Entrepreneur | Internet Marketer | Business Coach | & Tech Geek.

Although success didn’t come easy to Gabe, he credits the success he’s had online to almost a decade of embarrassing failures that taught him exactly how NOT to build a true business system.

“Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success” – Napoleon Hill

My Story

My story as an entrepreneur began during the 1st semester of my sophomore year in college when I was suggested to read Robert Kiyosaki‘s Rich Dad Poor Dad from a young real estate investor. That one book changed my life and I caught the entrepreneurship bug hard, deciding at the ripe age of 18 that I wanted to build a multi-million dollar business. The only problem was that I didn’t know how, and had no money!

Early in my career I read about every book on entrepreneurship, business systems, and success biographies that I could get my hands on. After reading The E-Myth by Michael Gerber I quickly learned that 95% of all small business failed within the first 5 years. Now to most people this would have been discouraging, but to me that told me that if I was serious about joining the successful 5%, I’d have to be willing to fail up to 10 businesses in order to start one that would create success.

Immediately that summer I started my 1st business: an external painting company. Although I experienced some early success that year by selling over $60,000 worth of painting contracts door to door during my sophomore spring break, I quickly learned the importance of creating a business system, rather than simply working a business. I had identified the self-employment trap that most small business owners in America fall into, and didn’t want to repeat their mistakes.

Hard Core Failure

Now looking for a simple business system that I could replace myself in, I plowed through a series of business failures that would discourage most people. My ignorance on fire led me through, an eBay business, buying real estate no money down, several MLMs, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, a breakfast bagel shop, a balance board manufacturing company, a direct sales franchise, exporting custom chopper parts to Brazil, a vending business, and several other ventures that all failed miserably.

This dismal adventure led me through a several dozen failures through my early 20’s only to have me end up back at the drawing board again. Only this time I had maxed out 3 credit cards and was left with a wake of negativity from my family telling me to “GET A JOB ALREADY LIKE THE REST OF AMERICA!”

The problem was that I was taught that the rich in America don’t work jobs, leaving me jaded with the urge to have my own business. But after my most recent failure at the time as an internet marketer, I had racked up over $10,000 in credit card debt trying to pay for expensive PPC campaigns to generate leads for my business. That summer was a changing point in my life because I had generated over 1,000 leads online from my PPC efforts, and made $0 worth of sales.

After Graduating College…

Humiliated after graduated college, still with no income from my businesses, I moved back home to look for a job. In my brilliance I thought it would be wise of me to work in the mortgage industry as a loan officer. My thought process was that if 75% of all the wealth in America was either made in real estate or kept in real estate, then I might as well get a job to learn, rather than to earn (as my silent mentor Robert Kiyosaki would say).

Now if you remember, 2006 was right about the time when the subprime lending industry was tanking in America. I didn’t know this, but 4 months later I had made only 1 sale and was once again failing miserably in business and in life.

Real Estate Investing Franchise…

After moving to Chicago to work as a loan officer, I found a real estate investing franchise that allowed me to do direct sales selling an education product while learning real estate investing. Knowing that the best way to learn something was to teach it, I quickly jumped for the opportunity and started seeing some success.

Slow at first I quickly became one of the top income earners in the company and experienced my 1st $10,000 month as a business owner. Amidst the success in my new business however; I still hadn’t been able to replace myself as a business owner. I made a significant amount of money now, but if I didn’t continue working for the month, the money would evidently stop – a problem I was faced with month after month after self-doubt and limiting beliefs. In order to achieve true financial freedom, I knew I had to leverage a business system replacing myself and my work.

Internet Marketing…

It was then that I discovered social media as a lead generation tool. Staying up late as usual to research what was going on in the online world, I came across an entrepreneur’s YouTube video discussing their online business. Being so inspired that night, I forgot about my needed sleep, stayed up until 5 am watching all of this gentlemen’s videos, and in the morning, felt inspired enough to call him and ask about his business.

I came to find out that he was in yet another network marketing company; but this time, it was different. I realized that he had actually attracted me to him and his business though key-wording a simple YouTube video talking about some of his passions.

Light bulbs went off in my head!

Small Business Coaching…

I started thinking about all the possibilities of being able to replace myself with videos and how many other business owners in America were going through the same time challenges as I was. This idea gave birth to my 1st consulting business in social media as I began teaching other local small businesses how to get free leads and traffic from simple and free social media marketing. Finally starting to live my passion, I quickly attracted my numerous public speaking engagements and I commenced a new career as a business coach.

Through these adventures I met some very influential people. I took part in video marketing consulting, co-hosted an internet show by the name of “Social Media TV,” and even co-founded a network: “The Social Media Underground Society.”

1st Automated Online Business System…

Not long after my coaching business took off, I was approached by a friend of mine about building an automated system that would put together WordPress blogs for our clients. Again recognizing my need of creating a system through this possible opportunity, I jumped at the chance to work with him and created my 1st automated online business system called FreeBlogFacotry.com.

Reality TV For Entrepreneurs…

Today I am living in a 7,000 sq foot ocean side mini mansion in Southern California with my 4 other business partners. I’ve partnered up with some of the sharpest minds in the social media space to create a world leader in social media marketing training. In addition to our primary business, we have also decided to film a behind the scenes reality show - Unstrapp’d – to inspire young entrepreneurs and hopefully allow an opportunity for them to learn from our mistakes. As Napoleon Hill stated in Think and Grow Rich, “Every failure brings with it the seeds of an equivalent success.” And as I look back on my 27 short years of life I know that it’s not about how hard you fall down, it’s actually about how fast you get back up!

Stay Inspired

Gabe