Episode 059: Preston Smiles - How To Find Your Inner Purpose

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What's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today on episode 59, we have Preston Smiles with us today. If you. It's such a pleasure to have you on, man.

Let's get it.

Yeah, it's such a pleasure to have you on, man. Me and Preston, I know that we recently connected and I definitely wanted to set this up. But first off, Preston, I know that I've seen a lot of your content, I've watched a lot of your videos, and it's just amazing to see what you've created. But maybe the couple people that may not know who you are, what you do, what are you up to nowadays?

Yeah, man. You know, I get this question quite a bit and I literally answer it, like, different every time just to play with it. So today I'd say I am a translator. I am a salesman. You know, I sell people back their dreams and I remind people of who they really are. And I translate and synthesize ancient wisdom, universal truths, and I make it gangster and fun and exciting. And that manifests itself through writing books. I have two books out. One is called Love 33 Ways to Amplify youy Life. Second book is called now or Never. And I wrote that with my wife. And then I'm the founder of something called Man Cave, which is like a conscious man brotherhood, a virtual conscious man brotherhood. And I Do a lot of other stuff, man. You know, my wife and I hit the millionaire mark last year. And it's interesting because we didn't even necessarily try. Like, we didn't keep our eye on our accounts per se, but it happened because we are so dedicated and so committed to really, really helping and serving people, and especially young people who are figuring out what the new way is going to be.

Yeah, 100%, man. I love that intro. It's definitely a pleasure to have you on. So pretty much when it comes to kind of what I've gained from you, all the stuff that I've watched, your videos, your content, and everything that you previously said, obviously, whenever I have people on, I connect with you. We talk about what you're up to nowadays. But kind of before everything happened, before you were writing the books, inspiring millions and millions of people, where were you, let's say, when you were 17, like, just starting your life?

I would say, yeah, for sure, man. I'll take you to 17. But I'm taking you a little bit further back. So you little backstory. I was very early age, I was put in special education. I didn't learn like all the rest of the kids. I didn't do well on standardized tests because I didn't have a standardized brain. And so they labeled me all these things and then threw me in a class with four mentally ill children. And this was like seven, eight, nine years old. My consciousness was still forming. So I made up a story about myself, that I was dumb, that I was stupid, that I wasn't as smart as everyone else and began to seek acceptance outside of myself. So, you know, at school, there was this bully named Dwayne, and Dwayne was, like, really just bullying everybody. And right around that same time, I decided to start bullying Dwayne so that I could get the acceptance and love from everybody else. And I would play sports and I would dominate because that's how people would praise me. We're all really just looking to be loved, to be seen and heard, you know, like, throw away all the fancy cars and all the money and all that stuff. At the end of the day, humans want to feel seen, heard, and loved. We want to experience the fullness of what it means to be a human. And, you know, that we're collaborative beings that like each other. And so by the time I was 11 years old, I started smoking weed. I joined a gang, and.

I just.

Went down a different path. And a lot of people, especially in this day and age, in the Western culture, the way that School is set up. It wasn't set up for us. It wasn't set up for millennials. It wasn't set up for the way that we learn and our brains. And so I didn't do really well. And then a friend of mine, one particular night, and this friend of mine, we used to do these things called run outs, where we go into a liquor store, pretend like we were like 18, 19, 20 or whatever. We were 15 at the time. I was 15 and a half, he was 16 and the rest of the guys were 16. And we would pretend like we were an adult and we would grab all this alcohol and soon as we got to the counter, we had been run out.

Yeah, as fast as possible, right?

Stupid. Just dumb kid stuff, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, my dad told me when I was 11, when he caught me smoking weed, you know, he did something really genius. A, he didn't punish me. He just asked me to think about all the people who do that and do I want their life. And then B, he sat me down and he said, listen, you're a leader. And if ever, if ever you feel something isn't right and everybody is going left, but your heart is saying, I need to go right. You, you're going to go right because you're so powerful. And he's spoken to my 11 year old brain and heart. Now fast forward to 15 years old. My buddy Scott calls me. And Scott and I used to always fight over shotgun. So front seat. We had all these stupid rules about.

You gotta call it right.

Exactly. So Scott calls me and he's like, yo, we're going out. We're going to do a run out. We're going to hang out. And this is the first time I really understood intuition because something in me said, don't go. And so I said, no, I'm in. Chill tonight. He's like, what, you gonna be a peep? I'm like, yeah, man, I'm gonna be a peep tonight. You need to, bro.

