How to Make More Money than You'll Ever Need [6-Hour Masterclass]

On my journey to help create 1,000 new millionaires I'm going to give you the lessons that I've learned The Good the Bad and the Ugly all right let's get into it the first lesson I learned is that you only need one yes out of a 100 in 2010 I was trying to get into the music touring business working in live music on tour and I had already worked with a lot of garage bands and Indie artists and I wanted to take it to Another level and work on Arena level concert tours what I figured out

back then was that it was a math game for 2 months I researched 100 tour managers and production managers online and I learned a little bit about each one of them I sent each of them an email and it had a little bit of curated custom information in each video so it wasn't just throwing something against the wall and seeing what would stick it was very deliberate it took two months my goal Was to get on a tour people often get hung up on hearing the word no it'll stop some people in their tracks but

I want to tell you why this should not only be something that you get used to but it should be part of your strategy because it's all a math game at the end of the day when I sent those 100 emails out I received 20 responses those 20 responses turned into three in-person meetings and those three in-person meetings turned into one major gig I Ended up touring with an international artist on a world tour for years based on doing that one thing and it was because I had patience I had a plan and I was

not afraid to hear no that one yes was a man named Jeff parin and he's still a mentor to this day Jeff is a real character he's British but has lived in Houston for 30 plus years so he has a real interesting crocodile dunde kind of accent going and he does not mence words he does not like most people And he's very straightforward but he taught me things that I still use today in my career as a venture capitalist we went on tour and from the first day I worked with him he was teaching me

something and I would have never had that experience if I hadn't gone out and sent those 100 emails was I worried yes was I concerned no one would answer of course I was and did it hurt to hear no from people multiple people of course it did but when you realize that it's a Numbers game all of that does not matter at the end of the day what matters is can you get to the one yes over my career in venture capital and all of the companies I've started getting to the one yes out of

100 has helped me each step of the way the key here is persistence and strategy and seeing the bigger picture if you're feeling stuck it may mean that you need to do something a little different and if you can develop that tough skin and learn About the math game that we're talking about things can change another cool thing about this lesson is that it's something that you have control of cuz remember I was broke I didn't have a place to live I was trying to figure things out but what I could control was the output

what I could control was the research that I did all of that planning I had in my control and the fact that I did it most people just wouldn't have done that and we all heard Lady Gaga Talk about this it only takes one yes to change the course of your life the second lesson that I've learned is to think in decades not quarters what do I mean by that well a lot of people think about what's going to happen tomorrow today next week even this year planning out this year and if something goes wrong

if something comes out of nowhere and throws you off I used to be like this right I would get so worried so panicked and I wouldn't have a plan and On top of that I would think oh this failure this thing that happened this bad thing is going to throw me off course for everything else that I have planned well if you think in decades and not quarters these small bumps along the road are almost meaningless here's something you can do right now to test this think back a year ago do you remember what was

going on a year ago in your life do you remember an email that came through that made you panic this is Something else you can do if there's something is there an email right now in your inbox that's giving you pause that's giving you concern anxiety will it matter in one year that's a really great way to take that anxiety off of with your plate you still address it you still care about it but it has different meaning it does not control you it does not own you also have the patience and be in the

long game and you can Outlast all your critics all your doubters and All your haters most people who are critics doubters and haters don't last very long because they're in a toxic situation they're not thinking long term if they were thinking longterm they would not have time to criticize you so if you can get into that mindset the world is your oyster another thing about time and patience is that both are needed to see what kind of great investor you are so I'm an investor by trade right it's going to take years and Years and

years to understand just how good I am and I've been investing for several years and I've been able to see the fruit of that labor so far so if you don't give yourself time if you don't give yourself patience you will never see the greatness that could become you will never see the greatness that you can achieve we love quick wins they make us feel good they validate us and sometimes they're necessary they're great but it's the longterm gains Speaking of long-term gains did you know that when you make an investment or you own part

of your company and you have an exit that's shorter than one year you get taxed more than if you are waiting and patiently waiting and hold that for more than a year that's just a really great way to describe and understand how lucrative patients can really be we'll also touch on this in lesson number four because it matters so much so lesson number three is forgiveness is a Productivity hack I learned this mostly the hard way but since I learned it and understood this my whole life has changed there have been dozens of times at

Backstage Capital my Venture fund where we have thought we were going to have an investor come in cuz they said they would and something fell through either on their side or something happened in the world it's happened there it's happened with sponsors it's happened with Investments we wanted to make there have been so many disappointments I remember the first time this happened at Backstage Capital someone was going to invest $100,000 and at this point I think I'd raised maybe a million dollar and so $ 100,000 was a big deal and we were making Investments of

$25,000 each so that meant that four companies were going to be invested in when this person came in with their money and it was all written out it was all yes and we were Feeling good about it and then the day that this $100,000 wire was supposed to come in I got an email not even a phone call I got an email that said I've changed my mind I've simply changed my mind and if it were just about me and I wasn't going to get this money then you know I would deal with that but

I thought about these four Founders who were all women or of color or both who were not not getting that money that they knew that was coming in from us From backstage and it was our responsibility to give them that money and the moment I was angry I was frustrated and I didn't know what to do over time this would go on to happen so many times that I just got a thick skin about it and the thing I learned was you cannot you should not count the money before it's in the bank what I

learned to do was to forgive didn't say forget cuz I'm telling you the story so I I definitely remember it but Forgiveness is a productivity hack if I had not forgiven that person or the people that followed I would be caught up I would be stuck I would be rudderless the toxicity would have eaten me alive they went on with their lives they moved on and if I didn't move on which so many of us we get stuck thinking about this then I would have been stuck and I'm telling you this and I'm saying it's

a lesson that I've learned but let me tell you I still go Through this there are a couple of people in my life who I'm having trouble forgiving but every time I think about it I remind myself I say the words to myself sometimes out loud forgiveness is a productivity hack I get way more done I have so much to accomplish and I cannot let them hold me back I can't let the circumstances and what happened and what H what they said and what I said I can't let that hold me back from what is

so important and so when I remind myself Of those words when I think about it it it truly helps me and I hope it helps you forgiveness has truly become my productivity hack my ultimate one another part of this is simply knowing your value so that you don't let the petty take over you are worth more than this you are better than this and those thoughts help me the fourth lesson that I've learned and this may be the most important one we'll see fourth lesson I've learned is to learn to be paid for Your existence

and not your time learn to be paid for your mere existence and not just by your time in my first book it's about damn time that came out in 2020 I said that money attracts money but what if you don't have money you become money how do you become money by learning as much as you can because no one can take that away from you so stacking your information your research and then your skills and you become more and more valuable you Can just see the dollar bills stacking as you grow so when you take

those skills and that knowledge that information that then becomes wisdom and you combine that with a growing reputation for doing what you say you'll do showing up being on time literally and figuratively so then you become someone who's valued by who you are and not so much how many hours you're doing something that's the biggest takeaway actually I'm going to say it I'm going To call it I think this this number four lesson is the biggest one it's the most important one it's the one that helped me go from being broke from sleeping on the

floor of the San Francisco Airport just a few years ago not knowing when I was going to eat next not knowing where I was going to sleep next to generating and raising tens of millions of dollars in just a few years it's because I learned all of these different steps I'm talking about and they led to me Understanding who I am and what I can become is way more valuable than the hours that I can put in to something so going back to the second lesson long-term thinking helps you become more valuable because the more

into the future you can see and the more patient you can be the bigger your plans can be the more audacious you can be in your thinking they call them moonshot ideas and I have so many of them and I bet you do too okay we have one more huge lesson I am dead set on helping you become a millionaire but you can't do that and I can't talk to you if I'm not showing up on your home screen so set that to subscribe set the notifications do all the things okay good right are we

good we good okay thank you okay the number five lesson last but certainly not least you are your most important investment I was recently asked by a friend because I get questions like this all the times from friends and strangers alike how Should I invest my money and this particular friend had $10,000 extra and they wanted to know how they should invest invested and I think I surprised them by my answer I said to them I'm not going to tell you exactly what to invest in but what I can tell you is that you take

a portion of that $10,000 and invest in yourself go to the conference take the course learn the lesson buy the clothes that make you feel right go on a station at a local Hotel or Airbnb do the thing that levels you up because when you feed into yourself when you pour into yourself you are exponentially changing in the trajectory of your life it is the most important thing you can do and it's the thing that helps you build the value that we talked about earlier if you don't take care of yourself if you don't give

yourself that moment to soak it all in and if you don't level up it's going to be like this like this like this what You want to do is you want to go up and you're going to have moments where you're just stagnant but you're going to go up and before you know it you're up here and you didn't even realize it yes it might take a few years yes there will be a lot of struggles along the way I've had so many and I will continue to have them because we're human but if you

can focus on three things investing in yourself in three ways through your experiences through education and Through self-care then you will be ahead of the game most people don't think of it like that most people pour into others most people are actually damaging themselves and some of the decisions they make but you you're smarter than that you're better than that you're going to figure this out and I will see you and my my list of 1,000 people that have helped become a millionaire and I will see you on that stage at your first million live

year after year because you Became a millionaire you're one of the 1,000 people I helped become a millionaire over the next decade if you make it a priority to invest in those three things then the answer to what else should I invest in become much more clear these lessons are just a small portion of all the lessons I've learned in my journey to become a millionaire and to teach you how to do the same if you want to learn more check out this video If you think about the people who Are your Heroes most of

them are not quiet and you know what they stand for if you have too many people liking what you're doing you may not be taking enough risk I was obsessed for probably a decade in order to make backstage happen there is no amount of money that is worth losing your integrity and is worth selling yourself out success in business comes down to decision making what do you do when you hit a problem these moments are pivotal in business But there are ways to navigate this and I've learned a ton of them while building my businesses

and helping others build theirs here are the top 10 secrets of success that I think you need to help you become a millionaire the first secret is to align everything that you do with the big picture I call this the tree trunk method most people say I have to have seven income streams you have seven income streams so I'm going to start with that there's no way in the World I would have been able to start with with seven income streams first of all a few years ago I only had zero income streams so starting

with seven would have been a fo's errand because I would not have been good at any of them so I started with one and of course I pivoted and I messed up and I failed and I got back up again and I had three things going over here and everything was messy but once I figured out oh if I focus on one thing for more than a year I actually can get really good at it I can learn from it iterate and then double down on that then things started to change so I think of

it as a tree trunk you have the main thing that you work on so what's that main thing you want to do day in and day out for several years the thing that's making the most money for you the thing that is fulfilling you all of that that's your main tree trunk what do you want to be known for and then you can as you get Higher as you get further along you can start branching out different things can be branched from that so it's aligned with the trunk the second income stream but it is

a an offshoot if you will and you can have several of those that happen and then the leaves can be the money so people ask me how do you do so many things how do you have so many things going well if they didn't align if they weren't going all in the same direction part of the big picture they Would all be pulling at different sides and none of them would win right and that all of my attention and my resources would be spread too thin instead of that I visualize them and anytime I make

a decision about adding another Revenue stream or another opportunity or saying yes to something I ask myself does this align with the big picture is it aimed in the same direction because if it is I already have so many resources that I can pour Into it I can set my sights in that direction it has a higher chance of success because of that the second secret to success is be willing to be wrong and be wrong in public all right so I think that you should share your voice with the world because there's only one

of you people get scared to do that because they say well people online are really mean which they are they can be and what if I get it wrong or what if I mess up I don't want to be cancelled If you think about the people who are your Heroes the people you admire the most the people you want to be like most of them are not quiet most of them have a very strong opinion and strong brand and you know what they stand for the reason you know that is because they've said it they've

expressed themselves and they've done so publicly they've put themselves out there and there's no one on this planet who doesn't have somebody mad at them you can't please everybody If you have too many people liking what you're doing you may not be taking enough risk so to be willing to be wrong and wrong in public means that you're taking a healthy amount of risk in my opinion and it means that you're going to reach more people and in building your company and building your brand that is the most important thing you can do is to

have your message heard by more people so when I think about this for myself I'm Always out there right I'm online people are meeting me I go fly around the country and around the world and I meet with people and every single day I get so much love and so much incredible feedback and people from years ago or they met me years ago or they found out about me yesterday I get all this love and I and I St like oh I helped this person start their company or this person got inspired and did this

and there's always every single day Negativity there's always someone saying to me either in comments or dming me or emailing me or telling me to my face I've done something wrong I was wrong about something it took me years to understand that that's just part of the game that is the price I'm paying to get my positive message out to the world and so if you can learn that it's not easy to learn but if you can learn that you can face it and that's the second secret to success the Third Secret to success Is

to share your opinions with others it's kind of like the second one it really is about using your voice and saying what you believe I know so many people who are in the shadows and they have strong opinions about things but they don't want to ruffle feathers the truth of the matter is you're not going to get very far if you're not willing to put yourself out there I say be yourself so the people looking for before you can find you a big part of that is sharing Your opinion forming an opinion depending on how

old you are or what you've experienced in life it may be tough for you to make decisions or to decide what your opinion is but you know yourself you know deep down what you believe about something something public something private I want to challenge you to write a blog post put a tweet out there put something online that you may not have done in the past surprise people in your family like put something Out there that's a little bit stronger of an opinion and the more you do it it's like a muscle being built you'll

get used more used to it you'll get used to hearing the bad feedback like we just talked about and you'll also be used to hearing from that person who DMS you and says I couldn't say what you just said but I believe it and I feel it and you've just helped me today it's such an incredible feeling and it's a very powerful thing to be able to do and to Share with the world the fourth secret to success is to embrace your obsession that's right so again go back to thinking about somebody who you are

really impressed with who inspires you who you want to be like or be around think of the person who is top of their game the LeBron the Beyonce all of the Tech Heroes all the people who you want to be like maybe it's somebody at your church maybe it's somebody who you know in real life a Teacher the thing about them is that for years most of them have been obsessed with the thing they're known for and that Obsession has fueled them I use myself again as an example when I was broke I was homeless

I was in parland Texas this was in the early 2010s I was in my early 30s I hadn't figured out anything I was so broke but I would still learn something every single day about venture capital of all things I was happy for it to be Tuesday because We had free chili at the hotel we were staying in but I was also going back to my room that I shared with my mom who was in her 60s and I was looking online I was thankfully I had a laptop and I was researching venture capital I

was talking to Founders I was interviewing Founders and asking them what they needed what their biggest pain point was I was reading all the trade papers and listening to interviews and podcasts I was obsessed for probably a decade in Order to make backstage happen but listen we are the largest fund for underrepresented underestimated Founders by the number of portfolio companies in the country that's what my obsession has created LeBron is obsessed with basketball Luca is obsessed with basketball Beyonce is obsessed with an Excellence a quality of performance that none of us can really quite understand

they're the top they're the best at what they do so if you feel like you're Obsessed with something and I mean something not someone if you feel like you're obsessed with something Embrace that people may make fun of you and say oh you're talking about that again but that could be the thing that makes you wealthy because of that Obsession so lean into that embrace it secret number five is to simplify the complex if you're someone who can take very complex licated topics and simplify them for a larger audience you will have a larger Audience

it's not about appearing to be the smartest person in the room it's not about knowing all the biggest words and being able to show that you went to this school or that school it's about describing something to someone at a level where they can understand it meeting people where they are if you can do that if you can train yourself to do that then you up your game one of the things that I learned while I was writing my first book it's about damn Time is that most books most business books and other types of

books are written at an eighth grade level or so that's just something that I learned while I was putting my first book together and it's because more people can read it another way to think about it is is there somebody in your life who is not great at necessarily reading or taking things in a certain way and do you find ways to talk to them where maybe you know if I say it out loud or If I read it out loud for them they'll understand it much better we all have somebody like that in our

lives where we adjust ourselves those are the types of skills that will really help you communicate to a larger audience and endear you to that audience and it's more fun this way you can take more people with you so learning to communicate and learning to simplify the complex is a huge huge benefit secret number six is have Integrity Integrity Okay so there have been so many times that I've been offered money when I really really needed it for my Venture fund backstage Capital but it was coming from the wrong person or the wrong entity or

the wrong intent and I would say no to it sometimes I talk about it on social most times I don't there have been many times that I have walked away from the table when I didn't think it was right for me for the fun or for the founders that I represent even though we Need that money even though that would be really helpful in the moment I have to wake up with myself I have to live with myself and if it's not going to work it's not going to work the cool thing is usually when

that happens when something is attached like some amount of money is attached to the wrong person and I say no what normally happens is that the Universe kind of balances that out and I either get the same amount from someone else or I get even more From someone else who is more aligned there is no amount of money that is worth losing your integrity and is worth selling yourself out for you have to live with yourself Integrity is so important the cool thing about the story that I have like going from sleeping on the floor

of the San Francisco Airport to generating millions in revenue and raising tens of millions of dollars is that I get to do that with my Integrity intact so I know myself and I'm proud of What I did I'm proud of what I accomplished and what I contined to accomplish that's a really great feeling to have so think about your life in a few years and think about what you want to be able to say about yourself what do you want other people to be able to say about you what do you want people looking up

to you to be able to say about you that's what Integrity does that's why Integrity is important secret number seven is get comfortable with Rejection rejection is part of a math game when I was younger I wanted to get into live music production and what I did was I emailed 100 tour managers and production managers and it took me two months to find all their emails and to research them and I send them these emails and 80 of them ghosted didn't hear back from them at all 20 of them responded 17 of those 20 said

no right out the gate not interested three of those 20 and of those 100 said yes I Will have a meeting with you and in person so I met with three of those production and tour managers and one of them turned into the first major gig of my life where I went on tour with an international musician for years off of that one yes so getting used to rejection actually helps you get to your first yes so many people stop where the pain is stop too soon and they say well I don't want to hear

the no I don't want to get rejected it's too painful And yes it's a bummer of course it is we're human but if you can look at this as a math game every no is getting you closer to the first yes and to the next yes then things change for the better secret number eight is to read read and then read again what do I mean by that well so my book your first million is a good example you're going to read this once of course take it all in please act on what you learn

but I promise you if you read this 6 months from now again It'll hit a different way you'll see something you didn't see before something will make sense that didn't before because your life is moving along your circumstances are changing your energy is changing so certain words and certain paragraphs and certain chapters are going to hit a different way each time you read a book especially a good book so I read Oprah Winfrey's book what I know for sure at least once a year and I've done so for maybe five years and Every single time

I read it something different comes from it I read Rachel Rogers book we should all be millionaires maybe every quarter and every time I read it I learned something different or something that didn't really hit the first time is exactly what I need to hear that time so that's a secret to success because you have again the power to do this is there a great book that you read a few years ago or even recently let's do a test read it Again see if it's different the second time so learn to do this over time

and stack it's not about how many books you can read it's about what you're getting from those books right so if there are certain books that are have been really helpful to you go back and read and read again secret number nine is have conviction about something for a decade or longer okay if you made it this far in the video this is going to help you so much so having conviction about Something for a decade or longer it may seem like that's such a long way away but I can tell you I'm 43 right

now and 2010 when I was 30 seems like it was yesterday it really does the time goes by so fast but it was around then where I started thinking about investments in underrepresented Founders women bipo lgbtq plus because I'm all three it's then when I started thinking about wait a second it doesn't seem right that less than 10% of venture funding and Angel Investing goes to these categories when 90% goes to white men in a country where they make up 30% of the country I started thinking about it then I did what I said in

the first secret which is think of it as the tree trunk I focused on it for years and now I have so much to show for it the cover of Fast Company the cover of Black Enterprise 200 companies invested in 500 Founders invested in thousands and thousands of employees hired and billions of dollars In Enterprise Value in our portfolio so you have the conviction about something and here's where it gets really interesting if you are to Simply have conviction about something for more than a decade you out last 99% of your competition because they simply

will not do do that people can't even stay in the game for a quarter let alone a decade you could out blast your competition your haters and your naysayers okay we have one more secret to success getting You closer to being a millionaire but before I get there I want you to hit the Subscribe button and set your notification so you know when the next video is thank you so much I love seeing your comments I will answer all of them I cannot wait to hear what you think of this video okay number 10 be

willing to repeat yourself okay so a few years ago I had debilitating stage fright I could not get on the stage I could not speak in front of a lot of people obviously That's changed I now speak hundreds of times a year virtually in person I've spoken in front of 20,000 people before I speak everywhere and I get asked the same questions over and over and over and over again and I have to repeat myself what I learned from where work with musicians though who sing the same songs every single night I asked a friend

of mine few years ago I was their tour manager and Indie singer songwriter I said how do you sing that song night After night after night how do you repeat yourself and have the same conviction in your words and your tone and and she said something I'll never forget she said every night I break my own heart over again so she can remember the feeling of when she wrote that song like it's the first time she singing it and it just of course blew my mind that's what you're going to have to get used to

as you are getting closer and closer to the greatness that I know is Ahead of you as more and more people learn about you as you start to stack your skills as you get more and more resources and more and more money and more and more opportunity you're going to be asked the same questions or you're going to have to teach the same lessons the way that I do it is every single day I pretend it's the very first time I'm saying it I'm in the moment it's the first time I'm saying it and the

person who needs to hear it is the most Important person in the room if you can do that and the other nine things that I just taught you you can become a millionaire I have a goal to help make 1,000 underrepresented people millionaires over the next decade and that means helping you go from zero to one million because since going from being homeless to launching a multi-million dollar Venture fund I've learned learn that the skills needed to become a millionaire can be taught That's what this video is about the first thing I learned is that

almost anyone can be a millionaire almost anyone can be a millionaire when I go on these book stops for my new book your first million I'll usually ask the room how many people believe they can be a millionaire and do you know that usually only half the room raises their hand and I asked them if they're not raising their hand why didn't you raise your hand and most of the will say it just Seems so far away it just seems so far away from what I know and what I've done in the past or what

anyone I know has done before and what I've learned after talking to so many millionaires and working with so many is that believe me if you're watching this video You Can Be A Millionaire there is no genius millionaire that I have met at least that has figured out something that the rest of us can't figure out right the second thing I learned about Millionaires is that the skills needed to become a millionaire can actually be taught now that's something I didn't know for most of my life is that it's not all about luck it's not

all about being born into a legacy of wealth it's not all about who you know or who you are it's about dissecting The Hundreds the thousands and the millions of millionaires that are in the world and figuring out what they did to get there and then Distilling that into a step-by-step process it's why I started my new course your first million. proo it's a master class and very accessible because I want so many people to be able to go to it and if you go to that website your first million. proo I guide you step

by step zero to a th000 a th000 to 10,000 10,000 to 100,000 because over the last decade I've gone from sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco Airport to generating millions of dollars and raising tens of Millions of for my Venture fund backstage capital and I've learned so much distill it down to just a few steps that you can take where anybody can learn the skills needed now here's why everybody's not a millionaire because sure I can teach you but most people won't act on it they'll read it or watch videos or watch a

video like this and they'll get inspired or find something to be interesting or compelling and then they'll simply stop they won't go Further the people people who act on it the people who take the risk and take the chances and experiment and listen to these top things those are the people who go on to Greatness and I know that you can be one of those people the third thing that I learned about millionaires is that millionaires own things yeah I know it sounds simple but it's true millionaires own things they own property they own businesses

they own their own IP intellectual property that Is how they stack their wealth and how they create generational wealth one of the things that I make sure to do is anytime I enter into a partnership that has to do with me maybe hosting a podcast or starting working on some sort of movie or television show I do not just get paid as Talent or a host I make sure that I have ownership of the IP because that that is where the true money and the wealth lies entrepreneurship is another major Example of this this is

why I care so much about helping to create 1,000 new millionaires if you can't find the answer you have to have enough respect for yourself and other people to Pivot into something that might be similar and tangential to this but not the exact same thing entrepreneurship is our leveling ground it is a way for most people to make a lot of money now of course it doesn't happen overnight and there are multiple steps to it and Multiple variables to it and it is not a getrich quick scheme but entrepreneurship is so powerful and it's something

that all of us have access to the fourth thing I learned about millionaires is that millionaires collaborate what I mean by that is they partner I know some very very wealthy men who fight with each other they have their lawyer get into rooms and they sue each other and they fight and they negotiate and they Claw at each other But they go to lunch or dinner or to a golf club or out to a concert and they hang out because they're truly partnered in hanging out and friendly while they let their high paid attorneys figure

everything else out so they'll go to those links just to collaborate with someone if you think about Warren Buffett and Charlie monger and so many people that you know who you respect they either have a partner who is well known or someone in the shadows who they Work with they value their opinion they collaborate with that is a trait of a millionaire most of the millionaires I know have at least one person that they trust and they collaborate with so who is that person for you another way they collaborate is to partner with different people

so this is something big like if you think about Rachel Rogers Danielle Leslie Terry eom Tiffany the budget nista these are people who collaborate with each other they partner with each Other they partner with me we have friendly Partnerships that sometimes result in multi-million doll transactions because you're taking two very strong audiences two very strong Brands and you're combining them on a project and you have twox at least two X and sometimes it's multiplied I'll tell you what when I introduce people on email in the subject line I don't say this person plus this person

or this person and that those little inverted Things there I say that person's name X the other person because I think about Partnerships as multiplicative not just additive that's the millionaire mindset okay there's one more on the list before I get to it it make sure you subscribe below and turn on those notifications so that you don't miss a video and that I can help you become one of the 1,000 new millionaires I want to help create and catalyze over the next decade okay the fifth thing I've learned about millionaires is that millionaires have learned

to Value their time rather than simply price their time they're not paid by the hour how do you get paid by the hour and become become a millionaire in most cases instead what they've learned to do is to place a value on their very existence to be paid for existing the first time I learned this was when I was paid $50,000 to speak so if you remember correctly few years ago I was sleeping on the floor of The San Francisco Airport I was broke I didn't make more than $5,000 in a year for most of

those years leading up to it and sometimes I would hit 20,000 but most times it was 5,000 or 10,000 so to be paid $50,000 to speak for 45 minutes was life altering and to do that multiple times well you can imagine so someone asked me how on Earth did you get paid $50,000 for 45 minutes of your time and I told them I didn't get paid $50,000 for 45 minutes of my time I got Paid $50,000 for 40 years of my time for 40 years of lived experience of Lessons Learned of putting out good energy

into the world planting seeds stacking my skills using those skills for good and then learning how to communicate what I learned that's what they were paying me for they were paying me for my existence and that's a major thing I've learned about millionaires both talking to them and working with them and now becoming One is that you value your time you do not price your time I hope this has been helpful to you and I'll see you in the next video you are an amazing person you have some sort of product or service you want

it to be extremely accessible so you priced it too low there are some people buying and paying for it but not enough so you don't have enough revenue generated to keep the thing going you don't want to charge more because you don't want to push out the people who Need it the most but you can't provide it because you can't afford to keep it going does that hit home if it hits home there's something we can do about that first thing you need to know is I'm Arin and I have invested in more than 200

companies led by women people of color lgbtq plus and more I call them the underestimated and I feel like you may feel underestimated yourself too today I want to talk to you about defining your target audience and also Looking for premium customers these two things are really important I have a program called Inner Circle that's actually on weit list right now so you can't sign up for it but it has about 24 people in it and we work really closely one-on-one all year long I had a recent call with one of my inner circle members

that I thought I definitely want to talk about some of the things that we mentioned in this call because it was very helpful to her so the first thing Is defining who your target audience is no matter what kind of company you have or want to build this will be one of the most important things you do right out the gate as with most things it's about experimentation and it's about learning and maybe even pivoting when needed but if you can start with something start with some idea and usually that idea is propelled by something

you want to give to the world right most people don't start Companies just for the sake of it because it's kind of hard to do so usually when you start a company you have a reason and a purpose behind it use that reason and purpose to Define who you're actually serving and you'll hear that word a lot in the startup world it's like who am I serving what am I doing for the customer if you can think in those terms rather than how much money can the customer pay me you're already five steps ahead the

