A 90-Day Challenge from Cyber6 Academy

Cybersecurity isn't one job. It's four income paths. You're stuck because you only know about one.

In 90 days, stop guessing. Discover which of the four cybersecurity income paths actually fits your situation, get a personalized roadmap into it, and build the proof and positioning to start walking it — mentored by a firm that earns on all four.

Start the Challenge $497

Cohort-based. Hard start date. Limited seats. Built for people who'll do the work.

Led by Marquis Carroll — an operating MSP/MSSP on the path to C3PAO & FedRAMP 3PAO credentialing. We don't teach these paths from a textbook. We earn on them.

THE PROBLEM

You did everything they told you to do.

And it still isn't working. Here's the truth: there isn't one "you" trying to break into cyber — there are three. And each one is stuck in a different trap. See which one sounds like the voice in your head at 2am.

PERSONA 01

The Career Starter — drowning in YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram advice.

You're switching careers — or trying to start one — and cybersecurity sounds like the answer. Six figures. Remote. "Recession-proof." So you went where everyone goes: YouTube for the "How I got into cyber with no experience" videos, Reddit for the r/cybersecurity threads, Instagram for the guys in hoodies promising you a $120k SOC job in 6 months.

You've watched hundreds of hours. You can name every cert in the roadmap. You know what TryHackMe is. You've bookmarked 14 free courses you'll "get to next week." You've heard "just get your Security+" so many times it's a meme in your own head.

And you still haven't done anything.

Because every video contradicts the last one. One guy says start with Network+. The next says skip it. One says go cloud. One says go GRC. One says certs are everything. The next says certs are worthless. You're not lazy — you're paralyzed. You've confused consuming content about cyber with actually building a career in cyber, and you're starting to feel like a fraud who's been "getting ready to start" for a year.

You don't need another free YouTube video. You need someone to tell you exactly what to do this week — and hold you to it.

PERSONA 02

The Certified Ghost — degree, certs, and 200+ applications into the void.

You did it the "right" way. You got the bachelor's. You stacked Security+, maybe Network+, maybe CySA+ or CEH on top. You built the home lab. You did the TryHackMe streak. You wrote the LinkedIn posts about your "cyber journey." You paid someone $300 to rewrite your résumé in ATS-friendly format.

Then you started applying. 50 applications. 100. 200. 300. You've lost count. You set up a spreadsheet so you'd stop applying to the same job twice. You tailored cover letters. You followed up. You messaged recruiters on LinkedIn with the polite, professional note the influencers told you to send.

Nothing. Not a single interview. Not even a rejection email — just silence.

The "entry-level" SOC role wants 3 years of SIEM experience. The internships are for college juniors. The "junior analyst" job has 400 applicants in 24 hours. You start wondering if the degree was a waste. If the certs were a scam. If everyone in those success videos was lying — or paid.

You're not unqualified. You're invisible. You're fighting 4,000 other certified people for the same 12 openings, and the algorithm is filtering you out before a human ever sees your name. The advice "just keep applying and network harder" is gaslighting at this point — you've done both, for months, and the inbox is still empty.

The door you're banging on is the most crowded door in the industry. Nobody told you there are three other doors — wide open — that don't require begging HR for permission.

PERSONA 03

The Stuck IT Pro — already in the building, can't get into the room.

You're not starting from zero. You're a sysadmin, a help desk lead, a network engineer, a cloud guy, a developer. You're good at your job. You've been doing it for 3, 5, maybe 10 years. You understand systems. You understand users. You already touch security every single day — patching, IAM, firewalls, incident tickets, the whole thing.

You want to move into cyber. Officially. With the title and the pay bump and the roadmap that doesn't end at "senior sysadmin." But every time you try, you hit the same wall: internal recruiters say you "don't have security experience." External recruiters ghost you because your résumé says "IT" not "Security." Your boss won't sponsor a move because then they'd have to backfill your seat.

So you sit. Doing security work. Without the security title.

You watch people with half your technical depth — but the right résumé keywords — get the role you wanted. You start to resent the certs you don't have. You start a CISSP study plan, then quit. You wonder if you should just go get a master's. You wonder if you waited too long.

The brutal part: your IT experience is the single most undervalued asset in this entire market. You already speak the language. You already have stories. You're not missing skill — you're missing positioning, proof artifacts, and a clear path that doesn't require taking a $40k pay cut to be a junior again.