All right. Yeah.

So he called me a bitch. He was like, you gonna be a bitch? And I'm like, yeah, I am. Like, I'm not fucking going. Right? And so we hung up the phone and within an hour, every single person and that Blue Astro band that I was in the night before that and, and the night before that and the night before that was shot. And Scott, my best friend, was shot in the head and died immediately. And this, like, changed the game. This scared the shit out of me in every single way. You know, when we're young you know, when you're 13, 14, 15, 16, you think you're invincible. You know? And this was like a moment where life got real. And my dad, you know, I didn't know how to process it because, you know, we're taught that big boys don't cry. We're taught not to be pussies, to man up and a. I think pussies are amazing. I think women are amazing. You know, when we repress our feelings, they come out in other ways, but that's a whole nother conversation. So, because I didn't know how to cry and I didn't know how to process it, I just ran. And my dad said, where do you want to go? I said, I don't care. Get me out of here. So two weeks later, I was on a plane to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I got off the plane, and there was a sign with my name on it. And this woman took me in. Her name was Shirley Russell. And Shirley lived just within the city lines of this really wealthy, like, county called North Allegheny County. Okay? And. And so I checked. I checked in. In North Allegheny County High School. North Allegheny High. And the first day, I remember pulling up, and there was, like, BMWs and Mercedes and, like, every. Everything you could, like, eat off the ground. And I'm walking through the hallway, and, like, you know, in class in school, they have those. There's a door on the door, but there's, like, a window that you can see through. And so as I'm walking by each classroom, everybody's like, what? And they're, like, running to the window, and they're, like, pointing at me and, like, talking and, like, opening the door and looking down the hall. And so I get in the office, and I'm getting my instructions for what class I'm going to be in. And I asked the lady, I said, ma'?

Am.

Yeah. Is there anybody else in this school that, you know, looks like me? She was like, oh, you mean black? No. You're the only black guy in the whole school? Only one. Wow. So I immediately became, like, the most popular kid in the school. Everybody wanted to hang with me. I joined a new gang called Wexford Mafia. And this particular night, I was with this kid Brad and his BMW, and we were driving to a party, and they were. And don't do this, by the way.

Anybody listening?

Just don't do this. But they were smoking weed and drinking 40s, and so was I. A 40 ounce of beer, and I'm in the backseat, I'm drinking 40. And we were listening to Outkast Tupac and Biggie.

Okay, classic.

Yeah, exactly. Particularly the song Wheels of Steel by outkast was going, these are the wheels of steel. And I'm in the back, I got this 40, and I'm looking around, and I'm like, yo, this is crazy. I'm on the other side of the country with a bunch of rich white kids, and we're all doing. I'm doing literally the same shit I was doing at my other school. And I got in that moment in environmental psychology. I got in that moment that you cannot rise to low expectations. And then what I understood was that we're all going through the same stuff. We all listen to the same music. We all watch the same tv. And that underneath all of our stories that we have about each other, whether it be gay, straight, white, black, Christian, Muslim, underneath all of that is our truth, which is love. And so, you know, when I hashtag iamwear love's voice, it's because I came to an understanding that my friends were doing the same thing and going to jail, and these kids were doing the same thing and going to Yale. And the difference was not color. The difference was expectation and environment. And so for me, that was the start of my sort of awakening. And, you know, from that point, it was on and popping.

Wow, dude, I really appreciate you being so open. Really, it means a lot, I think. Definitely everyone listening. Just that story, man. Super impactful. And I definitely appreciate you sharing that with my audience today, man. But, wow, that's so much to take in, man, because for me currently, man, I love when people kind of go to. Kind of bring me back to where they are, because I'm still young, I'm 17, still in high school. So when you kind of break down that part of your life, it's like I. I'm in that same storytelling aspect, you know, so so many things are going through my mind when you were just telling that story. So kind of backtrack. So you're born in California. Correct. West. Grew up there. And then when you went to the east coast after that tragic moment in your life, was that something where that was your first time going across the country, or were you traveling before?

I traveled a little bit before. That was my first time ever living somewhere else. And it straight up was like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but in reverse. Yeah, yeah. Fresh Prince of Bel Air came from Philadelphia, which is in Pennsylvania, to California. I went from California to Pennsylvania.

