eliminate their student debt, get billions in scholarships,
and do that over the next decade, to change their
scores and change their lives.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Thank you, brother, I really really appreciate you coming on
Money Making Conversations master Class.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Thank you Sean, Thank you Rashwan.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me. And I'm
going to do a shameless plug any parents the students interested,
check out prepexpert dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Don't worry, brother, we say a prep expert enough, they
know where to go. I know how to plug your baby.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, I trust me.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I know.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you listen to the
audience now.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Join us next.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Week and remember to all always leave with your gifts.
Keep winning.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Mm hmmmmm
Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, our host this weekly Money
Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
other people's success stories and start living your own. If
you want to be a guest on my show, please
visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
(00:20):
bi a Guest button and submit your information. Now let's
get your show rolling, my guests. The founder and CEO
of Prep Expert. Prep Expert has helped more than one
hundred thousand students improved a SAT and ACT scores, get
into top colleges, and went over this check this out
one hundred million dollars in scholarship. Prep Expert offers online
(00:42):
SAT and ACT courses, academic trudering and college admissions consultant.
Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. When you say
one hundred million, he is a Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Guests,
Doctor Sean Patel, How you doing, Sean?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Hey, Rashaan, how are you happy to be here? Thanks
for having me?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
When it is August started, Prep Expert, How did this
get out of that mind?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
That brain?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
What what initiated that thought process prep expert.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Great question. So, uh, this actually started off as a
side hustle for me and turned into a seven figure business. Now,
so the way it got there was actually as many
great businesses do, which is out of my own experience.
You know, I was like many of the students and
parents listening to this podcast and that I was not
(01:33):
a great test taker. I was good in school, got
good math and science English grades, but had a lot
of test anxiety. I went to urban public schools in Vegas, which,
if you know anything about Vegas, it's not known for
its education. So we had like a close to a
you know, thirty forty percent dropout rate, and so my
(01:55):
parents didn't go to college here in the US. Didn't
know the first thing about test prep, college a mission
and scholarships. But I did know I wanted a high
SAT score. Problem was first one I took. I scored
about average, and so I then spent hundreds of hours
in the library studying for the SAT. Eventually raised my
(02:16):
score six hundred and forty points to get a perfect
SAT score, which is something that only zero point zero
two percent of all students achieve. That completely changed my life.
Got into the nation's top universities, got a half a
million dollars in scholarships, even got to meet the President
of the United States. And so when I got to college,
(02:36):
I wanted to help other students improve their test scores.
I started prep Expert. In the very first six week
SAT course my students ever took, they had an average
score improvement of three hundred and seventy six points in
just six weeks. So that's equivalent of taking a student
from the fiftieth percentile and putting them in the ninetieth
percent tile, totally changing their college and scholarship opportunities. Of course,
(02:59):
I had parents and students who wanted more courses, so
I began training other instructors to teach my curriculums and
the rest is history. Over the past fifteen years, as
you mentioned, we've helped over one hundred thousand students improve
their test scores, get into top colleges, and went over
one hundred million scholarships. Of course, the highlight of the
company was on ABC Shark.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's not good there yet, I want to stay on
you because to be a highlight, you have to start.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Something and you have to learn how to see something.
Because That's what made.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
It happened successfully when you went to Shark Tank. Now
this whole process, you know, like you said, at Perfect
Score your person that sometimes people would through stereotype, would
assume you're supposed to get that your hard, stude and
hard working. But you said, Rashan, I was a bad
taste taker and I had to learn, and through this
learning process, I developed this curriculum. And now you converted
(03:51):
that curriculum to something that you're making money off of. Now,
in the process of developing that curriculum, welcome through the
steps of the dudes and don't of what you had
to do to make it common to everyday people to understand.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You know, when I was trying to create the curriculum,
I was actually I wasn't ever trying to start a course. Instead,
I was trying to write a book. You know, I thought,
I've got this great idea. I'm going to write the
first SAT Prep book by a perfect Score student. Everyone's
gonna love it. It's gonna sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
And so I pitched this book proposal out to hundreds
(04:25):
of literary agents and publishers, and you know, they put
me in my place they say, you don't have a
platform to write the book. The SAT prep markets too competitive,
there's no way this book's going to work. And so
you know, I was really discouraged at that point. And
the way that I was writing my book material was
to your point. I was trying to make it relatable
(04:49):
and easy to understand for the average student, because I
was really average test taker myself, so I knew which
strategies really resonated with me, for like how to read
passages or how to do algebra problems, and which ones
were just way too complicated complex that wouldn't resonate with
most students. And so that's really how I wrote my
(05:10):
book material. Of course, the book material, you know, when
you're writing a book, you really have to think about
your audience and how to make it simple. But that
translated perfectly into the course because I was like, I
could just take all this material and now teach it
in a course format, and it did work. It made
it super easy for others to learn. And the funny
(05:31):
story is that, you know, after about a year or
two of doing the courses, McGraw Hill, the world's largest
education publisher, who had previously rejected me, said, hey, we'll
give you the book deal. Now, we ended up doing
the book. It sold over, you know, fifty thousand copies.
