Next Level 279: From $50k in student debt to 8-Figure Founder: Lessons for Building Financial Freedom in the Creator Economy with Conar Fair

I am a kid who grew up on a dairy farm with hand me down clothes from all of my siblings and we didn't even have dial up Internet until I was 12 years old. And now we've gone on to build a business that has made over $13 million on the Internet.

Welcome to the Next level Income show where it's our goal to take your income, your investments and your life to the next level. I'm your host, Chris Larson. If you haven't yet, get a copy of our book for free at our website nextlevelincome.com. that's www.nextlevelincome.com. just click on the book link and I'll even send you a copy if you put your address in. Do you ever wonder how you can make money in the content economy today? Our guest today is going to give his six steps and how he has built a multimillion eight figure company through social media. Connor Fair is a creator and marketer turned educator who's helped over 140,000 students grow on social media using viral video frameworks. As the co founder of 1P Creative, he's driven over 1/2 of a billion views on his own content, billions more for his students and scaled from zero to eight figures in revenue in just over a year. All powered by high converting short form video. He's got an amazing story. From broke entrepreneur to training Amazon's global marketing team, Connor now teaches entrepreneurs around the world how to turn scrolls into sales through his proven $10 million video ad funnel formula that's designed to convert cold traffic into thousands of paying customers. Connor, welcome to the show.

Great to be here. Super excited to talk with you this morning, Chris.

Yeah, likewise. This is gonna be, I mean look, you've got a great story which I'm excited for you to share with the audience. You're also a real estate investor but we're gonna be talking about something that, you know, if you're a business owner, you're gonna love today's podcast. Certainly. But I also point out you are my second guest today that I've recorded that's from Canada, where my wife is from. And you're in. Do you mind sharing like where you're in a cool place in Canada I been to, but I'm going to check it out.

Yeah. Well, thank you for, for the intro and I do want to preface, I'm just getting into real estate investing so I'll probably learn a lot more from you than you will from me. But we're looking at our first commercial which I'm really excited about just in like the due diligence process and like, just learning so much. So that's that. But where we're located is in British Columbia, so it's about four hours northeast of Vancouver, which the 2010 Olympic Games.

And.

Yeah, so we're, we're kind of like a little wine country here. It's in the Okanagan Valley. And people, people who live here and visit here call it Colonifornia because we have like over 150 wineries and we're on the lake, so it's a bit of a. It's a bit of an outdoor playground where we live here.

Yeah, that's really cool. My family and I visited the Finger Lakes in New York last summer and that was, we had. It was a real treat. We really enjoyed kind of that area. So, yeah, once, once. Next time we're up in that, in that way, we're gonna have to make a little detour, Connor, and check it out. So hopefully, yeah, if you're listening, maybe you learned about a new, new cool region in North America here.

We'd love to have you for sure.

Yeah, absolutely. Connor, you know, you, you, you know the title of this, you know, $50,000 in student debt to Eight Figure founder. I got a lot of people that are, you know, like, how do I, how do I start a business? How do I get out of the, you know, 9 to 5, the W2, you know, grind and do that. Talk about, talk about your story.

Yeah, well, I, I'll tell you, the way I got into business isn't the way that I would recommend doing it, but I will share my story. So hopefully there's some insight on some of the mistakes that you can avoid. I'll go kind of like way back because I think that like the entrepreneurial itch started pretty early for me. Yeah, I grew up in a bit of a mixed family. My parents were divorced and so I had six siblings, like siblings and step siblings. And we all grew up on a dairy farm. So, like, I started working on the farm when I was like, probably 6 years old, out milking cows, driving tractor, all that kind of unique farm boy stuff.

Yeah.

And really, I guess just like learned quite a hard work ethic. And my family was very traditional. Everybody got into, for the most part, a trade. And so going through high school, that was the route for me as I was going to become an electrician. So I. The plan was to get my apprenticeship, finish grade 12 early so I could get that ticket and basically just start working at 17 and start making money. Because there's a lot of money to be made trades if you know how to do it.

Yeah.

