Make an Impact, Shine your Light with Travis Believes

Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm Amberly Lago, and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience and empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose. Hey, y'all, thank you for tuning in to True Grit and Grace. It's Amberly, and I have Such a treat for y'all today. One of my friends, Travis Believes, is here with us. And let me tell you, if you have ever struggled with that negative self-talk or, you know, self-doubt, or you've gone through any kind of challenges, I'm so grateful that you tuned in because he has really had his difficult challenges and struggles and turned his life around. But not only his life, he's created Inner Light Media. And it's an impact-driven social media marketing agency that's changing the world by helping some of the biggest online influencers. And when I say biggest online influencers, I'm talking he is the, the magic behind Prince E and Lewis Howes and Jay Shetty, just to name a few. And he works with entrepreneurs and brands to help them tell powerful and life-affirming messages to hundreds and millions of people. Check him out on Instagram @TravisBelieves because every single one of his posts will have you believing in yourself even more and feeling empowered. So I could go on and on, but I really want to just get to talk to you. It's so good to see you, Travis. Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Uh, it's an honor and pleasure to be here speaking with you and, and, and a ton of people to, to really hear, uh, my story. I just think that sometimes people that come from my background don't get a chance to tell their story, and I'm happy to share it with you.

Well, you have an incredible story, and it's so good to see you, um, face to face like this. We've talked on the phone a few times, and I cannot wait to get to see you in person when I move to Dallas. So your story really touches me because as you know, I've got a brother in jail. And you were homeless, you've been in jail for, I think it was 3 years, and you have come out the other side and not just made something of your life, but you're helping so many, being of service to others to really shine a light on how you can turn your life around. You can own your story and you can use a mess to turn it into your message. So I would love to to just share your story a little bit and tell everybody where you came from, because you didn't have the best circumstances growing up, and how that led you into kind of where you were and then how— where you are now.

So I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, and a lot of people don't know this. This is nothing to brag about, but St. Louis is consistently ranked top 5 most dangerous cities in America, unfortunately. Growing up You know, I was born in the '80s and growing up during the crack era. I never met my dad. My mother was, you know, somebody that was addicted to drugs. And very often we were homeless and went to different shelters and stuff like that to eventually get in what you call group homes, which are facilities for children that are no longer with their parents. State custody.

Did you have brothers or sisters?

Brothers and sisters, yes.

You had how many?

6. Wow.

So did all of you stay together or were you separated when you went into the home?

Separated.

Oh my gosh, that right there is just traumatizing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, one of my, my youngest brother actually lives in San Diego, um, military.

Yeah. Wow.

Wow.

So do you keep in touch with your brothers and sisters now? All of them? Are they doing okay?

I keep in touch with my family.

Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Um, I, I didn't though, but we do now though, which is great.

That, that is good. And you know, there's a lot of people say, oh well, you're a product of your circumstances. And I believe that yes, that our circumstances can affect you know, our abilities sometimes, or our opportunities sometimes. But I believe we're a product of our resiliency and a product of our creativity, and a product of our, you know, the power of the human spirit to make something, you know, more out of our lives. But how old were you when you were put into this group home?

9.

You were 9 Oh, that just breaks my heart. So when you were put in the home, did you no longer have contact with your mom?

So that's interesting. All right, so let me kind of give you the process. When you're put in group homes, they're supposed to be temporary situations, not necessarily supposed to be permanent. What they do is they take custody, and then there's like a court-sanctioned situations to where The mom, in my case, because the dad, you know, never— I don't even know my dad's name or anything like that, so to this day. Um, so in this case, my mom, um, they give her court-appointed instructions on how to get your kids back. If you don't follow those particular instructions and complete whatever tasks that they provide, then you— they basically become state— your kids become permanent state custody. And so this is where you get certain things like foster homes and children's homes. We was in children's homes. Initially, my grandma did take us to be part of her, you know, in her foster care, but she became sick and couldn't care for us, so we had to go back to children's homes and things like that.

Oh.

So yeah, you know, we had limited contact with mom, would see her at court sometimes. Sometimes she would come and see us, things like that. So it wasn't completely no contact, but It wasn't often either, maybe once every so many months. Now I think about it, it was actually pretty crazy how, uh, much we didn't see our mom. But yeah.

Yeah. You know what, Travis? It's like when you're telling me this, I, I mean, that's how you grew up. And, and to some extent, sometimes when we're growing up in situations, like there was some bad stuff that happened when I was growing up and I think, well, that's just part of it. Everybody lives like this. This is what everybody's going through. But growing up and then looking back and being out, what other families are like, I'm like, wow, no, that wasn't normal. Like, and just you saying that, it's like, yeah, that's pretty crazy. You didn't get to see your mom, didn't even know your dad, didn't have that, that love, that nurturing that you need as a kid, that we need all the time. Basically, we need that.

