“The journey to success is like walking through a dark tunnel. The more you believe there’s another side, the faster you run for it.”
Interview with: Andrew Alexander who founded Limitless Academy to help train entrepreneurs how to start and grow their business. He documented his experience building a digital magazine publishing company from 0 to 1.3 million readers in his book I am Not a Millionaire: Making the Shift from Failure to Financial Freedom
What is your company and what is its main goal?
My company is Limitless Academy and our goal is to help first-time entrepreneurs start and grow their business. We offer programs that teach people how to find a business idea, validate consumer demand, learn the fundamentals of sales and marketing, as well as a certification program in Neuro-Linugistic Programming (NLP).
Through our books, self-study video courses, and coaching – our goal is to make sure the business owners who graduate from our program have all the tools, training, and experience to be confident enough to grow their business on their own.
When did you start your business and why?
From 2011-2013 I was a struggling aspiring entrepreneur. I would jump from one idea to another when I didn’t have success away. I doubted myself and lacked confidence that I would ever succeed. I was 25 years old at the time and I didn’t have the opportunity to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fancy business degree.
I was forced to go out into the world and find business mentors on my own as well as be subject to a lot of bad information on the internet. After finally building my first internet business, in 2014 I began to mentor other first-time entrepreneurs to help them through the struggles I went through and eventually turned Limitless Academy into a business in 2015.
What makes you different from your competition?
The thing that makes us unique is our NLP Practitioner Training Program. While many of the entrepreneur education training companies such as Digital Marketer focus on the practical skills of business, I personally found that it was the internal struggles we face that hold us back the most.
Successful entrepreneurs have specific character traits that make them successful such as their ability to take calculated risks and not let their fears hold them back. In 2013, I was introduced to NLP as a way to quickly overcome the inner-blockages I faced on my journey to be a successful entrepreneur.
No longer did my past dictate my future. So through the internal shifts, that’s the missing piece of the puzzle I wish I had back when I started. So now combining that with the practical skills training provides entrepreneurs everything they need in order to be successful.
What marketing channels do you use for your growth?
I do a lot of guest blog post writing on entrepreneur websites, I do paid advertisements on YouTube, internet forums, and a lot of my business is through word-of-mouth from past students who have went through my programs. Starting in 2018, I began making a shift to consulting for some of the companies who came across my brand and the long-term goal is to transform Limitless Academy into a platform where I can hand-select companies to invest in.
By networking deep within specific industries such as Vegan foods, health, personal development, environmental sustainability, this leads to more opportunities that will come in for the years to come. Sometimes it’s great to market online, but the true deeper connections come from in-person relationships in the industries we serve.
What are you expected to grow in terms of revenue in the next 12 months?
I’m an entrepreneur first and an educator second. The income we take in not only comes in from the programs we offer, but through the businesses we partner with and invest in. For that reason, revenue growth is not a success indicator as much as the students we serve. In 2020, our mission is to bring in 5,000 new students who go through some or all of our programs – with a high emphasis on screening out companies we can partner with in the future.
Limitless Academy is a mission-driven company that believes entrepreneurs are the ones who make some of the greatest changes in the world. With all the problems we face in terms of health, environment, and other industries – there is no better time to bet an entrepreneur. On top of a small salary we take, 100% of the proceeds of our books and courses get invested back into businesses that are doing good things for the world.
