Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Info You Can Use: Students won $100 million in scholarships after receiving "Prep Expert" SAT/ACT training.

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Info You Can Use: Students won $100 million in scholarships after receiving "Prep Expert" SAT/ACT training. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: Hi, I am Rashan McDonald, our host this weekly Money
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Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this
0:06
Speaker 1: show provides off for everyone. It's time to start reading
0:09
Speaker 1: other people's success stories and start living your own. If
0:13
Speaker 1: you want to be a guest on my show, please
0:15
Speaker 1: visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com and click the
0:20
Speaker 1: bi a Guest button and submit your information. Now let's
0:23
Speaker 1: get your show rolling, my guests. The founder and CEO
0:26
Speaker 1: of Prep Expert. Prep Expert has helped more than one
0:30
Speaker 1: hundred thousand students improved a SAT and ACT scores, get
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Speaker 1: into top colleges, and went over this check this out
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Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars in scholarship. Prep Expert offers online
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Speaker 1: SAT and ACT courses, academic trudering and college admissions consultant.
0:48
Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. When you say
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Speaker 1: one hundred million, he is a Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Guests,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Sean Patel, How you doing, Sean?
1:00
Speaker 2: Hey, Rashaan, how are you happy to be here? Thanks
1:02
Speaker 2: for having me?
1:03
Speaker 3: Okay?
1:03
Speaker 1: When it is August started, Prep Expert, How did this
1:06
Speaker 1: get out of that mind?
1:07
Speaker 3: That brain?
1:08
Speaker 1: What what initiated that thought process prep expert.
1:12
Speaker 2: Great question. So, uh, this actually started off as a
1:16
Speaker 2: side hustle for me and turned into a seven figure business. Now,
1:21
Speaker 2: so the way it got there was actually as many
1:24
Speaker 2: great businesses do, which is out of my own experience.
1:28
Speaker 2: You know, I was like many of the students and
1:30
Speaker 2: parents listening to this podcast and that I was not
1:33
Speaker 2: a great test taker. I was good in school, got
1:36
Speaker 2: good math and science English grades, but had a lot
1:41
Speaker 2: of test anxiety. I went to urban public schools in Vegas, which,
1:46
Speaker 2: if you know anything about Vegas, it's not known for
1:48
Speaker 2: its education. So we had like a close to a
1:51
Speaker 2: you know, thirty forty percent dropout rate, and so my
1:55
Speaker 2: parents didn't go to college here in the US. Didn't
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Speaker 2: know the first thing about test prep, college a mission
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Speaker 2: and scholarships. But I did know I wanted a high
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Speaker 2: SAT score. Problem was first one I took. I scored
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Speaker 2: about average, and so I then spent hundreds of hours
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Speaker 2: in the library studying for the SAT. Eventually raised my
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Speaker 2: score six hundred and forty points to get a perfect
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Speaker 2: SAT score, which is something that only zero point zero
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Speaker 2: two percent of all students achieve. That completely changed my life.
2:27
Speaker 2: Got into the nation's top universities, got a half a
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Speaker 2: million dollars in scholarships, even got to meet the President
2:33
Speaker 2: of the United States. And so when I got to college,
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Speaker 2: I wanted to help other students improve their test scores.
2:40
Speaker 2: I started prep Expert. In the very first six week
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Speaker 2: SAT course my students ever took, they had an average
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Speaker 2: score improvement of three hundred and seventy six points in
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Speaker 2: just six weeks. So that's equivalent of taking a student
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Speaker 2: from the fiftieth percentile and putting them in the ninetieth
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Speaker 2: percent tile, totally changing their college and scholarship opportunities. Of course,
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Speaker 2: I had parents and students who wanted more courses, so
3:02
Speaker 2: I began training other instructors to teach my curriculums and
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Speaker 2: the rest is history. Over the past fifteen years, as
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Speaker 2: you mentioned, we've helped over one hundred thousand students improve
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Speaker 2: their test scores, get into top colleges, and went over
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Speaker 2: one hundred million scholarships. Of course, the highlight of the
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Speaker 2: company was on ABC Shark.
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Speaker 1: That's not good there yet, I want to stay on
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Speaker 1: you because to be a highlight, you have to start.
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Speaker 3: Something and you have to learn how to see something.
3:26
Speaker 3: Because That's what made.
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Speaker 1: It happened successfully when you went to Shark Tank. Now
3:31
Speaker 1: this whole process, you know, like you said, at Perfect
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Speaker 1: Score your person that sometimes people would through stereotype, would
3:39
Speaker 1: assume you're supposed to get that your hard, stude and
3:42
Speaker 1: hard working. But you said, Rashan, I was a bad
3:44
Speaker 1: taste taker and I had to learn, and through this
3:47
Speaker 1: learning process, I developed this curriculum. And now you converted
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Speaker 1: that curriculum to something that you're making money off of. Now,
3:54
Speaker 1: in the process of developing that curriculum, welcome through the
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Speaker 1: steps of the dudes and don't of what you had
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Speaker 1: to do to make it common to everyday people to understand.