Yeah, I remember probably one of the most painful memories that I did have when I start— when I became older when I was— because I graduated when I was 17— is when I was walking across that stage hoping my mother would be there and she wasn't.

Aw.

That probably was like one of the most painful moments for me, but it was also a revelation for me as well to kind of like really like own who I was and to kind of like step into the fact that nobody's here to save you.

Well, that is— that's a huge revelation for sure. I had a moment like that growing up too, that as painful as it was, it was like, oh, I'm gonna save myself. I'm gonna— it's up to me. But can we just talk about you were only 17 when you graduated, and the fact that you graduated from high school while going through all of this, not having a, you know, like a steady home life, parents to help you. And, you know, nowadays there— we've got helicopter parents that are— that have, you know, you know, all— they give all these opportunities for kids, tutors, they take them to classes, they do all these extracurricular things. And it's like, man, you were already— you were just trying to survive, it sounds like.

Yeah, it was. Um, I mean, when I look back, the thing is school was actually pretty easy for me, but The part that made it hard was the socialization, like not having a good family background, not being able to focus and concentrate, not knowing who I was. When I say not knowing who I was, like when you don't really know much about yourself and you don't have really a foundation, you don't really know where you want to go. You're just really kind of like confused and lost. And so when you're growing up trying to understand more about yourself, it just becomes a little bit more difficult. So anyway, School was easy for me in terms of the actual work. It was difficult for me to actually socialize myself with school though.

Okay, so you're really smart. You're one of those kids at school that never took— like, I remember my best friend in school, one of my best friends, Corey Jacks. I would— I was the kid that took home all the books and studied. He never took any books home. He didn't need to study, and he would let me look at his test during a test. He was just like really super smart. I had to really study to make straight A's, where it was like easy for him, you know. It sounds like it was easy for you, and you graduated at 17. Then what did you do if you didn't really know who you were? You're kind— well, I think at that age we're all trying to kind of figure out who we are, but did you go to college from there?

So I did. So here's the thing. Because I was in state custody still, you can be emancipated early if you're on the right track. And the right track just means, you know, on paper, you know, you got a job and you graduated.

You look good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I still was hanging out from the— with my guys, my friends from where I was really from, which was the north side of St. Louis, which by the way is where Prince Ea is from, you know.

Oh, really?

Yeah, me, I used to, I knew, I always joke with him 'cause I knew more people on his block than he did.

Really?

Yeah, 'cause he was a, he was like a really in-the-house recluse and I was like out of the house, like playing with everybody and stuff like that. But yeah, but anyway, yeah, so I still hung out with those guys. Um, and that was kind of like my main influence. It's kind of like I did the school stuff because I had to, but my heart was still with, with, I guess, the only family I really had, which was my friends, right?

Now, were they a good influence?

No, no.

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy, right, how you really do become like the people that you're hanging out with.

Yeah, because what happens is the people that show you love, the people that kind of like contribute to your emotional well-being, which Emotional well-being, meaning like, you know, the unity, you know, love, value, respect. That, that's what we want when it comes to our emotional well-being. The people that contribute to that, you adopt their behaviors to be like them. You adopt the things they do in order to get the same. Because some of these people that you normally look up to and stuff like that have a certain type of habits and activities that they do. So you try to mimic those a lot of times, not all of them, but the things that suit you, right? And I did the same thing, you know, uh, you know, fitting in, trying to be like the people that I care about. And yeah, so that it wasn't, it wasn't good influence 'cause they had similar backgrounds to me except they were still living in the streets. So.

Oh, so did you get into trouble with 'em? Is that how you landed in jail?

You know, the interesting thing about trouble is it, it creeps up on you, right? You, you know, I was never a bad kid. Like I didn't do things for the sake of being bad. I never did. Like, so for example, I'll never forget there was a time I remember I, I, me and my brother stole some food from a 7-Eleven store. And, you know, we stole some fruit because we didn't have anything to eat. Um, and I remember the 7-Eleven guy literally let us have the food because he could tell we was— at this time I may have been like 8, my brother may have been like 10.

Wow.

Um, you know, we were still in the defeat. So the things that I did actually never came from any sort of maliciousness. It always came from a place of, I, you know, I felt like I needed it at the time. Even the crime that I did to go to jail, um, it was something I felt like I had to do. And by the way, you're only limited by— this is why imagination is so important, because if, if you're not If you don't know your opportunities and things like that, then you're limited by what you think is in front of you.

Mm-hmm.

