How To Accelerate Your Debt Pay Off Strategies With These 2 Secrets

If you could spend some time, just kind of break down your, your mindset as it pertains to YouTube, helping people, serving people, and just creating value out of thin air via your, your content.

As far as drive goes, this is always hard for me to not talk about but to like instill in others, I guess because for me, I, I don't know what it is. Like I'm just this way. I guess I'm somewhat of a workaholic. I've always been this way. I've always been somewhat of an overachiever. Like I've had perfect attendance from, I had perfect attendance from third grade all the way through my master's. So I'm like, I don't know if it's a fear or something related to that, to where it's like, I don't want to miss out on things or if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. And so I mean, for the most part, like, especially when it comes to work and the, the stuff that I put out there, because this is at the end of the day for me. And so what drives me is kind of just who I am as a person. And like if I say I'm gonna put up two videos or three videos in the week, like that's what I'm gonna do. But also because I so badly wanted to get out of like a normal lifestyle, I suppose I didn't want to work a 9 to 5. I have known that since I was, since when I started college. I went into school knowing I didn't want to be. I went to school initially to be a dentist. I didn't really want that. I wanted it for the money. And then I changed my mind after a few years and I just, I knew I didn't want to work a regular 9 to 5 job. But it was like, how am I going to escape this? So I was always working on side hustles and working on increasing my income so that I could find some way something will eventually work. So it was always like, if I just don't give up. And that's still my philosophy, like I'm not some huge YouTuber who makes a million dollars a year. Not even close. I don't touch that anywhere. So it's just if I keep going and you know, make little shifts where necessary, I am absolutely bound to get to where I want to or at least get to a point where I'm basically at now. I quit my full time job last year and I do this full time and I've been. Been good. So it's always been that drive of, like, I want to work for myself, and that's where I got to. So it's like, in order for me to get there, I have to be consistent. I have to adjust where needed. I have to learn new things. I have to put. Be transparent. At least for me, that's how I felt with how I started my channel. Continue to be transparent and be the person that I truly am and also provide value. So that's kind of the drive side of it. And what was your. What was your other question? Sorry. Or like, what do you think?

Yeah, no, so you're. You're. You're good. I'd love to. I want to peel this back a little bit if. If you're willing. So what I just got out of that is you. You enjoy working this naturally. I. I like to reframe how society may view people like you and I, where we sometimes get viewed as workaholics. And I would say if. If I'm in my purpose, if I'm doing the thing that I literally was put on this planet to do, and I do it all day, every day, throughout my life, and you're not drained at the end of the day, like, you feel like you could go an extra hour, and you're like, wait, I just worked 14 hours. Like, I can. I can go even longer. Like, why is that? What the heck wrong with me? In a sense. And I'm pretty sure you've had those moments where you're just like. You're like, in the flow. In that flow state. I. I would say that's. That's peak living. That's intentional living. That's in your purpose. You're walking in your. In your purpose. And for. For me, the word work means to become who you are.

Yeah.

So if I'm. If I'm working on myself every day and I enjoy being around myself because it's. Let's face it, it's you against you in this world, and you got to deal with you 24 7. So if you don't like you, that's. That's a whole nother issue. But if you are, you know, really secure in. In who you are as a. As an individual, then you're just simply becoming more of who you are every single day. And now you're operating on this whole other, you know, realm, so to speak, this. This different paradigm shift that. That occurs. And then the second thing I got was you mentioned if I'm going to. If I'm going to say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. If I say I'm going to commit to this, I'm going to do it. You said I'm not a quitter. And pretty much your word is your reputation.

And so it seems like you care a lot about what I'm bringing valuable information to someone and you care a lot about your, your words. You're very intentional with that. And so maybe there, maybe that comes from your parents, potentially how you were raised, some sort of environment, maybe could be some sort of traumatic experience. You're like, never again or I will never live like that, so to speak. It could be, could be something in that, in that realm. But I definitely encourage you to find what that is because you did mention that you have trouble helping others get to that place. Right. It's not necessarily. Yeah, it's not necessarily a bank account, a number amount. It's, it's, it's that mindset first that needs to be achieved. And then the other area I'm thinking is maybe there's a, maybe there's a faith component to it as well. Some, something that could be, you know, kind of brewing up in there that just comes naturally to you where others have to be trained. So I would call that a gift. That's a blessing, like if it comes naturally to you. Okay, cool. Yeah, so that comes naturally too. Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah.

Anything else that's, you know, coming up as we just.

