We saw your questions.
is billy gene Legit?
Fair enough. There’s a lot of bull**** on the internet.
We don’t blame you for doing your research, because we do ours as well.
So we made this site for you so you could get to know Billy a little more.
Check out the timeline, get all the details you need to know, and we’ll see you on the other side.
We'll show you who we are, where we came from, and where we're going...
Let us be clear: College was great.
Billy had a ton of fun and made some amazing friends and connections.
You might be surprised, but Billy doesn't actually hate college.
It's just that college isn't set up for entrepreneurs.
College was teaching him to be successful in a business...
But not how to be successful in the business he wanted to build.
He went to all his classes but one.
Because Billy couldn't deny the call of entrepreneurship any more and he was ready to take the leap.
Billy started SWG Mobile Oil Change with his cousin and one of his best friends.
He was positive this company was the key to retiring his entire family...
...except he had NO IDEA how to get customers!
After giving it everything he had for 6 months, Billy talked to his partners and decided to shut it down.
After his mobile oil change company went under, Billy was down, but not out.
He got a job checking people in at 24 Hour Fitness.
Then the car he was living out of got towed with all of his possessions and clothes inside.
Just when things were looking truly bleak, he got a job at this school called Ashford University.
He gained a lot of skills, but he didn't agree with what they were doing fundamentally.
And when he found out the CEO of the company made $25 million in a year, Billy quit that same day.
They say hindsight is 20/20, but to us (his team) it's clear how even Billy's worst experiences at Ashford directly shaped some of his biggest future decisions:
- The type of leader he would choose to become
- Our core values of operating world-class in everything we do, taking responsibility, and having fun
- His passion for revolutionizing the education system
- His commitment to making a lasting impact, beyond his family and team
But the road to being a successful entrepreneur has its ups and downs — and Billy's story is no exception.
Billy was at a crossroads:
He had no income but that drive to run his own business was back stronger than ever.
He moved back in with his parents and started a new business called Rethink & Relive with his friend's dad.
They sold online courses to help people break addictions like smoking and drinking, and to lose weight.
Billy knew from his time at SWG Mobile Oil Change that he needed to focus on getting customers.
So he tried it all:
- Asking friends and family to buy
- Networking events
- Setting up booths at local events
- Hiring a call center
...but nothing he saw work for the big companies worked for his small company!
Billy's first Facebook advertisements were right column ads (a.k.a. the ads that you can only see on a computer and if you blink, you'll miss 'em).
You weren't even allowed to advertise on the Facebook newsfeed back then!
He ran ads from 6pm to 3am showing pictures of bomb-ass food to people when they were getting late-night cravings.
He spent $80 to test out his ads, went to bed... and made $5 in his sleep!
That was the most impactful moment of his career, a catalyst for everything that was to come.
Because even though he had only made $5, and even though the person who bought immediately requested a refund (lol)...
He had made money while he was sleeping!
Before this moment, he did what everyone else always had to do: trade time for dollars.
But then he got to thinking...
WHAT IF they hadn't requested a refund?
WHAT IF he had made 10 sales instead of 1?
He would've made money.
And that's when he realized... advertising is everything.
So Billy doubled down on advertising.
He was still living with his parents.
And they were supportive -- but they were also low-key thinking he was just playing video games all day!
They're his family and they love him, they just didn't see his vision... yet.
He created Facebook Marketing University and did his first speaking event.
See that photo above?
You won't find Billy on it.
Instead he put a corporate stock image of a random woman on there that read, “Ask us how to make a sh** ton of money with Facebook. Free Mini Consultations."
Everyone has to start somewhere and Billy was doing what most entrepreneurs do:
Working his ass off.
And that speaking gig was the key to his first big client...
That first speaking gig lead to Billy getting a meeting with the CEO of Xterra Wetsuits, Glynn.
Billy whipped out the best demonstration he had.
Video. Targeting. All the bells and whistles that 2013 had to offer.
And Glynn liked the presentation...
But he also knew that Billy didn't have a lot of experience.
You ever been there?
But Glynn gave him a chance - an $800 chance.
That might not sound like much... but Billy was excited!
So Billy made an ad offering $241 off a wetsuit with free shipping...