You have to start imagining. If you don't have those opportunities in front of you, you have to start imagining more things in order for your brain to actually open up to more things you could possibly do outside of your circumstances, which is actually kind of difficult because you have to like almost like— this is why they say, you know, craziness you know, there's a, you know, thin line between insanity and genius because you actually have to be kind of crazy to think something is possible that is completely outside of the norm. You know what I'm saying? Like, you gotta have to think like that. But I didn't think like that at a young age. It took me until I got a little older, so I started realizing that.

Yeah, I was just talking to my oldest daughter this morning on the phone, and I was like, I've got a big vision you know, for my family, we're moving. And I said, we're renting a house until we decide exactly where we want to live in the Dallas area. And I said, I have this big vision where I'd love— my husband loves boats. Well, we could get a house on the lake. So I was telling my husband, yeah, I have a vision of us getting a house on the lake, maybe some land for our horse. So right in— and he's like, oh, do you know how expensive those are? And, you know, who's going to take care of the horse? And I was just like, Well, I'll hire a groom to help us take care of the horse. I'll— I was like, I'll work a little harder. I'll figure a way to get, you know. But I think Greg Reed, who is one of my mentors who I really love, he has a quote. It's been shared like, I don't know, millions of times, I think. But it says, a dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed with action makes your dreams a reality. I hope I didn't butcher that quote up, but it's something like that. And so I think that, you know, if we have that vision, then we can start to think outside of the box and how we can get there. But it is so much— you're so right about like who you're surrounding yourself with. If they're thinking big bigger and in different ways, then you're like, oh yeah, well maybe I could do that. Or I get inspired by people who are doing a lot of incredible things. Like to me, I'm inspired every time I hear about something that you've done and made another video go viral. I'm like, man, he's genius. How did he figure that out? Like what? Like, so. So yeah, but I want to know before we get into that, because I'm so fascinated with what you do with your Inner Light Media. So when you get sent to jail, you were there for 3 years?

3 years. Uh, yeah, I did 3 years in jail. Wow.

So how old were you?

I was 21 at the time.

21.

Wow.

So when you were in there, is that when you started really getting into like mindset and like your very Just your self-development is incredible. Is that when you started learning a lot of lessons? What was the biggest lesson you learned in there?

Yeah, I don't know if there's any one big lesson. Uh, there's multiple lessons that are equally important. You know, for me, it was definitely an incubation period of really understanding myself. The thing about jail is it allows you— it gives you a way to view yourself in ways that you never have because Now you're taken out of the world, literally taken out of the world and put in a situation to where the only thing you can focus on is yourself. You can't focus on anything else. So it forces you to reexamine your life and reexamine your purpose. And the first thing I started realizing was, okay, what is the point of life? What's the purpose of life? Well, we all want happiness, right? We all want to be valued. We all want to be respected. We all want to contribute, right? We all want to feel loved. These are things that we all want. And everything that we do in life is centered around how do we do those things, or how do we attract those things to our life. And so I had to realize that the fundamentally most important thing to have is integrity, right? Because when you are a person of integrity, you are automatically valuable, right? You are automatically going to be around, uh, people are going to want to be around you. People are going to, you know, want to respect you. Good things will happen to you because you're putting out good things. Like, integrity has so many benefits to it that I had— it took me to realize that, all right, if I really want great things to happen to me, there needs to be a foundation of integrity. Then after that, I had to realize, okay, well, what do I really want to do? How do I want to contribute? And so I had to really understand my talents. And I always knew that— I'm not trying to brag on myself, but I always knew that I had particular skill sets, let's just say, that other people didn't have. And so realizing that, I said, OK, well, I need to use my talents in a way, in an honorable way, that can contribute to humanity, that can benefit humanity. And so when you realize that, It all becomes clear. Okay, so I got out. I started using my gifts in an integral way. This is when I met Princey. I met Princey when I got out. And me and him become real cool. He had a movement called Make SMART Cool at the time. And SMART is the acronym for Sophisticating Millions and Revolutionizing Thought, right? He was a conscious rapper at the time. I was really big into music and hip-hop at the time. So me and him collaborated. And, you know, we just figured out a bunch of different ways on how do we take a conscious message and get it out to millions of people. And the best way to do that is online, right? He always had this quote he used to say, 'cause I used to try to get him in shows at different venues. He'd be like, why should I do a show and get in front of 1,000 people when I can do a video and get it in front of 100,000 people, right?

Mm-hmm.

And that was always like a mind flip for me. And this is back in 2009, by the way.

And that was back in 2009. I mean, nowadays, especially since COVID more people are thinking about that. More people have put their businesses online and that sort of thing. But back in 2009, that was like— I mean, I guess YouTube was as big, but I mean, it's really blown up now. But that was a lot to think that, that he had smarts to think about.