Okay. Wow, man. So, dude, to bring you back a little bit to what you were just talking about, the tragic Moment you said you were 15, right? You're a good friend. Everything happened that night. Your intuition told you not to go. And that's the moment that I think stuck out to me and I think a lot of listeners as well. So your intuition, something when you were 15 years old, right? It's like you're doing your daily routine for. Or you're just going with the flow. You obviously did that previously. It was a normal thing to do. It wasn't like a random thing that your boy called you up. You were previously doing these things that, now that you look back on that you think are stupid or whatever it may be. So when you look back on that day, that moment, in that intuition, was there something that just happened differently that day, or was it just something inside of you that kind of expressed yourself differently that was like, hey, you don't go. Something bad is going to happen. How can you kind of explain that to us?

Yeah, so. So here's the thing. Intuition is a tricky thing because it doesn't always come in the same way. Sometimes it's just a body hit. Sometimes you just physically, you feel different, and you're like, oh, that's. That's interesting. Sometimes it comes in an insight where you get like a sliver of information where it's like, don't go, yeah, right? And. And like, for me, and at that time, it was. It was both like, my body was like, this is not the time. And then I got an insight that it wasn't right. And back to that moment when my dad told me, if something doesn't feel right in your heart, you're so brave, you're so powerful, you're so strong that you'll listen to that. So my dad planted that seed at 11 years old, and here I am at 15. Actually, it saved my life. That's right. And so I still do that to this day. I have other stories, crazy stories about stuff that would blow you away. Where I listen to it and how I explain it. Casey. And this to anybody out there, I explain it like this. There's the higher self, right?

There's.

There's the higher self. Call it God, voice, call it whatever you want. Yeah, that voice usually instantly speaks, right? So that's first thought. Second thought is like, so let's take an example of a guy wanting to ask out a girl, right? So he's walking through the mall. You see the girl. First thought says, wow, she's beautiful. I'd love to know her name, right? Second thought. Second thought goes, yeah, she is gorgeous. But like, does she really want to talk to you?

Yeah.

Third thought is like, bro, she's way out of your league. Just keep walking. First thought is usually. Usually the correct thought. That's the one. That's the one that's connected to your higher self. And so what I try to do as much as possible in business, in relationship with my spirituality, with my health, is listen to first thought. Because that's usually the one that's the truest. The rest of it is the BS that has us believing that we're not good enough, tall enough, strong enough, pretty enough, whatever the case may be.

Okay. Wow, man, that's some deep stuff, man. I'm loving this. So, yeah, I'm just so fascinated with just that. That intro story that you told everyone. Because I think, especially for me, I come from a small town. A lot of people are smoking weed every day, doing a lot of drugs, getting involved with guns, all this crazy shit. That obviously is not the way to move in that direction. And I think just hearing that story, when that day happened, that event in your life, when it comes to, like, the lowest point as of that time in your life, how did that affect you? I know that you said you moved back, you moved to the east coast, you completely changed everything. But internally, because when it comes to, like, you being mentally stable, how did that affect your mental. Your best friend, that tragic moment? And then how do you kind of correlate that mental strength to now what you're doing today?

Absolutely, man. You know, I've said this many times. Out of my greatest pain came my greatest gain, Right? And every time we feel rejection, we also receive direction, because everything that we go through can actually grow you. And, like, that's really true for me. So going through that pain, going through that trauma, going to his funeral and watching, looking at his body and, like, the makeup they put on and, like, just the weird. Like, it was this surreal thing that was really scary for me, and I didn't necessarily know how to process it then. However, once I realized that there are systems at play, old systems that all of us have been born into. Right. So your mother and father, Casey, and their mother and father, and their mother and father and everybody listening and watching this at this moment, most of them were born into the same type of system. And that system, say it kind of worked for them, but it no longer works for us, for this generation. And so once I saw that my friends were doing the same thing as the other group, but going to jail and dying, and this group was going to Yale and Succeeding. I then saw that it was a system, and it was carefully crafted to keep one group really small and one group growing and thriving. And instead of me blaming the man or the system, I said, you know what? Because there's a guy named Buckminster Fuller, and Buckminster Fuller says that instead of pointing at what you don't want, create a lane that's so dope, that's so beautiful, that's so powerful, that people stop looking over there and they look at your lane. And so I got so much growth from it, so much direction, that it opened up new worlds for me. Right. And of course, I would. I would rather have my friend here.

Yeah. Yeah.

However, I also understand that all of us have to go at some point. And I don't believe in, quote, unquote, heaven and hell. I don't believe in an ending. I believe in new beginnings.

