I Went From Broke 18 Year Old To A Financial Coach

And I'm like, oh, wow. Thank you, Lord, for allowing this woman to have a place where she can do this, where she can, you know, open up. This goes beyond any financial strategy. I'm going to. I'm going to give her. So I came into the conversation like, sort of like, I have my consistent things that I do. I look at the numbers, I ask some reasonable questions, try to get to know you, try to get context of the situation. And then I'm going right into action steps. Here's how we can illustrate this, put this out, that sort of thing, and then I leave them with action steps.

I am honored to be with Denzel Rodriguez today. Denzel, welcome to our channel. I know our viewers are going to love this conversation, and I'd love to begin with Denzel. I know that you would agree there's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. There's always something new to learn. And with your emphasis and your coaching on velocity banking, what are some of the key things that you want viewers to take away from that? What inspired you to embrace that velocity banking approach?

For me, it starts with stewardship. From a very young age, right around maybe five, probably four or five years old, is probably my earliest memory of receiving money. On my birthday, very first thing I did with it was save it. Now, the reason for that, whether I knew it or not, was in my particular household, single mom, Queens, New York, paycheck to paycheck, not enough money. Any money that came into my environment, I saved it with the intent that this would be used to probably pay a future expense, future bill that needed to be paid for. And lo and behold, from that young age, all. All through my adolescent years, all through my teen years, all through high school, was the same rhythm, same cadence. And Zell saves money, pennies, quarters, nickels, dimes, you name it, dollars, $5. Didn't matter what it was. I always saved money. No one told me to do it. It was just an instinctive thing. I thank God for that now that I was doing these things. And let me tell you, so many times, I came in clutch and. And saved the day. Had enough for groceries, had enough to pay this electric bill, had enough to pay this car payment to avoid things going late. That was helping parents, child helping their parents, Right? Usually it's the other way around. And so that created a bit of a fire, positive and negative. There's resentment, there's. Why is it like this? God, you know, going through that, you know, phase that allowed me to have this unique type of experience where I Got to observe what not to do and actually do what you should be doing at a very early age, which then now being on YouTube, it just so happens in our current society, our current world, those who create content have this increased amount of authority that is automatically slapped on you just because the amount of followers and subscribers you have, good or bad. You combine that with being young, growing up with the technology, knowing how to use it, you know, frequently, and then realizing you have a whole generation of 50 plus year olds that are entering now learning how to use these things because what they were doing, they found out 40 years later, oh my goodness, this doesn't work. Oh my goodness, I don't have enough. So then they go to YouTube, they type, they search and boom, I pop up. And I initially lead with stewardship. Before I introduce velocity banking concept. I always lead with stewardship. And that's where that kind of derives from us or that inspiration is. It's like, okay, once we have what I call the velocity banking pregame work completed, I literally have a whole playlist called velocity banking pregame work. Once you do these things, you now have discipline, you have order, you spend less than what you make. You're doing these things now. All velocity banking doing is, is, is adding fuel, right? It's putting the pedal to the metal and allowing us to accelerate in the things you are already doing, such as paying off debt, right? And I'm showing people how to do it in a more efficient manner, arguably more efficient manner when, when it makes sense, when the numbers add up correctly. And what's super cool is I feel like this concept is also the pregame work or it's like a, it's like a training wheels for. The infinite banking concept is really how I've looked at it over the years. I'm like, here's a tool that the banks have which allows us to offset interest, accelerate debt, have capital to be able to leverage for investments, for cash flow, you name it. And it's like if all of those things are of value to you, guess what, there's another product called Whole life Insurance, if designed properly, can do all of those things and arguably better than the existing products that, that the banks have. You get to control the interest rate more, you get to control the growth, you get to use to have more control, more liquidity, more access and more features and benefits that come with it. So it's this really nice streamlined approach that I entered on YouTube with that intention, where it's like, I'm going to meet people where they're at they might be Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman. Okay, I'm going to meet you where you're at. I'm not even going to introduce velocity. No need. And then typically graduate once they get past step five, six, you know, they, they graduate and they're like, they're, they plateau, they're just not getting as many results anymore. And they're like, you know, this is taking long. And that's when I say, oh, there might be another strategy, but let's do these three things. Let's get these four things, let's get these five things in place. That's the pregame work. And then boom, there's velocity banking, then it's like more pregame work, then it's infinite banking. And it's like this lovely process to wealth creation, financial stewardship, becoming a mast, regaining authority over your household to make these decisions, make wise money decisions with your finances. Right.