Yeah.

In that perspective.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Prince Ea is absolutely a genius. So we did that. And it was at that moment where I knew where my brilliance lied. And I knew where I needed to go and how I wanted to contribute to humanity and how I wanted to use it. And one of the most important things I realized is at the time, I think we didn't care about money. All we wanted to do was make an impact. And that's when it clicks, when you're talented in an area and you just want to make an impact where you could do the work for free, right? And you don't lose your passion for it, right? Like, it's just— it was something like, I just— I didn't care. I just wanted to be a part of something that I knew was contributing and using my talents. And this is what we all want. We actually all want this, to be honest with you. We all do it for free anyway, if you really think about it.

Right?

When, when you're growing up and you're learning things and stuff like that, you try— we're all really trying to ingratiate ourselves among groups of people that we deem valuable and missions that we deem valuable, right? Because when you're invested emotionally, you want to contribute. You know what I'm saying? And so—

Oh yeah, like for sure. I mean, that's why I do this podcast and have been consistent with it. Every single week. I've not missed and been consistent. And I don't make money. In fact, it costs me money to pay a producer, to pay a graphic designer. But I do it because I love it. I have that passion. I want to impact people. I want to give people the tools that I, I learned from every single guest that I've had on the show. So I love that you, that you say that, that— yeah. And I think that if we want to be successful at something, it has to be that We better love it. We better be passionate about it. And I always think if it, if it's something that we would do without being paid, you know, I started speaking, I didn't get paid when I first started speaking for like 3 years. I did it for free.

Yeah, yeah. No, that's, you know, and it's so interesting because, you know, we talk about so many different things, it's passionate about, but when you find that one thing that you know you can put continues to do. Um, and for me, that's what drove me. Then we eventually got to a place to where, you know, we figured out the algorithm, you know, of how to blow up, man. And it just kind of like started from there, you know, me and him.

So when you figured out the algorithm, was that on YouTube, Instagram, or all across the board?

That's a good question. It's all human psychology at the end of the day. It's all about, you know, what to say, how to say it in ways that's gonna get people to share, right? And what you— to believe in what you're saying, right? The thing is this, shareability requires you to impact another person's emotions. Human beings, we're emotional beings, right? We have— this is fundamentally the most important thing to understand. It doesn't matter how right you are, doesn't matter how important the message is, doesn't matter if you're the smartest person giving it. The only thing that matters is how do you connect it to the next individual. If you can't connect your message to the next individual, they're not going to receive it. So, um, but, but to answer your question is it was kind of a combination of YouTube and Facebook. Facebook is where it went like viral But YouTube is where we started. So we was— we started off on YouTube because Facebook didn't have videos at first. And again, this is like way back then. Facebook's had videos for so long, people probably don't even remember this, but Facebook didn't have videos at first, right? So we was posting on YouTube and we was getting like videos semi-viral, like a million views, back when a million views meant a lot. But we didn't go—

Oh, it doesn't mean a lot anymore. Wow. So on YouTube, what's a lot of views? What's considered like viral on YouTube as far as views?

So viral is a nebulous term. There's actually no concrete definition. I like to give a general rule of virality. Virality is 100 times more than what you're used to. That's what I give. If it's 100 times more than what you're used to, then you can say if it's, you know what I'm saying? Like, I, I usually go with that, hey, that's, that's, this is a semi-viral, viral video, you know what I'm saying? So that's my particular barometer. If it's 100 times more than you're used to, but if, you know, like, so for example, if you're used to 1,000 views and it gets 100,000 views, that's a—

Travis, I, you know, I have to tell you, you'd be proud of me. I had a video on TikTok and it has over 600,000 views.

See that? See, I would say that, you know.

There, there you go. You know, I got on, I got on TikTok because my daughter told me I was too old for it. So I was like, well, I'm gonna get on it for sure then. But yeah, TikTok. But it's crazy, you know, I get on 1-minute TikTok. I do. In fact, um, uh, my daughter who's 13, she was like, Mom, I need to make some money, I need to make some money. And I said, okay, make a TikTok video for me and post it for me. So I posted it and I just don't even know. I can't figure out the algorithm. I don't know. I need to learn about TikTok. That's my— one of the things I'm gonna do.

But yeah. You post a bunch of— the thing, the thing about TikTok is just a content machine. Just post a bunch of videos and whichever ones actually connect, you use those videos to put on other— you know what I'm saying? Like, so post 10 videos and only one of them connect, you take that video and post it on the other platforms because that's the one that people like. See what I'm saying?

