July 2024 Monthly Update

I have 260 subscribers. I have stopped working on One Percent Dad. I am now pre-selling a course. I am focusing on growing my channel. My 'impossible' goal for next month is 500 subs.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I have 260 subscribers which means that I gained 32 subs over the last month and

(00:09):
The month before that I gained 53 subscribers
So I did not gain nearly as much as I did last month
but I'll explain why because I
Mentioned something in last month's video or podcast episode
That I said I wasn't gonna reveal until next month and it was something crazy that I was working on

(00:35):
So I'll talk about that in a moment
But first I want to address the fact that last month I did say I was not that I didn't care about
my subscriber count
Which is true and not true because obviously I care about it because it's a vanity metric my status increases
When I have more subscribers?

(00:56):
and
That's kind of like just the you know how it is
But it also it just doesn't really matter the subscribers. It's just a vanity metric, which is why it doesn't I don't really care about it
But for convenience, that's the metric that I am tracking in this podcast
So that's what I'm going to continue to be tracking as well as money

(01:18):
Because in today's episode I'm also gonna be talking about money
so
Last month I mentioned that I was working on something crazy that I wasn't gonna reveal and I don't know how many people were
Just couldn't wait until this episode got released so you could hear that

(01:40):
but
what I was working on is
studying a storytelling book called the hero with a thousand faces and
That's just I explained that in last month's episode that storytelling is the thing I got to focus on
But one time I heard about Malcolm X's story so

(02:03):
He used to be illiterate and he couldn't read or write and then he was like a gang member
He was a very
dangerous person and I don't really know his story very much. I just know kind of like the outline but
he went to prison and
He basically taught himself how to read and write in prison and then he became like this world-renowned

(02:28):
person super famous
completely changed history and
He was an amazing dude. He's an awesome guy
but I
Heard that he wrote down
the entire
dictionary by hand
like he literally

(02:48):
took out a pen and paper and
copied down every single word in
the entire dictionary and
I'm pretty sure he also copied down the definitions as well like the entire dictionary that's like
thousands of pays
thousands of pages long and I think he did it multiple times also and

(03:10):
And I heard that like the first time since he didn't know how to read or write the first time he did it
It took literally the entire day to write the first page because he'd never written before so he didn't have like the muscle memory
so
that story I heard one time and
I

(03:30):
Did the same thing with the hero with a thousand faces. I wrote down
Every single word in that entire book by hand
In a book that I read before that called save the cat the guy said the author of that book said
That the hero with a thousand faces is the best storytelling book out there

(03:54):
And I also heard great things from the from Russell Brunson the author of expert secrets a book that I really liked
So that's why I chose the hero with a thousand faces to write down the entire thing by hand and
It took two weeks. I literally woke up every day
Shower real quick and then went straight to my room

(04:18):
from four o'clock in the morning until
Literally like five o'clock in the afternoon. I was writing. I took a few breaks for
Eating and a couple other things like snacks pretty much. I only took a break first for eating. That's it and
The first week I did work out, but then I hurt myself

(04:40):
So I didn't work out the second week just to rest and recover
so I spent two entire weeks literally writing down the entire thing and I
Got so much better at writing with my left hand because
After writing for literally literal hours with your right hand it starts to cramp and it starts to get like arthritis

(05:01):
I know I'm only 18 years old, but my hand was literally dying and
I only took a break halfway through to spend the entire day
Recording two videos. So I spent three days
Working for pretty much the entire day also

(05:22):
Recording two videos for the next two weeks. So that's what I did for two weeks straight
Literally just wrote the entire book and I gotta be honest. I don't think it was very valuable
I did not get much out of it to be honest the whole time I was questioning like is this even valuable for me right now
But I'm I'm glad I did it for two reasons one the book talked a lot about religion and it gave me such a great perspective on