Reason it's important to know who your Target customer is is because it helps save a lot of time and heartache it also helps you deliver on your promises in a much better fashion so think about the time saving and the money saving really like if you know who your customer is you know who you're talking to who you're trying to find you're going to spend less time and money advertising to other people to the wrong potential customer so you'll be able to Target Your marketing and your advertising if you know that your Target customer your

ideal customer is someone who is a surfer between the ages of 30 and 50 and lives on the west coast then you will have a much better chance of finding that customer than if you think that your customer is everyone now you might say well that's so Niche and specific won't I be missing out on extra dollars yes and no you May at the beginning miss out on the opportunity to sell to a lot More people but the chances of you actually selling are higher because you're offering something that is specific to a group of

people who are looking for it you have less competition although you will always have some and therefore you will have a shorter line to you finding your customer and vice versa then over time once you have dominated in that neede you can build out more and more and more and you can build features and products And services that service other people but if you start there and dominate there you get a lot of traction one way of thinking about this is what we're doing with yacht water this is my new steel and sparkling brand this

comes out in July and what we're doing is we are not going to every single store in the country and asking them begging them to be in stores I could easily put out a tweet or put out an email or make a few phone calls and get into thousands of Stores because I've built this whole kind of infrastructure but if I were to do that and then the cans don't sell well because it's too spread out that would be a disaster I would not be asked to come back the next month so instead what we're

doing is we're going to start in one store and then three stores and 10 stores and we're going to do it little by little organically and in those first 10 stores we're going to put all of our energy into getting as many Customers to come in as possible we're going to demo there we're going to get new people there we're going to get my mailing list and people who have read my book your first million are going to be yach waterer enthusiasts right the people who have invested at yach water.com are going to spread the

word like wildfire and we're going to make those 10 storefronts so successful that other stores will hear about it and when we go To them they'll say please come to us and then we'll grow a little bit more and a little bit more and as we start to see oh we're getting this indication that a lot of people are looking for yacht water at their stores but they're not seeing them that's when we will expand and the Instinct might be the opposite but I really believe this is the way to go so you have that

slow steady growth at the beginning to go faster later so getting really aligned And on target with who you're trying to reach gets very interesting another great thing about finding your target audience is that you can have a higher lifetime value potentially from those customers who who believe in you the most and who use your product or service the most so again let's say you're starting out and you know your person when I say your person I mean the example of the person who is your best customer so that could be by their Demographics their

age their race their orientation their location or it could be by their psychographics which is what do they think what do they feel what's their opinion of things who do they follow what's something that turns them off what is something that they are propelled towards those are psychographic things you can start there so you think about like who are actually my customers either I can imagine them based on what I'm doing and I've talk to Them and I've done that research that we've talked about or you could say who is already my customer now of

course you may have customers that are all over the place we talked about this in my video going from 0 to 10,000 where I say who my target audience is check it out if you want to know more but that's not everyone who's watching there are definitely people who don't fit the bill but that's okay because we want to bring people in from all over while we're Focusing in the middle so when you do that you have the target audience you're able to serve them better they're able to have more of a transformation or a

good experience they then give you testimonials which you are then able to give to people who are new who then sign up go through whatever it is you're selling them and then they have a transformational experience and they give you testimonials and this is what we call a flywheel this is exactly what You want in your company it's a system that you want where things just work work work work automated then because you're able to do that you can offer those same customers something more you can offer them an even better experience let's even say

for cpg which is kind of you wouldn't think of that first but for water like it's water right but what if they are your perfect customer your ideal customer they're working out and they're buying from you already you Could offer them a subscription you could offer them a premium experience where they can get this in bulk and they can actually take it to events or take it within their companies or do things outside of the box there's so much to think about diving deeper into the customer experience and therefore drawing out more Revenue opportunity over

time so that's why you want to start now thinking about who that target audience is another thing I want you to Think about is the ability to pay for your product or pay for your service many times we will start a company where we are selling something for $5 10 20 $50 and we need thousands and thousands and tens of thousands if not more customers in order to grow exponentially so on this call I had with my inner circle member we started thinking through their products and services what they had was a service that cost

about $1,000 and it was a membership program And they had a few dozen people in it so that's that's a great living right really awesome but in this 45 minute call I had with them I challenged them to Think Through the higher ticket offer that they have they already have a high ticket offer a few people are there but if you look at it Apples to Apples the high ticket offer actually makes as much as the lower ticket offer and I thought well if this part the lower ticket offer you're spending like 80% of your

time Keeping this up and the 20% of your time is making the same amount what would happen if we did a 50/50 split of time where this went lower and this went higher that would be really interesting what would happen if we took this away all together where this was everything that you did and the thought there was well I wanted to be accessible to people so there is an argument for keeping 20 to 50% of it the lower ticket I think that's really reasonable but you also Want to think about how much energy you're

expending here then over here though where can we turn this into 2 3 or 5X the revenue by just doing a little bit more leveraged so if you leverage your time you leverage your resources you leverage the transformation you're giving people what could happen and it all boiled down to the type of customer you want a customer who can afford you you want a customer who can afford you I Want to say it twice because it's really important so many of us wait I'm going stop for a second I'm going to say something to you

you tell me if this resonates you are an amazing person you have some sort of product or service you want it to be extremely accessible so you priced it too low there are some people buying and paying for it but not enough so you don't have enough revenue generated to keep the thing going you don't want to charge more because you Don't want to push out the people who need it the most but you can't provide it because you can't afford to keep it going does that hit home if it hits home there's something we

can do about that first thing you need to know is that it's wonderful that you want that and I feel the same way it's it's my life's work isn't that but if we cannot afford to keep our companies afloat if we can't pay our bills we are no good to anyone we're not serving anyone and so we have To think about it like this what's the smaller group of people who can afford our services and in fact will pay more than what we're currently charging maybe 5 times 10 times or even more than that for

a high quality situation they pay for it because they can afford it and because we're helping them have value that's worth even more than that and by doing that it subsidizes your time that you can spend offering it to everyone else for cheaper Or for free so let's go back and think about that for a second let's say for instance you have a course and you want as many people as possible to be able to see this course CU they need to learn it have a version of it that costs thousands of dollars and focus

on the people who can afford it and Target them as your target audience have them pay for it have them have an experience you can call it elevated if you'd like where they get to have more one-on-one with You and they get more perks and benefits and they have a faster transformation that they can say I spend spent 5,000 on this I made 50,000 by doing the things I've learned and just by the freedom it offered me then on this side create a version that does not include so much of your one-on-one time but potentially

is a group setting so you jump on Zoom or you jump on somewhere once per month and you talk to this audience at large they either pay a small monthly fee or they Pay nothing but they get a lot of the same learnings from you and they talk to each other and that's how they have accountability and then what your goal is here is to make them so successful at what they're doing and what you're helping them with that they then become this group over here who can then afford you but if we do it

the other way and everybody's paying the same amount and everybody is missing out because you went out of business who wins something I want to think about when you're thinking about that and applying it to your company so we're talking about people who can afford it individually and we're talking about companies so we're talking about startups who have raised money recently who have high Revenue coming in you can read about these companies on crunchbase.com you can read about them in Tech crunch you want to Target those companies who can afford you then you're talking the

Fortune 1000 companies the household names you can get into those companies but the sales Cycles tend to be long and it's a little tougher to get into those deals but what about the millions of companies who are not Fortune 1,000 companies but who need your service you know I think of a third interner circle member and she has an HR service and she was selling to people who could not afford her and it was causing a lot of trouble but then when we talked it out During our one of our sessions I said to her

why don't you go after this group of people who are like I call them series A or B because they are series A or B companies which means if you go look it up in in Venture they've raised probably at least a million they probably have a million plus in Revenue every year and then they've raised probably $1 to10 million and if your service costs 25,000 a year that's something they can afford if it's something that they need whereas 25,000 a year might feel like something insurmountable to someone else who's just getting started so then

you get 10 of those clients and then you're able to spend 20% of your time doing whatever you'd like talking to this audience that you want to serve too so you serve your paid clients really well and you serve your unpaid or discounted clients really well and then you have a fulfilling life okay make sure you subscribe make sure I see you next time and do not miss out on Higher runner. you can go to arland's Inner circle.com if you want to see what my inner circle is about but again it is on wait list

I am not signing up new people right now and it's definitely something that I'll bring some of the learnings back to this YouTube channel thanks competition is healthy competition is there and realistic if someone tells me we have no competition I think they have a problem one thing I learned as I was building this is that If you don't have $1 million to spend in your first year somehow you're probably not going to make it if you want to grow to a certain position you have to get position so what that means is you're willing

to go out there and give away 20% of your company for $500,000 today because you want that in your bank account that 20% could be worth 5 million if you played it right when it came to who you brought in I'm Hamilton I am the founder of Backstage Capital Where we have invested in more than 200 companies since 2015 and I want to talk to you about building your company for growth in this video I'm going to talk to you about how you can grow your company from scratch I'm going to spend some time talking

to cpg Founders now but you can apply most of this to almost any type of company the first thing you want to do is identify what sets your company me apart this is really important sometimes we'll start Companies or'll start a product or a project and we will be very excited about it for ourselves it's something that is a pain point for us which I actually think is really important it's what I look for when I'm investing in companies but have you done market research to find out and confirm that other people need what you

are providing do they care about it this is really really important so you want to think about what really sets this apart what Makes it different better faster more convenient whatever it takes to make your product or service better than the next and you do want a little bit of competition don't go into it saying I have no competition no one's ever done this before if you want a chance for growth because if no one has ever dared to do it before it will take you a lot longer to get where you're wanting to go

I've reviewed thousands and thousands of companies over the past decade and Almost every single one of them has competition competition is healthy competition is there and realistic if someone tells me we have no competition I think they have a problem I think they have not researched enough and I think that they are not ready to take on what it will take to start this company and grow it because if you don't think you have compet competition either you're lying to yourself or you're lying to the investor or other stakeholders so first Of all figure out

who your competition is for instance with yacht water competition liquid death spin drift the tap at your house like there's a lot of things that are competitive to yacht water and we have to think about what sets us apart when I think about what sets us apart for yacht water it's the beautiful design it's the skinny can it's in a can for first of all there are a lot of canned water companies now but just the fact that you can hold it and I Think where liquid death is mostly for men I think they admit

that it's mostly for men younger guys to look like they're having like they're drinking some sort of energy drink or some sort of alcohol beer ours is for everyone but really mostly for women when you think about the core user and then my brother he's in his late 30s he said that the can is so beautiful he'll have a hard time throwing it away after he drinks it so it just really runs the gamut there's Also so many other things and I talk about all of the things that set us apart in this other video

make sure you check it out the next thing I want you to think about is what I call putting points on board you have done something that you can be proud of I know that that's why you're starting this company that's why you've started it already you're kind of in the throws of it and there are probably people who can attest to you being helpful to them so you want To gather testimonials this can be something written that they write or you write and they add their voice to and sign off on it can be

something that's a video it can be something that is oneoff or a compilation but what you want to do is have your prior customers or even people who didn't pay you but you're using the same service that they received now as this product that you have you want them to say great things about you and what the transformation Was for them think about it as your company is the movie that's coming out what are the testimonials what are the rave reviews they can give you that are real honest authentic but that tell the story quickly

of if I'm just scrolling or if I'm finding out about you for the first time this tells me wow these other people there's some sort of confirmation that this thing works this thing is interesting and good you want to do that because those are points on board that You have already earned and that sometimes people skip over thinking that they have to start from the point they are now and then move forward of course as you move along you want to add to those testimonials an interesting way I'm doing this with the water brand because

I didn't have a water brand before is I am doing a crowd Equity raise on WE funder and so if you go to yach water.com you can become a co-owner of yacht water and on that campaign Everyone is given a chance to write why they are participating why they want to be an owner and a lot of the remarks are things that I can be trusted about and things that confirm that I might be good at this now only time will tell how good I am at being a water brand owner and founder but because

I have those points on board it gives people more of an idea and confirmation that I might be good at this too so that's one kind of hack is look at the comments you've received for Something else and see if you can use that as testimonials I did the same thing when I started my online course back in 2020 I had people go through the course for a few weeks and then we started putting up testimonials people who graduated from the course and had so much success from it and it was truly the thing that

helped with like probably 70 to 80% of our sales the next thing you want to think about as a cpg Founder is the idea of subscription sales one of The things that we do with cpgs sometimes we'll think about Nostalgia as one of our selling points we might be selling something that makes people remember a time in their life and it's very novelty that's really awesome to get people's attention but sometimes what happens is it means that it's just a one-off it's what we call a vitamin not a painkiller it's not something that that people

are looking to get month after month week after week now with Water it's very interesting because you do kind of need water all the time it's a great Market to be in and so with you what you could do is instead of selling just one-offs you can sell a subscription model so for instance let's say you have a beauty brand you have a lotion brand you have a water brand instead of saying okay this cost $20 this cost $10 this cost $50 and being very excited about how much you can get on a monthly basis

see if That customer could use the convenience of having those items sent to you every single month or every single quarter depending on what it is and you could turn that into something like a gift box that was a box of the month club or it could simply be I'm going to replenish the stock that you have already ordered and I'm going to take it take it away you know you don't have to think about it make it super convenient for you and there it is on your doorstep month after Month when companies have recurring

Revenue like this it's very very specific and it's very enticing to people who want to acquire those companies so if you're thinking about that early on you can really think about what that Exit Plan might look like down the road we're going to do do that with yacht water we're going to have a subscription option another thing that I think is really really cool and I've used this for years is the affiliate Program within your company now like I said at the top of this video this can be applied to all types of companies so

think about having these ambassadors people who are really into what you're doing and you're sharing some of your income your Revenue with them you're going to be spending money on marketing and advertising anyway most likely at some point no matter what the size of that is so why not give a little bit of that to individuals who love your Product and are able to talk about your product in a very special way with your affiliate program you can choose to pay the Affiliates you can choose to give them perks benefits discounts you can decide to

do a hybrid or if they reach a certain level they start making but I've seen it done in so many different ways successfully I think the most straightforward way is to just pay them there are a couple of great companies that will help you do this like ever Float and you can use their infrastructure to create your affiliate program you want to do things that are fun too you want to have maybe a little competitive nature to it so there are leaderboards update people give them surprises and speaking of surprises there's something I want you

to get really comfortable with that will change everything for your company if you do it well and this is a surprise and Delight mentality Gary vaynerchuk talks about This when he talks about what Taylor Swift has done in the past she will go and show up at people's weddings if they invite her she will go and show up at people's homes or invite them to her own home for different album releases and she's done this consistently over the years and it's still surprising of course if Taylor Swift shows up at your house you're going to

be surprised this is a really great example of surprise and Delight this is something that I've Been doing for a long time too is that I have a lot of different people who have purchased things from me like products or services or digital items and every once in a while just randomly I'll select some of them to get something it might be a free signed book or it may be they get to go with me to a dallis Maverick suite and watch my hometown do their thing from an Executive Suite there's all sorts of things

you can do to surprise and Delight your customers And it doesn't have to be expensive it can just be really creative and very impactful so think about ways that you could surprise and Delight your Affiliates and also your customers when you're thinking about your cpg company and brand one thing you want to consider early even if you don't implement it early is are you going to to go into wholesale are you going to sell into retail through wholesale so most people when they start selling their products They will have their own website they'll go to

Shopify which I really love they'll go to Shopify or they'll start their own site and have a way that people order and then you ship it out that's a really great way to start by the way they may go to popups they may go to farmers markets they may partner with people which is a great idea too and that's all awesome and there are several companies who have made a lot of money Doing it that way but you also have a decision to make about being in stores couple of things to consider when you're thinking

about that one is the expense keeping up with demand when it comes to going through a distributor like a store is tough for beverages for instance one thing I learned as I was building this is that if you don't have $1 million to spend in your first year somehow you're probably not going to make it and when I learned that I thought well that is not Good that sucks but the reason is because if you want to grow to a certain position you have to get position so what that means is you usually have to

get into a lot of storefronts you can get into some of the bigger Brands you always hear about people getting into Whole Foods or Kroger and you better believe we're going after that but just keep in mind that there are a lot of people to pay along the way there are people you pay who are Consultants there Are people you pay who are sales people into those Distributors and then this is the part that gets a little tricky when you see a product in a store it is very likely if they are a new product

that they paid to get into that store and what I mean by that is that there's only so much shelf room in any given store and so for a new brand to break through they have to get through the hurdle or over the hurdle of being accepted into the storefront but in some cases even With the bigger Brands and mostly with the bigger brands that are the storefronts they need to pay a certain dollar amount per skew per store so that gets really expensive when you're thinking about oh I want to be in a th000

stores across the country if you have three SKS of something or 10 SKS of something and you're paying a dollar per skew per store per month or per year starts to add up these are decisions you need to make now so you can start to Project and decide how you're going to spend money is that worth it of course there's an upside to it because now you're in these stores you're getting paid back because people are buying your product but the Sal cycle meaning how long it takes you to go from having a conversation with

the stores to getting a yes from the stores and then getting paid sales cycle and payment Cycles are long in this game so there's that upfront Capital At the beginning makes a Lot of sense to do it from your website to make those trips to the post office or have the post office picking up from you and just get into the nitty-gritty of it all and of course you want to print enough items that you can use as samples that you can take around not only give to people maybe influencers people you want to become

customers but also to the storefronts that you want to be in another thing to think about as you're building your cpg brand is the Process processes and the optimization of systems you've heard from me a lot of things you have to consider already but if you are unorganized and you don't have automations in place and you don't have the people in place what I've just taught you will be 10 times as difficult so very early on this is why research and development and pacing yourself and really thinking through things are so important early on you

can think through through if it's just a one person Company who do you bring on first I'm going to say you go to higher runner. which is my fractional recruiting company you download our app and you get the help you need today I'm not the only one who says this so this is one of the reasons we started the company if you are looking to hire the first person sometimes what we'll do Dan Martel talks about this all the time is we'll try to hire someone who's like an executive or someone who can take a

lot off of our Plate we think someone who's smarter than us or done more than us really good idea to have that person around but have them as an adviser and again I've invested in more than 200 companies and started several of my own so take it for me what you want to do is hire an amazing EA executive assistant you want someone who can take the minutia away off of your plate give you back five 10 20 hours of your week so that you can then focus on all of the things that Bring in

resources to the company because I would think that you are one of the most important inv valuable assets of your company whether it's one person or 30 people or a thousand people at your company you're an important part of it and what we need you to be able to do is to go out and do things like sell or innovate or ideate we need you to bring everybody together if you are stuck working on people's invoices if you're stuck researching for hours and Hours now we know that researching is fun but for hours and hours

and hours it is not the best use of your time in most cases we need you in the best position to do the best that you can for the company so if you bring in an EA and they can let's say they work for 20 hours a week and they give you back 20 hours or more of your time how much more powerful does that make your company how much time does that give back resources that that pulls in and just a little bit Of Freedom that you need to be your best and then through

the money you have saved and then earned by having the EA you can think through who is that next hire it's probably going to someone else in operations because if you can get your operations settled you can do anything you can grow faster going back to that surprise and Delight I think it goes without saying that you want to focus on having a great customer experience but I know this from Experience that sometimes it gets left in the dust when all the other things are being considered especially if you're a small team your customer what

customer experience are they having are they being responded to quickly are they getting help quickly and efficiently are they being heard are they being proactively reached out to and I say all of this and this is something that I still have to work on even though I've seen so many companies invested in so Many and started so many is one of those things that you take for granted unfortunately your customer is so so important and their experience is important they're going to quietly go out and promote you and sustain you even when you're not realizing

it so I talk about the fact that brand and reputation are two different things your brand is what you want the world to think you are your reputation is what you really are so your reputation can change at the Drop of a hat and one of the things you can do to keep a really great reputation is simply by communicating with your customer so I'm going to do a better job of this my myself and I'm not going to use the excuse that I'm doing so much and I have so much on my plate because

I asked for that right I'm going to do a better job of that and I think it's something that I can definitely pass on to you to do before I get to the very last point I want to make I want to Encourage you to hit the Subscribe button I look at all of my metrics when I post videos on YouTube and on average about 85% of the people who look at my videos are not subscribed so that means you probably uh statistically go ahead hit the Subscribe button you have a better chance of seeing

my new videos each time they come out I post weekly and if you found any value in this video you're going to want to see the rest of them also go back and look at some of my Older videos If you go to your first million. TV you see your first million. TV you can see all of the videos I've put up in the past go ahead and bend those send them to your friends send them to people you want to win one of the things that we think about when we're working with a cpg

company when I'm maybe investing in one or starting one is are there any celebrity endorsements now I want to make sure that you realize that a Celebrity endorsement does not necessarily mean that you know millions of dollars are going to rain from the sky a celebrity endorsement is kind of a tricky thing you really don't know what effect it will have until you actually do it and then there's a lot of upfront cost to that in some cases so a few ways you can get a celebrity or someone of note to participate you can pay

them like just pay them a lump sum outright in exchange we'll do some sort of photo Shoot or video shoot or give you some sort of Assets in their time you could hope that somebody just notices your brand and posts about it themselves like that's happened before and then Supply them with products so they can continue doing that but then there's one in the middle that I think is really interesting and I want to see more and more of you doing this that is the exchange of equity for the influencer or the celebrity more and

more celebrities Are looking for ways to have ownership in companies rather than just just getting one payday sometimes they want a hybrid they want a combination of both but if they're serious about your product they like what you do and they use it themselves and they believe in the growth potential they may be willing to take equity and something that could pay off in a much bigger way down the line so if you have something that you are very proud of and You think a certain celebrity or influence who would be a good match would

also be a user of this product you could try to contact them and say I would like to give you x amount of the company and ownership and on the celebrity side if you are a celebrity watching this or some sort of influencer watching this you want to say yes to some of those like vet it the same way you would if You were putting your own dollars into it because this is part of your reputation and the exchange is not getting that payday instead of you making a 50,000 $100,000 investment in a company can

you just simply exchange Equity going back to being the founder we talk about having an employee pool of equity and that really is just a portion of your Company ownership that you put to the side to give to employees over time they usually vest it which means They earn it over time usually four years is is the average you could think about having a pool for influencers and celebrities you don't want it to be too big because you want to not dilute yourself so much but think about this if you're willing to go out there

today and this is going to hit home for some people you're willing to go out there and give away 20% of your company for $500,000 today because you want that in your bank account that 20% could be Worth 5 million if if you played it right when it came to who you brought in as advisers as celebrity Affiliates and ambassadors there's a better way to play that same thing goes for amazing employees by the way instead of thinking about is there just this cash influx I can get that is fleeting that will go away after

time can I use this equity in a smarter way so these are just a few ways that you can think about your CP PG company I wish you luck please leave a Comment below and let me know what you're working on I want to see the links I want to go check out your products I think the best way we can invest in each other is by being customers of these Brands I surprised Dallas real estate entrepreneur Monica with a five figure VIP day where we worked together one-on-one on a major challenge in her company

and then hung out Court side with my family at the Mavericks game so Tell me about your company so what does your company do so I'm a full service real estate construction firm so basically essentially what I am is a One-Stop shop it for someone who would like to build a new construction home so like we build homes Custom Homes and we also renovate them so either or you can right um custom renovation so basically you know I can provide you a house I can build you a house um from start to Finish from design

to completion um so we we basically turn over an asset to you so you can put it on the market or move in wonderful and then um what do you get more of new builds or Renovations so far Renovations but I've been pivoting into new build builds now why if if you are getting the renovations why would you pivot into the new builds because I found in my experience that um Renovations is a lot more challenging And costly in our experience it has it has been that way as opposed to new construction it's it's like

simple because you're starting from scratch and it's kind of what you set up tell me this because I don't know I don't know this information how long does it take to build um let's say a three-bedroom home so yeah a standard new construction home us we take about a 90 days is that normal in Market we're we're quick we have a quick turnaround so what's it Usually um like six to 12 months how are you able to do it so fast we work like we like we work like from morning to nighttime we work on

the weekends um we just like just make it work and then do you have more than one simultane simultaneously happening or do you do one at a time so in the past this year well in the past we've done more than one so you're capable of doing more than one how many would you be able to do at once or have going at once so I want to Say I would feel comfortable with at least doing eight at one time really you have that many employ employees or contractors yes I have access to to that

it's just a matter of like the cash flow I just need projects in order to get and I understand yeah I understand I'm saying kind of not thinking about the challenge right now thinking more of just like the possibilities so your capabilities are let's say if you could Only do c new customs with that would you do that and not Renovations I that's a hard question I cuz I kind of like both you like both one's more challenging yeah so let's say what percentage would you want to be new custom and then what percentage would

you want to be renovation if you had a perfect world I would say 60 new build and then the remaining custom okay that's fair now let's talk about price So um I come to you and I say I want to have a house built in Dallas I grew up here I live in Los Angeles but I want to have a place here and you can do it in three months so that's crazy so I wanted to be uh two bedroom really modern really nice I have the plot figured out what what am what am I