Oh, I love looking at TikTok as a— for me, I'm— that you just shifted my perspective right now. Thank you for that. So I'm gonna use TikTok as kind of my place to practice to see what works for what I'm really building on these other places.

Yep.

Oh, that's so good. Yeah, then it takes the pressure off too. Yes, you know, it takes the pressure off of me of— because it really— I was like, oh, I'm gonna dance on TikTok. I'm like, no, I'm not gonna be dancing. And I used to be a professional dancer, but I just don't feel right about dancing. I mean, maybe I will someday, but I think that's genius how you figured out that what really connects. And you know, I think that's My favorite speakers are speakers that really tell a story and they connect. I connect with them at the heart, like Dan Clark. I don't know if you know who he is. He's an amazing storyteller. And I think the reason that people love and are moved by his message so much is because it really moves you. Get connected emotionally with what he's sharing, the way he's sharing it. So do you go in with like— I know you've worked with Jay Shetty and Lewis Howes. Do you go in and you say, hey, we're going to take one of your messages and see what connects the most with your audience? Is that what you do? Or tell me how it works. I'm just really curious to— like with me, for example, when we start working together, um, like you notice when I said when we, when we start working together, it's going to be next year, really soon. Um, would you sit down in a studio and start recording videos, delivering, having me deliver some emotional message? What, what does it look like to start working with you?

So it really depends. I look at your brand, um, and, and, and see where the direction you really want to go. Um, but I will tell you this though, if we're talking about the most powerful, the most visceral, the ones that usually connect with a wide audience, even people outside of your current audience base, I usually come from a very morbid perspective, which is, if you were— if you knew you were going to die in the next 30 days, what's the message you want to give the world? What do you think the world needs to hear? And again, I know that sounds very morbid. I know that sounds melancholy. The truth is, when we think about the most important messages to us, you know, these are usually messages other people will think about as well. It brings out the emotion in you, which is what we want. We don't want the logic, you know, we want the emotion. We want this story. We want the why. We want the, you know, what is— what created your inspiration, because the same thing that created your inspiration is going to create inspiration for so many other people. And that is the story people are going to remember about you. That is how people are going to connect to you, and that is the reason why people are going to become rabid followers and fans of you. This is how you're going to reach so many other people that never even heard of you, because they're connected to your story.

Well, do you feel like sometimes people get known for this one specific story, but there's so much more they want to share, and it's hard for them to kind of get— break away from that one story?

No, I've never— I don't— I couldn't even give an example of that.

Oh, well, that's good. That's good to know.

Yeah, no, once people connect with you, they just want to hear whatever you have to say. I mean, just You could think of anybody. Think of anybody where you see people having an irrational connection to, where you're like, wait a minute, how— you know what they call drinking the Kool-Aid? You're like, yo, how do you believe this? This, like, what? But it's because there's such an emotional connection, you know, it's just— you can tell them whatever you want, you can sell them whatever you want, whatever the case may be. And I'm not saying— and I'm saying that in the sense that when you're a person of integrity— this is why I go back to the integrity thing— when you come in, from a place of integrity, you're not guiding your people wrong. This is why all the people I work with are usually in like the personal development space and stuff like that, because you really want to be a person that's guiding your people right. Because you will find people will be your fans and you can do no wrong, no matter what you say or do or whatever the case may be. And I don't think it's a bad thing as long as you hold your place and in a very integral— integrity standpoint, and you move from that position. So no, I don't find people only like that one story, like, you know, typecasting people. What I find is once you're able to build from that story, you know, here's the next step. Okay, now that you've given this story, what's the— what's— you think back, and now What's another story? If you were to die in 30 days, what's another message? And then you think back and you get really emotional about that. So the thing about, you know, when I was working with Princey originally, he had this mindset that every video that I create has to be better than the next one. I mean, better than the previous one. And it's a tall order, but if you give yourself that barometer that everything I'm creating is gonna be better than the next one, then you go to the deepest parts of, okay, how do I create my best piece, um, every single time. And you do your best work that way. So now I think if you can connect with people in a very story-driven way, people will always connect with your story. You know, I, I don't— I can't tell you how many different times I met somebody and they were like, yeah, Prince E's— the first Prince E video I've seen was this video. Well, the first Prince E video is this. And then 20— you talk to 20 different people and there's 20 different videos that they first connected with. And every single one of them was life-changing for him, you know what I'm saying?

Wow. Yeah. And I think he's even had like Tony Robbins share his videos, hasn't he? Of course.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's done talks with Tony Robbins, worked with Tony Robbins.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's incredible. Well, I just want to ask you a few questions about, you know, the algorithm and figuring things out, but also about mindset, because you share a lot about mindset, and I love that you're in self-development. What do you think is the number one quality people need to be successful? Do you think it's integrity?