You don't need to start over. You need to repackage what you already do and walk through the door labeled "security" — without giving up your seniority to do it.

Three different people. Three different traps. One identical root cause: every one of you was told there's basically one way into this industry — land an entry-level SOC seat and climb. So all three of you are throwing yourselves at the single most crowded door in cybersecurity, while three other doors sit wide open and unguarded.

The problem was never your knowledge, your background, or your work ethic. The problem is that you're forcing yourself down one path when there are four.

THE REFRAME

There are four ways to earn in cybersecurity. Most people only fight for one.

The reason you feel stuck isn't a skills gap. It's that nobody showed you the whole map. Here are the four income paths — and the lie each one breaks.

Path 1

Employment (W2)

The lie: "I just have to keep applying to entry-level jobs."

The truth: It's not about applying harder. It's about positioning so you stop competing in the crowd.

The opportunity

There are hundreds of thousands of unfilled security roles in the US alone — SOC analyst, GRC analyst, IAM, vulnerability management, detection engineering, security engineer. Salaries start in the $70–110k range and climb fast once you have a title. The problem isn't demand. The problem is that you look identical to 4,000 other applicants and the system can't tell why it should pick you.

How the challenge opens this door

In the challenge you stop applying as a face in the crowd. You'll pick the specific W2 lane that fits your background, rebuild your résumé and LinkedIn around that lane, and produce 1–2 proof artifacts (lab write-up, detection rule, policy doc) that prove you can do the work before anyone interviews you. By Day 90 you're not 'applying harder' — you're a specific person solving a specific problem, and recruiters can finally see it.

Path 2

Freelancing & Consulting

The lie: "I'm not senior enough to consult."

The truth: Mid-level skills already solve expensive problems. This is how real security firms are built.

The opportunity

Every small and mid-sized business in the country is failing a security questionnaire from a customer, insurer, or auditor right now. They don't need a CISSP-stamped consultant — they need someone who can run a gap assessment, write a policy set, and help them survive a SOC 2 / HIPAA / CMMC review. Engagements run $2k–$15k. You only need a few clients to replace a salary, and the work is repeatable.

How the challenge opens this door

In the challenge you'll package a single offer (e.g. 'I help MSPs pass their first SOC 2 readiness'), build the capability statement and intake docs, and learn the exact outreach motion we use to land SMB and MSP work. You leave with a productized service, the artifacts to deliver it, and a target list — not a vague dream of 'someday going independent.'

Path 3

Government Contracting

The lie: "The federal door is locked to me."

The truth: There's a known on-ramp, and almost nobody teaches it. We pursue these contracts ourselves.

The opportunity

The federal government and the defense industrial base spend billions a year on cybersecurity — CMMC assessments, FedRAMP support, RMF packages, SOC support for cleared environments. Cleared roles pay a 20–40% premium over commercial for the rest of your career, and subcontracting as a small business or 1099 specialist is wide open if you know the on-ramp. Most people never look here because it feels gated. It isn't — it's just unfamiliar.

How the challenge opens this door

In the challenge you'll learn the actual ladder: SAM.gov, subcontracting under primes, the CMMC ecosystem we're credentialing into ourselves, and how to position yourself as a specialist a prime actually wants to bring on. You walk out with a GovCon-ready one-pager, the right vocabulary, and a real list of primes and programs to approach — instead of staring at USAJobs feeling locked out.

Path 4

Influence & Content

The lie: "My certs should speak for me."

The truth: A visible brand beats a stack of certificates — and it compounds every other path.

The opportunity

Hiring managers, clients, and contracting officers all Google you before they talk to you. A 12-month track record of public technical work — write-ups, breakdowns, short videos, a niche newsletter — flips the entire dynamic: jobs, clients, and contracts come to you. This is also the only path that compounds. Every post you publish keeps working for you on the other three paths for years.

How the challenge opens this door

In the challenge you'll pick a narrow angle (e.g. 'SOC 2 for early-stage SaaS,' 'detection engineering for Microsoft 365'), publish your first proof-of-work pieces, and set up a content cadence you can actually keep. You leave with a visible footprint that makes the W2, consulting, and GovCon doors easier to open — not someday, but immediately.

You don't need to walk all four. You need to find the one that fits you — and start. That's what the next 90 days are for.

WHY THIS WORKS

This isn't a bootcamp, a course library, or another "roadmap." It's the thing the internet keeps refusing to give you.

