October 21, 2025 • 37 mins
Sebastian Uzcategui's journey from immigrant poverty to financial freedom wasn't just about building wealth; it was about discovering purpose. Growing up watching his parents work grueling 12-hour shifts with little to show for it, Sebastian realized early that traditional paths weren't designed to create true prosperity.
"The house was nicer, but the time was less. The quality of life was less," Sebastian explains, describing his family's disappointing discovery of the American dream. This revelation set him on a mission to find financial solutions that would break this cycle—not just for himself, but for the faith community that often struggles with the same challenges.
What makes Sebastian's approach unique is his biblical perspective on wealth. Drawing from Proverbs 10:22, he emphasizes that God promises wealth "without painful toil," suggesting that true prosperity isn't about endless hustle but about multiplying resources wisely. This faith-driven approach has helped him mentor over 1,200 people, many of whom come from communities traditionally excluded from financial conversations.
Perhaps most surprising is Sebastian's revelation about the stock market's origins. "When the stock market was initially created in the 1920s, it was designed for the average working man and woman to beat inflation," he shares. However, big investors deliberately complicated the terminology to scare away ordinary people, a gatekeeping practice Sebastian is determined to dismantle through accessible education.
Unlike typical financial educators who charge thousands upfront, Sebastian's Fox University allows people to learn, practice, and see results before paying anything. "I don't want people to trust me just to trust me. I want them to see authentic results," he explains. This service-first mentality has taken him from struggling entrepreneur to speaking at the United Nations about financial empowerment.
Ready to break free from financial limitation? Sebastian's message is clear: "Nothing changes if nothing changes, and there's nothing riskier than staying where you'
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:01):
You're listening to the Off Balance Podcast, where faith
, family and business collide,hosted by Brooke Stemming,
doctor of BusinessAdministration, business Coach
and Resilience Expert.
Each episode features real-lifeconversations to help
entrepreneurs like you buildresilience and lead with
(00:22):
confidence.
Dr. Brooks (00:37):
Welcome back to Off Balance.
I'm your host, dr Brooks.
On today's episode, we'retalking about building wealth
which can feel out of reach.
For a lot of people, the stockmarket can seem overwhelming,
full of risk and reserved forthe rich, but what if we didn't
have to be that way?
Today's guest is here to helpus see it a different path, one
that's more accessible andgrounded in purpose.
My guest today is SebastianUgatagi, a faith-driven
(00:59):
entrepreneur, full-time traderand founder of Fox University,
where he helps people grow infinancial freedom through
mentorship and practicaleducation.
He's been at this since he wasa teenager and his story is all
about purpose, bold moves andserving others along the way.
So please help me welcomeSebastian to Off Balance.
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (01:20):
Hi, it's good being here.
Thank you so much.
It really is an honor.
Dr. Brooks (01:24):
Sebastian, I am so excited to have you with us
today.
I gave our listeners the shortversion of your story, but I
love them to hear it from you,so can you introduce yourself
and share a little bit about whoyou are and the work that you
do?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (01:38):
Absolutely.
I'm more than happy to.
So.
I come, of course, from abackground deeply rooted in
faith, and a lot of that stemsall the way back to my family
who came to this country.
We're a family of immigrants,and I'm an only child, and we
came here looking for theAmerican dream, but all that we
found was the same poverty fromour home country, venezuela,
just at a different level.
The house was nicer, but thetime was less.
(02:01):
The quality of life was less,was nicer, but the time was less
.
The quality of life was less,and I realized, before we knew
it, my parents were stuck inthese never-ending 12-hour
shifts almost every single day,leaving little time for anything
else.
And as I stepped more and moreinto the world of the church, I
think so.
That's a story that applies toway too many people, and even
(02:22):
though we have so much in ourspirit here in the church world,
we have so little in thematerial world to actually
execute on these things, andthat is a tragedy that, from a
young age, I wanted to change.
