In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews serial entrepreneur Sayan Sarkar, founder of Sark Media Direct, a consultancy that helps health‑and e‑commerce businesses scale to seven figures. Sarkar shares a personal transformation story, describing how he went from an unmotivated college student to a successful entrepreneur after a mindset shift sparked by reading Think and Grow Rich. He emphasizes the importance of finding a market first—solving a real customer problem before creating a product—rather than building a health supplement and then searching for buyers. Sarkar’s broader business advice centers on relentless perseverance, learning from the failures of iconic CEOs, and maintaining focus on a single pursuit to achieve mastery. He defines happiness as a blend of supportive relationships and doing work that ignites his passion for business strategy. The episode also highlights his favorite quote from Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” underscoring the need for action. Finally, Sarkar directs listeners to his website sarkmediadirect.com and a case‑study landing page for health e‑commerce resources.
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Sayan Sarkar with us. He is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Sark Media Direct, a direct marketing consultancy that specializes in helping entrepreneurs grow to 7 figures and beyond. In the health and e-commerce industries. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, Tyler, thanks for having me, man. Great to be here.
Of course, man. Grateful to have you on. It's New Year's Eve, so we'll make this one extra fun. The first one I got for you, Seon, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, man, you know, I think if I really look back, the biggest thing for me is so Before I started my career in business, I started about 8 years ago now. Before that, I was one of those guys who had no clear ambition or idea of what I would do in my life, and I always thought I was kind of like drift through. That might seem kind of weird, but it's true. Most of my teenage years and even my young adult years, I was very like not motivated, didn't care about stuff. You know, like drank my way through college, essentially. Like all these things that had no, no clear bearing on where I would end up today. Yet things changed overnight. And I think it's important for guys and girls to know, because the reality is a lot of us, I feel, think we can't do things that we actually can. And I was that way my entire life. I really thought I could not do things and I would not be successful. But a shift happened, you know, actually a year or two after I left college. And those last 8 years have been amazing. And I've, you know, since then done a lot with my own businesses, had a lot of clients who had great successes. And like, it's just like wherever you are in life, there's always a way out. There's always a way to turn things around. Like no matter how horrible it might seem in the moment, It always gets better and you can always do whatever you want to do if you really focus and get it done.
And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
That would be find a market and people who are willing to— or people who have a problem and solve their problem. I think people, especially in my industry, they go about the wrong way. They go and make a health supplement product or some health product, and then they go try to find someone to buy it. That's backwards thinking because that's thinking about, you know, a feature or ingredient or whatever it is and not thinking about that end consumer and how you can help solve their problem.
And then it could tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Yeah, so I think in that case, it goes actually a bit back to number 1, right? So like, you can never give up, like never ever give up. Like, it's great for me also to read, like I read a lot, right? Like biographies and all these, you know, learning about big business, you know, CEOs and whatnot who have done a lot, and every single one of them, they've been at the brink of failure like 50 times. You think of Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, every single one of them. And it's important to know, again, you might be in your business and things might suck and maybe your ads aren't working, whatever it is, you're not getting clients, whatever it is, right? You might feel horrible about it, you might think it's over. It's not. You have to just not give up and keep on moving forward and things will work out in time.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
That would be to find the one thing and focus on it. When I was younger, you know, again, I was not very, you know, full of ambition. I was trying 50 different things, had no focus, had no aim. And I think that if I, for example, you know, I mean, even if it wasn't health and e-com, which I do now, if I picked anything and just like really focused hard on it and focus on becoming the best at that one thing, I would be even further than I am right now. So yeah, focus, always focus.
And then in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
That's a good question. I think it's a combination of two things. One is being surrounded by people that love you, that you love. And having fun with them and kind of being present with them. And I know for me, that's easy to forget in business, right? I work a lot, obviously, I'm always trying to grow faster, so I forget that. So that's one thing to kind of keep in mind, right? And secondly, which might be unorthodox, but find what you, what you like doing and like do it a lot, right? So like, I know for me, like I get really fired up and super happy when I know that I'm looking at someone's business and pinpointing what to do and how to fix their things. I love business strategy and marketing ideas and all these things. That makes me very happy. So whatever it is that makes you happy, whatever it is, find that thing and do that, right? Don't think about it, don't dream about it, do it. So yeah, those two things combined would really be the key in my opinion.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
That's a good question. A ton. I think Think and Grow Rich is the one. So Napoleon Hill, that was probably one of the first business books ever. And actually, dude, that was probably the book that made me have that shift I was talking about in question 1. So while I was like ambitionless, kind of left collar, just like, doing whatever, and then somebody recommended me that book and I read it and it completely rewired my brain. I just realized like, oh my God, like first of all, I can do whatever I want to. And also to clarify for those who haven't read it, Think and Grow Rich is not necessarily about like monetary riches. I mean, it is to an extent, but mostly it's about like richness everywhere, right? In your life, your family, whatever it is. And what I've learned from that is it all comes from your thought processes and how you really look at the world, what your perspective is. You know, it's easy to be negative and look at things the wrong way, but if you shift things around and really are positive and also like committed, super committed, focused to what you want to do, things can happen beyond your wildest imaginations. That's what I pulled away from that book. So if you haven't read it yet, for those of you listening, definitely read it.
Yeah, that's actually one of the first books as well that like really just even got me into like personal development and business. That one and The 4-Hour Workweek were like my first two. Those were like springboards and I was like, okay, I'm all in. Let's go. So yeah, I couldn't agree more. And then what is your favorite quote and why?
You know, this one I had on my Facebook profile forever. It's Wayne Gretzky, and he says, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take," or something along those lines. And obviously for him, it was coming from being amazing at hockey, but obviously he had, you know, life needs also, right? So like, if there are things that you want to do but don't try, and you just, like, you just tell yourself you can't do it, then you can't do it. It's simple as that. Like, if you think you can't, you can't. And if you think you can, you can. So for me, it's like you look at all the opportunities and take shots at them, and some of them are going to fail, but if you don't take them at all, you will definitely fail no matter what. That's a good reminder, you know, when things look challenging or opportunities look too hard to overcome, I know that if I at least try, I'll get somewhere, but if I don't try, there's no way I'm going to make it. Absolutely, man.
Dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you is, uh, where can our audience best find you online?
Yep, uh, so one is sarkmediadirect.com. That's like my overall home page, and there's an opt-in page where you guys can get some awesome case studies on how to build health e-com businesses if that's what you're into. And that's sarkmediadirect.com/case-study.
Perfect. Thank you again for coming on, man.
Thanks, man. Good talk to you.
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