going to expect to pay and kind of talk me through what it is for anybody cuz I haven't purchased a home before so you Already have the land that's what you well let's say I don't have the land let's say I need you for everything you need me for everything yeah so the first step would be is picking the land the the plot of land like that's very important you need to know where you're going to build at you need to know if the zoning is correct to build residential um you also need to know

if there are utilities on that plot of land Which is you know water electric if that's not included that can be handled we can take that on but that's just an additional cost and um so once you buy your land The Next Step would be we would go through like the design process so you would tell me like I would need your feedback on hey what kind of home do you want do you want it to be modern ranch style two stories one story like all the design and then once we get that that um

decided then um we would have Like the architectural blueprints made um they have to be by an architect like they have to have a a registered stamp by an architect and you would Prov you would connect with that yes I have like um connections like from the architect to Structural Engineers to design so like I have all of that so that's why I like to say One-Stop shop cuz I can basically take you all the way through yes and so once we get through that design Part that's the fun part you decide like how you

want your home build and all of that fun stuff then you would give me the plans and I would go to the city I would go to the city of Dallas and they would review the plans and they would approve them and then once those plans are approved then we can build we can start building W and what's that process from finding the land to approval do you think so in the past my experience that has been like one of the toughest Challenges like dealing with the city of Dallas and approval processes um and so

like including the design and all of that what would you what would be an average it doesn't have to be perfect but like I want to say maybe like five months oh that part is long yeah because we have to like go through that design part and it really depends on the architect as well cuz sometimes architect they have like a quicker Turnaround some can be like four to 6 weeks depending on their workload so that that part we would have to figure out like if we have an architect that's like hey okay I can

get it done in a week then of course that would speed it up um but yeah it just really depends on that part would it be fair to say three to six months for all of this three to six months and then another three months to actually build yes okay that's great okay so then how talk to me a little bit About pricing what is what is that first part going to cost me the the the figuring out like I like the land and all of that is one price but what is it the fee

to for you is going to cost like for me to do the design and like yeah all of that if you had to I mean I know it's different for every house so maybe let's create a house Let's Pretend There's a house and say okay like an average house has two bedrooms it's modern I've come to you I Don't know anything and you're you're taking me through this um five Monon process what is that fee approximately about 20,000 okay 20,000 and then behind that there's fees for the land got to buy the land or get

that yeah financed got to do the design what's kind of the design and and City Review costing on a about 2,000 two to 3,000 the design like for the city to approve it well the approval would be 2,000 then how much would it be for the AR architect and Just average two-bedroom home I would say maybe three three to 4,000 okay great and then we get into the build mhm what kind of what I'm getting at here is like do you help people is it better to to have it custom made or to go buy

a house that's already built Financial financially is there a better version of that or is it just like preference I think it would be preference okay yeah I think preference yeah what what are some Pros to getting custom made it's something that you're selecting so you're going to like it sometimes you know like if it's not in your price range you just you kind of just get a home and then you can remodel it later um so I mean I think that's the benefit like you you're it's like you're you're building your dream home so

of course you're going to love it but I mean you can still make it work even if it's not your dream home and remodel it like Throughout time yeah and then on the build side what kind of fee am I paying you then so for the build side I charge $135 per square foot okay so and that's including materials so that oh that's like the feet to build MH it's $135 okay let's do some math so what what's like a two-bedroom home is like 3,000 square ft that's a lot right yeah that's big Okay so

what is more I want to say standard I want to say 1500 leave me alone 1500 yeah like 1500 okay, 1500 and then I'm GNA do some quick math oh I have my phone I'm G do it I'm do it on a pen of paper let me do it on my phone okay so if you're uh doing this let's see what that's 202,000 and can I ask you what part of that is profit or not even profit but just like your expense that you then get to use for your company yeah so on average on

that I want to say my profit is about 60 oh so okay great 60,000 like on each deal so I'm sorry say that a Different way so like what would it be per square foot if because you're saying it's 60,000 per per deal like if I paid well let my profit you saidit so if I paid 200,000 you would get about 60 but if I paid 400,000 would you still get 60 or would you get 120 yeah it would probably go up it would go up because it's it does it does scale with the bigger

the project what's the biggest project you've done square foot wise uh Biggest 2600 square feet wow okay yeah 2600 square feet great okay so this is so interesting to me so next thing is how do you find customers today where do they come from so I'll find them on Instagram that's like that's been my that's why I love social media so much you know I've met you and other wonderful people um but yeah I watched a video from Gary ve one time yes and Gary yeah Gary will Gary will be at your first million Live

cannot wait amazing April 9th through the 12th yes I'm so excited about that but yeah basic I I'm going to introduce y'all oh yeah just somebody you remind me I'm going to introduce you in there cuz he would love you thank you yeah I appreciate that okay so you saw his video and his video said to what um hashtags yeah so like um I didn't I had like a Facebook back then and I was like intimidated with Instagram but I was like hey whatever I'm just going to try it and and I took His advice

and and I just started creating my own content like Pro our small projects before and after and I started acquiring clients and I made like my first it was my first deal in 2019 yes and it was for 95,000 like on a custom renovation and it's just been over with ever since then that's great okay so that kind of brings us back then to what you were saying about what you were saying about your challenge so in 2022 you did about $800,000 and when you say $800,000 is that the the piece you take or is

that the revenue of Revenue so would that have been like the house included and everything I just want to make sure I'm understanding it would it would would that have been the 60,000 or would that have been the 200,000 no so 800,000 like for the year like in total um Revenue would that have included because there's two ways to think about it so when I did My taxes I like for 2022 my profit was like 125,000 got it perfect thank you that's helpful okay and the rest of it would have been towards the materials and

the people and all the the labor and all of that okay wonderful okay so of the 2022 how many different projects do you think that was across so in 2022 I did eight Pro yeah eight projects total so would you say that about each of those Projects were like 15K and and not profit again revenue for the company about 15K average yeah so these are smaller homes is that why no it was a lot of learning for me yeah oh I see so you this this current rate which could go up tomorrow by the way

this current rate is a newer rate for you yes and how is it compared to others in I compared to others I want to say I'm like in the middle okay yeah I'm in the middle great that's great okay so Then in 2023 do you have the rate you have now or did you um start off the year mostly your lower rate so I'm at the rate I gave you now yes and that's when the actual jobs became fewer right so how many jobs did you have so this year I I've only had about three

so three jobs two 200k Topline and and they haven't all been new construction they've been like some smaller project so I see do you know what the difference is between The two years what do you mean do you know why you have fewer clients this year so yes I do know in partly because I need to invest into marketing you know because I've only focus like on social media acquiring my clients from there so that's one thing where I'm you know I have a plan um so I'm going to be investing lots of thousands of

dollars into marketing like to go on to Google yep like all of the the um Avenues where I can find my client okay and um what else I lost yeah no you got it okay so um in 2024 what is your goal Top Line 2024 my goal is to generate at least 2 million okay in in Revenue so you're going to 10x from 2023 to 2024 10x and how do you plan to do that I plan on doing that by this is um where I'm eventually going to over overcome that challenge that I'm dealing with

once I can get through that um I have all the resources I need now so I have funding Where I can I mean I literally have like a line of credit they're waiting on me like to give me 200k just like for pre-development funding and um so once I get through this I'm going to have access to funding where I can now go and build my own affordable housing to sell and you have the 200k in line of credit what's it depended on how do you get it my personal credit score oh so how do

you so it's only like that's only thing that's stopping you from getting there Yeah right now and and I'm working on it um like I have I mean same like it it's believe me I understand because I you know I have um done so much so many things and you know so much to be proud of but there's still that number and it's gotten better but it takes so long you know so and I actually I rail against credit scores anyway I've never thought that they were they I feel like they are the new new

gem Crow they're like the red lining yes to make it so That certain people stay in a certain position age so talk to me a little bit about the plan so if you need that money to do what just to have like a head start yeah like just to have a head start and that to buy like land to get started that's that's all that's holding me back that's like for for my company and again I'm still acquiring like other clients so this is going to be it's like a game Cher for me because this

is what I've Always had a vision of I think we we skipped that part so what is this what is the game changer for you um this this program that I'm a part of and having all of these resources and connections what's the program um it's Community developers round table and it's here out of Dallas yeah and um it's a black woman that um helped me her name is Maggie Parker she's a Powerhouse like she won like um this President award for the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce so it's Just like she just W say

her name again uh Maggie Parker Maggie Parker amazing so she has you in a group and she has created some resources and opportunity for you have some line of credit and she got you so far but then your personal credit is going to have to get you the rest of the way and so what is it that you're doing the um the affordable housing how does that work so my vision is to I basically just want to come into this industry and Just undercut everyone like um just build affordable housing because I'm very passionate about

everyone being able to own a home and if I'm put into this position I'm I I can make that happen and the way is because we take great pride in our our product so it's quality um and it's going to be a quality product for like for something that the people can afford now because you know how in Dallas there it's all about like affordable housing Crisis the the median home price is like over 300,000 no one can afford that right now so my vision is to come in buy some land in in parts of

the areas where I come from Oak Cliff uh South Dallas like you know my areas um and just do what I need to do so you're going to buy some land build on it and then be someone's landlord or how how exactly is it going to work I want to sell them you want to sell you want to build houses to sell those houses but they're in a Zone That's affordable housing and then and that also brings you profit because you sold these hous and then how much of that do you want what percentage of

that do you want to be like your bread and butter your main thing so another way of saying it is of the $2 million goal you have in 2024 how much is is it going to be from affordable housing and how much do you want it to be from what you do today I I want it to be all affordable Housing yeah like with with the with the what I'm doing like for ourselves is is it the same price per square foot mhm okay yeah it's just what I'm trying to understand is like what makes

it affordable housing is it the same is it it's the same 135 today can go up but it's the same 135 per square foot yeah what makes it affordable is so like whenever I'm done building a house the average median like for affordable um homes is like 260 so like that's considered an affordable home here in Dallas right now MH so I basically want to go underneath that price so so you you do that in general with what you do it's essentially what you do it's just not necessarily call that when you do it but

you do that you make these beautiful homes for people it's affordable for them it's their first home in a lot of cases I'm sure right uh like mine would be if if I were going to do that and Then now you actually want to build the home first it's not somebody coming in and saying this is custom for me you're going to build the home sell the homes and then there's there does that make it a more of a profit margin for you or what makes it what makes it beneficial to you would make it

more of a profit margin but honestly I'm not really thinking of that I my the way my vision is is I want to build like communities where yeah you want to buy up the block Yeah I get you I get you you want to you want to create a space for somebody wants a custom home cool I got you somebody wants a home that I've built I got you I understand okay so now going back your plan is you have a certain budget in 2024 you're going to spend on paid ads and then you're going

to go through that process I wonder and maybe you can talk about me talk maybe you can talk to me about this a little bit so what you do Today when you when I go to your Instagram what's your Instagram Longhorn contractors Longhorn contractors so I'm going to put that on hey just hey um we'll put that long [Music] horn so when I go to your Instagram right now I see some of your I see your videos I see some of your uh you have different types of videos I think I haven't seen a Renovation

video in like a month or two right and when I do see your inovation videos they sort of stop before the renovation happens or when the custom happens right so what I was thinking before we even had this conversation I was looking at it last night is you are so compelling you are a a compelling person like I could see you being on the news like you know like a newscaster or something you have like a certain personality and a certain certainly an Authenticity that people can understand and resonate with and your goals are so

lofty and um commendable you I think without spending a dime on ads could command uh an Instagram uh Tik Tok YouTube world uh and and Linkedin World those four places and it would not take much more than what you already do but what it would take and this might be the harder part is that it would take you being able to film a renovation or a custom now like in the next few days Days or weeks do you have a project happening right now I actually just finished one we just finished yeah well tomorrow we're

going over there and um we just have like some final touch-ups but it it it was not like um great and lofty it was like a just a basic remodel but it still look good even if it looks good cuz it it was one way before mhm and it looks different and better yeah that's all you need that's all you need do you have footage from it being put Together mhm yeah I just I haven't posted it cuz we're not done but that's going to be like my next project so yeah so when when I

see your videos today I re I see what you're doing I see I understand what you're doing but I don't know that you take the the viewer on the full Journey as you could and so what I think I I really like the angles you get and I like that it's like from your point of view and like you're doing this and you're playing the music and you Know people know this is how we show up um which I think is really good but I think that a little bit more planning of exactly what this

video is going to accomplish like what the intention is the intent and then what it's the outcome is supposed to be if you put up like let's say it's the same house because you're not going to have a bunch of houses right now let's say it's this house you have footage already how it started like and how it how it how what Is it like how it started Where We Are today or whatever it is I forgot what mean is but like you have those that footage but then you take it all the way to

the finished product and you really show us what it reminds me of is there's a woman and I can't remember her name but she was on Amy porterfield's um um podcast and she does she didn't do any Instagram any of that before she just started during covid she um she what did she do she put up videos of her Transforming small patches of like um of gardens so she would create you know put the Box around the garden and then she would like show you how it looks afterwards and then over that she would put

words you know a script that she would say or she would put like you know five way five things I bet you didn't know about gardening and they would get thousands and thousands and thousands of views and it just drove people to her course that she had of how do you Transform your own garden so for you I think what you have done is laid the foundation no pun I think you laid the I'm corny don't worry I think that you've laid the foundation for everything that you need in order to create this amazing like

full scale um content marketing so I'm not going to tell you not to spend money on ads because I think you should do what you want to do and I would love to see How that works out I also think that there a way to spend an hour or two just going over at some point just like this is exactly what the video could be this is what you what you what you'll talk about the topic you'll talk about very clearly this is what you know so one of them would be this is remodel I

think those would be the most popular like you know this is my company we employ da D many people this is we're in oakcliff right now D and it went from this to This because people are going to look at that and see a 20 second makeover and say I want her to do that to my house or I want to buy a house from her another type would be here are three things that you need like you just taught me and I wrote this down I promise you I didn't know this stuff before you

just taught me you need the land you need to make sure that there's utilities you need you're going to then you need an architect to build all of that stuff That's like second nature to you most people don't know especially your target audience and which is me and others right us so if you also become the person who is like giving so much free game about something and you're only really going to talk about like three or four topics over and over and over again because every day someone's going to um like um discover you

and you're just going to like be a teacher and in being a teacher 99% of the people will watch It and say oh my gosh I now know that that's so cool and the 1% are going to say I like that I want her to do it for me right and so and then the big play I think is you you do this on Instagram but then you also you you have a version that goes on Tik Tok and then a version that goes on LinkedIn and then a version that goes on YouTube and you

have longer form for YouTube and and that I think on YouTube is where you could really have a breakout for what you do you could even If it's like you don't need to have a million people see it let's say you have a thousand people 400 people see this video but it's a 15 minute 30 minute video where you're with a client and you're walking them through the process or you're walking them literally walking them through the home that they're seeing for the first time like oh my God like reaction videos oh yeah like you

know all there's so many different types of videos you could have even if you Wanted to choose one or two of those or three like education makeover and reaction boom and then every single day you're posting something something is coming from that and I promise you you could have posted something seven days ago post edit it take off the first 3 seconds put a different song on it put different words to it and and put it out there again it's going to capture people and even if you had like 400 people see that 15minute video

where the person is Seeing their dream home for the first time 40 of those people are going to be like oh my God I'm G to spend this year being able to AFF that and they're going to get in touch with you because on every one of these videos every single one of them you're also going to have a really easy to go go to um uh website this is the website this is how you apply for more information if you want one of my people to call you this is how you look at these

other videos I have on Here about like this 60-minute renovation video that's like you know only a few people going to watch but those few people are going to be customers and this and this is how you uh apply if you if you're ready to get started right now you don't even want a phone call this is how you apply put your deposit down da right so I'm just kind of going through it fast but this is like the vision for it because because I think that you can I think you Can do your 2

million especially because you have all that Foundation you have created and you have like this other opportunity it's like so clear to you and then you have the call it a blessing or the luck of you also that not everybody can do like video I hope you're enjoying this episode as much as I am I have something special for you for watching I want to thank you so much for watching if you are going to your million live April 9th through the 12th I have a 50% off code for you that's right 50% off go

to your first million. live choose any tier pass click on that tier put in the code Dallas Dallas d a l l a s you'll get 50% off any tier you'd like you know what I'm saying like some people are awkward or some people are like they don't have that that spark to them you have it cuz i' seen it through the year like a year or two with you so you have it and you're so relatable that you're going to be you're Going to you know what's going to happen a year from now or

even sooner you're going to have people walking up to you in Dallas and they're going to be like oh my God like I love your videos you you make me want to have my own house you're going to have that in addition to your your I'm already having that you have that I'm having that already so tell me about that um the well not like walking up to me but people now like since I've been in this program and I've I've kind of been like trying to open up more and like present myself more online

I've attracted more people and they're the clients that I want so there's um his name is uh leic Smith and he like reached he just won um Community Award of the Year okay through cosign okay so it's like he's like a a big deal here and he saw you and he messaged me and he wants to partner with me amaz oh we didn't even get into that like how much more opportunity will happen Because of that even beyond your customers the Partnerships the opportunities there's going to be somebody who either sees this video or sees

the 12th video you put out at in 2024 and they're going to come to you and say I want to finance you don't worry about your credit I see what you're building here I will back you right that's just going to happen because of what you're putting out into the world and and the good what you have Do you have customers from the past asked who would go on camera and give a testimonial the one um I'm finishing now like we did great like she loved it if you have this customer who you said tomorrow

you're going to go over to the house okay tomorrow yeah that is another opportunity to get really great footage and just say you know on your next house I'll give you 5% off or on your you know if you refer a friend I'll give you a a referral fee if you let us film us Talking about this or you walking through the house or something because that's going to be like gold that kind of content is gold for you and it's Evergreen so you're going to have yes you're going to put it up in January

but you're also going to have see it in June you're going to see it next you and then the one after that because seeing your first house you know for the first time is like that doesn't get old that's really cool and every Single day someone's going to not notice that how does that resonate with you when you think when I say that no yeah I love that and I actually had that idea um so you just like confirmed it for me yes so the the lady that I'm we did her um remodel it she's

um it's so wonderful she she was actually on the panel that selected me for this program she so she's another Latina and she's like the CEO of a bank and I'm like and she called me amazing and so like that's Just like another connection and she already told me she wants to like keep working with me and she's in Austin like I haven't even met her in person and I've already like she we already made transactions she already paid me and I'm like great so so this is another lesson too that you've learned is like

a very specific type of um home own homeowner you want client you want and you obviously you're not going to do anything that is discriminatory Whatsoever but how cool it would it be to have certain of your videos be only in Spanish mhm and you you're just you're just speaking to that um professional laat latinx Latina who is in their 30s or their 40s who lives in you know within 60 miles of this point and you're just talking to her even though other people will see it this is who you're talking to and you find

her in that crowd again it's about like being known for something being the the Person the go-to the go-to person in dot dot dot so for you it's in Dallas for you know who is your your customer we talk about that in spark right who is your your um ideal customer and then how do you find them how do you reach them over and over again and what do you have to say once you reach them right so when you think about I want to hear this I want your honest answer when you think about

posting on YouTube Instagram LinkedIn and Tik Tok how do you feel About that fine you do yeah good okay so what why haven't you done that [Music] um no excuse I just it's it's sometimes it's a lot like cuz I'm I'm doing doing it all and then like I try to connect my Instagram to my Tik Tok I like I don't know I feel overwhelmed sometimes so I kind of just been comfortable and just kind of just sticking to what I've been Doing but I'm working on it I'm like you know getting out of my

shell more and more and and I I just feel like this year it's just like going to be wonderful because of all the things that are happening but but my intention is to build like on especially on YouTube and I'm kind of like waiting on like to get my first deal so that way cuz I'm going to document all of that like once I'm buying the land and looking at land like that's when that's where I Feel I guess like I don't feel as confident because I don't have it yet you don't have it but

you do have this other stuff that you do so it might be that you just need to do one more custom build while you're waiting for everything else to attract all the other stuff right because if I knew that each time I posted or each week the combined amounts of my posts brought me a new client or each month it brought me a new client you better believe I'm going to Post every day and you don't know that for sure today but there's a reasonable expectation that you would attract a lot more people so right

now you post how often on Instagram um at least I think once a week I've been once a week on Instagram do you post anywhere else no like my Instagram's connected to Facebook so it's like automatically so I'm connect I'm I'm posting to Facebook okay and then Tik Tok Noah it's just Like randomly I need to be more consistent on that so let's say that in a given month you post 10 times total across uh Tik Tok I mean sorry across Instagram and Facebook and maybe a Tik Tok every once in a while that's 10

times and you've already seen that that brings you people's attention and sometimes it turns into clients what would happen if you had a 100 posts a a month yeah more money right right so it's just true like it just makes sense If you have that so and then if you say oh it's a hundred times a month but really if you break that down it's about three or four a day and that's across everything so let me tell you what I do so I um I was I'm I'm not preaching like something that I've been

doing for years I just started really paying attention to this because I consumed the information and people said it and I knew I knew it I been following Gary for seven years so I knew that that's what You're supposed to do but it was it like it had to really hit me and I said you know what I finally said let me just try it let me just see and so I was like posting over here so he always post on Instagram cool but all other stuff is like pulling in teeth right so what I

did was I put all of the things I want to post on in the same on my iPhone like on the same folder so I don't know if you can see this if you can get that zoom in on it so I put it on the same Folder on my on my iPhone and every morning when I W after I wake up you know kind of think about a few things I go one by one and I say what am I going to post okay I'm going to post this usually I start at Instagram because

that's my favorite and I post a real and I I go through all the stuff I have and I post a reel and then I take that reel and I just go back okay here's LinkedIn should I post this on LinkedIn and if I wrote a caption does a caption on Instagram need to be a little bit different on LinkedIn probably so because it's a different audience so I change the caption then I go Tik Tok same thing sometime then I go to threads and say you know what I'm not going to post a video

on threads because it really doesn't do well on threads but I'm going to post the caption from it because I explained so much in that caption I post that and then I go to x but whatever and then YouTube and then I do shorts for reals if it's a real I'll put it as a short which I learned I I was so against it I never did it because everybody was talking about shorts I'm like I'm not 14 I'm not going to do it I don't care about Mr Beast although he's really great I'm I'm

not that's not my thing and then I actually said well let me just look at this let me see what other people were posting on shorts and I started looking at it and really looking at it I'm like oh it's Basically reals which I love it's just on a different platform and gives you another opportunity for a different audience cool so I started doing that so every day I put I didn't know that either yes so right so it just seemed like this thing over here but what you understand like these different platforms are pretty

much the same because they're copying each other and they have different um personalities you'll start to see then yesterday or The day before I posted about uh something about Mark Cuban and I posted on across everything but on threads and on x I only put the the words I didn't put a video there I took a screenshot of this at one point yesterday both X and threads had exactly 533 likes on that post for whatever reason and I don't really get that many likes on posts it's just when I was intentional I mean obviously I

have I've gotten thousands of thousands of likes but I haven't been Intentional I haven't been on X in seven months because of you know life and but when I got intentional about it and I'm going to just do it every time well the first few posts on threads and on uh threads and X they got maybe four likes or 17 likes or whatever it's like oh that's cute but I didn't stop because I wasn't getting a lot of likes I just I was like I'm going to be intentional going to keep doing this I'm going

to keep doing this and then I woke up and I Had 533 likes on both at the same time I thought it's so crazy that they both had the same and then they changed a little bit and so what you can do is be so that it doesn't become over filming you can batch so batching have you heard of that where you film something let's say for an hour you film you know an interview someone interviews you have people who do that or you can just film yourself whatever and you do it and maybe even

change tops a couple of times and you do That for like an hour you can get like 30 days or 60 days worth of posts from that because you're only taking 15 seconds you know so you can badge you did that and you don't have to do it again for a few weeks or a few days or you can just incorporate it into everything you're doing so I'm going to be over here anyway let me go ahead and film let me film a little bit and then maybe on Saturdays is when I'm planning out what

I'm posting when right and to Put them all in the same folder is a great hack because honestly it took so much time away like off of what it was taking me to do this because I go search for and this but it's like boom boom boom boom boom okay cool and then I put a number of how many of these posts do I want have in in a given week well I want to have anywhere from 70 to 100 in in a week and I'm like oh my God that's a lot but then I

did the math I have four or five different platforms and it takes me Maybe 15 minutes to post on all four of them and if I do that a couple times a day I'm already at like what let's say if I have plat five platforms twice a day uh so 10 times that's 70 already that's 70 that's that's 280 a month and it's not just to do it for no reason it's because every single time the cumulative number of views is seen somebody is seeing that and is going to buy my book someone's going over

and looking at your first million. live to Go to the event someone is going over and saying let me go from this short or from this real and go look at a 30- minute video that she has over there on YouTube and then they're like oh my God I actually like her I like the way she's talking I like what she has to say she's an interesting background let me go consume some more and let me just kind of pay attention to what she's doing you know it's so fun to get like people who say

