How did Carson go from 0 to 80k+ Followers in 90 days!

How you been, man? You excited, man? Where do you come from? Tell the audience where you come from.

I'm coming from Atlanta, Georgia.

And you come to Miami just to go ahead and do some podcasts, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, good, dude. I'm gonna ask some questions no one's ever asked you because I want to pick your brain, bro. For those of you guys that don't know who this guy is, so he started off on Instagram. I was scrolling, right? And then I see a kid rapping and I'm like, dude, I remember because I was with my girl and I was like, damn, normally, bro, videos don't catch my attention. I just scroll past it. Then I saw yours and I was like, dude, I feel this kid's talking right to me, right? Because you were talking about something about social media, if your videos aren't getting views. And I was like, bro, that's me. Me because my business relies on paid. And I was like, baby, look at this. I saw the video, she's like, oh, he's really good. And that's how I started following you. And then last thing I checked, bro, you went from like 2,000 to like fucking 60,000. By the time this goes up, you'll probably be like 80, right?

Yeah.

So bro, yeah, yeah, how's been your growth? Talk to me about your journey when it comes to building your IG.

Yeah, yeah, bro, it's been a crazy journey when it comes to IG. I originally started on Instagram, uh, what was it, May 2022. So that was when I like committed to making content. I was posting twice a day every day on IG. And I was just at first First I started with just self-improvement. That was on my personal account. This is a new account.

Oh, it's a new account.

Yeah, this is a new account for info. Before it was just like my personal. I was just talking about what I like talking about. Okay. So first it was like productivity tips. Like I was waking up at 4:45 in the morning. So how I was doing it, cold showers, gym, reading, things of that nature. That was at first what I was talking about. Then after that, I pivoted into tech sales because that's when I got into sales closer to tech sales.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

So I was 18 at the time. I was getting into sales because I wanted to have a reason to drop out of school. Right. That was my motive.

Okay.

I was like, all right, now that I got a job in sales, I started teaching people how to do it.

Were you a setter, closer?

What were you? I originally— so for tech, I was an SDR, which is a setter.

SDR.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then I got into more of the info side of sales, which is high ticket. And then I started off closing, then became a setter.

So you didn't get into marketing and content. You first got into sales.

No, I actually— it was first content, but when I was still making content before getting into sales, like about the productivity stuff. And then I got into sales because I just needed a way to make money to not have to be in school. Right. So the sales is like my profession while the content was like my passion.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

So what offer did you work for? Like, who were you selling? What product?

First offer and info, I was selling tax services.

Okay.

So I was a tax company. They were doing different types of things. So it was like a done for you, done with you. Done for you was like, hey, we'll just do your taxes. We'll tax prep. It was around tax season. And then I had done with you was like a tax plan, a little more high ticket.

Yep.

So we had different price points. I was a closer for that offer. I got humbled pretty quick because I got absolutely killed by the other closer. He was cash collecting like 120. I was cash collecting like 24. Damn. But it was my first role. So it's like at the end of the day, I look back and I'm like, I mean, at the end of the day, it's your first role. Right. And then he happened to just be another closer alongside me. I wasn't the only guy. So it made sense. Then I became a setter. I was a setter for an event space company. So they were teaching people how to start their own event space business. And then also they had a partner offer where they were teaching people how to get into real estate as well. So that was the setting for those two info offers.

I'm curious, because a lot of people that follow me that come from sales, right? So I was the youngest employee Grant Cardone hired. I was in sales, worked my ass off, moved here, $100 to my name at 17.

Wow.

And I love sales. It's my first ever love, right? So what do you think the closer was doing that he was cash collecting like $100 grand and you were cash collecting $20? Looking back on it.

Well, I mean, at the end of the day, like, It came down to number one, just experience. That's like 90% because he was 29, I was 19. Right. So he had been in sales for years, had already been on other offers. But in terms of the actual tactical things, I mean, I think just from hearing some of his calls, one thing that he did really, really well was just the level of appearance. Right. That's something that it took me a while to value appearance. Just something as simple as What does your background look like if you're on a sales call? Do you have your hair taken care of? Is your camera blurry or is it looking crystal clear? Just little stuff like that. He would have it dialed in. He would actually dress up.

He would look crisp.

He would.

Like a professional.

Yeah. I was in my room. I was in my fucking mom's house. Right? So I was like, I was just taking the calls, you know, and then I, which is absolutely crazy. Like the guy that I was, the guy that I was actually closing for, he was, he really liked me. So like he was even giving me base as a closer. Base? Yeah.

How much was your base?

Like $2K a month.

Damn. Yeah.

I'm 19, so I'm like, shit.

You were balling out, bro. $2K there, $2K here.

I'm staying with my parents. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, shit, you know, $2K a month. So I'm comfortable, right? So I didn't even have that dog in me to really even study his sales calls, go through some of his things and be like, okay, what is he saying? Right? Because I also was only taking calls from this time to this time. I wouldn't really do follow-ups after. I was in between two offers because I had joined a sales mentorship where they place you after. But then what sales It was the mentorship name? Yeah. I don't know if you know Millionaire Closer. Okay. Dylan Blues.

I think I've heard of them.

Okay. Yeah, guys in Canada. So I joined their mentorship just about 2.5 years ago.

How much did you invest and would you say you got a return?

I mean, I did get a return because over 3 months I ended up paying $1,500. It technically was $5K, but I couldn't pay the whole— Right. Yeah, yeah. So they let me slide. They actually, they just removed me out the mentorship. But now, I mean, $1,500, like, I think when it comes to, like, you know, because I was making the $2K a month, um, I was making commission too. So I may have been making like $3K as a closer. As a setter, I'll be making like between like $2K to $4K, right? So like, I made like, I mean, at 19, which is nothing, this I don't consider this crazy money. At 19, I made like $38K, I think, right? That's fire, bro. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, just from an ROI standpoint, like $1,500 to make $38K, that was 19. At 20, this was 2024. So last year, the first like 4-ish months I was still setting, but then I decided to like stop setting and then I went, you know, more like entrepreneurship.

Interesting. So when you were doing the sales, right, how was your schedule like, bro? Because I had a similar thing, right? I was making great money because I was working at Grant. I learned from him, right? I was making half a million. I was 20 years old in commissions. But the difference between that, between you and I, was that you probably had a a lot of free time, right? At Grant's, you don't have any free time. You gotta wear a suit to work, bro. You gotta clock in, clock out. I'm sure like with high-ticket closing, you got a lot more flexibility. And I tell people all the time, like, bro, you're better off making $50 grand than making half a million and having no freedom and having $50 grand. I would much rather make $50 grand and have freedom than make half a million and have no freedom to do anything.

I was kind of in that same position. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my schedule, it was interesting. I'd say at 19, so if a typical day in the life when I was 19, because I was staying with my parents, It was, uh, I would wake up around like 5:30 and I was going to this gym called Rich and Fit at the time. It was a gym for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.

William. Yeah, Rivera.

Change lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was going to Rich and Fit, uh, I would leave.

You know what's funny? He lives right there in the building next door, right next to me. Yeah, like, like right over there, like in that building. No, no, in the building right next door. Yeah, that's where Lil Baby lives too.

Okay, he just moved there, right?

Yeah, he just moved there, uh, like 2 months ago.

Okay. Yeah, because I knew he was in another spot in Miami. Yeah, and he sold his penthouse in Atlanta and now he's here.

And also Lil Baby's in there too. Yeah, that building, bro, has all the influencers that you probably think of. They either live in Brickell or they live in that building.

It's called Paraíso.

Yeah, it's the most popular spot.

He was just talking about that. That's crazy. Yeah, so Will— I was going to Will's gym, uh, I would get there typically like 6:30 because I was kind of far. 6:30 to 8. 8:15-ish, I would work out at the gym, cardio, strength training. I would come from that side of town 8:15 to like 9:00 because it was more traffic then, driving home. Might have like a protein bar on the way there. 9:00, I'll shower. I would probably work on some content a little bit because I was still posting content while working in sales.

So what type of content were you posting when you were in sales? Because when I was in sales, I couldn't post any content. Yeah, nothing.

You had to be a ghost.

Yeah, you have to, or else you get fired immediately.

Yeah, yeah.

So what type of content were you posting?

