Zachary Babcock is the author of Prison To Promised Land, a book he wrote on his 5 year experience in prison about how anyone can find happiness and fulfillment in life, even after the loss of loved ones, drug addiction, and spending years in prison. Zachary is now an inspiring transformational speaker and life coach. He inspires lasting change in countless lives through his unique story of overcoming adversity and the lessons that he learned through his experience. Zachary also owns and runs his Facebook advertising agency to help entrepreneurs, online business owners, and small business owners market their message to sell their products and services.
Zachary has an incredible story of achievement and success in the face of extreme adversity and struggle. It was an honor to have him on the show. Here are some of the things Zachary and I talked about:
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Kylon talks about pressure and shares a personal story illustrating how pressure can be used as a tool to take things to the next level.
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At 19 years old Cathal dropped out of University in the UK to join a small team of four in Manchester to start building a social media marketing agency called Social Chain.
In the first year, the team grew to around 30 staff, and he worked as the Head of Campaigns, overseeing the execution of all client work. Since then, Social Chain has worked with brands such as Puma, Malibu, Comedy Central, BBC and Universal. 2016 saw Social Chain’s expansion to Berlin and even New York and their staff has grown to around 60.
Cathal has also recognized by Tech Insider as one of their "50 most influential people on Social Media"
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Just listen to the episode. Hackers stole $8,500 worth of bitcoin from my Bittrex account. If you are in cryptocurrency…this is an important lessons to learn! Don’t make the same mistakes I did!
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Sachet is an Indian-American entrepreneur specializing in mobile technology and marketing. With extensive knowledge in developing consumer products on the iOS and Android platforms, he has also been able to make several of them go viral; both independently, and through his companies. Currently, Sachet is focused on an anonymous, geolocation based social media app he launched with his partners, “Covertly.” He is also running his independent affiliate marketing business that he uses to fund his lifestyle. As a side hustle, Sachet trades his own capital on the cryptocurrency markets, A.K.A bitcoins & alt coins, and consults with his friends to do the same. Covertly has gotten over 150,000 downloads on the Apple App Store, and has raised $150,000 from investors at half a million dollar valuation. Sachet plans to double, or even triple that valuation within the next two fiscal quarters.
Sachet is the epitome of an the entrepreneur who has experienced the full spectrum of roller coaster rides in the process of building his businesses. In this episode we chat about being honest about who you are and how you feel in the public eye, and how the best way to build your personal brand is to start with being yourself. This idea has carried over into Sachet's business endeavors and has become the core philosophy behind his new app Covertly.
We also dive into cryptocurrency, and Sachet explains the basics very well.
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Kylon shares four business ideas that you can get started on today. These are all businesses that Kylon has built before as well.
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Micah dropped out of Cornell university to found Maidbot, a company on a mission to bring Rosie the Robot (kind of like The Jetsons TV show) to reality - starting with the world's first housekeeping robot for hotels. Maidbot is starting to attract some major customers such as The Marriott, and The Hilton...and just finished it’s first round of funding.
I really enjoyed talking with Micah. He's young, but he's sprinting out of the gate. What struck me most about this episode was Micah's mentality and reason for starting Maidbot. He actually worked in the industry he wanted to build a business in (hospitality), and experienced the problems and challenges within the space first-hand. With this knowledge he started working on solutions to solve those problems...which eventually turned into Maidbot. At the end of the day, being an entrepreneur and building great businesses is about solving people's problems by building a great solution. You won't know what solution to build, if you don't understand the problem, and you won't understand the problem, if you don't immerse yourself in the market.
Micah's advice at the end of the episode is gold!
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Kylon explores what success really means. Success is relative. Do you really want to be a millionaire? Or do you just want to LIVE like a millionaire?
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The epitome of what it means to be a life hacker, Maneesh Sethi went to travel the world using hacked plane tickets shortly after graduating from Stanford University. He created his website, Hack the System, with the intention of showing his readers how to achieve the lifestyle of their dreams (and teaching them how to get free plane tickets). His latest project, Pavlok, is a little magical haptic feedback wearable that helps train habits, improve athletic performance, and train learning. Know more about Maneesh and Pavlok here (pavlok.com).
I had a great time talking with Maneesh...the dude has done a lot, to say the least. It's clear that his passion lies in hacking well established systems that few people attempt to hack themselves or even think of hacking. Education, credit cards, music, fitness, habits...he seems to have a hack for it all. Maneesh is definitely the epitome of an unconventional thinker and doer...you'll also love his stories and experiences. Heck, I looked up his youtube channel and there was a video of him and Tim Ferriss slapping each other. Haha.
We talk about:
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In this episode Kylon explores what to do when you feel like you have too many interests and you are not sure what to pursue. If you are a student, and you are paralyzed by indecision, this episode is for you. Listen to it right meow.