This is so good. And you're gradually and incrementally helping people to rethink their thinking. And the one thing that we cannot illustrate, so if you look at any financial product or in the life insurance business, the illustration of the policy, it's everything that happens outside of that and a lot of it is immeasurable. You can really be appreciative. When a client says, wow, I'm less stressed. I, I'm feeling a peaceful, stress free way of life financially. But there's no measurement attributed to it. We, we can't go on to YouTube and say, look at the gradual decline in stress, look at the gradual increase in having a peaceful, stress free way of life. But we know that that is the byproduct as evidenced by all the feedback that we get from, from our clients. But where the industry I think goes wrong is leading with the solution. And I love that you said you lead by meeting people where they're at. You're not leading with imposing a solution when you don't even know what their problems are. Right. And so it's, it's really refreshing to see that. And to have such a growing presence on YouTube is vital because that's where people go to learn. That's where people are going to learn. And so I give you credit for starting taking that first step, realizing that you weren't going to be perfect out of the gate. Nobody is. But look at all the progress that you made and the value that you're creating in other people's lives. And that's why we're here recording this, because I want our viewers on our channel. If you think of Canada, the population of Canada is relatively close to the population of the state of California. And so for us to have just shy of 10,000 subscribers and all of our watch time, you take that into the United states and you 10x that anyone would say, wow, that's a really good channel. But in Canada, this is a really good channel. And so our viewers are really going to get a lot of value from this conversation. And then I can't emphasize it enough. Anyone who's watching, just ease on over to Denzel's channel. Take some time to immerse yourself in content. We'll be glad you did. And so I give you credit for that, Denzel. Keep progressing, keep growing your channel. People need to hear and see a bright light, and they need to hear and see the truth.

And now more than ever before, I've also realized that people are not just seeking financial solutions for their current situations, but they're also seeking leadership.

Definitely.