Go look at the advice you've been swimming in. It's the same loop, over and over, in every YouTube video, every Reddit thread, every "break into cyber" Instagram reel:

"Just get Security+. Then CySA+. Then maybe CISSP." Cool. You did. You're still unemployed, and now you're $1,500 deeper.
"Build a home lab. Post screenshots on LinkedIn." You built three. Nobody cares because nobody can tell what problem you actually solve.
"Apply to 500 jobs. It's a numbers game." You applied to 300. You got 2 rejections and 298 silences.
"Network on LinkedIn. DM hiring managers." You sent 80 messages. Most got ignored. The few replies said "we're not hiring entry-level right now."
"Try TryHackMe / HackTheBox / a CTF." You hit a top rank. It still didn't translate into a job, a client, or a contract.

None of that advice is technically wrong. It's just dangerously incomplete. It assumes there's only one door — W2 entry-level — and tells you to push harder on a door that 50,000 other people are also pushing on. That's why you're exhausted and nothing is moving.

What the internet sells you

• A $9,500–$18,900 bootcamp that teaches you the same SOC analyst path as everyone else, then drops you into the same crowded queue.
• A $39/month course library with 400 hours of content and no one to tell you which 40 hours actually matter for you.
• A $297 "mentorship" that's a Discord, a PDF roadmap, and a weekly group call run by someone two years ahead of you.
• A free "ultimate roadmap" thread that lists 12 certs, 8 labs, and 6 books — a 3-year plan disguised as a shortcut.
• AI-generated résumés and "ATS hacks" that get you past the bot and straight into the same rejection pile.

All of it optimizes for the same single door — and none of it tells you that door is the most crowded one in the industry.

What Cyber6 actually gives you

Diagnosis before prescription. A real assessment + 1-on-1 advisor session that tells you which of the four income paths fits your background, finances, and timeline — before you waste another 6 months on the wrong one.
A roadmap built for you, not for an audience. 90 days of specific weekly actions tied to your path — not a generic "year one" PDF that assumes you're 22 and unemployed.
Proof artifacts, not just learning. You'll leave with deliverables a hiring manager, client, or contracting officer can actually look at: a lab write-up, a policy set, a capability statement, a published piece — depending on your path.
Positioning, not "personal branding." Your résumé, LinkedIn, and outreach rebuilt around the specific problem you solve — so you stop competing in the open pool and start showing up as the obvious person.
Mentorship from people doing the work this week. Live group coaching and scheduled 1-on-1s with senior practitioners who are actively running engagements, hiring, or pursuing federal contracts — not influencers recycling 2019 advice.
Accountability the internet can't provide. A cohort of 30, a structured cadence, and someone who notices when you go quiet. The reason you stalled the last three times wasn't information. It was isolation.

WHY US, SPECIFICALLY

Cyber6 is the education arm of a working cybersecurity firm — not the other way around.

Most people teaching "how to break into cyber" online haven't hired in cyber, sold a cyber engagement, or won a federal cyber contract. They built an audience, packaged their own career story into a course, and now resell it on repeat. That's not malicious — it's just not enough.

Cyber6 is built by an operating MSP/MSSP. We're a W2 employer hiring security talent. We run paid commercial consulting engagements every month. We're actively pursuing C3PAO and FedRAMP 3PAO credentialing to deliver federal assessments. And we publish — that's the fourth path, and you're reading it right now.

That means when we tell you what positions get hired, what offers actually close, which GovCon on-ramps work, and which content angles get noticed — we're not theorizing. We're reporting from inside the work, this quarter.

No bootcamp instructor, no "cyber influencer," and no $39/month course platform can say that. That's the difference. That's why this works when nothing else did.

How the challenge actually works.

Simple structure. Three steps. Then everything inside gets tailored to who you are and which door you're opening.

Diagnose

Take the guided assessment and meet 1-on-1 with an advisor. We figure out which of the four income paths fits your background, finances, and timeline — and which one would waste the next 90 days.

Build

Follow a personalized 90-day roadmap. Path-aligned training, weekly deliverables, and proof artifacts you actually keep. Live group coaching keeps you moving; 1-on-1s keep you honest.

Launch

Leave with positioning, proof, and a concrete next-step plan — résumé and outreach motion, capability statement and target list, GovCon one-pager, or a published content footprint. Whatever your path needs to start producing results.