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Man, I really enjoyed this conversation with Brett!
I don't often share interviews of myself personally, but I thought this one was really special. This is actually part 2 in a continuing series/collaboration between Brett Veinotte of School Sucks Podcast: The END of Public Education, and myself. Part 1 was me interviewing Brett and you can find that here.
In this episode, Brett was supposed to be interviewing me for his audience, but it ended up turning into a lively conversation between the two of us. I enjoyed the heck out of it and so I decided to post it for the Successful Dropout community to enjoy as well.
Brett is such an awesome dude. We talk about everything from religion to budgeting and beyond:
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...Aaaaaand yet again another resurrected episode. To those of you who have been expecting new content on Fridays, it's coming back, I promise! Things have just been a little crazy in my world lately and so it works well for me to re-purpose some of my old content from a year ago that didn't get many downloads to begin with. BUT, this particular subject, talking with your parents about opting or dropping out, has been a question I still get often. So here is the answer and the strategy once again for everyone to hear!
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When Andrew Schneck was in college, he broke up with girls to spend more time in the library studying finance and long term investing. His interest in this led him to study more than half of the 3000 public companies in the US, attend shareholder meetings, and he even got in touch with a few billionaires. This activity put him on the map at his school as a hard working and budding entrepreneur. It wasn’t long until a college buddy’s father invited Andrew to join him in building a healthcare business. In 2016 Andrew went from 0-100 quickly as the healthcare business grew.
It was really a pleasure to have Andrew on the show since we have been friends on social media for a long time now. He is very active in the Successful Dropout community, Facebook group, and in entrepreneurial circles as well. Love what he is doing to solve a huge problem through entrepreneurship!
In this episode we:
My favorite quote from Andrew:
"Society tells you, 'hey you're supposed to row the boat, you're supposed to row it here, you're supposed to row across the lake etc'...and then you look down and the boat is actually a skateboard and you're like, 'what the hell is going on?'"
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This is actually another old episode that I decided to resurrect. Again, it has too few downloads and it's such an important concept! For several months I put out content that barely anyone listened to, and now that there's actually a substantial audience I don't want people to miss some of the great content from the earlier days. I'm especially fond of this episode because it explains my reasoning behind signing off every blog post and episode with "stay hungry, stay foolish". I really believe the philosophy behind this phrase is essential to the core philosophy of what it means to be a Successful Dropout.
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*My apologies for the audio here guys...not sure what happened. Guess I should have gone to college for audio engineering. Dang it. ;)*
Jimmy Tomzak lives to inspire. He's launched multiple creative ventures, commercialized inventions, and built a rich network of personal and professional relationships. His work has earned awards including recognition as a Crain's Detroit Business 20 in their 20's honoree, a Maker Faire Blue Ribbon, plus honors from organizations like the Elks National Foundation where he was named Alum of the Year. Jimmy has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN and other prominent media. His new book, "Lakeside & Tide", hit top 100 on Amazon Kindle and #1 in its category. Jimmy is an author and speaker who tells his story to audiences internationally. He recently gave the TED talk, "Living Your Best Life Now Starts Today."
I loved talking with Jimmy. In this episode we chatted about what success really means to both of us, and how many people have ideas in their head of what success looks like to them without putting much thought into whether or not they will actually enjoy and be fulfilled by that idea of success.
What if making a million dollars a year isn't REALLY what you want? What if everything you ever wanted in life could be achieved earning only $100,000 a year?
What if instead of setting financial goals, you set lifestyle goals? How much free time do you want to have? What kind of work do you want to do? WHO do you want to spend your time with and HOW do you want to spend your time?
What if your idea of success is more inspired by what society thinks than what you would ACTUALLY enjoy and find fulfilling for yourself?
It's an important question to wrestle with.
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This is actually an older episode that I decided to resurrect. It has too few downloads and it's such an important concept!
Get in the habit of just in time learning. You will be more efficient, and you will retain more knowledge since you are learning in the context of something you are genuinely curious about and working towards. Just in case learning is for recreation. As much as you can, learn things in the context of taking action. Simple as that. :)
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Tom Szaky is the Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, one of the world’s leaders in eco-capitalism and the reuse of non-recyclable, pre and post-consumer waste. In 2002 he left Princeton University to spend all his time growing TerraCycle, which began as a two-man outfit out of his dorm room. Since then Tom and and TerraCycle have experienced great success. In 2010, TerraCycle was named the #288th fastest growing privately held company in America by Inc. Magazine and in 2016, Fortune magazine listed TerraCycle as one of “7 World-Changing Companies to Watch.”...among many other awards, publications, and successes.
I didn't think I could ever get excited about garbage, but Tom's passion is contagious and his ingenuity is inspiring.
