How to Build a Million-Dollar Portfolio Starting From Nothing | Graham Stephan

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What would you say are the 3 habits that you started to develop early on when you didn't have a lot of money into becoming a millionaire? Could you think back on 3 specific habits that supported you from going from $50,000 to $100,000 a year to breaking into the first million?

Yeah, I would say definitely consistency. I was relentless in just keeping the same habits over and over and over again. I would then say it was the focus of just, I had one goal in mind of just like, I'm gonna do this one thing and do it really, really, really well. That's all I wanted to do. And I would also say saving money. I mean, I lived really, really, really frugally.

You obsessed about that?

Probably.

Too frugal.

I was too frugal.

You were like, every penny.

Yeah.

I can't go out and have an extra sushi. I can't, you know.

Oh, not even, like I wouldn't even do the sushi. It was probably unhealthy. I mean, looking back, like I can't have regrets about it, but I mean, it got to a point where I remember I was talking about this yesterday. I was calculating the cost of gas to go and visit a friend. And I determined, it's how bad it is though, like, the cost of gas was not worth the time I would be able to spend with his friend. And like, I did the analysis on that and thinking, well, if I'm only gonna see you for 2 hours and it's gonna cost me X amount of, like, that's stupid. Like, I should not be looking at it like that. But that's how I was in the beginning.

Where did that come from? Is that like a childhood learned behavior? Did you model that from somewhere? Were you just, like, why did you feel like you needed to be so obsessive about every penny and decisions of like driving to see a friend, is it worth the money? Like, when—

yeah, um, a lot of it I thought of like how much I would be making or the cost of like my time and then extrapolating from there like what my time is worth doing certain activities. Um, there was also another point, I must have been like 15 years old, maybe 16, I just like just got my driver's license and I remembered like how far $20 could get you. And I was like, okay, if I have $20 and that's my budget and that's what I'm spending, I could put $10 in the gas tank. I could spend $5 on a Subway footlong sandwich. And that's like 2 meals, so $2.50 per meal. And then I have another $5 left over for like miscellaneous. Like, I remember breaking it down to that degree. And then just from there, you know, taking that to, well, here's what a dollar could buy and just like appreciating that. But then also going through, there was a time briefly, I think the job was like 6 weeks, I worked at this gold precious metals bullion investment firm. I did data entry, 'cause I thought I wanted to be an investment banker. I'm like, this is a great way to get experience. It wasn't. But I think I must've been paid like $7.75 an hour. Like it was maybe $8, like max. And this was back in early 2008. And I remember thinking, okay, like if I'm making like $8 an hour, is a Subway sandwich worth 40 minutes of that? Like, no. And then how could I stretch that further? So I just thought everything in terms of like going back to making like $8 an hour. Wow.

Did your parents teach you lessons about money early on? Did you have money mentors?

No.

What were the things, what were the beliefs you had early on around money? Like, what did you think when you thought of money? When money came in, did you think I need to save it? Did you think money was good, money was bad? You know, what were your beliefs about it?

[Speaker] Yeah, I never thought money was bad. I had always been obsessed with, I guess, like saving and collecting. Like, even as a kid, I think it was my grandpa showed me like his coin collection, and I thought it was so cool. And he showed me a picture of like a 1909-S VDB penny. He's like, these pennies are out there still. They're like X amount. That are probably still in circulation and like every, and I was like maybe 6 years old and I'd just be checking pennies. Like every penny would be like, is this a 1909-S VDB? Like I never found one. But I've just been obsessed with I think just saving, collecting. Even if I got like birthday money or Christmas money, I would save it. I wouldn't spend it. And I liked just to see that accumulate in like an envelope in my room or a savings envelope. Yeah, it would be like $100 or something like that of like the whole year's worth of like saving and collecting. Naturally, I think, gravitated towards that.

What was the— I mean, did anyone teach you about money though? Did you ever like—

uh, no, not really. My mom had a book, and I think it was like The Millionaire Mindset, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, maybe. Um, I don't— something about The Millionaire Mindset, or maybe it was The Millionaire Next Door. Yeah. And I must have been like 10, 11, 12 years old, and for some— like, I just saw the book, there's a millionaire on the side of it, I'm like I'm gonna read this book. And I was not a reader at all. Like, I was not reading books. But for some reason, I just read that book and I enjoyed it. And it's just like all these things made sense. Like, oh, the average millionaire drives a Ford F-150. And it's more common to drive a Toyota Corolla than it is a Ferrari. And most millionaires don't make $1 million a year. They're making an average income and they save for 30 years. And so all of those things, like, I just had an interest in that.

[Speaker] What was the year you made your first million dollars? Or talking about net worth in sales, like that, that came in, what was the year that happened? Do you remember the year?

Uh, yeah, that would have been 2019, and that was a combination of, uh, real estate sales and then YouTube adding on top of that, right?

And the year before, where was it at? Like, was it half as much? Was it close to that?

Was it, uh, the year before, I think I made $250,000 from YouTube, and then I think $500 grand from real estate.

About $750 grand the year before?

Yeah, okay, probably about that.

What do you think was the difference between what you did or how you thought from 2018 to 2019?

I would say, uh, I had never— for me it was really YouTube, uh, but that really started 2017 for me because I never thought that I'd make money on YouTube at all. Like, I started making videos just because it's like, it seemed like the fun thing to do. And even I remember making a dollar a day on YouTube through ad revenue and just thinking, wow, this is like a free sushi dinner that I could— because I was going to do YouTube anyway. So it's like the fact that it's making $30 a month, it's like, that's sushi once a week, once a month for free. And I remember it being like $100 a month and being like, wow, that's my cell phone bill. And then $300 a month, that's my car insurance and gas. Like, this is so cool. And it just, I guess, seeing that I could make money without having to be like actively involved, even though I'd like, I became very involved. But with real estate, I was in sales. And so the bulk of my income at that time was really like, I gotta be there, I gotta show houses. If I don't sell a house, I don't get paid. I could work an entire year and earn nothing. And a lot of my commission is dependent on my ability to get listings, meet clients, be there for those clients. And I would drop anything for them at any time. If there's a client who wanted to see a house Friday at 10 PM, I would cancel any— I'd just, I'd be there because that's what I had to do. But seeing on YouTube that I could work around my own schedule, post videos, and like every video I was like, wow, if this— if every video I make just makes an average of a dollar a day, I get 1,000 videos and that's $1,000 a day, and I could, I could be anywhere in the world. And so something like that was very freeing to me that I knew that I could scale it a way that I couldn't do as a real estate agent. Even the best agents I've seen, like we're talking about like the top few in the country, are making $2 to $6 million a year and they have like huge teams and they've been in the business for 20 years. And I started seeing people on YouTube be like, they're doing this in, you know, a few months and scaling to that point. The reach that I was able to get on YouTube and the benefits that I saw of just like being able to network and meet other people I can meet 1,000 people by making one video in the time it would take me like years in real estate to like meet 1,000 people one-on-one. And that really changed my mind in terms of just seeing what was possible.

