Episode 023: Tyler Harris - Unemployed to $650,000/Year

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This is the Rise of the Young podcast, bringing you insights from the most innovative entrepreneurs and influencers of this era. Hosted by 17 year old entrepreneur, author, public speaker and branding expert, Casey Adams. Now let's get right into the show.

Casey Adams here. Welcome to the Rise of Young podcast. Today, episode 23. We have a good friend of mine, Tyler Harris. I met him at the Gerard Adams event, the Founders event up in Newark, New Jersey. And today we're going to be talking about a lot of different things. But first off, man, Tyler, I'd love for you to just, number one, introduce yourself to the audience, let them know who is Tyler Harris, and then we'll jump into the interview.

Absolutely, man. Number one, I want to thank you for having me on. I've been so impressed with the insane amount of hustle that you have put in on this podcast and getting it out there, getting people subscribed, getting people rating, it's honestly, it's inspired me with my new podcast that I got going in my existing one that I've been running. So, dude, you've been doing an incredible job.

Thank you.

I'm glad to be here. So, for those of you that have not met me before, which is probably the majority of you, my name is Tyler Harris. I live in Greenville, South Carolina. I guess to go back as far as we can. I'm a sales guy through and through. I started my professional career when I became a financial advisor, literally the month in 2007 that the market crashed. What that did is it taught me resiliency. And from then till now, it's been the greatest lesson I've ever had. I've gone from sales job to sales job, been through a lot of life struggles, but over the last three years, went from being unemployed, depressed, in debt, overweight like, all, like, you name it, I probably was going through it. Three and a half years ago, some mentors came into my life, started waging war on personal change. In that next 12 months, made over 300 grand in commission. Next 12 months, over 450. 2017, it was a little over 650. Actually, it was a good bit over 650. It was closer to seven, but hey, who's counting? And then now going into 2018, just taking it to a whole other level. Last year, January 11, 2017, is when I started documenting my life on social media. And over the last year, it's grown to from zero to one week. I had like a high of 49 million in reach on social. That's from. From zero, from nothing. So going into 2018, man, just taking it to the next level. We started a daily vlog. So you met TJ, my videographer. He's following me around 24 7, just capturing a day in the life. What does it look like to go from that to this and then from this to the next level? I want to take people on that journey, man. It's all about providing value and making it impact.

Definitely, man, 100%. So I know for the people listening, I have a little. I have a young audience, a lot of people that watch my stuff. They may be young, but also people that may be experienced and have gone through failures. So when it comes to the initial going from unemployed broke to now hitting 650 to 700k in commissions or sales, what was the biggest turning point that kind of shifted that perspective? If you could just say it in a sentence. And how did that affect you moving forward into that new lifestyle of yours?

It's all your fault. It's all your fault. It was literally one day I looked in the mirror and I said, I am here in this situation because of me. And the encouragement in that was if I got myself into that situation, then I was the only person that could get myself out of it. But it's all my fault. And I know when I say that, especially with a young audience, there's things that happen to kids, there's things that happen to the women we're seeing all over the fricking news lately. Like, there's things that happen to you. I'm not saying that's your fault, but letting that control you 10 years later, 15 years later, 20 years later, that's your fault. That's what's holding you back. That's your fault. So it was really just taking that realization and taking Ownership that it was all my fault.

I love it. I love it. That was awesome. So when it comes to just your journey thus far, coming from, like I said, unemployed to now where you are now, I know that you talked about how you reached 49 million people on social media in a week before. I know that you've grown tons and tons of Facebook pages, made them super viral. But for the people listening, I know that you've mastered Facebook marketing when it comes to building pages for the. For the few people that are listening right now. When it comes to building a Facebook page, what would you say is the key foundation to starting that, and what would you recommend to the listeners to actually start so that they can execute and make it happen?

The absolute number one key is consistency. That's it. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people that have said, hey, man, I want to grow my personal brand. I want to build this page up. Like, what should I do? Give me some inside tips.

Hacks.

This, this. They're looking for these little tricks and little, you know, shortcuts to success. And I'll tell them, I'm like, look, post three to four times a day for seven days straight, and then let's talk about kind of the next level. And they can't do it.

Yep.

Like, for one week. They can't be consistent for one week, but they're looking for the shortcuts. They're looking for, you know, how am I using these hashtags? What about this Facebook ad strategy? What about this? How much ad spend? This, this, that. I'm like, just post every single day and good things will happen.