Yeah. Wow, man. Dude, the reason I asked that question, especially for someone like you that has that amazing story, is I kind of always like to correlate. So something with me where I was almost paralyzed two years ago playing football and had a very bad neck injury. I was in a neck brace for like 20 to 25 weeks on and off. And I think I definitely resonated with you because I've definitely learned throughout my year and a half, two years of just having massive transformation is just like that negative moment in my life. If that wouldn't have happened, I wouldn't be where I am today due to the fact that it just mentally broke me down to the point where I had to change, I had to progress, I had to transform, I like to call it. But I think definitely just from that story, I think a lot of the listeners today will definitely think to their own kind of self. Self destruction moment. So I definitely appreciate you sharing that. I really mean that, for sure. But it's something that I really want to get into, especially when it comes to not just mental, not just health business, whatever it may be. But I think something that I've learned from a lot of people is they look at everything as just the full circle effect. How do you correlate business with health, with having mental strength? Where do you go about your day and kind of connect all these avenues that you're doing with your business? How do you just. I want to simplify the question and just say how. How do you keep everything together by just going throughout your day to day life with everything you have going on nowadays?

Absolutely, man. I'll say this. When we amplify our love, we automatically amplify our lives. As simple as I can put it. When I turn the volume up on the love that I will receive and that I'll give, everything else raises with it, right? So there's a quote, A rising tide lifts all boats. So the tide, it doesn't just lift that boat, it lifts all of them. And everything is touching everything in my life. I can't compartmentalize. Health, business, spirituality, relationship, it's all one thing. I bring the same Preston to all of those areas of my life. If I'm focusing on love, if I'm asking myself powerful questions, because powerful questions always lead to, to powerful answers. And so I'll sit in the question, you know, if my higher self was making this decision, how would I be with this? If I was, if I was focusing on love, how would I respond to this email? How would I be with my life? One of the best things anybody could do is fill their cup and then give from the overflow. And you fill your cup by doing things that make your heart smile. You fill your cup by playing the guitar, by going into nature, by surfing, by playing video games. Whatever it is for you that makes your heart smile, you do more of that, you become a better version of yourself. And you take that self to everything.

Dude, you're on fire today, man. I love it. I feel so much just like passion, enthusiasm right now as you're just talking about this. Honestly man, this is dope. So when it comes to your daily routine or just how you've grown as an individual from that 15 year old self, from going through those traumatic moments, from just obviously going through a lot of just low times in your life, right? So throughout your journey so far, from making a million dollars, making multiple millions of dollars, from being at your lows, those kind of from the low to high, what would you say kind of keeps you balanced. I know that you talk about love a lot, balance and understand who you are self fulfilling yourself, what would you say is one thing that you just do every day or ask that kind of keeps you in your lane?

Yeah, for sure, man. So here's the thing, especially in this like the sort of Instagram meme world, we can get really caught in trying to stay positive all the time. And life just lifes, it gives no fucks, it doesn't have labels like positive and negative. Life just likes. I like that what I do is I just ride the wave. I ride the wave and I.

Without.

Being attached to how I think it should be because a lot of us get in trouble when we shoot Ourselves, we literally wake up and we're like, oh, I got up two hours earlier. Well, you fucked at that point. You just already put into the universe that you're not a good person or whatever the case may be. No, you should have done exactly what you did. Because, you know, as long as we have breath in our body, we are in. We are so blessed, right? So if you want to know my morning and daily routine, absolutely. I do five things for myself before I do anything as it pertains to business and all of that stuff. So I wake up in the morning and I'm blessed with a beautiful little baby boy named Kingston. And so my wife and I usually are woken up by him giggling or whatever the case may be. So I'll spend the first 20 minutes just looking at him and playing with him and smiling and going through things that I'm truly grateful for. And I say this all the time. It's not the happy people that are grateful. It is the grateful people that are happy. Happiness is literally a byproduct. Happiness is a byproduct of living with an attitude of gratitude, right? So I start my day just thinking about string of consciousness, what I'm super grateful for in this now moment, right? And I'll just say anything like, I'm grateful for my boogers. I'm grateful for my balls.

I'm grateful for love.

I'm grateful for hair.

I'll just.