So during this time in high school, my friend and I who's also very entrepreneurial, he at the time was running this is kind of date us a little bit a business that customized blackberries. Like that was his first business. As he sold like he would. He would put custom like keyboards and cases and things on blackberries.

I had a BlackBerry for sure now. And remind me again, is R. I am. Were they Canadian company?

Yes. The BlackBerry invented in Canada. So represent.

There you go.

So that was his first business. And he kind of like introduced me to just like the idea of making money for yourself. It wasn't really something I thought too much about before that. And so in high school, we actually started a landscaping company. We bought this old as soon as we had our licenses. We this old Ford dump truck that was from the 60s and it was just like in rough, rough shape. But we ended up painting that, cleaning it up a little bit, rebuilding the box. And we grew this landscaping company to the point where we were taking on like 10, $15,000 jobs as these two kids in high school, hiring all of our friends to go weeds and stuff for us. We had no idea what we were doing. One time I messed up this woman's hedge so badly because I didn't know how to trim a hedge. But I told her I did because I was like, we got to make money.

Oh no.

Thankfully she gave a lot of grace. She knew we were just kids. It was a big learning experience for us. But that was my first foray into business. Was like in a true service based company. And so that kind of like there was a lot of tension between myself and the other founder. We were best friends, but we were learning to run a business together. And we ended up shutting it down because it was just like creating a lot of problems on the friendship. And so ended up going through with my electrical apprenticeship. Went and worked up north for a couple years doing that. And as a kid at 18, I was clearing six figures a year and just felt amazing. But the lifestyle was not something I aligned with at all. Just a lot of like partying and kind of wasting money. And I saw guys who were there in their 50s and just like still doing the exact same thing, still in debt. So I was kind of like, this isn't really the path that I want to go down.

Sure. Yeah.

And that was working up like northern Canada, kind of in the middle of nowhere. So it Was all, yeah, a little different culture.

Yeah.

If you don't.

And so if you don't mind pausing there, I want to. I want to hit on a couple things because you mentioned some very impactful lessons that I think people can learn. I come from a family of farmers. Dairy on my father's side, vegetable on my mother's side, and my coach grew up on a farm as well. And I love what you said about that work ethic. And I think it's challenging today in the world where, like, I have two boys and. And it's like, how do you teach kids in today's culture to have that work ethic? So one of the things that we did is my older son actually worked at one of our car washes this summer and getting in that groove, allowing him to participate in his cell phone bill and paying for different things. But also, he had money and he had a lot of pride. So let me ask you, you said you started the landscape business. What. What inspired that? Because that's, you know, that is. That's very impressive to start a business like that at that age. And I. I used to do something very similar. I would do, like, leaves in the fall, I'd shovel snow in the winter, you know, mow lawns, had, you know, had a paper route. You know, all that stuff. Like, why did you go out? Like, what inspired you to go do that?

Yeah, that's a. That's a really great question. I want to touch point you made before that first as well, because I think at the time, growing up, at times working on the farm, like, it felt a little bit unfair because I had responsibilities that nobody else had. But, yeah, looking back on it now, I understand what it built in me. So I think it's the most important thing. One of the most important things you can do for your kids is allow them that space to learn and to have responsibility and to actually work hard for their first paycheck and really understand the value of money. Because I got paid very minimally at first, but I still felt really proud of the fact that I was putting in work. I was working before school and was. I was making my own money. And I think, like, that was probably the first taste that made me think, like, oh, the harder I work, the more I can make. And that sense. It was just the more hours I put in. But then thinking about the business side of things, it was kind of like, well, I could go sit in class right now and learn I don't really care about, or I could go have fun with my Buddy. And work on people's yards and be outside and make money and learn things.

Yeah.

It was honestly just from like the challenge perspective of like, let's go try this new thing. It's just going to be something way more fun than going to school. And I think it definitely paid off.

