95: Side Hustle Advice From A Shark Tank Entrepreneur

Side Hustle Advice From A Shark Tank Entrepreneur (main interview only)

Joan: Well, welcome, Shaan.

Shaan: Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here.

Joan: We have so much to talk about. So much. I want to ask you, let's begin by unpacking the, the why and the how that you started A lowly side hustle and have grown it now to revenues of 5 million a year. Is that correct?

Shaan: Yeah, yeah. So I started my, side hustle, which now has become my main hustle. Sure. yes, but I started about 12 years ago when I was in college. And, you know, I kind of fell into the SideHustle. It wasn't really something that I was planning on. So I'll kind of give you the background on it. So I'm the founder and CEO of a company called PrepExpert. We do test preparation, college preparation for students who are looking to come to the United States for college. Help them raise their test scores on the entrance exams, which are typically the SAT and the ACT.

Okay.

So, the way I never thought I was going to start a test preparation company originally, what happened was, you know, I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, which had, not the best education system.

And so we had a 40 percent high school dropout rate and I was not

Joan: four, zero.

Shaan: Really? 4.0. So yeah, That’s a lot of people just go start working in the casinos rather than finishing high school. and so, you know, for me, education, luckily, was still valued by my, parents. And so when I took my first SAT, though, I only scored about average.

So I wasn't really this genius standardized test taker. I was good in school, but just not a good test taker.

Joan: And I suppose with just average scores that wouldn't bode too well as trying to get some of the into the top universities or get it, scholarships.

Shaan: Yeah, exactly. So that was really my dream to go to some top universities, get into some competitive medical programs, and most importantly, get a lot of scholarships to get college paid for. And so I spent hundreds of hours studying for the SAT, was eventually able to raise my score to a perfect score. so that was pretty incredible because that's something that only 0.02 percent of all students achieve, which completely opened up college and scholarship opportunities for me, got into universities, won half a million dollars in college scholarships, and so totally life changing.

And so, you know, when I went to college, all I really wanted to do was help other students improve their test scores by writing a book.

I thought I had a lot of great insights, strategies that helped me, that I wanted to put together in a book for, you know, that would be the 1st book by a perfect scorer.

And so I pitched this book proposal out to about 100 literary agents and publishers, and every single one rejected me. They said, you know, you don't have a platform to write such a book, the SAP preparation market's too competitive.

And so this, I think this is a great lesson for those of you who are starting side hustles in the audience, which is when you get a bunch of rejections like that. Sometimes you just need a pivot. Don't give up.

I literally emailed out a hundred and I was like, I can't get rejected a hundred times that I did.

Joan: Your story kind of mirrors the Mark Victor Hanson and Jack Canfield story of Chicken Soup for the Soul Empire, really, that it's blossomed into now. They were rejected over 140 something times. No, no, no. And they knew what they had. You obviously knew what you had. You must have been walking potential students through your program because it wasn't just a one off, like, you didn't just get these great scores. By this time, you were showing other people how to do it or not yet?

Shaan: Yeah, Well, I had done some one on one tutoring. and I got some great results for some students with the curriculum that I had written, but that actually, you bring me to the next great point, I was getting all these rejections, and so I decided to pivot, which was I took all that curriculum and I turned it into a course.

And so the very first six week SAT prep course that I ever taught, my students had an average score improvement of 376 points to their scores. So just if you're not familiar with SAT, it's out of 1600 points. So 376 points is equivalent to taking a student from the 50th percentile and putting them in the 90th percentile,

Joan: That's incredible, Sean.

Shaan: Yeah, totally changed their, you know, college admissions and their scholarship opportunities. So, of course, I had parents who wanted more courses and, the rest is history, you know, over the past, What is it now? 14 years we're coming up on. you know, we've helped over 100, 000 students at PrepExpert improve their SAT and ACT scores, into the nation's top universities, but most importantly, win over win over 100 million in college scholarships to reduce and eliminate their college costs.