So I educated myself a lot inthe world of finance, in the
world of entrepreneurship, whichsome other problems come into
play there that we'll speak onshortly.
But my purpose quickly became,after I found success with that,
(02:42):
to spread that especially tothe aspiring financially free
Christian.
Dr. Brooks (02:49):
So when you transitioned to the United
States, I can imagine youthought that this was going to
be the land of milk and honey alot of opportunities.
But when you got here and yourealized that it was the same as
your home country, how did thatmoment make you feel in real
time?
How did that moment make youfeel?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (03:02):
in real time.
I came here young, so I didn'tget to register that until I saw
how the system robbed me of myfamily.
In a way, my parents, who werealways very loving, kind,
creative people, became onlydefined by one thing, and that
was exhaustion.
Over time I only knew them whenthey would come home to sleep
to go back to work the next day,and a lot of people feel that
(03:24):
same story.
So I would say it was a verydeeply disturbing revelation.
But the more that I studied thesystem, the more that I
realized there is potential here.
We're just not doing the rightthings and because of a lack of
education we're stuck in thistrap.
So again, my purpose became toeducate people on what these
(03:45):
tools are and how accessiblethey really are.
Dr. Brooks (03:48):
So let's build on that.
How does that connect to thecompanies that you started?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (03:55):
I have two big companies.
One of them is focused onpublic speaking, but my primary
one, and the one that I am mostspeaking on today, is my
business in finance, which hasseen a lot of success,
especially ever since I doveinto the church world.
Now, the reason why I've seenso much success with my business
of finance teaching people howto invest properly is because it
was deeply rooted in purposeand again in faith.
(04:17):
The issues that I came acrosswhen I was beginning to
enlighten myself as a teenagerabout all the tools that we have
in the system.
The main issue was howdifficult it was to learn.
Everyone seemed to just becharging a ridiculous amount of
money for basic information,right, and that I realized.
I looked left and I looked rightand it was pushing everyone
away.
(04:37):
Everyone in the world was beingpushed away from learning about
these things because it wasbeing gatekept, it wasn't taught
in colleges or in schools.
We never enlightened to thesethings.
So I made the sacrifice offrontlining that education,
teaching myself everything thehard way, and then, with my
business, I began to open thosedoors for other people to learn
without ever having to pay untilthey see results, and that is a
(05:00):
philosophy that has brought meso much success in my business
and has set me apart so much.
Dr. Brooks (05:06):
Yeah, when it comes to stock market, like trading,
it can be very overwhelming.
So if someone is listening,they're trying to build for
retirement, but they don't knowhow to start.
What would that look like inpractice for them?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (05:18):
Well, starting off as an investor or a
trader, it looks so muchscarier than it is right.
So one thing that I do, forexample, to help people.
I recently got flown out toVirginia to speak for a big
church, for a church leader whoI invest for and all the people
there.
They knew little to nothingabout the market previously to
me coming on, but through myspeaking and my presentation I
(05:42):
was able to give them all a verystrong fundamental
understanding of all thesethings, completely for free,
really, at the end of the day.
And so the main things that Isaid to them as beginners, to
really give them a foundation isplease, the most important
thing is, just do your research,learn.
You'll realize very quicklythat this stuff is not as scary
(06:02):
as it seems Now.
As a matter of fact, when thestock market was initially
created in the 1920s, it wasdesigned for the average working
man and woman to beat inflation.
As inflation was rampant, thegovernment created this method
for us to be able to break freeand have some kind of financial
freedom.
Now, something very funny thathappened was, as big investors
(06:24):
began to emerge, theydeliberately created complicated
terminology to scare away theaverage working man and woman,
believe it or not, and to thisday that takes effect.
To this day, people areterrified of investing in
themselves, even though it's waymore effective, way more proper
and liberating than working ajob, all because people are
scared away from it.
(06:45):
So to a beginner I would sayjust have the audacity, have the
bravery to take one step intothe world of that.
Begin to study a little bit andyou'll realize that you can do
it.