Yeah, yeah, man. So I actually— this was my first business. So when I was in sales, I was doing setting. But my first business was actually a clothing brand. It was called Scars Make Stars. Okay. Because for me, it's a part of my story. Like me originally at the age of 2 being in a car accident, having a scar right here, right here.

I was going to ask you about that.

Okay, let's talk about that.

What happened there?

Yeah. So in terms of the business-wise or like the whole branding? Yeah, the message behind it. Yeah, bro. So it's crazy because it actually connects to me being at Rich N Fit. When I was at Rich N Fit, one thing I noticed about the gym, and you may have seen from the clips that were posted at the time, if you notice, like, Will would always, whenever he was there, it was a lot of energy, right? Like, uh, Timmy, his videographer, TK, uh, Timmy's homie, like, they would always have, like, a lot of energy, right? And that was something that I, I really gravitated towards, especially knowing that it was very entrepreneurial. But one thing about it is that with Timmy and TK, they would always have their shirts off. And I never wanted to take my shirt off because I actually have the worst scar on my chest, right? So when I saw that, I was like a little bit timid. But when I went to the gym, it was about on the second day. Like, the first day I didn't, you know, I didn't take my shirt off because everybody did. But the second day I was like, yo, like, I'm just gonna fucking do this shit. Did it. It got— it was hard until it became easy. But then when it became easy, it was like people actually started respecting me because I'm like, damn, bro, like, you know, for you to be in the gym and now you're getting right, like, people really respect the fact that, like, especially— yeah, you're fucking young, you're hustling.

19. Yeah.

Youngest person there every time. Oh yeah, yeah, everybody there is like 24 and up. Yeah, so that, that molding of like how I was able to like basically transform my whole view on myself, right? Like I view myself as like a different person, you know? Like I was like almost being looked at as like, like a badass. Like, oh yeah, this guy has scars and he's working out, like he's, you know, he's a tough-ass dude. So it started to like, I started to think of like, damn, this is like always the person that I've wanted to become where like I'm not scared of my scars, but it's the reason, it's the like branding for me. And then I already had the clothing brand idea in mind, but I just didn't know how it would come about, right? And as soon as like I got to the point to where I started posting my workouts in the gym, I started posting a little bit about like my scar journey because that was— I was almost a year into making content, so I was always doing personal branding. So for me, I started to just shift the content towards, you know, my story. People started to gravitate towards, and I was like, yo, like, um This is something that people really like hearing from me. And then what happened was not only was I making content around that, but 2 weeks later I ended up getting laid off at the start of the month. It was March 1st. I got laid off of the closing role.

What happened? Performance, or what was it?

It was just lack of performance, bro. Like, it wasn't even like I dropped the ball. Well, I'm not gonna lie, I was on a lot of shit leading up to that. So not only lack of performance, like, I was just wetting the bed compared to the other closer. But the second thing was I actually had a situation where I did something that wasn't the best. What I was doing was there was a consultant at the tax company, right? She had her own tax firm, but she was doing like services and she was like a white level partner. So what I was doing was there were high ticket packages anywhere from like $1,500 to $7K, right? And what I did as a closer, I was just trying to like get some commission or whatever. I ended up finding out that— I'm not going to say names, but the consultant that was working at the tax company, she had her own price points and they were a little bit lower ticket. And then what this guy said on the sales call, he was a closer. So he was like, hey man, like, I know you're a closer. I really like you. You're young. If you have a way for me to get like a consultation first before I pay you guys the high ticket, that would be amazing. And I was like, damn. Well, the founder, he doesn't like taking consultations. So I'm like, all right, well, I got to go through this consultant that's also— that's now doing it for the founder. So I'm like, I find that the consultant, she charges a little bit lower. So I ended up passing out to the consultant. The founder doesn't get paid, the consultant gets paid. She pays me under the table, right? And it's like some fucked up shit, right? Now where now he's mad at me, but really he's not as much as mad at me as he is at her, right? Because he's like, yo, what the hell, right? Like, so then that on top of me not having the best performance, you know, at times I would be like driving on the way home phone calls. I'll be back at college because I still fuck with my friends. I'll be taking calls at the gym. I was still attached. Like, it was just a lot of shit where, you know, my youth really showed. And he just, he just found other talent. He was like, yo, bro, like, I don't know, like, this is the best op. I just know that you're not the best fit here. He wanted me to be like a scriptwriter for him instead because he knew I really liked content. So he was like, hey man, I'll pay the same base for you to write YouTube scripts for me. And I declined because I was like, I want to be in sales. I want to make a fuck ton of money. I was closing maybe like 24, 25 cash collect in a month. I was like, yo, I know I can do 50 next month, which means I'll be taking home 5. And I'm 19, so I'm like, 5K, you know what I'm saying? That's good money. But he didn't want me on the sales team. So it happened so abruptly. He called me. He was like, hey, man, we're not having you on the sales team. This is my first rejection, so I took it personally. So that combined with the situation with, like, at Rich and Fit, me kind of gaining my own self-confidence, I was like, man, fuck this guy. I ended up starting the clothing brand because I was like, yo, I need a way to make money myself, right? I'll get back into sales, but I need to have a way to generate—

survive, of course.

Yeah, because I felt like that happened because I placed control of my income in someone else's hands. And I'm like, I at least need to now have my own income in my own hands, right? Where it's like sales, but then I'm also doing this shit, you know, running my business. Started the clothing brand, uh, and then the content—

what is that? How do— yeah, I want to— how does that pivot into it? Like the clothing brand, right? Were you selling it? How were you selling it? Was it organic?

Was it the videos? Was it paid?

Talk to me about that.

Yeah, bro. So the actual business structure of the clothing brand— so acquisition strategy was really like fully organic. If I knew what I knew now, I would have 100% like went into paid. Okay. But with what I was doing at the time. I was already doing content, so I just did what I knew. So I just kept posting. I would post different videos about— I'll post motivational videos like, hey, scars make stars. I'll do certain videos where I would be at clothing brand events.

Were you getting traction? Like as much traction you're getting now?

No way, bro. No way. All my videos—

Were you rapping or just normal?

I wasn't rapping. Nah, nah.

Something interesting.

It's funny, bro, because Knowing what I know now, if I would have seen the future of like, hey, this guy in what, 2 years? Because this is 2023, so 2025. If I would have seen 2 years down the future, I would have started rapping 100% because I had a video that did really well where I was rapping about business. And I think it was like new moves, making connections with good dudes, and I'm going extra because I want a Tesla with all of the tech like a guru. Damn.

Okay.

Yeah. So I made that shit at 18. I post the video, people were really fucking with it. But I stopped, like, because I was just like, uh, like, you know, I want to do the clothing brand. So I wasn't making rap videos, it was more so videos around the brand. I just didn't really know how to make like clothing brand content. I just love— but what I didn't love was just making content, right? I wasn't good at it in terms of, you know, videos weren't getting that many views, but because I love content, I was just staying consistent and got to the point where, thanks to a connection I made, uh, my roommate Jah Will He ended up helping me with content because he was blowing up teaching people how to make music and engineer their music. So he was more in the info space. So he starts teaching me about content and I started having a few viral videos with my brand. And that's when I was like, oh shit, I felt like I cracked the code because I was like, fuck, I've been posting this whole time. I've been so consistent, but it hasn't been leading to views. And now this first video that it took me, I mean, it took me like 2 days just to edit it because I was editing my own videos at the time. Editing, the scripting, my videographer shooting, doing multiple takes.

Were you self-taught with editing or you paid for a course?

How does that work? Well, thanks to him, because he was editing his own videos and he was like, I was actually, we ended up becoming roommates. I was taught by him. He didn't have a course. I was just literally, it was just like by osmosis, right? Success was caught, not taught. That's how I kind of learned editing. And then I was also copying edits of other videos. So I was like, okay, he did this in this video. How do I do this? And I would just YouTube it. It got to the point to where I wasn't even consistent with the videos. I would post maybe one a week and it would do better than all the other ones. But I was like, damn, the biggest bottleneck was the editing. So then when it got to the point to where now the Biz Lab, now we have a team of editors, it's been the biggest cheat code of just being able to post more.

Where do you hire your editors from?

We, it's a good question. So we used to do onlinejobs.ph. We used to go to like job posting platforms. I'll be honest, now it's a lot of network. Network?

Yeah.