So, you know, that's incredible impact.

Yeah, it's been incredible. But it all started from a side hustle in college to now where I'm at today. And, know, there's plenty of other highlights along the way from 14 years that I'm sure we'll get into. I went on Shark Tank, and lots of fun stuff to get into, but that's kind of the synopsis in terms of how and why I got to where I am today.

Joan: And did you ever get to university?

Shaan: Yeah,

So yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, this was all a side hustle. So the reason it's perfect for this podcast is, it was a side hustle throughout my school as well as my residency. So for the first like 10 years of the business, I was still in school out of those 14 years. Meaning I was, I went through college.

I went through medical school. I went through business school at Yale. I did my residency in dermatology. And I was operating this business, which was growing, growing, growing, of course I can't take all the credit. I had an amazing team. That ran the day to day operations from customer service, sales, marketing, et cetera.

But, as far as like high level management and strategy, that was all me. And so I did it in, you know, the, 15, 20 hours outside of my school and residency time, that I could in order to grow this side hustle. Now, I've since graduated from residency in dermatology. And now, what I do is I practice Telederm maybe five, 10 hours a week, teledermatology. And the rest of the time I'm full time CEO of PrepExpert. So it kind of flipped now where my side hustle is my main hustle. And so, yeah, you know, for those students listening, people school, people with jobs, you can certainly build a multimillion dollar business.

You know, with 15, 20 hours a week, as I did, it takes some time, but it's certainly possible.

Joan: It's very impressive that you were able to eke out 15, 20 hours a week while going to medical school.

Shaan: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of working in the evening. It's a lot of working on the weekends. Um, you know, it was medical school was probably the most difficult because that is where, you know, that's a lot more intensive in terms of your time commitments to studying as well as being in the hospital. I would say business school was a lot easier, a lot more flexibility in terms of your, in terms of your academic coursework, no class on Fridays, that kind of thing.

So yeah, I mean, you just have to make it work no matter what, what your other obligations are.

Joan: And when you started the first version of PrepExpert, you were teaching students, you were in front of the room, but at some point that changed to online, did it not?

Shaan: Yeah, so for the first, I would say five years of the business, we were strictly in. My hometown of Las Vegas, that's where we started the company. We taught out of a classroom there. It was just in person classes, but you know, I was having so much success because we were growing the business.

It was going double, literally doubling the revenue year over year with 0 in marketing, which basically tells you that it's all word of mouth, right? It's parents telling other parents. And so you get more business, et cetera. And so. You know, once I saw this growth rate, that's really when I decided, okay, I'm going to go to business school.

You know, all I know is medicine. I'm going to learn how to manage a larger company, how to scale it, proper, finance, proper marketing. And so during that time of business school, I also decided I'm going to go try and audition for Shark Tank. And try to get an investment and, know, really scale this thing beyond my hometown of Vegas.

So we scaled it to 20 cities at one point. However, the pandemic, then, you know, we had to close all of our classrooms. And so we just scaled online. And so now we're fully digital, fully online courses. And honestly, with the pandemic. students have become so comfortable learning online that it's a it's a seamless transition.

You know, 14 years ago, it was really hard to convince a parent to do an online course, but now everyone's so used it.

So, so it works really well.

Joan: So that was one of the things that really gave you a push to pivot to online was indeed the pandemic.

Shaan: Yeah, it really forced us, really. I mean, our classrooms were small. We couldn't, we, we couldn't have Six foot distance between students. So we really couldn't, operate our in person classes. So we shut everything down. We went fully digital, fully online, and, honestly, more scalable. We can reach more people.

 Especially internationally. We, were we were never going to open locations in places like Canada, UK, India, China, Japan, and now we have students from all those places. So it's really nice.

Joan: Yeah. Because those tools that you're teaching them, I, I mean, you tell me they would be transferable into whatever courses and methods. It's because it's a study methodology, isn't it?