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Speaker 2: You know, when I was trying to create the curriculum,
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Speaker 2: I was actually I wasn't ever trying to start a course. Instead,
4:09
Speaker 2: I was trying to write a book. You know, I thought,
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Speaker 2: I've got this great idea. I'm going to write the
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Speaker 2: first SAT Prep book by a perfect Score student. Everyone's
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Speaker 2: gonna love it. It's gonna sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
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Speaker 2: And so I pitched this book proposal out to hundreds
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Speaker 2: of literary agents and publishers, and you know, they put
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Speaker 2: me in my place they say, you don't have a
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Speaker 2: platform to write the book. The SAT prep markets too competitive,
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Speaker 2: there's no way this book's going to work. And so
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Speaker 2: you know, I was really discouraged at that point. And
4:42
Speaker 2: the way that I was writing my book material was
4:45
Speaker 2: to your point. I was trying to make it relatable
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Speaker 2: and easy to understand for the average student, because I
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Speaker 2: was really average test taker myself, so I knew which
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Speaker 2: strategies really resonated with me, for like how to read
5:01
Speaker 2: passages or how to do algebra problems, and which ones
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Speaker 2: were just way too complicated complex that wouldn't resonate with
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Speaker 2: most students. And so that's really how I wrote my
5:10
Speaker 2: book material. Of course, the book material, you know, when
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Speaker 2: you're writing a book, you really have to think about
5:15
Speaker 2: your audience and how to make it simple. But that
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Speaker 2: translated perfectly into the course because I was like, I
5:21
Speaker 2: could just take all this material and now teach it
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Speaker 2: in a course format, and it did work. It made
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Speaker 2: it super easy for others to learn. And the funny
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Speaker 2: story is that, you know, after about a year or
5:34
Speaker 2: two of doing the courses, McGraw Hill, the world's largest
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Speaker 2: education publisher, who had previously rejected me, said, hey, we'll
5:42
Speaker 2: give you the book deal. Now, we ended up doing
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Speaker 2: the book. It sold over, you know, fifty thousand copies.
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Speaker 2: We went number one on Amazon for US at prep
5:50
Speaker 2: and so it was funny how my original idea to
5:52
Speaker 2: do the book didn't come to fruition until I took
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Speaker 2: this other path of you know, setting up my own
5:57
Speaker 2: courses in business.
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Speaker 1: And well, we talk about a lot on this show.
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Speaker 1: Don't next you have the word no, you know, modify
6:03
Speaker 1: your vision, follow through, and see your dream despite rejection.
6:08
Speaker 1: And that's the classic case right there. People rejected your
6:10
Speaker 1: idea because they didn't understand or maybe Sean, you didn't
6:14
Speaker 1: know how to pitch it.
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Speaker 3: Is that your case? Two?
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Speaker 2: Oh definitely. I mean I think through all the rejections,
6:20
Speaker 2: as I've been through hundreds of rejections, whether it's literary agents, publishers, media,
6:27
Speaker 2: I didn't know how to pitch in the beginning. Oh,
6:29
Speaker 2: I was stuttering. I was not presenting myself well on
6:33
Speaker 2: phone calls, on business investments, whatever it may be. And
6:37
Speaker 2: that's one of the beauties of entrepreneurship is you can
6:40
Speaker 2: really hone your presentation and your pitch skills, but you
6:44
Speaker 2: have to go through sucking at it first, everyone sucks
6:48
Speaker 2: out averse and you know there are some people who
6:50
Speaker 2: are just naturals, but I'd say most people have to
6:53
Speaker 2: hone their pitch, hone their ability to sell, hone their
6:56
Speaker 2: skills to present and pitch. And that only comes with
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Speaker 2: a lot of practice and a lot of rejection. And
7:03
Speaker 2: it's only those that are willing to go through the
7:05
Speaker 2: rejection that are going to get really good.
7:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, we know.
7:07
Speaker 1: When I do these type of shows, Sean, I always
7:10
Speaker 1: like to hold people's attention. You know, I already get
7:12
Speaker 1: them one hundred thousand students, one hundred million dollars in scholarships,
7:16
Speaker 1: SAT ACT. We all know parents want their kids to
7:21
Speaker 1: do well. From your words, people are listening, why should
7:24
Speaker 1: they take Prep Expert versus the competition?
7:28
Speaker 2: And I can put it into our brand motto, which
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Speaker 2: is change your score, change your life. That's our brand.
7:35
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is when you come
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Speaker 2: to Prep Expert, you're going to take our courses. Your
7:40
Speaker 2: student's going to do well on the SAT and ACT,
7:43
Speaker 2: but not only that, they're going to open up their
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Speaker 2: college and scholarship opportunities. We've had students win half a
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Speaker 2: million million, quarter million, one hundred thousand dollars in scholarships
7:52
Speaker 2: totally eliminate their student debt. But not only that, they're
7:56
Speaker 2: going to change their lives because in our courses, we
7:58
Speaker 2: also teach life. We teach you about time management, how
8:02
Speaker 2: to study effectively, how to be more productive, how to
8:06
Speaker 2: realize your dreams. We give them a goal score in
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Speaker 2: the beginning, and we have them visualize and manifest their
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Speaker 2: scores and their future careers. No other test prep company
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Speaker 2: is doing this, and so we're teaching them at fifteen, sixteen,
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Speaker 2: seventeen years old, how to be better with their time,
8:23
Speaker 2: be more productive, how to have goals. And I mean,
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Speaker 2: how valuable is that for you know, I know we're
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Speaker 2: a test prep course, but we teach you so much more.
