Bio | My Story

Short Bio
Rob Dunfey has been featured on the ESPN, Boston Globe, Yahoo! Sports, About.com, and countless media networks. He owns the largest skateboarding school in the world, and a career training company in USA and Canada with hundreds of teachers.  He has started, bought, and sold companies. Rob has a YouTube Channel with over 7,045,499 views and has sold videos to Ehow.com. Today, he has founded over a dozen companies in education sphere.
One business was selected as an Empact Showcase company and invited to the United Nations(UN) recognized as one of the top companies in America with founders under 30. In TLC TV Show, “Little People, Big World” filmed his bartending lesson service with the stars of the show.

His start-up, Store With Me, was a Shark Tank finalist on the CNBC TV network, and funded by the Mill Incubator – owned by the late Tony Hsieh.

His family started  Omni Hotels (an American and Canadian luxury hotel chain) which at one point was the second-largest hotel chain in the world.

College Years

Rob was 20 years old, and going to college on a beautiful campus in West LA overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the skyline. On the outside, everything seemed perfect.  However, inside Rob was miserable in that he saw University as an obstacle between him and his dreams.

Rob saw Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, and all of these millionaire drop-outs and thought, “That’s my path.”   His mother was not happy.   She was like,  “You only have one more year left.  If you drop out, you’re not going to be able to get a job.”   “Either stay in school or we will cut you off financially.”

Rob decided to drop out and build a business.  That was the first big step of action he took.  That said, “Hey, I’m committed to this.”  And sometimes taking that first step is the most important.  It’s that step of faith.  The first year was thousands of hours spent locked in his room.  He NEVER left the house.  He was SO focused on business creation.  He started to read personal development books to increase my financial intelligence.  He read Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and “Cash Flow Quadrant“.  In this book, Robert Kiyosaki mentions that, “9 our of 10 business fail in there first three years. If you plan to start a business, be prepared to fail.”

Rob thought this was the “secret” he had been looking for. The key is to start 10 businesses and you will always have at least ONE successful business. That year, he made it my plan to start 10 businesses.

Rob started creating and failed BAD.  He started four businesses (an eBay business, a map software, a skin care company and a real estate business) and they all failed.  On top of that, he was BROKE.  His trial in real estate took his money and left him without any properties.

On his fifth business idea, he began to see success.  After hearing a story about a successful cleaning business owner, Rob started a cleaning business.  He liquidated EVERYTHING of value- including selling his car.  He was now using his mom’s bike to get around.  He invested in an LLC, equipment, and placed ads.   It was slow for three months and then it ROCKED.. grossing six figures in the first year.   He got sick of the cold weather though, sold the business, and moved to California.

Living in an SUV & Developing Faith

In California, the buyer of his business stopped making payments on the purchase.  He was now BROKE again and could no longer afford an apartment.  He lived in his Jeep SUV. He started an internet business in my trunk.  He would work in Starbucks, and took showers at the gym. Although his lifestyle was far from glamorous, he developed a strong faith and even shot videos in the car to one day look back and joke about.

The best thing about going broke was he became a more spiritual person.  His “why” shifted from acquiring things to acquiring freedom. He started going to church again, renewed my purpose, and changed his WHY.

He was broke, but REFUSED to get a job. Rob thought the discomfort would somehow motivate himself.

He failed some more. He started a cleaning business, a lead generation service, a marketing company, and a pet care company all FAILURES.. He started skateboard lesson company with low hopes. For this, I then ran Google Pay-per-click campaign that would change my life. Google messed up. His ad which was only to be displayed in San Diego was ran all over the country.   The next morning, he checked his email and there were 10 leads in there. He just remembers thinking “Holy smokes, this is my lucky day!”

The nationwide leads were too cheap to turn off.  Seeing an opportunity to expand outside of San Diego, the next six months were spent developing the system to serve the entire country.

Business Breakthrough

He learned the power of having virtual offices in the Philippines and hiring remote  workers.  (Today he has 50-100 working remotely, outside of USA,  at anytime). He finalized the system. Hired a commission-only employee and the team started calling the leads!

Now, Rob can literally, work, live, and play, anywhere he wants, anytime he wants!   He has learned the more times someone fails, the closer they are to winning.

The Most Important Piece of Advice to New Entrepreneurs

Start as many businesses as possible with the least possible money.   Plan to start 10 businesses – for one successful business.