I've been consuming your content for About a week now and dot dot dot that's really cool right let me go listen to this podcast so there's so much you can do you can interview people you can you know you just turn it into like the you you pronounce your same your name let me do this one more time you pronounce your name Monica correct okay so it's the Monica show yeah right it is and it's like if it's bringing if you are the Lighthouse that's bringing all of the attention this way and then that attention

is creating opportunity for your employees for your contractors for the people themselves who are buying then you can do this perpetually you say you know it's worth it it's worth it for me to spend an hour once a month filming even though it's kind of silly okay I'm going to put makeup on I'm put my shirts on film have some my family MERS going to Hold camera but then I'm going to take that and I'm going to put some words over it on the real then download that real because it has the words now put

that on Tik Tok put that on YouTube shorts and yes it's a little silly but also I get three like real leads a week and for every 10 of those one becomes a client so I'm going keep doing it yeah yeah yeah yeah I agree with you I I'm definitely going to be doing doing that and I have been more intentional it's Just like he like I just need to be more um organized I just need to be more organized that's something that's a weakness of mine not being I'm like scattered brain I'm like thinking

of this and then on my phone creating content and doing a thousand other things so do you have a do you have an executive assistant or any kind of organizational person no not yet but I do and that's another like on my list Definitely like in order to scale I have to so you have to and and when you say it's on your list do you mean it's on your list or do you mean I'm going to do it by January 15 I going to do it as soon as I get another contract so it's

about it's about money that's holding you back what about a fractional person like could you afford $500 right now for someone to put you in a position where you're not forgetting things you do have 10 times The content up and you have less stress and more time honestly L it's just I'm not able to afford it you're not able to no like this year is it's like I was we were literally selling like tacos and burritos at one point did I see a video about that I don't know I don't you you were saying like

the Hustle real and like you showed was that you yeah oh that's amazing we were we like you know cuz we didn't have business so we were like what we got to do what we got to do Okay so so that can I can I be real with you like I'm going to be real with you you didn't say yes so can I be real with you yeah why you say why you why you like no I pr you wouldn't you always real yeah I would be real with you if I was in that situation

which I have been multiple times there would be you couldn't stop me from from starting this situation right now like this wouldn't be a casual conversation it would be like an urgent emergency like okay let Me go home right now and film 10 clips and get this sucker get the calendar going and if I if it's too much for me to organize let me get a friend a family member come work with me for 30 minutes and we're going to work on this and when I get my first check I got you like it has

to be an emergency for you because it seems to be one right and so like if$ 500 if I'm saying to you $500 is what it would take to hire a fractional uh EA executive assistant or something like That who would help you get like 4X what you're getting right now because of the things that they take off your plate the things you'd be able to do and you're saying well I can't because the money we got to there has to be some way that you go from zero to from and can't to yeah I'm

going to make that happen because I really believe that it'll break things out for you but if you don't it the coming out of your shell will take longer and you'll be looking at this in A few months and you'll be like because it sounds like to me and this is okay but it just sounds like you're waiting on the the big thing to happen yeah there are some really actionable steps you can take right now that are in your control that you can start now before the big thing happens to make to accelerate the

big thing happening and to me I see it so much potential in you and that's why that's why I chose you to be the first person on here thank you so Much you know what I'm saying because I there's some people I could have this conversation with and they'd be like cool and they go home and they wouldn't do anything I know that you have a hunger and you have a talent that can take you so far and it's this little part it's like when you're down and being kicked and like everything is showing up

like even getting here today I bet was like you know it was like let me get here yeah someone someone bumped My mirror on the way you see like it'sing it's like when it rains it pours but you have to break out of that you know I know this you know I I can relate to this and I know that it's like you're down you're like I don't even know how to get out of bed let alone put up four Tik toks know like but if you knew if you could predict if I do that

it changes my life and it's free so I don't have to spend any money and hope that it'll work it's Just free right now on my phone isn't it worth it just to try so one of the things I this is a VIP day so one of the things I want to do is see I'm just thinking this moment like see if we can kind of start you off with some stuff I got rook and Angel in the room can we do some videos with Monica and get her started yeah you could say it out

loud yeahh your hand yes and I think so I think that if you were up for it I think That would be great and then um and then we can talk a little bit about like a little bit more because we're going to be at this game later today court side that's crazy so we'll have time to talk a little bit while like basketballs are being thrown at our head have you ever been Court signed no let tell you you got we got to protect each other cuz like Rook was with me courtside at a

game once and he he saved my like my face yeah okay it's not Terrible like that but it is it is like you're you're on the court like there was one point I thought I was in the game at one point I was it was so so I was like oh did I catch that that's amazing but we'll have time to talk even more about the the pieces of this you know but I think like the foundation how do you feel like how do you feel today about things like uh walk me a little bit

through your emotions so right now I Feel I just feel like um I don't let me see I mean I feel good about being here and like I I I feel I think like the way I react is not normal it I'm just like that kind of person where like if something bad or exciting or something happened to me I'm like um no face until a couple hours later so like whenever you had messaged me I started crying like three hours later really because that's just like I I I guess the way I Process information

I think so yeah you are you do you have any siblings yes are you oldest I'm the middle child out of 10id out of 10 did you have to take care of any of your of the siblings like growing up yeah like you have a a an older sister vibe to me not to me but like an older sister of siblings Vibe which is very stoic and like I got to be calm cuz there's chaos around me and I got to be able to see where things are coming from that's what I get from you

Also I'm married to a German lady so um I have to all and we joke about it too because when she reacts to stuff it's like yes that's nice that's really wonder and so I've come to learn that if she says that's really nice that she means it's great and if she says it's great it means it's awesome and if she says uh it means it's terrible so like I had to like translate that because you're not going to get like I'll say to her um are you excited to to Like go go back to

Germany because she goes twice a year or are you excited for the concert we're going to or Angel City or whatever and she'll say yeah yeah I'm really good and I'm like oh she must not be that excited but then when she's there she's like screaming and just so excited because you know she explained to me like I I just it has to happen for me to be excited like it has has to happen I'm not going to sit here and be like excited about something so I'm the Opposite I really need things to look

forward to and so I can get myself real excited about stuff that's happening a year from now and you know there's no right or wrong I think and so no I I don't I actually meant really like how do you feel even more so are you worried or scared about the next year or you you feel more optimistic than you okay um I feel very optimistic I'm excited I'm super excited About um my vision finally coming to life I'm like I'm speaking it into existence it's happening um and it's just really mindblowing for me because

like I never imagined this for my life I I honestly didn't like I started a business like six years ago with no real business plan and just failed forward and just learning day by day and and and you know um being more intentional in life and um I shared with you like with with The Venture Catalyst group you know I died this year yeah I heard that so you want to talk about that at all cuz yeah we can you said it and we had to go yeah yeah you died this year I died I

literally died they had to resuscitate me with the fibrillator and um and that was like that that had has like literally propelled me forward too because um like we we're we're all going to die right but um it it's just like it was I don't It's to how to explain it like when I start thinking about it I can't believe that even happened to me and you're here to talk about it here and you're like I'm not going to have that experience and then not do anything exactly so so I'm like that was like a

big red flag in my life saying Monica like get it together like stop playing around stop playing around and and so that's that's what I'm trying to to be trying to build and build from that um but yeah I died Um it was uh 10 11 on October 11th M and I was pregnant and that I had a miscarriage I had a miscarriage so sorry it's okay thank you so much um and that's what happened you rush to the hospital so what happened was like I can I can go into detail I don't care yeah

I'm here okay I was like you know bleeding bleeding um but it got like really heavy like clots like this big and and I got scared and I and I told my partner I was Like should we go I was like at one point during the night and I was in so much pain it was like I was giving labor you know like it was that painful and I'm a person like I can take a lot of pain I felt like I believe that and and so I was like it was super painful and and

I felt scared at one point and during the night and I was like I think I'm going to die I literally said that like to my partner he was like no no everything's going to be okay and Then um I woke up that morning and I felt a little bit better and then as um he was helping me get into the shower and started the shower and I just died you died you you collapsed yeah collapsed and and how did they get you like he was trying to like do the resuscitation uh he was but

he couldn't and he said I was out for like a good s minutes like oh my God yeah like just there so the ambulance came or so the ambulance came and they had to do the Fibulator on me and then oh my goodness can I ask this too we're in Texas when you went to the emergency room the first time and they said you're having a miscarriage was there ever any talk of an abortion or because we're in Texas like to to help it or because we're in Texas no or is it just going to

happen that they said go home anyway yeah they didn't bring that up or anything they just they just said well there's not much we can do for you just go home and Let it like pass out yeah I wonder if I mean who knows but I wonder if that could have been helped with an abortion that's true I never thought of it like that but that is true I mean I don't want to make conspiracy theories but what if the doctor was not a fan of abortions and did not offer you that option and you

almost died but maybe somebody watching this is like I'm a doctor she was fine I would have told her to go home to this is a rare case I Get it wow and so you you woke up in a hospital bed like looking up at people no I they oh they your house of course cuz they need you to be alive so you woke up at the bottom of your shower essentially or yeah on the floor and then I'll explain to like um how they say like the what happens yeah so like I was in

so much pain and all honestly that I can remember is um I I was I saw my body on the floor and I was like my spirit was leaving and I could like it Was like I was flying above my body so it was like I wasn't there right okay um but the feelings that I had were so much joy and peace and laughter I was like when my partner said like I started to wake back up I was laughing and I was laughing like in when I was gone like I was laughing and and

it those were the feelings I felt like you know after being in so much pain like those previous two two nights like it just felt so good like to Finally not feel pain finally like I didn't see anyone I just saw like really bright white why do you think you came back I really feel I came back because I have um a purpose and a mission to fulfill here here on Earth and you know for you know my community people of color um just all the things that I've been learning with you and your group

and I just feel like I I just I'm here for for that for for that reason for a reason yeah incredible I just read an Article um first I'm so grateful you're here thank you I just read an article maybe this week uh on Apple news I can't remember the original Source but it was a woman who had died for 15 minutes or something and she said and they was like what happens when you die right so I read it and she said I can't tell you shapes or sounds or like a a feeling I

can exactly say what I saw but she said It felt extremely peaceful and okay I was going to be okay and then she came Back and she's same with you she's like has a new lease on life she's like let's go yeah let's go incredible wow well I mean that kind of yeah you said that in our group you're part you're an apprentice we keep saying our group you're an apprentice at Backstage catalyst.com so my Venture funds uh investing apprenticeship program and you got in which is amazing like there's so many people who applied oh

so many people who wrote to me who were like I Why I wanted to get in you know um but you got in and because multiple reasons we had different people looking at it including myself and it's like that voice it comes back to you have something to say and you have a point of view that's unique and all it's Unique but at the same time relatable and so I I I love that you're in that group and I love that the work you do and if I have a new build in Dallas I'm coming

to you thank you I am I don't plan on one Anytime really soon but I'm coming to you when I do um the last thing I want to do oh actually do you have any questions anything that I can help with um no okay not right okay was this helpful at all yes it was okay okay cool I I really I what I love is that let's say January 1st that could be the first day you post on these different places you get set up on a couple of um you can get set up on

a couple of uh Platforms and just and just have some stuff in the chamber essentially like okay here's some videos I'm going to have put them up just see how it goes you know it's not going to be immediate like oh I got thousands of views on them it's just going to be the steady if you keep doing it if you make it part of your your process each day each day I'm going to spend 10 minutes 15 minutes posting videos either filming them real new or have some already made I'm going To put those

up or I'm going to put like a screenshot of of quote that I have or like a top 10 list or whatever but something that's like really clear I wouldn't do a top 10 maybe top three list something that's really clear and see what that does just challenge yourself to do it for one month and see if it changes anything and if it doesn't what' you really lose right yeah just a little got a little bit more awareness and you can keep doing what you're doing Behind the scenes but I have every faith in you

that you will turn 2024 into something really special um the other thing that I want to do is I want to give you $1,000 credit on higher runner. Co which is company that helps connect with fractional operations help so you can go on there search for somebody see who you want to work with you for several hours in January who can take a lot of the stuff off your plate so they can even do your schedule for you of This is what you're going to post this is what you're going to do they may even

be able to post for you if you trust them to go in to your sites um that's what I want to do just to get that kick start thank you so much for that yeah that that's exciting cuz that's that's what I need yeah yeah H runner. Co h i wa let me do it again H runner. Co yeah yeah um and that's where I'm going to have you thousand credit and I Think it you'll be Off to the Races when you have that kind of that package so much apprciate this is a VIP day

so this is about getting you kickstarted you know I do the fist getting you kick started um and then we're going to have fun tonight I can't wait take your mind off of stuff just go out there and then also when you're court side you meet people right so when you're Courtside let's talk a little bit loud about your work let's see if somebody's Looking for some you know you know I'm going to introduce you to people because that's where deals are done yeah people don't just go to Courtside just to see the game to

go there to do deals to talk to people be in the same atmosphere as people who can make deals for them got it yeah thank you so much thank you I appreciate it so much thank you for having me yes and I love everything about you and what you're doing and thank you for for teaching us thank you So much amazing thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] say general counsel of Dallas mavick here with all M fam hope she's good luck for the Mavs every time she shows up she gets a win this

is a fact this is a fact [Music] This is my new book that's out your first million would you like a copy of this make your first name you what a day we did so much today now the Mavericks didn't win they lost by three points but the game was incredible and here's what happened this is what's so cool so we had this day this amazing day this conversation right and it wasn't just about going to this game I told Monica right before we got here I said I bet you're going to meet Somebody here

that could be a client about halfway through the game someone started talking to us and it was another Latin exoman and she was curious about my book Because I had it with me and so we started talking I introduced her to Monica she's a doctor her best friend's a lawyer her husband is another doctor and they were with someone who had season tickets uh court side and I was able to introduce them to Monica who They were very interested in learning more about how she builds houses and that's how we were they were introduced so

they followed each other on Instagram immediately they had a great conversation and that's why you want to be in those places right it's not just about seeing the game having fun it's about proximity it's about opportunity and creating opportunity for yourself being in the room so if you can't be on court side can you be at the game can You start spark up a conversation and can you get yourself thinking about how do I get closer and closer and closer to Courtside and you know I don't just mean that literally right so it was just

a really cool thing to see and I didn't get in on film because I didn't want to mess up their Vibe but it was very Co thank you AR you're the best thank you first million let's go let's go talk a little bit about it oh yeah I just really enjoyed it like um it's just Giving the game like to people like to the average person and so if I don't have like I'm a YouTube person I don't have the funds or anything or I can't get to you it's like why you're sitting down talking

to somebody I can really absorb the game like what I need to be doing it's that full conversation so here's the question so you're going to be you're directing this you're editing this you're shooting this with Angel yes do we have a version where we show the Whole episode I ain't GNA lie I would I would put out the the whole episode is full of game what what they need to be doing is drawing you to the episode on YouTube so the clips the shorts yeah exactly that's all that needs to so that's what I'm

saying but I'm saying on YouTube do you put the whole episode you put the whole episode the whole interview the whole the whole thing cuz I was talk when we was talking I was saying saying oh we're going to you know Turn an hour hour and a half 2 hours 3 hours whatever into 20 minutes into 15 minutes no no no you put it out you changed your mind I changed my mind because um for instance uh my interviews right they're 2 hours 30 minutes you got to you're you're appealing to everybody the the truck

driver the the person at work that got yeah you're want they want to sit here and get the whole conversation they want to also know who you are you know and in order to get the Full picture of why any of this really matters matters you do need that because you never know what the conversation is going to be YouTube you're going for that what do you think like as someone who would be watching these um you you like the idea of hearing the whole conversation and like you know taking notes and just like okay

this I can apply this to what I'm doing I'm more of a like short short I I'm more because that's how I consume Yeah so so so are you a flip person or are you a short person like five minute episod 10 minute episode like so that's why I was saying maybe we should do both okay so this is what I think we might do both okay I got a suggestion yeah I mean and even even if you did do the whole thing is out there but then like the interviews you have these five minute

that's what I was going to say 8 Minute clip so of these parts Arin breaks down why forance the Full episode is the thing the meat and then you have the three minutes minutes minutes breaks down you have any version okay so there is no version that's super edited like no no the super edit is going to go into the long version where I just go through everything you're cutting you tell me to cut out putting Instagrams putting all titles making crazy things and then again you got Tia and Drew cutting the the small clips

and if you want for instance like when you Did the um uh what do you do the all in all day right and you had uh offsets mom yeah yeah you need to put out that whole interview as oh I 100% exactly that whole interview was fired yeah so it's just like that's all in all day but then off aring and off you know what I'm saying so I totally understand where I want that I know what those pieces for for VIP day it's uh like having this Conversation actually helped me really understand what I

want that to be because some conversations will be an hour some will be three hours some will be whatever and it really is about like okay what's the thing that's going to help the most people is having all the information available if they want to ever look at it or listen to it because we're have on audio too they'll have it there right because sometimes I can get into a Zone And I can listen to like especially like from flying all the time podcast I'll just do like a one two three hour podcast any anytime

but then sometimes like you're saying I just want the like the takeaways how can I get the takeaways let me get a three minute video that gives me some takeaways I can take that run with it and then on my own time I'll go back and do the longer form so I think yeah I think we we can cover it many different ways and this you Remember like we were talking about like we have this professional Arland that's like you know everyone knows you you're an investor but then there's like this more personal side of

you that like people kind of want to know they want to this was the perfect combination of that I don't know how comfortable you're going to be about um wanting the miscarriage part she said she was fine with it out um but coming from someone who went into Like I went into labor two and a half months early and you know sitting there and they're telling you like your baby might die you might die like we you know that's people want to hear that and for that to be a story that's told to you in

this way knowing that like you have such a professional standing but that people come here and they feel comfortable enough to tell you things like that is important cuz I'm I'm touch I'm trying to get emotional sry because no it's not Your fault cuz I know what that feels like that's important it's so important this whole conversation is so important for women for moms for people who may be struggling from top to the bottom professionally personally emotionally this whole thing financially emotionally all the things everything that's what I really wanted to to do here like

I wanted to um I just had this idea a few days ago I don't know if you know that yeah I I just had What idea I just had the idea to do this at all just a few out of nowhere because I was like you know what honestly I like people pay me five figures to do a VIP day I did some in La I did some in New York in 2023 and every single time I did one there was like this breakthrough of like oh okay and then I could see what they went

back and did and kind of transformed their business and I really believe that if you do what we talked About you will like I just have no doubt um but then I was like you know what in 2024 I'm so F I'm so hyper focused on your first million like the brand the book your first million live um uh the podcast everything we're doing I'm not really first of all I don't have a lot of time to do VIP days anymore even though they're lucrative I don't have enough enough time to do do them because

I'm on the road I'm doing all kinds of things I have three different companies Four different companies and I'm starting a new company I didn't know that yeah yeah but but I said you know what I can do one to one and help one person or I can do one to one and scale and this how you make your thousand millionaires on some other stuff yes you know what I'm saying so say that again what are we talking about this is how you make your thousand millionaires by giving it away for free the game yes

so I want to help create and catalyze 1,000 Millionaires over the next decade and I talk about why and how in the book at the event your first million live that's the whole theme and all the speakers Rich Paul uh Janelle James who's hosting from abot elementary um uh well there's someone who we haven't announced yet but I was about to say it accidentally um that person Dean Forbes who's coming in from the UK who used to be homeless he was a uh semi-professional football player Football player in the in the UK so soccer and

then he went through such a dry spell and then today all this stuff happened in between we'll talk about it at the event but he just showed his1 billion dollar deal that he did he had the video going when he got this oneill one billion with a B dollar deal he is the CEO of multi-billion dollar company um he's going to be in the building he's flying in from the UK to be in the building so many people then we're going To close out with TLC TLC [Music] so it's just going to be this amazing

three-day experience and um that's also how i' I plan on working with the Thousand millionaires helping to create at least a thousand but like you just said so if anybody doesn't know it's my brother talking Rog is talking um you're right like this is how this is how you do it this is the the I just give the game out and and there Someone's GNA come up to you it's like you made me a millionaire yeah I mean actually to be honest with you that's happened me yeah but not so like this is like yeah

you're going to see you're going to see in your comments too yeah like right before it's been like a certain group like it's been um entrepreneurs who maybe I invested in or maybe I worked with again they paid me I worked with them and I know what I can do I know how myice helps but this is Like you know what like let's pull back the curtain so honestly what I think I want to do is have like an application process so if you want to be on this VIP day um series I'm just going

to select People based on the application some people I know some people I won't and I'm going to say who is coachable who is someone who I already see something in them a brightness in them and then somewhere in the country or maybe even outside the country we're going to Spend the day together working on your company and then we're going to do something crazy like go to an amazing concert or go to Courtside like we're doing tonight at the Mavericks which I love love love love doing that and I do that um all the

time with y'all right with my family we go Courtside we do what we do what we do which is amazing it's amazing czy but but how cool is it to be able to share that with people from the audience yes like that to me is Gonna be yeah because what you know I'm not um so Steve Harvey in the past has said things about um gay people and about atheists of which I'm both that I have found offensive and therefore I have not been the biggest fan of his advice it's like I I don't think

his advice is for me but I'm also no fool and Steve Harvey has done very well for himself so I do listen to see if there's something I can take from it and I recently saw this clip I think it's Older clip maybe it's not but where he said he thinks that everybody who's watching it and I think in his case he was talking about people of color I think he like you should go you should find a way to go first class on your next trip you should find a way to go first class

on your next trip he said you know you're going to think it's crazy but just do it he said the reason you going to do that is that when you go to first class and you experience first Class and first class is cool but what he's saying is when you experience it the next time you get on the flight it's going to be really hard for you to walk past first class so then when you land after that second flight where you're not on First Class you're going to do everything you can from that moment

on so you're first class every time and that resonated with me it resonated with me so if we can show show people that certain things that I get to Do which I've never ever wanted to gatekeep in my life if we can show what that's like then for the people who get to experience it great but also it's for the people who are like I'm gonna do that too I'm G be sitting next to arand like she I don't need her I'll be sitting next because with you I know that a year from now we're

going to be both like okay you want to go half on a suite or what we going to do course what Are we going to do cuz it's like I just do youall see what I'm talking about like I didn't see you like owning Dallas real estate right y'all see that I see it I see it Billboards and stuff that's literally I was say on all the Billboards I see it so clear so I definitely want to continue our conversation because um I also think um our our friend Lana who's on the Arland was here

team she's incredible she has like years and years Of experience um as a producer on The Today Show and then she worked for mattal before that which is amazing I try not to Fan girl on too much and she's now the head of PR for ARL was here and she said what she would like to see as someone who and she's in she's in the yet so what she said what she would like to see is me work with somebody all year and take them to millionaire status oh that's good to right so what if

we just kept talking you know we kept up With you what you're working on and it's that inspiration for the audience I would love that in arand also like I'm just being real like you have really helped me like from the first message that you sent me on Instagram um like that was during the time where I was lost and heartbroken over my business and um you know like your little what was it I can't even remember the name but it was like I think like seven days where we did like the clarity It's called

write your own headlines that one that one changed my life wow yeah that changed my life like that was last year this time yeah right about the time so like you you and what you created you are catalyzing me to be a millionaire yeah yeah you really are because it at one point like I couldn't afford your community and you just like gave it for free and I I'll never forget that I like cried because it like I was just in a low place and so just that Kind of gesture like changed my life and

I'm like it gave me hope and you know inspired me to keep going and look at me yes I mean I don't have it yet but I know you know I know I will it's just a matter of time a matter of me getting through these hurdles and and all that but yeah I see it too well I did it because I saw I truly saw something I just saw something like I'm not going to give stuff for free to everybody uh when it comes to like things that I charge For because people said this

before me I'm not the first person to say it but like when you pay you pay attention like when you pay for something you really invested in it so you do more more times not but then there are some people like myself like people have done this for me and I'm like all I need is like ever see League of Their Own have you ever seen League of Their Own in the movie I I will never forget this I side as a Teenager I never forget this phrase they said you get me on the train

I'll get myself in the leak that's how I approach business so for you I knew if I got you on the train you get yourself in the Le no question thank you yeah that means a lot yeah that's what it is and so if you're watching this and you're like well how do I get to be like how do I get it what how do I do that you you got to meet halfway you have to advocate for yourself first even Through the worst of it cuz we've both been at the bottom we both know

what that's like but you there has to you have to find a way to like Pierce through that because everybody's worried about themselves so you're not going to have anybody coming to rush to save you so you know I mean in your case you literally had people rush to save you which was amazing right but uh like when you were talking about almost dying or dying wow that's crazy Um and if you didn't hear that story go back go back or go check out the video okay um but yeah you just have to uh um

you have to add you have to be your biggest champion you have to and then people like me will see that they'll they'll notice you they'll pick you out of a crowd when they see that light come up it's like Darkness Darkness Darkness or gray gray gray gray and then they see that boom there's a light that's where I want to go towards right if you want to Be um if you want people to be interested in you if you want to no let me try one time if you want to be interesting you have

to be interested so you right so like if you want to be someone who people find interesting you have to be someone who is interested in other like the world I want to do this I want to go to this new program I'm in I want to show up I want to learn about this I want to be your One-Stop shop I wanted right cuz you could have said oh I'm going to just do like this first part help you find a land utility stop right there that's not going to stand out yeah but you

went like no just come to me I'm you know you're Arland and you you never bought a house before don't even know where to start but if you're in Dallas and you want to buy a house come to you I got you you got you you got me right that's Incredible that's right yeah okay that's great okay this has been great thank you so much thank you and thanks for the help thanks for the brainstorming session really appreciate it all right but I will never ever ever have a book launch day of my second book

I'll never have this day back we'll never have these days back so I told myself out loud take your time today and take everything in don't skip today me check the schedule what time You guys going tomorrow tomorrow I I don't know you have to ask Melanie sure no worries yeah I saw you did the mini mini Chat thing is that something you I just did Thursday or Friday I just started that I like doing things like that organically because I'm an entrepreneur so I like to you know people see me as an investor usually

first but I really I am a nerd and I really do look at these things all week I'm studying things I'm looking at YouTube I'm thinking of ways to kind of you know I'm discovering things and when I do that then I can implement it and then I can share it with other people and that's where I feel like like that's that scale I can do so can immediately turn it around um but yeah I did mini chat it's been great you know I'm overdoing it for sure because I'm it's so exciting to me but

um I'm getting the rhythm of it I love looking at the data on it and just just having that and it's Definitely one of those things that's a flywheel because the most the more people see the post today tomorrow a month from now a year from now the more they will do take the action they'll comment so many chats we're talking about they'll comment they'll take the action and depending on what the campaign is it it could still be going so it could be something that I post now gets seen in 3 months and gets

picked up by somebody and they check it out like I Like it for things that are like buy now button but I really like it for things like the YouTube video that we just posted so the if you haven't seen the Monica video that we did on YouTube Vip Day we're going to have more of those but people can discover that over and over again which I think is really cool we are going to an interview with um a British interviewer named Callum or we'll see and uh he reached out a few weeks ago and