Dr. Brooks (06:56):
When it comes to faith and finances.
The Bible talks about we wouldbe the lender and not the
borrower, and God also talksabout rest, and what I recognize
sometimes with entrepreneurs iswe are so burned out.
So what can financial freedomlook like for us?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (07:12):
Well, dr Brooks, I love that question
because this weekend out inVirginia, I just got finished
wrapping up a presentation onthat exact thing.
Now there's a very popularscripture.
You may know it Proverbs 10, 22.
This is one that everyonequotes God gives freedom, wealth
and adds no sorrow.
Right, we all know that one.
But there's actually analternative translation which I
(07:33):
think, especially to the workingentrepreneur, is far more
adequate, and it says that Godwould add wealth without painful
toil for it.
Now, that's an interesting wordToil and wealth.
Toil versus wealth.
Now, what is defined as wealth,be it directly or indirectly, in
the Bible is not necessarilycash, but the freedom to love
(07:54):
our families, to follow in God,follow our faith.
That is wealth.
And sure, we need money toachieve those things to a
certain extent, but the key tothat is the toil part.
Now, if you're an entrepreneurbut you're working more hours,
maybe even for less pay, thanyou would with a regular job,
there's something that needs tochange there.
And going back to the greatliterature from Robert Kiyosaki,
(08:17):
rich Dad, poor Dad.
If you're familiar with thecashflow quadrants, being
employed or self-employed aren'tvery different, but once you
get to the other side, the keyto wealth lies in being an
investor, which is, instead ofadding and subtracting cash as
we do with our paychecks and ourbills, it's just adding and
subtracting.
Instead of doing that, we beginto multiply what we have, and I
(08:42):
think that ties into what yousaid about being the lender, not
the borrower.
What we have, and I think thatties into what you said about
being the lender, not theborrower, being something that
provides multiplies, as opposedto having to always toil and
sweat and shed all these blood,sweat and tears for a system
that doesn't leave us with verymuch at all after that.
So it's a question of learninghow to invest, even as an
entrepreneur with a business.
Think about how, think inexponentials, how can you put
(09:02):
what you already have to scaleand work for you?
Dr. Brooks (09:06):
I know.
When I first started inentrepreneurship, I was still
working my nine to five and whatI recognize in entrepreneurship
is almost, like the Bible says,toiling.
I would get up early, stay uplate.
I didn't have a return oninvestment, so I had to step
back from the drawing board.
What strategies do yourecommend for entrepreneurs
those that are listening to helpthem evaluate where they are
(09:29):
and to determine where they needto go?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (09:31):
That's a really good question.
I would say to you, as anentrepreneur, there is a time
for what I call blind faith,which is you have to follow in
your vision, right?
You're not going to see returnof investment at first, but it
is something that later on youhave to hold on to your vision,
right?
But there's also a time whereyou need to go back to the
drawing board, like you said,and think okay, I need to make
(09:51):
this viable.
I need to make this viable ASAP, because at a certain point
you're putting in a lot of workand not receiving too much for
it.
Right?
I would say, in my journey atleast as an entrepreneur that
had to face struggling in mybusiness for three years before
ever seeing any success threeyears before ever seeing any
success think creatively aboutwhere you're going to find
(10:12):
growth.
Don't blindly stumble into thesame brute force solutions that
may or may not work for you.
In my case, for example, Ispent over $20,000 out of my
pocket trying to get Facebookads to work.
Not a single client camethrough.
But then I began publicspeaking and within one stage,
(10:35):
my business quadrupled.
The amount of clients that Igot from that was crazy.
And then I got connections forother stages.
That's what worked for me.
But every entrepreneur, you haveto realize that traditional
marketing is dead.
It doesn't work the same waythat it used to.
You have to be creative, youhave to think outside of the box
and you have to connect withpeople.
Authenticity and you're aChristian.
(10:56):
You're a Christian, which meansthat you're rooted in
authenticity.