Okay, so, all right, that's— it's kind of a loaded question, and I'll tell you the reason why. Because you could be— and, but, and I, I'm going to say this name, but I don't mean it to be political, but I'm saying it just so you get the point. So you could be Donald Trump successful, right? Or you could be the Dalai Lama successful. You know what I'm saying? These are 2 different types of success, in my opinion. I don't think Donald Trump is successful from an integrity standpoint, but he's damn sure successful.

Oh yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

So, but the Dalai Lama is successful in a more integrity standpoint. So, so the question, so the question becomes, how do you view success? In my personal opinion, In my worldview, the truest form of success is what we're all here for, which is happiness, peace, love, and value. Money is just a tool in order to achieve some of these things, not really the success. It's just a tool. So in my opinion, the best way to achieve that is kind of to start Where I kind of like stated from, the number one thing is to really be a person of integrity. Learn what it means to live with honor. Learn what it means to live with respect. Learn what it means to live with dignity. Learn what it means to give true, true value. And I'm saying this because you'll feel better. I mean, you can have all the money in the world. You can have all whatever accolades that people give you in the world. But if you can't live with yourself, That success won't mean a lot. You'll still be, you know, it'll be hard for you still. And success is hard anyway, but you'll be able to live at peace when you're living with integrity. And that is the most important thing. So in my opinion, if we're talking about success, which this is the type of success that I want more of, right? I want more success to be founded upon how do we live with peace among each other and live with happiness among each other. Collectively, you know. So in my opinion, that's, that's the number one quality, um, that you need to be successful. Now, if you're talking about from a business, then, um, it's going to be the ability to adapt. The ability to adapt is— if you can't adapt to a changing climate, to a changing customer base, to changing landscape, you won't, you won't survive. Doesn't matter how good you are. So the ability to adapt. So that That's just from 2 different standpoints.

Yeah, I, I agree with you 100%. To me, success really is about happiness and, and being able to spend time with the people I love, doing the things that I love. And you're right. I think the money that comes along with the success helps you to achieve some of those things, make a bigger impact. I used to, you know, I grew up where it was You know, you weren't supposed to talk about earning a lot of money. Don't shine too bright. Don't, you know, you stay humble. You don't want a lot of money. It was just bizarre, you know, how you don't want to appear to be flashy. And I really shifted my mindset from that to, no, I want to make a lot of money because the more money that I make, the bigger impact that I can have because I can hire people to help me do graphic design. I can hire people to help run my business so I'm not in the weeds of it. I can actually be out there. And so I, when I started looking at it in that way, things started to shift for me. But I think we all have different ideas of what success means to us. But you talk about pivot, really resilience, uh, success. We need resilience. We need to be able to adapt and How do you think that since the pandemic you've kind of pivoted in ways or shifted your ways or grown your business to be more successful? Has it really exploded your business or has it gotten the same? How has it affected your business?

It affected my business greatly because truth is at first, most of my business was, you know, meeting my clients in person, shooting videos and things like that. I had to completely shift that. But what I also learned during this process is I'm a content creator at heart because I have a message that I know I want to get out. And I'm going to say this, it's probably going to burn some bridges, but one of the things I get tired of is I meet with a, with an entrepreneur, they tell me they want, you know, to do these messages and all this and the other, but the truth is they don't really want to do the message. They don't really want to impact. They just want more people to sell to, you know. And for me, I got in this game to make an impact. And I know some people say, well, hey Travis, if I make more money, I can make more impact. Okay, I get, I get all that. But what I'm saying is, whenever you hire me, right, it's okay. You have— there's an underlying understanding that You have to create, and this creation is for the connectivity. This creation isn't to sell more, it's to connect more. Now, you should happen to sell more after you connect more, but—

Well, yeah, you know, I didn't even really have much to sell. I was just so focused on impact, impact, impact. But let me tell you, I— when it comes to making videos or No, even knowing how to use social media, Travis, I didn't even own a computer 5 years ago. I had no Facebook account. Like, I didn't know how to use Instagram. I still barely do, to be honest with you. It's about all— I mean, I'm still figuring out Facebook, but to be able to even hire somebody to teach me how to do things, I have used Google like you wouldn't believe, learning stuff. I've taken, you know, classes at Apple, and then I've had incredible entrepreneurs that have paved the way before me that have said, well, what's your next thing? Like, why are you doing all this just to make an impact? You need to sell something. And I'm like, oh gosh, I got to think of— I got to think of what to sell. I got to keep a roof over my head.

Yeah.

But I understand, you know, people who just want— I don't want to just go viral to go viral. I want to go viral because it really touched somebody and got them out of a dark spot. But that's got to be, I'm sure, frustrating. Well, I'm sure you are at a place now where you only work with people that you really want to work with.