One of my favorite quote from Tom (slightly paraphrased):
"Entrepreneurship is a mountain of failure, and the outside - the crust of the mountain is the success, and the more you take risks and the more you inevitably fail, the more success you'll end up having. We usually only see the entrepreneur on the outside because that's what the magazines talk about, but we don't see all the failures that led to that point."
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
This week Kylon shares a personal story of depression, worry, and anxiety. He uses this story to talk about how to kick the habit of worrying in the a$$.
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Brett Veinotte has worked in education for the last 17 years, in a variety of capacities. Most recently, he was the vice president of a tutoring and educational consulting company in New Hampshire. Brett began working as a counselor and outdoor educator at a boarding school in Vermont in 2000, and was eventually promoted to lead teacher of a specialized campus. He then taught at a private day school in Manchester, Vermont from 2004 to 2006, where he designed new curricula for all classes he taught, including American History, World History, Media Ethics, Film History and a variety of mathematics courses. He completed masters level coursework in educational leadership, and the secondary education certification program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. After leaving classroom teaching in 2006, Brett began to work exclusively as a private tutor in the greater Boston area. Much of this work was related to standardized test prep but also included providing essay writing support to college applicants, leading training sessions for prospective teachers planning to take state certification exams and serving as a liaison between parents and public schools to address student needs and parent concerns.
I discovered Brett through the School Sucks Podcast and Youtube channel where he teaches thousands of people the art of self-education, critical-thinking, self-knowledge, personal growth, and a whole lot more. Loved chatting with this guy!
Here are a few of the things we discussed:
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
This week Kylon chats with Derek Magill. Derek helps people skip college, build a career, and educate themselves. He is also the Director of Marketing at Praxis and the author of an upcoming book on building an unconventional career.
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Gautam is the founder of Peeyr.com, a peer education marketplace that connects top high-school and college students to their peers for in-person tutoring sessions. He's a high-school dropout on a mission to create more opportunity within our education system and help students find their passion. Previously, he launched satus.org, a "How to Start a Startup" program for young founders and was a partner at Ankorhem, a product design agency based in Dallas. He's 19 years old.
Gautam is another Successful Dropout who is changing the way we educate ourselves. I had an absolute blast chatting with him and I love the "why" behind everything he does. Everything he's built, he's built to solve a problem or challenge that he himself experienced...I think that's the essence of entrepreneurship - building creative solutions to solve problems, and the best way to do that is to solve your own problems.
Here are some of the topics we cover in this episode:
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Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.
Kylon shares some insight from entrepreneur and philosopher Derek Sivers on how to make life sized decisions.
I enjoyed this episode because Dallas is really the first "blue collar" guest we've had on the show. He's a great example of the fact that you can have a lot of success in the skilled labor and trade industries without a college degree or even a high school diploma. It was great to chat with him because one of my first jobs and eventually my first business was in the trades, so we had that in common. I notice that a lot of people tend to shy away from blue collar work, or they view it as less desirable than, say, working at a startup. But there is a lot of value in learning a trade, and if you enjoy hands-on work plus instant and tangible results, you would probably enjoy a career in the trades, and developing a great career here is very possible!
Eric is a former philosophy student and screenwriter and an accomplished writer and researcher. He is best known for his blog Barking Up The Wrong Tree, which has been around since 2009. Much of the blog’s popularity is due to how useful it is to people and there are currently just under 300,000 subscribers to Eric’s newsletter. His blog topics typically revolve around science-based answers and expert insight on how to be awesome at life.
I shared a post of Eric's on my FB recently. The post followed 81 valedictorians after graduation to see where they ended up. It sparked an interesting debate in the comments and so I decided to invite Eric on the show to talk about his findings.
Rainesford Stauffer is a 23-year-old writer who has been published by Forbes, USA TODAY, and The Hill, among others. After a diverse high school education, she dropped out of college her freshman year and spent two years shaping her own education through internships, writing, and communications. She's given two TEDx Talks and serves on the Advisory Board of (south by south west EDU) SXSWedu. For her day job, she works in communications, and is the editor of Gap Year Stories, a platform that publishes student perspectives on shaping your own learning experiences.
Rainesford and I have a lot in common with our mindset around education and entrepreneurship...she also owns a hot yoga studio, which is one of the businesses I own as well. In this episode we talk a lot about uncertainty, not knowing the answer, anxiety, and how messy and unclear times are actually the key to finding your way, learning, and ultimately success.
There are so many quotable snippets in this episode, Rainesford is the real deal - a go-getter, a self-teacher and an entrepreneur. She's the epitome of a Successful Dropout.
"Usually when you are shaping your own path, it's a combination of belief in something that matters to you, incredible amounts of effort, and just the right amount of risk."
"Sometimes the greatest opportunities, moments and endeavors in your life are really messy. They aren't cookie-cutter, they aren't picture perfect and to me I think that's the magic of it."