I'll just go wherever I need to go. I'm literally putting myself in state, as Tony Robbins would say, right? Because, you know, motion creates emotion. And so I'm literally filling my cup with the great fullness of life, right? And then what I'll do is I'll strap my son to my chest or I'll put him in a little. What do you call that? They call him a pram in other stroller. And we'll hit the road and go straight to the beach. We live by the beach, so we'll go to the beach. I'll pop in an audio book, something that fills me up, something that forwards my thinking, something that gives me juice and magic. I'll pop in an audio book, walk in him on the beach. I'll do maybe a live or two in one of the groups that I'm coaching. If I feel inspired, I go get a green juice because, you know, what we put in is what we get out. So think about, think about this thus far, right? Let's say I get up about 5:30am every day because my son gets me up at that time.

Yeah.

By 8:30am I have already put in so much goodness that when I literally sit down in front of a computer and start my day, I'm already at a 10, I'm already, I've already filled my cup and then Casey and this is one of the most important things for people who are entrepreneurs or business or in anything that you want to further, anything you want to master. And then what I do is I do whatever the scariest thing is for the day. Because we all have a to do list, right? I have a success list and on my success list is only three to four things. And out of those three to four, I always find the thing that I don't want to do the most and I do it first.

I love it.

I do the thing that moves the needle, right? So we go small to go big, I go small to go big. And a lot of us will just do a bunch of random, distracting, scrolling, stupid stuff and then look up and be like, oh, I have to do that tomorrow. And then tomorrow comes and you never do it. And you never do it and you never do it.

Procrastination. And I always love asking just daily routines because I think a lot of people from everyone that I've interviewed, they all have their personal kind of identification with what they do. I know, I loved how you said having your son and you wake up and just have that 20, 30 minutes, I'm sure that's just the most amazing feeling right when you wake up to wake up to something like that. But when it comes to just what I would like to call it, the flow state when it comes to handling this, handling that with social media nowadays, I love how you brought that up. When it comes to scrolling and I think a lot of young people, especially where I'm from, it's like they're not focusing on themselves, they're not focusing on their brand, they're giving everyone else their attention, they're focusing on everyone else role and they're comparing themselves, they're saying, oh I wish I could do this, I wish I could do that, I wish I could look that good. All this negative energy from the social media aspect of things and I know that we connected on social media, that's how a lot of us nowadays are connecting. But what's your thoughts on the current social media? I would like to call it trend wave, whatever personal brand. I know that you've built an amazing personal brand, but what's your thoughts on the positive effects of social media and then also the counter effects of social media? What's your state on that?

Yes. So it depends. It all comes down to intent or intention, right? So if your intention is to go on social media to compare yourself and to see how you don't have millions like so and so, or you don't have as many followers, or you're not as pretty, or your ass isn't as big as the Kardashians, or you're not getting as much comments or attention as so and so, if that's the intention for going on there, then it's stupid as hell because you're literally sending a signal to the universe that will match that. Right. The law of attraction, the law of magnetism says you don't. You don't attract what you would, you what you want, you attract what you are. And so intention is the first place, Right. I go on social media for two reasons. One, to be a graffiti artist, right? Because I used to. I used to spray paint on walls and now I spray paint on the Internet and I. And I tell a story, I remind people of their truth, right? Because that's the way I can get to the people as fast as possible. Yeah. So I go in there for that. That's one intention. And I go in to see what my friends are up to, but I limit that time. And I don't, I don't anybody who I have caught myself comparing. I do two things. One, I bless them and celebrate them and then I unfollow them. Wow. Because until. Until I've created the mental fortitude, meaning the mental power to be bigger than that comparison story, I'm not going to put it in my space. That's like a drug addict saying, I'm not going to do drugs anymore, and then hanging around a bunch of people who are doing drugs in their face facts. Right?

I never heard of something like that, the unfollow method, but in a grateful way. That's super cool. That's super, super cool. So with social media, this topic that we're on, number one, obviously, I've grown up with social media since I was 12, 13. It's kind of been like the wave that I caught being in this earth at this time. But for you, when did you kind of attach yourself, start building a brand, start putting out content? When did you start doing that, number one? And then how has that impacted you so far in your.