Yeah, I only work with people I really want to work with. But yeah, I'm just saying, like, that was, you know, to some people, they just— all they really wanted to do is like, I just— they don't want to change anything about their program. Just bring me more clients. I'm like, It's not really what this is about, but okay. All right. Um, but anyway, so my point in saying that is, uh, ultimately, um, you know, I'm really— I really enjoy the creation process. So for shifting, for me, was the understanding that, you know, I don't really want to work with anybody that's— that just wants to do that. I want to make sure I can do that, but the best way I can do that is by creating my own content. And so I started realizing that, you know, I need to start creating my own content. So I started doing that.

So you started create— well, I was watching one of your YouTube videos where you were interviewing a guy. It was amazing, just real and raw. I can't remember his name, but he had been in jail and gotten out of jail for like 18 or 19 months and back in jail. I was watching that video, um, and you have a way of connecting with people where you can you feel safe and at home and like you can talk and share anything. So I love that you're creating more of your own content. What would you say for somebody who wants to start getting a message out there and making an impact? Where should they start? Should they start on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok? Where's the best place to start?

Well, first of all, I ask them what platform do they find themselves on most of the time. Secondly, What type of content do they want to create and where is that content mostly on which platform? And then thirdly, what influencers do they find themselves following the most that they like, that they feel like is giving a message in a way that they would like to, and which platforms are they most popular on? And then I'd ask them to ask themselves like, yo, what are the— what topics do you find yourself Like, we all watch videos and then we see a take and we're like, no, I don't agree with that, they should have said this, or, you know, or you see a bunch of people in the comments in the section like, oh, I know the answer to that, you know, make a video talking about it, you know.

Yeah.

And so once you start doing it, it's important, you know, to make sure you're doing something you're passionate about, because what happens is, you know, people really start paying attention to it. You know, because they— you're going to find that a lot of people think the same way you think, and that's, you know, how you connect.

Okay. What is your favorite platform?

YouTube is the best platform.

Yeah. You know, my 13-year-old, when she was about 10, was telling me, Mom, you got to get on YouTube. YouTube is where it's at. Like, you've got to get on YouTube. And I do put the podcast on YouTube, and it's been kind of like a little marathon. It's just steadily, you know, growing a little bit. Can't say it's gone viral yet. When it gets to what you said, 100 times more, then I'll let you know. Well, maybe when I start working with you, I can say that finally.

Yeah, YouTube is harder, but once you get it, it— like, the, the success and the reward for getting the YouTube right is far above every other platform.

The people that are renting our house when we move, like, famous on YouTube. It's like, that's where they make their living, on YouTube. I'm like, wow, that's mind-blowing. I was telling my daughter, who's 26, and she's studying her butt off— she's going to Yale, she's going to Yale for graduate school— and I was telling her that, you know, there was these YouTubers that were That's who we're renting our house to. She goes, what am I doing? Why am I studying so hard when I could be doing YouTube videos? And I'm like, well, I don't think it's that easy. I think you have to kind of figure out how to do YouTube also, but stay in school. Okay, I know we're running out of time. Just, can you, do you have time for a couple more questions? Like 2 more questions?

Yeah.

Okay, there's something that you say that I really love because a lot of people get stuck. A lot of people get scared to take, to get out of their comfort zone. But you say failure is the key to success. And I love that you say that because then maybe people won't be so afraid to fail. But what do you mean when you say that?

I think one of the most fundamental things that we are taught in life, unfortunately, is that failure is bad. Bad. That, that's—

oh, I was taught that. Oh yeah, there was a lot of shame around it. There was a lot of unworthiness around it. You're not good enough around it. Oh yeah.

We really need to change that perspective to, oh, you failed at this? Oh, tell me more about what you learned. Tell me more. Oh, you learned this? That's amazing. I'm so happy you learned that, right? The process of failure should be a learning experience. So To me, failure— to be honest with you, I don't even like using the word, you know. I like— and the reason why I say that is because failure should be used only in certain circumstances. Like, for example, if, if you wasn't successful at something, right, that doesn't necessarily mean you're a failure, right? Failure if you quit, sure, right? Or failure if Nothing was learned, sure, right? But ultimately what we're talking about is a redirection, right? When you're trying to do things, you're taking experience and, and it's just rerouting you to areas to be successful. That's all it is. You're just learning more and more and more. I think it was, uh, I forgot who it was. They, they, uh, didn't— they They tried like 100 times to create the light bulb, and they said it just— they just find 99 ways in order to, to not make it, and the one way in order to make it. So it's like, the thing is, we learn that failure is bad, but the truth is failure is just rerouting you to the place you need to go, right? All the different experiences that I had was just teaching me what not to do. So now I know what to do. And that's not a bad thing. That's a great thing.