(05:48):
that and then it also
Increased my work ethic so much like that. I was literally skipping workouts skipping
Eating I literally some days I woke up and wrote until like 11 o'clock
So I wrote for like seven hours straight and then I ate a carrot

(06:12):
And then I went back to writing and then later in the day I ate lunch or breakfast or whatever it is and
Then went back to writing
But I skipped workouts and diet or not diet meals
for that and
Some depending on where you like your goals in life that may actually sound like you're you don't have a great work

(06:34):
That work ethic but right now my goals are entrepreneurship if you were to ask me a year ago even like six months ago
It or if you were to look at my actions my actions. I never would have skipped a meal
I'm always I always would have been bulking. I always I never would have skipped a workout
But now my goal is literally just entrepreneurship. That's all that I'm focused on right now

(06:59):
And so I am like unwiring my old identity. I'm letting go of my old identity of basically
Requiring myself to work out every day requiring myself to bulk and eat enough food every day
and I'm letting go of that and that is such a great
Feeling because it's freedom. That's freedom and the thing is that it was not easy to get that mindset in the first place

(07:26):
It was not easy to get to the mindset where I had to work out every day
I had to eat enough food every day because I used to not be like that. I used to
literally just starved myself until
One o'clock in the afternoon because I was watching tiktok and playing video games all day
That's how I used to be like and then I trained and I over the course of many years. I

(07:49):
Began to develop the new identity and I let go of that original identity and that's what I realized
It's all about it's all about letting go of your old identity so you can evolve further and
In a couple months a couple years
I'm probably going to be letting go of this identity of working all day because obviously you can't sustain that for very long and

(08:09):
I'm young once I start getting older like in the in the 40s and 50s
Obviously, I'm probably not gonna be able to manage that or maybe I will I don't know
but that's kind of like the
Thing that I did last month and
That's why I liked it or that's why I'm glad I did it

(08:30):
But I would not do it again with that particular book
I would do something again like that with a different book for example save the cat
I would rewrite that one chapter. There's one chapter called. Let's beat it out that I mentioned last month
There's one chapter in that that I would rewrite literally every day for seven days straight

(08:51):
If like if I had to do that activity again
but
Moving on from that. I want to talk about
1% dad
because that's the thing that I've been working on for the past three or four months and
Here's here's the story around four months ago. That's when I started it and I

(09:14):
Believed that was my new purpose
And I gave it a real go. I sent traffic to that website for the past four months and
People filled out the Google form or not Google form
They filled out a survey on the website and I collected a couple emails
and

(09:35):
Here's the thing
Not a single person
Who gave me their email address was a dad
except for my dad, of course, but
That's the thing. I looked at the data and I realized that not a single dad was
Sign up for this thing and

(09:56):
The reason why one of the biggest reasons
Or one of the big reasons why I actually wanted to do 1% dad was because when I made a video a while ago
And I'll get to why I made that video in a moment
But when I made this video a while ago, there was a dad who commented a very long and elaborate

(10:18):
comment the most amazing comment I'd ever received and
That's that basically
Struck my passion and struck my inspiration. So I started to do that website and the reason why I made that video in the first place
I'm not really sure if it's a good idea for me to share this

(10:41):
But I just wanted to send a message I'm not gonna share details, but I
Wanted to send a message to someone in particular and that's the the real reason why I started all that stuff and to be honest
I didn't know at the time
Actually, that's not true
That's why I did all that so I wanted to send a message to someone in particular and

(11:10):
That's basically it
So that's all 1% dad
I looked at the date I looked at the data and I realized that no dads want this and it's also another thing like I'm an 18 year old
Kid no dad is gonna listen to me and that may be the resistance, but come on like
whatever and plus I

(11:33):
There's this exercise that I learned in transfer from and it's to figure out if your goal is yours or not
And it's funny because as I was rereading transfer for the third time
I was literally writing in the margins that this was my my path in life
but I was just blinded by that
Inspiration or the passion that I received from that comment that I talked about and plus