Yeah. I think honestly I really, I do really love who I am as a person and that means a lot to me. And throughout the years, I think one of the main reasons that has built like my confidence and my self love, because I truly do love who I am as a person is it's by doing all these things, like even outside of finance and the content that I put out or the work that I do, like just taking care of myself physically, like I'm very disciplined around that and like, you know, improving the food that I eat and everything, like all of it just comes down to self love, I feel and that this is like, might be going down a different topic, but that's really what it is because it's like I want to live a life that I truly love and I want to feel good physically, mentally, emotionally, everything, you know, so I've always kind of just. And I'm not perfect by any means. It's not what I'm saying. Of course there's some days I don't work or I'm lazy with things or I skip the gym. But it's all the decisions that you make really shape who you are and make your life better. And I know if I'm creating content, if I'm one, it's. If I put content up, I feel good about it. I make money from it. That's. I have to, at this point, you know? And then if I go to the gym, I feel good about it, my body feels good about it, my mind feels good about it. Like, everything is. What's it like, a ripple effect with the habits that I have. So.

So with that. And I'm going to stay on this just a little bit longer on the mindset part. Why did you say yes to YouTube so many years ago? And you must have been teenage years at this point, right? Like, not every teenager says, hey, let me get on YouTube, start making videos and educate people or entertain people.

Yeah.

Or whatever it may be. So can you touch on that? I know it's so long ago, but can you maybe think, why did I say yes then? And then why did you say yes to starting the finance channel?

Yeah, I'm laughing because it's so embarrassing. Honestly, I grew up watching YouTube. I think a lot of us. A lot of us did. I'm a millennial, and I really liked the beauty side of things, like beauty, fashion. And me and my sister actually started our YouTube channel together. I was 17. I think she was a little bit older than me, but we would film. Like, sometimes she would film, sometimes I would film, and then we would sometimes do together. And it was like, oh, a shopping haul from Target or like a beauty haul makeup tutorial. What's in my bag? Like, those are the things back then. And so I always knew I wanted to be a YouTuber. I thought I just grew up with watching that. So I was like, this is so cool. I was aware that they were making money from it and made a job out of it. So I'm like, one day I could be like that. And I would put up. After my sister stopped working with me on that, she only did it for, like, a few months or so. I took over and continued in college, and I would continue with the makeup stuff, and I would spend a lot of money actually buying clothes and showing hauls, doing all the beauty haul, beauty hauls and all of that, hair tutorials. And I eventually grew out of that. And I was like, I'm not interested in that. I'm still not really interested in that side of things. And I just started lifestyle content. And then eventually, once I, like, got deep into the debt I created. I think I posted maybe three to four finance videos on that lifestyle channel and they didn't do well. Maybe like a couple hundred views and not too many comments. But I was like, maybe I should create a whole new channel and niche down so that I can turn this into something bigger. And the other thing too is that I, that I was still learning about being a creator online at that point and niching down was a big thing. It still is. And I was like, I probably should do that if I want this to go anywhere. And I almost didn't. I was really resistant to it because I'm like, oh, this lifestyle channel is already a lot like, what if introducing a new channel, I'm not going to be able to manage it. I was of course still working full time, so I was like, let me just try it out, give it some time. And it, it worked out in my favor.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. It definitely did. Any mentors in your life? Anyone you want to give a shout out to or in terms of you getting this thought about, okay, maybe I can turn this topic of finance into some kind of income producing vehicle for, for myself. But it's not just about you because in order for you to even have that result with YouTube, you have to provide value, you have to serve. So you've got this, you've got this servant leader mentality that's just there somehow. And then you're also saying, okay, if I can give first, if I can, I can serve. And there's a famous sales line. If I help people get what they want, I'll get what I want. And it's like a win, win. No, there's no losers in that, in that formula. Right? The gift first mentality. Is there someone you followed on YouTube that kind of gave you these thoughts? Or again, is this just coming from you, just pouring out of you? Because that's cool if that's your answer as well. Like, I want to definitely acknowledge that because again, that's a blessing.

I would say in college when I had to drive to school, it was a commute for me and I would listen to Tony Robbins repeatedly. Tony Robbins and Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk was the main one who was like, document, document, document. And that's why I was like, okay, let me just document my life. Let me just document my numbers. Because he, he said that he's always been right. Even when like Tick Tock came around, he on Tik Tok, I didn't listen to him and I should have, but they were two of the biggest ones. I actually saw them speak in person, paid for, like, it wasn't too expensive. But, you know, they do their little silly seminars and it. It feels embarrassing. At the time, it felt embarrassing. But yeah, they were a big, big impact on me. I love Tony Robbins. I don't care what anybody says. Like, he is. He's just such a genuine person. At least it from. From what I can tell. And if you go back and listen to, like, his older content, really, I don't know if he even makes content now, actually. I don't. I don't. I don't follow him like that. But back then, the stuff is just so good. He is life changing. And that really spoke to me. So I would constantly feed myself positive thoughts because I was going to school and doing things I didn't want to do. I was good at school. Like, I made good grades. I would always work on anything I needed to and get all my. My stuff done. But I was miserable. Like, I would get to school and feel sick to my stomach. Like, I dreaded it so, so much so I had to force myself to think positively. And that was really by surrounding myself with positive content. And that was Tony Robbins and Gary Vee.