I'm really excited about It he has really interesting interviews with people on the come up and I love that about it and I'll tell you what I really loved about his his channel I studied his channel because before I say yes to any interview I will study the channel of somebody's or the podcast and for I think for 10 months he's been working on his YouTube channel for the first seven or eight months of that he would get anywhere from 100 to 400 views per video but he he had the Same standard each time and

he never slowed down it was always consistent and he always treated it like a million people were watching and then just a few weeks ago he had his Breakout video that got more than 500,000 um views and so um and it's exact same thing he was doing before it's just had a breakout moment so I really like that so it wasn't it I wasn't impressed by the 500,000 I was impressed by the 500 VI and it kept Going okay New York I'm always in the head space that that the company that is led by someone

who is underestimate estimated that will be the next billion doll company or the next $1 million company but you know I'm getting there on the ground floor is one I'm one step away from that person so I'm always open to the idea of hearing and and learning I will say when I'm working like if I'm at a Speaking event or a networking event or just hanging out and and and people people pepper me with pitches that's a lot of PE when they do Peter Piper um when people are always like you know coming to me

and the first thing they say to me is this is my company it it kind of I kind of space out a little bit I'm being honest because I get pitch so often so many places it's better the better way to get my attention is meet me as a Person like talk to me like one-on-one just talk to me if you have 10 seconds with me if you have 2 hours just talk to me and then let my curiosity take lead the way now I don't know what I don't know so I don't necessarily know

that you have a company if you don't let me know but you can kind of I like when people are like hey I'm I'm um Sylvia and I have a company that that helps with pet care for African-American dog owners and then They stop and then they talk to you hello hi how you you doing it's good to see you how you doing good good how are you I'm good I'm good hi hi AR I'm David nice to see you great nice to meet you nice to meet you I'm messing up the Vlog oh you're

not no it's all good it's all good okay oh these chairs are quite snug it's nice is it I don't know if that's the word too snug it's not it's not meant for can we can I you want that one do They look oh no it doesn't look the same it's the same thank you this is for more of a a Norwegian but better yeah it's much better thank you so if y'all get a little bit and then and then you can I think I think there are three seats here yeah you can sit here

or outside whichever yeah I will warn you that it could be a little warm eventually okay is this door St close yeah we'll close It how about we do that and is there an opportunity to stop in in Midway through or is it um just tell us I'd rather The Wall Street Journal after this yes is that like an interview yes nice then we're going to ABC News live you've done television a few times there right mhm when you have a really well researched interviewer yeah it really it means a difference it makes a difference

You can tell for sure you know who's really good by the way Barbara Cor is she she from Shark Tank yeah I really want to get her I don't know if she has a podcast but she uh interviewed me for something we did for book club.com okay which I've invested in and she had was someone who was on it so we're both featured so she interviewed me and I was like oh my gosh cuz I I really love her yeah she she was so I think she need to have her own show Yeah so you

like she has a she has I would love to have her on oh that's amazing once my episode comes out send me a list of anybody you want on and if I'll look at to see who I know and then I'll send my episode and tell them they should come okay that'll be awesome okay that be all right hit me up on email yeah yeah for sure and it was great to meet all you guys as well thank you have a good one the rest of the do we know how far away the next place

is Sunny you can see the traffic okay cuz that's we're kind of early for it yeah I just interviewed with Callum Johnson I uh he reached out to me a few weeks ago and I really liked his stuff and that was great it was a really well researched interview and uh it reminded me of course it reminded me a little bit of Steven Bartlett because they're both British and I think that stepen is a big Influence on him I think admittedly so I think he he's only 24 or 25 really young guy has a lot

ahead of him I told him I think that within a year he'll be speaking across stages across the world I I I think if he can have that quality of an interview each and every time you're going to like me talking about him as if you don't know him is going to be in the rear of view cuz he's uh he definitely has a lot a lot going for I wonder if there's a Barnes & Noble Anywhere around here cuz the book should be in the Barnes & Noble what time does it say Sunny that

we'll arrive 4 okay do you know a Barnes & Noble they said there was one on Fifth a but I don't know where that is can you go to Barnes & Noble next instead yeah that's that you know that one F okay thank you thank you so much [Music] y yeah I would love to yeah what is it We do have the information over there okay I'll Follow You Sor sorry sorry thank you one whole copy one whole copy you guys want to have one person get the Fifth Avenue copy of Barnes & Noble if

you're enjoying this episode please do me a favor and hit the Subscribe button now yeah yeah it's a long signature because I'm Giving away a ticket to your first million live inside the signature so whoever comes to the fth Avenue Barnes & Noble in New York and picks this up you have a free ticket on me to your first milon live and y'all should order more that's so great yeah that's great signed addition yeah signed addition thank you so much do you want to put it back okay that's amazing Anything else no I think we

found it yeah thanks that's good well worth the trip thank you you too [Music] for me the the big the biggest thing is you know creating a thousand new millionaires instead of the next lone billionaire and so I feel like mentioning the event and mentioning just like talking about the cat you know catalyzing people in that way is so huge that's what I want to Make well we have a little bit of time um about 20 or so minutes it should only be about 15 minutes to get there my car if your car is already

here um I believe work due for 4:45 let's do it let's try make work a so someone I don't know just wrote to me and said I'm so proud of you I have tears of joy and happiness for 2024 for you you work hard and you are like entrepreneurs all over the world I plan to attend San Francisco if you have Volunteer opportuni for your April event I would love to volunteer just know that 2024 would be the best year yet thank you for doing everything you do for others it's beautiful it's wonderful this happens

all every day all the time how can you not love that I met her once I want to say four years ago yeah and she oh nice was she covering like a story or something she was moderating a panel that I was on for General black journalist some sort Of re yeah I don't know she me she may she's pretty good you want to do no thank you all right I'm getting ready to go film for ABC News live prime or ABC News Prime live going to be good it's going to be good you all

unfortunately can't come with me but I'll let you know how it goes and if you're ready follow me okay in studio welcome and happy launch Day thank you so much so you have such an inspiring story we were talking about we met a few years ago and I remember you talking about struggles with poverty with homelessness at at one point now you're venture capitalist super successful many times over why did you decide that you wanted to pay it forward and and show other people you can do this too thanks for having me here um I

wanted to write the book that I wish was written when I was starting out and um I'm continuously learning and I'm in rooms that a lot of people are not in and from a perspective that is unique and so every time I'm in those rooms I'm taking notes to bring back to other people if you're enjoying this episode please do me a favor and hit the Subscribe button now [Music] hi aren um my name isma um CPA based in New York and I'm looking forward to going to one of the conferences in the Future and

walking across that stage thank you for reminding us that we can do this and that it is the damn time to get this thing done and to make that impact I really I like what you mentioned about the the billion um how making more millionaires instead of just one person really adds more to the impact hey arand I'm so happy to be here for your launch day for your book your first million I'm Marsha found in first sweet Spot and I can't wait to see you and my sweetmates at your first million live hi arand

I'm lasna with interf film and music festival I'm going to be one of your 1,000 Millionaires and I can't wait to see you in LA [Music] [Music] if you are looking for outside funding what is the big play that you're able to tell investors like what's the big scale of this yes so we would love to have Intentionally curated locations nationwide as you kind of mentioned that Flagship idea while having touch points of the experience through different markets so through canning through our matcha powder we also have hicha powder which is like a roasted green

tea um through online experiences such as meditations paired with your matcha or inore classes and um is the current flagship store make money like does it make profit or is it Barely you know breaking even yeah so it's like barely breaking even and the reason why um this past year we finally were able to hire staff with that we were wanting to ensure that our staff felt like really respected in the role and so we paid a bit more above minimum wage than we could have put ourselves at the time but we wanted to ensure

like the people coming in and carrying this on for us as Baristas really felt passionate and cared for it so through That honestly payroll is like our biggest expense I wonder and we only have a moment left but I wonder if uh if franchising is more the play because what I was worried about when you talked about expanding was keeping the same Vibe and the same kind of people you can't be everywhere at once but if you if somebody buys it as a franchise you have they have to apply and they have to abide by

certain rules and standards and then it also means that they really want That space so I can imagine there are a few people across the country several of them who are are hearing this and would hear from you all here I want to have that where I live I would I would definitely take their blueprint if they gave me the blueprint came in if I you know you send people in for like a week to your location you teach them and train them at your location and you give them certain logos and Banners and different

things like that in language And you send them back home and they pay you an upfront fee and then a yearly fee that have the right to to franchise with you I think that could be really interesting that way you could also grow a little slower so you could grow like one or two and see how it is in in Baltimore and in in Portland you know just kind of touch points you know you you would have to say you take all your learnings from it say this has to be the certain size of it

can't be bigger than This or smaller than this because it won't work all those things what do you think of that absolutely I think we're we're so open to all of the possibilities and I think the slowness of it actually fits into how mindfully we've been cating it I will say the thinking of uh you all going out looking for outside funding that's what I worry about because I think you will be forced to go faster right so um you know we'll we'll take some more time and understand Your your numbers and what you're raising

but just know that the moment you take outside funding it's no longer a family business and it's no longer the very core of what you all stand for could be rocked and then we have just a little guide as well for you make yes if you want to make it up how to make it yes that's great mom you take that and you you do it hi how you doing it's great to see you thanks for I'm sorry you had all that trouble gosh down here Is just crazy we we were all up and down

the street as a as poor people trying to figure this out most congested part and then can't drive down here we love this yeah we love this so oh yeah of course I'll final [Music] you [Music] hey that's so great that's so great that's look at this this is so Cool okay so we're at the New York Stock Exchange I was surprised by this I did not know this was going to be here it's a very proud moment not just for me but for I know so many people wow this is cool this is cool

it's also like uh I talk a lot this year about staying with something for a year how powerful that is actually because most people won't and I don't mean just like having a company for a year but like stay like having your plan for a Product roll out and just keeping it for a year you will there's a lot of there's a high chance you'll have success if you were to just simply do that yeah with it and I used like different examples of multiple things that if I had kept doing for the past 12

months they would have each made a million dollars MH and I had different reasons to not do them most of them were on purpose but some of them worked but I could see the path of each Of them making a million dollars and so when someone wants to make their first million it's just it really is like can you can you be disciplined enough and pay ient enough to just do this thing for a year exactly that's what saying I [Music] am how you doing are you you good how was your travels good have you

been out there already today I've boxed everything so Oh yeah how's it been it's good it's really good production yeah yeah good yeah the camera Works exceptional it looks really professional it's like you're on you know 60 Minutes event something it's that quality it's really cool that's awesome it would have been 1998 I think 19 that what happened I brought Uggs to my mother from went to AAL got you yes and they to her and to her sister and they uh they fell in love With it they were they were the only ones who had

it their friends I cuz I was in uh that was when I was in Adelaide okay gotcha and it to me it was like it was very foreign it was like yeah oh it would it would be yeah so you you were one of the leading the leading influences back then no I wasn't I was like what she's like going to keep you so warm yeah yeah that was okay beginning it was well first 20 years I love doing This event this Founders table event I did this in Detroit a few months ago and uh

I just love the audience I love the questions Abby is a great interviewer and they they just have their stuff together you know they Amazon they really want to help entrepreneurs and uh that's what I wanted to teach people to together and I get to hang out with Brian who started ugs that's crazy so like the people they put pull together really interesting uh Group of people actually I actually read the brochure beforehand and looked up the website and uh had no idea what a great portfolio she has uh and all of the people that

she has in her portfolio I would probably invest in you know which is pretty unusual cuz I hate VC websites you know but uh no it's going to be really interesting being on stage together I hope I I'm terrified what questions are coming but just got to wing it yeah hi I hope You're enjoying this episode join me at your first million live go to yourfirst million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live l i v at the checkout for

any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you have to be there join me TLC Janel James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Isa check it out this whole thing on lockdown I need you to be my like media Mentor I can do that that's not a problem you have a lot of big stuff coming out yeah yeah I think it's going to become a blur so I'm trying to stay really in the moment that's important that is something I'm not very good at doing oh really I'm practicing yeah I'm kind of like

always on to the next thing yeah and so everything does feel like a blur the time remind me where you're based New York New York what part of your Origin story for Casper well I talked about how it's a little bit you know these things are kind of accidents or they never go the way you plan them I was originally in medical school I was supposed to be a doctor and I dropped out and then I moved to New York and I started different e-commerce company which like was not working but I happened to just

sit next to a guy in a co-working space and he was telling me about how he Used to sell mattresses online from his storm room okay and I was like that's a dumb idea nobody's ever going to do that wow but then we ended up spending a lot of time together and became friends and that was kind of the Genesis for the idea for Casper was my dad is actually a sleep doctor and then we started thinking about like can we build a cool brand that focuses on sleep but you know so R consumer your

dad is a sleep doctor was he part of the company no no I was Definitely not you have like a I don't want to say sleepy Vibe but it's so calming to be it's almost making me like like super Zen is that something that you like are you more chaotic when you're working or you sort of like found this piece I'm generally pretty high energy yeah um but it depends I've been practicing trying to be more present and centered I find that when things are Really chaotic especially for other people I get really calm like

the calm like the tornado eye I'm I I'm very similar I have high changes I read a lot actually I listen to books a lot actually yes too have such bad add I can't actually sit in front of looking do you have diagnosed ADHD I do get all in your business in a way it's great to be an entrepreneur cuz you're like you can contact yeah 50 Times an hour yeah but then dealing with that so I don't have ADHD my wife does and I other people here have it on my team and um it's

been so fascinating learning about it with her like as part of her experience since like yeah almost every month there's something that comes up and you're like oh that makes sense that's why what are a couple of metrics from cord like your with something that's awesome we grew pretty fast we did like A million dollar in sales in our first month oh wow and then 100 million in our first full year what 100 million in your first full year what did about you've done about three or four it's got to be yeah maybe it must

be like 2 or 3 billion in total sales by now incredible I'm still getting over the 100 million in the first year was that through a lot of marketing or was that like content marketing or was that Something else I mixed of both so one there was no competition and we really figured out how to do really good brand marketing and we also figure out how to Market in places where other people weren't so we were early podcast do you think in the world of like generative AI they'll go in a place where it's like

they can ask arand questions yeah I would love B will be trained on like your videos and I I definitely think they're going In that direction I've seen a few of those um recently and I have my own being created right now for my own away away message because I get so many emails instead of just having a away message that has a list of people to reach out to we're building um starting with the chat bot but we're going to train it over time to be a little bit more sophisticated like if they ask

you a question it'll be like a sample yeah It's going to be like it's going to you're going to know you're not talking to me yeah yeah top 20 things that I get asked and some of it will be very specific like you know I'm an investor in one of your funds I have a question about k1s you know it's it's very specific too um oh K On's oh I yeah I don't even know why I I don't know why I said it it gives me so much stress instantly oh my God I'm always waiting

on one K1 to give my taxes yep there's Always one you're missing rough and then you just get yelled at by every I mean I'm sure it's like oh yeah yeah I get yelled at it quite a bit but um you know who would have thought taxes would be one of the most annoying Parts taxes you know yes yeah compliance is super important when you're handling other people's money it's super important in general but when you're handling we have thousands of investors Because of our reg CF that we did we did the first reg CF

in the country for funds management entity so that um 6,000 people can have a piece of our success what's a lesson that you give to people that want to be new fund managers and following your footsteps don't do that um I I say only do it if you have purpose and passion around your thesis because if you're doing it to get rich fast it won't happen one of his daughter If you're doing it because you think it's glamorous and it's like fun giving out money it's 10 times as hard and I've done both 10 times

as hard as raising money for a company yeah so it won't give that but there are ways that you can impact the world really impact a lot of people's lives depending on what your thesis is and it doesn't have to be a Dei thesis it can be a I have seen pictures you Know generative AI but but safe you know whatever the case is or it could just be that you want to see people of certain age have access to Capital something like that so yeah that's what I say to them and then I would

say interview at least 10 fund managers of all sizes mostly smaller before you do before you like reach out to any lawyer before you do anything well reach out to a lawyer before you do anything but before you Make any big moves yeah I would say just Le from other people yeah learn and and ask them to be really honest with you because a lot of people will try to make it a really nice path for you because they don't want to bum you out get the real and if there's going to be some people

there's that few people who are like I don't care that it was so tough for you I don't care that it'll be tough for me and they they'll go into it ignorant and then when they do it for 10 Years they'll realize it was tough but they've already done it don't you think you have to be a little ignorant to do these crazy things yes yes you have to be blissfully ignorant to start a company or to start a fund Venture Catalyst ARL Hamilton [Applause] [Music] can I give a quick example mhm so everyone here

knows that General Hospital is the best television show That's we can always bring off a few years ago all the Soaps started dying out because they were Lo losing money and they couldn't stay on and so all the Soaps started getting cheapap with their production to to give themselves more Runway General Hospital added added scenes and added sets to what they were doing they went the other direction they didn't have any more money than the next person but they they found a way to to add to what they Were doing so then more people watched

it because it was more interesting and a lot of those other soaps didn't make it and General Hospital was still here with us today thank you thank goodness w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hi I hope you're enjoying this episode join me at your first million live go to your first million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live l i v e at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you

have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul is check it out let's let's let's sit there for a Moment say that one more time if I took the money from my son to build my company it would be his company it wouldn't be my [Music] company my name is em Alaqua I am a cinematic poet uh otherwise known as a film director um and I am here because I follow this incredible human being on Instagram and I'm always extremely inspired by her ability to underscore What's right uh and what's just

so um she's one of my Inspirations so while walking in the airport I walk past her and you know what's crazy I noticed her from the back of her head I didn't even see her face so it's kind of creepy but you know what Hey listen you know we got Heroes out you know what I mean thank you for being a hero thank you and we're in Miami why are you here uh filming with the Hip Hop Museum tour with Paradise gray and Pete Nice for Mass Appe pill for nazza company Mass up hill so

uh we'll be filming for the next two days here at Art B amazing what did you do at at with Jay-Z I kind of missed part of it yes um I was one of the film directors on the creative team for the book of hope that just wrapped up December 4th at the Brooklyn Public Library that's amazing and look you have this camera equipment it's so legit yeah you know you know I'm very proud of my my film Creu sweatshirt you know what I mean but yeah it's it's wonderful to be able to do what

we love um through the vessel of the Arts so thank you for doing what you love and thank you for inspiring me to do I thank you so much thank you it was very sweet of you absolutely yeah thank you pe yeah we weren't even filming because we just flew from Atlanta to Miami and we were going to go check into our hotel but as I was walking by he came by and Uh that's really sweet it's really sweet it's been interesting like at airports no matter where I go at least one person comes up

to me either baggage claim or on my way in at TSA or more more than not it's on the plane itself somebody will stop by and say hi I had someone one time send a note up to me with a flat attendant which I thought was very sweet she said I didn't want to bother you but I have to tell you this and it was just a very sweet message um so like It you know um people say you know I don't want to bother you but to be honest with you it's better if you

come up to me and say hi so I don't think that you're like looking at me because you're mad at me so it's it's I'm a little paranoid so if you come up to if you see me out at the airport or anywhere else and you as long as I'm not honestly doing something but just come up to me say hi because I I love meeting you man I I got to get like you man so I Can stay in in places like this my Lord look at this you like you wake up to your

bedroom is just amazing I just saw something and I didn't want anybody to have to take over control of it right and that's exactly what I want to build a legacy company so Venture is not necessarily um you know the Avenue that I needed to generate Revenue I needed to invest in it myself and build it and I just finished my first beta and I'm so excited about it um we had students at The Au Center that's the Atlanta University Center M to actually compete um and so they helped me to kind of test it

out see how it work what good thing what works for well what doesn't work well and it was a truly inspiring experience because it's exactly what I wanted to happen young emerging artists who already has a small following to be able to take the platform and be able to amplify who they are we want them to build a fan base because if Artists Own Their fan bases then they have the control and they can grow because those folks believe in them those are the people that they need to connect to in order to be able

to create the art that they um want to create and be able to receive the feedback the positive support that they're seeking um because if you have 100 paying customers that's better than a million streams of people who casually listen hi I hope you're enjoying this episode join me at your First million live go to yourfirst million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live l i v at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in

the building you have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Isa check it out because if you have real supporters them being able to pour to you they buy your merch they buy your Music they'll come show up at a show when you when you actually they'll bring a second person with and they'll bring a friend and that is so important because you want to grow that fan base you want to have that connection and you want to have that ongoing you don't want to be fleeting um so that it

takes a lot of hard work to do that um and typically our artists don't have the money to be able to invest in themselves to do that so through who's got next music our Platform it's a low entry u barrier to to entry um and they have the opportunity to then collaborate with other emerging producers and artists as well so it's an opportunity for them to actually work on themselves and also grow through this process they have to have a fan base in order to participate they can't come in say oh I just rolled out

of bed today and I think I want to be a a star a music star no they actually have to have a fan base already And our platform helps them to grow that amplify engage and mobilize that fan base is it a manual onboarding where you select people or do do you just kind of keep a quality control love it so here's what we do um if you register for to be a contestant on our app you connect your social media channels and we check to see what kind of following you have so if they're

not real followers and you get into our contest it doesn't help you because you need real people to vote oh So it's like a contest b a contest so it's a contest based like how often does a contest happen so we just had our beta so we're figuring out what how often we're going to hold contests because they're genre based you're comp comp with your peers so unlike American Idol or some of those type um formats you're not competing with people who are in different genres you're only competing with your peers yeah so we'll host

them periodically throughout the year Depending on the genre but there'll be 30 to 45 minute I mean 45 minute 45 day cycles so with that um you register to participate we verify that you have a following enough of a following to participate you pay a small fee and once you're in you will have access to our producer database of Beats so these producers have provided their beats to be a part of this contest because if you win with their beat they win too oo so I love that so then the um Idea is you pick

a beat after you've listened through the directory you find one that you can you feel comfortable with that you can make a a song with you create an original song you don't have to worry about clearances there's no samples or any of that so if you can't afford to clear a song you don't have to worry about that with our our platform you have a b a beat that you can go and create a song with and you're responsible for creating a video with Your phone that makes it Equitable for everyone so you don't have

to worry about something else you can't do use another type of camera okay nope it has to be your phone um once you have your your song and your video you upload them to our platform within the time frame that you're supposed to submit and the first round we only reveal the audio in the platform so it's important that you actually can deliver on the lyrics on the song on the quality of the music Because that's what people are going to be juding you have to be a sing is it more for artists or singers

and less for songwriters no if you're if you're a songwriter and you can't sing like myself could you hum it you know trying to sing along no but you need you need an artist you cuz you're producing it it's like exactly what does that final thing sound like okay so if you're if you're an artist and you're working with a songwriter then You absolutely have to make sure that you um acknowledge them as a part of your registration because it is is it important for us to make sure that we are being supportive and we're

advocating for all artists whether you're a songwriter whether you're an artist or or producer um for us yeah so um that very first round is the most difficult round to get past so you have to have a quality song something that resonates with people they can connect With um has quality sound um has lyrics um that people want to hear if you get past that if you get past that round and the judges are you and I it's you and anyone who loves music those super fans those fans who actually subscribe to um other um

music platforms for music every day if they're listening on a radio if they're listening on satellite radio whatever those platforms are those are the folks who actually vote to decide if you're moving to that next round if you Do then we Reveal Your Video also in the app and now we're getting to see how creative you are how you can story tell using visuals and then the final round is actually in person so um you reduce the number of people that compete from round to round to round so when you get to that last round

and folks are competing we want to see how you actually Rock a crowd like how what your stage presence is like have you all done One of those yet yes we did where yes we did we did it in Atlanta um we did it in a small blackowned venue called Brooklyn te okay shout out to Brooklyn te for allowing us to to have our very first beta version of our our contest and um we walked away with the winner um her name is NI poo y'all follow her poo yes um she is um out of

Chicago as a matter of fact she's a student at Clark Atlanta University and she is a musician she's also a producer um as well and she had An a fantastic visual she is a star and she is going to go places and through our platform and and her ability to be able to shine with the audience that she had she was able to growth um more followers than she had before and um she'll have an opportunity to take a little bit of an investment to be able to continue to make music so this is what