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Speaker 2: And that's why we say, change your score, change your life.
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Speaker 2: We have students now, since we've been doing this for
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Speaker 2: fifteen years who are executives that NVIDIA, who are dermatologists,
8:40
Speaker 2: plastic surgeons. They've become very successful in their lives. And
8:44
Speaker 2: I know we're just a small portion of it, but
8:46
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that we planted a lot of those seeds
8:48
Speaker 2: on how to be successful very early on in their
8:51
Speaker 2: lives as high school students.
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Speaker 1: Right I'm talking to doctor Sean Ptail. He founded in
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Speaker 1: the CEO of Prep Expert Prep expt to have more
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Speaker 1: than one hundred thousand students improve their SAT and ACT scores,
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Speaker 1: get in the top colleges, which is key, and win
9:08
Speaker 1: over get this one hundred million dollars in scholarships. When
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Speaker 1: you talk about the process, because this is online, some
9:16
Speaker 1: people might say that's very impersonal.
9:18
Speaker 3: You know, online you can't touch anybody.
9:20
Speaker 1: How do you break that wall and make people feel
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Speaker 1: comfortable or students especially who sometimes can have a very
9:27
Speaker 1: short attention span.
9:29
Speaker 3: Because this is what this interview is about.
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Speaker 1: I'm excited you have a brand that can change people's lives.
9:34
Speaker 1: But I also want people who are listening to understand
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Speaker 1: I want to go to this website right now and
9:40
Speaker 1: help my child become a better get a better opportunity
9:44
Speaker 1: to set to achieve and exceed. Talk to us about
9:47
Speaker 1: the process of contacting you and the steps.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the process to contact me and how our
9:55
Speaker 2: courses work is really parents or students who are interested.
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Speaker 2: They can head over to expert dot com and they
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Speaker 2: can view all of our online services. So we have
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Speaker 2: online SAT courses, online ACT courses, college admissions, consulting, one
10:10
Speaker 2: on one tutoring to your point, though, you know, many
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Speaker 2: parents may be concerned that you know, this is online,
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Speaker 2: it's not in person. And in twenty nineteen I probably
10:21
Speaker 2: would have said, you know what, you're right, But in
10:24
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, the whole world changed. COVID made everyone go online.
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Speaker 2: Students had to learn online. They're more comfortable learning online,
10:32
Speaker 2: I would say, than in person. Nowadays. The technology to
10:37
Speaker 2: learn online is so much better. We're doing this podcast
10:40
Speaker 2: online now, and you know, there's just so much more
10:44
Speaker 2: resources and more comfortability, especially among young people on learning
10:49
Speaker 2: online and learning in a live online environment. And so
10:54
Speaker 2: you know, students do absolutely fantastic in our online six
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Speaker 2: week SAT courses, online eight week online four week courses.
11:00
Speaker 2: But what I love about online is we can do
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Speaker 2: it live. So it's not just the you know, a
11:05
Speaker 2: self paced course where your student's never going to go
11:08
Speaker 2: through the video modules. They're learning from ninety nine percentile
11:12
Speaker 2: instructors who have all scored in the top one percent
11:15
Speaker 2: on these exams, who have thousands of hours of teaching experience.
11:18
Speaker 2: They can even learn from me directly. So when you
11:21
Speaker 2: learn from an expert or a mentor who's done it
11:23
Speaker 2: themselves and can give you the strategies, the shortcuts, the
11:26
Speaker 2: curriculum to do it. I mean, it just exponentially improves
11:31
Speaker 2: your success. And people in the business world know this.
11:33
Speaker 2: This is why you hire business coaches consultants who have
11:36
Speaker 2: done it before you. And I do that as an
11:39
Speaker 2: entrepreneur myself. I will pay people, you know, tens of
11:43
Speaker 2: thousands of dollars who have done what I'm trying to
11:46
Speaker 2: do to get there faster in entrepreneurship and business. And
11:50
Speaker 2: it's the same way in test prep and education.
11:52
Speaker 1: Now you said it earlier, just started out as a
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Speaker 1: side hustle, Sean, And when did you say the light
11:59
Speaker 1: bulb click? You know, I can make some money about that?
12:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. And uh, you know, it
12:09
Speaker 2: did start out as a side house. It literally started out.
12:11
Speaker 2: I wrote this curriculum in my college dorm room in
12:14
Speaker 2: my senior year of college, and I was like, you
12:18
Speaker 2: know what, I'll make a little bit of money over
12:20
Speaker 2: the summer. It's going to be, you know, just some
12:23
Speaker 2: pocket change, and you know, great. But what I realized
12:28
Speaker 2: was the students did so well in the first six
12:31
Speaker 2: week SAT course as I mentioned they had three almost
12:34
Speaker 2: four hundred point average score improvement incredible that I was not.