You're thinking about how toprovide.
Make that the forefront of yourbusiness.
Don't think in the way thatother entrepreneurs think about
take.
You need to think aboutproviding and how to make your
client know what you'reproviding in a way that they can
connect to Be authentic, bereal and be creative.
That's my best advice.
Dr. Brooks (11:17):
That ties lightly into my next question.
The Bible also says that weperish from a lack of knowledge.
When it comes to education,what can you recommend for those
that want to grow in theirfinance?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (11:28):
There's two big things that I would always
suggest, and I may be a littlebiased towards some of them.
I believe that everyone shouldread Rich Dad, poor Dad.
That's one of the best booksfor understanding basic finances
.
But then I would say to you,there's a lot of the financial
books out there that don'tactually give you something
tangible to work with.
I would say, as far aseducation goes, try to find
(11:48):
someone that teaches the kind ofthings that I do.
Try to find someone that'saffordable, first off, and
authentic.
Obviously, the world of financeis riddled with a lot of BS
people, unfortunately, so youhave to be careful.
You have to find the rightpeople that you trust, that are
ideally also in the faith,because you know that they'll
have your back, and they'reusually people that can teach
you more practically what youcan actually do with your money.
(12:11):
In my case, for example, Iteach investments, long-term,
short-term.
I even do some investing onbehalf of some church leaders.
Those are the things that bringpeople direct and tangible
results right off the bat, andit's very real knowledge and
information.
That's what I would say as faras finance goes.
Dr. Brooks (12:27):
Public speaking is a really good arena to be in.
Will you still run FalkUniversity?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (12:33):
Yeah, absolutely.
As a matter of fact, it'sbecome more prominent since I've
stepped into public speaking.
Whenever I go out to speak, Ihave to select what my audience
is going to be mostly inclinedto.
For example, sometimes I'llspeak about my secondary
business, which is a publicspeaking agency that puts
aspiring speakers or evenexperienced speakers out on
(12:54):
stages across the world.
So that's one of the mainthings that I do.
But I've never stopped doingfinance, because it is a deep
passion of mine, in order to getback to the church and to kill
the generational poverty thathas taken place in the church
and instead replace it with anundeniable generational wealth,
and that starts with education.
But transitioning to publicspeaking was one of the best
(13:17):
decisions that I've ever takenbecause, as a faith-based and
purpose-based entrepreneur,there's no way to connect
through ads.
People just scroll past that.
There's no way to connectdeeply with someone unless you
do speaking.
All the entrepreneurs that wegrew up watching what they did
to get successful doesn't workanymore.
The world is, frankly,oversaturated with faux
(13:39):
entrepreneurs that are justlooking for a quick buck, and we
need to stand out with theirauthenticity and our voices, and
that's why my secondary purposehas become to empower people in
the world of public speaking.
Dr. Brooks (13:51):
I think it's great for us to be empowered, because
sometimes we have these greatideas and we don't have the
necessary means to get thoseideas out.
But we have someone that'slistening and they're like I'm
so traditional and I don't wantto get into investing public
speaking, running ads, whateverit is.
What mindset shift can theyadopt to transition into how the
(14:14):
world is evolving?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (14:16):
I would say , even if you don't want to get
into public speaking, you haveto be creative and think about
new and ingenious ways to getyour idea out there, right.
However, I would even go as faras to venture as if you're
going to be an entrepreneur,even if you're going to be just
a Christian, a leader, a fatheror a mother of a household right
, you need to refine yourspeaking.
(14:37):
You have to In order to embodya vision.
We're all visionaries.
At the end of the day, we'reall passionate, we're all
dreamers.
We all have an ideal life forourselves, and in order to
frontline that and to be thecrusader that God has destined
us to be for our dreams andpurpose, we need to be
articulate.
We need to be able tocommunicate that.
So, to someone who's having aproblem transitioning into this,
(15:00):
I would say find someone thatis willing to coach you or even
just watch YouTube videos.