And turned it into $160,000 in sales. In a MONTH.
Month 1 they paid him $800. And after they saw his results?
Oh you better believe they paid him a lot more... $8,000 in month 2!
Entrepreneurs often think we'll reach this magical destination where we have no problems.
The reality is, you just face new problems.
At this point Billy was depending on referrals for business. And that wasn't getting him enough customers.
So what did he do?
He advertised.
He made a video showing how he got results and asked people who saw the demo to book a call on his calendar.
He spent $600 and the next day he closed $10,000 in new business!
Advertising meant...
- He didn't have to go to trade shows anymore.
- He didn't have to network anymore.
- He didn't have to chase people anymore.
Facebook ads were a gamechanger. So he tripled down.
Every single person in this picture let Billy borrow money during his come up.
And this was the first moment when he could say thank you like this and give back.
It was a big moment for him.
As entrepreneurs we've got so much debt. Our s*** goes sideways. Only some people believe in us or support us.
So to be able to do it all and be able to take everybody who had believed in him to dinner was amazing.
But now he had a new problem: More overhead.
He needed to make even more sales.
And he realized every company in the world is the same: They need more customers.
Small, big, doesn't matter... advertising is what brings in more customers, and Billy could do it for them.
Fast forward to 2015.
Billy wasn't running a mom & pop shop anymore and he wanted to level up. He wanted to work with the big dogs and go after franchises.
The solution? Advertising.
One Orangetheory Fitness location gave him a chance.
Billy spoke with Jonathan, who asked if he could make something work for $1,500. But Jonathan had to get approval from the owner...
The owner thought Facebook ads don't work.
Ever heard that one before?
But Billy was confident and -- to be frank -- a little arrogant.
He guaranteed that advertising does work and he even made a bet:
If it didn't work, not only would he refund the $1,500 but he'd also pay back another $1,500 for wasting their time.
At the time the La Jolla location was getting about 100 leads in a month.
And Billy's ad got them 123 leads in a single day.
They started trusting him with more of their locations...
Billy turned that 1 location into 300. But he wanted more than just gyms.
The solution? Advertising. And as a result of his sometimes super-weird, always-entertaining advertising he got a ton of new franchises and businesses:
- Orangetheory Fitness
- European Wax Center
- Crunch Fitness
- Dave & Busters
- Leader Bikes
- Kia of El Cajon
- Massage Envy
- Corepower Yoga
- CrossFit
- Club Pilates
- TITLE Boxing
...and the list continues.
Can you guess what all of those different franchises had in common?
They wanted more customers, and advertising made it happen for them.
And Billy did it all while having the time of his life with his friends.
As Billy Gene Is Marketing continued to progress, they started to get recognized.
Facebook saw what Billy was doing with ads on their platform and wanted to ask him some questions.
They emailed Billy, inviting him to come speak at their office (and even paid for his ticket to fly out).
Billy knew an opportunity when he saw it. And he wanted to leverage the experience so people could see that it happened.
He asked if he could bring a camera to film it... and they said yes!
Documenting that meeting allowed Billy to get invited to a few masterminds by some very influential people.
They wanted to know what he learned, because now he knew something they didn't.
And just like that, he had earned himself a place at the table.
That's when Billy realized how important it is to always be the dumbest person in the room so you can always be learning from others.
Billy Gene Is Marketing was growing fast, but Billy felt like something was still missing.
See, most people struggle to ever get past the "survival" stage. In the survival stage you worry:
- Do I have enough to pay my bills?
- Do I have enough to get by?
- Am I gonna get evicted?
- Am I gonna lose this?
- Is my family okay?
But as Billy became successful and didn't have to worry about all of that anymore, he discovered something that would change the company in ways he never imagined.
What was it?
Fulfillment.
Success was cool, but he felt like success was just a "me" thing (only looking out for you and yours).
Fulfillment is a "we" thing.
Both of Billy's parents grew up on welfare. The most successful person he knew was his father who sold cars.
Back in his college days Billy worked summers at the car lot with his dad who taught him a ton about sales and how to close deals.
But his dad was the only successful person in his circle to look up to.
There's always been a part of him that felt disappointed when he'd walk into successful circles that were only filled with white men.