12:39
Speaker 2: Parents didn't let me just quit. They just said, hey,
12:43
Speaker 2: you got to do more courses. Like I literally had
12:46
Speaker 2: people calling my phone like, hey, my student couldn't take
12:48
Speaker 2: that course that you taught. Do you have another one
12:50
Speaker 2: coming up? And I was like, well no, but I
12:53
Speaker 2: guess I could. Right, So we started out. You know,
12:57
Speaker 2: that's when we and then what I realized is and
13:00
Speaker 2: this is when you know you have a good business.
13:01
Speaker 2: This is applicable to all the business people entrepreneurship people
13:04
Speaker 2: out there. The best marketing strategy is word of mouth.
13:09
Speaker 2: So it's when people tell your customers, your clients, they
13:13
Speaker 2: tell other customers and clients about you. Because literally, for
13:16
Speaker 2: the first five years of my business, we spent zero
13:19
Speaker 2: dollars on marketing, and we kept doubling our business year
13:23
Speaker 2: over year. And that tells you that it was just
13:26
Speaker 2: our students and parents telling other students and parents, Hey,
13:28
Speaker 2: you got to check out this course over here. My
13:30
Speaker 2: student did really well, and that's what you want as
13:33
Speaker 2: a business owner.
13:34
Speaker 3: Right.
13:35
Speaker 1: A couple of things before we get to the shock,
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Speaker 1: the shock tank experience. Okay, price points, Okay, you young entrepreneur,
13:43
Speaker 1: you got this idea. It's a side housetle making money.
13:46
Speaker 1: Now people are saying I need more, I need more
13:48
Speaker 1: your one man operation basically correct.
13:51
Speaker 2: Mm hmmah oh yeah. When I first started, I was
13:54
Speaker 2: a customer service teacher everything.
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Speaker 1: How did you set your price points early on? And
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Speaker 1: then we're going to talk about and what year did
14:04
Speaker 1: this all kind of like start?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So the way that I set my price points
14:10
Speaker 2: early on was how every entrepreneur sets them, which I
14:12
Speaker 2: think is the wrong way to set them. You look
14:15
Speaker 2: at the competition and you set it a little bit lower.
14:19
Speaker 3: That's true. Ye, that's true. That's true.
14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not the way to do it. And the
14:24
Speaker 2: way that I set them now is I set them
14:27
Speaker 2: by valuing our time. So what I you know, I
14:30
Speaker 2: set them on a per hour basis. So I think
14:32
Speaker 2: our courses are start at about fifteen or twenty dollars
14:37
Speaker 2: per hour, and that's a lot of value to learn
14:40
Speaker 2: from a ninety nine percent that's that's pretty twenty dollars
14:42
Speaker 2: an hour.
14:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's pretty long. It's pretty reasonable. But just gonna
14:45
Speaker 3: let you know that.
14:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so twenty bucks an hour, but it's a
14:49
Speaker 2: sixty hour course, so that comes out to twelve hundred dollars.
14:52
Speaker 2: So you know, when you look at it at twelve hundred,
14:54
Speaker 2: people say, oh my god. But I say, well, you
14:55
Speaker 2: got sixty hours with the top one percent mentor and instructor.
14:59
Speaker 2: You know, I think it comes out pretty reasonable to
15:01
Speaker 2: your point. So that's the way I price it now
15:04
Speaker 2: is I price it per hour because you know, once
15:07
Speaker 2: people hear that per hour rate, it's it's a lot
15:09
Speaker 2: more reasonable than hearing a package rate. And that's that
15:11
Speaker 2: would be a strategy I would suggest for all business owners.
15:14
Speaker 2: Value your time and price it out appropriately for your clients,
15:18
Speaker 2: because if you just tell them the twelve hundred dollars
15:20
Speaker 2: price at first, I'll say, oh no, I won't pay that.
15:22
Speaker 2: But if you say it's twenty bucks an hour, that's
15:24
Speaker 2: a lot more reasonable to when you break it down.
15:27
Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
15:30
Speaker 4: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
15:40
Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
15:45
Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
15:50
Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, because.
15:54
Speaker 3: That's what you did with me. You lay what you're
15:56
Speaker 3: twenty bucks an hour?
15:57
Speaker 1: I like that price total sixty hours, twelve hundred dollars.
16:03
Speaker 3: Okay.
16:04
Speaker 1: See I'm already in because you got me in with
16:06
Speaker 1: the twenty dollars an hour.
16:09
Speaker 3: Okay, I could work with that. Sixty hout. I could
16:11
Speaker 3: work with that. Now.
16:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're making money now now you want investors. See
16:16
Speaker 1: that's the part of this conversation I really need and
16:20
Speaker 1: it's all online. I'm trying to figure out why did
16:22
Speaker 1: you need investors or why did you feel the need
16:25
Speaker 1: to grow like that.
16:26
Speaker 2: So the reason that I needed investment was actually when
16:31
Speaker 2: I first started, it wasn't online, it was in person.