Yep. They. I've got this sort of thing that I do for myself where I kind of build a dream team, sort of. I call it my own fantasy league, kind of like football, but for your own personal development. And I have these people that. These are people that I may never meet, and I'm totally fine with that, but these are people that are operating at such a high level that their content alone again, because of the what social media has done, we're now able to hear and listen and learn from other people's ideas that normally in the past, you'd have to go to a seminar, you'd have to, you know, fight to get that person's attention, whereas today they're just giving it out all for free. So Gary Vaynerchuk and Tony Robbins were on my fantasy league. They still are.

Yeah.

On my. On my. Sort of like, boom. Those are those initial years. So.

Okay, so, you know, I'm gonna add one more, if you don't mind. I'm gonna add one more. That would be my now fiance because he. Back when we started dating back in 2017, and he's never been, like, super heavy on the business side or like, he doesn't do his own content creation or anything, but he's been a huge supporter of me, and I kept my channel Secret for from 2011 till 2017, it was a secret. And then I finally posted on my Instagram that I was on YouTube because of him. He was like, no, you need to tell people that you're on YouTube. And so I was always so shy about it. And even with starting like the finance channel and everything that I've. I've done, like the. I don't know if you saw the interviews I did in Atlanta, like on the belt line of interviewing people in person and just anything getting out of my comfort zone, that's often him behind me, like, no, you need to do it. And pushing me. So he's a big part of, like getting me out there.

Shout out to your fiance. What's his name?

Sebastian.

Sebastian. I'm going to clip that because that's something he'll cherish right there. Just kind of drop that. I'm like, oh, man, I love to hear that. So that's because my wife's the same way. She is a critical person that literally I argue all the time. Like, I got fired a week before I had my first speaking engagement. So I got fired on a Monday. I had a speaking engagement in Miami on a Friday. And Alison, my now wife, recorded it, took that video. And that was one of the very first videos I posted on YouTube. And it got something in the neighborhood of 30 something views within like 24 hours.

Wow.

Now, thank God I knew nothing about YouTube and analytics and views and how to go viral. Thank God I knew nothing about it. I saw the views and to me, I translated it to being in a room with 30 people. Now, again, I didn't know that when you watch your own video, that counts as a view. I didn't know that. I didn't, you know, I wasn't. Thank goodness. I interpreted it as that.

I was like, yeah.

Oh my God, 30 people just watched this video in the last 24 hours. That's like, that's like a room full of people. Like, if I was in a room full of people, 30 people watching me talk about that one hour video of all the things I was talking about. Oh, I'm. I'm gonna keep, like, that's all I needed to just like keep doing it more and more. And she was a huge supporter in that, even finance. Because again, I got fired. I'm in debt 30,000. I think at that point, just on the 30K, you know, I'm like, hey, if this doesn't work out, I'm driving Uber and Lyft. Like, that was my mentality. I was like, I'm gonna try this YouTube thing out. I got enough money to last me about two months and then I'll have to go into more debt. So that was like two to three more months. And within 30 days I made a few hundred dollars on YouTube. And then it just like steamrolled and she was supporting our relationship outside of YouTube, like, hey, we're still gonna go on dates. Hey, we're still gonna, you know, I'm still going to support you. I believe in you. Even though this thing happened to you, I know what you have, you know, to, to do, to serve. I know what you're capable of. So I'll definitely clip that for your fiance and love it, you know, so we'll definitely give him a huge shout out there. So just to kind of wrap up the mindset part here because I'm, I'm getting really excited. So again, you, you have this mentality of just. Your word is your reputation. You're not a quitter. You've got this self love mentality or some might say, you know, living an intentional life worth living. And you've got this servant leader mentality. You enjoy working. And I tell my audience to not be afraid of the, of the word work. I don't know why. You know, and again, most people are working for money. And I would argue if you, if you work for money, yes, it's going to be a terrible thing. You're not going to be fulfilled. But when you work intentionally, when you're working on yourself, to love yourself, to expand, explore all the wonderful things that you have to offer that just take it to a whole nother level. So that's our basis here.