Typically, with some of myspeakers, the people that I put
out on stages and I work with.
When I meet them, they have alot of issues with their
speaking, but within just acouple of sessions I'm usually
able to fine tune and refinewhat it is that they're missing,
and usually within just somesimple exercises, they're able
(15:21):
to very quickly improve thelevel of their speaking by 50%.
I would even say that's reallygood.
Dr. Brooks (15:28):
You have spoken on many stages, from churches to
schools to seminars.
What's been the most memorablespeaking and what did you teach
about in the intersection offaith and finance?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (15:41):
Well, it lines up pretty perfectly with
that.
I had spoken for a church, areally big church, in January it
was for my spiritual father,and because of that speaking
arrangement in January, it wasfor my spiritual father and
because of that speakingarrangement I had been invited
to go speak at the UnitedNations, and so I went to the
United Nations with them.
It was an incredible experience.
It was specifically a CSW9, theBeijing Women's Conference on
(16:02):
Women's Rights, and I got tospeak there and just share a
little bit about my experience.
A lot of my clients are women,for example, especially black
women in the church, or a lot ofmy clients in StocksUni, and so
I was speaking about how, hey,I met a lot of these women who,
prior to meeting me, were neverincluded in conversations of
entrepreneurship or finance.
(16:23):
Now, that's strange.
Why is it that we'reautomatically disqualifying
these people and thusdisempowering them, as opposed
to doing the opposite?
And why is it that we'reautomatically disqualifying
these people and thusdisempowering them as opposed to
doing the opposite?
And within the United Nations,one of the main topics of
conversation was how do wefurther empower women, and my
main conversation point was wesimply need to have more
conversations and enlighten themfurther to the tools that they
could use.
(16:44):
That was probably my favoritespeaking arrangement so far.
Dr. Brooks (16:47):
That is such an honor to be able to go and speak
at the United Nations.
How were you able to preparefor your topic?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (16:56):
This is what I tell all my speakers,
especially when they get nervousthinking about how do you
prepare for this stuff.
I tell them let me put it thisway when you speak to friends or
family, do you feel like youhave to prepare, or do you get
nervous?
Not really, because you'reusually speaking on things that
belong to you.
You're speaking about yourself.
That's it.
You have to internalize yourpassion, your business and your
(17:17):
faith so deep to the point thatyou could step on a stage right
now and speak just straight fromthe heart.
It's not just improvising orscripting.
It's more of embodying yourmessage so deeply, to the point
where you don't really need toprepare, because a preparation
has been done during the yearsof blood, sweat and tears that
you've poured into your vision.
Dr. Brooks (17:37):
People say that they are a jack of all trades.
I'm sitting here and I'mlistening to you and you have
knowledge in so many differentareas.
So if you have someone that'slistening, how can they niche it
down to become an expert in oneof those areas but still
operate in other areas?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (17:55):
Right, I would say I don't think I'm too
much of a jack of all trades, asopposed to, I have a few
specialties Right, and each ofthose specialties were created
through years of dedicationuntil near perfection.
And then I would focus on thenext thing.
There's something called shinyobject syndrome, which is very
common in early entrepreneurs,and what that is.
(18:16):
You're getting distracted by amillion different opportunities.
For example, early in my careerI was doing real estate.
I had my real estate license at18.
I was doing Amazon dropshipping, I was doing stocks.
I was doing a million differentthings and none of them were
succeeding because I had todedicate 100% to one thing first
, and that's what I did.
(18:37):
So, to answer your question,anyone that's having a hard time
either deciding on a businessidea or doing too many things at
once and seeing no success,pick one thing to get good at
and once it begins to fly solo,move on to your next specialty.
No-transcript.
Dr. Brooks (18:57):
So the media can have us comparing ourselves to
other people.
So what advice can you givethose listening to stay focused
on their own journey?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (19:06):
I have a hard time with that as well.
I get very distracted.