16:34
Speaker 2: So we were in Las Vegas, where I grew up,
16:38
Speaker 2: and you know, we opened a second location. But then
16:41
Speaker 2: I you know, opening locations, as you know in person
16:44
Speaker 2: locations is expensive, so we needed investment to start other cities.
16:50
Speaker 2: So we started opening in California, in Texas and Florida
16:55
Speaker 2: on the East coast. And the problem was that is one,
16:59
Speaker 2: it was expensive. But the bigger problem I ran into
17:02
Speaker 2: much later was twenty twenty, I couldn't have twelve kids
17:06
Speaker 2: in a small classroom because of the six foot rule,
17:09
Speaker 2: so we had to shut all our locations and then
17:12
Speaker 2: we pivoted fully online, which is where we're at today.
17:16
Speaker 3: Now.
17:17
Speaker 1: The year you launched it was what would you say,
17:19
Speaker 1: what was that year you launched it?
17:22
Speaker 2: We launched originally in my first set of courses was
17:25
Speaker 2: in the summer of twenty eleven, so we're coming up
17:28
Speaker 2: on fourteen years yet.
17:30
Speaker 3: Okay, cool?
17:30
Speaker 1: And then the shop tank experience.
17:33
Speaker 3: How did they come about and why? Yeah?
17:36
Speaker 2: So I was really looking for investment in about twenty
17:40
Speaker 2: fifteen sixteen time frames.
17:42
Speaker 3: This was a brick and mortar This is the brick
17:44
Speaker 3: and mortar style.
17:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, investment you wanted because that was the model that
17:49
Speaker 1: you had prior to COVID.
17:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was really the play I thought brick and mortar.
17:54
Speaker 2: And to your point, parents wanted in person before COVID.
17:56
Speaker 2: They didn't really they were scared of online courses, you know,
18:00
Speaker 2: they were like, we got to be in person. So
18:03
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, I was looking for investment to
18:05
Speaker 2: expand brick and mortar, expand our marketing because I feel
18:09
Speaker 2: like we had really maxed out what we could do
18:12
Speaker 2: with our couple locations in my hometown of Vegas, and
18:15
Speaker 2: I wanted to go further. So I went to a
18:18
Speaker 2: Shark Tank casting call pitch and I stood in line
18:22
Speaker 2: with five hundred other entrepreneurs and I was the last
18:25
Speaker 2: person in line. Because I'm always late. I was late
18:27
Speaker 2: to this interview and consistency. I waited eight nine hours
18:36
Speaker 2: to give a one minute pitch and the casting call
18:39
Speaker 2: producer was totally unimpressed with my pitch. I was like,
18:42
Speaker 2: We've done a million dollars in sales. I've been in
18:44
Speaker 2: the New York Times. I was saying all this stuff
18:46
Speaker 2: that I thought was impressive, and his face was stone cold.
18:50
Speaker 2: Until the very last second. I pulled out my book,
18:54
Speaker 2: my sat prep book that I had done with McGraw hill,
18:57
Speaker 2: and he noticed my face was on the cover and
18:59
Speaker 2: he could believe that I was a published author. And
19:02
Speaker 2: I think this is another great lesson for entrepreneurs. Having
19:06
Speaker 2: a book can produce so much authority for you. You
19:10
Speaker 2: become the expert in your field. And you know, he
19:14
Speaker 2: was like, can I have the book for my nephew?
19:16
Speaker 2: And I gave him the book and two weeks later
19:18
Speaker 2: they were calling me to be buying me out to
19:20
Speaker 2: La to be on the pitch Shark Tank. And it
19:24
Speaker 2: never would have happened if I didn't have the book,
19:25
Speaker 2: which kind of pieces everything together. You know, originally one
19:28
Speaker 2: of the book, book didn't happen, Book happened, Book happens.
19:30
Speaker 2: I get on Shark Tank. So it's kind of this
19:32
Speaker 2: weird string that I would have never been able to
19:35
Speaker 2: connect the dots until looking back.
19:37
Speaker 1: Now, now let's talk about brick and mortar versus own
19:41
Speaker 1: line when it comes to the quality of instructors that
19:44
Speaker 1: you're able to get because your own line. Because brick
19:48
Speaker 1: and mortar, they basically got to be in the city
19:50
Speaker 1: where they ad to go to that location. But because
19:54
Speaker 1: your own line, basically these instructors can reside anywhere. I
19:58
Speaker 1: would like to believe that you were able to raise
20:01
Speaker 1: the quality of people that you brought on board to
20:04
Speaker 1: be instructors for your prep expert correct.
20:07
Speaker 2: Oh big time. Yeah. Anytime you can increase your applicant pool,
20:12
Speaker 2: you're going to be able to have a higher quality
20:15
Speaker 2: of person fill that role for you. So instead of
20:17
Speaker 2: having to look in the certain cities we were in previously,
20:21
Speaker 2: now I can look in all fifty states, and what
20:24
Speaker 2: that does is we have a pretty high bar. As
20:27
Speaker 2: I mentioned, you know, we only hire ninety nine percentile scores.