We went number one on Amazon for US at prep
and so it was funny how my original idea to
(05:52):
do the book didn't come to fruition until I took
this other path of you know, setting up my own
courses in business.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
And well, we talk about a lot on this show.
Don't next you have the word no, you know, modify
your vision, follow through, and see your dream despite rejection.
And that's the classic case right there. People rejected your
idea because they didn't understand or maybe Sean, you didn't
know how to pitch it.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Is that your case? Two?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh definitely. I mean I think through all the rejections,
as I've been through hundreds of rejections, whether it's literary agents, publishers, media,
I didn't know how to pitch in the beginning. Oh,
I was stuttering. I was not presenting myself well on
phone calls, on business investments, whatever it may be. And
that's one of the beauties of entrepreneurship is you can
(06:40):
really hone your presentation and your pitch skills, but you
have to go through sucking at it first, everyone sucks
out averse and you know there are some people who
are just naturals, but I'd say most people have to
hone their pitch, hone their ability to sell, hone their
skills to present and pitch. And that only comes with
(07:01):
a lot of practice and a lot of rejection. And
it's only those that are willing to go through the
rejection that are going to get really good.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, we know.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
When I do these type of shows, Sean, I always
like to hold people's attention. You know, I already get
them one hundred thousand students, one hundred million dollars in scholarships,
SAT ACT. We all know parents want their kids to
do well. From your words, people are listening, why should
they take Prep Expert versus the competition?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And I can put it into our brand motto, which
is change your score, change your life. That's our brand.
And what I mean by that is when you come
to Prep Expert, you're going to take our courses. Your
student's going to do well on the SAT and ACT,
but not only that, they're going to open up their
college and scholarship opportunities. We've had students win half a
(07:49):
million million, quarter million, one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships
totally eliminate their student debt. But not only that, they're
going to change their lives because in our courses, we
also teach life. We teach you about time management, how
to study effectively, how to be more productive, how to
realize your dreams. We give them a goal score in
the beginning, and we have them visualize and manifest their
(08:12):
scores and their future careers. No other test prep company
is doing this, and so we're teaching them at fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen years old, how to be better with their time,
be more productive, how to have goals. And I mean,
how valuable is that for you know, I know we're
a test prep course, but we teach you so much more.
And that's why we say, change your score, change your life.
(08:34):
We have students now, since we've been doing this for
fifteen years who are executives that NVIDIA, who are dermatologists,
plastic surgeons. They've become very successful in their lives. And
I know we're just a small portion of it, but
I'm hoping that we planted a lot of those seeds
on how to be successful very early on in their
lives as high school students.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Right I'm talking to doctor Sean Ptail. He founded in
the CEO of Prep Expert Prep expt to have more
than one hundred thousand students improve their SAT and ACT scores,
get in the top colleges, which is key, and win
over get this one hundred million dollars in scholarships. When
you talk about the process, because this is online, some
(09:16):
people might say that's very impersonal.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
You know, online you can't touch anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
How do you break that wall and make people feel
comfortable or students especially who sometimes can have a very
short attention span.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Because this is what this interview is about.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I'm excited you have a brand that can change people's lives.
But I also want people who are listening to understand
I want to go to this website right now and
help my child become a better get a better opportunity
to set to achieve and exceed. Talk to us about
the process of contacting you and the steps.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, so the process to contact me and how our
courses work is really parents or students who are interested.