I had a very hard heart to heart conversation with a client yesterday. Shout out to Janet, older woman, and she is near, near retirement. So we got about maybe another five to 10 more years before she hits, hits retirement. And within probably the first five to 10 minutes this, it's broke down into tears right on, on, on her end. And I'm like, oh, wow, thank you Lord, for allowing this woman to have a place where she can do this, where, where she can, you know, open up this go any financial strategy, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give her. So I came into the conversation like, sort of like I have my consistent things that I do. I look at the numbers, I ask some reasonable questions, try to get to know you, try to get context of the situation. And then I'm going right into action steps. Here's how we can illustrate this. Put this out, that sort of thing. And then I leave them with action steps. But I honestly allowed Holy spirit to just take over the conversation. I threw all that out the door and I just started getting deep with her and just asking questions that she probably hasn't been asked by anyone since she was a little girl. So there was questions like, hey, when's the last time someone asked you to dream really big about who you are as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, bawling in tears? I'm hearing it right, has another question. I'm like, when was the last time you were brave about a particular situation that, that you were, that you were bold, you spoke up for yourself. And I don't know, like, a lot of the questions were like, I don't knows. Bawling in tears. And so I allowed those questions to sit in her. I said, and oftentimes people will speak so fast that they don't allow the thoughts to process. So every time I asked a question, I said, we're going to wait 30 seconds. I don't want you to say a word. When I ask a question, you're going to wait 30 seconds. Whatever comes to mind, I want you to repeat it and then say it. Once the 30 seconds are up and I'm going to clock us, boom, 30 seconds are up. In that when the questions of, what's your dream? What do you want for yourself? Like these kinds of things, it's so interesting how people reveal things without them even realizing what they just said. And then you as the coach, you have to catch it. There was two things that she had said which was making people smile. She had randomly said that in a sentence. Making people smile, cooking, having a big home, right? And these were just like bits, pieces. And I'm putting it all together, Mind you, this is supposed to be a financial conversation. No. People are seeking leadership today more than just the financial solution, the strategy that's going to come only if their eyes are open, only if the light bulb went off, only if they've had the paradigm shift until then. I've got to fix the, the, the mindset or not just me fix it, but I have to open that, right? So I was like, the first 15, 20 minutes of the conversation, I'm talking to Janet the fearful. Then after the first 20 minutes, there was a spark of Janet the brave, Janet with the courage. I said, are you seeing this, Janet? And then the last 10, 15 minutes was like, Janet the vulnerable, Janet the brave, Janet with courage, Janet with fearlessness. I said, all within 60 minutes, right? And I'm like, did you. You realize what just occurred when. When there's someone in your life that's willing to lead and ask these questions that maybe just weren't asked because of the time that we were living in. You know, your parents grew up in wartime. One no time to ask, what's your dream? This war's going on, right? And then once the war is done, guess what? The war ain't done at home. Now they bring, now the father brings the war home and that it impacts the wife. And then wife is not able to be a nurturer because it. It's still war time. So then the kids grow up in that. And then all they want to do is make a better life for their children, but they forget how to have these, these conversations. And so now, despite being my age, I'm living in peacetime now. Arguably, we might be entering into some wartime. We'll see how things go. But in the United States, for the most part, it's peace. It's peacetime in the United States and most likely in Canada. Obviously, there's pockets, there's. There's things that occur. But we can make the argument that we're not in a world war where people are literally dying every, like, two seconds, like it was in World War II or World War III or Vietnam, you know, like. And I grew up in a time frame where we now get to have these conversations. We see mental health popular more than ever before. Therapy is encouraged more than ever before. Even in the church. It's amazing. Counseling, premarital marriage counseling, personal development, self development. Think of the amount of books that have been written, written just in the last 10 years, or all of the books that have been resurfaced because of social media of books that were written in the early 1900s and the mid-1900s, like, all this, all this information. So we're in that time frame where now I get to be in an appointed role given by my father to speak to an older generation that are there now. They've now got their ears open, they're seeking that leadership. And then there's the young generation as well, that is getting swallowed up with information overload, right? Older people haven't really experienced that. From what I've noticed. They're able to manage it, but it's usually the younger folks that have information overload, overwhelm, and just being able to manage that. And my solution has just always been be a creator more than a consumer. Whatever you consume, create double, right? So if you're going to watch 15 videos, two to four hours of Netflix, let's create eight more hours of productivity to offset that, right? And if we lead with that, we seek leadership. I'm telling you these. I told, I said anything I tell you on finance, it's going to fly over your head right now because your. The emotions are overwhelming and you're pouring it out now on a stranger, right? A kid that does YouTube videos. Like, you have this connection with me that you probably don't even talk to your best friend about, because that's off limits. Money is off limits. Even in your marriage, it's off limits. Guys, don't talk about it. Here you are opening it up with me. So I said, we're gonna throw all that out the window right now. The Financial stuff. We're just gonna focus on your mindset for the next hour. And it was amazing what, what came out of that. And then the next phone call, it's like, okay, now we give you a little bit, a little seed, right? Let's, let's, let's chew on this idea of spending less than what we make. Stewardship, right? Praising, giving credit where credit's due, these sorts of things. And giving us the ability to be brave again, to have courage, right? And to, and to be fearless. Let's exercise that, see where it goes.

Love that. And that story is a sharp example of meeting someone where they're at. And as my late mentor, R. Nelson Nash, God rest his soul, I think about him every single day. He's right next to me in every session, every meeting that I have day in and day out. And he would always begin his talk, talks by sharing with the crowd that everything begins with the way that we think. And he would repeat that three separate times before getting into the substance of his talk. He would just say it. Everything begins with the way that we think. Pregnant pause. Everything begins with the way that we think. Everything begins with the way that we think. And that is the foundation of meeting somebody where they're at is understanding how they're thinking so that you can get off on the right foot. So what inspired you to create your YouTube channel and please share with our viewers where they can find you on YouTube, because I think it's a great channel, loaded with an abundance of helpful resources, wonderful content, but let's dive right into that. So what inspired you to create your YouTube channel? And where can viewers find you?