20:31
Speaker 2: We only hire people with a ton of teaching experience.
20:33
Speaker 2: We have them do trials of online teaching for us
20:37
Speaker 2: before we hire them to see that they're personable, that
20:40
Speaker 2: they can teach well, that they can really command a classroom,
20:45
Speaker 2: et cetera. And it's really raised the bar by being
20:48
Speaker 2: able to do it online. So that's another big benefit
20:50
Speaker 2: that you pointed out for sure.
20:52
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about online because you're talking about it.
20:55
Speaker 1: You said the word classroom, So I'm going to look
20:57
Speaker 1: at it as a session, an online session. The instructor,
21:01
Speaker 1: what's the smallest session and what's the largest session that
21:04
Speaker 1: you have in these training courses.
21:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the smallest session is usually like ten to
21:10
Speaker 2: twenty students, and the largest session, some of our summer
21:15
Speaker 2: courses can get to like sixty students something like that.
21:18
Speaker 2: So they do get larger once you get into the
21:20
Speaker 2: more popular timeframes. With that being said, every student gets
21:25
Speaker 2: to ask their questions. We have teaching teaching assistants, we
21:29
Speaker 2: have office hours that they can attend to get even
21:33
Speaker 2: more of their questions answered, and we really try to
21:36
Speaker 2: make it like in on a classroom experience. You know,
21:40
Speaker 2: we have the students call us mister or doctor or whatever,
21:44
Speaker 2: you know, because it's important, you know, it's important that
21:47
Speaker 2: we go back to the basics of just you know, teaching, respect,
21:51
Speaker 2: classroom and and students love it like you'd be surprised,
21:57
Speaker 2: you wouldn't. You'd be surprised if you read our reviews
21:59
Speaker 2: up expert of the students like, I love this course.
22:02
Speaker 2: I really didn't think I was gonna like the cos
22:04
Speaker 2: I didn't think I was gonna like that, say, tea
22:05
Speaker 2: prop course. But I learned so much about you know,
22:07
Speaker 2: test prep. I learned so much about life, and I
22:09
Speaker 2: improve my score for hunder points and it's it's incredible,
22:13
Speaker 2: Like it's really really I love that we can do
22:16
Speaker 2: good for students and do well for ourselves at the
22:18
Speaker 2: same time.
22:19
Speaker 1: I would tell you this just on a personal note, Sean,
22:21
Speaker 1: You're very likable, you know, very engaging, and I think
22:25
Speaker 1: that reflects your business model prep expert, you.
22:28
Speaker 3: Know, I hope so it does reflect it, you know,
22:31
Speaker 3: very so. I would.
22:32
Speaker 1: I'm not shocked that you said that there's a level
22:34
Speaker 1: of enthusiasm and the level of care that you put
22:38
Speaker 1: into the whole process and people that you want to Yes,
22:41
Speaker 1: you are making money, but you also, like you said
22:43
Speaker 1: in the beginning, changing lives and then that's your legacy.
22:47
Speaker 1: You're building a legacy through academic training. That and that's
22:50
Speaker 1: what is the model which should drive this country and
22:54
Speaker 1: in any country that that wants to be an academic success.
22:58
Speaker 3: Now that's if you want to be a leader. I think.
23:01
Speaker 2: I know people talk about getting rid of test. I'll
23:03
Speaker 2: tell you China and India aren't getting rid of test.
23:05
Speaker 1: So we want to compete.
23:06
Speaker 3: We got, you know, on the show.
23:09
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure people understand their options out there.
23:12
Speaker 1: Like they said, there are some people I brought on
23:14
Speaker 1: the show, but your model was really engaging to me
23:17
Speaker 1: because I did my research.
23:19
Speaker 3: I liked those the extra the purpose.
23:21
Speaker 2: You know.
23:21
Speaker 3: It was like a.
23:22
Speaker 1: Student comes to you and they don't feel and I
23:25
Speaker 1: didn't feel they were going to be left with that
23:27
Speaker 1: one angle to be achieved success. Like you said, there
23:31
Speaker 1: are other ways you can communicate. They felt like, no,
23:36
Speaker 1: you're not in a building, but you're in a home,
23:39
Speaker 1: and this home is here to help you win. Now,
23:42
Speaker 1: you first went to Shark Tank. Let's get back over
23:44
Speaker 1: there because I want people to this amazing story because
23:47
Speaker 1: it changed your life financially. You can pitch at at
23:51
Speaker 1: one minute pitch, you pull out the book at the
23:52
Speaker 1: last minute. Two weeks later they call you, Okay, what
23:56
Speaker 1: did you do differently and how did you prep for
23:58
Speaker 1: the actual show or did they help you?
24:00
Speaker 3: The producers haamp you out.