They can head over to expert dot com and they
can view all of our online services. So we have
online SAT courses, online ACT courses, college admissions, consulting, one
on one tutoring to your point, though, you know, many
(10:14):
parents may be concerned that you know, this is online,
it's not in person. And in twenty nineteen I probably
would have said, you know what, you're right, But in
twenty twenty, the whole world changed. COVID made everyone go online.
Students had to learn online. They're more comfortable learning online,
I would say, than in person. Nowadays. The technology to
(10:37):
learn online is so much better. We're doing this podcast
online now, and you know, there's just so much more
resources and more comfortability, especially among young people on learning
online and learning in a live online environment. And so
you know, students do absolutely fantastic in our online six
week SAT courses, online eight week online four week courses.
(11:00):
But what I love about online is we can do
it live. So it's not just the you know, a
self paced course where your student's never going to go
through the video modules. They're learning from ninety nine percentile
instructors who have all scored in the top one percent
on these exams, who have thousands of hours of teaching experience.
They can even learn from me directly. So when you
(11:21):
learn from an expert or a mentor who's done it
themselves and can give you the strategies, the shortcuts, the
curriculum to do it. I mean, it just exponentially improves
your success. And people in the business world know this.
This is why you hire business coaches consultants who have
done it before you. And I do that as an
entrepreneur myself. I will pay people, you know, tens of
(11:43):
thousands of dollars who have done what I'm trying to
do to get there faster in entrepreneurship and business. And
it's the same way in test prep and education.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Now you said it earlier, just started out as a
side hustle, Sean, And when did you say the light
bulb click? You know, I can make some money about that?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, that's a great question. And uh, you know, it
did start out as a side house. It literally started out.
I wrote this curriculum in my college dorm room in
my senior year of college, and I was like, you
know what, I'll make a little bit of money over
the summer. It's going to be, you know, just some
pocket change, and you know, great. But what I realized
(12:28):
was the students did so well in the first six
week SAT course as I mentioned they had three almost
four hundred point average score improvement incredible that I was not.
Parents didn't let me just quit. They just said, hey,
you got to do more courses. Like I literally had
people calling my phone like, hey, my student couldn't take
(12:48):
that course that you taught. Do you have another one
coming up? And I was like, well no, but I
guess I could. Right, So we started out. You know,
that's when we and then what I realized is and
this is when you know you have a good business.
This is applicable to all the business people entrepreneurship people
out there. The best marketing strategy is word of mouth.
(13:09):
So it's when people tell your customers, your clients, they
tell other customers and clients about you. Because literally, for
the first five years of my business, we spent zero
dollars on marketing, and we kept doubling our business year
over year. And that tells you that it was just
our students and parents telling other students and parents, Hey,
you got to check out this course over here. My
(13:30):
student did really well, and that's what you want as
a business owner.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
A couple of things before we get to the shock,
the shock tank experience. Okay, price points, Okay, you young entrepreneur,
you got this idea. It's a side housetle making money.
Now people are saying I need more, I need more
your one man operation basically correct.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Mm hmmah oh yeah. When I first started, I was
a customer service teacher everything.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
How did you set your price points early on? And
then we're going to talk about and what year did
this all kind of like start?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, So the way that I set my price points
early on was how every entrepreneur sets them, which I
think is the wrong way to set them. You look
at the competition and you set it a little bit lower.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
That's true. Ye, that's true. That's true.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, it's not the way to do it. And the
way that I set them now is I set them
by valuing our time. So what I you know, I
set them on a per hour basis. So I think
our courses are start at about fifteen or twenty dollars
per hour, and that's a lot of value to learn
from a ninety nine percent that's that's pretty twenty dollars
(14:42):
an hour.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Yeah, that's pretty long. It's pretty reasonable. But just gonna
let you know that.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, yeah, so twenty bucks an hour, but it's a
sixty hour course, so that comes out to twelve hundred dollars.
So you know, when you look at it at twelve hundred,
people say, oh my god. But I say, well, you
got sixty hours with the top one percent mentor and instructor.
You know, I think it comes out pretty reasonable to
your point. So that's the way I price it now
is I price it per hour because you know, once
(15:07):
people hear that per hour rate, it's it's a lot
more reasonable than hearing a package rate. And that's that
would be a strategy I would suggest for all business owners.
Value your time and price it out appropriately for your clients,
because if you just tell them the twelve hundred dollars
price at first, I'll say, oh no, I won't pay that.