I have really bad ADHD, so Iwork at home, which makes it
even worse.
But I would say, no, you'reabsolutely right.
And especially with thisemerging kind of hustle culture
right, where we see so manypeople doing so many things and
they're doing so great, itbecomes really intimidating and
(19:28):
it has a reverse effect.
What was once supposed toinspire us is actually just
crushing to us, because we sitin bed and we're feeling about
all these different things thatwe want to do and when there's
so much focus on so many things,it's not inspiring, it's
oppressive and it makes ourgoals seem so much further than
they are.
But, like I always say, youfocus on one thing, you keep
your feet to the, you keep youreyes on your feet and you just
(19:50):
move forward and you'll realizehow far you get over time.
It's not about doing it all atonce.
If you get distracted withsocial media or seeing all the
different things that there arearound, just again, refocus on
just one thing, even if you donothing else.
Just perfect that one thing andyou'll realize that doing one
thing is better than doing whatmost people do, which is nothing
(20:12):
.
Dr. Brooks (20:12):
That is very true, but for those that are listening
, they're like Sebastian, youare successful, you have arrived
.
Can you share your journey,because some people may look at
you and think that this happenedfor you overnight?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (20:25):
I love that question because, truth be told
, there's a huge misconceptionwhen it comes to seeing success,
and it is.
We see the flower, but we don'tsee the roots right.
We only see that one thing thatstands out of the wealth, the
traveling, all those things, butwe never see that all of those
things are a false byproduct ofsuccess.
Real success is made in allthose years of blood, sweat and
(20:46):
tears that it took to get towhere you are today.
Everything else is just thereward for that.
So, to share a little bit aboutmy journey and what it took for
me to get here, I was astruggling entrepreneur for a
long time.
I graduated high school and Igot nothing no opportunities for
college.
My family was deeply in debt sowe couldn't even afford it,
even if I wanted to.
(21:06):
But I knew that wasn't wherethe path lied for me.
Despite my parents' wishes, Ijust began to frontline
entrepreneurship on every sourcethat I could find, like I said
real estate, amazon,dropshipping stocks, everything.
I just dove right in and ittook me a long time and a lot of
struggle, but I eventuallybegan to see some success.
(21:27):
However, at the same time andthis is deeply integrated into
my story and one of the thingsthat I mainly speak about.
At the same time, just as Ibegan to see some success
following my dreams and passion,after 17 years of long grueling
shifts and losing everything myparents after long 12-hour
(21:49):
shifts.
For all those years, they lostboth their jobs at the same time
and got nothing out of it.
They never invested during thiswhole time because they thought
that it was risky, because theywere so obsessed with this
consistency that the job gavethem and they never realized the
riskiest thing that you can dois stay where you're at.
(22:09):
That is the riskiest thing thatwe can do.
The riskiest thing we can do isnot take our lives into our own
hands.
So, thankfully, because I wasbeginning to see success, I was
able to help them out of thatand through that and continue to
establish systems that wouldfund my family and others,
thousands of other families.
So I want to share that storyso people can understand that it
(22:31):
isn't easy first of all, butwhen you suffer today, you may
just find that you don't have tosuffer tomorrow.
If I would have followed theirsteps and their dreams and their
idea of consistency, we wouldprobably be homeless right now.
Dr. Brooks (22:48):
I interviewed Stefan and he made a statement.
He said being poor is risky andthat sat with me.
So you have someone that'slistening and they say,
Sebastian, I don't have themoney to invest.
How can they start small?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (23:03):
That is a great question.
So I actually just finishedspeaking about that, because a
lot of the people at the churchthat I spoke to were not in a
position to buy a house and putit up for rent or do Airbnb, and
it's sad that we're taught thatthe only ways to invest are
these massive tens of thousandsof dollars to put down into
things like stocks or realestate properties.
(23:23):
But you don't have to do itthat way.
What I teach, for example, isprimarily something a little bit
more short-term.