The 90-day arc

Days 1–30

Find your path

Path identified through the guided assessment. Personalized 90-day roadmap locked in your 1-on-1 advisor session. First training artifacts in hand.

Days 31–60

Build the proof

Core skill-building on your path. Positioning assets started — résumé, profile, capability statement, or brand, depending on your lane. Group coaching momentum.

Days 61–90

Make your move

Proof assembled. A clear, concrete plan to keep walking your path after the challenge ends.

Cohort-based — start with a group, on a date.
Limited seats — small enough that advisors know your name.
Weekly deliverables — you produce, not just consume.

WHAT YOU GET, BASED ON WHO YOU ARE

The transformation framework: where you are today → where you are on Day 91.

Everyone gets the assessment, the roadmap, the training, the coaching, and the proof artifacts. What changes is the before state we're moving you out of and the after state we're moving you into.

Persona 1

The Career Starter

From consumer to producer

Today

Drowning in YouTube, Reddit, and IG. No degree, no certs, no plan.

↓

Day 91

One certification earned, first proof artifact shipped, first real conversation booked.

0 → 1: your first credible piece of public proof.

Persona 2

The Certified Ghost

From silence to signal

Today

Certs stacked, 200+ applications sent, zero replies.

↓

Day 91

Targeted at 20 right-fit roles, recruiter replies coming in, real screens on the calendar.

200 wrong-fit apps → 20 right-fit conversations.

Persona 3

The Stuck IT Pro

From IT-adjacent to security-credible

Today

Doing security work daily. Can't get the title, the pay, or out of the loop.

↓

Day 91

Internal pivot, external role, or first paying client — no $40k pay cut required.

Same skills, repositioned. Title and pay finally match the work.

Everything you get, side by side.

Same core challenge, customized per persona. Here's what shows up in your hands across every deliverable category.

Deliverable	Career Starter	Certified Ghost	Stuck IT Pro
Diagnostic	Path-fit assessment based on runway, learning style, and risk tolerance	Brutal résumé/LinkedIn/outreach audit — what's actually broken	Seniority-aware decision: internal pivot vs. external move vs. side consulting vs. GovCon
1-on-1 advisor session	Pick your lane and your first 30 days	Decide whether to keep chasing W2 entry-level or pivot	Map out the pivot path without taking a $40k pay cut
Personalized 90-day roadmap	Foundations sprint that replaces 6 months of random YouTube	Targeted motion: 20 right-fit roles, not 200 wrong-fit ones	Translation plan: IT work → security work, week by week
Path-aligned training	Single sequenced curriculum — no more tab overload	Gap-fill only. No re-teaching what your certs already cover.	Security skills that build on your existing IT stack
Proof artifact #1	Lab write-up or mini home-lab project a hiring manager can read	Real detection write-up — not another Hack The Box screenshot	Incident write-up or hardening project from your day job
Proof artifact #2	Basic GRC deliverable or published mini-piece	Policy set or SOC 2 readiness summary that shows outcomes	Compliance mapping or internal policy work, productized
Positioning rebuild	LinkedIn + résumé built from zero around a specific lane	Rebuild around the specific problem you solve, not keywords	Reframe your IT title into a security-credible narrative
Outreach motion	First-conversation scripts and a small target list	Recruiter + hiring manager outreach that gets replies	Internal stakeholder pitch + external recruiter messaging
Income-path artifact	First piece of public proof (LinkedIn post, write-up, or repo)	Interview prep with someone who actually hires	Capability statement + side-consulting playbook
Mentorship	Peer cohort at your level + mentor intros so you stop learning alone	Senior practitioners who can read your résumé like a hiring manager	Operators running MSP/MSSP and GovCon work this quarter
Accountability cadence	Weekly deliverables + check-ins so momentum doesn't die at week 3	Structured pipeline review — applications, replies, screens, offers	Weekly pivot progress + side-income tracking
Day 91 outcome	One certification earned. Producing instead of consuming. First interview or client convo booked.	Recruiter replies, real screens, and a clear close plan.	Pivot, raise, or first paying client — without quitting your W2.

You don't pick the persona. The assessment does. And then the next 90 days are built around that — not around a generic curriculum somebody recorded two years ago.

AFTER YOU ENROLL

Here's exactly what happens when you sign up.

No guessing. No waiting weeks for a reply. You get immediate next steps and a real human guiding you into the challenge.