24:02
Speaker 2: I'd spent hundreds Just like I spent hundreds of hours
24:05
Speaker 2: prepping for that SAT I spent hundreds of hours prepping
24:07
Speaker 2: for my Shark Tank pitch. I watched tape, I watched
24:11
Speaker 2: all the Shark Tank previous episodes. I wrote down every
24:14
Speaker 2: question that Mister Wonderful was asking, that Damon John was asking,
24:17
Speaker 2: that Mark Cuban was asking, and then I prepped you
24:20
Speaker 2: know answers. You know, one really unique thing I did
24:24
Speaker 2: that I thought was really important for my pitch, and
24:26
Speaker 2: why I think a lot of people remember it is
24:31
Speaker 2: I have the most boring business in the world. It's
24:33
Speaker 2: test prep, all right. So, and I know that Shark
24:36
Speaker 2: Tank is an entertainment TV show, and I knew that
24:40
Speaker 2: they don't air all of the pitches, so I had
24:43
Speaker 2: to make sure that I was interesting enough that they
24:46
Speaker 2: would air my pitch. So I wrote down every interesting
24:51
Speaker 2: story about my life related to how I started the business,
24:54
Speaker 2: about entrepreneurship, about how my dad came to the US
24:57
Speaker 2: with seventy dollars, and I was like, I'm going to
25:00
Speaker 2: share these stories within the questions so that I can
25:05
Speaker 2: make my pitch a little bit more interesting than essaykeeprap
25:08
Speaker 2: and make it about the American dream. And you know,
25:11
Speaker 2: all these larger themes. And it worked. It totally worked.
25:14
Speaker 2: It was one of the most remembered and seen Shark
25:17
Speaker 2: Tank pitches ever. And you know, the takeaway for entrepreneurs
25:21
Speaker 2: out there is make your business, make yourself interesting. Think
25:25
Speaker 2: the art of storytelling is so so important in any
25:28
Speaker 2: business or any path you pursue.
25:31
Speaker 3: Now again, now we're talking about pricing again.
25:34
Speaker 1: How did you say for that amount of money, I'm
25:38
Speaker 1: gonna give up this amount of my business. How did
25:40
Speaker 1: you come to that decision when it came to prep expert,
25:43
Speaker 1: this is your baby, now decide it's a business. Now
25:47
Speaker 1: the money can come your way, but you also have
25:49
Speaker 1: to give up some of your brand.
25:51
Speaker 3: How'd you come to that decision?
25:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so at the time, you know, we weren't a
25:57
Speaker 2: huge business. I think we were doing about half a
26:00
Speaker 2: million in revenue per year, so I had priced it
26:04
Speaker 2: at so I used the strategy, which was I knew
26:08
Speaker 2: the Sharks were going to negotiate on the equity, so
26:12
Speaker 2: I would be comfortable at a quarter million for twenty percent.
26:15
Speaker 2: But I went in asking for a quarter million for
26:17
Speaker 2: ten percent, having knowing that I'm going to have that
26:20
Speaker 2: ten percent negotiation room. And Mark Cuban must have read
26:23
Speaker 2: the room perfectly. You must have been in my head
26:25
Speaker 2: because he said I'm only doing a quarter million for
26:27
Speaker 2: twenty percent, and I said that's my limit, and we
26:30
Speaker 2: shook hands and we ask you yeah, so laid out
26:36
Speaker 2: to a t. Yeah, I love it.
26:38
Speaker 1: You know this whole thing about you know, social media,
26:41
Speaker 1: word about website traffic. What type of website traffic does
26:45
Speaker 1: you do you generate? Now that let you know, Wow,
26:50
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people through curiosity, through trying to
26:54
Speaker 1: get understand this brand is really blowing you away. Talk
26:57
Speaker 1: to us about the social media aspect of marketing, the
27:00
Speaker 1: website traffic part of the business.
27:02
Speaker 2: Oh amazing. Yeah, So, I mean, just to give you
27:05
Speaker 2: an idea. When we first started, I think our first
27:07
Speaker 2: year in business, we had about ten thousand hits to
27:10
Speaker 2: the website and now fifteen years later, we get about
27:14
Speaker 2: two million hits to the website on an annual basis,
27:18
Speaker 2: which is pretty incredible. You know, what is that twenty
27:21
Speaker 2: x or something like that.
27:23
Speaker 3: And so you so call, you so called, don't worry
27:25
Speaker 3: about you so call.
27:28
Speaker 2: And we've produced over fifty million in revenue. Now I
27:32
Speaker 2: think I told you we did half a million a
27:33
Speaker 2: year when we were on Shark Tank. We are just
27:37
Speaker 2: crushing it on every We have a you know, email
27:39
Speaker 2: and social media list of two hundred thousand followers, and
27:42
Speaker 2: that's just a function of doing good work for a
27:45
Speaker 2: long period of time, building a brand. I think a
27:47
Speaker 2: lot of people don't talk about building a brand enough.
27:50
Speaker 2: You know, as I mentioned, our brand is change your score,
27:53
Speaker 2: change your life, and a lot of people like to
27:55
Speaker 2: follow that message because they know the importance of education
27:58
Speaker 2: and how it can change your lives. I'm a result
28:01
Speaker 2: of that myself, my own personal story, but also all
28:04
Speaker 2: my students and hopefully in the larger scheme of things. Really,
28:08
Speaker 2: what I want to embody is the American dream. Go
28:11
Speaker 2: back to meritocracy, go back to working hard and getting
28:15
Speaker 2: rewarded for it, whether that's in business or in education,
28:18
Speaker 2: and that's what we embody.
