Hey hey, Hard Knocks Community?💰

We're back with a brand new episode of the School of Hard Knocks Newsletter. Here, we're featuring one of the greatest marketers of all time, Neil Patel! Neil's a 9-Figure entrepreneur, a New York Times Bestselling Author, co-founder of NP Digital, and a trusted advisor to global giants like Amazon, Google, NBC, and Viacom. With over 10M monthly website visitors, Neil’s insights have empowered leaders and businesses to achieve record-breaking success.

Today’s Schedule

• The Making of an Internet Marketing Master: How Neil Patel broke the mold and became a 9-figure entrepreneur.

• From the Hard Knocks Library: Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible life

• In Case You Missed It: We asked Wall Street millionaires how they got rich

Let’s go!🔥

The Making of an Internet Marketing Master

Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel has been in the game for 23 years. Born in England, his parents moved the family to California when Neil was just two years old. As a child, Neil was no stranger to entrepreneurship as many of his uncles had multiple businesses.

Inspired by his family members, Neil began thinking about his own ideas. He sold CDs and auto parts before getting a job at Knott's Berry Farm at 15. He worked there for about three months before moving to Quality Systems where he sold Kirby vacuums door to door.

The vacuums were expensive and a tough sell, which prompted Neil to set his sights on something new. While he was looking for jobs on Monster.com, Neil learned that the site was making multi-millions, inspiring him to create a job board of his own: Advice Monkey. He spent $5,000 building the site and began thinking of a marketing strategy.

Neil originally hired internet marketing firms to help, but after spending a ton of money with poor results, he took matters into his own hands. He learned internet marketing and SEO himself and eventually mastered it.

Still a teen, Neil hit a wall with Advice Monkey and wanted to start his own consulting company. However, he wasn't yet 18 and didn't have a college degree. He then started taking classes at Cypress Community College while he was still in high school.

Neil's first college course was Speech 101 and for one assignment, he gave a speech on how search engines worked. One of his classmates worked for a company called Elpac Electronics. Impressed with Neil's knowledge, they asked him to consult the company on internet marketing. They paid Neil around $5,000 a month and he drove Elpac to roughly $25 million in sales.

The owner of Elpac had a son who owned an ad agency who hooked Neil up with top clients like Blue Cross, ING Direct, and Countrywide (now part of Bank of America). These opportunities skyrocketed Neil to $20K months and he began to scale.

Throughout the years, Neil's invested in several companies and ventures. Today, his latest ad agency venture takes him back to his roots. His website NeilPatel.com is one of the biggest resources for businesses and marketers looking to make more money online.

Neil also launched digital marketing agencies around the globe, employing over 400 people worldwide.

Neil was recognized by The Wall Street Journal as a top influencer and Forbes named him one of the top 10 online marketers. He was also recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Inside the School of Mentors community, Neil talked one-on-one with our members about what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. Here are four top takeaways:

Grand Slam

As an entrepreneur, one of the first things to decide is which market to play in. Neil advises to go after a big TAM, which stands for Total Adjustable Market. At a conference, Neil met Rich Barton (co-founder of Expedia and founder of Zillow) who explained the concept of TAM.

Using a baseball analogy, Rich told Neil that there's no difference from hitting a single or a home run. You have to exert the same amount of energy swinging in both cases, so why not go for the home run?

The "home run" here is going after a big market. The smaller market you go after, the harder it will be to get things going. It's hard to take 100% of a small market, but it's not as difficult to take a percentage of a massive market and make tons of money.

Flip the Script

When growing your brand and business, creativity is key. You'll need to do something that will set you apart from your competition and make you stand out. Sometimes, this means mastering fundamental skills, which could be as simple as responding to leads and clients right away, before the other guys do.

To set yourself apart online, think outside the box when it comes to content. When talking to a real estate entrepreneur, Neil advised them to talk about the worst rental deals and some of the negatives in the real estate market. This angle grabs people's attention and shows where they're wasting money, allowing a nice lead-in to how the content creator can help.

Always keep a pulse on your competition and study them carefully. Look for gaps in what they offer and see if you can do it better. Follow competitors on social media platforms and look for ways to separate yourself from the pack.

Relationships Over Results

One thing that Neil has learned over the years is that most agencies provide results. However, it's not the results that keep the client. It's communication, account management, and a solid relationship.

In the past, Neil had CNN as a client. His agency drove them an extra billion pages from organic search, but they ultimately lost the account. Poor account management hurt the overall relationship which wound up costing them.

Whether you're dealing with clients, customers, or employees in your business, remember they're people just like you. Always consider how you'd want to be treated if you were in their shoes. People do business with others they know, like, and trust. To keep them happy and with you for the long haul, don't neglect the relationship.

A Step at a Time

Building a personal brand through digital marketing isn't easy and it's all about playing the long game. Neil himself has been building his own brand for over 20 years. The key to a personal brand's success often boils down to one thing: consistency.

If you're looking for a place to start, choose a unique niche or vertical and build your brand around it. For example, if you're an A.I. pro, you could position yourself as the A.I. digital marketing guy and show how people can master marketing without hiring a team. Create tons of content around that niche and stay consistent.

Success doesn't happen overnight and it may take you years before you achieve some of your goals. However, the good news is that consistency and determination will always get you there. Even just taking one small step each day towards building your brand is one step closer to the finish line. Stay the course - your future self will thank you.

Connect with Neil here:

Website: www.NeilPatel.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neilpatel/?hl=en

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Words of Wisdom

From the Hard Knocks Library

In Case You Missed It

We interviewed different people all over Wall Street and the streets of New York City and asked them what the most of money they have made in a year and for their best career/life advice. We interviewed people in a variety of industries including construction, investing, and finance. Check out the interviews here!

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