Meet the Founder
I have a beautiful wife, I’m a partner in nine different businesses, I’m the 2007 U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year for the great state and “Tourism Capital of the World” Oklahoma, and I’m the co-producer of five kids. Much like many of you, I was raised in a home with limited financial resources in which the concept of “Thriving” or living at one’s peak was never really discussed. I had to take Algebra three times and I had to take my ACT multiple times just to get into college.
Because I’m a “honey badger,” a “delusional optimist,” a man just pig-headed and ambitious enough to believe that I could overcome my financial circumstances, I started a business out of my college dorm room called, DJ Connection. I had a goal of building a million-dollar business and hiring my dad at some point. However, along the way I was actually kicked out of college for co-writing a parody rap song about Oral Roberts University’s President. He didn’t find the rap song to be as funny as I did. In addition to “being strongly encouraged to pursue educational opportunities elsewhere” by the college of my choice, I made every possible mistake while trying to grow my business.
Searching for a Mentor
This concept of not “reinventing the wheel” blew me away! I was self-aware enough to realize that I was a highly motivated and fast moving speed boat without a rudder. I was going 90 miles per hour, but I was getting nowhere. I realized that I was in need of a millionaire mentor. So I started cold-calling the most successful people I knew of. In fact, I started calling this best-selling author guy, whose life was turned into a major motion picture and who was a partner at a bank.
However, what stood out to me and what made me call him was the fact that although he is African American and massively successful, he grew up during the time of “LEGAL SEGREGATION” (yes, he is actually old enough to have experienced this ignorance and ridiculous racism firsthand). If you can believe it, he was not actually allowed to walk into the front door of banks during his childhood. My logic for reaching out to Clifton Taulbert was really pretty simple; if he was able to overcome poverty, racism, and the feelings of abandonment that often go hand-in-hand with being raised by people who are not your biological parents, then he probably knew something about achieving success that I needed to know.
The Success Mindset
Clifton taught me about the mindset I needed to have and the poverty mindset I currently had. He encouraged me to not dress like “Eminem” like I currently did (at the age of 19) and to dress how I wanted to be addressed. He taught me about the importance of understanding that “success is a choice.” He taught me about the difference between the growth mindset and fixed mindset. He taught me that if I was going to be successful I was going to have to start making different choices. Clifton changed my life.
Thinking and Growing Rich with Napoleon Hill
After I harassed Clifton past the point of acceptability, I began reading the timeless self-help classic, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, per the instruction of my boss at the time, Jeremy Thorn. I began to read and devour the countless case studies and books written by Harvard Business School professors. Over a two year window I began to create a pattern that was producing predictable success. I would study successful people and then I would apply their success principles and philosophies into my own life and business. I began to realize that if I studied successful people and businesses and began to apply their philosophies in my own life and business, then I too would become successful.
Study. Learn. Apply. Boom! Repeat.
Over the years I began reaching out to even more successful people including the former Boxing Heavy Weight Champion of the World, George Foreman, NBA Hall of Fame Player and successful entrepreneur David Robinson, Chet Cadieux the President of the billion dollar QuikTrip chain of convenience stores, David Green, the founder of the billion dollar Hobby Lobby company, and countless other millionaire and billionaire mentors.
Success is Predictable
Soon I realized something. The millionaires and the everyday success stories I met essentially all had VERY SIMILAR MINDSETS and TOOK VERY SIMILAR DAILY ACTION STEPS. Some were old, some were young, some were women, and some were men, yet they all seemed to abide by the same universal success philosophies, best-practices, and systems whether they knew it or not. These successful people all aggressively and relentlessly studied successful people and businesses so that they could apply the success philosophies and principles they learned in their own lives and businesses.
The Quest to Scale Mentorship from Millionaires and Everyday Success Stories
I finally began to realize that the path to success is a predictable formula. I had my own “epiphany” about how anybody can truly get on the “road to riches” and the “path to success.” After a while, I too found myself being approached by countless aspiring entrepreneurs and existing business owners who were seeking mentorship. Soon I was asked to speak at countless events and even more people began reaching out to me for advice and mentorship.
To meet this demand for my “business coaching” services I began to sell my businesses one by one so that I could focus on my new found passion for helping people learn what they need to know to successfully start and grow a business of their own. However, unlike my previous ventures, I found that offering high-quality business coaching was not scalable or affordable for most people, yet the need for mentorship from proven business leaders was massive.
What if I could provide a scalable and affordable solution that could provide entrepreneurs, “in-trepreneurs,” business owners, and motivated employees a platform where they could go to learn what they need to know to start or grow a successful business? What if I could create practical, high-quality, and engaging step-by-step business training that was actually provided by millionaires, mentors, and everyday success stories for less money than most people spend on their cell phone or cable bills each month? And what if we could make this training interactive and fun so that you wouldn’t slip into a boredom-induced coma while learning?
No time. No money. No problem.
In a fast-changing world starting or growing a successful business can feel overwhelming. We can either learn from mentors or mistakes. That’s why the 24/7 access to world-class mentorship that Thrive15.com provides is so powerful. The mentorship and training that we provide here at Thrive15.com provides people like you with a pain-free way to learn.
As an entrepreneur, knowing what to do and how to do it is often the difference between turning a profit and losing your shirt. At Thrive15.com you can truly learn everything you need to know to start or grow a successful business. You can learn sales, marketing, public relations, accounting, and everything you’ll ever need to know to start or grow your business.
As a Thrive15.com member, you can learn whatever you need to know, whenever you need to know it – 24 hours a day. Thrive15.com is designed to provide you with practical mentorship and training when you need it.
Building the World's Best Entrepreneurial Training Tool
At first I never really thought that building Thrive15.com would require a massive amount of capital. I thought I would just assemble a team of video dudes and non-video dudes to interview a bunch of gurus and throw up some videos about things entrepreneurs needed to learn. However, soon I began to discover these things called MOOCs (massive open online courses). As I began watching many of them I realized firsthand how truly awful most of them were. After spending too much time watching the terrible online entrepreneurship courses my brain nearly exploded and then I became extremely motivated to solve this problem in the most high-quality, engaging, gamified, and entertaining way possible.
Just like in my other business ventures, I realized that if I was going to build Thrive15.com, I was going to have to build something that customers loved and that I was in love with. I realized that I was going to have to assemble a “Dream Team” and that I was going to have to spend a boatload of cash on creating the most engaging and best entrepreneurial training content on the planet. That is exactly what Thrive15.com has done. And so without any further ado, I encourage you to meet the team that is fundamentally transforming the way entrepreneurs like you are learning. These are the people who are instrumental in creating the gamified entrepreneurial edutainment you can find on Thrive15.com.