(11:58):
I wanted to send a message to some person in particular and I'm keeping that vague for a reason
but
that is
there's a exercise in Transurfing that
teaches you how to
Figure out if it's actually your goal or not and you you got to imagine yourself

(12:19):
After you actually achieve the goal and then you observe your feelings. Is there tension or
Is there
relief or like
excitement
Because if there's tension after you actually achieve your goal well, then that's not your goal and
I

(12:40):
redid that exercise a
Couple like when I was deciding to stop doing 1% dad and there was tension when I was
visualizing my future after achieving my goal of
making 1% dad
good or big or popular
There was tension. I didn't really think that that was my goal and so that's why I dropped it and

(13:05):
That is where I
I started like basically
Questioning and thinking about where I wanted to take my channel in the future
And so I left the 1% dad up for quite some time just because because I didn't I
Didn't know where to take it take my channel yet
and that's when I

(13:27):
Was on YouTube and I don't really watch YouTube that much anymore
but in the past every once in a while I get this very strong desire to
Check out this one guy's channel and watch one of his more recent videos
And this guy's name is Hamza and he's been very influential on my journey in life

(13:52):
and
This happened like a week ago where I had this super strong desire to just check this
channel out and
See what kind of videos are available?
And so I read like the most recent videos and a lot of them
I just didn't want to watch and then there was like two in particular where I just was like, okay

(14:13):
I'm gonna watch these and they were both basically saying the same thing so
It was
He was basically sharing the same advice that I heard back in November because back on in November or December
When I really started being serious about my YouTube channel
I had heard the same advice from that same guy Hamza of

(14:35):
How you're not an entrepreneur until you have a way for someone to give you money
So if there's no way for me to give you my credit card
like type in my information on a website and send you money then you're not an entrepreneur and so I didn't have a way for
someone to pay me back in November and
So I very quickly listened to his his advice and he said just get something up immediately ASAP and

(15:02):
Then you're an entrepreneur and so I set up a
booking service like a coaching service and then I
Set that up and that was me being an entrepreneur
But then very quickly I was like no delete this guy rid of it because I didn't want to be sitting
Kind of like on the edge on the edge of my seat waiting and checking every day for people

(15:26):
If they want to book a call plus I didn't really have any subs. So I felt like
You are not just subs. I didn't have any skill in YouTube
I still sucked and even now I still suck
But I sucked away more back then than I do now and that's why I realized that okay
I just got to focus on my actual skills and so I felt like

(15:46):
Doing the coaching call would have just been a distraction because I would have been sitting at the edge of my seat taking away my focus
Distracting me throughout the day
So that's why I got rid of it
many months later it is now
July it's July but when I was in this story
It was like the end of June so a week ago

(16:09):
It's July 3rd right now when I'm recording this video. So around June
28th June
27th or whatever around that time I
Watch that video again like it was a new video, but him basically sharing the same advice
You're not an entrepreneur until you have something out and now I realize okay

(16:30):
Well, I got some people watching me people commenting and I'm a little bit better at YouTube
And I'm expecting my channel to start growing a little bit further. So let's just let's just go with it
Let's let's create something and at that time I was already
Making something in fact I was typing out a free guide for

(16:52):
The new website that I was gonna create which was just basically 1% dad rebranded and it was targeting
High school aged guys. That's what I was gonna make and it was gonna be like unlock your life or something like that
The original name was like fix your life or recover your life or something like that something stupid and unlock your life may sound stupid

(17:15):
Also, I don't even know but I was already writing that guy and I saw that video where Hamza said you're not an entrepreneur
Until you have a way to get paid
So I took his advice again, and I created the whole website. It took like three days
He said it should only take an hour, but I wanted to do it at least well
so I spent three days making finishing the guide and then I