So 2018, if I remember what you said, about $500,000 came in from real estate.

Is that right? Yeah, yeah. And then of course on top of that though, you have like broker splits and like, you know, miscellaneous things. Sure, sure, sure.

In terms of like sales coming in. Oh, you got expenses and everything obviously. But that's like, how many homes is that for $500,000 in commissions?

Wasn't much.

Well, in LA, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. I was—

5, 10 homes. What is that?

Probably about that. I would say in a year I would have maybe 20. And I'm like, years. This is like 5 years, like 6 years. I don't know how many years ago this was. I would say on average, I probably had about 25 transactions a year. A lot of those would be high-end leases. —of the sales. —Rentals. Yeah. And then sales would be, I don't know, 5 to 10. But some— usually it would be like I'd have a whole bunch of $1.5 to $3 million homes and then I'd have like one a year that was like $5 million or like $8 million. And that would boost the bar a lot. Or sometimes I'd get really good lease commissions. There would be some properties for lease that would make more commission than the sales. Just because, let's say it's $30,000 a month and I'm representing both sides and we get like an 8% commission on top of that for a 2-year lease. That's pretty big. And it's like monthly, you get a commission monthly. I know, I get one check. Sometimes they'll say, well, you know, we'll pay you for the first year and then we'll pay, which is fine. But, um, yeah, a lot of them would just pay upfront.

That's amazing. What would you say the top 3 physical investments that you've made that have paid the best dividends over the last 5 to 10 years?

Probably a good computer, a faster— I was like on this little mini MacBook for a while that would like pause for minutes and I didn't wanna spend money. I finally got like a new MacBook at the time and like it helped my video processing like a ton. Like that has probably been one of the best investments. Probably a good camera for YouTube videos. Besides that though, I would say real estate has been a fantastic one. That's always been like the core of everything I do. It's like, that's the foundation is like, good real estate rental properties, and that's like the foundation, I guess, to fall back on, if that makes sense.

How much real estate do you have now?

It is— I was tracking it— I think it's 6 properties total. Uh, one is my primary in Vegas, but then 6, uh, 5 rental properties.

Yep. And then the rest is mostly index funds, uh, at the moment, or—

yeah, index funds and cash. I pretty much almost got a 30-30-30 split between real estate, cash, index funds.

Really? When did you feel like you were able to break through mentally and emotionally? Of— you see these bigger homes, you see individuals who have made it essentially in a certain way financially. When did you start to realize, hey, maybe I could break through this financial level as well and get to a certain level? Was that when you were 18 getting started, or was more in your mid-20s?

I'd say immediate, like, just— yeah, immediately. Just like seeing and being around these people, I just felt like I could do that too.

At 18, 19? Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. Even though I didn't achieve that immediately, it's just, I guess it was a feeling like I felt like I dressed the part too. Like I'd see how they dress and go to H&M and like try to replicate their style for like $50. Um, and so just doing that, a big change for me too came when I sold my first house and I do what I tell everyone not to do. I spent pretty much all of it on a car. And I think my commission, like, after everything, like $50,000, something like that. Like, after I spent— grand. Yeah, like, after all the splits and everything. First house? Yeah, first house. That's huge. Yeah, $3.6 million. How old were you? Uh, I had just turned 19, or I was just turning 19. Massive commission. Yeah, it was. Um, and that buyer I met doing an open house. I'd done an open house every single Sunday for 9 months and then just A buyer happened to walk in. We had a great conversation. He was a doctor and straight up just gave me a chance. Like, that was one of those things where he's like, I remember when I was 18 and someone gave me a chance and I want to do the same for you. That's cool. I want you to help us find a house. And I did. And like, I owe so much to him. But I spent all that money buying a Lotus Elise. And, you know, the car I think was like $30 grand plus like taxes and stuff like that. And then you also have to pay tax on the commission. So I was left over with like nothing afterwards. But that car, I started taking it every weekend to these car meets, like early in the morning, like early Sunday, wake up at like 6:00 AM, go to a car meet, and I meet like car friends there, like people driving like Ferraris and Lambos. And here I got in for the cost of a new Honda Accord. And so like being around those people and like getting into those groups, and I loved it. It was just like fun. Like I'd take the car and, go to car meets, and then right afterwards I'd go into an open house. I'd park the car out in front, and like, people comment, and like, I just— it helped.

So what sounds like you said, what you tell people not to do, was actually a great investment in hindsight.

Yeah, right.

It was a bad investment, but it was a great investment.

Could have gone the other way too, I think, had I been reckless with it, or maybe not used it. Like, if I was like, oh, I'm gonna go pick up chicks in the car now, it might not work. Uh, but I just used it as like a passion and a networking tool at the same time.

What's the best invisible asset that you've invested in for yourself? Oh man, I— that continues to pay dividends today.

What do you mean invisible asset?

Like not a, not a physical thing, but more of a, a skill set, a learning, something you've developed, a relationship that you've invested in, something invisible that is not a tangible thing?

Oh, I would say just like, I would say just great people and mentors around me. Jason Oppenheim, I say this all the time, has been like one of the best parts of like just learning, I guess not how to be more assertive, but like being able to convey what you want and being able to, basically give it, give it direction in a way that people will understand. And seeing him operate on such a high level, um, just watching him— like, I just go into the office and just listen to him speak and see how he negotiates. And like, those sort of connections and just being able to learn from those people has been invaluable.

Yeah, that's beautiful, man.

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What's your plan with this year, with the recession potentially going to happen? You're talking a lot about this on your channel. What's your plan to do with the cash? What do you, what do you plan to do with it over the next 6 to 12 months if everything crashes? Yeah, if real estate crashes, if the stock market crashes, um, what will you do?

Yeah, well, I'm buying in, I'm dollar-cost averaging into the index funds every day. So every day the market's open, I just, it's a habit of mine to wake up every morning and buy the same dollar amount every single day. How much is that every month, every day? Uh, $5,000. 5 grand a day, just right in there. Index, always index funds. It's just like my morning routine is just like index funds. Uh, anything above that, obviously taxes, I can take that into consideration, uh, goes into the cash pile. And I, in a perfect world, I want a really good commercial property that's triple net, ideally in Las Vegas. Um, but I believe we have a ways to go on that because right now I have that money parked in treasuries and it's earning about 4.4%, maybe 4.5%, 4.3%. Not bad. Yeah, and I just keep rolling it over. That's not bad. So if I'm making 4.4% but I'm looking at commercial properties making 4.5% to 5%, I don't see the risk premium there yet. So I think if I could find something at 7%, 7.5%, to me that gives enough of a buffer where like if the market continues going down I've locked that in, um, but I've yet to see those deals come up yet. So I'm looking, I look every day, and I think it'll get to a point where I could start making offers. But some of the properties that come up, they're great, but I don't want to be like, their first week on the market, here's an offer for 30% less. It's like, I'm not gonna shoot myself in the foot. It's offensive to a mom. But if it's been listed for 6 months, 4 months, whatever, then I'd consider making an offer.

Yeah, I know you get asked this question a lot, but if someone had between $20,000 in cash or $100,000 in cash, um, and I know you're not a financial advisor, what would you be suggesting as options for them to do to invest it as opposed to holding on to it in the bank? And they wanted to invest it somewhere, what would you suggest between $20,000 and $100,000 of extra cash laying around that they want to invest in somewhere to make an interest?

The biggest thing that's made the difference for me is house hacking. One of the best things that I've done is like buy the duplex. I moved in one side, I rented out the other. I think a lot of people— now, not every area has a duplex that you could go and buy, but I found that if you could reduce your housing, because housing makes up 25 to 35% of your income, it's just a third of it is gone just for a place to live. But if you could find a way to reduce that by using that down payment, leveraging that for you know, a duplex or a triplex or anything where you could rent out the other units. Ideally, it'll cover your overhead, but even if it covers half, like, to be able to save an extra 20% of your income by building up equity in a property that you could rent out, I think that's tremendous. But you also have to be okay with being a landlord, uh, putting in the time to like managing a property. Yeah, uh, fixing stuff, everything. Yeah. And you also have to be careful about what you buy, that it's a good deal. It's like just because it's a duplex doesn't mean you should— it's worth buying. So if you're willing to put in the work, I think that could probably yield the highest results.

Yeah. What's your thoughts about owning a home in general? I know there's different real estate experts that talk about, you know, only rent where you live and own the thing that you rent out so it brings you in passive income. What's your thoughts? You own your home, you live there. Um, do you think people should buy a home, or should they rent and use their down payment as an investment to bring in cash somewhere else?

I think it really depends on the area. Places like Los Angeles generally are cheaper to rent. The difference becomes if you plan to live in the house for like 15, 20 years and you know it's a place that you're going to be raising a family, or for the peace of mind of being able to like not worry about rent increases. But like Los Angeles is an area— it's kind of a bubble. Yeah, yeah. Where renting is so much cheaper the majority of the city is rent control. Your rent's going up usually 3 to 5% a year at the very most. Um, just, it's cheaper. You'll save more money.

Like, it's more expensive right here than it is anywhere in the country.

Yeah, true, true. A lot of other places, it's cheaper to rent versus owning here. Correct. So expensive. I would say generally, if you plan to live in the house for 7 to 10 years, it's usually cheaper to own But you have to factor in also, you know, your closing costs, commissions, maintenance.

Now in LA, there's a— there was a whole like mansion tax coming out. Did you see this in April?

Yeah, I saw that.

Trying April, 5% if you sell that.

I don't think that passed, did it?

I'm pretty sure in April, if your house is over $5 million—

I don't, I don't think that passed. I think it did. It passed. I have not kept up.

I think you're in Vegas now. I think it did. So it's like if you had a $5 million home 5% again, the mansion tax on top of this.

It's stupid. I mean, it's, it's my issue with California is that their solution to everything is tax. Let's not fix everything that's broken here. We just need more money, but they make so much money to begin with. Where does it go? Where does it go? So their thing is just let's tax the rich people. Let's drive everyone out of state, but then let's tax the people who stayed even more. It makes no sense to me. I think, you know, California is such an amazing state with so much to offer. Why did you—

incredible. Why did you move? You grew up here. Yeah, you, you know, grew up in Cali, in LA. Why go to Vegas when the weather is perfect here 90% of the time? You've got the ocean, you got the mountains, you've got industries here. Why move away?

I think the quality of life deteriorated to a point where it was better somewhere else, and I never thought I would leave. But what really kept me here was doing real estate. And like up until 2020, I was going to the office every single day to the Oppenheim Group, and I would do real estate on the side. Like I was like 85% YouTube at that point. But if a client came around, like I was, and they were looking for a $4 million house, like I'm going to help them find a house. Anyone else, I had, you know, a cool little referral business within the office of like, I'll give that to so-and-so and I'll give that to this. And it worked really well. And I'd be involved in the phone throughout the process, but they would do a lot of the stuff and it worked really well. But when COVID happened and I was just like home making videos, I realized how much I loved just being able to make videos and do that. I just had so much fun doing that. Then I realized you don't have to be in Los Angeles to do that. Just checked out Vegas, realized how nice it is in some of these areas of Henderson and Summerlin. Henderson is nice. Really liked it. I'm inside anyway. You're talking about like going to the beach and the mountains.

Like, you don't do that.

How many people in LA really go to the beach? No one goes to the beach. Like, sure, you go to the mountains every now and then. Uh-huh. I'm inside anyway. Mm-hmm. So like, might as well save on property tax.

Might as well save on all these things.

Like the, the quality of life there were like, it was so much better. Um, the house was way less expensive, way bigger, twice the square footage. I was able to have a larger off— my office, um, in Vegas was like 4 times the size of my office in LA. Was able to also have a podcast studio in my house. At the time Jack was living with me, he had a bedroom there. So like I would say half the house was an office. And that was like an entirely separate part of everything. Like, you know, walk in, you have the kitchen, everything. And then this left side was office. It was like Jack's room. He was editing. He was doing the podcast. The podcast, like it was It's a perfect setup. But then also it's like, there are no potholes in the road. There's no traffic. Everyone is really friendly. It's a really great community. I know all the neighbors. And like, in Los Angeles, you might know the people on either side of you and that's it. It was so like closed off. Vegas was like very friendly and nice. It's perfect for you, yeah. So immediately I knew like, this is the right choice. And I would say every now and then I do miss The weather, the weather here is obviously better. Yeah, but I don't mind the heat.

You're inside all the time anyways.

I would say the biggest difference though, I like the people here. I feel like here you get a wide range of people, perspectives, ideas. It's like this, this melting pot of different cultures that you don't get as much in Vegas, and I missed this sort of like free spirit entrepreneur there's something different here than you get in Vegas. And sometimes I feel in Vegas you get in your own little world of just like, just doing one thing. And I come back here and like get to meet and see other people who are doing like much bigger things, and it's inspirational for me to see.

Maybe moving back out in the next year or two.

No, just come out more. But I could come back for work. Yeah. Um, and I could, you know, come back here for a few days and then jet right back home. That's cool. I'm happy with that.

That's good, man. I'm curious about what is the psychology that happens for you when money comes into your bank account? When you get a check— which I don't know if you get checks anymore— but when money enters the bank account and you get paid on the 20th or 21st— yeah, sure— YouTube money every month, or whatever it is, sponsors come in. When it enters and you see it come through, is there an emotional connection you have to that dollar amount? Yeah. Or is it neutral? Is it— is it— no, is it exciting? Is it fun? Is it scary? What are the feelings that you have?

So immediately, because it's really hard to separate what I have in my bank account versus what I'll have left over after tax. So whatever money is in there, I just mentally will do— and I, you know, do quarterly taxes, but like everything that comes in, I just multiply that by 0.6, and I just assume 40% is going to be gone for taxes, accounting, miscellaneous fees. Just random stuff, just average 0.6%. And then I take what's left over of that, and then I multiply that by 4%. And that to me is how much that money will last for the rest of my life. And so I do that with everything. So for every $100 I get, I have 60 cents left— or sorry, 60 cents— for every $100 I have $60 left. 0.4, I think that works out to be like $2.80 or whatever it works out to be. That's my passive income. I'm like, that's, I'll never go below that. And so that's what, I invest everything. I mean, my actual personal expenses and cost of living is very low. Like everything I do is either for the business, discretionary, personal's like almost nothing. So it's just like everything gets invested for the most part that's left over from that.

And how does it feel though when you're analyzing this, you see the dollar amount come in, you multiply it, you do all these things, does it excite you? Do you feel abundant? Do you feel like, okay, everything's on the right track? Do you feel scarce ever?

I'm sure, I'm sure I definitely, everyone tells me I've got like a scarcity mindset because I'm so much like when I get something I don't wanna lose it. But I've also been very conservative in terms of like building wealth, saving money, in terms of like investment returns, like everything I'm like, for— if I just can average 4%, like, I'm fine. Or even 3%, usually 3%. But no, for me, I just think, like, I've always increased my lifestyle based on really the 3% rule of, like, I could spend 3% of what I have invested every single year, regardless of how much it makes, 3%. What can I buy with that? And then even of that, I'm like, okay, well, I still want to save half. So it's like really the 1.5% rule. But it gives me something to look forward to that I know it's sustainable. Like whatever I want to do, as long as I stick with that, I can get new experiences. I can work my way up to something else in a way that I don't have to worry about it running out. And I feel safer that way. Yeah, because I— at least what I've seen from real estate, so many people just like blow all of their money. I remember this one person who was well known and was making $5 to $10 million a year, and they were having difficulty qualifying for a house, making $5 to $10 million a year because they spent it all. Now, their view, I'm sure, was, I'm just going to keep making money. Like, it's not— you never know. Yeah. And they've gone on to have a successful career, make a lot of money. But for me, I could never be at a point where, like, I'm spending that much. I'm like, that's the threshold. Like, you have to, because you never want to go down. I think it's really hard to scale back. It's very easy to scale up. So I've always made sure to like be very careful of once you get used to something, like it's hard to go down and it's very easy to go up, and you don't want to set the bar too high, like just in case. So I've always been like really cautious about like what I do and just knowing that, you know, lifestyle inflation is a thing, and how could I curb that in such a way that is sustainable but still gives me something to look forward to.

How often do you make emotional purchases? Almost never.

I don't think there's any purchase that I make that's emotional. Really? No. I mean, the only thing that I bought without money in mind was my aquarium. That was the only thing that I did not— yeah, I didn't look at the price tag. I don't care about how much it costs, and I'm not getting any return on my money. That was the only thing. But I built that into like what I have invested. I'm like, okay, if I have X amount invested, that'll pay for the aquarium and X amount invested in addition to that will pay for all the maintenance, all that stuff. So I just like factored it in that and worked towards that being a goal.

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What were the 3 biggest lessons that doing real estate sales taught you about life and business in general?

Yeah, I would say not giving up. Because with, with sales, it's like you, you, you have to stay on it. And learning how to differentiate between— like, read people, I guess, is a big one. Because I got fooled so often. Like, as a young agent, you don't realize how many fakes there are out there. Like, people who will just waste your time and pretend to be buyers. I had this dude, and I was so naive. I'm looking back, I was an idiot. He walked into the open house and told me that he was in the market for like $25 to $50 million homes. The guy wasn't like, you know, representing himself in such a way where he could afford these houses, and nor would a guy of that caliber realistically trust an 18-year-old kid who's like brand new to show—

show me $20 million.

Yeah, show me $50 million. Like, chances are they have business managers. They don't even show up to the houses first. They have assistants do it first, and then they have people vet it, and then they show up, and they're very discreet. This guy was very flashy about like, oh yeah, I did this and my company does that. Like, talking about— I had no idea. So I'm sitting there showing him houses and every agent is looking at me like, is this guy pre-qualified? Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, oh yeah, he's good. Idiot. And I remember one agent, I would consider her like, not a mentor, but she really took me under her wing. And she had a listing, and she's like, "Bring him to my listing, and I'll feel him out for you." And she was there anyway. And so he came there, and she started asking him questions about, like, his proof of funds. He literally goes into his car, in his trunk, and pulls out papers and hands it to her. And she's like, "This is proof of funds." It was like a Word document the guy just printed out. Wow. Saying, like, "X amount, company blank, this, this." And afterwards she's like, "This guy is fake. He's not real. He's not a real buyer." And then—

But you'd already spent 20 listings, showing him 20 listings. I was an idiot.

Yeah, but then you also ruin your name in the process of like any time you bring a buyer by, these agents remember that. They know, oh, this is Graham, he's the kid who brought by this like really bad buyer. He wasted my time. I spent an hour setting up this house. And like their time is valuable. My time, I got nothing to lose. And this guy meanwhile was just, I think he was just dreaming. And he was using it as inspiration. And he would spend like 2 hours at the house. Like laying back. Oh my gosh, I was an idiot.

Oh man. Okay, so learning, learning to read people, uh, never giving up, being consistent. Yeah, but you can't, but you can't never give up unless you know how to read the right person, right? Know what their really intentions are. What's another big lesson you think you learned from real estate?

I loved it. I don't know, there was something about it where I just felt I could do this 24/7 and it never felt like work. It's just like what I enjoyed doing. Like, I got so excited every day to wake up. Like, you know, the feeling sometimes we had just like a really good day and you can't go to sleep or like, so excited. Yeah. Yeah. Or like maybe like a Christmas morning where you can't wait to wake up. Like, you know, you're going to Disneyland or something like that. That's how I felt going into work. I just enjoyed it. Like, I would wake up early and like, be excited every day to be able to go and do real estate and like, learn and be around these houses. Because for me, it was so foreign to like walk into a $5 million house get to be around people who could afford that. And like everyone I saw, I was like, what can I learn from this person? I just found it really inspiring.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, it really opened up my mind in terms of like what's possible. And so I really believe that like having access to Los Angeles just gave me that worldview of like, it's insane the possibilities that are out there. Yes. And just believing that, hey, if these guys could do it, why can't I? And you would see that they're nothing special. It's just they've got good at a skill and you don't need to be like this superhuman person.

I'm curious about your thoughts on money and relationships.

Yeah.

How has lived— how has been living, uh, an extreme frugal financial lifestyle supported or hurt you in intimate relationship with your girlfriend?

I don't think it's ever hurt. It's never hurt? I don't think it's ever hurt. Um, Even like just dating in general, I think there are cheaper ways to do everything. And people that know me in general, they kind of would know what they're getting into. Right, right.

They're not expecting you to do something.

Yeah, it shouldn't be a surprise. But like, I would say a lot of the things that you would do like in a relationship, they're either free or they're very inexpensive. Like, I think it's more important to spend quality time with the other person versus like, hey, we're gonna go to like this fancy restaurant. I think there's a time and a place for that for sure. But I think at least for the first, like, the dating period, it doesn't have to be expensive at all. And with Macy, it's been, it's been really nice because she's— I don't want to say she's as frugal as I— she's okay with spending money on certain things if she feels like the value's there versus I'm always like the cost, like, oh, but the value might not be there for this. We could get 80% of it, you know. I want to say with her, I've definitely loosened up because I could afford it. But a lot of the things still, it's like, uh, she enjoys contributing. I appreciate that. I think some of our trips, it's like, you know, she's got credit card points. She's like, I opened up these credit cards, I got the sign-up bonus. Like, it's a free trip, you know? Uh, so a lot of things like this, they don't have to cost money. But I will say I have loosened up really with Macy, uh, just in the sense that I don't fret over like a $60 dinner anymore. Like 5 years ago, I was in that $50 dinner, $60, and be like, well, we could do that for cheaper over here. I'm going to eat a little bit at home and I'm going to go there, get one. Oh my gosh. Bad. It's really bad.

Do you wish you would have changed that? If you could go back, would you have done it differently? Have more balance?

I probably not. I mean, I'm sure there are things going back where I'm like, yeah, I should have done that. It was stupid. Like one time, I know I'm going to get hate for this, but There was a car meet and I had budgeted it. And again, like, it's different if you're making like $20 grand a year. I was probably making $100 grand a year. And I had budgeted that day only for gas. I didn't have enough for the food. And they're all driving through Malibu and they're going to like this fancy place for lunch. I got a Subway instead. And, you know, I sat down at the table and I asked the server really nicely, 'cause it was like a row of like 20 people. Like, "Can I eat my Subway here?" Oh my God. And they were totally cool with it, and I figured the tip that I'd leave them is way less than what I would have spent on this meal that I didn't need. I wanted a Subway. I didn't want to spend $50 on a meal. So I just left the tip instead. There you go. And I ate my Subway. They were totally fine with it. I forget what— it was a restaurant in Malibu. There were 20 people at the table. I don't know how big the bill would be. But, um— You know, anyway, like that's the stuff that I, you know, in hindsight, it was cringy to do. Um, oh, the other thing I would do all the time is, uh, uh, if I were out with friends and there's extra food, they weren't taking it home. I would be the one to be like, you would take it home, everything, box it up, everything. But I would get a whole meal out of that.

That's great.

Yeah. A whole meal.

I need to take more stuff home.

That's what I need to do. Nothing wasteful. Would ever go to waste. Even when we go out with the Oppenheim Group, it was usually the 6 of us. Oh, they had lots of good food then. And Jason was the type, order everything.

And then you'd say, you got meal for a week.

Yeah, but because he likes to be like, I'm going to have a few bites of this, a few bites of that, a few bites of this. And then there'd be like half a meal there. And he would just say, oh, I'm going to get it. I'm going to take it all home. And that, like, I'd put it in the fridge and I'd live off that for days. So that's That's a lot. Like when I made one of my how much I spend in a week videos, I think my like grocery bill is like $100 and something a month for food. I don't know how you live like that. But now a lot of that was subsidized by like eating really good food, but taking it all home and then divvying it up throughout. Like it's like a meal prep, but like it's food that would've gone to waste. Yeah. Yeah.

So I'm curious, what do you think are the biggest money myths that keep a lot of people broke?

Oh, um, money myths that keep people broke. Um, I don't know. I always feel like, um, the, the you could die tomorrow is a common thing that I would hear a lot of people say of like, I'd rather just live now. That my perspective is that you can always live tomorrow too. Like, your chances of living tomorrow— knock on this— much higher than passing away. Yeah. So I think plan for tomorrow is a probably better approach statistically. I feel like you can live just as easily like in your 30s and early 40s as you can in your 20s. I'm sure the experiences in your 20s are different. Looking back, I still feel like mentally I feel like 23 to 25. I don't think I've grown up since then mentally. I still feel the same age except I need more sleep now. But I feel like now, like I've done so much saving throughout my 20s that now I can finally like loosen up to a certain extent.

Buy an extra piece of sushi. One piece.

Yeah. I still, and I still look at prices. Like we went out to sushi the other day, I saw a $28 roll and a $15 roll. And I'm like, the $15, I get 2 of those versus 1 of those. I'd rather the 2. So I got the 2.

So if you had to go back and just imagine your 18-year-old self. How do you— now 32. 32. So imagine 14 years ago, and imagine that you, in a hypothetical world, you had to become a millionaire in half the time. So you had to hit your first million in revenue and sales coming in in half the time, from 18 to that time, right? As opposed to when you were I don't know how old you were.

I was 26.

26. You had to do it at 22, 23, right? Let's just say hypothetical scenario, you had to. What would you have done differently in order to get there? Would it even be possible?

It would have, uh, it would have been YouTube for me. Yeah, because every day after real estate, I wouldn't watch TV, watch YouTube. Like, that was my version of TV. This is like 2008 and, um, early YouTube, very early YouTube. But that was like, I was would come home and just watch YouTube videos. Like, that was what I enjoyed doing. And I noticed back then that there was no business or entrepreneur content on there. And what really solidified it for me was Rob Dom— he's a car channel— posted a video about how he was able to buy a Lamborghini Diablo, a 2001. And he made a video in his garage, like, way before, like, the Tai Lopez stuff, like, way before. But he made a really inspirational video about how— what he did for a living to afford a Lamborghini Diablo and was so honest about it. And there was a guy before him, his name was Robert, uh, Hilner or Himmler. I don't know his name. Uh, I can't remember his last name, how it's pronounced. Um, he drove a green Lamborghini and was selling a, uh, a program or a course or something about like how to get rich or something like that. There was some speculation that it was like family money or something like that, but he, I believe, owned like a car customization shop or something like that. So Rob Dom made this video basically saying, I'm gonna just tell you what I know for free. I have nothing to sell you, and this is my story. And he posted it. I was so inspired by that. That for me is like, I wanna do that. And what really hit it off for me was that I sent him a message on Instagram. He maybe only had a few thousand subscribers at the time. Or sorry, not Instagram, Facebook. Sent him a message, and I'm like, hey, I love your content. And I could pull it up here if you wanna see it, but my original message back then, was like, there's a huge market on YouTube for this type of content. If you double down on this, it could be huge. Really? Yeah. I bet I could pull it up.

So this was a video he put on YouTube. Yeah. But you messaged him on Facebook. He was just doing a couple videos. He wasn't doing it consistently.

Correct. Hey Rob, message from a fan and fellow car enthusiast. I've been watching your videos from before you had 10,000 subscribers and love your videos. I'm so happy how far you've come. You'll be hitting 100,000 100,000 subscribers shortly. You've definitely been a great inspiration. I have 2 questions for you if you have the time. Then I asked like what camera, mics you use. Sure. Then what did you find gave your biggest break? Was it uploading content regularly? Was it car videos? Was it inspirational? Then I said, just a comment, I believe you could have a great career in motivational speaking in business. There's a big market for young people who don't relate to Tony Robbins and who have never heard of Napoleon Hill before. Just food for thought, this would be a big opportunity. And then he responded back. He gave his answers and said, "I want to be a motivational speaker without actually being a motivational speaker, haha." And then I said, "I think you could take these very, very far in that direction." But that was more than 10 years ago. But I wanted to do that, but I didn't have the courage to do it. Why didn't you have the courage? I didn't have a Lambo. I know how stupid it sounds, but I felt like, who would listen to me? What did I have to offer? Rob had a business and a Lamborghini. —He was credible. —Yeah. What did I have? You know, looking back, it's stupid because I could have, like, I felt I needed either $1 million, a Lamborghini, like something, a show of success, because back then that's what you had to do on YouTube. It was like Lamborghinis just got clicks. And, you know, me starting my career in real estate with, you know, $150 grand in savings or like, it was still a lot. Like looking back, I could have just said like how to make $100 grand by like 20-something. I didn't have the courage. I felt like I would embarrass myself. And but had I started back then, I would have been so early. And it was just a feeling like I wanted to do that, but I just didn't. I put it off for years.

So this is something I'm really excited you're talking about this because I think a lot of people don't have the courage to do the thing they really want to do because they don't feel credible or ready to do it. So what would you say to people who are like, well, I don't have the money, I don't have the credibility yet, I'm just getting started in this I want to start talking about it or creating content or doing whatever, writing a book about it, but who's gonna listen to me? What would you say to those people?

I think you just gotta do it. It got to a point for me where I guess the intuition of like, I want to be doing this, why am I not? Started getting to a point where I just felt if I don't do it now, I'm never gonna do it. And then I thought to myself, would I look back in the future and regret not doing this? And I thought, yes. And so I just, I secretly made a YouTube channel and filmed a video during an open house. And I'd like, just with my iPhone, one-taked it. And, uh, well, I did multiple takes trying to get ready for it because people would walk in the house. I'd like put my camera down. Um, but I just posted one video and I was like, I'm just gonna post it up, see what happens. And I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned like as I was doing it. I had the window right here, so I realized if I shoot against the window, I look too dark. And if I go here, lighting's better. Minor things. And then I looked on YouTube, like how to edit a YouTube video on YouTube, learned iMovie through there, how to edit a good thumbnail. I could just see what's working. And Derral Eves was a big one for me, learning about SEO and stuff like that, how to rank. My goal back then was just to rank on the first page for different key search results. So like, I wanted to rank first page for passive income, how to be a millionaire, real estate. The first one I ranked was 2008. It's so niche. 2008 Lotus Exige S240. And there were like 20 videos on there with like 20,000+ views. I was like, I want to be on the first page. So I made my video Lotus Exige S240 review, you know, 2000, like something like that. And I slowly watched it just climb and I shared it online and like that didn't help, but like over time it just kept doing better. Yeah. So I just, you've just got to start.

Do you feel like you have a scarcity mindset or an abundance mindset? I don't know.

Probably a degree of both, I would say. I don't like, I don't like loss. So I'm really like risk-averse when it comes to stuff. Like, like, like, I'm okay losing a certain percentage because it's like, okay, if you have $100, if you lose a penny, it's not that big of a deal. So it's like, things like that in terms of a percentage don't faze me. Um, but just in general, I'm really against loss. So like, whatever I get, I'm very conservative with it because I want to make it last. So in terms of that, I would say a scarcity mindset. There is some abundance, though, in terms of like bigger opportunities and pursuing, I would say, passions. Not afraid to do that anymore. But yeah, financially I'm just very conservative. Yeah.

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what's the investment you've made that had the biggest loss? Financial investment, like in an asset class. Oh, an asset like stocks or crypto or real estate. Did you ever lose a bunch of money that you're like, man, I put $100 grand in, are we talking dollar amount or percentage? Dollar amount.

Yeah, um, very stupid one. I bought Robinhood stock. That was probably the worst loss. Individual stock? That was an individual stock I, I picked. What'd you put in it, roughly? 200 grand. 200 grand. How much you lose? Uh, it's down like 60, 70% by the time I sold.

So 150 grand or something?

Yeah, that was, that was, that was stupid. It still was in the ratios of like, what is, what was acceptable to me in terms of like a percentage. But it was stupid. I mean, it was just like, that was a gamble. Was that an emotional loss? It was when their stock dropped, like they saw a substantial drop. And I'm like, people are still posting their screenshots on WallStreetBets. Robinhood has a lot of cash. They're not going anywhere. There's so many places to pivot. Take a risk on this. And I think I put $100 grand in that. And then it dropped even more. I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna double down on this because— oh man, stupid. That was stupid. But again, like, in the big picture, we're talking about, you know, if the portfolio size is, let's say, $8 million bucks, like, we're talking about, like, you know, $200 grand total of that. So in a percentage, it's like not that bad. But when you think of the dollar, I don't think of the dollar amount.

Like, I really want to throw up. Like, uh, it's the worst.

That was just— that was a stupid one. Now I do have others that make up for it. Sure, sure. Other side, I think Enphase at one point was up like 400-something percent. The original Tesla I bought was up 2,000%. So like, I had winners on that. That's big. Um, and I sold almost all my Tesla too back in March at the high. Which was luck because I sold it to buy a Tesla Roadster. And then I just kept selling it afterwards because I was like, well, now I sold this, I may as well just reinvest it in the S&P. And I'm like, I'm still getting an equal exposure in the S&P to putting it there and it's safer. And that was just luck. But I also had the opposite of that. I sold my original half. I I, my original half, I think I sold in 2020 when it had increased threefold really quickly. Looking back, I mean, that's still way cheaper than it is today. Like, oh well, you win some, you lose some. So that's why it's like individual stocks, such a tiny part of my portfolio. But looking back, it's just stupid. I would have been better off just putting all of it.

It is fun.

But yeah, I mean, you get it out of your system.

Yeah, of course. And a lot has happened the last couple years with crypto, NFTs, and now AI coming in. A lot of around AI. Uh, what's your thoughts on crypto, NFTs, AI in terms of building wealth for the future when it seems like there's been a lot of scams and all these different things and get-rich-quick schemes and people losing a lot of money? How can people use these tools, or should they even consider them to build wealth in the future.

I, I never understood NFTs. That was the one thing that I, I really tried to like get into it. I wanted to buy a CryptoPunk, but I just didn't. I thought it was kind of neat to have like, oh, the kind of the original, but CryptoKitties was like the original one. I never really understood. I never got into NFTs. Uh, crypto I've had an on and off relationship with because I bought Bitcoin originally 2017. For how much? Uh, $7,000— $16,500, $17,000. And I like day traded it because for me it's like everyone was talking about Bitcoin. And at the time it went from basically $1,000 from when I started making YouTube videos to $17,000. And so that whole rise, people were calling me, make a video about Bitcoin. I didn't get it. I'm like, I don't understand it. Um, and I thought when I made that video, like, I'm going to buy a Bitcoin. And see if I understand firsthand what it's about. And maybe like me buying into it, I could just feel firsthand what everyone else is feeling. [Speaker] Yeah. [Speaker] And that helps. Sometimes when I'm talking about something, it's hard to talk about something objectively without having been in it. And then once you're in it, you could kind of see, like you put on the goggles and you see like, wow, this is what everyone else sees and experiences. This is why they feel this way. So I bought a Bitcoin, but I was like, I had so much fun trading it because it was like 24/7. It's like you could be there at like, and I was just having so much fun, like 2 o'clock in the morning, like checking it, going up. But I was making like these little $20, $30 like profits, like went up and I just sell and then I place a limit and like buy and like do this. But I just like trade it. And then from there, I just spread it amongst a whole bunch of like, you know, crap coins just for fun. But I don't just really focus just on Bitcoin, really.

So where do you feel like AI is going to be coming out for building wealth? Do you think anything is there around?

I think it's probably too early. I worry AI is going to become like the next hypey sort of thing. And I could see it going in that direction. I don't know how that'll come about, but I could totally see like a year or two from now, like AI becoming the next like crypto boom, NFT, Web 3.0, and all these things. Yeah, something like that. I think like with crypto, I could see there being a huge future in that in terms of like the blockchain and like its use cases. I think— I'm surprised they haven't created a digital dollar yet. Like, I think that's coming. I think it's going to get to the point where everyone— like, you get a Social Security number You get a wallet. I know. And they know exactly how much goes into that wallet, how much goes out, where it goes. Like, imagine every dollar has like a tracking device in it. That's crazy. And they could see like, wait a second, you received this dollar, you got paid from this person, but you paid it out to here. Why wasn't there a tax? Why didn't you claim it? Man. Like, I think it's all gonna get to that point in the future. There's gonna be no privacy. Now, they can't get away with like without physical money at all. For probably quite some time. It's always gonna be legal tender. Like, imagine trying to like scrounge up dollars from— like, you're not gonna—

there's some restaurants that don't take physical currency, you know, in LA. Yeah, it's like it's getting that way where it's only through the app.

Yeah, just don't— I think it's just gonna— they're gonna make it so convenient and they're gonna build so many walls around using cash that people are gonna go, I'm gonna pay attention to it. So I think cryptocurrency is going to provide an option for them to do a digital dollar and to track everything. And they'll know if like, they'll try to curb anything and just track it. So I could see going in that direction. So I think it's a ton of opportunity. I also think, someone else had mentioned this, it makes sense to me, like verifying luxury goods. Like if you wanna buy, let's say, a Ferrari, you have something on the blockchain that says like, you are the owner, this is built by Ferrari, here's all the details. Buy a Louis Vuitton bag and like, the replicas are getting so good. You want to verify it's that, here's a little, you know, uh, NFT thing that comes with it. You could scan it and like, you are the owner, like this belongs to this, right? So I could see that. That's interesting. So that's where I think it's going. But I think we're just, you know, in that initial boom phase and it's going to develop. And I think the potential is huge. And that's why I don't know if like Bitcoin, Ethereum is going to be something that stands out like an Amazon of the dot-com bubble, or if it's going to be like a a GeoCities where it's like nobody uses that, right? So I don't think we know quite yet, but I do think it's a ton of potential in that. AI, I don't know, I'm not smart enough to understand it. I don't know anything about it. So yeah, I think it's really cool. Uh, what I was saying in my video yesterday, I think it's going to get to a point where AI is going to be able to create any video you want. Like, imagine you searching and getting a tutorial for anything you need and it's created in AI. Like, like, here's a character. Yeah, like, here's an example, but, but it's going to be so lifelike that you're not going to know this isn't a person making a video. Like, imagine you're changing a car in a 2006 Toyota Prius. You type in YouTube, how to change tire 2006 Toyota Prius. You're going to get like videos of people who have made that, but it's not going to be— maybe not going to be a 2006, 2005. It's not going to be the same color. There's going to be like an intro, fluff, all that sort of stuff. But imagine if you type that AI could create that video based on the blueprints of that car, how to change a tire, and it shows your exact car, a 2006 Toyota Prius, how to change the tire. Here's what you do. Here's where the tool is. Here's this. Here's what you do. And if you have a question, how do I get the lug nut on when it's too tight? And it creates a video how to get the lug nut off that's too tight. But that's— why can't it do that in the future? I think it can.

What's— I've got a couple final questions for you. What's your money goals? If you could predict it's 2020, uh, 2030, 7 years away.

7 years, yeah. Where will you—

where would you like to be in 7 years with your money goals, with your investments, cash, assets? You know, obviously there's so much that could happen in the next 7 years, so many new developments that probably will happen that you're not even aware of. But if you could have a goal in mind in 7 years, where would you like to be financially?

I mean, I feel like I'm already there, but like, it would be cool to be able to make a million a year in passive income. I think would be really cool, just, just from investments. I think would be a neat goal to have. I think it's doable.

What do you need to make a million dollars a year in passive? What is— how does the calculations work for you?

Probably about $25 million invested in relatively safe investments. Real estate, index funds. Yeah, I'm talking net. So like net of all mortgage payments, just like purely profit, a million a year. Um, so you think you need $25 million in assets? Maybe less if it's, if it's real estate. Um, you could probably do that with like $15 to $20 depending on the property you buy and if it's triple net and how much work you're doing on that. Um, so I think it's, it's doable. Depends on the investment, just depends on what's the opportunity at the time. But I like having a split between like index funds and real estate because I feel like, you know, they're different enough where I'm not too concentrated. Sure, sure, that's cool. But that would be just a goal if I'm saying anything.

A million a year, probably. Yeah, passive income. It's pretty inspiring. You have a lot of sushi with that. You could. Yeah. Would you start spending more with that million in cash? Would you look at it as like, now I can spend on whatever Or what would you think about then? I have no idea.

I'd probably get a bigger aquarium. Realistically though, I would say traveling first class, which you could do with credit card points, but like being able to do that more frequently. Like, I do want to travel. I think that's a goal of mine to do one day. I really want to do van life at some point. Van life?

Yeah, I really want a nice van and go around the country.

Yeah, I think take the podcast on the road. I mean, van life, I think would be so fun. I'd like visit all 50 states. I think would be really cool. Spend 6 months doing that. That's cool. Travel, I think would be a lot of fun. Bigger aquarium. But for the most part, I think at this point I just wanna buy back my time and just be able to enjoy the things. Like the other day, sounds stupid, but it was a weekday and I just wanted to read a book. I never wanted to read a book. I'm not a reader necessarily for books. I'll read anything online. If it's on Reddit, I'll read the whole thing. But I just felt like reading a book. But I was like, well, but I got so much work I need to do. And like, I'd feel better getting caught up and like ahead than I would reading the book. But I really wanted to read the book. So I think I'll probably lean more in the direction of like taking more time. Like even doing a trip like this, like a year ago I wouldn't have done it because I'm like, I'm so focused on, I just need to make videos and anything that distracts me from that. I don't think I was my happiest doing that because I like, I just felt so stressed. You know, there was just random things that I was not fully like in the moment for because my mind was constantly thinking like YouTube videos. What would be a good title for tomorrow's video? Like, there'd be like people around having conversations and I'd be there and I'd be present. But like, there's like that 20% of my brain that's thinking like YouTube in the back. It's always there. I don't think it's going to go away, but I would like to scale back from that a little bit, more in the moment.

We'll have to get you out here once every couple months then for a couple days.

Yeah, I think so.

That's good, man. Yeah. Um, Graham Stephan Show on, on YouTube, you've got some amazing content over there. I love it. Um, you've got the podcast as well, which is really exciting. How can we— uh, Iced Coffee Hour, it's called the podcast. You guys can see it both on YouTube. How can we be of best service for you? You got over 4-point-something million subscribers now. What what can we do to serve you?

I don't want anything. I would just say, uh, if you want to subscribe, that would be cool. Um, subscribe to your channel. I, I don't know, I'd just say just subscribe to your channel. Like, at this point, I'm, I'm fine. I would rather just, you know, guys, subscribe here on this channel. Would be, would be really nice.

Subscribe to both of our channels. Yes. Um, this is a, uh, One of the questions I ask everyone at the end is called the 3 Truths question. So imagine another hypothetical scenario. It's your last day on Earth. You live as long as you want to live, uh, and you accomplish everything. Your money goals, life goals, they all happen. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your content with you, so no one has access to your information, your content, YouTube, whatever else you create. It goes to some other place when you die in the future.

So it just gets deleted.

It gets— well, maybe it's just we don't have access to it. It's somewhere else.

Hypothetically private. Yeah, it's private.

It's unlisted. But for whatever, whatever reason, you have the opportunity to share 3 final truths with the world, 3 things that you know to be true that you would share as lessons to the world, and that's all we would have of your content left. What would be, again, off the top of your head those 3 truths for you?

I don't know. I don't know if there's like any absolute truths out there, or just lessons that you would want to share. 3, um, I would say, gosh, like probably self-belief. Like believing you can do something is very important. I think people are drawn to confidence, and so if you could learn how to be your best self and, uh, accept that, I think that would go a long way. And I think the less concerned you are with what other people think, usually the better they think about you because you're not afraid to be yourself. And I think everyone is scared to be themselves. And so when they see someone else just like, you know, not caring, other people look up to that in a way that so many people can't do. So I would say like those things universally for me have been true.

That's cool, man. Um, final question for you before I ask it. I want to acknowledge you, Graham, for your commitment and dedication. It's been incredible what you've created over the last, you know, 5 years on YouTube. Every week you show up and give something inspiring, informational, and entertaining. And I know it takes you days of research and days of work, and you're doing a lot of it on your own. And you've helped a lot of people educate them, learn, and learn about a scary subject for a lot of people, which is money, in a fun way. So I really acknowledge you for how you keep showing up. Thanks. And I know it's a lot of work, and I know it's, uh, you know, you're probably gonna have to figure out how to make it happen in the future at scale, but what you've created in the last 4 or 5 years has been really inspiring. So I acknowledge you for your efforts, your intelligence, and your creativity. It's really cool. Thanks. Final question: what's your definition of greatness?

Oh man, I would just say honestly to help others. I think if you make an impact on someone else's life and it's a positive impact and you could, they have a good feeling towards that, I think there's nothing better than that. Anytime I meet somebody who's like, yo, I bought my first house because of you and my credit score is great and I turned my finances around, now I have like $10K in the bank and I was broke. Like just the impact, because I know like how that would feel. For me, like, for me, like, meeting Rob Dom, for me, would be one of those moments where I'm like, dude, you have no idea how much you've helped me. Just like your video on how to buy a Lamborghini was like, set me off. Like, and I'll remember that for the rest of my life. And so just like having that for other people, I think is so insane. Like, it's hard to put into words, but it's so neat. And then you feel like you've got a friend. And so everyone I meet who's like, if they watch my videos, I know they're like into personal finance, investing, building wealth. Chances are they're, they're an entrepreneur. And so like we're instant friends because of that. Like no matter what their background is, it's just, it's neat. And I've never had that before.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. Forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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