Eric, could you tell us a little more about how you became an entrepreneur?
I’ve long seen education as something that levels the playing field.
Being a first-generation college student, I know this first-hand.
After all, America is the land of opportunity.
But not everything is what it seems.
I've always believed that merit and hard work would come out on top, but the college scandal of 2019 showed that even today, money, connections, and power are more important.
So, I set out to fix this.
I wanted to provide an educational platform made by students – for students.
I worked to create an affordable service for all students, no matter what socioeconomic background they come from, without compromising personalization and quality through my company, Edullo.
You are also known for your giant following on TikTok; tell us a little more about your TikTok Journey?
I started posting on TikTok in November of 2019.
I had originally gone onto the platform with the intent of bringing awareness to my brand, but then the first video I posted blew up, hitting over 600,000 views in 1 day.
The video showed some of my educational and business achievements.
From there, I realized how eager people were to learn and be inspired.
TikTok has long been, and continues to be, an entertainment geared social media platform.
But, I saw how educational content could have a place.
After all, the value of this is exponentially higher than watching people dance.
Fast forward a couple months and 155,000 followers later, Taylor Price, the CEO of Team Tap, reached out to me with a vision that so closely matched mine that I could not help but join Team Tap.
The vision was a brand, team, and hype house type collaboration that generates educational content that spanned every industry you could think of.
I’ve helped millions of students along their educational journey and I hope to continue to do so for the time to come.
What would you say to aspiring entrepreneurs & fans who look up to your work?
I wish I had known this one key thing sooner: you should start building your personal brand as soon as you can.
People may ask, “what is a personal brand?
I see it as the loyalty people have to you due to your credibility, likability, or achievements.
It’s as simple as creating and putting out content, networking, or getting involved in your community.
This is vital because even if as an entrepreneur your first three businesses fail, you have a loyal following that will continue to provide you the foundational platform that you can build off from once more.
Meanwhile, if it is just the business and it's brand that people recognize and trust, if the business goes, the platform goes as well.
My second piece of advice is to surround yourself with winners.
I once heard the quote that “you are the sum of the five closest people around you.”
To be blunt, surround yourself with losers, and you’ll most likely be a loser.
How do you find winners? And to that I say: network, network, network.
With how interconnected we all are on social media, it’s as simple as sending a message and asking for a quick meeting.
Keep in mind that you should be able to contribute something to the conversation and the relationship.
This is exactly where your personal brand comes into play; people will be much more likely to invest time into forming a relationship if you have a strong personal brand.
Do you have anything new or upcoming we can expect to see from you?
My website is a great place to keep up to date on what I’m doing.
My team and I have been working hard to release our revolutionary freelance peer-to-peer tutoring and mentoring platform, called Edullo Scholar.
And as always stay tuned to my TikTok for a ton of new educational content.
Follow Eric Patel:
Website: Eric Patel
Instagram: @EricPatel99
LinkedIn: Eric Patel
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