It's huge, man, Huge. Without social media, I would not be in the place that I am right now. You know, I started 11 years ago and I was the same reason. I'm Doing it now. I was doing it just to give. Just to give, right? And every time I gave, I just received. I would get messages from people all over the world, you know, about my YouTube channel and the videos I was putting up on Facebook. And I'm grateful for social media. I'm grateful for it, for this tool and for the opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people every day if I want. That's a big deal. And it's connected me with really awesome, beautiful people. It's kept me in the know when, you know, the news tries to tell me one thing and social media will blast it out and be like, no, that's not actually true. And I, I love that. And I think it is pretty dangerous, especially for young kids, because then their worth can be caught up in likes and comments. And that's where I suggest you schedule. Any young people listening to this, put a schedule on yourself. Give yourself one hour a day to scroll, and the rest of the time you're on your mission, you're on your purpose, you're doing whatever's on your heart. You're playing the guitar, you're playing basketball, you're reading that book, you're swimming in the ocean. Whatever your thing is, spend more time on that and less time scrolling and you'll be in a good place.

I love it, man. I think definitely, especially where I'm from, it's like people don't limit themselves and they just get so deep where it's like hours later, literally, they'll just be like, they'll be more depressed, they'll judging themselves more and then they just go to sleep on that, right? There's no positive affirmations, Nothing's going on. And I, I think, for me, I think the kind of the, When I pivoted, when it comes to looking at the people scrolling to, then this is what I tell a lot of young people, especially to then focusing on building my brand, helping other people, putting out good content for other people. I think a lot of people, they don't see that switch of like, that's why I really talk about the power of personal branding, the power of the dm, the power of networking, because that's how we've connected. That's how I've connected with Gerard and all these amazing people from building a brand, but then actually having the content to back it up, right? So with you building an amazing brand, putting out videos, when it comes to that, I want to get kind of like a tactical session real quick. Comes to just building a brand, I'd Say for your name, for what you really believe in, what's something that you've done that you've kind of attributed to kind of building your story, building that audience, building something of value that you know you can provide value to. What's been like two or three tactics that you would say you've implemented to build that audience over time.

Yep. Number one, see family, not dollar signs. A lot of people, when they're doing social media, they're thinking every number is more money for them. And you can feel that through their post. You know, the people who follow me know that they're not followers, that their family, that their tribe. I have people. I had somebody yesterday walk up to me crying, and it happens every other day. I've had it happen in Morocco. I've had it happen in Greece. I've had it happen in Africa. It happens everywhere I go. And so the reason why that is is because I'm seeing them as family. And so if I was talking to you, Casey, as if your life depended on it, because it does. Right. How would I talk knowing that the suicide rate is higher than it's ever been?

Yeah.

Right. Then it's no, it's no longer about, how can I slide in my little thing to make you think I'm better than you. It's, yo, I've been down this road and I see where you're at, where you're at, and I want to give you some wisdom. I want to give you some game. So here I am, loving on you. And here's the thing, bro. Whether you met somebody or you've only seen social. Social media, when somebody cares, you can feel it.

You know, I watched.

Yeah, I watched some people's videos and I'm like, bullshit. You just like, that's not actually true for you. That's why Gary Vee and Grant Cardone do really well. Because you can feel that that's their truth. This is not a gimmick.

Yeah.

That's actually who they are. That's how they roll. And they give a fuck, and so do I. So number one is give many fucks. I know. This is a whole thing about not giving them many of them because people are dying and suffering. You know how many young boys are addicted to porn right now? I created Man Cave. Really? Based on that.

Wow. Okay.

About creating community where we can be bigger than our dicks, where we can be bigger than drugs and alcohol, be bigger than social media, be bigger than all of the stuff that we've been taught. Makes you a man.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's one. See family, not dollar signs. Number two is consistency is king and queen. Most people jump on social media, they do a little something. Oh, I didn't get enough love. And then they retreat back. Yep. I've been doing this for 11 years. For the first six years, I did not have a single product for anybody to buy. Not one thing. Yeah, just straight giving, giving, giving, giving. Three times a day, non stop, six days a week. Like, that's a lot of giving. So when I put out my first program with my wife, within hours, it was $50,000 in our account. Why? Because people were hungry to give. They wanted to give back what I had been giving to them.