Yeah. And you know, growing up on a farm, I mean you can, you know, it may have been different in your situation, but farming is not a super lucrative business for a family farm. I mean it's, you know, you don't make a ton of money. So my guess is like me growing up, you know, I didn't, I went out and I started getting jobs because I mean, my family was basically like, hey, if you want stuff, you gotta find a way to pay for it. And it's, you know, I grew up in actually quite an affluent area and outside of like Annapolis, Baltimore, D.C. and you know, I'd see my friends with their pools and their Nintendos and yeah, you know, their bikes and everything. And I had to know I had to go pay for my own stuff. And it was, you know, you know, there was some resentment there, you know, from parents. But then in hindsight, it gave me a great sense of accomplishment. And I'll never forget I was in college and I was, I was dating this girl and I was in my, I had a, like a, you know, it was probably a 5 year old Honda Accord. Nice Honda Accord. And she, you know, she made a like kind of a snide comment. We had just started dating and she made kind of a snide comment about like, well, I don't have a rich, know rich parents that could buy me a car. And I just looked at her and I said, I bought this car. And I was so, I was so offended by the thought that she didn't think that I could go and create this. And that relationship didn't last that long, I'll tell you that. But we're still friends. But it really bothered me to do that. But what I also realized was how proud I was of the work I put in and the money I made and the ability to have that independence. I was probably 20 at the time, so it was, you know, it gave, it gave a real sense of pride. And I think, you know, that's the thing. My older son goes to a school and one of their tenants is the dignity of manual labor. And I think that children, you know, really do take pride. So I think, you know, if you're a parent out there, especially those new parents out there, get your kids Involved in, you know, the quote unquote chores around the house. You know, let them do their own laundry. Laundry. Help have them help clean the house and do those things especially means absolutely.

It doesn't even. To me, like, looking back as a child, it doesn't even necessarily have to be with the idea of paying them for it, because a lot of the time, the accomplishment in itself is the pride. And my. My dad, one of his, like his best friend growing up, he built this cabin in like, a very remote area of Canada. And we go there every summer and we built it like it was off grid. We built it from scratch. Like, we cut trees down, we cooled them, we packed rocks. And it's some of my favorite memories because we. We went from having like, essentially barren land to building this cabin by hand. As a kid, I was probably like 10, from 10 to 15 years old building this cabin out. And I didn't get paid for it other than we'd work really hard and then we'd go fishing or we'd go do something fun. But being able to look at that thing, be in it after, when we were done was like, still probably one of the most proud moments of my life. And I think there's a lot to be said about just like the physical aspect of doing things, your hands and like, building something tangible that you can look at and like, truly be proud of.

Yeah. And I think, you know, we're getting into, like, your stories are the building blocks of, you know, why I think, you know, being an entrepreneur is so fulfilling, you know, and gets out there. So. Yeah, thanks for taking a little. A little pause and doing that because I think there's so many of these gold nuggets in your story, Connor.

Yeah, I appreciate that. I'll. I'll jump back in after. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. When I. When I realized I didn't want to be an electrician anymore, I was actually coming back to Vancouver for my second year of schooling. And this was like, so uninterested at the time. And my. My friend who I started the landscaping company with years ago was like, let's start another business. So I was going to school. We also started a lifestyle clothing company, which I will say is probably the worst business that you can start. It's extremely expensive. It's just, you have to be amazing at marketing. Obviously, the landscape has changed a bit since I did that like over 10 years ago. But we started business and we both just took out 20, $30,000 student line of credit to fund this business basically with zero marketing Experience. It's like zero clothing industry experience. We just went and made connections. So like, we wanted it to be really high quality clothing as well. So we were sourcing premium, like bamboo fabric. We hired somebody to run our own patterns and create our own patterns. And we made these clothes that we were super proud of, but we had no idea how to market them. We had our friends and like a core base of people who were like, well, these guys own a clothing company. It's amazing. And it felt really good. But we were like, we are in debt. We're not making money. And so we ended up having to just basically liquidate, sell our assets of that company. We got like $5,000 for it. And the. The woman was trying to take it over. Never ended up doing anything with it. But that company was the, I guess, launch pad for my career in marketing because in doing that, I had to learn how to start taking photos and creating videos. And that is how I met my current wife who was at the time, she was going to school television, film and broadcast, and she was making YouTube videos. So we actually contracted her to do a clothing lookbook for us. And we went up to Whistler to shoot this lookbook over a weekend. And I just got to chatting with her and I was so interested and like infatuated in the fact that she was building career where she was just going to make videos and get paid to make videos. And I was like, that was never something that I thought was in possibility. It was just so. It was a totally new idea to me. And so for one, I learned a lot from her. For two, we like really hit it off after that. So continued talking to her, trying to like impress her with my entrepreneurial skill set.