Onboarding session

Within 48 hours of enrolling, you'll meet with our operations team. We'll walk you through the platform, confirm your schedule, set up your accounts, and make sure you know where everything lives before the cohort starts.

Assessment & roadmap with your advisor

Next, you'll sit down 1-on-1 with your assigned advisor. They'll run your path-fit assessment, review your background, and build your personalized 90-day roadmap — the exact weekly plan tailored to your situation, not a generic template.

Start your plan

You leave that session with your first week's deliverables, your training track unlocked, and your coaching calendar booked. No more 'getting ready to start.' You're already moving.

This is for you if…

You have a degree and/or certs but can't convert them into momentum
You're a career changer tired of "build a home lab and good luck"
You're already in IT and ready for a real next move — including paths you didn't know existed
You'll do the work when someone hands you the plan and holds you to it

This is NOT for you if…

You want to watch videos forever and call it progress
You expect a job handed to you in 90 days with zero effort
You won't show up to coaching or do the weekly deliverables

We'd rather you self-select out now than join and stall. This only works if you work.

AUTHORITY

Why this firm, and why Marquis.

Cyber6 Academy is the education arm of a hybrid MSP/MSSP and compliance advisory firm specializing in CMMC, FedRAMP, HIPAA, NIST 800-171, and ISO 27001, on a long-term trajectory toward C3PAO and FedRAMP 3PAO credentialing.

Founder Marquis Carroll built Cyber6 on one belief: the people who can guide you best are the ones still doing the work — actively delivering for clients, actively pursuing federal contracts, actively earning across all four paths.

That's the difference between learning about this career and being mentored by someone living it.

Here's what you get in the 90-Day Challenge.

One investment. Full cohort access. The map, the roadmap, and the mentorship to start walking your path.

Guided assessment to identify your best-fit income path out of the four
Personalized 90-day roadmap built in a 1-on-1 advisor session
Full access to our training library with certification prep, skills tracks, and hands-on labs
Live group coaching multiple times per week with senior practitioners
Scheduled 1-on-1 advisor sessions for roadmap, positioning, and checkpoint reviews
Done-for-you job placement services including recruiter introductions and targeted outreach
End-to-end career services: résumé rebuild, LinkedIn optimization, interview prep, and offer negotiation
Path-aligned, hands-on training with keepable proof artifacts
Day 30 / 60 / 90 milestone checkpoints to keep you on track
Private cohort community for accountability, networking, and peer support
A concrete post-challenge plan so you know exactly what to do next

THE DO-THE-WORK GUARANTEE

Do the work, and you'll walk away with a path — not just hope.

We don't promise a job in 90 days. Anyone who guarantees that is selling you something they can't control.

What we do guarantee: Show up to the coaching, complete your weekly deliverables, and hit your milestone checkpoints — and if you finish the 90 days without a clear path, a personalized roadmap, and proof to show for it, we'll work with you for up to 60 more days at no cost to get you there.

You bring the effort. We bring the firm. That's the deal.

The Do-The-Work Guarantee. 60-day cap.

FAQ

Do I need experience or a technical background?+

No. The whole point of week one is finding the path that fits where you actually are — whether that's total career changer or working IT pro.

Is this self-paced?+

No — and that's why it works. Cohort-based, live coaching, scheduled 1-on-1 advisor sessions, hard start date, weekly deliverables. Self-paced is why your last courses didn't move the needle.

What are the four income paths?+

Employment (W2), Freelancing & Consulting, Government Contracting, and Influence & Content. The challenge helps you identify which one fits you and builds your roadmap into it.

Will I have a job by the end?+

Maybe, maybe not — that depends on your path, your starting point, and your effort. What you will have is clarity on your path, a personalized roadmap, proof of skill, and a concrete next-step plan. That's the on-ramp; the journey is yours to walk.

How much 1-on-1 time do I get?+

Scheduled 1-on-1 sessions with an advisor for your roadmap and positioning, plus ongoing live group coaching throughout the cohort.

I work full time — can I keep up?+

Yes. Deliverables are weekly, not daily, and coaching is scheduled in advance so you can plan around it.

Spend another year forcing the one door that won't open — or 90 days finding the one that will.

You already did the hard part. You have the certs, the degree, the drive. What's missing is the map — and someone who's walked all four paths showing you which one is yours.

$497one-time

Start the Challenge $497 Limited cohort seats. When this one fills, the next start date is weeks out.