I love though everything you just described frankly if vure capitalist had their hands on it they would ruin It everything you just described is something where I'm sure in the future you're going to go and get sponsors yes that's the play yeah the Venture so a lot of people this is going to help a lot of people cuz a lot of people would say well I got to start I got to have money to do this I got to get the site going you're a techie right yes yeah so you got either you are a

techie are you you partner with a techie yes and then you get the site going then You get the the model going and then you get you it sounds like you collaborated with someone who had the venue right you didn't spend a whole bunch of money you you you collaborated y and and you make it happen you do a beta you don't try to uh sell out the the arena down the street because to start things cuz then that adds that pressure of the resources that you need to make it happen right so now you

have this uh product Market fit where you know it's something people Want people use you know there's a process and you can just keep repeating that and you can take that she can take that and and and give some video footage and some information about some data about it and find different partners and sponsors and different people who want to elevate and Elevate and Elevate that that's that's the recipe yes and so talk a little bit if you don't mind about well I have a couple questions I'll come back to the one I had the

how do you Position yourself having the the background that you have because you've been around professional music a lot how do you position yourself to this how do you what do you say as the founder well my background really is Tech and I and and music has come into my perview in the past 10 years actually okay so I married the two things to try to make a difference so my company is a legacy company but it's one that is for impact um it really I'm not anti- label Not at all I really am anti

um discrimination or anti deception and um you know just taking advantage of people so for me this is an opportunity to take the education that I have in the music business the experiences that that I have in the music business and my experience with tech and utilize that to help promote these emerging artists and educate them on the music business so that they can be sucessful um right now the the biggest way for you to earn Money as a musician is through your brand it's through your brand it's through perform it's through performances um it's

through your merch it's all of the ancillary things that are associated with the foundation which is the music um so if you're successful at creating music and having a fan base that follows you then you can be successful in being able to grow and maintain that that career um you have to be of course flexible and adjust and Adjust as times change but it but if you have a a sound and you have a fan base that you can lean on that's going to provide provid you feedback as you're as you're building um your brand

then you will be successful you don't necessarily need an advance to say Hey you know we believe in you and go off and and make this music but then if you fall flat with that one album we may put you on the shelf and you owe us all this money I Mean isn't the same it's the exact same the music and what I'm saying about Venture yeah it's it's the same it's very much so the same and when did we have this conversation first when was that oh my gosh that was in 2021 2021 okay

y I feel like I I feel like we it might have been sooner than that more recent than that cuz it was I think it was before Co was it was before Co it was before that we had the initial conversation first conversation about That and I I just love that I love that you're here in Miami and our basil with this like that to me is exciting like you did cuz you know I have conversations with people then I'll have a conversation a year later and I have conversation year after that and they're still

ideating yeah no they don't they don't they can't get themselves past the the thought of it because I guess they're scared to fail in a lot of cases oh no I failed I did exactly what tech Technologists do I went and built it first or started building it and then I didn't have my market research I didn't understand who my customer was I I thought well all musicians well it's not all musicians that I'm going after I'm actually going after very specific artists they are emerging artists who have a small following and they're trying to

really break out and be bigger I'm looking for the Super Fan that fan that's going to buy tickets to a show That they travel for a show that they buy merch from from artists and they really are curators within their Circles of Music um I'm also looking for those producers who are trying to become the next Metro boomman right those those producers you're too hit for me I don't know this stupid I'm like yeah met is one of the biggest um hip-hop producers in in the world right now and he's on an incredible run he

just had a um a Soundtrack for the miles moral is Spider-Man movie the second version of it and he is an incredible person um just overall um and an incredibly talented producer um on top of that so um and lots of people look up to him and they want to be him or be like him and they can and own lane though in their own lane and I think that um you know they just need the pathway to become who they are supposed to be who they're talented to Become um and they need support around

them to do it and the music industry is very very tough it's a lot about who you know um and once you get into it um you don't necessarily understand the mechanics of the business side of it you don't understand you understand the creative side of it you may not understand the business side of it and if you're not careful um you will give up a lot of the things early on in your career and then you figure out what they What they mean in terms of your rights and you're like oh my God I

don't want to give that up but I didn't know I was signing that away to begin with I want to take one moment to say call to action go to arinir million.com in that you will learn about spark the spark program where I take you through what who is your your uh your ideal customer what's their customer Journey Etc take you step by step on your road to your first million it's called arinir million.com Check it out yes um definitely I love your podcast number one you have a lot of tidbits in there for for

entrepreneurs that are starting out just like me I I didn't think I was going to be an entrepreneur um I had what do you think you were going to be I thought I was going to be a professor a professor I get that thought after I after I retired from from Corporate America that I would become a professor I could see that I could see that have You ever have you ever taught at any level um I mean informally informally I have taught I've taught my whole career it seems um somewhere or another i' I've

helped people out in some type of way but so I thought that would be a natural progression for me but um as it would happen my son asked me to help him out with his business um and as he several I have several kids I have six children overall yeah that's like my brother Rook he has six kids yes kids team yes we Have um we have uh my oldest son um who also is into music and and starting his his career um and then we have my son that is an author my son after

him is the rap star offset and then I have my youngest son who is a techie like me he works for Microsoft oh my goodness so four sons and then I have two daughters um one daughter that is a um production um she's in the production world so she's a producer um for a various um short film videos and that type of stuff And then I have a daughter who works a regular job um like I did for many many years and um so she um is the next to oldest and uh so so um

six children yeah I love that everybody doing something a little different different completely different well two people that like the music but you got everybody else is doing other stuff that's so great for sure that's great so one of them asked you to work on your on their business yes and when he did it it I was like I Don't know anything about the music business but you know I know business you know I've worked in business I'm have a degree in business and Tech so I was like okay I'll figure it out and okay

you talking about opposite yes so you were you were doing the corporate thing yes and then you thought you were going to be a professor at some some point and then offet said to you I need your help with with the family business with the music business that I'm working On to to take over and do something yeah just handling his daytoday you know he had bills to be paid you know that that he needed an entity to be set up you know just all of the different things that entrepreneurs really need to have done

not realizing that musicians are entrepreneurs cuz I didn't even know that basic concept if you are a musician you are an entrepreneur you're responsible for registering yourself as a business You know or registering your business and then working for that business right so um that was that was an education for me and so he was like there's just things that need to be done there's paperwork that needs to be done you know I need someone to just go handle that stuff I'm creating this great music probably have his back too cuz he could have hired

somebody who may have figured that out but you going to have this point of view of like my mom who's in The other room here I'm going protect that's the heck out of you while we're figuring this out that's right absolutely he wanted somebody come and so you learn an entire new indry profession oh my God and and what an education it has been it still is I don't profess to know everything there is about the music business that is not who I am I know people who do though yeah and so if I need

to tap into somebody I can right um how important is That for the entrepreneurs watching and the artists watching how important is it to ask for help or to collaborate in that way it is extremely important to be able to ask for help you know we do not operate in vacuums and succeed you they're always someone who knows something that you don't they have experiences that you don't and it is totally okay to say you know what I don't quite understand that can you explain that yeah or to be able to ask Somebody um you

know how did how did you come up with that that P that perspective right why do you think that way um because people you know generally love to share you know and especially their experiences and if you find people that you can really vet what they're saying to you and you find it to be true you want to hold on to those people because as you're learning your journey you want people that you can rely on to answer your your questions as you're Going along and then you also want to become that that Sage you

know have that wisdom to be able to share with other people as they come behind you because you have that comes with experience and most people think you have to it has to be years ahead and you have to be old and wise right but you as you collect experience over the weeks and months and years that you're working on something yes that is collected wisdom and that you can then help the person who's a Year behind you 10 years behind you years behind you that's just like fulfilling I think it is completely fulfilling and

the music business continues to change certain things don't um a lot of the legal aspects don't change very quickly but how you are reaching people changes all the time you know yeah and who and and and what consumers want and who they want want to uh uh consume use music from changes constantly so it's important for you to Keep your your your ear to the ground and and connected to people who are um making those changes who are facilitating and leading those changes so that you can adjust um to those changes as an example um

10 years ago social media was not the major way that people would discover an artist yes today it is one of the number one ways that you can discover new music artist um so it's important for for artists to understand that things will change just Because they are away today doesn't mean they're going to be that way tomorrow and it's important to have um either someone on your team or you um very you know aute to those changes and how do you hope the company helps with that I mean that's see an obvious path there

but how do how do you think about it well in in addition to the genre based contest that we host we also have a Discord Community oh where if you're um in the top 100 of our winners um because Everyone that actually participates in our contest are winners and I want to come back to that that point okay um you have the opportunity to then collaborate with other emerging Artists number one so you can learn from each other but the idea is that we grow that space and bring in experts subject matter experts in various

Fields so not just just other successful artists but also legal folks that can come in and talk to you and tell you some tidbit that you can do um As a as a real plain example if you do not have the funds to be able to to hire a an attorney on a retainer find an attorney who's willing to review contracts for you and you pay them pay them a flat fee to review contracts for you so you may not be able to retain them for 3 to 6 months but you can pay them on

a per contract basis to be able to review contracts for you you have chat GPT now so if you if you can't even afford to pay an attorney to review a Contract for you you may be able to afford an hour of their time of a contract that you had summarized through chat GPC to that have them say may I pay you this 350 450 for one hour to review this summation and tell me if this is legitimate or or an answer questions that you might have about it um so that you can be able

to move forward or not with a particular contract um leveraging the resources that you have available to you is so important so Having someone from the legal Community to be able to talk to um our artists and producers on some basic things that they need to know is a benefit of being able to be um a participant in the who's got next music contest is it who's got next.com or another website it's who's gotex music.com who's gotm music.com and they can also look for who's got next music in the Apple app store and the Google

store they can download the app wow I don't have an app in the Apple Google store I need to get there's not many black women who do really yes so I'm very proud of that fact W that's incredible yeah you when you came in you mentioned that and I was like how long has it been since we like you moving and shaking well it it feels it feels longer honestly it feels longer but I can say that you were very in instrumental in me moving forward and not waiting not waiting until I got a check

not waiting until I Got someone else's confirmation you basically said latabia this is your baby this is your idea you fund It Go build it just build an MVP that's what you told me to do build an MVP minimum viable product yes and so I did that I did that and I did some I did more than I should have because like I said I'm a tech techie first so I went to go try and build the whole thing but you what you did was the Lesser expensive uh lessons yes they probably Were expensive but

it was lesser lesser than it would have been down the line doing it a different way yeah I had to figure out who my customers were so I I backed up I paused my development long enough to actually figure out who my customer was which was so important yes and the customer Journey you know how how will they consume my product how will they know about it why should they care and if they are um someone who is already into music How am I solving their problem yes those were things that I had to take

a step back and and and be able to articulate in order to be able to finish building out my product can I can I touch on something you can let me know if you don't want to talk about this uh it's your show uh but I just want to I want to mention something that you probably would never say but I think it's important for people to know I think people if they heard you say earlier That offset your son and they putting two and two together who your family is they might say oh it's

easy for cuz she got all she got all that uh offset money you got all that BL you decided to go and do this on like yourself this isn't something where you went let me go to the cers you said let me do this boot like truly bootstrap yes right yes yes okay I'm right it was important for me to do it that way tell me why that because when I when I started my career In in it number one there w a lot of us black men or women in in my space and I

love technology like I really truly love it to this day I'm retired from my corporate career but I love everything about it I read about it every day um and if I took the money from my son to go and and and make my company into what I want it to be then that would be his company o I needed it to be my company let's let's let's let's sit there for a moment say that one more time if I took The money from my son to build my company it would be his company it

wouldn't be my company so I'm bootstrapping because it's important to me that I do this I do this not just for myself but for every black girl who is in a male-dominated space to be able to say I can do it I am important I am I am able I am more than than than Innovative and I can make a difference and I want to be that person for emerging artists producers and super fans of music and I Know that there are plenty of of black girls who could do the same thing I just love

that to death cuz you know he's cheering you on all six of your children are cheering you on they got your back this is you this is me this is you and I love that and I wish the best for you I'm here to be a resource of information if you when you get to the point or if you get to the point where you do want to take outside Capital down the line when you have built this to where you Feel like oh yeah I'll let some people along for the ride please call me

uh but in the metime I or even if that never happens I am riding for you and I love this whole concept I feel like it has so much IP to it that it could be all this other stuff too so I'm excited to see what happen my trademark I got it's approved oh wow and that takes like a year it took a year it took a year but I am trademark trademark I love it who's you trademark for who's got next music That's incredible that's a hard trademark to get it is wow okay anything

else we should Know download who's got next music app okay you heard first you got to download we're out here uh weathering the the winds and you know but it feels good out here I like it ites it feels amazing and the view is amazing it's beautiful right yes it is so nice out here yeah I love this well thank you so so much thank you for coming by and hanging out girl it's good To see you it's always good to see you cuz I see you everywhere but not in person that's right we follow

each other online yes you know anytime anytime we'll do something um you coming to my event in April I'm coming to your event in April I have an event I have I have an invitation directly from you I'm coming your first million live April 9th through 12th yes your first million live do no your first million. live yes you will be in the building yes will you Have your will you do something with your app at the at the event I would love to do something with my let's do like maybe like a inperson contest

or something we should let's talk about it let's talk about it see how we make that happen Okay I love it cool okay well thank you so much thank you hi I hope you're enjoying this episode join me at your first million live go to your first million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give You a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live l i v e at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you have to be there join me

TLC Janelle James Shea Johnson Rich Paul is check it out oh Mom uh protect her at all cost okay um you are so special you are so special and wonderful and just can you be my life coach [Music] Hi how you doing good to see you J it's good to see you thank you so much for everything we really appreciate this is Art thank you so much Sten it's from you this welcome thank you so much so our folks are still kind of about get we uh we were filming something at 5: I think they

told you yeah so our guys your guys are here I told them to kind of like Source the space okay class hey how are You it's so good to see you this is a dream amazing oh well thank you so much three blind people that had never seen an elephant before M and three that did and so the madeup one was an explanation of the elephant I was like that's a heck of a mindset thing to like remember that hold it never know but still build it out and so I'm all about intention but I've

always wanted to put it housed in something like that because I feel like your conversation Shouldn't just be on YouTube they should be in art gallery so so piec this together it's inspired by like old Spike Mumble C dos black and white constantly moving like what is it like coffee and cigarettes like things like that okay where I can mix in the chaos of people wanting to meet you and then come back to the calmness of what that meant to you what are those words that you're putting into them this is the reason behind it

and then uh score-wise there's A local guy named Jamal Adine Tuma he's like a legendary base player what I want to do is I want to get him a sax player and a drummer I want to put them in the studio I just want to play the video yeah and I just want them to improv hey yeah start to finish beautiful black and white it chop it up and then present something that I feel like is an art piece yeah that you know can hopefully if anything uh help Elevate the brain even more so people

can view You as like I view you which is just larg than life sort of manifestation that was possible wow well thank you thank you that's that's beautiful I mean it sounds like something yeah I have to see it but it sounds like something I would be very interested in seeing and and more of an station as you're saying it all right so you're going to you're going to be filming throughout the event different spots and um just get my good side okay I am all right I am straight From the middle looking forward cuz

yeah that's my good side all this yeah I don't want to give it away but like I have a a hard cut transition hi I hope you're enjoying this episode join me at your first million live go to your first million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live l i v at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you have to be There join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul is

check it out uh Josh cman is coming by to meet with me for a few minutes just wanted to let you know he was on his way is it it is great hey hey how are you doing tell you coming by it's great to see you have the book tour yeah the book tour I'm a friend of arls Josh kopman I'm a partner at first round Capital We're a seed stage uh Tech investor he's very very humble he's one of the most I would say successful Venture capitalists in the world in history of VC and

that's not that's not hyperbole [Music] I believe in this body and this life we only have one time and it's going to pass you by if you're spending years more years if you've already spent it look in the rear view buy but if you Spend more years and more years and more years wondering if if you're allowed to be in a certain room or take up certain space it's going to pass you by and it's going to be too late but everybody in this room has plenty of room this way in front of them to

change that so impostor syndrome is is is a phrase it's just two words to me so my family and I got to meet Queen Latifa last night okay and I have met her once on a plane five years ago and that's why some Of you may have seen a picture of her holding my Fast Company cover which I then turned into a t-shirt for myself so she was accidentally like caught on Paparazzi heard this holding cuz I had handed it to her um but I didn't know if she remembered me anyway through a series of

events we got to meet her last night and talk to her and it just occurred to me and us just how many different facets of our lives and in people's lives she has touched over The decades and sometimes she'll get her flowers you there's a lot of respect for her but there should be documentaries and all sorts of things there should be complete specials about her you and I yeah you and I don't get us started we've been do there for 24 hours we've been singing You and I it took everything in our power to

not do that to her face yes yeah that's a that's a good point Queen Latifa um but you know what Else you and I to um but we she she's inspiring for many reasons a lot of it is because um I was saying to my family I don't know well except for everybody in the room I don't know anybody who has as much Charisma as she has she has an incredible amount of Charisma and she's very down to earth and very kind and really whip smart really fast the way she thinks about jokes and responses

and so I just love That she is an institution of her own can I hear the pitch sure would you like to share come on up you don't have to if you don't want to but I would love to hear it okay okay so you know how most people they they're sleepy and they sick and they need mental Heth yes so oh I was thinking that maybe you know how people like their helpers they'll They'll come but what if they're sick who could come and help them so you know those commercials that if if they're

hurt and if they're falling and it's kind of like that but a little different you just have more security like if you fall off your bed and you're asleep like how would they know and if and then when they wake up like they automatically got in their bed how would they know that Something's not wrong so I think we should have people or robots a type of robot that can help them um and if they fall it can put a pillow under every SP amazing they don't get hurt what is your name and and what

kind I don't want to know your last name cuz you're a child okay and then what school you go to school yeah and what what's your favorite what's your favorite topic or subject well we like I don't Have a favorite subject but I do have something that I really do like at school which is it's um it's a it's this after thing like you get to skip your reset yes and you can and you can learn about other things and we help cradles to cray crayons to cradles to crayons or something like that so it's

like a volunteer type of thing and you help that and you like that and what subject would you say you're the best At [Music] probably art really what kind of artist are you um like I I paint I do most things that an artist would do but I would prob but I would probably like sketching sketching and is your parent here or did you did you drive here cuz I mean she would have y know that drive I don't have a license I was just saying that you're so smart that you probably know how to

Drive already so I love your idea can I tell you a secret I fa today I did fall I hurt my foot and so I it's very you know a top of mind yeah yeah so um did you was there already like a voting thing that happened some you got some oh yeah look at you got oh wow she she got a knot wow well that's amazing I think that you are incredibly smart very bright and very you have super high Potential and I I definitely do you have a you do you know what you

want to do when you grow up not really but I kind of think I wanted to be something helpful yes can I tell you something you already are you already are probably because of all my ideas yes yes uh uh mom uh protect her at all costs okay um you are so special you are so special and wonderful and just can you be my life Coach okay okay I'll call you just get my mom's number okay you call and then but not work that what's your age how what's your well I'm nine I'm going to

turn 10 10 wow nine going to turn 10 okay um you're hired what You' have my job but I love it thank you so much for your It's a Wonderful pitch yeah yeah you thank you for your pitch it was wonderful and I'll think about that uh for the next time we invest thank you so much [Music] [Music] Hi how are you doing of course fews oh really that's awesome I love that I love that Al nice to meet you l n can i a l l and yes you can on your journey who did

You listen to what books did you read it was a lot of white men because that's what was available but there's also Oprah so she has Oprah has a book called what I know for sure okay what I know for sure and I listen to it every year the last several years because every year it changes for me where I am in my life it affects me in a different way also Shonda ryes uh year of yes was very helpful I have that in my audible yes so those those there's a lot of white man

It depends on what you want to do so I was looking at Venture stuff and so there's a book by Brat you're a founder or investor both okay so Brad Feld uh Venture deals Venture deals that's like a 101 but it's not 101 it's kind of complex but it it's like a good reference book Venture deals yeah and it'll teach you about both Venture deals got it okay thank you to see you of course thank you signed to um Misty Millions Misty Millions yeah is that what you said so how do you spell m y

is that your your name Misty million yeah no you just crowned me oh I love it I love it I like that V yes I feel like there's not a lot of us in here yeah if you don't have your own idea like business in my mind I thought it would be a good place to kind of look into being a vetro capist being an investor is that the right way to be thinking about it is it is a right way To think about it I would say though what has helped me as a VC

is having worked as a founder or with another company so you don't have to have your own idea but you can be the third person hired think about the people who were the third people hired at Uber Facebook I'm telling those are so important hire such important hires then you go work there a year or two get some Equity learn a ton get a network and you were setting yourself up And you can do this I did this interview with Valerie Workman who is a black woman who was was at several places including Tesla took

Tesla from 50,000 people to 100,000 people and she said in our interview people thought I was flighty because I would leave a job every two years but instead I was stacking talent and skills and now she can just go anywhere she wants to go right so that's what I would do so I yes you can get into Venture and I wouldn't Hold that you know stop you from doing that but I think what might be more stimulating for you is to work at a company to see what it's about like a a an early company

not one that's just started cuz they won't have their money right but one that maybe has some funding or they figured it on their own they're going into let's call it series a or something like that they've raised a couple million dollars or they have generated that where you can have a Really profound effect on what they do on their trajectory okay okay love it thank [Music] you hi I hope you're enjoying this episode join me at your first million live go to your first million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to

give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live Li ve at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building You have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Isa check it out almost opponent cuz knife is so hard but I need to I need to be here so here and I'm actually going to redo my thesis um and get some things together yes yes this is the moment remember I said earlier we got to we got to wake up we've

been sleeping a little bit Yeah it's you're awake now it's [Music] Good I think it sold out I know it sold out as sold out a few days ago and uh people have been writing to me to get added to it so we'll see I don't even know what type of venue it is it's a bookstore but I don't know what it looks like excited to see there are a lot of blackowned bookstores that died out during covid because they just could I mean it was already kind of a a lower profit margin kind of

model and then when you don't have people coming into The store what do you do so the fact that we are see standing in this black own book stop and the ones in New York and Philly it's even more special because it's not a given that it would still be thriving I think that's what makes it special hi you so happy to see good to see you thanks for having me here I saw Carol I didn't know you were still here what are you doing I'm so happy to see you in person yeah yes you

got the You've got the very the very look thank you you we I don't know you but I feel like I know you from the interweb because of irand you do you do Le her have we met no but you know her I feel like I know you can you sign all my books for me I sign are you I'm Ashley nice to meet you I have some questions I'm going to ask but I want to make sure that we have plenty of time for the folks I see Founders in the Room I see business

women in the room and so I want to make sure they have an opportunity so I'm going to kind of set the stage if it feels feels like we don't have people I got more questions but okay great when I first I was like AR needs to be in T like my my community needs well here I am thank you like it really means a laugh are you going to you're not interviewing but you're going to intro I'm going to intro I'm going to Say who I am how I know you yeah why I want

your Fe to be here yes and like show your bio and Ashley's and then let you all just we can use that hello Hi how are you good how are you to see you Christopher nice to meet you AR Hice to me both of us building Tulsa team great that's awesome so a lot of your people are here that's great we're all in I love it I love it well thank you for having me here yeah of Course we're very excited a lot of the founders are very excited a lot of them have read your

books so really oh that's amazing thank you yeah this is beautiful it's a beautiful place yeah is this like stop what stop is this third okay awesome yeah we did New York and Philly this week and uh we did Philly last last night oh wow so you you're on the Run yeah we we got up at 5: this morning and actually Four this time cuz it's five in Philly yes right haven't stopped wow Well who don't see you thank you but it's it's so worth it yeah so worth I'm just a little I got to

get my energy back up yes got it got it shoot you need some coffee we're good I'll be okay in a minute okay there's nothing like having something that's brick and mortar something that you can walk into and see touch and feel something very special about that I know anytime I'm driving by Something in in my city and most other people's City if I see a for for lease or for sale on a retail location I don't know maybe the last 25 years I have wanted to just pull over and and and and see what

that's about I've wanted I wanted something physical for so long I didn't know exactly what though that's the thing I wasn't just going to buy it for or buy it or lease it for the sake of it but being on this tour has me thinking Bookstore cuz I love that you can always have it like books in books out change it up a little bit and I just I have my I have like so many books at home in my office so many books and I just love them so we'll see you never know hi

I hope you're enjoying this episode join me at your first million live go to yourfirst million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type In the word live l i v e at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Isa check it out it was a white shuttle and I looked over at the freeway and I didn't even know what the world meant what

does that mean at 5 but I said I said everybody is going to know me like know me right and I I still I don't I know I think that meant my message Hopefully what that was what that meant um I the reason that I believe so much in myself is that I believe in I believe so much in you all like I think we're all created equal I think that that's why I don't like when people shrink themselves I think you're no better than anybody but you're certainly no lower or worse than anybody else

so I believe that if you look at it like somebody left an inheritance right and everybody's going To listen for the like for the wheel usually you see like Rich families do that all of us have had that with this country we were left behind by our ancestors we were left behind peace of this country it belongs to us we have an equal right to it and so many of us are not going stepping up to claim it so I'm going just here waving my hands like y'all like you going to come get you one

you know you missing this and what Happens is another thing that happens people get a little bit we get a little bit cuz we haven't had much and I'm not saying all of us like that I know some in here doctors and lawyers and everything else but sometimes we get something and we go in a corner and we hold on tight to it cuz we don't want to drop it it's not that we don't want anybody else to have it but we just don't to drop ours but what's happening is if we were just to

look over our Shoulder we would see all the abundance over here and we're over in this corner saying oh we made it there's so much more for half of you this will be a nice evening and you'll go back to your life and for the other half of you he'll say wait a second I think I've been asleep a little bit um if you had to start over tomorrow get back to yeah I I don't tend to have regrets so no regrets anybody know what about I I don't tend to have regrets um so I

I honestly don't think I would change what I did if if this is a magical land where I can change anything I would change what other people did along the way and how things happen but I think I think I did the best I could um I there is a there is something like very tangible that I probably would do is I would have stopped drinking sooner so I I'm sober for six years and yeah thank you six and a Half and um and I drank since I was 21 for 15 years and so if

I had I think that would have helped a little bit Hi how are you that's I um I'm Brandon hey Brandon I've heard you a couple of times uh and also love purple sleeping I I figured we would definitely have some oh thank you I'm taking a selfie without my husband because I plan to be on your podcast someday okay and I'm going to use this selfie when that time What's your name so we remember I'm Cindy M favorite people in culture okay okay Cynthia you're Cynthia you're going to be on the podcast Cindy you'll

be on the podcast I'm going to be on the you're going to be your first million live walking across the stage having made their first million yes yes that's what be mean got it love it okay so my question was of all the Pioneers in Black Wall Street which one's story resonates with you the most you know I Don't know enough to answer that question that's why I had that question because you have Ed P MC energy or o girly energy and I would love to give you a tour of black wow course thank you

for coming here I'm so honored H and thank you for answering my question of course CL wise you get more than I even have yes that's my name okay thank you so much have that for oh we will okay we will we're going to do the tour first and then we we'll make it Happen but appreciate it hi how you doing you answer you answer one question too uh you can try Okay so the question I was going to ask is that I know you were talking about just kind of the attack on diversity and

I have a brand that focuses on female entrepreneurs and sometimes I kind of think about just focusing on women because I know there's kind of attack on diversity in women and do you think That's necessary or do you kind of what do you see what's going to happen with that should I be considering that or I think you consider both you consider both one is you know that there are going to be women who need what you have and so if it's like a business decision it all has to be a business decision so if

it's like I think I'll I'll have I'll generate more have more customers because women will know where to find me and I'll be able to help them and then Repeat that over and over again then I'll do that or you could say as a woman I'm just going to be successful and that'll show them so you have to make the decision based on don't base it on what you think it should be like what people want you to do based on which one gives you the the the most unfair Advantage which one gets you in

the most leverage and that's your decision okay that's it that makes sense yeah thank you so I was we my friend we were Already coming to your event in April really she messaged me and told me you were coming I was like oh we have to come oh that's amazing tell me your name Crystal I can't wait to see you there that's going to be so exciting in thank you thank you so much for coming out to this I'll see you in April I can't wait I can't wait to see you hi hi how you

doing good to see you good to see you tell me where we met at jine Backstage in Detroit oh really well oh my goodness Janine in the building Janine Detroit I remember that night I remember that night yeah my yeah oh yes I love it I love that and the bow tie yeah thank you so much remind me of your name again p PE PE yeah thank you are we doing a picture oh yeah great what is what is divs like is that like coding yeah oh okay okay and we have a oh you don't

have a book yeah I don't have aook how you doing pretty good I'm Actually part of your book team oh amazing thank you for com tell me your name again uh Cameron Curry Cameron thank you for coming out I appreciate are we doing a picture yeah okay [Music] great it's great to meet you in person yeah for sure than for out appreciate it I need to to you cuz I'm I got a podcast as well oh wow WR to team at Arland was here team at Arland was here that email that we use Yeah yeah

thank you hi Hi how are you doing T how's it going good I want you to remember me I don't have a business but I comment on your stuff for years okay on Instagram I'm always in your comment I love that I appreciate that my name is Aba actually I'm a friend of Vanessa and I was on your um your your group book launch Team or um had a discount kind of thing bump sale till November and for 100 for like which Was till November and I was on there and was just really cool to

like this and I'm not going to cry but oh it's thank you so much thank you I really appreciate it I really appreciate it I really appreciate it you smell good girl smell like yeah like fall I will say the time where I do want to start a fun yeah I almost gave up on it you gave up say it again I almost up on it CU is so hard but I need to Super harded to be Here to hear this and I'm actually going to redo my thesis and and get some things together yes

yes this is the moment remember I said earlier we got to we got to wake up we've been sleeping a little bit Yeah it's you're awake now it's good you probably weren't supposed to do it before because you didn't have the right calibration now you're going to be more focused more aimed at where you're supposed to be hi I hope you're enjoying This episode join me at your first million live go to yourfirst million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word

live l i v e at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Isa re check it out black woman asked me how do you how are you so successful in Navigating white spaces and I said I don't I don't navigate White spaces they're not white spaces to me they're my space they're they're our space [Music] [Applause] I actually got my makeup done at 8:00 a.m. today 8:00 a.m. today because something impromptu happened where I

needed to be in the room for something for one of the companies that I've co-founded that I Have not announced yet and we found out my co-founder let me know that there's going to be somebody speaking at 9:00 a.m. that I needed to be we've all felt I needed to be in the room and I posted today this Mark hban Elon Musk video I posted about 3 hours ago because um Elon Musk called Mark Cuban a racist which is really stupid but he metant racist against like white people which is even dumber and um it

posted three three hours ago it has 37,000 views on Instagram and it's across all of my platforms it has Cub why he invested $6 million into my fund when he does not like to invest in other people's funds 2500 likes on Instagram which only really means that you know you you put things out there and then you use the data that you see in your numbers like Instagram YouTube all of these Tik Tok they all give you the data they tell you how many people watched it how many people liked it how many people watched