I love it. I love it. So, yeah, so for everyone listening, listen to what he said. Don't just listen to this podcast and say, oh, that sounds like a great thing to do, because once you actually execute. And I totally get that all the time. When it comes to, like, Instagram growth or whatever it may be, like, it's about the process. You're not just gonna go 0 to 100 real quick. It comes down to the execution to get there. So moving into the next question, when it comes to the journey thus far, when it comes to building the social media pages, and my main question to you right now is, like, you said that one date. I don't remember exactly, but you said that's when you started documenting your life. So when it comes to the documentation of your journey thus far, what have you learned the most about yourself and how has it impacted your life?

That is quite the loaded Question. So you've got about two and a half hours, right?

Do what I said.

You got about two and a half hours for me after that. So here's what I've learned. Number one, Facebook Live, Instagram Live, any live platform is the most authentic, transparent way to. For people to connect with you. You can only fake it for so long. When it's live, right like this, right now, what we're doing right now, I can only fake it for so long. When you see the second video, the third video, the fourth video, at some point, people will be like, huh, I guess that's actually what this dude. Like, that's the. That. That's him right in Facebook and Instagram. Like, they reward it in their algorithms because it's the most difficult. Like, I can literally remember, like, it was yesterday, sitting in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on the Georgia Tech campus, in a parking garage, like, up at the top floor, right across from the gym I was about to go work out in when I hit Facebook Live for the very first time back in January 2017. It was like, three, two, one, live. And I was freaking terrified. Like, terrified. It was horrible. Like, it was absolutely horrible. But I did it again. I did it again. I did it again. And you know what happened? People started making fun of me. People started mocking me. My own wife was, like, mortified. Like, mortified. She was like, oh, my gosh, what are you doing? Okay, you just gotta trust me. Give me six months. Trust me. I know what I'm doing. Good things are gonna come out of this. Friends, good friends, like, making videos, mocking, like, anything that you can possibly think of.

Bad.

What happened. And looking back on that, I don't know how I kept going. Like, I just kept posting, posting live content, content, content, content. And then I can remember the first time I got a message from someone that was like, hey, you said this the other night. I did this. And this happened, and it changed my life.

Yep.

And I would take a screenshot of it, and I would text it to my wife, and I will keep it on my phone. I would look at it all the time. I got another message like that, Another message like that. A random message, like, I don't even talk about health and fitness. A random message from a guy that said he was watching a video when I was doing, and I was prepping my meals for the week, and I said something that he took to heart, and he started prepping his meals. Four months later, he was off insulin, no longer has diabetes. Crazy stuff. And when you start realizing the impact that you can make in other people's lives on this social platform. It changes your outlook on everything. And so like that became like that high that I was chasing. Like, I just wanted to help people. I just wanted, I just wanted to feel that impact. And man, fast forward a year now, like it's every day those messages are coming in. So like when you hear about like, you know, people always ask like Gary Vaynerchuk, like, what does this do it on? Like what kind of drugs? What kind of like, like how does he have so much energy? Well, imagine if you're getting those emails all day long every single hour of the day. These life changing emails, like, how could you not wake up and a full out flat split to do life.

That's, that's absolutely man. And I totally agree with you. I know that when it comes to how we met the founders of Venue Work, I know that Gerard, he said building a personal brand isn't about you. And I actually had a call with one of my students today and he was asking like, so if I'm putting out content, like do I want it to make it the best for me? I'm like, dude, it's all about the people that you're impacting that are watching the content. Not necessarily. You're not supposed to put out content. So you wake up in the morning and feel good about yourself because you posted a good picture, right? It comes down to what's the impact you're having on your audience. And I feel like a lot of people that are getting started with social media, they think too much about it and don't do as much as they should moving forward. So with that being said, I know that you said you've been able to reach 49 people, 49 million people a week or a month with your Facebook pages. You've been able to document your journey, live streams all the time, and now you have that confidence. But for someone watching or listening right now, what would you give three tips to yourself when you first started again so that that person may be listening that's scared to do that live stream or scared to post that picture talking about something that they're not used to talking about. What would be three tips that you'd give yourself?

The first one was the most important thing I ever heard and that was there's no such thing as a bad post. I can promise you that. There is nobody sitting around with a group of friends going, hey, you remember that one post that Casey Adams did two Tuesdays ago that was ridiculous. Like, how embarrassing. Nobody remembers the bad Post nobody remembers. So the whole Gary Vee and this will kind of go into number two, the document versus Create. Don't think that your posts have to be so, like, aesthetically, like, perfect and the words are just right and it's eloquently written. And that hesitation is what causes people to never post anything.

Yep.

So just put something out there. Like, that's why lives easier because you just talk. I just talk.