I love it. I love it though. Yeah, yeah. We.

We ended up getting together and that. We like, we started a YouTube channel together. And all my friends at the time, this was like over 11 years ago, were they made fun of us a lot because they're like, how are you ever going to make money from making videos? And I was like, there's this way that you can monetize on the platform and like, we just have to build a following and every view gets like a cent. And it was like this crazy wild west time. And then I started running ads on Facebook to get viewers on the YouTube videos. So it was kind of just like this entire snowball effect that led me to the world of digital marketing and digital media. Yeah.

And you met your wife. I mean, come on. That's like.

And I met my wife who Taught me a lot of like the skills that, to where I am today and continues to, to do that for me. So I love that it getting, getting to that point I still wasn't making enough money to like really support myself or live. So in the meantime I took a job in telecom because I had electrical skills. And what we were doing is we were building cell towers. So I'd be going to these really remote jobs building cell towers. And during that time I was like, this is really dangerous. It's not something that I, I want to be doing full time. Video is just like not making enough money to sustain a lifestyle yet. But like I know eventually it can, but this isn't what I want to be doing while I'm learning video. So I then applied for a job at a car dealership as a social media coordinator. So I was making around $80,000 a year as this tele worker and the, the job was entry level in this marketing position for $36,000. And so I, I didn't care. I was like, I want this. So because I see this being like I'm going to be sitting in an office and I'm going to actually learn marketing from like real professionals. And I remember doing the interview felt like such a phony. Like I put a suit or I put a tie and a dress shirt on and I walked in and I pitched myself and why I thought I was able to do this. And ended up to the final phase of the interview process where like the three founders of this massive automotive chain were all interviewing me. The most intimidating thing I'd ever that point in my life. And then about a week later I was on a job on Vancouver Island. It was November, pouring rain, like freezing, just about snowing. I was to the bone hanging 200ft above the ground on this telecom pole. And my phone starts ringing and I'm digging through my pocket, it's all wet. I'm trying to get it, make sure I don't drop it 200ft and it smashes on the ground below. And I answer the phone and they tell me I got the job. And I was just like so, so happy. I'm like, I am out of here.

I'm never see you guys out.

Yeah. And then that was really like from there that kind of like snowballed into my like progression as a marketer. And there's a few next steps that got us to where we are here. But I don't know if you want me to like fill in any or if there's any questions before I kind of continue.

Yeah, no, I'm glad you asked because I got a couple of things. You know what intrigued me was you mentioned you had some issues with your partner in the landscaping business, but then you guys got back together. You know, did you, did you mature? Was it the business that was creating those, those challenges? I think, you know, in a business, partnerships are so important. What, what changed during that, that time period?

Yeah, I think it was just like recognizing that we have very different skill sets. Yeah, he's an excellent operator and very analytical, which is something I've had to become a lot more in, in the recent decade. But at the time it was like I was very creative and he was very analytical and just respecting the fact that we had different skill sets that actually helped one another was really allowed us to function a lot better with like, the next company. And I'm also still a business partner with him now. We actually just bought an island property together and we're, we're doing some mic resort build out. So, yeah, I do think that having like a really strong partnership can, can be massive for building a business.

Yeah, that's so important to scale, especially for those of us that are, you know, founders. It's like you have to get to a point where you realize what your core skill set is. Bring the right people in, the right partners that are complementary to you. And even I think it's even important in a relationship. Like, my wife and I are very different. We've done a lot of different stuff together, business wise, but understanding each other's skills and kind of being, being willing to give up the control in that area and then communicating obviously. Right. So that you can, you can achieve those goals and then everybody's happier. You know, you're operating in your, in your ideal energy and doing that. That's a great lesson as well. So again, so many, you know, so many lessons that you've had along the way. Connor, I want to really dive in to what you're doing today, you know, with your business and who you work with.