28:20
Speaker 1: Wow, you know this is a I looked up and
28:22
Speaker 1: I went wow. Twenty six minutes and it's just it's
28:25
Speaker 1: just been a fun interview.
28:26
Speaker 3: Yeah.
28:27
Speaker 1: Like again, I have just compliment you on your personality,
28:30
Speaker 1: compliments you on your vision. Is a great story, but
28:33
Speaker 1: also you're changing lives and that's what really excites me
28:36
Speaker 1: about being able to be a part of your life,
28:39
Speaker 1: you know, be able to share this information to people
28:42
Speaker 1: who are trying to give their child or themselves an
28:45
Speaker 1: opportunity to exceed with that note. I know parents come
28:50
Speaker 1: to you, do adults come to you? You know, who
28:53
Speaker 1: are post high school gets into these course And what's
28:57
Speaker 1: the difference in those type of people versus the parents
29:00
Speaker 1: bringing their child to be part of prep expert.
29:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. So for the most part, it is parents of
29:06
Speaker 2: high school students. But there are some adults we've had
29:09
Speaker 2: who will come to us who are going to go
29:11
Speaker 2: back to school and they need an SAT or ACT score.
29:14
Speaker 2: And you know what's funny is those are often the
29:16
Speaker 2: most motivated because they've been out in the real world
29:19
Speaker 2: and the real world is not as kind as the
29:23
Speaker 2: education worlds as I know having been in business and education,
29:27
Speaker 2: and they so they work the hardest, they do the best.
29:29
Speaker 2: We've had really remarkable stories of adults doing well with
29:33
Speaker 2: our courses.
29:33
Speaker 1: Too cool, close out this man, what's the future? Brother
29:37
Speaker 1: for prep Expert? You already talked about the thens, the doctors,
29:40
Speaker 1: the teachers, the lawyers, probably congressmen who you actually took
29:45
Speaker 1: taking your course, and it really is it really is
29:49
Speaker 1: a system where you can take control of your lives.
29:53
Speaker 3: You know, I was a poor test taker.
29:55
Speaker 1: I think I made like seven to fifty on my
29:57
Speaker 1: SAT Okay, Yeah, I got a degree in mathematics and
30:01
Speaker 1: minor in sociology, so I was just a poor test taker.
30:04
Speaker 1: So you could have really changed my life if I
30:07
Speaker 1: knew about you when I was in high school, but
30:09
Speaker 1: I didn't.
30:10
Speaker 3: Those type of things didn't exist, but it exists today.
30:13
Speaker 3: So what's the future and what's the brand deal of
30:15
Speaker 3: the scale?
30:16
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, So I think, as I mentioned, over the
30:19
Speaker 2: past decade, we've helped students win over one hundred million
30:22
Speaker 2: in scholarships. So over the next decade, I want to
30:24
Speaker 2: take that a step further. I'm on a billion dollar
30:26
Speaker 2: scholarship mission. I want to help students win over one
30:30
Speaker 2: billion dollars in scholarships, get those thousand, two hundred thousand
30:34
Speaker 2: dollars full ride scholarships through their test scores, through college admissions,
30:39
Speaker 2: and change their lives. Because if I can financially remove
30:43
Speaker 2: your student debt when college is so so expensive, I've
30:47
Speaker 2: changed your life forever. Because now you're financially free after
30:52
Speaker 2: college or after your graduate education to pursue your passions.
30:56
Speaker 2: You can have more freedom in the careers and the
30:58
Speaker 2: entrepreneurship choices you make. And so that's really the future
31:02
Speaker 2: vision that I have is to help hundreds of thousands
31:04
Speaker 2: of students eliminate their student debt, get billions in scholarships,
31:09
Speaker 2: and do that over the next decade, to change their
31:11
Speaker 2: scores and change their lives.
31:12
Speaker 1: Thank you, brother, I really really appreciate you coming on
31:15
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations master Class.
31:17
Speaker 3: Thank you Sean, Thank you Rashwan.
31:19
Speaker 2: It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me. And I'm
31:21
Speaker 2: going to do a shameless plug any parents the students interested,
31:24
Speaker 2: check out prepexpert dot com.
31:26
Speaker 1: Don't worry, brother, we say a prep expert enough, they
31:29
Speaker 1: know where to go. I know how to plug your baby.
31:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I trust me.
31:38
Speaker 1: I know.
31:38
Speaker 2: Thank you.
31:39
Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass
31:42
Speaker 1: posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
31:45
Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you listen to the
31:48
Speaker 1: audience now.
31:49
Speaker 3: If you want to listen to any episode I want
31:51
Speaker 3: to be a guest on the show.
31:52
Speaker 1: Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Social media handle is money Making Conversation.
31:58
Speaker 3: Join us next.
31:58
Speaker 1: Week and remember to all always leave with your gifts.
32:01
Speaker 1: Keep winning.
32:02
Speaker 2: Mm hmmmmm