Yeah, I love how you said like six years, you were just giving, giving, giving. Sort of like when I met Gary Vee, it's like jab, jab, jab. Right, hook, right, yes. Doing it purposely, you're doing it with purpose. You're actually giving a fuck like you said to your audience. And I think a lot of people, this is a black and white. You can tell you cannot or you know, it's legit, you know, it's authentic. That's something like you bringing back intuition. It's like social media. I always tell people that I talk to or when I speak or whatever may be it's like the way that you are perceiving yourself, the way that you feel. If you can portray that on social media and you're doing it authentically, like people can tell, like black and white. You know, I think, and I'm sure you would agree, it's just like if you're building a brand, if you're putting, putting out content, just be you. You know, I think a lot of people try to copy, mimic, gimmick, try to do this because it's the new tactic or whatever it is right? For me, it's like I do, I do all my podcasts, do my video content, whatever it may be. And it's like I've just done me and like from that it's growing my audience. I've connected with amazing people and I just, I try to keep it simple because I love the. Well, I read it. I don't know what book it was like the Kiss strategy. It was like, keep it super simple. I, I think that kind of applies to social media for sure. So I think those tactics are definitely super valuable, man. But to move on, I have one or two more questions. I don't want to take too much of your time, but when it comes to your book, I know that your Book, you've written two of them. What was your motivation, I'd like to call it to write this book, Because I always like to ask people that when it's something. Because whenever I see a book or a podcast or a social media video, it's just a creation of something. Right. And it's. So for you, what was your motivation to write your book and what was the biggest thing that you want people to get from that so people can check it out?

100%. So here's the thing. I told you I was in special education classes. One of the reasons for that is that I'm experiencing dyslexia. So if you were to read a page, and I would read a page, it would take you maybe two minutes. It would take me like 10 or 20, because my brain does something where it jumbles the words and so I have to literally just super focus and repeat things over and over again. So the first reason why I wrote the book was to beat that part of myself. I wrote the book because I was afraid to write the book. I have so much, Yes, I have so much wisdom. I have so much love to give. I've been through so much in this lifetime that how dare I play small and allow some disability stop me from giving my gift? So that was number one. Number two is I knew that there are many people who didn't have the type of money that it cost to work with me.

Yeah.

And so I asked myself, how can I put something into the world that doesn't need, you know, thousands of dollars? Yeah, right. And, and the book. I got a six figure book deal from Simon and Schuster. I'd never written a book ever before. And they were so. They believed in the message, in what I was up to, so much that they were like, yo, go do your thing. Like. And so I wrote love louder for that reason and because that's my truth. When we amplify our love, we automatically amplify our lives. Love is the one message. It's your message, it's my message, It's Gary Vee's message. It's everybody's message.

I love it, man. So with that, I know I'll be leaving all your social media links to everything. Where is there a website people can go to? What's working? People get that if they wanted to.

Yeah, man. I mean, you can get it anywhere on Amazon, but if you go to Preston Smiles dot com, I have links to where you can get it from all over the world. Like if you're in Australia or somewhere else, like that. And then, you know, like at Preston smiles on everything. You can find it on my Instagram, etc.

Yeah, that'll be in the description for everyone that doesn't want to go back, replay it, try to get it back. So, last question before I let you go, man. Obviously, I'm 17. I'm young right now. This is the Rise of the Young podcast. So I know that we talked before we got on just. And when you were on about your story. So the question is, if you were to go back to when you were 17, 18, my age, what would. Not necessarily. What would you do different? Because I think everyone's story is the way it's laid out. But what would you tell someone that's my age or 18, 19, 20, whatever it may be, what would you tell them from not just the business standpoint, but from just a life standpoint that you've kind of gained throughout your journey?

Yeah, I would just remind myself and you and anybody else to have more fun, to make more mistakes, to mess up even more, because a lot of us are trying to get it right so we can be good little boys and girls for mommy. And you didn't come here to live mommy or daddy's life. You came here to live yours. So do your thug fizzle. Do whatever is on your heart and do it to the fullest.

I love it. I love it, man. So, that being said, thank you so much, Preston. I really appreciate you coming on. This is by far the most fire podcast I've done, man. You definitely blew me away. I'm so open. I'm so glad you were open to sharing your stories and just providing the people value. But that being said, everyone listening, please make sure you go give Preston a follow, check out his book, order it on Amazon, and just obviously go to him and start following him, because I got him on this show for a reason. I wanted to tell you guys and show you guys what an amazing person he is. So, that being said, thank you so much for tuning in to the Rise of Young podcast. I really appreciate everyone listening, and I will see you guys in the next episode.

Y' all are hopeless this is a decade of devotion it's hard to stop my movement when I'm already in motion this ain't luck this is by design I hadn't worked in the dark for my light to shine A lot of people are dope they just quit too soon A lot of rappers, a lot of rappers they got rich too soon.

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 ours.

He leave 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.

Legacy of Monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.