When Michael Barayev was put into foster care at a young age, he was overwhelmed with feelings of failure and inadequacy, yet rather than allowing himself to be drowned by his sorrows, he decided to prove everyone who ever doubted him wrong. Little did he know, it was the beginning of an epic journey and the foundation for a lifelong legacy.
“If life is anything- it’s a journey,” explained Barayev, an award-winning business coach. “Yet any journey worth taking is more than simply a case of getting from ‘A’ to ‘B’. It’s about the lessons you learn, the sights you see, the hardships you overcome, and the people you meet along the way.”
As far as journeys go, Barayev’s story is similar to that of which you would see in any Hollywood movie. He arrived in Queens, New York as a six-month-old child of Russian immigrants and grew up surrounded by domestic violence. Things turned from bad to worse when his parents divorced, and as soon as he hit his teen years, Barayev went “off the tracks” and was put into a foster care program for delinquent children.
Barayev said, “I was kicked out of school and placed in foster care because I had no positive influences in my life and my mother couldn’t control me. I was rebelling against everything and headed down a very dark path. It was a wake-up call. I decided no one else was going to help me, so I needed to take control of my own life and not let my circumstances define me.”
Upon leaving foster care Barayev took any job he could before finding his true calling – sales! Barayev said, “I started off working in the streets of 47th st, New York City’s diamond district, bringing in sales for some of the diamond dealers. I then started working different door-to-door jobs selling cable TV and internet services and really started earning big once I realized that my earnings would be in direct relation to my efforts.”
“Knocking on doors and selling to customers face to face made all the difference,” explained Barayev. “I regard myself as a people person and a natural-born salesman, so that kind of one–one interaction changed everything.”
In the space of less than a year, Barayev had made over six figures in income. In 2016 he decided it was time to carve his own path and founded his company, Barayev Marketing, which has since earned him millions.
Barayev said, “Door-to-door sales is the most difficult type of sales out there. You have to know how to read, interact, and give people what they want, all while being prepared for people to slam the door right in your face, many times with a few expletives thrown in. It’s something you can’t learn in school and once mastered, is an invaluable skill that will help you in all forms of sales, and in life in general. That’s why I started Barayev Bootcamp. I have taken all the skills and knowledge I learned both as a door to door salesman, and as a successful business owner running and training a team of over 150 full time sales agents, and have compiled it into a concise program that can help any entrepreneur or business owner grow and optimize their company.”
Barayev’s latest project is a one-on-one coaching and mentoring program tailored to teaching business owners and entrepreneurs how to increase their revenue through sales, build profitable and cohesive teams, and implement the proper systems and operations to have their business running smoothly and efficiently.
Barayev explained, “Scalability is essential for any company. Get that right and all the other pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.” Reflecting on his journey to date, Barayev added, “If my example shows anything, it’s that the possibilities are endless no matter what your background is, and success is yours for the taking if you want it badly enough and are willing to do the work. The trick is to keep going and keep evolving.