Yeah.

But it's just there is no such thing as a bad post. So don't be afraid to hit that publish button.

Yep.

Into the Gary Vee document, not create. Like, it doesn't need to be professional. Like, you don't need a film crew following you around all the time. You don't need, you know, graphic designers on your team. You don't need to be spending a ton of money getting logos made and this and that. Like, I. Everything I did for the first probably five months was all done through just apps. Like, the. The content I was creating is all just done through apps on my phone. I don't have any graphics background whatsoever. People like, hey, man, what are you it for this? What graphic design. I'm like, I'm using one called Studio, one called Snapseed, one called. One called Video Rama. Like, just apps. Like, literally I just making it as professional as I can in like a minute, two minutes, getting it out there. And the last thing, man, is don't take yourself so seriously. Like, this whole platform, like, real recognizes real. Like, that's my biggest thing. Like, people want to see real people. Like, there was one time, I can remember early on, like, I had a huge zit on my forehead. Like, it was gigantic. Like, it was just enormous. And I can remember being on Facebook Live and I'm talking, I'm like feeling a little self conscious, but I was just like, I was like, what is. What are the odds that I got this giant zit on my forehead today? Like, I got to do all this stuff. I got all these meetings. I just talked about it. Like, don't take yourself so seriously. Like, you're not a CEO in like a boardroom doing like multi billion dollar deals. Like, you're just trying to get your name out there, get some recognition, get a little bit of attention, and that's it, man. Like, life is too short to take yourself that seriously.

Definitely. I love that because I feel like even for me, when I first started posting content on Instagram and for me, I did a lot on Snapchat when I first started, like, I was able to grow my Snapchat following to a couple thousand and I was doing a lot of affiliate marketing. It was funny because a lot of like my friends or people that I know, like I was doing all this posting about the books I was reading or the things I was learning, just like putting out content based on what I was learning for the people that were watching me because I wasn't traveling yet, I didn't know anyone, I didn't have a network, I didn't have any personal brand. And I, at first it was like people like you said, they were not necessarily, not necessarily hating but just like they were laughing that like they didn't understand what you were doing. And I feel like that's a good place to be in because the people that do things differently are the people that get different results. And I feel like a lot of people don't open that up and really understand that because I think a lot of people, especially if you're listening right now, whether it be you're a teenager and you're scared, whether you're in high school and you're saying, hey, what if my friends think this or that about it? I would say it really just comes down to like you said, like, don't take yourself so seriously. And then number one for me it's always just don't care what others people think. You're doing this for you. You're doing this to create an impact or whatever it may be with social media, creating content, doing this video right now, this isn't for us. This is for the people that are listening in the next 1, 3, 5, 10 years that are gonna be listening right now. Like, whoa, Tyler said this and that impacted me in this way. So for everyone listening and moving on to the next question, just don't take yourself seriously. But for you, Tyler, when it comes to now, you just started your new path, your new podcast. You're putting out daily vlogs, the Daily Bread. What was your inspiration to create that and where, where do you plan to see that going in the next six months?

Man, we're literally three days in to this Daily Bread and it's like the level of hustle. I mean, so, so for those of you that, that don't follow my page, like, I sell life insurance. That's my career. And the average life insurance agent in the US that does it for a full time career, like makes a living out of it, sells between 120 and 170 life insurance policies a year. The last three years in a row, I've sold over 2,000 life insurance policies by myself, one on one meeting with people face to face. And that's my career. So now I've got a person following me around 24, 7 with a camera. We're putting out on a 24 hour turnaround, condensing 12, 14, 16, 18 hours worth of content into 7 to 15 minutes, getting it out the very next day. So there, all that content creation. I'm doing podcasts, like this one with you. I'm doing a radio morning show tomorrow morning. I was doing stuff, all kinds of crazy stuff today. The level, like, it has increased my level of hustle just in this three days. Yep, immensely. And just that's the way Law of Attraction works. Like, you put good stuff out and good stuff comes back in and the connections and the relationships and opportunities and the things that are coming just in these three days.

Yep.

But at the end of the day, like, what makes me most excited is I've never been more happy. Like, the creative process of this vlog was, was everything I ever wanted to try to do. Like, being a salesperson is great. It's not my passion. I'm just good at it. The creative process of like, literally we're like, what are we gonna call it? The Daily Bread. Like, that took me two weeks to come up with that name. And then writing down on a piece of paper, like six lines to this rap intro, and then going into a music recording studio and literally rapping. Like me. Like, what in the world? Like, I'm literally in the studio rapping. And we filmed like a music video of me doing this. The most fun I've ever had my entire life. And I think we're going to go back in there because we wrote another little rap today. It's ridiculous, but taking that and like making the intro video to the vlog and like, all this whole process, man, it's. It's been the most fun I've ever had. So, like, for me to even fathom telling you what it's going to look like six months from now.

