John Mancini Tells His Story of College Dropout to Successful Entrepreneur

Tell us about your early life?

So I was born August 2nd, 1997 in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Growing up, some of my idols included Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, and Gary Vaynerchuk. They really helped inspire me to become an entrepreneur. While I attended Bridgewater-Raritan High School, I played soccer and wrestled and was an AP student. I actually graduated with 22 college credits from the AP classes I took

 

How did you start and grow your business?

I was studying civil engineering at Rutgers University but was struggling financially. I was working as a manager at a few places but I needed something more. One day while scrapping emails for bulk orders, it dawned on me that no one was making jerseys for greek life. I started Almighty Jerseys and grew it through influencer marketing, greek life pages, social media ads, and collaborating in engagement groups. I’ve learned so much about the merch business that I help other people with their eCommerce needs.

 

What do you do in your free time?

I’ve always loved sports and watch it whenever I can. I also like to travel and spend time with family and friends. Giving back to the community is something really close to my heart. In the past, I have participated in blood drives as well as initiatives to clean roads in highways in my area.

Content Curator Donny Drama Tells His Story

What do you do?

I am a full time musician, songwriter, and vocalist under the moniker “Donny Drama,” taken from my Instagram handle @donny.drama – a page with over 740,000 followers where I create and curate viral content, share my journey as a hip-hop artist, and sell promotion to brands and individuals. I build, buy, and sell Instagram pages and also consult brands and individuals on their social media presence and brand, focusing on strengthening their brand and content and growing their Instagram page.

When did you get started?

I have always been around music and experimented with various instruments since childhood. I have a specific passion for hip hop and lyricism in rap which I experimented with throughout high school and college. I started the Instagram page in the spring of 2016.

What motivated you to do what you do?

My goal in life is to own and operate my own business, ideally offering various goods and services all under my established name/brand. My dream is to be an extremely successful musician at the highest level. In spring 2016, I started to believe I could acquire a substantial following on Instagram using memes as the bulk of the content, which would be invaluable as a platform to advertise any venture I would explore in the future. I also saw the potential to earn significant income selling advertisement on a page with a large following, which would be a good source of funding for my future ventures. I had a feeling I had what it takes to build a following and a successful meme page on Instagram. Day by day it grew and things snowballed relatively quickly. These days the page gains between 2-4000+ followers a day.

What are three tips for success that you’ve picked up through experience?

1) Persistence and showing up each and every day is essential. Since the day I started the Instagram page, I have not missed a day of posting at the very least 5 times. A regular day typically includes 10-12 posts. It’s been almost two years. The same work ethic applies to my music and can be applied to working towards any goal.

2) Doing something you enjoy or it will be extremely difficult to stay motivated enough to succeed.

3) Networking is so important. On Instagram, I wouldn’t even be at half the following if it wasn’t for the help of 30+ allies I made along the way. Trading shoutouts has been a very useful growth strategy. In the music industry, it is absolutely essential to constantly build your network and meet new people in order to open new doors.

What are your biggest successes?

Getting the first 10,000 followers (the point where Instagram shortens what would be “10,000” to “10k”). The first 10,000 followers is the hardest and longest part of the process. Once you reach around 10,000 followers, the network effect begins to play a noticeable role, helping build momentum and making things slightly easier if the same effort is upheld. 100,000 followers was a similar milestone, as was 500,000.

Gaining celebrity followers such as Ellie Goulding, George Lopez, Drew Taggart (one of the 2 Chainsmokers), Joe Rogan, Keegan Allen, Adrian Grenier, Simone Biles, Nargis Fakhri, Christy Mack, Asa Akira, Chris Delia, Candace Parker, Elite Daily, The Chive, many more.

Releasing my first single “Medusa’s Eulogy” and reaching 100,000 streams and over 40,000 listeners just on Spotify, 10,000 views on Youtube, and much more in only the first month. Aided by heavy promotion on my Instagram pages.

Creating over 15 original memes that spread virally on the internet. Creating 3 original memes featured on @fuckjerry and one original meme featured on @thefatjewish

What have been your biggest struggles?

Balancing Instagram and music with a full-time job in consulting on government contracts for a year and a half.

Mistakes made due to inexperience when I first started the Instagram page burned bridges with certain key players, many of which I am yet to be able to mend relations with, that could have helped in various ways along the way and in the present.

Who has been a mentor to you?

With Instagram, I learned everything on my own along the way and got the hang of it fast. Musically, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and have a lot of support and advising from artist Rob Level in song-making, and producer Aki “Nawlage” Espi of NDroidBeats in creating and marketing tracks as well as priceless music industry knowledge.

Who are some people you look up to?

Within the meme world, people who can consistently create content that is fresh, witty, and funny. In music, Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye, Future, Nav, Lil Uzi, Travis $cott

 

Extra facts:

Born 1994 in New York, 2 israeli born parents, graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in accounting, spring 2016. Left a job with an accounting firm consulting on government contracts in DC to work on music and building the Donny Drama brand full time, moved to LA.
He never paid or did anything to gain followers inorganically.
In addition to the following organically gained on @donny.drama since spring of 2016, He also gained a total of about 250,000 followers between 4 Instagram meme pages that he has since sold.

The Cooper Weiss Interview

Cooper Weiss is an entrepreneur who is responsible for making fidget spinners go viral. You can learn more about him on his Everipedia Page, but I got the chance to ask him a few questions in a phone interview.

 

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

Throughout my life, I have always been a hustler. Whether it was setting up gift shops at family events or buying and selling sneakers, I have always been finding ways to make money.

 

Who are your influences?

Gary Vaynerchuk and Gerard Adams.

 

What was your contribution to Fidget360?

My area of focus was mainly on marketing and promotion. It was my responsibility to set up the Fidget360 website and run the social media account, which today has over 150K followers. I reach out to influencers and coordinate marketing campaigns on Instagram and Facebook.  In addition to running customer service and support, I also oversee the supply chain and operation, from when we were putting together fidget spinners out of my parents’ basement to where it is in China now.

 

What projects are you working on now?

Alongside my partner David Rose, we started Internet Made Inc., a full-service social media marketing and management agency for companies and businesses. I also founded Magnet Mount in January 2018, the premier luxury iPhone mount for peoples’ vehicles.

 

What do you study in school now?

I currently attend the University of Michigan where I am in their LSA program, but is looking to transfer to the Ross School of Business.