Inspiration started. We have to go back to 2014 is when I started my entrepreneur journey. I just graduated high school and I got recruited into a company called Vector Marketing that sells high end kitchen cutlery. Most people know this company as Cutco and boy, was that an experience of cold calls, getting referrals, leads, follow ups, sales, communication, speaking, standing up, talking to someone, selling them these wonderful knives that people can improve their lives with. And so that really led me down a four year journey of networking, attending business workshops, seminars, you name it. I can honestly say I attended about 100 in person types of events from 2014 all the way through today, 2024, but majority of them being from 2014 to 2018. And in that time frame, I would constantly be told that, hey, you got a good voice, I like the way you speak. You'd probably be good on radio or you'd be good doing, you know, just creating Some. Some value speaking, helping people. You know, you seem like you. You can do that in the future. I'm like, okay, cool. You know, just kind of like taking notes sort of thing. Then I meet a really good friend of mine in 2018. His name's Alex Albaran. So shout out to him. He's a. He's a phenomenal young business owner. He's like two years younger than me. And he really put the idea into an actual strategy. He was like, yes, you have a great voice. This is the industry you want to. You probably be good in finance. And I think YouTube, creating videos in this kind of a format, in a teaching type of a way, you do great. And I started doing that without posting any videos on YouTube. Started doing it. And then I get fired from my job in June of 2018 on a Monday. I had my first live speaking engagement on a Friday that same week. So I get fired. Boom. Like, totally, you know, lost my stream of income. I'm sad, and I'm like, wait a minute, I have to go speak about money and how to get out of debt and life insurance and all these different things. So I go and speak. I had nine people show up. It was down in Miami area, and my now fiance girlfriend at the time recorded it, threw it up on YouTube. It was either that video or another video. It got 28 views, and I was blown away. I was ecstatic, Jason. I was like, I'm going to make it. This is real. Mind you, I had no idea how little that was. But in my brain, 28 views meant I literally just reached 28 people whom I don't know, mind you, this is me not knowing that me watching my own video counts as a view. I didn't know that right at the time. Completely oblivious. But in my brain, that was all the motivation I needed to say, this is my gift. God called me to this. I'm like praising the Lord. I'm like, this is going to work. This is amazing. And I literally, for the next six months straight, this was like around August of 2018, I post that video. For the next six months straight, I'm posting videos every single day, and it's getting views. 50 views, 75 views, 100 views, 500 views, a thousand. I'm like, this is amazing, right?

It's momentum.

That's momentum. In terms of money, I was, you know, my first month was a couple hundred dollars. Second month, couple hundred dollars. Third month was about 1,000 or 2,000. It was almost near what I was making at my job. By the by, the fourth or fifth month I was making a little more than what I was making at my full time job. And then By January of 2019, I have my first 10k month and I'm like, this is definitely where I need to be. And this is a confirmation and I'm serving people, I'm helping people. And here we are, fast forward. Today on the YouTube channel is my name Denzel Napoleon Rodriguez. And it's got over 54,000 subscribers at this point.

Congratulations.

Yeah, over, over four and a half million views. I'm just like, is this real? Is this a dream? I'm winning. I'm like waiting to wake up, you know, from it. And I'm like, no, no, this is real. This is, this is serious, this is happening. And people are watching, people are getting served. And it is that, that's the origin story. That was the inspiration. Other people mixed with faith mixed with that one person that comes into your life and really like, confirms it and gives you permission to move forward. So that was Alex for me and then a number of other people. Right. I got to give my mom credit, my, my fiance. Like, everyone played their part and most importantly, I took action. Despite not having the experience, knowledge, skills.

You name it, you got started. And that was the key. And it was Alex. That was the domino for you, that domino that tipped over that sort of set you down this path. And the growth in your channel is in direct proportion to the value that you're creating for other people. And so I can only imagine what the channel is going to look like three years from now and what that's going to be. And so congratulations to you. And we had the pleasure of being introduced to each other. So we were at an event last year and the host of the event, Caleb Williams, shout out to Caleb Williams. He's an amazing guy. Him and I have known each other. There you go, the end asset. We actually have a Canadian version of the end asset that Caleb and I put together. And Caleb said, jason, you've got to get to know Denzel and Zell, you've got to get to know Jason. So that sort of got us connected. And that's what led to us saying, hey, you know what, we think that we can create even more value and multiply that value by working together to serve the people. And so why don't you share a little bit with the viewers about how you felt about that whole connection and where it's leading us.