Shaan: Yeah, so we do focus on kind of the college admissions exams for the United States. So it's a lot of students who are coming, would like to go to college in the U. S. but we do teach, general study taking, study skills as well, like time management, like, how to study effectively and the Pomodoro techniques.

And, you know, students always come out of our classes saying, it didn't just help them with the SAT or the ACT, it helped them with all of their academics and all of their studying, which is Really, really neat to see.

Joan: Very much so. Yeah. Given what you just described, your, those early years were like, clearly you are skilled in the area of time management, planning your days. What are some tips that you can share with us in that regard?

Shaan: Yeah. So,

Joan: Basically work more effectively?

Shaan: Yeah, I mean, so many, but, you know, to start in terms of planning, one of the things that I always do is I make my priority. And this is, I think, an age old thing that every, great time manager does, which is you create your list of top 3 priorities the next day, and you make sure that you have a block of time in which you can complete those.

Oftentimes now that I don't have, you know, school anymore, I'm doing those in the morning. And usually I'm trying to do the hardest task in the morning, the one that requires the most mental energy because after I've had a good night's sleep, my mind is usually refreshed. That works typically pretty well.

Now, if you're working on a side hustle and you have a job or you have school in the morning, obviously it's not possible, but you still want to do, you know, top three items and try to check them off your list. And Either in the evening when you're done with your job or when you're done with school, or on the weekends, in the mornings, works well too.

But plan, you know, really identifying what the most high value tasks are and writing those out and making sure you get them done. You'll be amazed if you knock out, you know, three high value tasks every single day for, you know, seven days a week, how much ahead of the competition you will be.

Joan: That is huge, Sean. And in an earlier episode, I admitted. to our listeners that I had heard that same thing. And anytime I had tried it, it worked well, but it was such short lived for me. And I heard a speaker one day, mentioned it again.

And I thought, damn it, Joan, you know it's a great idea. Execute it. And force myself like for a solid month, I'm going to do this every day. And gosh, what a  difference. My productivity went through the roof. So I encourage anyone hearing this, if you agree that it's a great idea, start for me, it's the night before, or at the end of my day that I plan for the next day, because I don't even have to think about it in the morning.

And like you, it's the really important high value thing. And also those tend to be some of the things that I really don't want to do. So it really helps deal with the procrastination.

Shaan: Yeah, I really encourage you to do it the night before you have your day planned, you know, the difficult stuff you need to do. And, you know, the other thing I would say is, otherwise, if you don't do this, what ends up happening is you start filling your time with, you know, stuff that's easy, like emails or meetings, or, you know, things that don't require a lot of mental energy, or you just waste time on social media or whatever it may be.

But if you have these high priority tasks, you're like, I got to get these done tomorrow. you'll get, you'll be surprised at how much you get done.

Joan: Yes, particularly too, if you, you basically value yourself, you've made this commitment, I'm going to do these three things tomorrow or today. And that becomes the focus and you get them done and avoid all those other time consuming things that don't add that value. So one of those things must have been, I'm going to get on Shark Tank.

So how did you come to land a spot on Shark Tank?

Shaan: Yeah. So this was a fun story. So, you know, I was in business school, as I had at Yale. So that was in Connecticut, which was about 2 hour train ride from New York city. And I was watching Shark Tank, just like everyone else really big of the show. This was back in 2015. And one day I just clicked in my head, like, oh, I've got a small business, I could use investment to scale.

And then I ran across an article, I think it was on ink. com or something that said they were having auditions in New York City. So I took the train ride over and, I rehearsed my one minute pitch, Cause you only get one minute to pitch, pitch a casting call producer, probably a hundred hours, before I actually got to the audition.

And, you know, on top of that, I think I stood in line for like eight, nine hours in New York City to do this audition. and what was really funny is when I pitched the casting call producer, he had like a stone cold, emotional, no emotion face and did not seem very impressed with, you know, even though I said I had a million dollars in revenue and I was in the New York Times and all this stuff that I thought was impressive.

He was not. However, what was super was at the end of the pitch, what impressed him was when I pulled out my SAT prep book, because to tie this back together with what I was saying earlier, you know, after McGraw Hill, the world's largest education publisher, saw what I was doing with PrepExpert for about a year, they finally gave me a book deal.

They had initially rejected me. That book ended up going number one on Amazon, sold 50, 000 copies. So that was the book I had. And, You know, it was, it was impressive. The guy was so impressed that, you know, my face was on the book. He asked for a copy of the book for his nephew. I gave it Yeah, I gave it to him, of course.

And so, you know, a couple of weeks later, I was getting called in to go on Shark Tank. And, you know, we can talk about that too, but that that was kind of the audition process. And, I think, you know, the lesson in there is, you know, having an um, either through a book or through a social media presence or through a podcast can really be the difference. Cause think if I didn't have the book, I wouldn't have gotten on Shark Tank. And you know, the book was the first thing I was pursuing anyway. Right, all kind of tied together at the end.

Joan: Right. And it sounds like you had a number of touch points that they could take a look at. There, of course, was the book and the fact that it was a publisher that you got. It wasn't self published and that you sold that many copies and you were on the New York or in the New York Times, you said.

Shaan: Yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, I think it's, you have to build your, in that, that's a great point. There were a lot of people in line in New York City with me during the auditions that just had an idea. And, you know, an idea is a very different thing than a real business or a real side hustle that you have proof of work on, that you can show some results with. You know, I'm almost certain none of the people that were just pitching ideas got on the show.

And so, you know, it's really important, that anyone listening to this is, if you have an idea, that's not enough. You've got to go and execute on it.

Joan: Right. And I've heard many times the, the sharks or in, in, in other countries, the dragons, as in Dragon's Den, will, will say that if it's the idea stage, it's go away and build it up and then come back to me when you're doing something substantial.

Shaan: Yeah, absolutely.

Joan: Yeah. So you already had that. So I was going to ask you about a tip for getting on Shark Tank and I think you just nailed it with that one.

Shaan: I think, yeah, I think so. I mean, if you want to get on Shark Tank, Dragon's Den, go out, do the work, get some sales, you know, hope maybe get, generate some media, start a podcast, write a book, do all the things you can do. It's easier to write a book than ever. So easier to start a podcast. You know, it's easier to get on social media, get your presence going, get the sales going.

And once you have a little bit of traction, you'd be surprised at how much more seriously people will take you.

Joan: Yes. So then you obviously got the call back from the casting person. To be on show. And, and even when you're on the show, that's no guarantee that your segment is going to air. Is that correct?

Shaan: Yeah, so I think they only air, I 70 or 70 or 80 percent of the pitches. So again, this was another thing that I did lots of preparation for, probably 500 hours or like that of preparation for my pitch, watching different episodes, thinking of questions they can ask me, thinking of stories I could come up with, because like you said, they don't air every episode.

So I wanted to make sure that I knew my numbers, that I had entertaining stories, because I have one of the most boring businesses in the world. That's crap, it doesn't make for great TV, so I had to have great personal stories to share, and, you know, I think it did make for a really, entertaining episode, I went into the tank, a little overconfident.

I thought many sharks were going to give me a deal. I thought, you know, my is doubling year over year. It's um,you know, a great business. Why would they not invest in it?

And then reality kind of slapped me the face when all of them rejected it and they love the business. Don't get me wrong, but they hated the fact that I was also a doctor or I was in medical school at the time and I becoming a doctor.

They didn't think I had my focus on the business. Which, you know, hopefully this is some inspiration for all the side hustle folks, which is I did end up,  you know, at the end of the day, though, let me say, Mark Cuban did it. end up giving me a deal at the last moment and he did, he's an amazing investor advocate and partner, but, you know, all of them originally had rejected on on the show, citing that I wasn't focused enough on the business.

So, um, I think that the less…

Joan: They wanted to invest in somebody that was committed to it.

Shaan: 100 percent yeah, and who wasn't in school and it was, it was more of my side hustle at the time. and so, you know, for the people that have side hustles, what I would say is, you know, keep working on your side hustle.

My, at the time was on the show, my, my business wasn't large enough, to point that I would be able to give up medical school or give up being a doctor.

And I'm sure a lot of people with side hustles are in that position. You can't, you can't give up your full time job. And I would say that I would take the opposite position of the sharks, which is that's okay. Because, you know, keep growing it, keep growing it. And eventually you know, you might become your main hustle.

And that's really what happened for me, which is now it's a multi million dollar company. And that's where I spend 80, 90 percent of my time on, but I'm still a doctor and I do that part time. And I was able to figure out a way to do both.

Not, not everyone may want to do both and keep their day job or anything like that, but I think it certainly is possible to grow a side hustle while you keep your day job or while you're in school.

Joan: Mm hmm. So take us back to the moment when you, so you get the call back from the, casting director to come on the show. So what happens at that point? Just walk us through the process briefly.

Shaan: Yeah, so, once I got the call back be on the show, well, actually, before that, they had me send in a video audition, because they want to, you know, I one producer, but they want to show the whole team. So, you know, I put together a video audition and I sent that and that was a whole ordeal with videographer and stuff like that. And, you know, we did our best and luckily the producing team, said yes.

Then literally within probably, I'd say a month, they flying me out to Los Angeles to, pitch the Sharks.

Joan: What what, was your reaction when you got the call that you're going to be on the show?

Shaan: Oh, I was so excited, you know. Like just absolutely elated with joy because I, you know, my main reason for going on the show more so than the investment was the exposure, you know, just getting in front of 10 million people, on primetime television for 15 minutes is, invaluable. I think they said that the marketing exposure is equivalent to about 10 million in marketing spend.

So I was just absolutely elated. But then, you know, I knew I had to get to work to your point to make sure that my show, my episode actually aired.

And so that's why I did all the preparation, et cetera. But, yeah, I mean, once you're there, it's pretty straightforward. I mean, they put you in a hotel with all the other entrepreneurs and, you know, they, the Sharks or the Dragons, they basically record in like two week time frames.

So, you know, you're there for like two or three days and you're one of the pitches. It's all very real. I will say, you know, it's not scripted. It's not something where, they say cut and re say that or something.

I was in the tank for about an hour and a half, and then, you know, they edit it down to 15 minutes for television and take the interesting parts.

Joan: But it was really an hour and a half that you were with them.

Shaan: Yeah, yeah. So the end of it, if you watch my episode, it's I'm sweating bullets. I hate that. Like, why are you sweating so much after 10, 15 minutes? And the answer is, well, it was an hour and a half. I was up there fielding really hard questions from multimillionaires billionaires and, you know, with drinking very little water, et cetera.

Joan: So what was your feeling there being, I was just going to say in the hot seat, but you're actually standing there in, in front of them, like what, like fun or intimidating or pinch me. I can't believe I'm here.

Shaan: Yeah. I mean, I think it was pinch me. I can't believe I'm here. It was definitely like a dream come true. It felt surreal, you know, cause I think everyone watches Shark Tank. But, you know, being there yourself is, it's totally, it's pretty amazing. Yeah. And you, you, you gain a of respect for everyone who goes on that, that stage because it's not easy.

Yeah.  So I taped in June of 2015 and it aired in January of 2016. So there was about a six month, um, lead time.

Joan: And then after the taping, did you have to keep it under wraps or could you actually talk about it? Or you had to wait until.

Shaan: Yeah. That was the hardest part.

Joan: I bet.

Shaan: Keep it under wraps because you're not allowed to tell anyone, you know, you made a deal with Mark Cuban. There a due diligence process that to happen. You know, luckily we were able to successfully go through that due diligence process. I know a lot of companies I've heard like only 30 or 40 percent actually end up closing after due diligence, you know, you'll see the handshake deal on TV, but then, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs don't, tell the truth about their numbers or they don't have a real business.

Or there's other issues that come out in the due diligence. So, you know, we're of the few that fully went through and. yeah, it's been amazing.

Joan: Are you, are you able to tell us what the deal end up being as far as

Shaan: Yeah. Yeah. So my deal went exactly as it appeared on television. So, which was Mark Cuban invested $250,000 for 20 percent equity in the business. And, you know, He's made multiple returns on his investment pack, which is great for him, but also great for us.

You know, I believe having 80 percent of a company with Mark Cuban is more valuable than having a hundred percent of a company by myself. And that's proven to be true.  You know, Mark's helped us negotiate licensing deals, partnerships, we've co authored books together, co hosted entrepreneurship panels, and, you know, I've had access to his whole Mark Cuban companies team for, you know, accounting, legal, business, website, all kinds of stuff.

So the resources have really been invaluable for the business as well.

Joan: Fantastic. And so do you still own 80%?

Shaan: Yeah, yeah. So we haven't taken out any other investors ever since. We just took that seed investment from Mark Cuban. that really helped us scale and we've been running on revenue and profitable ever since.

Joan: Hmm. What is one of the stories that you either shared with them that you had, prepped or one of your favorites?

Shaan: Yeah.

You know, I think the one that really resonated with Mark Cuban was, me talking about my dad as a role model. because you know, my dad was, has a very similar background to me in that he was a pharmacist and he's an entrepreneur in that, you know, I grew up in my dad and my mom's, motel.

So they ran a motel, they ran a gas station right next to it while my dad was a pharmacist. So, you know, his day when I was growing up often looked like, you know, he would start work at 6 a.m. He would go to the, like a mail order pharmacy.

He'd end at like 2 p. m. come home for an hour break lunch at three, then you'd go to the gas station and help work there from three to eight.

Then, you you'd come home, we'd have dinner and then, you from nine to midnight, answer any customers coming to the motel and then run that every single day, seven days a week. So, that was a really great example for me, in terms of hard work and dedication growing up.

Joan: So your family owned the motel?

Shaan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And so, you know, that inspired me to work hard throughout the rest of my life. And I think that resonated with Mark Cuban because his dad also, you know, worked very, very hard. I think he did upholstery on cars. So he started telling me his story about his father and his role model.

And that resonated really well, I think with him as well as other folks that, may have had good role models or in their past and can look back and say, I don't think I knew it at time, but I was getting, kind of subconsciously inspired by that.

Joan: And another side tip on that is to know who you're pitching to, whether you're going on a sales call or looking for investment funds. The more you know about that person across from you, that can come in handy in your prep.

Shaan: Oh yeah, big time.

Joan: So you've probably already answered this. I was going to ask you what characteristic or personal traits do you attribute to your success? Obviously, part of it is that work ethic.

Shaan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think it's work ethic. I think it's, you know, there's been a lot of studies on this, but one of the biggest ones that I think I developed specifically when I was in high school studying for the SAT in the library was a lot of self control. So I had a lot of self control.

In high school to go to the library and study for the SAT and not go to high school parties and, you know, not waste my time playing video games. I did all that stuff in middle school, but, not as much in high school. because I was, I had this big exam and then what I realized is that self control, that ability to delay gratification, to tune out the noise.

Also led to my success in college and medical school business school and residency. And even as an entrepreneur, you know, a lot of people ask me, you know, how do you structure your time when you've got other things going on? And I think a lot of it is just having control to say, okay. This three hour block, I'm going to just do high value work.

I'm not going to have any meetings. I'm not going to go on Tik TOK. I'm not going to check my emails. I'm just going to do high value work.

And you know, that is not easy for a lot of people. And it wasn't easy for me either, but I developed that trait all the way back when I was 16, 17 old in high school.

And I think that I've been practicing it, practicing it, it, and now I've become really good at it.

Joan: And everything that you've described, there is a choice. People are choosing to go onto TikTok or they're choosing to go to the library or. Whatever it is. Yes, we've been conditioned with certain things, but we can recondition ourselves to something that is going to be serving us better.

Shaan: Yeah,

Joan: I, I bought my first house when I was 19 years old and I was doing things back then, choosing to not spend my money on going out and partying and no, I'm going to work part time. I'm going to save this money and sort of all those things that , I find it's not giving up something, but rather I was trading it just like you were for something of a lower nature to receive something down the road of a higher nature. Like you said, the deferred gratification.

Shaan: Yeah. No, absolutely. I  You've got to practice it and train it early on and you can do that, you'll be so much more successful, throughout the rest of your life, because it compounds over time.

Joan: As you make those choices too, you're going to fall into being around people that are doing similar things, which helps make that choice even, cemented even better.

Shaan: Yeah.

Joan: That's an incredible story of success, Sean, but even still looking back, is there anything that you'd do differently if you were starting over?

Shaan: Oh, great question. Yeah. if I had to do it differently, yes, I think in, you know, one of the mistakes that I made early on was not having a business advisor or mentor or coach, I would say.

That's something I've implemented recently over the past five years, I'd say, but the first seven to eight years of the business, I thought I could do it all my own. And when you don't have, so My particular business mentor or coach, on top of Mark Cuban, but I have someone who works kind of more intimately inside the business with me. And he's been an executive for 40 years or something like that. is a CEO previously. And, his insight into company culture and, how to build a great team, how to manage effectively is so much higher than mine because he's been doing it for so much longer.

And that's been you know, in the first eight years of the business, I will say that I made mistakes in terms of sometimes hiring the team members and we got burned and people left and, know, people were overworked, mismanaged, et cetera. That happens in every startup, especially when everyone's working really hard. But now we don't have any of those issues. I don't think it's, just because I'm so much better. I think it's because we have had the forward thinking insight of mentors and coaches that have been there before.

They've seen how this story plays out and they can prevent some of those same mistakes. So I'd say, the lesson in there for the audience is try to find a mentor or a coach or someone that has done before or who's further along from you.

And if not one person, join a group, you know, join a mastermind or join meetups of other people doing things similar to you, maybe not the same thing, you know, it's not like my mentor was in test preparation, but he, you know, he's in business and, especially when they're further along from you, you can gain so much valuable insight, I would say.

So I have done that a lot. So to answer your question, I would have done gotten a business coach mentor a lot earlier in the business because it made such a profound impact now.

Joan: If I had to go back and do it again, that's verbatim what I would do as well. And I see that now with people that I associate with, the ones that are in their 30s and 40s, they have a mentor or mentors, organizations that have been there before. So these people already have the blueprint and they've got that vision of what's possible and, and, and know how to do it and, and can share their contacts and expertise.

And it's, it's so invaluable. I've got a colleague now who's doing just amazing things. And he's talking about, well, not more than talking about, he's planning on franchising this particular concept and he's connected with a mentor that has done that internationally in a big way. Think of the speed of the learning that you're going to get with the guidance of someone like that, so, I couldn't agree with you more on that.

Joan: So what's next for Shaan Patel and or PrepExpert?

Shaan: I'm what's called a $1 billion scholarship mission at PrepExpert. So, you know, I am kind of upset at colleges and universities on how expensive tuition has gotten and.

Joan: It's insane. I heard some numbers the other day.

Shaan: Yeah. yeah, I mean, there are some colleges now that are charging $80,000 a year in tuition. So, I mean, you add on your cost of living do textbooks and all that stuff. you know, you get to $100,000 a year times four years. I mean, it's not affordable for most families. And so, You know, over the past 10 years at PrepExpert, we've students win a hundred million in college scholarships.