No women. No minorities.
Nothing against those white men; Billy learned a ton from them!
But Billy thought if he could just get more people to know what he knew, then he could reach and impact diverse communities.
And that's when it really shifted for him:
Instead of giving fish, Billy wanted to teach people how to fish.
Instead of just advertising for companies, Billy started teaching people how to advertise for themselves.
Remember the "fish" from earlier?
Well, when Billy was the "agency guy" he was selling people fish.
Meaning, he was selling them the result of good advertising, a.k.a. more customers.
But by teaching people to fish (advertise) they're able to eat as much as they want, whenever they want... and it's what allowed Billy to scale up and reach the masses.
Getting students was easy because Billy knew how to advertise.
But getting all those students led to new problems:
He needed a bigger team.
So he ran a hiring ad on Facebook to attract new employees and he got an office in downtown San Diego.
Then Billy's daughter Kaia was born.
And this one event brought the biggest challenge of all: Learning how to be a dad.
But his daughter's mother lived in Portland and wanted to be near her family. So Billy had to commute 1,000 miles to live half the week in Portland... and half the week in San Diego to run his company!
He had to adapt, go virtual, and manage a team from that far away, while learning how to raise a daughter... all at the same time, all on his own.
Thanks to the power of advertising, he was able to be flexible enough to live in 2 states at one time.
And through all that he was still able to run his company and have their best years ever with exponential growth.
Very few "jobs" out there would have given him the freedom to live in 2 states at once like he was able to back then and be with his daughter.
And it's why we're so passionate about empowering our students with the exact skill set that allowed him (and our team) to work anywhere in the world, with just a laptop and an internet connection.
After a year his family moved back to San Diego and Billy didn't have to travel back and forth anymore.
He was able to buy his dream house and money was continuing to grow. Billy Gene Is Marketing was scaling up.
At that point he was ready to start building up his brand.
He wanted to connect with industry leaders. So he started advertising to get people into his office to do interviews.
Billy invited Grant Cardone to his office to do a Facebook live interview.
That led to an interview with Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks on Shark Tank.
And by advertising all of those interviews, he started rocking with top business leaders like Ed Mylett, Daymond John, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, and Russell Brunson to name a few.
Billy Gene Is Marketing was getting out of the 7 figure territory and into 8 figures a year.
The brand and team were leveling up, so it was time to create a world-class and unforgettable experience for industry leaders coming in as guests and our students.
Billy invested into a million dollar state-of-the-art headquarters:
An in-house broadcasting studio, multi-camera setup, giant LED screens, a chain curtain with his face on it (LOL), a podcast studio, and other major upgrades to the office.
And now he needed more cash to continue to grow.
So he kept advertising. Advertisement after advertisement after advertisement.
In fact, you're here right now doing your research because of an advertisement!
The result of all of that work? 130,000 students in 75 countries and ads that have been seen over 1 billion times.
In 2020, Billy Gene Is Marketing experienced their most profitable year in company history.
Why?
Because they were experienced advertisers.
In an up economy people want to grow so they want more customers.
In a down economy people want to survive so they need more customers.
Either way, advertising is necessary.
During the pandemic, people turned to online at a rate faster than we've ever seen before. It fast forwarded and accelerated the opportunity.
A herd of people, including traditional businesses, rushed online. But they needed help advertising their products and services.
Billy already had over 10 years of experience by then, so his company was perfectly positioned to help them all.
Before all of this -- back when it was just a dream and Billy was still living at his parents' house -- he learned from Dean Graziosi, Tony Robbins, and Russell Brunson that information is the greatest resource on the planet.
His story is proof of that.
Today Billy's goal is to use information to empower more black, brown, and women to be best in class industry leaders.
In the beginning Billy was just trying to make it.
Then he was trying to help people.
And now, Billy is creating a movement.
That's why he's discounted all of his course so they're accessible and affordable.
And it's also why he launched his Certified Advertising Geneius Academy to personally train and certify entrepreneurs and business owners in advertising.
There are massive opportunities out there waiting, and the benefits that come with it are yours... If you take them.
Entrepreneur, our hope in writing all this down for you is that no matter where you are in your journey:
Keep going.
You can only fail if you quit.