So I've come to the point in my life where there are situations where you meet people For a season or for a lifetime, whatever it may be. I've now come to the conclusion there are no coincidences. There's just, as someone said it, there's God incidences or something like that. So whenever that happens, I just get to really, internally, I'm glorifying the father while experiencing what just occurred. So Caleb, you know, connects the two of us, and we sit at the. At the restaurant that was Fogo de Chao, that was in Denver, Colorado. We're sitting together, we're chatting up a storm. I think we're probably talking for two hours, if not more. I don't even think I knew you were going to be a speaker the following day. I think you spoke the following day. And you've got this funny line that you do all the time. You're like, isn't that good? And it's one of those things where I'm just like, yes. You know, I'm very in alignment. I was sitting in the front. I'm that type of person. I go to events. I usually sit in the front or as close to the front as I possibly can. I'm always a student at heart. I'm never assuming I know everything in the room. I try to oftentimes reduce whatever precepts I have, ideas, thoughts, and just kind of leave them at the door and allow new information to come in. And then I'll put that through a filtering process, whether I want to keep that or not. And a lot of what you said was just really, really sound, to the point, straight. You're intentional family man, man of God, man of faith. And so all those things really allowed me to say, you know what? I want to take the next step. And we very slowly but surely built that relationship, had multiple phone calls off camera, and now this is our first time, you know, getting on camera together. Yeah, this is one of those relationships where I'm like, okay, I view this as a. As a. As a season, and could potentially lead to a lifetime, a lifelong relationship. And so it's just going to be a matter of our different works, what we're doing here in Canada. I'm in the United States. You have intentions to really grow and build in the United States, which is awesome. And we're in the same industry that also helps, you know, you do life insurance. I do life insurance. I primarily position myself as a financial consultant, coach, strategist, helping people with their numbers. And then I eventually, over time, have them consider life insurance being a part of their wealth protection, their. Their asset, building their. Their whole entire way. Of thinking. And I believe you do the same.

Absolutely.

I've got Canadian clients and viewers that would consistently email me, and they're like, hey, love what you're talking about. How do I do it here? And I'm like, I don't know. And I'm like, I think this or I think that. And so oftentimes, I felt like I was never really giving 100% of value to my Canadian audience. And so now you get to fill that gap, fill that void, and that's where we connect. On top of that, you have known Caleb for a much longer time than. Than myself. And I really view Caleb as someone that is very inspirational. Even though he's younger than me. Actually, no, I think with the same age. I think he's turning 28 this year, or 27, I forget. But we're in terms of his operating level, a guy of his caliber, his age. Got that many grown men in an industry that's dominated by men that are over the age of 50. Got them all in a room, got a CEO of a life insurance company to come in this room, and I'm like, over here. I'm like, my goodness. Like, this is amazing to see. So being that you have a very good relationship with him, that also gave me confidence that, oh, this is someone I could really learn from, grow with, build. And realizing there is no competition in the marketplace in our industry. It's incredible the amount of volume that comes into everyone's business in that room, and that there's still, like, an ungodly amount of more people that need to be served, that want to be served, that are looking and don't even know any of us in the room. And it's like, we're. We're the guys. Like, we are the ones that are doing this. And you've got all these people looking, and they're like, I don't know, Jason. I'm like, how do you find me in South Florida? And. And here you got this guy, Jason Bankers Vault. This whole channel. Like a catalog. Yeah. It's just one of the. And then, hey, boom. That's where the. The partnership and collaboration comes in.

And collaboration is so powerful because it. It takes one person or one company's unique set of capabilities. You combine it with another other company's unique set of capabilities. Both companies are able to serve more people. Everybody wins, and it doesn't cost either company anything more to do it. That's the strength of collaboration. And what I. I love that you touched on that, because what happens in our industry what makes a gathering like what Caleb puts together, the end asset, mastermind. When he brings people together in the room, they all have that collaborative mindset, which doesn't really predominantly exist in our industry. Everybody is very competitively focused. And when you're in a state of competitively focused, you're in a state of envy. And you can't innovate or be of best service to other people. If you're in a state of envy versus being in a state of collaboration, to say, you do these things really well, we do these things really well. Let's combine our unique capabilities and do it all better. It just works for everybody. That good?

It is, it is.

So I just, I love that. And that's what we have built our business on is strength and collaboration. And so that's what brought us together. And I'm really excited about. Because when people visit your channel, which again, we encourage all of our viewers to do, just ease on over to Denzel's channel. We've got a link in the notes of the video, really easy, just point, click. Our editors will put it up on the screen. Just ease on over to his channel. And when you get there, there's going to be an abundance of great content that you'll really enjoy and that we encourage you to dive into. Denzel. This was a great sort of break the ice conversation for our channel so that our viewers know that we're connected, we're collaborating, and again, our editing team's phenomenal credit to them. You'll see a link that you can click on to head on over Denzel's channel, but continue your journey of learning. Our editing team has also posted a video of Denzel's that we think you should go ahead and start watching because we want you to continue that journey of learning. There's no such thing as having arrived at knowledge. Denzel, can't wait to see you at the upcoming Infinite Banking Think Tank conference and also at Caleb's event a little bit later this year. And I wish you an outstanding rest of your week. Thanks so much for being with me today.

Thank you. And shout out to all your Canadian viewers as well. It's been a pleasure being able to serve you today.