Yeah. So, like, getting into that automotive position is what got me learning video production.

Yeah.

Every single day, really. I had to learn about what it took to market and like, what KPIs were and all of the metrics that are important and so worked there for a couple of years, start my own production company. Basically just took on clients for the next five or six years. And when I moved to Kelowna, where I am, I partnered with, because I was kind of at a spot where I felt like I'D maxed out what I was capable of doing on my own and I was getting a little bit burnt out. And so an old from elementary school happened to also move to the same city at the same time as me. And he had already started a marketing agency as well. So we ended up partnering myself with him and his and creating like a new video production marketing company. And within the first year of doing that, we brought on some really big contracts. We worked with Expedia on our first like big six figure production, which was just like such a massive win for us at the time. Yeah, grew that to the point that obviously the pandemic happened in 2020. We got, we lost like almost $300,000 of contracts within a span of like two days because we just couldn't be on set with people or shooting at all. And so in doing that, like we, we ended up doing this challenge where every single day we would conceptualize, write, shoot, edit and release a video ad on social media every, like, every 24 hours. And we did that for 30 days straight. And again, just like, we just learned so much from it, we built a really loyal following from it and that's what unlocked our ability to get views on social media. We started understanding the algorithms a little bit more and done a bunch of case studies that proved no matter what niche we were in, we could get millions of views consistently using the formats that we kind of laid out. Because they are like TikTok kind of changed the world when they first like really came on the scene in 2020 because their algorithm was merit based. So it was just like if you make a valuable video and people watch it all the way to the end, you can start with zero followers and grow to views on one video. And that was what really changed the game for people. It completely lowered the bar to entry. And that's like all of the other apps have shadowed that algorithm now because it's just so superior for people getting people in the door. And so once we figured that out and figured out like how to create those videos, we just felt really unstoppable. And that's what we were doing for clients is clients would ask, well, how can you, how can you make my first video go viral? So we would do that for our clients and then we kind of realized we actually have something much bigger here. We have like a really, really interesting framework and foundation that's going to be needed by like millions of people. And so that was when we decided to create what is now our hero offer, which is the TikTok and Reels creator course which teaches all of those frameworks and to date had 150,000 people take that course. We also obviously we run like a higher ticket coaching program now as well to help people like kind of one in a six month container get those same results. But yeah, it's been totally life changing for us. It's obviously generated like a ton of free wealth but it's also changed the lives of so many of our students. And like there's just some, so many really unique case studies of people who don't know anything about social media. Like my co founder's dad was about to take a job driving truck across northern Canada because he needed something to continue money into until he could retire. And so we were like, he loves golf, he loves caddying. And we were like, why don't you, why don't you try this? We're going to use this framework, we teach and we'll make you a golf TikTok channel and Instagram channel. And he was like, well I've never even made a video before. Like how is this going to work? We're like, let's just try it. And he loved, he's like let's, let's try it. I'm so curious. Let's do it. And so the first video we made him and we documented all of this, we have a video of it, got 4 million views. And from then that was how he was, how old he was 60. And that was 60. Yeah. Truck driver, that was two years ago.

Starts a tick, a golf Tick Tock channel. I mean that is, there's your, there's your. I mean come on, what a better case study than that.

And we reference it all the time. We have so many, but that one is just my favorite because it's just like this. Somebody who knew Nothing and now two years later he has over 300,000 followers. He's signing six figure content deals with title sponsors and it's just totally transformed his life. He, he just got back from a trip to Ireland where he was out filming golf content. And it's like that is the power of the economy that I really want to get across to people is like attention. People make this reference a lot but like attention is kind of like the new oil in a way. Like it's so valuable. Everybody is, everybody's fighting for attention. And so like if you can capture that attention, it is worth a lot to brands and it's worth a lot to you as well.