So like IG? IG, yeah. Twitter?

How do you pay your video editors? Because that's a lot of thing, a lot of people struggle with that, right?

They're like, oh, how much do I pay them? Are they going to be good?

How do you track the performance? Like, how do you, like, give them like some insights on Let's say someone wants to have an editing team.

Okay.

What should they do?

If you want to build an editing team, I have this in an ebook I wrote. So there's 5 steps when it comes to, for me, when it comes to actually building out an editing team. And this is really any team when you think about it. You have the process of attracting team members, finding team members, interviewing team members, onboarding team members, and managing team members. Okay. Right. So when it comes to attracting team members, like obviously that's inbound, right? A couple of different ways to do inbound. You can go to different job posting platforms. I personally have seen the best job posting platform has been YTJobs.co. That's a really, really good one. Basically, with YTJobs.co, you're able to not only put a job description around, you know, the editor that you want, and it's a YouTube— it's a platform owned by YouTube. So it's like where editors actually like can list their clients. They can say, hey, we've generated this many videos. We've generated this many videos and it's generated this many views for this one client. You can go to the channel, it's already linked in there, so you can just do one click and then it takes you to the client's channel on YouTube. You can specify the type of niche editor you want. So whether that's a talking head editor, if that's an ASMR editor, if that's like a cinematic editor, you can specify that. You can specify short form, long form, podcast. It's a lot of different things. And then also you can specify the niche as well. So for me, I specify for the how-to niche and the education niche. But if it was adventure, if it's anime, if it's cooking, if it's baking, whatever it is, you can specify the editor you want. You can get really dialed in with that.

Okay, so you find someone from there, right? Then let's say you bring them on. What is the interview process? What do you look for? Do you negotiate salary?

Like, walk me through that. Yeah, yeah. So let's say, uh, so I have obviously attracting, finding. Now when you get to the interviewing part, right, I recommend number one, before actually getting on an interview with the editor, typically the I would call this like the, the qualification questions I ask before an interview would be number one, are they in school? How old are they? Are they working for anybody else? Do they have other clients, etc.? I want to at least know a little bit about them to where before I even hop on the interview, I'm like, okay, like, is this even a good fit? Right? Because if they're in school, we personally don't take them on.

You don't want them to be in school. Got it. Okay. So you want them— now what demographic do you look for? Do you look for young people like Iman? Iman Gadji, he looks for international people because labor is cheaper. What do you look for?

Young, 100%.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just like, it's kind of, it's similar to just like if you hire salespeople, like your number one, like LTV of a young person is a lot higher because you can get, let's say, 20 years out of them theoretically instead of 2 years out of them, right? But then not just that, but also just, uh, just speed of learning and the speed of implementation. Like when you think about somebody that is very young, they're usually very coachable, teachable. You can mold them into somebody that within 90 days is a clear difference of like they were this good at editing versus this good at editing, right? Right. So coachability, teachability, then also the cost of living for them is typically lower. Like, if you have a 35-year-old that's looking to edit, typically they have a family, they're living—

wife, kids.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for the same service, you might be paying more just because their cost of living is higher.

And how much do you pay for like a good editor? Like, do you have tiers? Like, okay, this guy, I'm gonna pay him this, this guy, I'm gonna pay him this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I would say there's definitely tiers, and while there's a range, I would say after going up the ladder of like starting off paying around $20 a video. Then my, my, like, my skin got thicker. I was like, okay, I could pay like $30 to $50. Then again, it's like about $40. Now we start guys off at $60, right? I would say between— if you're looking for, like, if anybody's watching this and they've seen my content, if you're looking for my style, to be safe, I would say you should set aside about $100 a video. The guys that start don't edit for me. So we have an agency where first they start with the clients, then they start with me.

Right.

And for them to end up getting to the point to where they can edit for me, they at least have to know.

So you already hire people that are like, have a good understanding about what— you never hire like a beginner that just trying to like—

Nah, we'd have to coach them. So.

Right. And it takes longer.

Yeah. So we'd really charge them if we were to do that.

Interesting.

Because we'd be building them up so much to where it's like we're actually giving more time. Right.

Right. That makes sense. How many editors do you currently have on your team?

How many do you have on your team right now? Right now we have about, I believe it's 7.

7?

Yeah.

And how do you manage it? Do you have like a team leader?

I have a team leader.

You have a team leader? Okay, and how many videos, like what's their quota? Like if someone, let's say, for example, I have 2 editors right now, right? 3 editors including one in Latin America. How do you manage them? The biggest issue that I've had, and I'm sure a lot of people have, is like, okay, you have a bunch of videos.

Yeah.

Cool, they're done.

Yeah.

Amazing. It's good, but they're not amazing videos. How do you make sure that they get amazing videos?

Number one, the, the, the biggest thing you can always do is define what amazing is. Like, you think of amazing, what would be a creator that comes to mind?

Sure, your content.

Okay, cool. So let's say that's the standard. So if amazing is the standard, now we have to work backwards. It's like, okay, working backwards in the sense of managing an editor that needs to produce amazing work, realistically the highest level thing you can do is number one, like, if the guy is already— so managing is different from training. If you're managing somebody, they should be already trained. Now when it comes to managing somebody, typically the things that they, they would need to just be as successful as they can be is honestly like being the best creator you can be, right? Like the fact that I rap every video, my editor enjoy editing my stuff. When I was doing just regular talking head, I would still script my own videos word for word. So at least the editor knows exactly what I'm saying. Then they can take my script, they can put it in Figma, and then they can start storyboarding the video.

Well, you said an app. What's Figma? What is it?

Figma.com. So Figma.com is number one, the app that the editors use for different designs to come up with, like, that they put in the video. So obviously the video, the editing is not just maybe cutting the video where it's like cuts, captions, and music. That's like a hard cut. But an actual, I would consider like a soft cut where they tend to make the video very creative, like they put their creative spin. That's where they may come up with designs within After Effects. It might be Figma where they can go on their iPad, they can start drawing, and they can really get creative with it.

So you want them to like, this is an interesting point, right? Because you want them to script out their animations. On 4.

Yeah. So the top guys who edit for me, especially if it's like an ad, right? Because we do pay them. If it's like an ad, yeah, 100%. They draw out like, okay, scene 1, he said this right here, what I'm going to put. Scene 2, this right here, this is what I'm going to put. And the creative director hops on calls with the editors and is like, hey, do this storyboard this way, do it this way. When you represent this scene, use this type of animation because of this. I will say when it comes to managing, if you're looking to manage the editing team and do it at the highest level, the best thing to do that I've personally used, even if you aren't doing an agency where your team is doing edits for people, I will say to be safe, hire two. Make sure that they're both good. The better one, make them manager, because what the manager will be able to do is take a lot of load off you of like leaving some revisions coaching them on how to depict certain scenes, giving them references. So if you like content like mine, then give them 3 references. Say, hey, this guy posted this video, this video, this video. Take certain animations and put it in yours, right? For me, if I really want to— if I really want them to do something well, I'll send the editor a Loom video. I'll say, hey man, I like this video, it's really good, here's how it can be better. I'll go to Instagram, I'll show them some of, you know, some other people's content that really have really solid editing. I've been like, hey bro, they did this at this scene, I want this to be in this scene. And then I'll go back to another software we use, Frame.io. And with Frame, you're able to basically leave comments at certain timestamps within the video. So I'll be like, hey, at 6 seconds, I want the scene to look like this, and go to Instagram and then go back to Frame. So that's one of the things you use for management.

How long would you say it takes you from, let's say, an idea to like video? Video.

That's a good question, bro. So, uh, my media buyer is actually not gonna like this. Uh, she's Anaya. She's actually the GOAT when it comes to managing my ads. The thing that I have to do though is I still give her the creatives, and one of her biggest, uh, pet peeves of mine is that it takes a while for me to go from idea to video when it comes to just the actual like concept of the content I make. Like, because I have a, I have an ad that's running right now where I'm rapping It takes a while for that video to be created. So when it comes to idea, typically like the ideas come from maybe questions that the audience has. I usually already have ideas on hand just because they ask me so many questions. Now when it comes to the script, I can write a script, I will say, like just a, like just words in terms of what I'm saying right now. I can write a script probably in 10 to 30 minutes, maybe 20. I'll say 10 to 20 minutes.

And what's the creative process behind that? Like, do you just like— do you think of a beat first? Do you think of a topic first?

Yeah, bro, that's a good question. So typically when it comes to the— yeah, so the rap creation, because when I first started the rap, I would actually do a script first and then turn it into a rap and just make it rhyme.

Got it.

That's what I would do. Now that I've done a few times. Typically I'll kind of— I'll actually go rap first and then script, or I'll just rap it and then structure it out because I already have a consistent flow that I typically use for my songs. And what happens a lot of the time now, my creative process is, you know, let's say that I'm in the car, like me and Anaya, you know, we were— I actually was in LA before I went to Atlanta, so Anaya might play some music in the car, she's playing like some Lil Uzi Vert, and I hear like— she might be playing Neon Guts, and I'm hearing this song every time I listen to music because I personally actually stopped listening to music only. Music I really listened to was my own now.

Okay.

But if I do listen to music and I'm with her in the car, I'm like okay, wait so you have your own music?

I didn't know that on my platform.

Oh okay yeah Spotify or no which is also coming soon as well because like most people are willing don't listen to my stuff, but I might listen to Neon Guts. I'm like, huh, how can I play off of that, right? Because usually what I look for when it comes to me listening to music now, I listen to like— I listen to the buzzwords that come up a lot. So Neon Guts is the name of the song. They say it a lot in the song, and I gotta come up for all right, I got Neon Guts. And I'm like, okay, Neon Guts, what's Neon Guts? That's a color. Okay, how can I connect colors to content? Well, with content, a lot of people use colors for their captions. Okay, well, if they use colors for their captions, then I could talk about brand colors and how you use the same specific color.

The background, your background picture.

Exactly, exactly. So then that's when I made a— that's when I made a rap about brand colors. And I said, you shouldn't post on Instagram again. Well, that's until you pick your brand colors, right? And then I just started flowing. I was like, okay, brand colors, brand lovers, like how to turn your final to brand numbers. I'm like, well, and then so my structure when it comes to the rap is usually, you know, along with just making it rhyme, it's the what, why, how framework that I use for creating content, right? Very simple, tried and true way to educate people in a clear way. What, why, how. Well, what typically 90% plus of my videos are like negatively framed of like you shouldn't do this, never do this, stop doing this, Right? So you shouldn't— the what is the mistake they're making. So what mistake are they making? You shouldn't post on Instagram until you pick your brand colors, right? So the mistake is they don't have brand colors. Okay, cool. Why is this important? The what, why, how framework. Why? Let me show you why this is important and how I can turn your followers to brand lovers. Okay, cool. Now I'm framing that I'm about to tell them about why. The why, according to studies, 85% of all customers use colors as a guide on choosing using one brand over others. So here's how to know the brand colors that you should decide on, right?

Shit, it rhymes, bro.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that— but that's the actual thing. Like, I looked up studies because if I'm searching up why, like, I wanted to be credible. So I'm like, okay, like, why are brand colors important? I'll do some research on it. And it said that— that's an actual stat— 85% of customers, when it comes to making a purchase, they actually have brand colors influence that, right? So typically, like, especially if it's maybe something that It might be clothing. Brand colors are super important, right?

Because like trust and all those things.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, doctors, they typically go with blue as their brand color. So I'm like, okay, like I could use that as a method to teach people why it's important. So, so here's how to know the brand colors that you should decide on. Now here's how, right? I'd say that phrase a lot because that, that foreshadows me giving them action steps. Go to your— so, so here's how to know the brand colors that you should decide on. Just write everything that you want your brand to represent, right? So visually, the editor is showing that on screen. He's like, hey, trust, energy, this, that. I want the brand to represent that. And then I'll tell people, usually if I give action steps, I'll tell them to visit the website because it's something they can do very easily. And you have to think of the psychology of the viewer in the sense of if they're viewing me on the phone, there's only a few things they can do on the phone. They can go to an app or go to a website. That's it. That's actually it, right? So it's like, okay, tell them to go to a website, colorpsychology.org. We'll give you colors and then it'll give you more insight into what each one represents, essentially. So let's say my brand is known for its energy. I'd pick a color like neon guts. Neon is a color known for its energy. So that's how I connected it back to the original song, Neon Guts Instrumental, right? And my brand would be in everybody's memory. And then, yeah. And then I tell people now, and it's the what, why, how framework, and then how ties back into the what. So how does the how, which is the action steps, how do these action steps actually help them overcome this mistake? Right. Well, now that they've done this, now just use this brand color in your profile pic, your website, your captions. So when people see the color neon, they think of your brand because of the attachment, because they can attach the color to your brand. Now that you're ready, now go run play so people remember your brand and your name. And then my CTA, usually pretty consistent, be sure to follow because I'll keep rapping so that you can up your personal brand today. Keep shining. And that's the song.

So you're tailoring basically want more followers. You're not doing a call to action, comment down below.

Uh, yeah, typically, not even typically, like all my posts are optimized for just brand building. Like just value, value, value, value.

How are you converting that? Because I see you've been closing deals, right? So how many deals What kind of deals would you say? I don't know if you share numbers publicly, but what are your numbers looking like? How much are you converting? What does your typical sales call look like? Like, okay, they found you on Instagram, they see you rapping. Do they go to a landing page?

Do they go to DMs?

Like, walk me through the backflow.

So I typically like, I mean, when I think of the organic, like my main goal for organic is trust, brand reputability. Like it's genuinely like just goodwill. Okay. Like when I think about Hormozy, like, 'cause you never see Hormozy selling. Him giving, giving, giving, giving, and then he doesn't stop giving until people ask, and then he ends up, you know, whatever he does. So I kind of follow the same principle, right, for the brand goodwill. When it comes to the actual conversion of it, typically people reach out inbound. I get a lot of inbound DMs.

Interesting.

And I feel like that is because of the goodwill associated of like, yo, this guy, he's just like, I just love him. You know, a lot of people reach out to work for me. They might reach out because they want service. They reach out, they want coaching or whatever. Now inbound DMs is one, uh, story sequences is two. So I could be a lot more consistent on stories. We're about to implement a process for that. But if I do a story sequence and I'm like, hey, here's my story, here's how I did this, here's that, how did that— I have 3 slots for a one-on-one consultation. I usually charge this, but now it's this. Comment the word content if you want me to help you on a one-on-one call as well. We'll convert.

So it's a consultation, you get them in through a consultation. How much do you charge for a 1-hour consultation?

We charge $500 now.

Okay, beautiful. When you say we, do you have business partners involved or is it just—

Nah, I just say we anytime because I have a setter, right? Right. Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful.

Yeah, so they DM you $500. Where do you transact? You Stripe, WAP?

Yeah, we used to— you, bro, so we're, we're phasing out Stripe right now to go all in on WAP.

Stripe's crazy.

Yeah, Stripe was crazy, bro. They held like a lot of money. A lot. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't even pay my team fight a good week because they were like holding all my money.

I had a 180-day hold.

That's crazy. 6 months?

Wow.

Yeah, I felt crazy after they were holding my shit for like 6 days.

It's crazy. Yeah. And you know why they're holding it, right? Because they're doing an IPO. They're gonna launch publicly.

So they—

course creators, digital products, they're trying to stay away from that.

Okay.

Yeah. So WAP is good. Are you processing through WAP yet or not yet?

Not yet, but I already have an account.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, and some of my clients, they're becoming affiliates on WAP.

That's awesome.

And then I also got my limit raised. So that was one reason I wasn't transacting on WAP. My, my limit was only like $2.5K. The head of partnerships, he raised me to $10K. I think I have to do like 2 transactions before I can get to like $15K, $20K.

There's a limit on WAP?

There is, bro.

I had no idea there was a limit.

What the heck? Yeah, which it fucked me up because I had a client. I had no idea. Yeah, he paid me like over $5 grand one time and I couldn't charge him on WAP. I was trying to, but the shit kept saying limit. And then I texted the head of partnerships. The guy didn't reach out back fast enough, so I charged him on swipe. No, no, um, Joseph.

Joseph. Okay.

Yeah, you know Joseph?

No, Dan.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, Joseph, he takes some of the calls too. But I talked to, I talked to Joseph after he finally raised me, but then by that point I had already sent them an on Stripe because the guy is saying, hey bro, send me the link. So I'm like, I'm not about to stop people from paying me. A guy pays me over $5,000, the shit gets held in Stripe and I'm just like, fuck. My team is saying, hey man, when's the payouts going on? I got software, it's fucking hitting. What's your fee on Waffle? What are they taking off top? I don't know what they're taking off top actually. I have to ask because I would assume Zoom is generally like, I mean, I think industry standards are like 2.9%.

They're pricey.

Okay.

They're pricey. So I noticed, right, because I was transacting, I was like, where the fuck's the money? Like, where? So I looked at the details of the transaction, the payouts, bro, it's 2.9% because they use Stripe, right? But they use Stripe through WAP.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

So they pass the Stripe fee to you.

Okay.

And I love WAP, by the way. Everyone's watching from WAP. But they pass the Stripe fees to you and they charge you an additional 3% on top of that. So you pay 6%.

5.9? Yeah, it's insane.

And that's if you get a good deal. A lot of them, a lot of people charge 5 or 6% just of that fee on WAP and then plus an additional 2.9% on Stripe. It's like 8%.

It's crazy.

Yeah. I like to use multiple payment processors. You never want to rely on one. A good one that I'll recommend you is Fanbases.

Bro, so I signed up for Fanbases too. The thing I think about Fanbases is like, I noticed that number one, WAP's financing is better. Like, they— I think you know about the split pay. Yeah, or split it. That's what it's called, split it. Yeah, the shit finances up to $60,000, $70,000.

It's crazy.

Yeah, yeah. I think Fanbases, they had— Carnet was like up to $10,000.

So dude, I like Fanbases.

What makes you go Fanbases over WAP, bro?

So for me personally, bro, the payouts are quicker. Okay, they're way quicker in my opinion.

I need that shit.

1, 2 days, bam, in your account. Plus the second thing, bro, is the fees are smaller. They charge me 2.9%. I got to negotiate a good deal where it's just 2.9%. So they're charging me the same deal as Stripe, but that's because I process a lot, right? So you got to just go in and call with her, the lady. I'll connect you if you want. And you just got to negotiate with her. You can negotiate, they'll give you a good deal. But bro, that's just— majority of my deals come from Afterpay or Klarna. WAP doesn't have Klarna right now.

Really? They don't have it available. Oh wow.

They have Splitit. They're trying to push Splitit. But Splitit, do you know the fees they take?

Bro, Splitit's insane.

They take, if I'm not mistaken, 10% on top of the 6%. So you're missing out on 16% of your money. Got it. That's like sales guys' commission right there.

Yeah.

That's a lot.

That's worse than sales guys.

It's a lot.

It's a lot.

It's a lot.

It's worse than sales guys.

It's a lot, bro. For you, what I would recommend is getting fan bases and just Zelle. Zelle, bro. Zelle will be your best friend. Have you done Zelle or no?

I've never done— I've always thought like with this tracking with Zelle, like at least it's the best. Really?

Zelle, no chargebacks, no disputes, nothing clean in your account that very moment. It's the best.

I thought about Zelle being like under the table shit. Like how do you like—

you report it. So what bank do you have?

Um, I have a business bank account, it's called Relay.

Okay, so I would recommend you getting Chase, right? Chase is one of the biggest banks in the world for the funding. Yeah, not just for the funding, just for to have a bank account to process money. Or you want to get Chase?

I have a Chase business bank now.

Yeah, you can go right here, there's a Chase right there, open an account, one week you're up, right? Why Chase? Because Chase, the Zelle, bro, is beautiful. You can get Zelles up to $7,000, $10,000.

Really? It's your account. I didn't know that. Yeah, bro. Limit? Okay.

No, there's no limit. Some people might have a daily limit, $5,000, $7,000, but it's still better because there's no fees, bro.

Yeah, you can still Zelle from like up to $7,000 and then for Fanbases like higher than that.

Exactly, bro. Dude, I do Zelle all the time. For wires, you do $25K and above. For Zelles, bro, any $7,500, $5K, $10K, just Zelle, Zelle, Zelle.

Wow, wow.

It's the most, it'll save your business, bro. Instant in your account.

Yeah.

It's the best thing. My sales guys always know, first line of defense, Zelle. Then if that doesn't work, then Fanbases. If that doesn't work, then WAP. If that doesn't work, then ACH. Yeah.

Oh, not even Stripe. I don't even fucking Stripe.

I got 5 bans. Stripe's banned.

Damn.

I have $2 grand right now in Stripe that I just can't get out. I'm stuck there forever.

Fucking crazy, bro.

But that's interesting.

That's great.

No, but that's interesting, right? Because a lot of people don't know that, right? Because you're great at the content side, right? You're great at the content.

You're getting—

how much would you say you've made if you don't want to share?

Yeah, no, for sure. We've made close to $110K in the last year, bro. Majority of that has been organic.

Organic.

Yeah. We started doing paid this month. Um, so yeah, collectively since I started, like, that's been a little under a year, 110. It's beautiful, bro. Yeah. Um, this year we're about—

you're 96, bro.

You're about 90. We're close to 100. Yeah, now, so we're gonna hit like—

so you'll get to a mil? Yeah, by this time next year you'll be a mil.

Yeah. Well, first 6 months we've done close to 6 figures. It's awesome. So like, yeah, 6 months, 6 figures.

Um, and what's your deal?

We've been averaging around 30 for the last 3.

Okay, well, what's your package? So you jump on a call, right? They DM you. Is it you that get on a call or you have a closer?

Ah, it's me still.

It's still you.

Okay, got it.

So you get on the call. Are you— you lean in all the way or you're kind of more like a chill back? Hey, here are the packages. You want to buy it, buy it.

If you don't— I'm kind of like that. You're kind of like that, bro. And it's not even like the fact that I don't want to close, but like I've actually seen, especially with my market, like I only sell B2B.

Got it.

So that's another thing too, like I'm big on big on goodwill also because I aspire to go into B2C later, but I'd rather build up so much goodwill now and then just have so much selling power.

So you don't even have a product like a digital product?

I don't even have— no, no, no, it's all agency.

That's interesting.

So for me, I'm big on— I'm kind of chill because with B2B, it's a lot more of a logical sale. It's not like, hey, emotion. Hey, bro, let's do this shit. Like, it's nothing like that. When I used to be in high making sales. I'm not like, okay, hey, like, hey man, this is clear numbers. If you're spending, uh, if you're spending $10,000 a month on ads and you know that this organic content can drop your cost per lead by 50%, well, you can literally spend the same $10,000, get double the lead flow, your closers can close double the deals, and then your organic is actually able to get you an extra $200 grand a month, and you're only paying us this, this, this. And it's a very— it's like, it's like clear fucking and he's like, okay man, I know that sounds good, but can we start off with like one video? And then I'm like, yeah, yeah, and I'll credit that to this, and then we'll negotiate that. He'll pay the rest after the video does really well because he really likes the video, you know. So it's like, it's not really like a hard sell.

So do you charge per video or is like a retainer fee?

It's retainer for sure.

How much do you charge like on average? What's your average ticket price?

Yeah, yeah, we on average somebody will pay us around 3.

3? And what does that include?

Yeah, for 3 they get access to 8 videos a month.

8 videos a month?

Like, that's like done for them.

Okay.

Yeah, so they are the face, but we pretty much do everything else.

That's fire. So you script it, you tell them what to say, how to say it. Is it just short form or also long form?

We do just short form right now.

Just short form right now?

Yeah.

Damn, it's fire, bro. So what is that, the math? 3,000 divided by 8? That's fire. And you're—

no, no, actually, actually, actually, 3,000 divided by Because $250 a video is actually the higher ticket package. So $3,000 divided by 8, that'll average around $375 a video.

That's pretty fire, bro.

Yeah. So we have 3 packages. We have the 3K for 8 videos, the 4.5K for 16, and the 6K for 24.

Have you thought about upping your price with more videos?

I have thought about upping my price. Because I feel like it's too little, right?

You post more than 8 a month, right? How many videos do you post?

Well, that's actually just an entry-level package. We usually try to get people at least fee for the 4.5, okay, which is $1,600. Okay, that means they can post—

that's a way better deal.

Yeah, yeah, 4 times a week they post, which is— I would say like that's, that's a good amount of posts, right?

For sure. Do you have a minimum, like, or is it a month-to-month?

It's a 3-month minimum.

3-month minimum.

So yeah, they can either do $3K a month for 3 months, or they, they can just pay us $8K up front.

That's so interesting. What would you say your profit margins are on your agency now?

It's a little lower. I'd say it started off around like 75-80. Now around like $60,000, $70,000 because I have a copywriter, I have a creative director, software, you know.

And you haven't thought about just like selling digital products?

No, I have. Now the products, they're gonna come for sure. My next move is actually the community, so like a high ticket MRR because what I've seen is a lot of times because I have a, you know, the funnel that we run is actually, that's a VSL funnel that is optimized for high ticket But what that does is a lot of times people just instantly get disqualified because of my Typeform. The first question is, hey, do you have an online business generating at least $10K a month in the last 3 months? Right? So we vet them instantly. If they say no, it instantly ends the form. So it's like, interesting, bro. Like, it's crazy because one thing that I know as a business owner, I've had to come up with— I have to face the reality of the fact that while goodwill is very important, like, I do value the LTV of my brand on, like, me being able to do something long term. It does have its fucking pains in the ass short term because, like, to see— I mean, bro, I have my Slack channel with the sales team chat. Like, it's just the Typeform automation, like, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, like, score 0, which means that they click no and it instantly ended the form. I've seen that shit every day.

It hurts.

It does hurt because you don't even have Not just paying, I mean paying for them with editors, with, you know, if we do paid, they come from paid. But not even just that, but also the fact that like when they go, so my instant disqualifier is like basically straight to the like one-on-one call to where they can book a call with me for, you know, $497. They also get, you know, access to my course as a thing of like booking the call.

Oh, so you do have a course?

Yeah, I do. Okay. Yeah.

And do you sell that or is Or is it part of like the—

It's part of the call because I don't know, that's another thing too, like I generally want to help people with the implementation. Like with just do-it-yourself, I don't know because it's not, I don't know, for me when I recorded the course it's kind of like, "Noom," it's like it's me reading a doc. I want it to be a lot more higher quality. So that's why I pair it with the call because like it's really just a call with me and you get free access to the course.

I think you should raise your price to $1,000 minimum. $997.

Yeah. One-hour call, $997. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Because then you would attract the real people, you know?

Not just that either. It's also the fact that I grow so fast, bro. It's hard for me to even keep track of like, oh shit, I should up my price because I literally went from— I was just at $20K, we uppriced then, we're at fucking $60K. By tonight, like, that's a 3x, you know what I'm saying? And like, the organic still doing what, you know, so it's like, it's hard for me to keep up. Um, margins, obviously, like, we, we hire people so fast, but I'm like, oh shit, like, we brought on more clients.

How many, how many salespeople do you have?

Just one, bro. Well, I've said it.

Yeah, how many setters?

Uh, we have one.

How many calls are they doing, would you say?

Like, booking?

Yeah, like, just calls in general. Do they do outbound calls or no?

It's DM. DM? Yeah, because the majority of my —like traction is—

Bro, something that helped me tremendously, I think is gonna— might help you from grants, bro, is outbound. I have 7 sales guys. They do about 60 to 70 outbound dials every month. Okay. $60,000 to $70,000.

So a lot of dials, right?

But it equals to conversions because we call people, they get a free ebook, paid ad, right? They call them, get them on an appointment, get on a call, close them. High ticket, $7,500, $10,000, $25,000, $30,000 for mentorship. Okay. So dude, I think if you start implementing that, and you can talk to Leo about it, he's got great salespeople. That's what he does, he sells salespeople, bro. If you implement like an actual outbound, do you have a CRM right now? Yeah, I do. How many leads would you say you have?

Uh, GoHighLevel, I haven't, so it's not, it's getting built out right now. We don't have everything in GoHighLevel, so it's hard because I know in Calendly I say it might be close to 100, now I'm guesstimating, but majority of my leads are all B2B. So I would say it's a lower amount where I'm like, I've done a lower amount of calls, more amount of leads. But obviously like that's the service we sell with agency.

It's interesting. Yeah. Because you're more B2B, right? My digital product. So I've done the product digital. Yeah. It's B2C. Yeah. It's B2C. We also do B2B as well, but the majority of it is B2C for the B&B Know How, which is the education company. So I've invested $400 grand. I made back $2 million cash collected. But I'm trying to get into organic because if I would've done it organically, dude, I would have kept $2 mil instead of $400 grand down the drain.

Yeah, or it may have been just $200 grand to make the same $2 mil. Exactly.

Now the thing about ads is it's great because it's predictable, right? I know, for example—

That's why we do paid now.

Yeah. How much are you spending on paid right now?

Oh, we spend about $50 a day. That's pretty good, bro.

Yeah.

And you're getting leads or no? We are. I say there's been a little bit of creative burnout because I've been doing the same creative for about 3 weeks. Okay. So I've had to start now getting comfortable struggle with doing more paid because I'm so used to my style. My content style is so optimized from just quality that I'll take time to make a video and I'm cool if it takes time. But with paid, you have to act fast. So my media buyer, Ken and I, I tell a story about her. She's always on my ass about more creatives, more creatives. She's really good at what she does, so she needs the creative a lot to test. Like the testing. And it's been an adjustment for me getting into paid because I'm not used to like having to optimize and like actually now do call to actions. I'm so used to giving value because like that's really like true to me. I just always want to give, give, give, give. So it's been an adjustment of like, okay, like I have to think, okay, sell, break beliefs. Like, you know, so it's been an adjustment for paid, but I like it. It's like a new challenge.

I think you know what you should do. You would crush webinars. That's what I do, webinars.

She does— she's really fucking good at webinars. You should do webinars. It's interesting, bro. So I'm, I'm curious about like— my thing about webinars is I've always thought about it being something for B2C. Like for B2B, I was— my plan was to implement like a paid workshop funnel to really attract people that— higher quality. Yeah, leads. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm cool with speaking to 10 people if they've paid money, not just that. But it's a sign of seriousness. Let's say it's 10 people, them each paying $100, like, bro, it's $1,000. I don't give a fuck. But I just know the value of that prospect. They'll all show up to that call, those 10 people. They will stay for like an hour and 30, 2 hours. They'll ask me good-ass questions. It won't be some shit like, how can I blow up? I'm like, bro, what the fuck?

You know what's interesting? Because I used to have the same idea, right? 'Cause B&B, you need money. Like, it's not like a business model where you can get into it with $0. You need $5,000 to $10,000 put away to get into Airbnb. So in my webinars, what I do is I just get a bunch of people on there, bam, bam, bam, and I have two options. Hey, based on the Typeform, it disqualifies them. You either want passive income or active income. If they not qualified, they go to active income, where we sell them sales training. Anyone could get into sales training, get a sales job.

And they end up like, yeah, okay.

If they have the money, they go to, passive income. I think you should do that too, bro. Like, hey, if you— Typeform, they're not qualified, not B2B, course, $1,000.

Yeah, they are. Boom. So the MRR community is really next for me too. Yeah, because I would want to have like a group model where it's like, okay, like there's a lot more LTV and like them knowing that, hey, there's a lot of people in here.

Oh, you can launch out tonight. I know, bro. You can get so many people with your stories.

Hey guys, I'm in Miami. I fucking know. And then there's like, there's such a big— I'm not used to this. Like, I'm so used to like being low-key. Like, I just was low-key. So now it's like, shit, if I have 60,000, a lot of people will be in that community. The launch would be fucking crazy. Like, what's your goal? What's your target?

Like, where do you want to— what do you see yourself doing, let's say, 3 years from today?

3 years? My target, bro? Man, it's hard. 3 years is like, I don't know, like, because I think about 3 years ago, if I could see where I'm now, I'll be like, oh shit, Carson's a pretty cool guy.

You'll be my age in 3 years.

Damn, I get old. I was one of the youngest.

I'm 23. Okay, 23.

Yeah, so I'm gonna be 24 in 3 years. Okay. Yeah, so you're 21? I'm 21. Okay, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So at 24, bro, hmm, man, that's a good— I could just see myself being like just a, like a kind of like just an elevated version of who I am right now. Like, I think about like, I kind of would compare myself in This is not actually to sound like cocky or anything like that, but in terms of like where I see my trajectory going, I can see it being similar to MrBeast.

Yeah.

Where like he's always been a face and like his face just eventually just— he just— his face and his like, like his face card alone, like millions of people, billions of people. And he's had that one face card be something that is shown everywhere. I see myself having a very similar trajectory to where obviously right now we're like B2B, we're agency, I coach people on content. But if you notice, like at the end of my videos, like I always say keep shining. So me branding the concept of Keep Shining because we're rebranding the agency to Keep Shining Media. Oh, that's fire. Yeah, yeah, that's fire. Getting a logo design, it's gonna be fire as crazy.

Yeah, and you do a clothing brand too, Keep Shining.

That's what I'm saying. That's fire. That's next. Yeah. So like be more B2C, like clothing, branding. Keep shining, bro. Like it could be like, it could be food. Like, hey, keep shining, keep shining, whatever. Like really, you just keep trying podcast. Like I'm on a podcast. Keep shining. Like software.

You know what's so interesting about you? When I ask that question, always everyone always tells me financial goals. You said you didn't even You mentioned a financial goal, you went straight to like keep shining, branding, LTV, bro.

Like LTV is like myself. I really like, like when I look at my, my comments, I look at my DMs because I check them a lot, you know, I'm on Instagram a lot. Um, I've just really been able to realize, bro, like, like how much of a, like an impactful brand like I really have on people. And, um, it's something I definitely don't take lightly because people DM They'll be like, yo, bro, like, you know, like, you're, you're the one person to where, like, every time I see your videos, I'm like, this is Carson again, it's Carson again, it's Carson again. It's almost like a dick thing. It's like a video game. Like, when you, like, like, when you hop on the PS4 or PS5, you, like, press the fucking button in the middle and then everything just pops up your whole day. Like, everything fucked up that day that you were thinking, everything just goes away because, like, like now every— the PlayStation's on, right? Like, I almost have noticed my videos have that same type of impact of like, yo, it's Carson again. Yeah, like, like they watch all the way through. Like, I had one of my followers, he was like, yo, you're the one of the few people who like every video I watch from you, I watch all the way through, you know what I'm saying?

You know what's interesting? Because I see a bunch of people doing the similar things to what you do, but they're not rapping. So I always skip it. I'm like, oh, this shit's boring. With you, bro, I can actually watch the full video because it's entertaining and it makes you want to watch the other videos.

Yeah, and it's a cheat code too, bro, because I realized with my videos, this one girl, she was like, she was like, Carson, like, your videos are so funny because I get so like so hyped when I'm listening to the videos that I'll actually rewatch it again to learn what you were saying. That's fine. Let's think about the watch time on that. Yeah, it's fucking crazy. Yeah, I'm like, if everybody's watching my vid multiple times, one, once or twice, then it's like, you know, Instagram just pushing my shit out so much. So when I think about like 3 years, bro, I genuinely see my— I mean, restaurants, like, I, I see myself being just like just the face Carson, just being everywhere. That's why, like, just like— and I keep saying the word face because, um, I just realized like people's attachment to me when they see this kid, he has his sponged hair, this nice skin kid in his room with the fucking gold RGB. Like, the amount of like happiness that I'm able to put in people, it's like, it's something I don't take lightly, bro. You know what it reminds me of, bro?

I don't know if you watched— you watch Disney growing up? Disney Channel? Uh, a little bit. There's a movie, it's called, uh, shit, it's Let It Shine.

No, it's Let It Shine. That would be crazy. Yeah, Let It Shine. Okay.

Wait, actually, dude, that'll be actually crazy. Hold on, I don't know, you've probably seen it, bro. It's about a guy who raps.

Really? Let me see. Yeah, yeah, I've heard of Let It Shine. It's not funny how it's the same name as—

I know, I was about to say it is Let It Shine. Yeah, you haven't seen this one?

I haven't seen it, bro.

You gotta watch it, bro. You remind me a lot.

Oh shit, yeah, yeah, I've, I've, uh, not seen this movie, but I know about it.

Fire, bro, you gotta watch it. Let It Shine, it goes right good. I was wondering, I was like, why am I relating it to 'Cause keep shining, your story, your energy. It's like same, this guy, this guy's like, fuck the money, I just want to help people. It's the same thing, bro.

You got to watch it. Yeah, I do.

That was a great moment.

Yeah. I just think, bro, my videos just impacted people so much. I feel like that's something that I feel like my passion for videos wasn't something that was like, it wasn't taught, it was caught. Right? So the fact that I still do it now, like even with the followers are coming, it, it doesn't make me really feel any different. Like it's, it's satisfying, it's validating for sure because it's like, damn, like after years of not having the views or whatever, you know, now the videos are like, you know, I see the output. But realistically, it's like the way I see it, bro, like if I was getting no views, I'll still make videos. I did it, right? Like me getting views, I still make videos, you know what I'm saying? So I just see it as like me being able to impact people through video. Like, I think of a MrBeast, somebody that now his shit is just like, it's a video, it's a whole video production company. Like, he fucking invests millions of dollars to make the best video that he possibly can. I do the same. Like, I pay the editors like thousands of dollars a month. That goes very far in Asia where they live, you know what I'm saying? My guys are like 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, making good money, more than their parents. So, um, me investing like hundreds and hundreds of dollars of every video, like obviously the rapping, like the engineer, like I'm paying engineer, paying the editors, like I pay for softwares, AI stuff like that to optimize.

And do you, do you use like AI to script all your videos or just— I've built it myself.

Okay, yeah, yeah, got it. Yeah, so after writing so many raps, it's like, okay, like I've been able to train it on my rhyme scheme. So like just little stuff of like, okay, if I'm, if I'm rapping a video, I usually don't go with like an AABB rhyme scheme, which is like can, Dan, he, she. I don't do that. I'll do like an ABAB, which is like can, he, Dan, she, right? You shouldn't post on Instagram again. Well, that's until you get your bio more optimized. I'm about to show exactly how you do it, ABA, so you can do— you can use it to organically monetize, right? So I've trained it on like how I rap, and now it's just like Fast as fuck. That's fire.

I want to do 2 activities with you. Okay. So the first one is going to be word recognition. So I'm going to say a word or I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to say the first thing that comes to your head. First thing. Okay. So let's just start. Let's do Miami.

Okay. Success. Okay. That was good.

That was good. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Social media. The first thing. Opportunity. Okay. Business.

Life. Okay. I never stopped being a businessman. Shining. Positivity. World change. Impact. Light. I think of Shine, I think of light. Like let the light shine inside of you. So like when people see my videos, like they see light. They're like, yo, this guy is really like living in this It's like it's lighting my day, right? That's awesome. Risk. Reward.

I like that. Let's do life. Journey. I like that. That's fire. Okay. The other one I want you to do. So I want you to be 100% real. You can be like, bro, this shit's ass. This shit's like— I want you to be as truthful as possible.

Okay.

Okay. I want you to audit. Quick little 60-second audit. My page. Tell me where I'm going wrong.

All right. What would you do if you were in my shoes?

So just go in, play with it, scroll on the reels, whatever.

So number one, I can tell you do a lot of paid because if I look at your—

Fuck it. It's brutal, isn't it?

It's brutal. It's embarrassing. Yeah, it's pretty quick. I mean, being a content guy, I can tell somebody that's paid because it's the engagement relative to the following. Yeah. Okay.

So keep in mind, right? So 3, 4 years ago, I paid $7,000. $7,000 to get my account to 150 followers.

Worst mistake I ever did. 150K?

150K. Oh, wow. I paid $7,000 to get to 150. As you can see, I have 80. What happened? I had 150, they all started unfollowing, unfollowing, and they were— it was bullshit. It was fake people, like from Nicaragua, 14-year-old girl from Nicaragua. It's like they're not buyers. But anyways, you live and learn. So I want to get your feedback on that. Should I start a new account? What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Yeah, is this the account where you're running paid ads? It is, yep. Okay, so my thing is don't fix something that's not broken. If you're doing paid and it's paying you, I would say keep the account at least. I've seen good content be able to still be put on accounts even if the following might be kind of like inflated. Okay. Because at the end of the day, like, good content is good content. Let me share, right?

So my editor to add it.

All right, there we go. Yeah. So good content is good content. It'll get shared. So I wouldn't be too worried about the— I wouldn't be too worried about the account like having maybe fake followers before. It's really just about posting better content now.

Now I want your feedback on the content because I have an editor. He's the same one that's editing this video, so he's gonna see your feedback. All right, what would you— what would you say about the video style, the editing, all that?

Um, one thing you could be honest. Yeah, yeah, I I would say when I see one thing immediately, I think of inconsistency. Okay. One of my mentors, he said that when you think about the biggest creators when it comes to entertainment and even education, right? You think about something like somebody like myself, you see consistency, right? Within the thumbnails, consistency within the style, consistency. It's like he raps about content, the editing is good, and he gives you an A to B solution for each video, right? Like, it's not— it's no discrepancy, and that's what allows for like maximum growth, right? When I look at the content, it's a lot of different things going on. It's how much I made on Airbnb. Now we have a talking video. Now we have kind of like a meme. Now we have kind of like a skit. Now we have kind of like a journey type of video. Now we have clips. Podcasts. Every single room, right? So it's a lot of different things going on when I look at it, right? And so I would just say whatever content style has performed the best in the past, develop consistency around that. If you don't have a content style yet that has been like a crazy performer, I would say intention is going to be the best way to get attention. So for me, when I think of intention, it's like, okay, what problem am I able to solve? Like, what micro problem can I solve within the concept of how I help people? For you, it's obviously you help them get in the Airbnb. Like, this is the info, it's Info page? Yep. Okay, cool. So if this info— info is like, like when you think of the concept of information, information is to— the little purpose of information is to shortcut somebody's success by giving them knowledge that they did not once have. Okay. I'm obviously shortcutting people to know how to grow their social media, etc. For you, you're teaching them how to get into Airbnb, right? So there's a lot of things that people do wrong when it to Airbnb, and the best way that you can make content that actually gets attention, especially starting off, is making mistake-based content in the sense of— I always— if you notice, like, just look at my thumbnails. Like, all my content for the most part is like negatively framed. Never post, never post, never use, never post, stop posting, never post, stop post, stop making these intros, stop editing content yourself, never sell, never post, never have, never Never. Never. You see, I read every, almost every video because I know that, well, they actually did a study, the Harvard, I think it was the School of Journalism, journalism being media, right? The School of Journalism, they did a study and they said that negative headlines tend to get more attention than positive headlines because more people would rather avoid pain than gain pleasure. Instead of making $100, what's more painful? Losing $100. $100. So the actual magnitude of that pain is greater than the magnitude of pleasure, even if it's $100 up or down. So for me, when I think about any page, the best way to start off making content that's intentional is just saying, hey, think about the biggest mistakes that beginners will make whenever they want to go to Airbnb. Like, okay, what's the biggest mistake that they have? Funding. Funding. Yeah. Why are you— So boom. Location. Location, right? Building a team. Building a team. Funding is beautiful because it's directly attached to money, right? Stop paying cash for your Airbnbs. Stop buying cash for Airbnbs. That's an instant hook, right? And then the framework that I use, like I just talked about maybe 30 minutes ago, the what, why, how framework, right? This is for education. It works like a charm every time. What, why, how? Well, what's the mistake people are making? They're buying Airbnbs with cash. Stop buying Airbnbs with cash, right? Boom, that's the hook. Reasoning is why, right? So what reasoning are you giving, right? It could be, there's banks that will literally give you $20,000 in a line of credit, which would take, which in 2 weeks instead of you waiting 6 months to save up that same $20,000, right? And the best part is you only need a 680+ credit credit score, 0 to 5 hard inquiries, and no negative items on your credit report. So here's how you can get funding in 3 simple steps. Number 1, go to ibank.net or however, you know what I'm saying? Right. And then you break down the action steps. Like, what is— what— think about the viewer. They're either on a phone or computer. What can they do? They can go to apps or website, either or. So then give them a website. Okay, ibank.net, ibanknet.com. You can find the list of banks near to Once you find a bank, go ahead and type in your zip code. Then when you type in that zip code, go ahead and visit that bank, talk to a relationship manager. After you talk to a relationship manager, say that you want a secure credit card to start off, and eventually they'll upgrade you, they'll increase your credit limit over time, blah blah blah. And now you've given them an actual solution to a problem they have, which is they're investing with cash. They don't— obviously, because they're investing with cash, they don't know how to get funding. So here's how to get funding. You break it down step by step, you tie that back into how it'll help help them get to the point to where they can buy their own Airbnbs to make $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 a month passive income. Right now, that has solved a specific problem for a specific person and given a specific solution. Interesting. That's the best way I've seen it.

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. So find the problem. Always go for the problem. Okay, got it. Stop picking the pretty Airbnbs before you do these 3 steps.

Yeah, stop, stop buying pretty Airbnbs, or stop, stop buying Airbnbs that look good. Like, you can do variations same way you do paid ads and you give— you split test hooks. Same shit with content. So it's like, never, never buy Airbnbs like this. Never buy pretty Airbnbs. You should always buy shitty Airbnbs. And here's why: the shitty Airbnbs actually have the most potential for profit because if you fix it up, you can invest $15,000 in the renovations but then sell it for $85,000 and make $75,000— make $70,000 as, you know, gross margin. So here's how to do the same. Go ahead and go to shittymarketproperties.com, or like, right, give them like a specific solution. My software, my software company. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, go to bnbflow.ai, like boom. And then that actually is vertically integrated because now you're making money off them going to the software. Yeah, boom, promoting your own product. That's smart. Now that they also get the information, what do people do when they get samples of something? They want the whole pie. So they've gotten a of information. How can I get more from this guy? Well, then that's the coaching program.

We pay $75, right? That's fire.

Yeah, that's fire. So it's— yeah.

What would you tell to someone, let's say they're in your position, 18 years old, maybe, maybe stuck, maybe doesn't know what to do like in life? Yeah. What's that one piece of advice that you would tell them?

Yeah, it's funny, I, I say this all the time. If they're stuck, they don't know what to do, then I There's, hmm, a lack of direction is a different problem than a lack of effort, right? Because a lack of direction could be effort that's in multiple directions, right? So if somebody has a lack of direction but not a lack of effort, that means that they just lack priorities. So I would say prioritize— if they like direction, prioritize what means the most to you. For me, my goals was the most important thing to me. Me being able to live a life where I control my destiny. I'm in control, like, I'm an only child, so I've been used to control. I wanted to be in control of my life and in terms of like what I am able to get out of it, the person I become. So So for me, me dropping out of school, me moving out twice, me going into debt, thousands of dollars multiple times, me starting another business after having my entire identity attached to my first one, me doing all these things and having to basically go to ground zero to now become a hero. All of these things that I was willing to do, it was a sacrifice that I was willing to make for the paradise that I knew that was on the other end. I would say if you like direction, it probably just comes from lack of priorities. You're probably prioritizing other things that may mean the most, that may mean a lot to you right now, but later down the line, you know, that they wouldn't mean, you know, it wouldn't mean the most to you if you were to just lock in on the dream you have instead of building someone else's. So that's what I was—

fucking fire, bro. How would they find you?

Everywhere, uh, including Instagram, YouTube. You can find me on Instagram on— you can find me @CarsonRapsContent, C-A-R-S-O-N-R-A-P-S content, C-O-N-T-E-N-T. And the same with YouTube, youtube.com/@CarsonRapsContent, C-A-R-S-O-N-R-A-P-S-C-O-N-T-E-N-T. Bam, guys, let's go!

This whole podcast has been a very important message, right? I want you guys all to listen because number one, very young right? When I first found him, he had 2,000 followers. Now he's at 60. He's probably gonna be, by the time you guys are watching, he's probably gonna be at 100, right? So guys, your life could change in such a fast time. I know my life changed. I moved here with $100 to my name, no idea where I was gonna sleep, nothing. Grind, grind, grind. And then they say that, you know, it takes, you said this earlier, you were like, how long did it take you to blow up? You said something like, oh, it took me many, many, many months to be an overnight success.

Yeah, it took long nights. Took a lot of long nights to blow up overnight.

To blow up overnight, you know. So nothing happens overnight, guys. Just know he's a proven example of it. So guys, let's rock and roll. Subscribe to my channel, subscribe to his channel, and let's freaking go. Thank you, bro. Thank you for coming out. Thank you. Damn, damn, we wrapped it, bro. How was that?

Was that good? Yeah, man.

You like the questions?