Yep.

I have no idea. But I can tell you the inspiration was Gary Vaynerchuk. I have consumed every single piece of content Gary's put out over the last three years, multiple times. Because I live on the road. I spent 238 nights in a hotel last year, the year before. So I'm on the road constantly. And it's mostly driving traffic or driving travel. And so when I'm on the road, I'm constantly listening, watching every single thing that he's done and his dailyvee the daily vlog that he has is the most incredible piece of content I think you could ever, ever, ever, ever watch. If you're trying to build a brand, if you're trying to build a business, if you're trying to just be a better human being, people don't understand the genius that he really is. People don't understand what he's actually doing with all the things that he has going on. But I got to sit down with him 21 months ago or this morning, March of 2016, went to the launch of his most recent book. Not the one that's coming out right now, but the last one, the Ask Gary B Book, went out to the launch out at Andy Frisella's headquarters. For First Form. We paid for this VIP to sit down with Andy and Gary afterwards for an hour. It was going to be me, my two business partners. There were three other people that also paid for it. So six of us in a room. They both spoke. Came into this conference room at like, 11, 11pm Supposed to talk for one hour. We sat in there for, like, three and a half hours. And I consumed so much of Gary's content that I literally. It was like a. It was like. It was like me and him were just talking back and forth. It was as though we had inside jokes. Because I could, like, reference things that happened in the comments of, like, Ask Gary Vee videos. Like, and he was the exact same person in real life that he was on his videos. And that blew my mind. And at that time, what I was doing was looking for permission to finally put myself out there on social. And he was the one that really finally just beat it into me. He was like, bro, are you going to spend over 200 nights in a hotel on the road next year? Like, yeah. Yeah, I am. You have to document. People have to see it, and it will resonate with someone and they will get value from it, and you will make an impact. And I was like, I'm in, because I believe what he says. So I'm like, I'm just gonna do whatever you tell me. And that was it, man. Like, so who knows? Like, I don't know. But all I know is this is the most fun I've ever had in my entire life, the most impact I've ever been able to create my entire life. And the business opportunities that are coming from it are just unbelievable.

I love it. I love it. I mean, that whole. Just the inspiration that inspired me. And I know the people that are listening, they're literally sitting in their Chairs right now. Like, where can they watch this? So for everyone listening, just let them know, where can they start watching your daily vlogs? Where can they follow you on Instagram? Because I know a lot of people, even myself, we're ready to go. We're ready to watch it, man. Like, that was awesome, man.

I appreciate it. So the new daily vlog, it's called the Daily Bread. So if you go to YouTube.com the Daily Bread Vlog or just go to my Facebook page, which is Tyler Harris Page, Instagram is Tyler Harris Page. Got a new podcast that's going to be coming out here in the next week. We're lining up all those first guests for that. That's going to be called the Breadwinner Podcast. A little bit similar format to yours, very interview style. I've got another full length podcast that we do video and audio called the Sales Wolves podcast. You just search Sales Wolves, really, anywhere you can find that. We get on there and howl and talk about sales, but everything's pretty much at Tyler Harris page of the Daily Bread vlog.

Perfect. Perfect. So that being said, Tyler, honestly, man, I appreciate it so much. And for everyone listening, here's the cool thing. Me and Tyler met at an event in about a month ago, right?

Not even like three weeks ago.

Not even a month ago. I've been on his podcast, he's been on my podcast, we've been staying connected, we're adding value to each other. So for everyone listening, I know I always talk about the power of networking, but here's the thing, guys. If you meet 10 people, but you don't follow up with them, you don't have conversations with them, you don't see how you can add value to them, the relationships won't last. So for everyone listening, whether it be you're going to an event, moving into 2018, you're listening to this and you think you should reach out to someone, do your best to build relationships. Because I know for me, Tyler, I've been enjoying watching him progress with the vlogs. I know that he's been seeing what I've been doing. And overall it's just you guys got a network with people and just build relationships. But that being said, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to the Rise of the Young podcast. If you are not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe, leave a rating, drop a review. And that being said, I will see you on the next episode.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters An Apple Original Series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it. On November 17th. This place, it's not a. Ours, Believe me. The most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

Oh, my God.

Go, go, Go. Monarch Legacy of Monsters. Streaming November 17th only on Apple TV Plus.