Yeah, incredible. And they teach, teach others to do it. And I Heard a great quote. I was fortunate enough to spend half a day with, with a billionaire this past week and he had a great quote. He said, if you want to make a hundred million dollars, help others make a hundred million dollars, create $100 million in value. That's how you make, make money is, is creating value for other people, which I think is, is a phenomenal lesson.

Spot on.

Yeah. So, and you've got, you've got a great guide that, that I've gone through here. Six steps to creating Viral videos. Connor, I'd love for you to kind of give, give a quick, quick sneak peek of, of what listeners will get when they download that. We got a special link here as well and you can share with the audience how they can get that for themselves.

Yeah, I would love to. Thank you. So anybody who wants to learn how to actually leverage the creator economy, which by the way is worth half a trillion dollars by the end of this year, it's growing massively. There's so much, so much opportunity, like it's a total blue ocean. So if you, if anybody is thinking, just to preface this, if anybody's thinking it's too late. It is never too late. There's so much opportunity. I love that. So if you're interested in learning, all you really have to do is type in viral guide to your browser and you can just, and your email and download the guide. But what the guide is, is basically the anatomy of a video. The video, a video that gets viral views. So we break it down by like the, the hook, the body, and kind of like the payoff. And the way that it works I was kind of referencing earlier is you just have to make videos that offer value. So with your hook in your video, when you position your video, you can kind of think about it as a sales transaction because they're going to give you their time and they need to know that they're going to get something valuable for it. So if in the first three seconds of your video or five seconds, you can promise them a valuable payoff, whether that's something that they're going to learn, whether it's an emotion that they're going to feel, whether it's like the reaction somebody's going to have, if you can make them that promise in the first three to five seconds and then hold that payoff till the very last three seconds of the video and tell the story in the middle, you're going to be able to create videos that the algorithm loves because people watch it all the way through and it works. That the reason it works that way is because it means people are spending more time on the app watching more videos. I'm sure we've all been stuck in like a scroll where you're just finding yourself watching more and more videos. That's because the algorithms are obviously so good at tailoring your feed to what you like. So if you can figure out, actually work with the algorithms, which is exactly what this guide teaches, you can in the next 30 days, totally transform your life.

I love that. I love that. And look, your story, Connor, is, is a, is a true lesson to those that are out there that are listening. Especially listen if you're, if you're listening today and you're just getting started, listen to Connor's story. You know, the lessons that we talked about of the value of hard work, you know, building value. One of the things that you mentioned, I love to tell this to young people. You know, take a job to learn. Take a job that's going to help you become either more valuable in your next role or it's going to help you develop the skill set that you want and need to ultimately grow your business and then find the experts like yourself, Connor, that have gone out there and done what you want to do and learn from them. So you are, you are an epitome of all those things.

I really appreciate that. And I, I do just think, like, I'm not a special person. It has never in my mind it has ever been easier to create generational wealth. The access that we have to information is incredible. And it's really just about implementing it. Like I am a kid who grew up on a dairy farm with hand me down clothes from all of my siblings and we didn't even have dial up Internet until I was 12 years old. And now we've gone on to build a business that has made over $13 million on the Internet. So it's like, if I can do that, you can do anything that you want to do. The information is out there. You just have to start taking action.

I love it. I love it. And we got all the tools in the episode today. Click on the link in the show notes or just type viral guide into your browser. I just did it while Connor was talking and it popped right up. Connor, I've already learned so much from you, from your guide and we help that, we hope that we can help you on your, your real estate journey, help you create generational wealth for your family as well. So if you're listening today, that's our goal out there, to help you achieve financial independence through education investment opportunities. If you haven't yet checked out our podcast, I'm sorry, our website@nextlevelincome.com you can get our free book, you can get all of our podcast episodes, and you can learn about our investment opportunities there as well. Connor, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story and these valuable resources with our audience today.

Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Hey Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now I have one more thing to give to you. We have a page for my coaching clients where you can get a free copy of my book as well as much more from previous guests on the show. Just check out nextlevelincome.com coaching to get a free copy of my book, audiobook and much more. I'll send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for listening to the podcast. Also, please like share and take just 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts.