How I Built A $13M Creator Empire From A Broken iPhone (& Gave My Dad $500K) Jun Yuh

0:00I started creating content with a shattered iPhone 12, and that's where I got my first million followers and my first million dollars. Junieo, you are a creator entrepreneur that has made $14 million teaching people how to build personal brands online to create financial freedom. Now, let's break it down for everyone to do the same. And it doesn't have to be that hard. I wanted financial freedom, but I was so embarrassed because I was not well-spoken. Things started to change when I actually picked up my phone one

0:24day and started speaking to it. How did you think about positioning that? Because of it, I recently gave my dad $500,000, and that was a very cool moment for me. So, I'm going to do a little game with you. Can you rank my content on a scale of 1 to 10 and tell me your number one piece of advice to get to million

0:40followers? Ultimately, you can share one piece of content to thousands of people, and then you'll never have to chase another opportunity again. You will attract it. It's my first time saying this publicly, but I love that. How do you feel about AI as a creator? I think every creator should do this. The ones that don't are the ones where I'm like, you guys are like 10 years behind. I'm going to break it down fully for you. Firstly, Hi angels. Did you know that subscribing to our channel is free? And it's the simplest way that you can support our show and help us grow. If you do this,

1:13we can bring you even more of the content and the guests that you love. All you have to do is just hit the subscribe button below. So, please, if you wouldn't mind, subscribe to the channel, and thank you. [music] In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So, let's get

1:34into it. [music]

1:40Junieo, are you ready to get hot, smart, rich? been looking forward to it. I always love seeing what people's response to that question is going to be, and I can tell a lot if they watch the show cuz they're ready for it. for it. Were you practicing? I was not only practicing this morning, I was practicing late night in the shower. and like, I can't wait for Maggie to tell me that. I'm ready for

1:59it. Well, I feel like people are going to know it's special that you're here because you are a male, which doesn't happen as often as a female. But, for someone that's just clicked into this conversation, they're not familiar with you. Yes. What would you say to get them to stay? I would say that anyone, no matter who they are, no matter what walk or stage of life they're coming in from, can and should build a personal brand because it's the greatest long-term asset that

2:23anyone can build. And, it's not only for the tangible benefits, but also the personal development that comes with it. And, it doesn't have to be that hard. So, if they want to learn it from a systematic standpoint, they're in the right place. I have a hypothesis I want to throw out about this conversation. [laughter] I think that those that listen in full, they will not only have the confidence to start creating content, they will have the tools to stand out, and a real plan to make money from their content, which a lot of creators are missing. Do

2:53you believe that to be true or false? 100% true. 100% true. I actually feel as though it's what makes me a good teacher in the sense where I didn't come onto the camera feeling extremely confident. I was not well-spoken when I first started, and it forced me to actually learn it in a step-by-step way, which I'm sure we're about to break down. So, I'm 100% confident that they'll come out of it if they watch it in full to

3:15actually be able to do it themselves. So, now you today, what would you say is the mission that you're on? I'm on the mission for helping 100,000 people build their personal brands. Why is building a personal brand so important to you? Cuz I want to first define it. So, a personal brand is your public reputation. So, whether or not you're Maggie and you have a thousand posts or you're somebody that has never posted piece of content ever before, you already have a personal brand. It's just simply that content allows you to scale it from a one-to-many standpoint. And, ultimately, if you do this effectively, you can share with one piece of content

3:46to thousands of people exactly who you are, what you stand for, and what you have to offer. If you can do that, then you'll never have to chase another opportunity again. You will attract it. And do you think that everyone should have an online personal brand? It depends on their goals. And I feel as though if they want to leave an impact, if they want to do something that goes beyond them, if they ultimately want to start a business, if they want to become aspiring founders, that content gives you such an upper hand. And I think what actually scares people a lot is the fear of visibility, a fear of being seen, and

4:17fear of judgment. And ultimately, my entire brand is centered around how can we break all of those what I would call misnomers down to make it easy for people to start? And then if they learn how easy it was, I think most people would say, "I'm going to go ahead and film a piece of content and post it

4:32online." Going into your story a little bit, I was fascinated because I actually watched one of your original videos, which was styling yourself. Heck, yeah. And I'm interested in the art of the pivot here, Jim. Yes, pivot. What did it take for you to go from fashion videos to now building the empire that you have helping people

4:50build these exceptional personal brands? I love this question so much. I think about it almost daily. So, for me, I thought that I had to be somebody to be online. So, I was constantly trying to put on a front. And I thought fashion and fitness was the cool thing to do, and that's me being fully honest. I had no idea what I wanted to do online, but I knew that the cool people were doing these fitness and fashion videos. That's why I started there. And ultimately, it didn't perform that well, and I was sitting in my parents' basement recording these videos for about 7-8 hours, and I didn't know how to pose. I

5:22was shifting around, and I was trying to make these pieces of content, and only a few hundred people were watching it. Things started to change when I actually picked up my phone one day and it just started speaking to it. And ultimately, I was just trying to get a message across in regards to how hard life is. And there was a lot of things that I was struggling with during that period of time. And that video got different types of comments. So, people used to comment the fire emoji, and then now they're starting to comment the fact that your video has actually changed me, or it's

5:46been such a good reminder for me to see. And so, I started watch those and I thought to myself, why don't I just do more of that? The pivot came very naturally. And what I've learned is that you don't have to wait to be somebody, you already are somebody. So, I started to create content about studying. And that couldn't be the more lame option, right? So, I thought, "Oh my gosh, no one's going to want to watch this. Who's going to care that I study for my classes?" But, I did that and I started to grow a following. And I hope that if anyone's listening to this, it's that

6:12again, you don't have to wait to be somebody, just take your life experiences, learn content creation cuz you can package that experience, and you can transform other people's lives. I'm fascinated that you said it was what the cool kids are doing. Talk to me a little bit about that word cool, belonging. Did you feel like you had that in real life, or were you searching for that because you didn't

6:34have that in real life? I didn't have it in real life. And I think the word cool tends to be subjective. So, in my inner circle, right, I was always the slower one. I was surrounded by biomedical engineers, so I was never smart in in my circle. And I thought again, what did I have that allowed me to create content online? But, I started to realize that my own studying experience can actually be transformative to other types of people, right? So, what we think is cool tends to be because of our own lived experience. But, once you start to realize there's another world out there, then cool can be what whatever you are,

7:04whoever you are, right? So, for me, I think the word cool is about being your true self and posting it online. And I know the word authentic tends to be overused. But, ultimately, that is the game here. You want to go ahead and be yourself online, you'll find your people, and that's the only way that you

7:18can have longevity. When you're not sure what you want to say for your personal brand, where do you go to identify what to just start talking about? It's the younger you principle. It's the place that I take everyone when they're first starting. I truly believe that if you have no idea what you want to create content on or who you want to target, you should target the version of you two to three years younger. And the reason for that is because you understand them so well, and it's true that you are not the same person. So, that transformation is what you can teach. And so, ultimately, when anyone has this

7:48question of where do I start, I tell them, "If you were to talk to your 2 to 3-year younger version of yourself, what would you say? What would you need to tell them? What struggles were they experiencing? What What do they desire?" And if you can start there, I truly believe you'll find your people online. I first started creating content on that, and that is literally barely any storage on it. I had no idea what I was doing, and I broke my phone when I was a freshman in college, and I started creating content. And that's where I got my first million followers

8:14and made my first million dollars. So, take me back to when you start creating your videos on this broken, shattered iPhone 12. Exactly how I look by the way. Did you feel cringe? Did you feel embarrassed? Like, how did you work through those emotions? 100%, and I actually avoided watching my own content for a very long period of time. I would never even go to my home page cuz I didn't want to see who was following me. I didn't want to see the com- I didn't want to see any of that stuff because I was so embarrassed. And ultimately, I truly do believe volume dictates luck. So, after a long period

8:47of time doing it, I started to realize that all of this is a skill. It really is. Being able to click the record button and talk in front of the camera, that is a skill. And I was judging myself for a skill that I didn't have yet. And ultimately, over time, when I got good at that skill, now I have systems for everything, and and now I can feel confident doing so. But, that's what I want the message to be. When I first started creating content with that shattered iPhone 12, the one that Maggie's holding right now, I was embarrassed, I was shy, I was in this

9:14constant fear of visibility, and ultimately, it's led to what has happened today. And that transformation is what I hope to teach a lot of people. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about these systems. You have quite a few. Yeah, I do. What's the most important one if people are only going to remember one from this episode? What is it to go from zero, embarrassed, cringe to million

9:35followers? Is it okay if we go very tactical here? Yes. Okay, this is my favorite thing in the world to talk about. So, here we go. I truly believe if anyone's listening to this, they'll get a ton of value and a ton of clarity and potentially they have their own piece of paper that they're following this exercise alongside with us. So, the first thing that they're going to do on this piece of paper at the very top, they're going to write

9:54their name and the words creator vision. So, this will be Maggie's creator vision or June's creator vision. And there are three branches that stemmed from it. It's going to be what, who, and why. It's because personal branding is the intersection of what you say, who you say it to, and why it matters to you. So, I'm going to break down each branch at a time and thank you so much for letting me be tactical here. It's my favorite thing. And so, when I'm thinking about the what, underneath that is your voice or message or philosophy

10:18that you want to share with the world. And underneath that are content pillars. So, I'll give you an example. Instead of you saying that you are a {quote} {unquote} travel creator, you could lead with a message that reads, "I believe more people should lead a life of freedom to be able to do more of what they enjoy." Then yes, your content pillar could be travel, but it could also be productivity. It could be financial management. It could be relationships and how traveling and freedom has actually changed your relationships with the people that you love. And it allows you to not traditionally niche down, but become the

10:46niche in that sense. Then the second branch is going to be who, and this is your demographic and your psychographic. Demographic a little bit more obvious. This is the sex, the occupation, and location. But, psychographic is what I really enjoy and I think you're phenomenal with this, by the way. It's understanding the pains and desires of your audience. When I watch your content, I know exactly who's watching it, but not just because of the way that they look, but because of what they've struggled with. You're so good at getting that personality out, that that experience out. So, that's the psychographic standpoint. It's stepping to the shoes of your audience and making

11:16them feel seen and heard. Then the third branch, the what, is my favorite and this is the thing that I feel as though I've nailed down, which is ultimately sharing your own stories. You have to share why this voice or message or philosophy is important to you. And ultimately, if I said the message of personal branding is the greatest long-term asset that anyone can build, then these stories could be the fact that I went from being insecure to feeling confident because of the content creation journey. I could also speak to the fact that I went from being poor to being able to take care of my family

11:44because of the content creation journey. I could talk about the discipline that it required. So, when you look at this creative vision in full as people fill this out, what you get at the very bottom are a ton of content starters all beneath the brand of you, right? So, people always think about where do I start making content? What do I create content on? That's it. This creative vision, this exercise that I take the biggest creators through, it is what separates people that create content just for the fame or the money and the

12:10people that actually make it personal. So, can we do a little exercise? Please, let's do it. Okay. I'm going to describe to you me, my purpose, my why, my audience, and then you can kind of take me through what we haven't done so far. Because I would say the mission is so there. It's like I wanted to be able to for people to be at dinner with me. They would learn business advice, they would learn investing advice, they would learn a little bit about fashion, dating, relationships, travel. It was an all-encompassing dinner party. That's how I wanted you to feel when you watch my content. And the why for that was my

12:41whole life, I felt very much like I had to choose. Choose the beauty, choose the fashion, or choose the business, choose the finance, choose the investing, choose the interviewing. And I was like, I'm so sick of this because women control 85% of consumer spend, yet we get 2% of venture dollars. Like, why are we taking off the mask of being a consumer when we walk into the business world? Why aren't we allowed to embrace all of that? And it's so clear to me exactly who we're talking to. Like, the 25 to 50-year-old woman who is trying to have it all. That's what she's trying to do. She's trying to be financially

13:13independent, she's trying to get promoted at work or start a business, she's trying to have the best fashion, she's trying to travel the world, she just wants a full life. So, I'm fascinated with you being the expert Hit me. to do a little bit of a deep dive. We're going to go to my Instagram. Mind you, I just posted my wedding, so it's a little bit uh swayed. And I'm going to have you rank your creator vision framework to my content and tell me on a scale of 1 to 10 how I'm doing and what I could do

13:42differently. Firstly, when I look at the who, right? So, the target avatar, so good. You even just listed it to me directly, right? But it's not even just the fact that there are certain age demographic, but it is the pain and the struggles that people are experiencing. So, when I look at this, I see a lot of women out there that are insecure. A lot of them are dealing with imposter syndrome that feel as though they they have to make the decision to say, "Do I choose this route or this route?" And you're like, "You can have it all three, right?" It's the name of your brand. And so, that is

14:08phenomenal. And then in terms of the what, right? the skill or let's say the perspective, the opinions, the beliefs, those are all really, really great, too, because you actually have lived experience. The most in the nicest way possible, a lot of creatives try to be somebody when they're not actually that person. You've lived this. I can tell. And when I met you, you're exactly the same person,

14:27which is phenomenal. That's my favorite compliment. And again, it feels like I know you because I have to just study you nonstop. But in regards to the area that I think will take you to a million followers on Instagram is so obvious. And it is the idea of the Y branch. You have this deep mission and because I know a lot about you, I know it had to do with that boss that you first met and then making this this judgment call on you that you can't do it both ways and you have to change the inflection of your voice. I know that story and I

14:53think it's so brilliant. I would love to see that through Instagram. Even when you're talking about the struggles that you're experiencing, it still feels as though you have your life together. It still feels as though you are this picture-perfect, I have it all done, I am this really, really great role model for everyone else. And I would love to peel back a few layers. I would love to think about And this is an exercise that you and your team can do immediately after this. And again, I think this is the difference between you having 100,000, ultimately a million followers in the next year. It is telling the

15:20story concept. So, if you guys were having a Google Doc together, the first thing that I would suggest is spend 30 minutes. You can have a 30-minute timer and list out experiences or transformative moments that you've undergone. And what I want you do is take one theme. So, potentially you went from, let's say, being insecure to now having a lot of confidence. Potentially, you're someone that lacked discipline, now you have a lot of discipline. Let's say that you felt this inept feeling of of how do I be myself and now I am my true self. These are all transformative moments. And I would list that on a

15:48Google Doc and I would spend my time ideating content messages and formats that fit each of those themes. And I would start to capture that into your content, start posting that at least three times per week. Okay, can I stop you there and ask a question? Because I had a very tactical question to ask you about the algorithm and about posting the same story frequently. Because one of the things I'm obsessed with you on is like your story in general, which we're going to get into, but like going from literally being broke and poor to like retiring your father and like getting out of poverty and having no

16:21confidence to being extremely confident. You were very skinny, you're obviously very bulk and built now and you've worked very hard for your body. And I love that most a lot of your top videos, like 36 million views, 25 million views, 24 million views, all surround those themes, but are packaged similarly and differently. And my question to you is how does telling the same story multiple times through that same video keep getting the 36 million, 25 million, 24 million views? Like, doesn't your audience

16:56almost get fatigued cuz they've seen it? I'm going to break it down fully for you. There's first an element to your own intimacy around the content. When you're ideating content, you're thinking about it for three, four, five hours. You're constantly rehearsing exactly what is playing through and then the video that you produce, but ultimately people are just watching it for about 20, 30, 45 a minute long, right? And so, there's a level of you growing bored or tiresome of the same story when in reality other people are seeing it maybe once every 2 weeks, once every week. And it's this little moment of motivation and

17:26inspiration. But, the reason why storytelling content works so well, and I think about content and missions, right? I think about content top of funnel as attract content, but I think of nurturing, positioning, and conversion. And so, at this top of the funnel, the reason why attract content is actually the embodiment of your story is this. I want everyone that's listening, watching this, think of this exercise in their heads. If they had two creators, one creator is coming online in a fancy car and flexing their fancy watch and saying, "I have it all figured out. You should listen to me. You should do X, Y, and Z because I have done it, and this

17:56is my life now." Versus creator B talks about the struggles that they've had to endure in order for them to overcome all of what life has thrown to them. And now they've seen the other end of it. The difference in perspective is that one, people actually find the human common denominator is struggle. So, if you told me that you were dealing with insecurity, I know immediately we connect on that wavelength. That's what happens with content. Why is it 30 million people, 20 million people, 10 million people watching this? It's because there's billions of people and hundreds of millions of people are struggling with the exact same

18:26struggles. And that is what makes content different. So, instead of trying to be somebody and acting this this posture or trying to pretend like you know it all, you can actually talk about these struggles and immediately what happens is people see themselves in the struggle and they actually root for your success. So, what I've seen is the greatest difference is that people that constantly talk about their successes, they often get hate online. Like a lot of people cuz they're jealous and there's that level of insecurity on

18:50other people's perspective. But, if you start talking about your struggles, all of that starts to change because people want to see you win. So, when I start posting content and our business did $9 million in 14 months, I'm not getting comments of people saying, "Oh my gosh, why would you talk about this? Like what Why would you This This feels like it's a bodacious audacious" No, it's all people rooting for me. And it's because they actually have experienced the same struggles that I've started with, and that's why I think your next layer to this is the more you could do storytelling content, I think so many more people are going to

19:19find themselves in you, and that's how I think you'll grow to a million followers on Instagram. Okay, so I'm going to do a little game with you. I'm going to do this, and by the end of the year, we're going to be at a million. Yes. And you're going to be like, I told you

19:31so. 100% 100% So, the struggle, we need to talk about this because I think that there are quite a few people out there that think about that in a way of manipulation and how can I leverage or exploit situations that maybe didn't even happen or weren't really that bad, and I think it's very easy, especially when the algorithm does favor like maybe negative content or things that aren't as motivating. So, where is that line and boundary for people between the struggle and then things that are not being done for the right reason or that underlying why we

20:04keep talking about? I love it. So, okay, here's two parts. One is that if you look at all of my storytelling content, not a single one of them talks badly about my mom, about my dad, about my relationships. It is all the focus on my own personal maturation, emotional, spiritual, physically. And that's the biggest difference. People think that in order for them to talk about their own experiences, they have to talk about other people in their story. But when we were going through even all this podcast prep with your team, they had asked

20:30about what is my girlfriend's name? Ultimately, what what do we ex And no one knows this stuff because I've decided to keep those things more private, and ultimately, it's never been about those people. It's always been about my own exploration of life. And so, if you start to focus it on that, people are not going to think that oh, he's he's taking advantage of his ex or he's taking advantage of this bad scenario or experience. I think another part to it, too, is that when you're telling your stories, you're looking to talk about the transformation of it and not just the negative. So, in real time,

20:55you're showcasing the fact that you've dealt with X, Y, and Z and how you've become a better person for it, and that transformation stops your content from being sappy or depressing to just being uplifting and enlightenment experiences. So, there's a there's another part to this as well. When I talk about attract content, that's the storytelling transformational content. But, there's

21:12also something called nurturing content. And I do this about once a week where I actually don't talk about transformation. I let people into my real life in real time. I do that less, but it's imperative that you do nurturing content so that you can tend your audience. A lot of people struggle with unfollowings, right? So, people that come into their audience and they lose followers over time, and it's because they never did nurturing content. Content actually tends to your audience. And so, when I make a piece of content and say, "I am exhausted and anxious and nervous because I have 14 podcasts to record. I've never done this

21:40before this upcoming week." There's a level of humanity that's associated with that. And that's the nurturing side. But, again, when I'm doing attract content, I'm usually focused on the transformation, and that's how you stop it from being sappy and turn it into something more empowering. It was not long ago that Katie and I first started HubSpot CRM, and it was

21:56literally the two of us for so long. But, as we've grown our team and our business, our old tools just couldn't keep up, especially on the commercial side of the business. However, we recently switched to our sponsor, Pipedrive. It's an intelligent CRM platform and super simple to use. We need that. So, we're obsessed with it. It has completely streamlined everything for us as we grow HSR. The setup was honestly so easy, and now that we've integrated all of our tools into the platform, Pipedrive is ready to grow with us cuz we're going to the moon. It adapts exactly how your team sells, fitting your unique pipeline, sales

22:34processes, and its playbooks, everything. It works just the way you do, and it's an absolute game changer. What makes Pipedrive so good is that it scales alongside your business. So, 6 months down the line, your team isn't starting all over again with something new. That's just exhausting, and it's not for an HSR girl. It's ideal if, like us, you're in the building phase right now. Head to pipedrive.com/hsr and get started with an exclusive 30-day

23:00free trial instead of the usual 14 days. No credit card or payment needed. That's pipedrive.com/hsr. Every now and then, I hear something and my reaction is pure shock. Wait, people aren't already doing this? If you make a rent or a mortgage payment every single month and there's a way for you to get rewards back for that payment, why would you not be doing that? Our sponsor Built lets you earn points on rent and mortgage payments to use towards flights, hotels, Lyft rides, and amazon.com purchases. And Built also has 45,000 restaurants, fitness studios, pharmacies, and other partners in their network. Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but I think a lot of being good with

23:42money is about simply not ignoring the obvious. You're already making this payment every single month. The only difference is whether something comes back to you in return. As soon as Built was explained to me like that, it became one of those things I just could not ignore. Join the membership for where you live at joinbuilt.com/hsr.

24:01That's j o i n b i l t.com/hsr. And make sure that you use our URL so they know that we sent you. So, can we break down the different types of content cuz you've said storytelling, track nurturing. Let's get broken down very easily for people and then how you would think about actually putting a content strategy together so you're hitting those different types of content

24:23perfectly. Yes, okay, cool. So, there are four missions and I stack them up into a content funnel. And so at the very top you have attract content and attract content is meant to go on our exposure and get new followers. And the best content for attract is going to be storytelling because people see themselves in your struggle and ultimately you're able to have them be empowered or be inspired and you want

24:46them to know of you. You can also do attract content with trends, but people usually misuse trends. Trends have to be yours. You can't just copy and paste a trend. You have to add your own messaging or your own purpose or sentiment to it, and that's how people come into your audience for the right reasons. Then the second mission is going to be called nurturing content. And nurturing content is where you tend to your audience so that they feel as though you're a human being. And that is when you're showcasing the real raw reality of, let's say, your life or your struggles or maybe even your desires and passions,

25:16right? Or maybe you had a very big moment and you're like, "This is how I feel because of it." That's nurturing content. Then I think about positioning content, which you're exceptional at, which is actually showcasing your expertise. This could be talking head videos where you're actually teaching something, or it could be brand building moments. So, your podcast being such a success is a positioning piece of content. At the very final part of that, you have conversion content. And this is where you have an offer or a brand deal, and you're trying to get the attention from social media onto a landing page or

25:43to that brand deal and get them to buy. Now, I want to talk about cadences for each of these, right? And this is definitely going to differ based on who you are and what goal you have, but most creators need a bigger audience, and that's who I'm assuming is listening to this. Cuz a lot of people have great expertise, but they don't necessarily have really good attract content. So, if the cadence was split, I would think about three attract content, I would think about one nurturing content, and then I would think about potentially two positioning and one convert at at the most, right? And conversion content, the

26:13issue is that a lot of people want to make money, right? So, they think about converting every single post, but they forget that there's a real human being on the opposing side of the screen. You have to earn that goodwill. And what's beautiful is that I'll do conversion content once per week, but the amount of traffic that we get will make up for most creators six conversion posts, right? And it's just because I've done the funnel effectively, and that's how I

26:33want everyone to think about content. Content needs intention. It needs missions. It needs purpose. And that's how you can give it that mission or that purpose. So, let's go back a little bit to when you hit a million followers. How did you or how did you not at this point monetize your audience? It's a good point. So, I've done every single way of monetization under the umbrella of social So, I had in the beginning I've done affiliate deals. I had done, let's say, even platform payouts. I've obviously gotten advantages of, but in terms of my own offer, nothing. I had nothing to my name when I

27:05had had a million followers. It was only after about, I would say probably 1 and 1/2 million, 2 million followers where I really start to open my eyes to what is possible. And that's when I start to fall in love with this idea of equity and ownership. And I'll tell you exactly what I mean. I know this is where we're going to have a lot of parallel. That's

27:20why I think you're phenomenal. But, when I first started, I was doing an affiliate deal, right? And I'm just going to say the name. It was Alphalete. And I really loved Alphalete and Christian Guzman and what he was able to do in the fitness space. And I looked up to him my entire life. And this was such a beautiful moment for me. And I thought, all right, I'm going to do an affiliate deal with Alphalete. And I went ahead and let's say that I made $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 for them. I was getting 10% of that, right? What does that actually mean in the long term

27:48of things? I might have been earning a few hundred dollars, but that's not going to change my life. It won't, right? And then I saw it and I'm like, but they're getting $3,000 or $4,000. Why can't I just develop my own thing and just reap the benefit of that reward? I'm hardworking just like you are. So, when I thought, all right, let me own something, it was only after that I started to release my own products and it is ridiculous to say this aloud, but I was doing the math on this now preparing. It's been about less than 3

28:14years in totality of me doing business. And we're now upwards of 12, 13 million dollars. And it's the idea of owning, right? Now, as I'm doing more investments, I can see, all right, now I'm playing this long game of of I I hope that in 10 years I've all these different creator brands underneath me. But yeah, it took me a little bit of

28:31time to understand that world. You are such a confident person when you talk about money in a way that to your point, I'm like rooting for you. And I think it's because I understand your story a little bit more. So, for people that are listening, can you share a little bit more about how you grew up with money, what your relationship was like to money, and

28:52we can go from there. Yeah, so for me, I grew up in quite a tumultuous background. So, I can give the full origin here. We grew up as Korean immigrants. I traveled to the US when I was just 3 years old, and I only knew America, but all I saw in my internal home was hardship. So, my dad didn't speak the language, my mom didn't speak the language. Eventually, when I was about 13 years old, my parents got divorced. And my mom, who was my best friend up to that point in time, left to a completely different country permanently, and I lost contact with her for over 10 years. And what was the

29:24outcome of that was a lot more struggle. So, we got to the point in which we were moving homes and had to move every 6, 7, 8 months cuz we couldn't afford to live where we were. And we finally found ourselves in a tiny apartment where me and my brother were sharing a small room together, and my dad was sleeping on the living room floor. That was my reality at 14, 15, 16 years old. And the idea of money was impossible. It wasn't even something that we could fathom. And I grew up watching my dad He he works construction, and he would go to Home Depot, and I would be the one going with

29:55him at 13, 14 years old cuz he couldn't speak the language. And what I saw was that people were taking advantage of him. What I saw was that people looked down upon him cuz he couldn't speak the language. And that was heartbreaking, but at 14, you can't do anything about it. That's why I went on this great mission to realize that why can't it be me? Why can't I? Why can't I be the one to change my family's legacy? Why can't I be the one to end the generational trauma? Why can't I? And so, I had this great belief that you know, if I At first, I thought it

30:23was the engineering route. I thought I was going to be the best engineer in the world. And I was like, I'm going to be the biggest, most successful engineer that anyone could ever possibly fathom. Obviously, life took me a little bit differently, but that's how I treat everything. And so, when I started to develop my business, it was a no-brainer that I wanted to showcase the reality of it cuz I came from nothing. And it is harder for somebody to come online and

30:43say, "Hey, you should do X, Y, and Z." and get somebody to believe it if they don't look like them or sound like that. I hope the people listening and seeing this is like, "Oh my gosh, he's so relatable cuz he's going through exactly what I'm going through right now." That's why I feel confident about talking about money. Money is just energy. Money's an output. It's a byproduct of impact. And I think that impact is the forefront of everything that I do. And that's why I'm so confident that one day I'm going to do a hundred million dollars. And I know that right now and I can say that verbally

31:08because I know that I'm going to keep working as hard as I possibly can to leave further impact on so many people out there. But that is the whole wiring of my brain. So like if you look at the comments of those videos, you're exactly right. These are people that are rooting for me, that want it to happen. And I

31:21want other people to win just as much. And that's why I'm showcasing the behind the scenes of it even though I didn't come from money at all. I've had a lot of people on the show who come from maybe not the same but a similar background. And they often use this word, I had a scarcity mindset towards money. I was so afraid of spending money. Like I'm sure, you know, buying the first camera equipment or like the first big investment almost like a punch in the gut, right? Because when you're not used to being around money, it it is something that made them feel more scarce towards it. So

31:50is that how your brain worked initially? And then how did you actually move to a place of like looking at it as a currency and a tool and a way to create opportunities for yourself? It's such fascinating question. I'm going to be extremely real and raw with you. I had nobody around me that was rich or well-off. I couldn't even think of the word scarcity mindset cuz I didn't have anyone in my life to explain

32:09that to me. I didn't know what it was. Interestingly enough, I think that was the greatest benefit because I started to leverage it like a superpower. And I still do it to this day. Even to this day, right? My accountant tells me that I have to spend more money. We get the tax bill and we're like, "Holy cow, here we go again. There's a lot of money that we spent." And there's a part of me that doesn't really care. As in like I feel as though I want to do things in the most raw and and stripped-down version as I possibly can. So even if you look

32:35at my setup today, it's not as though today I have a ton of fancy equipment or anything of that nature. I was creating content with that shattered iPhone 12 about 4 or 5 years in, and then at a certain point people were DMing me like, "Don't you think it's time for a new phone?" And all I'm like, "I didn't even think of that." And so, even to this day, I don't know if it's scarcity mindset, it could totally be that, but I I'm engineered in the way of I don't think money defines who you are, and I don't think money makes you overall better. I think you should become better

33:01from a human level, and the tools and gadgets and things of that nature might just amplify it. I've seen people make very similar common mistakes. Let's take a brand founder. They have the vision, they have the idea, they've put in the reps of understanding what the consumer wants, they spend $100,000 on a brand design when they have no customers, they don't have any POs placed yet, and they're sitting on inventory, they spend 100 grand or 30 grand on a brand design, and like they don't know where to go from there. Have you ever made a similar type of very large investment, whether it's in your personal life or professional

33:33life, that you have regretted? This is where my accountant would probably be like, "I wish you did something like that." In all honesty, I don't really spend that much money. And the only money that I spend that's large sums are either investments currently that I feel very confident in, or it's for my family. So, I recently gave my dad $500,000, and that was a very cool moment for me. Now, I look at that and I think the money's gone, but it makes me feel significant, it makes me feel like I've done something right. And so, I I've never had a big investment like for example, I drive a 10-year-old Jeep

34:07Patriot, right? And it has dents on it, it has a lot of things inside of it that doesn't work, but I've never been a big spender. So, one day though, I'm sure I will make the mistake, and I'm excited to let you know when that happens. [laughter and gasps] It's funny though, like listening to different people and their relationship with money. I think specifically because especially a lot of entrepreneurs, they're looking to make very smart decisions with their their they actually don't like to spend a bunch of money to prove things to other people. And I'm so interested for someone that's online and obviously, you do have an audience of people that

34:41expect things from you or you can signal certain things. How do you think about the way that you show up as it relates to talking about money and signaling and all of the things that everyone feels like they're victim to online? I believe it has always boiled down to if I was watching somebody growing up, who would I want to watch? And there's been a lot of moments in my life where I would watch a creator and I would love them, but ultimately they start to change, right? And it's noticeable from the audience's perspective, especially if you've watched them for a very long period of time. And I never wanted to be that

35:13person. So, for me it's always this goal of saying, all right, what do I actually need? And yes, money can buy me convenience. And it's also really cool because now money allows you to be more generous. And growing up seeing my dad work blue collar, even jobs, let's say, like room service or let's say somebody that's helping my bags go up to a hotel room, which I never thought was even possible. Like you could be so generous at those moments, it makes you feel good. So, there's a lot of spending money in that way, but that's not in front of the camera. And I think that

35:41when I am in front of the camera, I just want to be the version of me that I would be proud of looking at when I was younger. And don't get me wrong, I think money can buy you a lot of really great opportunities. So, here here's another example of this. It's not an investment that I regret, but it was a lot of money. So, we just hosted an event in New York City and it was I'm not going to lie, it was my fault because I really want to make an in-person event and I wanted to make an impact on on a local community. So, I

36:05said, let's do it. I don't care how much it cost, I know we could do it more optimized, but just let's do it. And so, we did it and the turnaround was about 1 and 1/2 months and we then went to New York City and we had this amazing experience and I was there from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. just like meeting every single person. It's the coolest thing in my entire life. We lost $50,000 from that event. And it allows you to really focus on what's important. Like money gives you that luxury. So, we're going to go and host another event in London. I'm like, let's do it even

36:30bigger. Let's do it even better. Yes, can we do it a profitable way and we probably should, but it's like I I just love that type of experience. I think money has given me that freedom to do it. And I don't necessarily want to lose that and I think it requires me to stay

36:43rooted in my own beliefs. A lot of people listening to this will also feel like they're starting from zero. Like, they don't have the income to be able to like afford camera equipment. They're like you, maybe they're not 14 years old, but they're like, "Okay, if he can do it, I can do it. I want financial freedom. I want to attract opportunities. I want to be

37:01chasing them." What is the number one piece of advice that someone listening to this, after they listen to this episode, can immediately go and do? Delay gratification. So, the first thing is that when someone thinks about money, they immediately think instantaneous and that's the issue where I think a lot of people burn out. But, if you can delay gratification, expand horizon for success, and become valuable to the marketplace, meaning that you actually develop a skill that people would pay for. That skill needs time for nurturing though, right? You should go and work people's

37:31projects for free, if you can, right? Get the exposure, get the experience. And when I was hustling, that's how my entire life was. I was always trying to get in the right rooms. I was always trying to be connected to people. But, you have to have that grit and then once you can delay gratification, ultimately the money will follow. And so, I hoped anyone listening and watching this is like, "Yes, money is great." But, it took me a long time. So, I talk about my business experience of last less than 3 years not doing well over 10 million, but you nobody sees the 4 years of me creating content before that,

38:00right? When I was by myself in my college dorm room and people were making fun of me. But, it's just simply because I could delay gratification. I think that's the first priority for most people to tackle on. So, you're creating content in your bedroom. Yes. You get a million, a million and a half

38:15followers. You then start to monetize. What are the best ways to monetize your audience? What are the things that maybe you would recommend you don't actually go into cuz you learned the lesson the hard way? How should people start to think about having multiple different income streams as they're thinking about monetizing their audience as a creator? What I would recommend people not to do, and it's not inherently that it's a bad thing, but if you want to maximize your effort, affiliate deals where you're getting a small percentage of it, and I know this is what's actually happening and it's my first time saying this publicly, but I feel comfortable and

38:46confident with you, so I'm just going to do it. But this is what actually happens from the creator's perspective when you're doing affiliates. In order for you to make real income, let's say that you want to make $5,000, $10,000 with affiliate income, what do you actually have to do? You have to showcase your product so many times, I mean, the brand's product to your audience. You almost become their mascot. You almost become this this person that's constantly trying to be somebody. You're like, "You buy this,

39:10buy this, buy this, buy this." So, you are letting a brand borrow your audience. And although there's moments that it can work effectively, why not take ownership of it? And now digital products have made it so much easier. So, when I released my first product ever, it was called the guide to academic success, and it was literally a 63-page PDF that I took a lot of time and effort putting together, but at the end of the day, it was a PDF. A PDF made me $100,000 the first month as being an entrepreneur, $100,000 the second, third, fourth months. Then I released a physical book that landed number one on

39:40Amazon's new releases, skyrocketed business to a million dollars while still in my labs, right, as a college student. But that's the power of ownership, and I'm the type of person that I want to push it to as far as I possibly can. And if there are other people listening to this, and I know your audience is especially ambitious, it's like, why not own the thing? Now, I don't think that you have to immediately start doing a ton of products, but find that one thing that you want to develop and practice marketing it. People think that all attraction content is good for your brand, but it's not. It's like you

40:06have to actually learn how to market your products. You have to learn how to take that trust and goodwill and give somebody something valuable with your product. You have to learn how to connect those two pieces, right? You have to bridge that with your content. So, learn how to do it with one digital

40:18product and it's easiest way to start. You've obviously done an exceptional job at like not being lumped in with like the digital course creator. So, I'm wondering like how did you think about positioning that so that we can steal your secrets? I would look at Harvard, for example. Harvard makes a lot of its money through online courses, but nobody looks at Harvard and thinks they're a course

40:41seller. They think about the reputation. They think about the brand. They're like, "Of course, if I can learn for a fraction of the price with Harvard's education online, of course I'm going to do it." That is what I believe my personal brand has effectively done. The people that are doing it wrong is that they're jumping from product to product. They're selling something that they don't know. They're ultimately trying to do these get-rich-quick schemes and it's given the world of courses a bad rap and I think it's starting to change. I think more people are starting to open their eyes to what online information can in fact do for them, especially as you see

41:11some of the biggest personas online. They're all doing it behind the scenes, right? Cuz people want it. Why wouldn't you want to learn from somebody that has actually done it exactly the way that you want to do it? Of course you're going to. And if you can speak directly to that person, let's say with a coaching perspective, of course you're going to do it. So, I think about Harvard. I think about the Ivy Leagues that were somehow able to turn courses into this amazing benefit for the audience and that's how I envision my content. So, when people look at Creator College, Creator College has its own

41:37library of programs, master classes, courses. Even if you think about the actual business, MasterClass, right? They go ahead and they have some of the largest names on the planet doing course content for that. You don't see anyone looking at them and thinking, "Oh, they're a course seller." You think of, "Oh my gosh, it's so much value, so much great reputation." So, ultimately that's how I want people to perceive it and that's where it goes down to this idea of making good content. If you can make good content, control that personal reputation, and actually be yourself online, people will not make those

42:06comments about your your course seller. When you think about your revenue overall, how much of it is still from brand partnerships, the gatekeepers that you're attracting the audience to that's giving you a brief? Like, what is the breakdown of that revenue? A very small fraction. A very, very, very tiny percentage. And in fact, I've never also said this publicly, but even when I get brand deal money, which can be a lot, right? It can be 50,000, 60,000, 70,000. It could be those

42:34amounts of money. I actually take that income and I put it straight into my other businesses, which is the actual thing that I want to build equity for in the long term. So, brand deal money, it's like I'll only do it if I feel very aligned to it and I will actually enjoy that experience, but I don't even think of that as like real income for me anymore. So, I would say 98% of my income and the money that Creator College builds and that's underneath my personal brand is through the actual businesses and a very small percentage has anything to do with a brand deal. And that money will actually

43:02get streamlined into the other businesses. And is that because you don't think that brands do a great job with creator marketing? Some do. And I've been in rooms where they don't do a very good job. The brands that actually give freedom to the creative to make something aligned to them is phenomenal. The ones that don't are the ones where I'm like, you guys are like 10 years behind. How could you imagine that a creator is going to bring attention for your brand and you're scripting their video when you've never scripted any of their videos before? And so ultimately, the brands that get it, I believe ManyChat is a

43:32phenomenal example. I'm working with them right now and they've never, ever told me that I have to say X, Y, and Z thing and that's why our brand deals start to work really well. And so ultimately, I think that brands can be good at it, but it's more of a personal experience. I don't necessarily think it's because of the brand side. I think it's just because of my own side of like, all right, if I could to build my own things. And I'm also the type person that gets very distracted and I don't want any external distractions if I can help it. I'll focus only on the thing in

43:58front of me and then I'll do a very good job with it. I've realized if I could channel my energy into my own businesses and have ownership around those, then I would start to build long-term wealth for myself. And that's the way that I've always thought about it. It's fascinating talking to you because I feel like you figured this out very early. Generational wealth, equity

44:15ownership. It was such a struggle for me to get creators to invest even in angel investment opportunities because they were so used to getting a huge check from a brand partner. It's like they can clock in, they can clock out, they do the brief. They don't even really care about it because they're like there's another brand

44:32that's going to come in down next month. Where did you learn that that was going to be your path to generational wealth? So, I actually just broke down the numbers when I was sitting there and I was looking at the brand deal income. I thought to myself, do I need a lot more than this? Do I physically spend more money than this? The answer was no, right? I already told you that I wasn't a big spender as it was and especially as a college student. Literally, my only This is uh my real credit card statements. It would be Chipotle and it would be gas. So, it'd be like Chipotle,

45:00Chipotle, Chipotle, Chipotle, gas, Chipotle, Chipotle. That's all I'm spending money on and I and my apartment fee. But, in that regard, I thought to myself, what actually do I care about? I care about my dad. I care about my family and I want to make sure one day that they can look at me and think, "Wow, they have a level of freedom that they never once had before." I was not going to get that with the 20,000 or 30,000 or 50,000. I want to go much bigger than that. And that's when I start even to this day I'll I'll get income from the businesses and I think

45:26to myself I'm like, "Am I actually going to spend this much money?" A lot of it goes to my personal investments and the rest goes into angel investing. So, I'll hear a lot of creator And I think the era is changing, which is beautiful to see. I think a lot of creators are starting to recognize this and they'll be in my DMs. So, a lot of these big creators are in my DMs like, "Would you actually invest into this thing?" We'll go into calls and I'm like, "This is cool. Like, I can help you do this thing." And so, that gets me excited cuz I'm like, "I don't care about taking

45:49money out of this business. I don't need it." And instead, what I'm going to do is effectively play the 10-year game and hopefully by then all of this will start to make sense and I'll be like, "Cool. Whether I exit, whether I I exit, I'll have that type of opportunity and option." So, that's where it starts to think. It was just It was just like, do I actually need that money? And I think a lot of creators don't do that. I think creators get the money, they just spend the money. And effectively, what happens you're on this hamster wheel. And I think I've done a good job getting out of that hamster

46:14wheel. Well, I think that what you've done when you've lived your life based on what you share with me today and the research I done is like, you have lived experiences, you study those lived experiences, you find trends, you create systems, then you live by those systems until it doesn't work and you kind of reformulate. So, we've talked about the creator vision framework. What are some of the other frameworks that you fundamentally live your life by, whether it's to create content, whether it's to make money, anything that you do, what are some of the other frameworks that

46:42you've developed? A lot of it boils down to consistency. And I genuinely believe that if you don't give me any system, I'll be the laziest human being ever. And I truly believe that. And so, I run my life through systems because it's the only way I know that I will be fulfilled in my experiences. Everything I do though is quite consistent. I don't do a lot of things, so you can ask anyone on my team, I live quite a boring life. And I get a fun chance to meet people like you, and I'm like, yeah, this is the highlight of my year. But ultimately, my regular life is not like that. I

47:09actually live quite a boring one. And ultimately, it is this perception of how can I do things that I feel is extremely aligned to me, and how do I ensure that I never lose sight of that? And so, for me, I won't miss a day of working out. Actually, my girlfriend challenged me this past Christmas, and she's like, you should go work out more consistently cuz there's a season of time with work that I was like really not in a good state physically. She's like, you were so much happier back then. You should you should go and do more of that. So, I haven't missed a day

47:35of working out since Christmas. And no matter where I am, no matter how much I try. That. And I haven't missed a day of posting content in the last 6 and 1/2 years. Like, every single day I've gotten a video out. But, what I do is that I I'm very good at saying no. I'm very good at saying no cuz I realized it's a deep yes to things that I really want. So, it all boils down to having priorities, and I only have like five or six priorities in my life, and I'm going to make sure that I'm really good at that with a consistency standpoint. And

47:58then accountability is like a big part of that, right? As in like I journal a ton, I ensure that every single day that feels as though I'm making progress in some capacity. But that's it. Like I don't do anything else in my life and I think that allows me to channel my energy in ways that I believe is

48:10productive for me. Hot take incoming. Making more money as a creator doesn't actually require you to have more followers. I see so many creators getting this wrong. And this is part of the reason why I love what our show partner Stan is doing with their V2 of their funnels and order bumps. Because if someone is already buying from you, that's a completely different moment than someone casually watching your content. It means that they trust you, they're paying attention, they're already in checkout mode. So instead of sending everyone to one link and hoping for the best, Stan helps you create buying journey. And with order bumps, someone can add something extra at

48:47checkout with one click. If you are building a creator business, this is the kind of thing you should be obsessed with like every brand founder is. I'll let you in on one secret. The top earners on Stan all do this. Sign up today to set up your funnels and order bumps and get started with a 30-day creator pro trial at

49:04link.stan.store/maggie. Everyone has that one brand they always reach for because it's a trusted classic, right? For me, that's Lululemon and they've just become a sponsor of Hot Smart Rich. Sometimes I wonder if I love it so much because we're both Canadian, but really I know it's because their styles are consistently so flattering and comfortable. This top in particular, their Flow Y Tank, is one of those pieces that's actually perfect for LA because it's lightweight and buttery soft, but also minimal and sleek. Its wide racerback shape also gives me a lot of movement when I'm doing low-impact workouts. And because it has added Lycra fibers, it stretches easily, but also

49:47holds its shape over time. And that can be said about any of my Lululemon clothing. It always lasts for years. So, don't sit on it if there's something you've got your eyes on. Lululemon offers free returns, too. So, there is never a risk if you change your mind. Head to lululemon.com to get your hands on their Flow Y Tank in so many

50:04different colors. Can we talk a little bit about how you leverage AI with your systems? How do you feel about AI as a creator? It's a great question. [laughter] I believe that people are using it in the wrong way, and I believe there's a right way to use it. So, the wrong way would be "Hey ChatGPT, hey Claude, can you give me a content idea and write me a script?" And then you say it verbatim

50:25and you put it onto the screen. Could it be helpful for someone to go from zero to one potentially in that regard? But, here's the actual expert way of using AI in your content workflows, and I hope that all the people listening actually start doing this. AI is really good at seeing holes in your own workflow, in your own way of thinking, in your own even assumptions of your audience. So, I'll show you exactly how I've used it about 8 months ago, and that's what transformed one of

50:50Creator College since. When I first started creating content with the idea of promoting Creator College, I kept using the word creator a ton. I kept saying, "If you want to become a creator, do this." And I started to see that my content performance was going down. And And because I'm such a numbers person, I was like, "All right, what What is going

51:05on?" And so, I used Whisper. I'm not sure if you use Whisper yourself, but yeah, it's phenomenal in the sense where you can just do these humongous voice messages. So, I did one of those ginormous voice messages, and I stated basically all of the assumptions that I had about my world, about this creator landscape. And I asked it in the prompt was after a ginormous 28-minute voice message, it would be, "Can you find common, let's say, holes or common, I'll call them blind spots in my line of thinking that you can fix and then update my way of thinking to ultimately help me do it

51:34better?" And what it actually told me was that people don't wake up thinking that they want to be a creator. Actually, they never think about it at all. What people think about is fear of visibility, fear of being seen. They think about the fact that they want to go and do something that they enjoy, that they feel aligned to. No one ever wakes up and thinks, "I want to be a creator." If it is a very small fraction of people. So, I started changing my content strategy all together, and I started creating more about communication, about psychology. I started creating content about business and mindset. And those became angles in

52:05which I would help people build personal brands. And what ended up happening is my content started performing better, and Creator College started making more money. So, what I used AI what to do was to simply challenge my way of thinking, and help me understand my audience better. And I think that's what people should utilize it for. So, it's like, "What is my strategy? What do I think is a good strategy? What should I say in my content?" Can you find holes into it and change your way of thinking? And then ultimately, the cherries on top would be, "Can you help me optimize this

52:28caption? Help me optimize this script." But that is such a smaller fragmentation of what I actually use AI for. I've also had a lot of people on the show that have a theory that the creator landscape will look very different with AI by the end of the year. And I don't know if you've seen any of these like AI podcast that are

52:46from AI. Have you seen this? AI avatar landscape? I've had a lot of people on the show who have a theory that content creation, creators is going to look very very different by 2026. By the end of 2026. What is your perspective on that as someone who teaches people to become exceptional creators? I believe that AI will transform the way that content creators approach their work and how the world perceives them because as AI gets better, we're going to lose the ability to discern whether something

53:18is real or it's fake, especially online. You just mentioned that podcast girl. I've seen quite a few of these AI avatars online, too, where some people in the comments just can't even notice that it's AI. It's like that's only going to get worse. Now, this always boils down to my definition of personal branding cuz I truly believe that a personal brand is simply your public reputation, and content is one medium to build that. But But why in real life experiences are such a big part of this. And that's why I wanted to do the New York one. That's why we're going to be doing the London

53:46one, the Dubai one, the Miami one this year because I truly believe the next iteration of this, and I hope you join me one of these days. You can You can join me in an event, and you and I can do a live podcast in front of a lot of people, and I think we'd crush it. But in that regard, it's those intimate experiences I think people will hold on to tighter. And I truly believe though, there is a part to this I haven't seen anyone online talk about, and I want to give the consumer more flowers in this case. And here's what I

54:13mean. I actually do believe that the public perception of AI is not good. As in, most people do push back to the idea of having AI avatars and creators. And I think it's fascinating cuz a lot of these business owners will be like, "Oh, I'm going to use AI to leverage and I'm I'm going to have all this output because I can have all these AI avatars underneath me." But you're forgetting the fact that AI's meant for the consumer. It's As in, people are watching this content because of the interest that they have to the And I think most people from the consumer's perspective, at least at this point, are

54:44pushing back on it. So, I don't think it's going to be by the end of 2026 where all these AI avatars are taking over social media. I think it'll take a lot more time because I think the public, the consumers, are smarter than that. They want better than that. Now, to protect yourself from that, there's obvious ways to, let's say, do more in-person experiences and events and

55:02build those communities. But I think we're very far away still from this world of where AI avatars and creators are going to take over social media. You have 9 million followers across platform? Something like that. 8 to 9, I think. You've obviously learned a lot from them as much as they've learned from you. What are some of the most shocking things you've learned about consumer behavior and trends from your audience as you've been building with them for

55:27the last couple years? You know what's hilarious? So, when I first started doing this business, I thought that I wanted to do a fashion company. So, I thought that was the cool thing to do. So, ultimately, I thought that I was going to develop a clothing company. And then I posted on social media and I said on my stories I said, "Hey, so what do you guys want?" As in tell me tell me specifically what is it that you guys want? And I talked about this idea of a clothing brand and it was crickets. Right? Even at hundreds of thousands of followers, people were like, "Why would I want to buy clothes

55:56from him?" And this is where I think people get it wrong where they think of merch and they're like, "Oh, I'm just going to do a merch line and make a quick buck." But, I was thinking deeper than that as in like, "What does my audience physically want?" And then I went down the line I was like, "All right. So, maybe I'll create this this program around content creation. And back then, nobody wanted that from my audience. I was like, "All right, so what do they want?" So, I just did an open Q&A to my audience, a survey, and I did it twice every single week for about

56:213 months straight. And they just told me. They told me that they wanted more time to be doing their hobbies, their passions, that they were stuck focusing on school and studying, and that they weren't performing well in their exams, they felt like their work wasn't worth it. And I saw that and I was like, "How stupid would I be to not develop a product geared these individuals?" So, I think there's a big lesson here where it's you have to validate the idea and

56:41social media gives you that opportunity. But, ask ask your audience. Ask them exactly what it is that they want and do as many lives that you can do. Do as many of these posts where you just physically try to garner that interest. Now, there's going to be a lot of people online that say then, "What if I don't have an audience yet? Like who do I ask?" At this point then you have to think about who are creators that are already developing the thing and selling the thing that you ultimately aspire to

57:05sell. You should study their content. You should start to see how are they approaching their content? And what are the people saying in the comments? Is there a missing gap that you could potentially take advantage of? So, consumer behavior is this idea that people have needs and desires. And it's not a selfish pursuit, entrepreneurship is much more of an intimate service. And if you can start to see it that way, you can treat content that way. And you start to get this formula for like exactly what people want. You develop a product and ultimately content creation allows you to scale that at a great

57:32scale. When you think about your inspirations, mentors, people that you look up to, who would those people be? When I think mentors and I think people that I look up to, I think more from a personal level and not necessarily business acumen or let's say success acumen. I just think about the human underneath it. So, my dad is the forefront of all of my role models and it's not because he was always good with money or that he knew how to make It was never that. It was more along the lines of I just like the way that my dad approached life. I just like the way

58:05that he was so nice and he was kind and he was generous and generous to a fault cuz he didn't have money to be generous, but he still did it. And so, when I think about the biggest role model in my life, it's always him or my brother is a big component of it as well. I think my brother had a lot of hardships in his own respective way and I look at him and I'm like, I want to be you. Like I still want to have your personality and your generosity. And then when I look at other people, I start to look at athletes a ton. So,

58:31I look at athletes in the sense of their hard work and their discipline, right? And so, for me when I look at an athlete, I think about like how much do they have to work to get to where they are, right? And I think about that. I'm like, how do people go their interview post-conferences and what are they saying? Like how do they embody work

58:44ethic? It's just a part of who they are. So, I think there's elements of that. I think there's also an element to my girlfriend that I always look at as like a huge role model for me and she has taught me so much about empathy. She's taught me so much about how to be kind and generous to

58:59people. And she has been like such the epitome of how do I keep June humble as much as I possibly can. Like everything that she does, I feel as though it's so impressive. Like I look at her and I'm like, holy cow. Like you should be the one in front of the camera. Like you do so much for me in ways that I could never imagine. So, I think it's it's it's elements to my girlfriend, it's elements to my dad and a few athletes that I look at, but that's kind of when I think about role models, it's what I

59:23think of. With that, Junie L, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you would be sad if you left and we didn't get to? Yes, so everything that I think about [laughter] I think that that just this one thing of I think content and I think success in life boils down to two things and

59:42they're psychology and they're skill. And I think skill is often glorified as in I need more information, but people forget the psychology associated with it and the resilience and grit that it requires in order for you to do big things in your life. And I want anyone listening to this thinking like yes, I can learn the skill, but don't forget the mental, emotional, and spiritual

1:00:00work that is required to be successful. Something that I've had to learn a lot is the emotional maturation of I have this income now, but like how do I treat people? Like what how does that influence me? How can I ensure that my emotional regulation is just as strong? And I think those things behind the scenes, the psychology is actually what

1:00:17has translated into all of the success. So, if there's anyone watching and listening to this, I just want them to simply realize that don't forget the hard work behind the scenes even if the outside starts to change. It's amazing. Okay, we're not done cuz we're doing some rapid fire. That's it. Uh you cannot say Chipotle for any of

1:00:31these answers, okay? too. Juniel, Yes. what is the last thing possible that you put on your credit card? The last thing that I just put on my credit card was room service and it's because I want to do a lot of preparation for this one, so I thought, all right, I got to expedite my convenience here and I just ordered room

1:00:52service. What is the last most expensive thing you've put on a credit card? So, we're hosting our London event and we had to put our deposit for that and that was very, very, very, very expensive. And I wanted to also do these little goody bags for everyone that comes through and that meant that we were paying all of this in this with this one third party people and so we just gave them a big lump of of change and that was the last thing that I put

1:01:18on our card. Of course, it was generous. Yeah, I was hoping, too. What is your credit card and why? My credit card is American Express and I use my credit card for all my business expenses, but I use it because it gives me a lot of these points and benefits for it. So, my business card that I think about spending for everything on my daily experiences and because my life tends to be business, a lot of them tend to be business expenses and I get a lot of travel points for it as as a result and of it and I get these benefits. So,

1:01:42that's why I use it. If you could only consume one person's content for the rest of your life that's not yourself, who would it be? It would be I believe Kat. Kat UVT does it really well and I'm interviewing her soon, but I am a fan of her in the standpoint of she gets the content marketing while also getting the business component and that is very rare to find within a creator. So, when I think about the new age of creators, she's on my list of I think she's doing it the right way. So, I'd be more than happy to consume her

1:02:12content. I love her. You can only pick one for the rest of your life both to create and to consume on. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Instagram. Not YouTube? I'd create on Instagram. I think that the amount of connection points to your audience So, wait, this is such a good conversation. So, I know this isn't

1:02:28rapid fire. going. Keep it Keep it going. So, for me I I think because I've been creating YouTube content for a while as as well and I really enjoy it, but the misnomer is that with long-form content, you can have a lot of deeper connection and short-form content can't reciprocate that and I disagree cuz let's say that you're posting YouTube content and it is a 15-minute video and you post it once a week and let's say that you get a 10%, 20%, 30% watch time on you have a few minutes of watch time. Imagine that you're posting short-form content every single day for a minute plus. Then what

1:02:59happens? Is that throughout a week in these contents, people are watching all the time. Let's say that they're watching you for 10, 15 minutes as well, but then they're showcasing onto your explore page all the time and consistently. Then you have Instagram stories, you have Instagram lines, then you have the ability to respond to people on DMs all the time. And so, I think people just making this blanket statement of YouTube is a better long-term platform, I disagree with. I think YouTube is phenomenal, but I think there's a lot of connection that you can

1:03:23build through Instagram as well. I love that. Okay, brand deal you'd never take, no matter the money. Oh my goodness, what? [laughter] A brand deal I'd never take. A brand deal that I'd never take. Okay, I've never said this, but you know those gambling sites? Yeah. So, I've gotten a lot of offers from those where they're like ginormous payouts, and I don't blink an eye, I

1:03:48don't even respond to those emails. That's one that I would never, ever, ever do. Brand deal you'd have to take, no matter the money. I think [snorts] Apple would be a one cuz I'm a huge proponent of using your phone for content, and I think that Apple does a really good job, obviously, for creatives. So, that's one where I could imagine a cool collaboration

1:04:12around. I'm obsessed. Okay, two more. So, I do these HSR love notes to retrain my toxic brain. It's an affirmation. If you could only say one HSR love note for the rest of your life, what would it be? It's meant to be hard. That perspective, I believe, changes everything. And I think that when we seek easy, we lose ourselves in that process. So, if you expect it to be hard and you expect the fact that hardship is not a sign that you're doing it wrong, but it's a sign that you're actually doing it right, it makes you better for it. You develop quicker, you also learn

1:04:41a lot more, and ultimately, I think it makes you fulfilled when you can overcome difficulties. Okay, and Junio, how do you own the room? I own the room with all the preparation that I've done before I've come into it. I am an absolute workhorse, and I love to prepare, and I love to be over-prepared. But, when I go into a room, I know exactly who I'm going into that room with. I know effectively how I can communicate with them. That makes me

1:05:08own the room. Junio, you are one of my favorites. Where can people find you and how can HSR help you? So, one, you're already helping me cuz tomorrow you're going to be with my first set of interviews. But, uh you can they can find me at june_yu cross Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. But, we're also releasing Creator Unplugged. So, Creator Unplugged, they can find us on YouTube. And if you guys want to watch more of Maggie, you can do so

1:05:32there. Thank you so much for coming on. We love you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. [music]