But if you say it's twenty bucks an hour, that's
a lot more reasonable to when you break it down.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(15:50):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, because.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's what you did with me. You lay what you're
twenty bucks an hour?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I like that price total sixty hours, twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
See I'm already in because you got me in with
the twenty dollars an hour.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Okay, I could work with that. Sixty hout. I could
work with that. Now.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, you're making money now now you want investors. See
that's the part of this conversation I really need and
it's all online. I'm trying to figure out why did
you need investors or why did you feel the need
to grow like that.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So the reason that I needed investment was actually when
I first started, it wasn't online, it was in person.
So we were in Las Vegas, where I grew up,
and you know, we opened a second location. But then
I you know, opening locations, as you know in person
locations is expensive, so we needed investment to start other cities.
(16:50):
So we started opening in California, in Texas and Florida
on the East coast. And the problem was that is one,
it was expensive. But the bigger problem I ran into
much later was twenty twenty, I couldn't have twelve kids
in a small classroom because of the six foot rule,
so we had to shut all our locations and then
(17:12):
we pivoted fully online, which is where we're at today.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
The year you launched it was what would you say,
what was that year you launched it?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
We launched originally in my first set of courses was
in the summer of twenty eleven, so we're coming up
on fourteen years yet.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Okay, cool?
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And then the shop tank experience.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
How did they come about and why? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So I was really looking for investment in about twenty
fifteen sixteen time frames.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
This was a brick and mortar This is the brick
and mortar style.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, investment you wanted because that was the model that
you had prior to COVID.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, that was really the play I thought brick and mortar.
And to your point, parents wanted in person before COVID.
They didn't really they were scared of online courses, you know,
they were like, we got to be in person. So
twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, I was looking for investment to
expand brick and mortar, expand our marketing because I feel
like we had really maxed out what we could do
(18:12):
with our couple locations in my hometown of Vegas, and
I wanted to go further. So I went to a
Shark Tank casting call pitch and I stood in line
with five hundred other entrepreneurs and I was the last
person in line. Because I'm always late. I was late
to this interview and consistency. I waited eight nine hours
(18:36):
to give a one minute pitch and the casting call
producer was totally unimpressed with my pitch. I was like,
We've done a million dollars in sales. I've been in
the New York Times. I was saying all this stuff
that I thought was impressive, and his face was stone cold.
Until the very last second. I pulled out my book,
my sat prep book that I had done with McGraw hill,
(18:57):
and he noticed my face was on the cover and
he could believe that I was a published author. And
I think this is another great lesson for entrepreneurs. Having
a book can produce so much authority for you. You
become the expert in your field. And you know, he
was like, can I have the book for my nephew?
And I gave him the book and two weeks later
(19:18):
they were calling me to be buying me out to
La to be on the pitch Shark Tank. And it
never would have happened if I didn't have the book,
which kind of pieces everything together. You know, originally one
of the book, book didn't happen, Book happened, Book happens.
I get on Shark Tank. So it's kind of this
weird string that I would have never been able to
connect the dots until looking back.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Now, now let's talk about brick and mortar versus own
line when it comes to the quality of instructors that
you're able to get because your own line. Because brick
and mortar, they basically got to be in the city
where they ad to go to that location. But because
your own line, basically these instructors can reside anywhere. I
(19:58):
would like to believe that you were able to raise
the quality of people that you brought on board to
be instructors for your prep expert correct.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh big time. Yeah. Anytime you can increase your applicant pool,
you're going to be able to have a higher quality
of person fill that role for you. So instead of
having to look in the certain cities we were in previously,
now I can look in all fifty states, and what
that does is we have a pretty high bar. As
I mentioned, you know, we only hire ninety nine percentile scores.
(20:31):
We only hire people with a ton of teaching experience.
We have them do trials of online teaching for us
before we hire them to see that they're personable, that
they can teach well, that they can really command a classroom,
et cetera. And it's really raised the bar by being
able to do it online. So that's another big benefit
that you pointed out for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Now let's talk about online because you're talking about it.
You said the word classroom, So I'm going to look
at it as a session, an online session. The instructor,
what's the smallest session and what's the largest session that
you have in these training courses.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, so the smallest session is usually like ten to
twenty students, and the largest session, some of our summer
courses can get to like sixty students something like that.