Many of our kids have won a million dollars, half a million, quarter million, and basically reduced or eliminated their college costs.

So what 'm trying to do now is really get the word out on. You know, the scores that we help students achieve don't just help with college admissions, but what is more important than going to like a Harvard or Stanford or Yale to, in my opinion, is going to a state college or state university, or, you know, lesser, less prestigious school and getting it paid for, because oftentimes universities and colleges will give a high achieving student who has good grades and high test scores automatic full tuition and half tuition scholarships.

So I mean, you know, a full tuition scholarship can often be worth $200,000 very easily. And so, that's what my mission is over the next 10 years is to really, double down on that because I think it is important to go to college.

All the data is showing that.

And now I know you can be successful without college. Absolutely. You can. But overall, in society, it's shown that going to college does give you more earning potential in the long term as a society, but it should not be something that you have to take, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans and go into debt for the rest of your life for. So I'm trying to help students reduce or eliminate that.

Joan: It'll be wonderful to see you on that journey and achieve that end. So what's the best way for our listeners to connect with you, Shaan?

Shaan: Yeah, so the best way for parents who have students in high school, who are interested in attending university in the United States, I would check out my website, prepexpert.com.

So there you can find all of our courses, our schedules, instructors, our tutors for our SAT courses, ACT courses, and college admissions consulting.

So that's prepexpert.com. And for the entrepreneurs out there, I have a book. It's called Self Made Success, 48 Secret Strategies to Live Happier, Healthier, and Wealthier. And you find that on Amazon.

Joan: Fantastic. And we'll have links for both those things in the show notes.

Shaan: Awesome.

Joan: Yeah. So what's one final tip, your best tip to inspire others to start or grow their Side Hustle?

Shaan: Great question. You know, my tip for if you want to be successful at starting a side hustle is you want to offer free value in some form.

So what do I mean by that? I mean, one of the best ways to generate leads for any business is to offer a free sample, free service, free trial, et cetera, because you will automatically attract the right customers to your business.

And a lot of people are of worried about giving away free stuff and that kind of thing, but think of it as a marketing cost. And, um, a lot of times you can even just do this through social media by posting high value, free content, you know, give away a free ebook, give away a free trial, do something.

And what you want to do is exchange that for contact information. So typically email or, phone numbers because you'll get so many great leads for your business or your side hustle.

I would say that's the fastest way to grow a great list. And the larger your audience gets, the easier it will be to grow your side hustle. Whatever your side hustle may be, don't make it so that it's like impossible to get your first customer because you've priced everyone out and, you know, you're not giving anything of value or anything to sample. This is why, you know, it's worked for so long, like giving samples at Costco for free has worked and, it generates sales.

So if you really are struggling on how to get sales right now, it sounds counterintuitive, but try a free sample or free service or free trial. I bet you'll get better leads and you'll get more customers who will eventually become paying customers.

Joan: Is there some type of a guide like that on PrepExpert?

Shaan: So yeah, if you go to our website, prepexpert.com, you can definitely see the first thing you'll see is a free, pop up that will give you a free masterclass, free practice test, free mini ebook, a bunch of free goodies, and all you got to do is type in your email. So, what I get is get an email subscriber and what you get is $500 worth of free goodies for you and your child.

So I'd say it's a pretty good exchange of value. and you know, that, and you know, hopefully what will happen is you like the free class, you like the free ebook, you like the free practice test, and you eventually some small percentage of those people will want to pay for our services and that that's worked pretty well for us.

Joan: Yes, and the referrals that that generates for you as well.

Shaan: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Joan: Well, thank you so much, Shaan, for sharing your story and your tips and strategies for being a successful entrepreneur, starting and growing a side hustle. And of course, thank you for so much for being today's Side Hustle Hero.

Shaan: Thank you for having me, Joan. Yeah, this was a lot of fun.