(17:40):
Recorded a video of me
Speaking the entire guide like actually it's kind of like an audiobook of me reading the entire guide plus extra commentary and then I also
Made an entire slideshow twice because the first video was terrible
so I made an entire slideshow recorded the video and

(18:00):
Create an entire website and it's at
And it's called unlock your life. It's
the domain is like unlock your life dot system.io or something like that and
Eventually I want the domain to be like unlock your life.com or unlock your life here.com because someone already has that original domain

(18:21):
But that's all whatever
Basically, that's where I'm headed right now
I am selling a course on my original offer was just to sell the course plus the extra bonuses of
The free guide and then the free training which was like the two-hour video of me
Reading out the guide that was gonna I was just gonna sell that course and it was a pre-sell

(18:42):
So I didn't actually make the course
So I was gonna sell it and then get someone who bought it to
Fill out the Google form and I was gonna make the course based off of that
But then I realized that a better option as I was falling asleep one night
This is why I keep a journal next to me when I'm sleeping as I was falling asleep

(19:03):
My mind was racing because I was really excited. I was getting all kinds of good ideas about my business
And so I remember that there's this guy called Dan Henry who
Who basically
Presold a course for $1 so he charged $1 to pre-sell the course and then he said okay

(19:23):
I'm gonna charge you $1 today to preach to so you can pre-order the course and then when it's ready
I'll charge you the rest of the like $97
That's that's kind of the inspiration behind this business idea that I had and I was basically just gonna charge $1
For the entire course or not for the course instead of charging $1 for the course

(19:48):
I was gonna charge $1 for a discount code for the course in the future
So I was gonna charge a dollar so someone could buy a discount code a 35% off for a course
That will be available in the future and then I
Also, they were also gonna get immediate access to the bonuses of the guidebook and the training

(20:13):
So that was my offer and I made that into a website. So that's where I'm headed right now
And
That is basically what I'm doing
I'm
Making YouTube videos and then I'm gonna have a call to action in every video saying go click the link down below and get yourself
This course or something like that. So that's where I'm headed now to talk about

(20:34):
Edutainment versus education because in there was another I mentioned earlier that I saw two
Videos that I wanted to watch from the guy Hamza who gave me the advice
The other video
He explained that you should not make
Edutainment videos, which is basically kind of like what I'm doing right now. It's trying to educate people but also having very

(21:00):
entertaining type content so lots of cuts lots of fancy edits a
Lot of b-roll footage like all basically just very addictive type of content
And he said don't do that because it attracts the wrong type of person instead just make straight
Enter straight educational videos of you literally just sitting in front of the camera and talking for like 10 20 30 minutes

(21:26):
And here's the thing behind that
And then I also want to say there was another person two more people one guy on this course that I this community that I'm a part of
he said the same thing and then
This guy Alex Hermosi he also said the same thing and he backed it with data

(21:46):
He actually did
entertainment style videos for a long time. He also did
education style videos for a long time and
Wait and
Edutainment so it's like the combination of education and entertainment
He did all three and he realized that that
education type

(22:08):
Help his business the most and they bring in the right types of people and he makes the most money off of that type
And
Here's why I'm going to not listen to any of them even though I do not know anything about business
I have not made a single dollar online. I don't like I should listen to them. I'm probably an idiot

(22:29):
I'm probably a fool, but here's the thing
Hamza said
I
Make educational videos
So that you don't build yourself a big audience which will cause yourself issues down the road
and
He said that if he was to start over he would only make educational videos

(22:51):
But
Credibility is a huge thing
I'm an 18 year old kid
No one wants no. I am not credible. I am
I am credible for certain topics. For example, I know how to fix my life in high school.
That's what I'm credible about. But your subscriber count and your view count actually adds a huge

(23:17):
level to your credibility. And that's exactly what Hamza did. He did the edutainment style
videos and he blew up. Now he has millions of subscribers. Now he is the man in self-improvement.
And one of the guys that I mentioned who said to make educational videos, he said,