So they do get larger once you get into the
more popular timeframes. With that being said, every student gets
to ask their questions. We have teaching teaching assistants, we
(21:29):
have office hours that they can attend to get even
more of their questions answered, and we really try to
make it like in on a classroom experience. You know,
we have the students call us mister or doctor or whatever,
you know, because it's important, you know, it's important that
we go back to the basics of just you know, teaching, respect,
(21:51):
classroom and and students love it like you'd be surprised,
you wouldn't. You'd be surprised if you read our reviews
up expert of the students like, I love this course.
I really didn't think I was gonna like the cos
I didn't think I was gonna like that, say, tea
prop course. But I learned so much about you know,
test prep. I learned so much about life, and I
improve my score for hunder points and it's it's incredible,
(22:13):
Like it's really really I love that we can do
good for students and do well for ourselves at the
same time.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I would tell you this just on a personal note, Sean,
You're very likable, you know, very engaging, and I think
that reflects your business model prep expert, you.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Know, I hope so it does reflect it, you know,
very so. I would.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I'm not shocked that you said that there's a level
of enthusiasm and the level of care that you put
into the whole process and people that you want to Yes,
you are making money, but you also, like you said
in the beginning, changing lives and then that's your legacy.
You're building a legacy through academic training. That and that's
what is the model which should drive this country and
(22:54):
in any country that that wants to be an academic success.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Now that's if you want to be a leader. I think.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I know people talk about getting rid of test. I'll
tell you China and India aren't getting rid of test.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So we want to compete.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
We got, you know, on the show.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I wanted to make sure people understand their options out there.
Like they said, there are some people I brought on
the show, but your model was really engaging to me
because I did my research.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I liked those the extra the purpose.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
It was like a.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Student comes to you and they don't feel and I
didn't feel they were going to be left with that
one angle to be achieved success. Like you said, there
are other ways you can communicate. They felt like, no,
you're not in a building, but you're in a home,
and this home is here to help you win. Now,
you first went to Shark Tank. Let's get back over
(23:44):
there because I want people to this amazing story because
it changed your life financially. You can pitch at at
one minute pitch, you pull out the book at the
last minute. Two weeks later they call you, Okay, what
did you do differently and how did you prep for
the actual show or did they help you?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
The producers haamp you out.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'd spent hundreds Just like I spent hundreds of hours
prepping for that SAT I spent hundreds of hours prepping
for my Shark Tank pitch. I watched tape, I watched
all the Shark Tank previous episodes. I wrote down every
question that Mister Wonderful was asking, that Damon John was asking,
that Mark Cuban was asking, and then I prepped you
know answers. You know, one really unique thing I did
(24:24):
that I thought was really important for my pitch, and
why I think a lot of people remember it is
I have the most boring business in the world. It's
test prep, all right. So, and I know that Shark
Tank is an entertainment TV show, and I knew that
they don't air all of the pitches, so I had
to make sure that I was interesting enough that they
(24:46):
would air my pitch. So I wrote down every interesting
story about my life related to how I started the business,
about entrepreneurship, about how my dad came to the US
with seventy dollars, and I was like, I'm going to
share these stories within the questions so that I can
make my pitch a little bit more interesting than essaykeeprap
(25:08):
and make it about the American dream. And you know,
all these larger themes. And it worked. It totally worked.
It was one of the most remembered and seen Shark
Tank pitches ever. And you know, the takeaway for entrepreneurs
out there is make your business, make yourself interesting. Think
the art of storytelling is so so important in any
(25:28):
business or any path you pursue.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Now again, now we're talking about pricing again.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
How did you say for that amount of money, I'm
gonna give up this amount of my business. How did
you come to that decision when it came to prep expert,
this is your baby, now decide it's a business. Now
the money can come your way, but you also have
to give up some of your brand.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
How'd you come to that decision?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, so at the time, you know, we weren't a
huge business. I think we were doing about half a
million in revenue per year, so I had priced it
at so I used the strategy, which was I knew
the Sharks were going to negotiate on the equity, so
I would be comfortable at a quarter million for twenty percent.