Rewatched it which is a good metric too and you take that and just as one more data point to say okay this audience and audience is like it react and want this type of information or want this type of content and what I learned from a Twitter poll that I did recently is that I asked people of the four following what do they get from me or learn from me the most and they said I I had the options of um how to invest how to get investment how To generate revenue or why diversity is

important and I talk about all four of those things all the time but it was interesting to see the number one was why diversity is important the number two was how to generate Revenue the investment side of what I do was the back burner and I love that I'm so happy that I saw that because although I've invested more than 200 companies I don't consider myself an investor first I consider myself an entrepreneur first And I consider myself a key maker first so if I'm if I'm already helping people generate Revenue which I hear about

every single day people tell me that I do then my plan and my goal to help create a thousand new millionaires over the next decade you really have to understand that it's coming from how to empower people to generate their own Revenue it's not going to come from how do I teach a thousand people how to raise Capital from outside investors so you can always have a little bit of both going of course and there's a Nuance to it and there's depth to it and that's what I talk about in my other uh YouTube videos

and things of that nature and my books really in my courses but um it was really great information and then you have that survey that says that I teach the most thing I teach is the importance of diversity and then you have a video that Gets more than 30,000 views in 3 hours on Instagram alone that talks about diversity and talks about it from a perspective that nobody else has nobody else has invested in 200 companies has been invested in by Mark Cuban has started this company while homeless Etc so you take those two things

and it's really interesting that it's just proven out that way now to give you reference normally I'll get anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 views on a video on a given Instagram video sometimes it's been as much as 100,000 but it kind of varies so I take that information that I just learned minutes ago while in my hotel room and I think through and strategize okay how do I take that and remain authentic I don't want to just do clickbait or things that are just trendy I have no interest in that but how do I take

the things that I know about and care about and react to them and comment on them because it's obvious that people Some people not all but some people want to hear my opinion so how do I take that choose the right topics grow the platform so that more and more people can hear the message if they hear the short message many of them will convert to listen to the longer message and the longer message is where you learn how to generate revenue and you learn how to become a millionaire and you're one of my 1,000

new millionaires hi I hope you're enjoying This episode join me at your first million live go to your first million. live and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on on your ticket type in the word live l i v at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be in the building you have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Isa Ray check it out a cab driver dropped the bag I asked the cab driver if he Would wait on us

for 20 minutes while we run in here because I don't want to have to wait to find an Uber or find another cab out here cuz a little isolated and he told me he's like oh it's too expensive for you it's too expensive for you and I said how much and he said I said for 20 minutes how how long would it cost just to wait he said $30 and I was like okay cuz to me it's worth $30 to do what I got to do cuz time is money and he's like oh it's too

expensive for You so so he wouldn't do it CU it was too expensive for me he he dropped the bag he lost the bag because he was trying to get into my bank account y'all don't don't count yourselves out like that don't count your don't sabotage yourself let me be the one to say I can't that's too expensive right you never know what your customer has you never know never know what resources your customer has and if they can't pay Don't force them to pay Don't try to bamboozle them but don't be the person that

lowballs you right and especially if somebody offers you money if someone offers you money to be just a little bit better please say [Music] yes work for like Air Force Ron and then I went overseas as a radar syst engineer so yeah I live in Japan taian and South Korea yeah that's incredible 25 to 29 that's incredible that's that's the face of tech right There been loving all your stuff for so many years my name is dmle and I love your and all the different things you've done thank you so much I wanted to yeah

just say hello actually can we do pict yeah of course yes I'm speaking at three address it's rise up crowdfunding rise up crowdfunding and your name one more time Ruth Hedges Ruth Hedges we will check it out we'll make sure our audience checks it out thank you so much yeah thank you ni to meet you nice to Meet you and have a good um thank you yeah let me see what time it is yeah oh yeah I should go over there and say something to him I wanted to get a copy of your book I

didn't get it and I wanted um oh no you don't have to give really oh my God yeah yeah catch me afterwards I'll sign it when they are not the jet pop oh yeah well someone asked me a black woman asked me how do you how are you so successful in navigating white spaces And I said I don't I don't navigate White spaces they're not white spaces to me they're my space they're they're our space right so I would say if you're if you're the minority or you know not the dominant population as you say

you have just as much right to be here as anybody else you have just as much inheritance of this country of this world as anyone else else you're equal you're not better you're not worse but you're certainly not worse second thing is uh I'm on a Mission to eradicate impostor syndrome in women and I'm also on a mission to instill entitlement in black women we don't we have it's been so long we don't have entitlement I want us I want black women specifically to have the entitlement of most of the white men I've been interacted

with here at CES uh who will step over me who will push against me who will walk up to me literally and say uh in my experience you know things I don't know what yes You know where things are where is dot dot dot um if looks could kill uh they might have just and to tie it all together the reason I want to do all of this is because we don't have time for impostor syndrome we don't have time for any of that that the world is going to set up roadblocks for us and

for us to be the ones who say we can't do something I don't care if you're a man a woman other for us to be the ones who say that we Can't do something we're not supposed to be in the room we're not allowed to be here we're this is self-sabotage I'll say this and I some people may walk out Donald Trump was the president of the United States and may be once again you can be the VP of programming or any VP anywhere on any Planet because that is true what was the name of

the event that you said you're doing your first million live okay go to your first Milli million live so it's this your first million Live but your first million. live okay all right so we have everybody there okay thank you hi I'm very good um I work with Alandra from amaz founder stable and she told me so much about you she loves you appreciates you yeah we love that yeah I love Amazon the I we did two filming so thank you so much thank you so much for being here thank you I just hear you

I'm like oh my God you're so like powerful speaking thank you so much What's your name Crystal nice to meet you can I take a picture yeah we just have to go this way cuz the is this way good to see you this is like so farun 10 minutes late oh it's all good okay I'm going to take a picture here ready yeah let's do it oh she she wants to picture yeah love everything you're doing I just got your book an audible awes thank you although although like so now I can actually listen right

away yeah and then your Your next event is the April one yes I'm on tour but the next big event is April 9th through the 12th your first million Live Well I appreciate everything you're doing and it's very inspiring thank you so much we need more people like you in the space thank you um I'm Amanda Henry um I'm based out of Los Angeles um I am the VP of grand Partnerships at theab body um a company that my husband founded um he is the inventor of the the gun the gun yes Anybody who's been

on Instagram knows what the Theon is y'all know what the theun is that thing that goes yeah that thing that's like does the muscles yes her husband founded it and they have other products too and she she what what is your title there um BP brand Partners VP of brand Partnerships there and that's her family's company it's it's been an incredible journey it's incredible company obviously we've grown so much in the past years um he created The first one in 2008 yeah um he's a chiropractor by trade and got into a motorcycle accident was looking

for something in the market to treat his injury and the only options at the time were surgery or opiates and that was not you know he knew there was another solution out there but there wasn't so he made one yeah um to treat a soft tissue pain and really had no intention selling it or doing anything with it rehabed himself put it away thought Somebody for sure has made this um or something like this um no one did he had a patient come into his practice with a similar injury and that was the first time

he thought about doing it on somebody else using it on somebody else he used it on him it worked and at that point he's like I got to figure this out like what is this yeah um fast forward years later in 2016 um he met his business partner they officially started the company um which Was awesome I had my own company at the time I had a company fostering female run and Le business so so we were on the same track yeah yeah and I had to make a decision do I leave my company and

invest in this one and really have a chance to kind of create a white space um and I took the gamble I joined the team and you know I had a really tall task of really helping consumers understand why they needed to buy a $600 th again versus a $10 foam Roller yeah you think about is any of the revenue uh public any of the numbers they're public they're public we just did series a um last year okay um and we raised a really awesome round this is exciting that's very cool I love that I

just love that story thank you that's awesome and I love what you're doing I mean you're honestly an inspiration for a generation so your work is awesome I appreciate that it's good to meet you in person love all the success your story Is incredible so very inspirational it's okay we take a picture together of course thanks very much Maria me some that dancing ask a b Mr Jones yes help me believe in anything don't get too much of it cuz I don't like it it's like ey Robot it's going to attack me look at that

it's like eyeing [Music] me very danger it's very dangerous right no it's cool I don't want to uh spread fear unnecessarily although I do think at any moment it's going to attack me my name is Jenna Smith I am a VC Analyst at Advantage we invest at early stages between sports and technology and so when I was in the Masters of sports management program at Columbia uh Essentially our professor Granton introduced uh Arlin Hamilton's story learning a little bit more about kind of her trajectory in the industry um which inspired me to get into BC

so it's truly an opportunity to be able to meet her and connect with her today that's so cool I love that thank you all anyone who who is a professor using the Harvard Business case study at your school that's this is the result of it she's now inventure that's amazing years two Years in I love that thank you so much thank you so I'm headed to Gary vaynerchuk's vayer X dinner here at CES and I'm looking forward to it it should be a lot of marketing people I'm assuming I hope you see Gary I don't

know if he's here or not but I'm sure he is he did a lot of his content from CES when he first started his Vlog so I think that's kind of cool and uh Gary's going to be at my event your first million live dropping gyms like Always join me at your first million live go to yourm million. and because you're watching this video I'm going to give you a deep discount on your ticket type in the word live l i v e at the checkout for any tier and I'll see you there you'll be

in the building you have to be there join me TLC Janelle James Sheila Johnson Rich Paul Issa check it out thank you hello are you Claire I am Claire was Talking what Claire from high school [Music] do a lot of these with your wife oh yeah yeah I bet oh I bet yeah I bet yeah that's fun yeah my wife can't be here she's going to be here tomorrow though for La she she rarely uh is able to cuz she doesn't travel unless she's going back to Germany uh so she uh she'll she'll be in

the building tomorrow we get started Yeah anything that we should not talk about at all nothing's off limits okay cool and than the obvious anything that we need to make sure we talk about besides the book yeah the book is Big it's like the entire sort of brand of your first million so the podcast the YouTube uh uh show shows that we're doing content we're doing and then my big event in April it's all tied together so I think that's kind of cool cool I mean it's usually one question That I always love to ask

especially when we have incredible you know lgbtq a plus just little questions that are nuanced about our lives yeah let's do it I'm down for it I always like that and I I rarely get it so I love it perfect I rarely get it in this in the business setting so please please do that okay sounds good um I'll come out to my mother today I'm ready I'm kidding that's great did you Did you not know if I was well I was going to say as like is you know cuz we're always evolving that's true

no I'm kidding I might missed that we had the conversation I'm 43 we had the conversation at 16 and she she's here now oh okay great well I didn't tell you the conversation what it was it's there's still story to it there's still Lov story to it yeah okay awesome well I think we're going to have a lot of fun And thank you so much for the book I feel like a million dollars as my wife do I look like a million doll she said you look out of this world yeah that's great that's great

no no yeah no it's great it was great I'm hold on to it for peeps yeah thank you that means a lot to me thank you do you want to make your first million my brand new Master Class your first million is a first of its kind This is a simple guide with stepbystep instructions designed to get you results starting day one each module is a different category starting at Zero from scratch to $1,000 then 1,000 to 10,000 10,000 to 100,000 and so on so no matter where you're starting you can learn to make your

first million it's only $30 per month and you can cancel your subscription at any time to join go to your first million Dopro room and I covered this screen with my hand with my arms and we have a very even back then like sort of an adult kind of banter and she said why are you covering your screen and I said oh I don't want you to see that I'm pregnant you know just silly stuff and she said what I know about you you're not getting pregnant anytime soon and I said and I just froze

because and then she started looking around my room was drama you know dramatically Looking around at the walls and looking around and I said what are you looking for and she said your the generous poster and at this point I not one thought in my mind up until this point thought that she knew or had any in inclination cuz I barely knew right and at the same time um you know we were my mom at the time was religious and it was considered a sin to be gay so I it was kind of confounding but

it was also like is I I thought you know in my 16-year-old brain I thought oh I'm going to be kicked out later today I got to get ready to be kicked out of my home and so I was like panicking um and then later that day she came back from work we talked about it and she said I said are you mad at me or you what she said I was just trying to get you to to say it you know I've known I'm just trying to get you to say it and from that

moment on it's been it's been you know nothing but support and I think at 22 or 23 she Calls me I'm living in California at the time and I had started selling I'd go gay for Angelina shirts and you could put your own name at the end of it like you could say I'd go gay for a customized and again this is like early e-commerce and she calls me and I tell her I'm doing that CU I want to warn her so that it doesn't come she doesn't see it somewhere else cuz she's still like

you know you want to be respectful so I Told her and she goes what does that mean I'd go gay for and I explained a little bit what that meant you're straight but you there's someone that you think is you know cute and you go g her she goes ah she paused and I thought oh here we go now she's going to realize that I'm gay again and it's going to really hit her she goes make one for me that says I'd go gay for Oprah so I was like you're cool you're cool to see

I even though I'm in a whole different industry I'm in Hospitality I don't know if you remember but you really helped me and encouraged me as being an underestimated person my industry to request and charge what I want to charge what I deserve as a speaker which in turn made me able to charge more for my weddings and I've also sponsored another wedding planner of color to go to a um conference so even though it's not like a million dollars but still you inspired Me so much yes tell me your name again shond Shonda that

is so cool thank you for telling me that thank you for telling me that you're thank you amazing thank you for being here oh well no thanks for sharing your your knowledge I first time saw you at the startup grind like like 2018 I think it was and I was like so inspired you're so inspired I appreciate everything you do for everyone in the in the under representing communities and what not Thank you I appreciate that tell me your name again Brad Brad thanks for for coming out so nice meeting you it's such an inspiration

to me thank you so much what's your name k what's that k k cool I like that yeah hey hey not just uh love your story but also I think a lot of people talk about impact I think you made so much demonstrable impact such a big impact so thank you I hope that I can make as much impact in our community as you have thank you so much for saying That I appreciate it I have one uh question for you okay just quick uh I'm in a community of uh 40 black men called a

black executive men yes and you're our book club um book this wow and I was wondering what would it take to have you spend like 20 minutes or 30 minutes on the call with is it Zoom uh it could be Zoom it could be just a conference B yeah uh Melanie right here with this coat here okay she's my coo she can get you booked okay she can get it booked Great tell her I want that to happen great thank you so much thank you thank you too hey how you I don't actually have a

book Des sign cuz I'm doing it on a brought you your T-shirt oh yes super excited and a couple extra yes black fullness hey wonderful oh got all kind of thank you wonderful yes for bringing All the magic super excited excellent and we're so grateful I just started on Audible so let's go go AUD too let go let's go we already in the house for April love it April April April April your first million live I love it good to see you thank you in Mary Grace's book club in December oh yeah cool so you

encouraged us to join irand sat I'm in there oh amazing I love all of this that's great hope will be there I would love that what's y'all's names my name's Noelia my husbanded nice to meet you we're U digital strategist content um producers so we're leading a workshop um on Saturday for our brother-in-law so we B him a book oh great and now if you do the uh Live code it's a big discount and then also I have payment plans and then also you know it's a great train trip great road trip there I hope

yeah that's what you like TLC you're there but TLC's yeah watch these videos I'm doing on YouTube uh we kind of switch things Up a little bit I'm talking to entrepreneurs instead of just talking to millionaires I'm talking to entrepreneurs giving them advice and the ones we started putting out on your your first million in January they're for you all you are such light oh thank you thank you I didn't know what I was exactly coming here for yeah and I was like wow really wow so keep it going okay thanks so much I appreciate

you what's your name Kristen Kristen it's Great to meet you well I appreciate thank you I will to it's so great to see in N Sheen and Ricky my speaking agents we've known each other for a long time Ricky might say it's too long no way not long enough who would have thought from the first interaction that still be doing what we doing I'm just serious we just started gravity you had you started 2018 we I didn't know you started then I didn't know you just started started I Know if you remember first interaction I

remember our first interaction I remember our first interaction you survive you survived that you survived that oh oh yeah I got off the phone I was like I went off I went off on him I was like I got off the phone too I was like who is yeah who does she think she is I Ru the day no but it was just like you know what it it worked out and I got more information you got more information and we made it Work and now we're one big happy family it's really it's really we

really thank you for all of the doors that you've open oh thank you you realize that we open we started in 2018 so really building they will come and like how you felt it was a calling this was a calling so I'm here because I love Arin and her work but um I actually new Arland when I was in Middle School we were on yearbook staff together and we lived at the same apartment complex when we were I guess Young adults maybe just kids like 12 and um a memory that I have is always seeing

her and Rook leaving their apartment and he would always stop her before they walked out into the parking lot and I just remember seeing that as a really caring motion and I love seeing that is here today it's really beautiful hello are you Claire I am Claire what Claire from high school Claire Junior High your book staff you're taller than I remember I am I Actually holy totally hit puberty late oh my gosh I'm tripping out I'm losing my mind right now I'm tripping out let me let me let me talk to other people in

can you stay for a little bit definely yeah yeah yeah yeah stay for a little bit hang yeah oh great that's amazing I mean I can I can so you're good you good for few minutes later do them first perfect interview I'm glad I got to see it yeah you're doing an amazing job thank you And yeah it's really exciting cool are you I can't remember if you said you're going to be here in April you're going to go to the event is that the one in La yeah I I send you a guest pass

if you able to go um I would love to go yeah let me send you a guest pass will you text me and just uh remind me and I'll send it to you absolutely and then I'll let you to have your meeting yeah yeah yeah good hello I I see why you wear tennis Shoes now you're standing all day yeah oh yeah how's it going I have a new master class called your first million where I take you step by step through zero to a th000 1,000 to 10,000 10,000 to 100,000 and so on step

by step every step of the way to get you there the very first module starts with how to make $11,000 in 7 days or less so that you can make your investment in yourself back almost immediately it only costs $30 a month and you can cancel Your subscription at any time check it out at your first million. proo basically uh after my dad died um I I came across this book and it was been difficult for me to have to handle plan sorry no you're fine you're fine you're fine what happened was through this book

I realized that I can build a business to teach people of color how to handle their estate PL how to do that and I haven't given up but you really pul me out of a tough Time and you made me believe in myself so thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you and so we're good on all across them all we're not at a red point of any of them being like sold out because what you want to do obviously premium you want it to be a certain thing and

then but they say it on the site the first two to five rows of the orchestra because there's the pit and then there's the orchestra and then the other ones Say five to 20 and then there's more for general admission plus and then general admission itself would be mezzanine and LGE if we end up opening that Beyond 4300 seats how you doing I'm doing well I'm doing well those are cute thank you um yeah I'm doing good doing good I have some I have an office next door here perfect I started a a foundation yeah

I've done some things that just outside of um what you typically know me for yeah are you are you AC feel you know I Don't know I don't know you know it's it's acting has always been an extension of who I am right and so an expression so there's there's lots of ways to express yeah and I feel I I've expressed myself quite a bit in that area and I'm just looking for some other ways to allow the things within to come I wrot a book as well oh what's it called The Game of Life

and how to play it new things great [Music] Awesome thank you oh we all need to be able to fish cuz we all need to be able to at the drop of a dime I need 10,000 whether it's to pay the bills something came up or it's simply to go on a fabulous vacation I need to be able to generate that legally ethically and and quickly because I want to and I'll tell you why because I've been in these rooms with a with wealthy people people the abundance of wealthy people on a drop of a

dime they will Spend what some of us making a year on the most frivolous things and they're living their best life and they're moving on and we are still should should I do this or am I is it okay we're still battling impostor syndrome some of us and play we're playing on a different game board than they're playing on and they know it and they're like good more for us over here so we're doing all these things that are against self- sabotage and limiting Beliefs and all of that we're not even on the right game

board so we all in this room every single one of us in this room in two years if you're not already could be a millionaire or well on your way could be and if you're someone who's like I don't want a million I don't need a million do do it just because you can and then give it away and then give it away you give it away you it's your money you can spend It on whatever you want right but do it just because you can because there are a group of people who are doing

it just because they can right and we need the power control all the things collectively that we can do with that do you want to make your first million my brand new Master Class your first million is a first of its kind this is a simple guide with stepbystep instructions designed to get you results starting day one each module is a Different category starting at Zero from scratch to $11,000 then 1,000 to 10,000 10,000 to 100,000 and so on so no matter where you're starting you can learn to make your first million it's only $30

per month and you can cancel your subscription at any time to join go to your first million [Music] dopro thank you do you have a podcast no no can we do a podcast together I know It's a lot to ask and I'll give you a moment to think about it but I okay I'd love to do a podcast with you that' be great I love it what are you thinking you look like you have I don't even know exact but I think you know there's something in having two different points of view on something and

there's a lot you know there a lot of people I can do this with but I just feel like we would have maybe even different audiences and then just an Interesting kind of in okay cool okay we'll talk about it thank you this was great okay good to see you how you doing YouTube nice to see you nice to see you I talk about manifesting this the beginning of the end of last year beginning of this year I said I am going to make my first million this year then the birdh house did this bir

did this so I bought your ticket immediately see you and I started Your book today my book was delivered to my house today wow and I said I'm coming oh I love that you wouldn't mind putting to Samantha I I'll see you when you make your first million okay can't imagine anyone else he what's your name justice justice love that you know Jan is my favorite she played Justice and Poetic Justice you know that's how I got my name is it yes wait when did it come out so no no I'm not that young but

um in high school My friend was like oh you remind me of Janet Jackson and Poetic Justice and probably just like oh are you a poet no I'm not but I was I was in a African-American history class and I was really oh was very I love that yeah that's Janet the first the the introduction talks about Janet that's the first thing I talk about very cool yeah thanks thank you I'm looking forward to signing up for the live oh I love that yeah I can't Wait to it's going to be amazing so I can't

wait to see you there yeah your first million do live revitalized recharged ready to go love I love that thank you that's amazing tell me your name cand Canda thank like I cance I can dance I love it okay what perfume is this that I yeah all that and more all that and more yes I have it is all that and more I have a women's clothing think I'll give you my C okay is this your perfume or someone This is your perfume that you created yeah no no someone made it for me and then

but I'm saying it's your scent it's your brand yes this smells amazing all that and more okay I'm going to get the perfume I collect perfume how are you it's good to see you you too I'm oh I love this I love this that's actually really cool that is so pretty thank you so much I'm the one who was like I'm going to get to La some Kind of way had myself on you think you shared it on Instagram I was so excited to get here had hard year I remember so so tell me about

it a little bit so I created just I'm just tired tired nothing left all these yes in the book this is for you too where are you like where do you live oh we were just in Vegas so you're in Vegas you're working on you have this beautiful book let's definitely get this In there just a gorgeous book okay so I'm just at Rock Bottom why is it Rock Bottom I'm just I need a break from this to kind of find myself here you kind of get lost educating white folks on racism yeah so we

going to get you out of that like got different cuz you found right so someone else can go with it so I just need you know I'd love you talk to is Danielle we have D is Danielle I saw her I don't know if she Left I want to I want you to talk to Danielle I think she might be someone interesting just to have a conversation with yeah thank you so I saw this one coming out so I got it about damn time and then when I read that part about privileg I was like

oh my God I have to how we all have oh yeah so you've been you've been in this book oh yeah yeah I TR to read one book a week but I'm well I'll take this one thank you I did sign it so thank you so much a Picture of course I think you just you might be experiencing burnout yeah and so I think it's so it's so on the surface right it's it's just there and this is called Heal Your Way Forward that's my podcast I'm try that back yeah so I think you need

like a sabatical I would love to take a sabatical I I think there's a way I think there's a way you know even turn the sabatical into the company oh I had this vision for Something called the repair to Future fund reparations as an act of yeah you know investment yeah so my my thought on this is is less about I just think that you could document your sabatical okay from the moment of now it could represent so much to so many people that that turns into something you can monetize okay where hi Danielle how

are you can I can I have you so I just wanted you all to talk just for a moment if you had a moment abely she has this Book and it's some heavy stuff and I just I just wanted if you could pour into her a little bit just conversation that's all abut is it okay that's okay okay yes I'm going to keep this thank you so much thank you so grateful to have you on the team I'm feeling so inspired this week fire it up for 24 awesome let's do this so I'm like yeah

you got a great you got a great team of uh advisers I know starring this one it's good stuff um Yeah no they all love you it's it's it's very just such an energizing way to start the year I had a really hard holiday my cat passed away it was just like yeah but I felt really good after the meeting and this whole week we've just been grinding so thank you for always being so inspired yeah say what your company is oh uh my company is gritty and pink and we are building a Global destination

to hire female Freelancers starting with The music industry in pink.com back by Live Nation and ARL Hamilton strategic adviser I feel like I know you I'm on your stuff I'm always commenting um how you doing and that's my husband how you doing on the chance that you can also sign this first book because yes of course Very life changing for me of course um basically uh after my dad died um I I came across this book and it was difficult for me hand plan sorry no You're fine you're fine fine what happened was through this

book I realized that I can build a business to teach people color how to handle their estate plans and do that and I haven't given up but you really pull me out of a tough time and you made me believe in myself so thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you so thank you I'm so happy you're here yeah I'm so happy you're here to and I'm Glad I wrote this book because of this you know yeah thank you so much thank you so much you okay yeah

yeah so nice to meet you I was just checking it's about damn time with the sixth book I read during quarantine oh nice so thank you so much it sparked it I released like corporate I'm in my full entrepreneurship love it love it I'm excited to get this and I'll see you in 3 years to sign and I tell you that I that's what I'm talking about that's What I'm talking about I love that and and I believe it you know what I mean I just I just know it that's great starter it's put in

the thank you keep doing what you're doing you're watching and it's resonating thank you my last name is Hamilton Hamilton my name wait a second so where what uh town are y'all from Louisiana stop okay no my dad's from uh Alabama but you really favorite my my bad side of the family I was think like your you Really yes are you an LA person no Dallas and my mom's from Mississippi okay so we were in okay so we were like but it's my dad's side my dad's side is Hamilton so you're like you your family

goes back Louisiana yeah yeah we're they're from my area near Baton Rouge called St Francisville okay this is trippy I know right okay so we could conceivably do something in person if we do this project together person is great and you Have a podcasting Center can I be so bold as to say we should do it here or should we do somewhere else okay and it'd be a great way to promote both what we're yeah I love that February 5th okay and I'm here for a while I go to like a couple of things you're

back after April so it be after your no we could start sooner than that I'm going to be here a few days in February a few days in March okay and I'm also working remotely I just work from Hawaii and here yeah I Just um I really want if we can do it in person I just really prefer that cuz we could always do it Zoom but I really like this idea of I like it of it making you know making more content out of doing the whole thinga yeah all right well we'll email that's

exciting I just need everybody to understand just like people say I'm not like recently people I find to be brilliant say I'm not as smart as those people okay I can't relate to even Thinking those thoughts so I need us all to understand that not just for ourselves personally but we kind of owe it to each other to all believe that we can do this do you want to make your first million my brand new Master Class your first million is a first of its kind this is a simple guide with stepbystep instructions designed to

get you results starting day one each module is a different category starting at Zero from Scratch to $1,000 then 1,000 to 10,000 10,000 to 100,000 and so on so no matter where you're starting you can learn to make your first million it's only $30 per month and you can cancel your subscription at any time to join go to your first million dopro had to come over here and say something to you okay because I was a junior at UNCC yeah and I was an entrepreneurship and we had an Entrepreneurship and we had BCS coming to

our class there was a white man that came a managing partner at a BC firm and I asked him have you ever thought about investing in having only like a black and brown fund he gave me this runaround answer and a week later Britney Davis from backstage Capital yes [Music] came you thank you for your vision thank you for the work that you're Doing because I am now working for Kim Lewis at C Mix because I went and I went to Backstage capital I looked up your fund I looked at the part the people that

you were working with and I just trusted you I was like if you're working with them and there a good [Music] bit um marble white Aviator yeah we're going to actually have some more here so we need seven eight more anything like this that's out just a mixture so if you take them out of that yeah exactly thank you I've been following your work for a while um quite a few years oh awesome um I'm a member of tech ladies and I first found out about you through there so I've been there for the last

