Sam Ovens dropped out of college, quit his job at Vodafone, and moved back into his parents’ garage.
He had $0 and 2 failed startups.
6 years later, Forbes listed his net worth at $65 million.
Here’s what happened in between and what you can learn from it today: 🧵
In 2011, Sam was living in a garage in New Zealand with no degree and no job.
He was almost $30K in debt, after his two startups PromoteYourself and ToTheDesk failed.
Everyone told him to get a job. These were dark times - he could hardly get out of bed.
Depression hit him hard.
That’s when Sam had a breakthrough:
He realized that what he built was just “cool”, but it wasn't what people really needed.
“What if I stop selling what I think people want… and start selling what they need?”
That question changed it all - he went from idea-first to market-first.
Sam started cold calling plumbers, electricians, local businesses.
He asked: “What’s your most painful day-to-day business problem?”
The answer: “We cannot seem to get customers online.”
Sam didn’t know marketing, but he did see a very real opportunity in their pain.
He bought digital marketing books and studied them for weeks.
Then offered to help one business owner.
“How much?” they asked. Sam panicked and said “$1000.”
They said yes, and just like that, he got his first client in what would become a multi-million dollar consulting journey.
One client became two - then two became five. By the end of that year, Sam made $100K.
The next year $500K.
A year later, he was teaching others what he learned. Stanley, his first student, made $10K from one client in 3 weeks.
From a Dropbox folder with Skype meets, a movement began.
As interest grew, Sam launched a real course.
In the first month, he sold 240 copies and made $1.2 million in revenue. The following year, sales doubled to $2.4 million.
He moved to NYC, went all in, and earned $18 million in his first year there.
The floodgates had officially opened.
He bought , invested $10M, hired 30+ staff.
Sam’s clients now span 72+ countries with 10K+ customers.
Soon, the world took notice - features in HuffPost and Entrepreneur followed, as did an NYSE invite.
In 2017, Sam made it to Forbes 30 Under 30 list, with a net worth of $65M.consulting.com
Most people try to chase every platform, be it socials, blogs, podcasts, live streams, events.
Sam did the opposite.
He believes the key is doing less, not more. Focus on 3 things:
- Niche
- Value-driven offer
- A repeatable system to acquire new clients
Sam realized his biggest obstacle was not the market. It was himself.
He understood that pushing harder as your current self rarely works. You need to evolve - mentally, behaviorally, and strategically.
Tools like Optimate help overcome this resistance with tactical clarity.
Once Sam understood that he was the problem, he developed “The Gap”.
The space between who you are and who you must become.
He reverse-engineered the habits, mindset, and systems required to build the future version of himself.
Optimate was actually built to solve the problems in his Consulting Accelerator and UpLevel programs, so you can level up faster
Sam took years to figure this out - goals, incentives, and habits that compound.
With Optimate, get all 3:
- Goals
- Leaderboards
- Tracking
Sam was my mentor for years, and I learned so much from his Quantum mastermind. If you want to run your business like Sam, you need Optimate.
Set goals. Motivate your team. Track results automatically.
Start your free trial at optimateai.com
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