(23:39):
you're not going to watch, if you want to learn how to improve your life, if you want to learn
about self-improvement, you're not going to watch a random 12 year old on the internet.
You're going to watch Hamza. And that should have discouraged me. That comment should have discouraged
me because I'm the 12 year old on the internet making self-improvement videos. But here's why I

(24:01):
didn't. Because I questioned why he even said that in the first place. Well, he said that because
Hamza is credible. He has 2 million subscribers. So if I got more subscribers, I would get credible.
And here's my proof. There's a guy who started YouTube, I think, 6 months before I did. His name,

(24:25):
his YouTube channel is called Ruff. And he is in the same niche. And he is basically, I think he's
one year older than me. So he would have been a senior in high school when I was a junior. He is,
I think he's a sophomore in college right now. I don't know. Or maybe he's finishing freshman year

(24:46):
of college. I should be going into freshman year. That's my track, but I'm not going to college.
But whatever. This guy is one year older than me. Not much more credible than I am. Yet he has
200k subs. And you know how much money he's making? Just off of his community. He's making 40 or 50

(25:09):
thousand dollars. 50 thousand dollars. Because, well, I'm not going to say because he has 200 subs,
but that definitely helps. He is very credible. And obviously those 200 subs are, he's driving
traffic to that. So, but the point is that the, if I've heard people say no one wants to buy a

(25:35):
course from a teenager, but that's just not true. Because this guy's making 50 grand. And he has a
lot more viewers. So that's the, that's why I'm doing the course. That's why I'm doing
edutainment. Because at least for now, edutainment, so I can build the audience so I can be credible.

(25:55):
Hamza is the top dog in self improvement. Whenever you want to buy something in for self
improvement, you go to Hamza. That's kind of like the mindset that the viewers have. Like, oh, what
does Hamza have to say about this? He is the top dude. He's the most credible. Because he has the
most subs. And there may, there's definitely other reasons like he's a great leader. He's, but the

(26:18):
thing is he's a great leader. He has a lot of subs because he is a great leader. So basically,
the, what I'm trying to say is if I build my channel and I build, and I figure out how to do
YouTube, then I'll be credible. I'll be way more credible than I am now. So that's the whole rant.

(26:38):
Now I want to talk about the competition that I'm running. So this was a random idea that I had
where I just thought it would be cool. There's a guy called Eric and he has this thing where you
can text a automated, you can text like him an idea for a YouTube video and he'll make YouTube

(27:02):
videos out of the best ideas. And that is so cool because it's cool for the viewer, first of all,
because then it you're included in the actual channel, you're literally a part of the channel.
Plus it's cool for him because he gets free ideas. And that's basically outsourcing labor for free.
Because it takes time to brainstorm ideas. And so here's what I'm doing. I randomly came up with

(27:29):
an idea to include my viewers more. So more than just coming up with an idea. Because here's what
I want. I want video ideas. I want great video ideas. I want to know what the viewer wants to
watch. Plus I want to know about the struggles. So that first of all, my advice will be better.

(27:51):
My content will be better. Plus eventually when I make my course, it will be better. So I can know
the struggles even more. The more you understand your customer or viewer, the better you do. Also,
and here's what I think my viewer would want. Here's what I think my audience would want to be

(28:13):
a part of the video. And so here's the competition that I ran. Originally, this was not my idea.
This idea evolved after I actually sent out the Google Form. And then I recreated the Google Form
and then sent it again. Or edited the Google Form. And here's the idea. It's a competition amongst
my entire audience to come up with the greatest video idea possible, be the most descriptive in

(28:41):
your struggles and challenges related to that video idea. Or that area of your life. And create a
scene, create the most creative scene to be included in a video. So what that means is basically, I am
getting information from the viewer. And in return, they will be able to create a clip, like, or they

(29:03):
will be able to design a clip for me to record and put it in a video and thank them and permanently
cement them, cement their name in the channel, which would be a big deal, or which will be a big
deal once this channel gets way bigger. Because imagine if you could put your name in a Mr.