5 years and I came to the conference specifically to Meet you wow well here we are first day here we are and she made me come up and talk with you very nervous I was say hello having a panic attack right now it's okay you're good we just have a couple cameras don't worry about that what's your name I'm TAMU TAMU grade nice to meet you to meet tell your time D Tashi doctor doctor thank you for saying doctor thank you well this is great I'm so glad you're here and I'm on Friday I'm speaking

twice and this is just already amazing event right it's so beautiful and then my mother has her glasses here oh my goodness gracious those are her glasses that she designed I need a pair yeah you can check them out and wear them in the in the um mirror if you want you want to try them on are they sunglasses or prescription so they're sunglasses but you can get anything you want done to them either on your own or you can send them into our Partners right Jun I was telling your mom how your mom reminds

me of my mom oh wow I don't know she I know and she got my favorite color right now purple your favorite color purple purple you remember she has purple two purple pair of glasses I'm going get them get one you two look like Disney uh [Music] Heroes you do can you please film you both look like you're princes from like A Disney film it's incredible that's incredible that's crazy I just think the way that um you show up for your customer you're saying something about who you see them as yes and so the the

packaging the I mean she's sweet know but the packaging the fact that she's wearing them the fact that she's colorful and so on especially as an older woman it means it means a lot it's not and this is her this is authentic this is her every day Know that that's why I asked her her name not you cuz I know your name I asked you what her name was cuz I want to refer to her cuz this is her brand so it's beautiful love it [Music] wonderful yes yes that's French Riviera right there all right

hey we're loving it we loving it I like it yeah you show up your story you know what I'm saying it resonates so Much and you for you to have this I do what the I want and who going to check me Bo and standing on business like Courtney is like yeah you trying to go I'm like we in there there we there know he's going to be he going to be there ister R I'm never get e in the room anywhere see what I'm saying yes done done it was the first on I I

know done I have to try on everything done let me tell you here go Here you like go here yes yes yes yes these are I can't they're beautiful yours are cute that's ours yeah yeah yeah I absolutely love I love all of them okay I mean you can't lose you literally can't these are so cute you cuz they are so fabulous you see how Cute you are so this is fabulous see you so heading back for rehearsals at Roi also day two of Mom's eyewear table it's already a good vibe in here so should

be fun here is a question because some of them have some slides which I gave them strict instructions that slides should be graphical and very minimal information for a pit they will be on the screen that says the millionaire La M so that you guys can see them and then you can probably get a little side view from from there because they're LED we can see it so I just want to make sure you think that's comfortable enough right do we have a piece of paper like on a clipboard that we are able to take

notes on that's ex you know I'm so glad you asked because K that same thing and yes we will have clipboard there will be a countdown clock on the left screen Dre will come Out right at 7 minutes you going all day who's going to cut all this footage he edits it he's already done it he's already done it you getting y with the footage time we we release something twice a week constantly and that's just the documentary stuff I have other types of content that we release on top of that if you documented your

stuff for a month and you posted um consistently on YouTube Instagram Tik Tok and and and Linkedin and it was like you know Mondays and Thursdays or Sundays one time a week I don't you just doing it for one month for you you would have I don't want to go too far but you would you would have an extremely different situation as far as opportunity because you already have the opp you already do the thing even with smaller numbers watching because it's such a deep experience no I know I need to do it I uh

send me this clip because When I start doing it I'm going to give you credit for pushing me the beginning of the year at Roi on this stage in this moment we are here I'm going to tap into your mic we are here and Ireland is telling me to do what I know I need to be doing if you wanted to go even 10x what I just said about you if you were to sit down in your kitchen and have a moment with the camera and talk about this what's happening with my in my life

and have you know what we just talked About half of that which we just talked about off camera girl you know you would have so many people who related to you and also who looked up to you because they were like she's doing all that and she has that going on I have all that going on on and I'm not doing that but I could it would just tap into something so you just got to find your kind of your your your lane and and and uh you said it I've been moving in the shadows

for a long Time and it works even when I moved here do you know I I found out that they they say that I'm they nicknamed me a nickname I didn't even know which was the Harriet Tubman of Puerto Rico there you go because I was the first bringing everybody here it was the first black woman to move here that's you know a Founder that's young and in Tech and all these kinds of things I'm like y'all be telling talking about me like this I didn't even know I don't know if if you Care about

having more people move here who are business like you want to have let's say it it would be good for the ecosystem with 50 more people uh moved here who were women who were black who were uh Latina if that would be good for the ecos system if that is the case if you believe okay we need this we need doctors and we need entrepreneurs this doing this for three months you would feel it it would be full because you would be very intentional of what you're Saying and I want to let everybody know this

is something special yes I have asked Rachel to interview Mrs Sheila Johnson at the event your first million live April 9th through 12th the first black woman billionaire and the co-founder of bet hello because you know why and the founder of salamander Resorts which is my favorite fall place to go visit fall she said that's tell you she Rich that's where I go fall Rich she said fall you've heard of Summer Where do you Autumn though okay can I tell you know where want Autumn at salamander Resort okay I'm going to show her this now

do you know why why I wanted you to speak I'm I'm interviewing most people yes I'll tell you why it's some it's a recurring thing with us tell tell y'all both have horses oh my God yeah I really should be taking a break right now but I can't and so I'm trying to catch my breath internally so we'll See what happens heycome how you doing good to see you oh my goodness how are you you brought Mom Hi how you great how's it been I know and that's like last year as we did the we

did the entire Shark Tank right there that's what Rachel said that it yeah it inspired it no that's so super fun I'm super excited before cameras I guess are already rolling with You so was how are you good do you have time to catch up later oh yeah for sure on the next book and so I got a book deal for the second book both both of them were a book deal and on this one I was like you know what I want to help create a thousand millionaires in the next decade and this book

is the kickoff you can do I feel like you're already creating over a thousand yeah I want to do and I so I hear people say I want to do a thousand I want to do a million Million what I'm saying is I want to really be the reason like the kickoff point and track ET so to be able to look back and say that a thousand millionaires started from the learnings and the book and the uh event that we're doing together all of that like we're going to track it and people who reach that

status will go across the stage each year at your first M million live [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and not just inspiration just the action that you have taken in your story so it it helps me you helping other people as well not just people in that space in well this book is 90% about not taking venture capital okay okay so it's about everybody else too yes so that's what I'm most interested in Focus I was in your session last year oh were you so You saw when that when the uh woman pitched yes so

now we're doing the shilly tank because of that awesome that's why we're doing shilly tank later oh okay did you guys end up funding her we didn't fund her but we I did have a meeting with her and I I gave her a lot of my time and both of them and I think I I think I convinced them to try to do more on their own without taking outside funding so they can hold on to more ownership which is what I really wanted Her to [Applause] do wasn't process to win on that day yes

and so uh I didn't prepare anything I just was like okay Lord if I win you know just in pray he was like well your intro song says it all so I was like well you know what that's what I'll say if I win Lord and that's why I sung the song on the stage and I was just like oh this is so perfect but it caught me off guard in the best way yes it was it was Amazing experience and I know a moderator they're going to introduce mom to tabisa so maybe angel will

too so good she stay right now are you okay with sitting on this chair just be I'm to they're going to be commentating and everybody's that way they're not like I'm just checking the chair okay I I have no problem standing wherever you want me so what the reasoning is um that way since you're going to be introducing everybody So they're not I'm going to be introducing everyone yeah you're going to be announced first and then you'll be just introducing or we don't have a voice of God with everybody else's names just with your your

name so okay let's talk a little bit everybody I would I don't mind it I just mind not being told that like what I don't I didn't know that was going to be the case so kind of walk through a little bit hey get on the Dance Floor Kit Kat and this and that so we can run it really quick before Shannon and get here uh this is like something like what four names I have so we're going to fade it smoother and this is what you're going to hear Hamilton so that's what you're going

to hear and we'll play your intro song for energy it'll be obviously smooth we're just you'll give your intro well I that's what I'm saying I don't I haven't Been told any of this so I'm told that I'm on a panel uhhuh I'm happy to do anything but I wasn't told any of this so I don't so kind of take me through why am I am I moderating this panel we have you as [Laughter] moderator I can do it it's not a problem I can moderate my sleep it's just not to be told like who

connected with you about coming we we we'll we'll talk about that later so so we can get Through it right so tell me what I'm doing what is the topic tips for achieving schilly status are there any directions you want me to go in cuz we so I'm and then also can I have a list of names so I I can see them there but I can start pronouncing them it's actually the funny thing is like it's really good to do this um and if I had known about it I actually would have been excited

to do it it just threw me off for a second but I want you to see that like you know I'm not all Sunshine all the time over the initial shock of never knowing that I just that you didn't know had no idea okay yeah and I don't know where that miscommunication came from it's very well could have been on my side but I don't think so because usually we have a conversation about I thought it was a panel and we're all just on the panel just yeah well the cool thing is since my book

is your first million and we're Talking about their F their first million and Beyond it's a it's a natural conversation that's easy like that to me or simple absolutely to me yeah yeah so yeah it's it's it's all good yes it's great to see you I'd love for you to meet my mother she adores you Mrs Sims these are her glasses at 74 [Music] [Applause] and I just want to give a shout out my mother just met Tabitha yeah my mother she just met her and they had a moment she fixed her earrings it was

really cute and if you don't know my mother last year we were talking about her eyewear line it had not been launched yet it was a thing in the making and everybody I think everybody thought it was kind of cute and like oh that's really nice that you're going to going to have eye yes Mrs Sims yes don't you know she has a whole table here with all Six designs of her eyewear a lot of it is like having the um Audacity Of like a 30-year-old white man named Chad I several of them I have

in my Venture uh groups and you know they're not losing sleep and I'm not saying every single white man come on y'all I'm saying Chad Chad Chad you know Chad Chad and but they're not losing sleep about a lot of this and we don't want to emulate the mediocre no matter who they are um we can also learn from them and some of The stuff that we take on as women of color and women and non-binary we take on so much that we really should not take on mentally for one reason or another I didn't

think it was like there's so many people on the panel well I get to talk I got to talk so much so you should do comedy also you're funny and you all the points that was amazing thank you so much natural and [Music] everything thank you thank you led by Emerging and underestimated managers y'all give it up for Arland Hamilton each smly will come out pitch their business for four minutes to the judges and then it's their chance to ask questions and give feedback what how does it keep its Soul as it grows so one

of the the reasons why I've kept 5 minute bookkeeper the way it is is because of the user experience and whatever platform I create it would have the stipulation is that has to stay the User experience has to remain the same [Applause] [Music] I have never done live television I recorded the talk that aired maybe an hour or two after I recorded it and that was in front of a live studio audience that was so much fun I can't remember recording it I've have seen the replay of it it goes by so fast so I

imagine that's what this is going to be like since this is live you Ever get that deer in the headlights where you can start hearing yourself and Echoes and you kind of like forget where you are feeling that is the only thing that could take me down when it comes to live so I'm going to try to stay really present I'm not nervous I think I'll get a little bit of excitement a couple minutes before before I go on go on but I'm not nervous which I would have been a few years ago wouldn't have

been able To do this at all a few years ago at all whatsoever and so I have to get very focused it's the same thing as if I'm going in front of a very large crowd to speak it's the same kind of vibe [Music] [Applause] oh it says ABC up there thank you Sunny we'll be about an hour and a half two hours I thank you yeah no problem yes hi hi I'm Erin oh it's great to see you how Are you did did you see Jessica outside because we might want to pull her in

right yeah like make it can I ask you this too I have been told by a couple friends who were on the show that tamrind likes to change the questions last minute is that true okay so just be prepared okay I mean I would right Honestly though whatever she asks you is going to be about you so just go with it but like like I said feel free to give full complete answers and expand upon Your answers um hi I'm so sorry it's okay how are you I'm okay how are you I am April the

stage manager nice to meet you nice to meet you too welcome to the tamaron hall show um someone's going to come up and mic you up in a little bit okay M that sounds good thank you then like you end up scaling slower because when others are able to drop 10 million on a lab I'm over here transforming a harlem Brownstone into Like this steampunk energy lab and you you you have to yeah I know what I'm save it we can do the totally fine and then AR I have question for you you said in

an interview I wake up every day thinking about ways thinking about ways of catalyzing other people what was it about Jessica and her company that made you want to invest however however you want it that and then the last question we have here is AR you say your goal is to create a millionaires what Are the next STS for you we were sharing a dressing room and now they've moved her into a bigger dressing room by herself so that's really backstage when I say I'm backstage I'm backstage and Jessica our headliner is front and center

I'm just joking mostly about that mostly well she's a venture capitalist meaning she gives startups the funding they need in exchange for a stake in the company and she invests in The Underdogs Or as she says people who are underestimated she's also the author of the book it's about damn time and her latest book your first million please welcome to the TFM Arlon [Applause] Hamilton um Arin I have to tell you your story is is absolutely incredible I mean it reads like a movie I mean I like I picture you know Trading Places with uh

Eddie Murphy it's like a movie but it is your life yes it is yes I I I can't Believe it sometimes but you know it came from a lot of hard work yeah and a vision and seeing something uh people couldn't see at the time here's a glimpse of arland's vision take a look my name is arand Hamilton I'm the founder of Backstage Capital um like first of all you're you're so unassuming you know I I you're kind of blushing right now I know your mom is in the audience sitting By um I guess I'm

in the movie frame of mind because uh nah was just on but a lot of people think venture capitalist they think the character that Leo DiCaprio played in Wall Street like some Cutthroat dude who's ready to win at all costs and and not care about the underdog you care because you are we are underdog yes and that character is who I was up against and who I'm up against on a daily basis but I thought if I am up against this we all must be up against It and there must be a way to break

through and I knew that I could yell about it I could talk about it um I'm very loud and proud but if I were writing checks at the same time people would listen yeah but [Music] one more time for and her mom ladies wow we are excited that is [Music] incredible hey hey how you doing hi how you doing good how are you I'm Good it's great to see you we were on Damon's show together but we were not in person I know I remember yeah I've been following you oh I want you to meet

Angel before we get started come on in come on in Angel hi hello how you doing I'm wonderful how are you good how are you so Angel's my sister-in-law this is my brother they work together and then they also document me so we'll tell her more about that but she loves a show loves your Work and I want to make sure that yall saw each other you like my bra I like bra I really believe that the very first thing you should think about is hiring a fractional or you can call it part-time or or

contract executive assistant type who can free up the CEO's time and that you may be a solopreneur just you but can free up your time from the menial task TKS and the minutia so that that CEO can do what They do best which should be sales maybe fundraising if you go that route and customer service so a lot of people and I've studied this with a lot of companies they'll spend 20 plus hours a week invoicing or talking to someone on the phone or doing things that or like posting or doing things that very important

things and I said Mino but I probably the wrong phrasing they're very important things but they're tedious and They can be done by someone who loves doing that stuff and can do it all day long but you can hire them for 5 hours a week 10 hours a week little by little right and you can start taking that off your plate so that you then can put those same 10 5 20 hours imagine if like the thing that brings you the most opportunity if you're were able to do that 20 times the amount of times

you can do it today or two times the amount it would just bring more opportunity Back yeah being able to delegate uh is also an important quality because sometimes you feel like if I don't do it it's not going to get done right like those it's true can I tell you that that's true though it's not going to get done the way you want it to because they're not you but as multiple people have said that I've studied isn't isn't it better to have somebody do something 80% as well as you do if it means

you can go out there and do what you do best At the full capacity and your brother's here too and I want to make sure that we acknowledge that this is an important time for him you have you must have a very happy mother oh yes and she's doing her thing too so we yeah we wanted to but your brother's here and I just want to acknowledge why this is an important time so my brother say hi Rook hey what's up with it hey he downloads or something yes I'm G to say what he what

happened today so he just got he just Reached 250 million views on YouTube through his show real life Street Stars 20 y'all heard about it y'all know real life and so yeah you want to say anything about it come sit get in the camera where yall need to be at right here where you want to you're in Dallas tell us about your show real life Street Stars famous blue couch with the light wall in the background yes well who are a couple people you've had on recently um you know Charleston white Mark cubin Jaguar Wright

you know the famous interview from Jaguar Wright yeah the whole gamut okay they they do the whole gamut yeah soon Mar I would love to see y'all on that show um we too yeah y'all just come down there in Dallas famous light anytime cuz we hear you your voice in the background but we don't what's that I'm sorry I'm taking what's the decision to be off camera like why did y'all make that Decision so nobody can mess it up someone get the big head or something no the show's always going to go on yeah so

it's not about y'all it's about your guest yeah it's about the guest that always also I think that's a real good key for a success right cuz you you figured out what exactly it needed to be to reach the 250 million and I have to say it took 13 years but the last two years is where you got most of the views that consistency really matters people Never know when that's going to happen did backstage capital in I know somebody from there she put on spot she put us on the spot get an investment well

I I think one of the biggest Investments was getting Mark Cuban on the couch and that that is I did that yeah I got I got him on there and and we talked about it before but they're they've stayed independent because I try to tell as many Founders as I can including my own family stay independent as long as you Can so you can have more control you can have you can sell pieces of your company for more rather than when you when you first started you're at the mercy of the investor right so they've

built up something they they can ask for anything right now yeah yeah cuz if you do if you try to get that investment too early you're giving up a lot for very little money that's it that's it yeah well congratulations we're proud of you bro apprciate and tell people your your um Your handle so they can at real life rook and you know real life Street stars with a z y and a Z real life the Robin Hood of venture capital it's about a woman who went from homeless to venture capital fund founder as one

of the few black women to break into the boys club of Silicon Valley Arlon Hamilton wants to get you to your first million dollars I'm Arlon Hamilton I am the founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital which is an investment Firm that invests in underestimated founders I'm an author of the book it's about damn time on penguin random house I'm the host of the weekly podcast your first million and I am a venture Catalyst and I teach other Venture catalysts and future Venture catalysts how to invest in underestimated Founders too and uh yeah I'm also

a sister a daughter a wife a friend I had been working for probably 3 years at this point on raising a fund of some sort Something for underrepresented Founders at the time and I was living out of a hotel sharing a room with my mom every single day we didn't know if we were going to have one or two meals that day it was very very touch and go and um I had to make this decision of like why am I doing this and also is it does it make more sense to just kind of

not do the big thing and do the do something a little bit different that's easier and so I was in the Parking lot of the hotel we were staying in and I was pacing and I was walking back and forth and I said should should I continue with backstage capital and I just decided to do this exercise and this exercise was close your eyes and imagine the world 5 years from now and imagine that the thing you want to do so deeply does not exist in the world and I did that and I still remember

to this day the feeling of my eyes sh shooting open And I said I can't imagine a world in 5 years where backstage Capital does not exist it just doesn't make sense to me it doesn't work and to make it even further solidified that this is what I was supposed to do I felt that even if I wasn't the one who made it happen even if I wasn't there with it that it still needed to be there so that moment really taught me go all in and you have to try so that's the day that

I decided okay um have no money ran Out of food stamps barely have a place to stay but I'm going to raise millions of dollars for under represented underestimated Founders and not only that I'm going to invest in a 100 companies within 5 years or so and ended up um getting to that goal that milestone in 3 years instead of five I grew up in Dallas Texas I was born in Jackson Mississippi and then I spent the next 20 years or so in Dallas with my mother and my younger brother Alfred it Was 2011 and

I had heard about a place called Silicon Valley and I didn't quite understand what that meant but it seemed interesting and I saw people like Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber and Ellen degenerous and Roy Carter were making investments in a place called Silicon Valley I wanted to know what that meant and so I started paying attention to people behind the scenes in entertainment to see what they Were working on um because it was not only these artists but it was their managers and in the hallways of the U stadiums and the Arenas that I would

work as a music production coordinator I would also hear whispers about investing in startups and I wanted to know why people with money were chasing that so I did a little research and I got really excited about it I thought this is the new frontier this is really interesting I've always felt like an entrepreneur And I think this is what that is this is my tribe the the negative side though was that I found out quickly after that that only 10% of venture funding and Angel Investing goes to women people of color lgbtq Founders and

other so if you're a white man in Silicon Valley you have a higher chance of making and raising Capital uh than you do if you're anyone else and that didn't make much sense to me in in a country where white men make up only a third of the Population so that's when things changed a little bit for me that's when uh my life changed is when I decided instead of trying to raise capital for one company some company that I would be the CEO of what if I tried to raise and what if I did

raise money to put behind other Founders who looked like me and that's when I started backstage capital and since then um you know I had said in 2014 I think it was I said I wanted to invest in 100 companies by 2020 we've Gone on to raise about $20 million and we've invested in more than 200 companies raising all of this money has not been easy it has been a challenge every step of the way I call it pushing a mountain up another Mountain uh but it has been very rewarding because now we have hundreds

and hundreds of Founders who have been backed and I feel like it started with just that one idea in a bedroom in perland Texas just a few years ago and I'm very proud of that to Be here now and have so much Innovation come from that one idea it's important for a fund like mine to exist because we have a lot of time to make up for there has just been so much inequality in this country for so long and economic empowerment is a remedy to a lot of that damage that has been done and

you talk about generational wealth you can't get to generational wealth if you're not even able to get uh parody in the now and uh think about also Innovation like when you back black Founders Brown Founders women people of color lgbtq when you're backing these entrepreneurs you're also backing the the next great health tech company the next great infrastructure company great sustainability company all of these Innovations are coming from these Brilliant Minds that are being either overlooked or undervalued or both and for me the idea of sourcing and bringing these companies And these Founders to light

um and just simply clearing their path for them to do the thing they were already doing and do so well to me that is the the the best way and the best use of my time I can be a catalyst for the work that they do which I think is so so important so it's about all of us it's about helping all of us uh succeed no matter what your background is when you help one of us succeed and um I also think that it's fair to be honest there's a lot of Inequality that needs

to be fixed and balanced it's just really important in my opinion to have thousands and thousands and more and more and more people of color women lgbtq Millions knowing understanding that they can start companies that they are privy to all that this country has to offer them that it doesn't belong to a Chosen Few it's just very important to me when I was in the third grade I wore six watches three on each arm and they were You know bubble gum watches Bobo machine watches and uh but they were all they all worked and they

were all set to a different time zone and I had just learned I got an encyclopedia set my mom got an encyclopedia set for I think from a traveling salesperson and I had just learned about time zones so I was just so enthralled and fascinated by the fact that someone in a different part of the world it could be a different time for them I just didn't it just blew my mind Really so I wore six watches to kind of keep up with what everybody was doing I would be at school and I'd look down

at my watches and I'd say okay well in Hawaii it's this time and Australia it's this time and in Kenya it's this time and I just had the best time with it I knew that people were staring I knew that people thought I was weird they called me weird this is third grade where people can be very cruel I was called names I was made fun of mostly Just laughed at but I didn't care I thought it was the coolest thing in the world I still do and I think that sort of off the beaten

path weird kid seeing things in a different way and also being hyper curious and actually caring a lot about other people I think that has actually really helped me as a as a venture capitalist a venture cataly as I say and it helps me look at things in a different light I I don't have this very traditional way of looking at Investments for instance or what will be the next best thing I don't look at Trends because I don't care about Trends I care about what moves me just like art really it's like when you

look at art art is about what stirs you and that's what uh I do when I look at companies so I'm very um happy for the little girl who wore six watches because today you know they called me weird they called me disruptive now I get paid to do both