(26:15):
But I went in asking for a quarter million for
ten percent, having knowing that I'm going to have that
ten percent negotiation room. And Mark Cuban must have read
the room perfectly. You must have been in my head
because he said I'm only doing a quarter million for
twenty percent, and I said that's my limit, and we
shook hands and we ask you yeah, so laid out
(26:36):
to a t. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
You know this whole thing about you know, social media,
word about website traffic. What type of website traffic does
you do you generate? Now that let you know, Wow,
there's a lot of people through curiosity, through trying to
get understand this brand is really blowing you away. Talk
to us about the social media aspect of marketing, the
(27:00):
website traffic part of the business.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Oh amazing. Yeah, So, I mean, just to give you
an idea. When we first started, I think our first
year in business, we had about ten thousand hits to
the website and now fifteen years later, we get about
two million hits to the website on an annual basis,
which is pretty incredible. You know, what is that twenty
x or something like that.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And so you so call, you so called, don't worry
about you so call.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And we've produced over fifty million in revenue. Now I
think I told you we did half a million a
year when we were on Shark Tank. We are just
crushing it on every We have a you know, email
and social media list of two hundred thousand followers, and
that's just a function of doing good work for a
long period of time, building a brand. I think a
lot of people don't talk about building a brand enough.
(27:50):
You know, as I mentioned, our brand is change your score,
change your life, and a lot of people like to
follow that message because they know the importance of education
and how it can change your lives. I'm a result
of that myself, my own personal story, but also all
my students and hopefully in the larger scheme of things. Really,
what I want to embody is the American dream. Go
(28:11):
back to meritocracy, go back to working hard and getting
rewarded for it, whether that's in business or in education,
and that's what we embody.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Wow, you know this is a I looked up and
I went wow. Twenty six minutes and it's just it's
just been a fun interview.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Like again, I have just compliment you on your personality,
compliments you on your vision. Is a great story, but
also you're changing lives and that's what really excites me
about being able to be a part of your life,
you know, be able to share this information to people
who are trying to give their child or themselves an
opportunity to exceed with that note. I know parents come
(28:50):
to you, do adults come to you? You know, who
are post high school gets into these course And what's
the difference in those type of people versus the parents
bringing their child to be part of prep expert.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah. So for the most part, it is parents of
high school students. But there are some adults we've had
who will come to us who are going to go
back to school and they need an SAT or ACT score.
And you know what's funny is those are often the
most motivated because they've been out in the real world
and the real world is not as kind as the
education worlds as I know having been in business and education,
(29:27):
and they so they work the hardest, they do the best.
We've had really remarkable stories of adults doing well with
our courses.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Too cool, close out this man, what's the future? Brother
for prep Expert? You already talked about the thens, the doctors,
the teachers, the lawyers, probably congressmen who you actually took
taking your course, and it really is it really is
a system where you can take control of your lives.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
You know, I was a poor test taker.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I think I made like seven to fifty on my
SAT Okay, Yeah, I got a degree in mathematics and
minor in sociology, so I was just a poor test taker.
So you could have really changed my life if I
knew about you when I was in high school, but
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Those type of things didn't exist, but it exists today.
So what's the future and what's the brand deal of
the scale?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah? Yeah, So I think, as I mentioned, over the
past decade, we've helped students win over one hundred million
in scholarships. So over the next decade, I want to
take that a step further. I'm on a billion dollar
scholarship mission. I want to help students win over one
billion dollars in scholarships, get those thousand, two hundred thousand
dollars full ride scholarships through their test scores, through college admissions,
(30:39):
and change their lives. Because if I can financially remove
your student debt when college is so so expensive, I've
changed your life forever. Because now you're financially free after
college or after your graduate education to pursue your passions.
You can have more freedom in the careers and the
entrepreneurship choices you make. And so that's really the future
(31:02):
vision that I have is to help hundreds of thousands
of students eliminate their student debt, get billions in scholarships,
and do that over the next decade, to change their
scores and change their lives.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Thank you, brother, I really really appreciate you coming on
Money Making Conversations master Class.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Thank you Sean, Thank you Rashwan.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me. And I'm
going to do a shameless plug any parents the students interested,
check out prepexpert dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Don't worry, brother, we say a prep expert enough, they
know where to go. I know how to plug your baby.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, I trust me.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I know.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
on the show today and thank you listen to the
audience now.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Join us next.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Week and remember to all always leave with your gifts.
Keep winning.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Mm hmmmmm
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