Mm-hmm.

There is this fundamental misunderstanding that— if you think about this for a second, right? This is what keeps people from trying new things, because they're scared to fail. How can you ever find what you're called to do if you're scared to try new things because you're scared of failure? You can't do it. And so we get this fear and this shame and this guilt of not being successful. Right, and so we don't try new things because we're scared of that judgment of failure that everybody taught us was bad, instead of realizing that failure is good, or more so I should say, trying new things is good, and learning and gaining experience is good because you're not a failure and you didn't fail, because ultimately what you're trying to succeed at is life, right, and figuring out who and what you want to be. You didn't fail at that, so you're not a failure, you know.

So I love that perspective of looking at it that way. That's so good. So yeah, I mean, every failure— because I like to say I've learned from— I've learned so much from every— I mean, they've been difficult lessons. It's not always easy. But, but yeah, if you reframe it in that way, I've learned so much from you today. Before we go, what is one thing that you would suggest to someone who they're like, okay, I've listened, he tells me I need to get on YouTube and try things on TikTok and share my story to connect with people so I can go viral and people— I can make that impact, but I'm scared, I don't have the confidence. What would you say to somebody to help them build the confidence to and the courage to start? producing more media.

Yeah, only speak about what you know. Like, I think, I think one of the biggest things that people— they overcomplicate things. Like, what is it that you feel like you're better than, than everybody else, or you're very competent in? You don't even have to be better than everybody else, just something that you think that you're good at, something in a way that other people aren't. It doesn't matter what it is, just anything. There is something that you like. I don't care if it's yarn. I don't care if it's— listen, if you know how to mow grass— there's a guy that made a YouTube video— I mean, YouTube channel called Dad How Do I. And it isn't that he's the best dad, it isn't that he's the best, uh, handiworker, but he's just showing basic things to people that never had a dad. Listen, I'm gonna show you how to do a tie, I'm gonna show you how to mow the lawn, show you how to change it. You know what I'm saying? It's like, Dad, how do I— it's not the best, it's just something that he came up with that he wanted to do. Whatever it is, doesn't matter. Listen, you can literally read books and people will watch you read books because people like that. It doesn't matter what it is, whatever you think that you can contribute in a way that's different from everybody else. Just think about this for a second, right? Whatever you're good at, you're going to be good at in a way nobody else can be anyway because nobody has your life experiences. They're not you. They're not going to be able to say it in your voice. They're not going to look like you when you're doing it. They're not going to have your same exact emotions. So they can't be you. So whatever way you contribute to the conversation and to the goings-on of humanity in a way that only you can contribute, then people are going to evolve. People are going to be happy for that contribution because they're going to be able to now either be entertained by it, learn from it, or take that experience in order to build on themselves. And that's what you ultimately want. So just whatever it is that you're good at, or that you think you're competent at in a way that other people aren't, that's all you need.

Hmm, that's so good. That's so good. Yeah. And my daughter did a video on how to clean your squishies. It's these little toys, and it actually went viral on just how to clean your squishies.

Then nobody would even guess that would go viral, you know, right?

You know, but oh my goodness. Well, tell everybody if they want to work with you, they want to check out Inner Light Media, they want to check you out on Instagram, it's Travis Believes. If y'all heard something, I mean, there were so many nuggets of wisdom that you shared. Take a screenshot either, you know, if you're listening or if you're watching on YouTube, or take a screenshot and tag us at Amberly Lago Motivation and Travis Believes. And share it in your story. I love when I see that. I share it in my story when I see that you've listened. It means so much. But tell everybody where they can find you and, you know, so they can work with you or just check out your inspirational post on Instagram.

Yeah, just DM me on Instagram @travisbelieves on IG, or you can go to the Inner Light Media website at innerlightsocial.com and, you know, fill out the form there. And yeah, we, you know, would love to work with you to help you not only build an online community, but to really expand your message. I'm all about expanding people's messages. When I realized my talent was helping people bring out their message and to spread it, you know, that's my particular talent. All occupations require inspiration first. And so I want to be that inspiration for as many people as possible.

Well, that you are. And Travis, I have a few big ideas for 2020, like big things that I want to do in 2022. And there's like a list of 5 things, and you're on that list to actually finally get to meet you in person and work together. I think that when you can come together and you can brainstorm different ways of doing things, that's where the magic happens. So I appreciate you being on the show so much. Thank you for being here. I'll let you know when I get to Dallas. It'll be soon.

Amazing. Thank you so much.

Thank you.