(29:26):
Beast video. And like before he blew up, and then he blows up and now your name is in there. That
would be such a huge honor. So that's kind of what I'm thinking. That's my mindset right now. That's
my thought process. Include the viewer's name in my video in return for video ideas. And even more

(29:47):
importantly, I hear their struggles, I hear their challenges. That is the thing. I'm I think that this
is a genius idea. And I'm really excited. And what I mean by design a clip is they basically get to
explain a clip that I could record and include it in the video just like a less than 10 second long

(30:13):
clip. So an example of a clip that I gave would be like me hanging or me sitting on a tree saying,
thank you, blank your name for your help in coming up with this video idea. And then like and then
while I was saying that I swing off the tree, like that would be a cool clip that would catch their

(30:35):
attention and not be completely boring. But that's kind of what I'm thinking. The best clip wins. And
it's not just the best clip I was originally going to do the best scene is what I called it, the best
scene wins. But then I realized that then people would like be lazy on the video ideas and they
would also be lazy on the struggles. And those are the things that I want. So I included the video

(30:59):
idea and the struggles as a part of the competition. So the best video idea and the most detailed
struggles and the most creative best scene wins. I think that this is a genius idea. And I'm really
excited to see where it goes. And I actually I mentioned earlier that I actually created this

(31:23):
form and sent it out before I even knew what it was going to be. And I just wanted to I just asked
like, Oh, if if you give me a video idea, I'll mention your name and thank you for the video idea.
I didn't include the scene. And then a couple hours later, I thought of actually a couple days
later, I thought of including the scene and making it a competition. So the first I actually got

(31:48):
somebody to respond for the first video idea. And as a result, I am making that video idea. Now,
here's the thing. I was I actually came up with that video idea on my own. But it doesn't matter
because I'm still giving credit. I didn't even get come up with it on my own. My my YouTube mentor

(32:12):
and friend, he taught me the strategy of looking at your competition for video ideas. And which I
heard of before and I actually tried but I was doing it wrong. And I didn't really like the process.
But then I actually gave it my all this time. And I basically created a video about discipline from

(32:34):
basically copying not copying but like borrowing like an artist. That's what it's called borrowing
like an artist from like five different videos on discipline that all blew up. And so that video I
was already going to make. But then I realized that this person wanted a video on discipline. So
I'm going to thank this person in the in my video for that so that I can get more people to be aware

(33:02):
of what's going on this competition. So that's the whole thing. And a couple months ago, I read a
book called Ask. And in the first actually I only read half of it. The first half of it was just his
life story. And he explained how he sets impossible goals and then works his butt off to try and

(33:26):
achieve them. And then if he doesn't achieve it, whatever, because he made so much more progress
than he would have otherwise. And a couple months ago, I actually did that on this podcast. I set an
impossible goal for I think 200 subscribers. I was at like, maybe 130 or 120 subs at the time. And I
did not make it. I got like 180. But I was glad because that was my highest subbed month. Plus my

(33:49):
work ethic increased tremendously. So but then I didn't do it again. And I wasn't gonna ever again
because I don't share my goals. I don't like sharing goals. But I think it would be cool,
especially early on right now. I'm experimenting. I haven't found success yet. So it's really easy
to experiment. Now is the time to experiment. So I'm going to set a goal, an impossible seeming

(34:12):
goal, like the impossible, like this seems really impossible for me to happen in one month. I know
that I know this is going to happen eventually. But I never would have thought it could have happened
in one month. So that's why I'm going to set it for one month. My goal, my impossible seeming goal
for this month is 500 subscribers by the time I record the next monthly update, which will probably

(34:39):
be in August, third or something like that around there, maybe before, I don't know. But 500 subs is
my goal for next month. So we'll see if I hit that. Peace.