In the world of the market,where you can just set aside a
small amount of cash, doshort-term investing, and with
the same small amount of cashthat you set aside one time, you
can scale it up over time,steadily, slowly, right, but
it's still money on the sidethat you would otherwise not
(23:44):
have.
One of the people that I spoketo over this weekend was a lady
telling me that, hey, I'm notmaking a whole lot of money and
I'm deeply in debt.
What can I passively do?
Is it safe for me to invest?
Should I?
And I told her you have to.
You are not in a position tonot invest, because if you keep
working and paying off your debtas a subscription that you
(24:05):
can't put more money into whenyou need to or help pay it off
faster.
Guess what?
That is a 30 year financialdeath sentence where the
interest is going to eat youalive.
You cannot operate that way Ifyou are lacking money.
What you need to do actively isthink of ways to generate more
to be able to pay off debt, andso that's what I'm doing for her
(24:26):
.
With short-term investing, youdon't need $10,000.
I suggest anywhere between 500to 1,000, a one-time investment
into your own account that youcan now use to slowly scale up
and over the span of even just.
I've had people that have made$10,000 in a month, not to set
that as a standard, but to justshow you that there's so much
(24:46):
prosperity that can be in placefor you when you start walking
in the idea of multiplicationand exponentials, as opposed to
this false consistency of a job.
Dr. Brooks (24:57):
I grew up with so many limiting beliefs.
When it came to money, it wasnot talked about in my home.
My parents did not share theirfinances with us.
But when it comes to you, youhave helped over 1200 people
with their finances.
What have you learned aboutteaching those financial
principles to people of faithwho may have grown up, like
(25:18):
myself, with limiting beliefsaround money?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (25:22):
who may have grown up, like myself, with
limiting beliefs around money.
So, first off, I'm deeplyinspired by these people because
I'm seeing a shift in the worldof the church where it is well,
let me put it this way A lot ofmy clients are Black, older
women, right, who you wouldexpect to be the last people to
be able to break out of thoselimiting beliefs because they've
grown up their whole life, oldschool.
(25:42):
But I'm seeing a huge shift,not just in the church world but
in the general world of peoplerealizing that the systems that
we live in they're not for us,we are working for them and that
has to change, right?
I've noticed how deeply of ashift that has been happening
and how many people have come tome looking for solutions and
how brave they are.
One of my clients is thisretired black woman that has
(26:05):
cancer and she obviously withretirement.
It's not easy.
Retirement doesn't work how itused to.
Social security is down thedrain.
But this lady is the first onein my class, every single
morning, just there ready tomake money and it's so inspiring
seeing someone who wasdisqualified from the idea of
(26:26):
entrepreneurship, from investing, from success, just unincluded
in all of these things, justhave the courage to stand up and
do it herself.
So from working with peoplethat have had so many limiting
beliefs for so long, I love howmy conversations are able to at
least spark a flame in them, tohave the courage to step into my
world for a second and justexplore, just having the
(26:48):
audacity to explore a little bit.
And I try to make it easy forthem by giving them as much time
as they need for free untilthey begin to see results.
Dr. Brooks (26:58):
Sometimes, when it comes to destroying those
limited beliefs, the first thingthat we have to do, I believe,
is forgive ourselves.
So we have someone that'slistening and they just are so
hard on themselves.
I shouldn't have got myself indebt.
I should have known better.
What advice can you offer themto move forward?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (27:13):
I would say that there's two big things.
Right, there is nothing wrongwith where you are, because it
was simply a consequence of yourprogramming from the system,
but there is something deeplywrong with where you allow
yourself to stay right.
And if you've been sufferingthis long and you're being
crushed by this weight, realizethat it's not going to go away
(27:33):
until you do something about it.
You have to do something aboutit.
So, for example, that lady thatwas telling me over this week
and how deeply in debt she isand how she doesn't have the
money to do very many things.
I said to her yeah, you shouldbe investing.
You have to, because if nothingchanges stupid sentence.
But think about it for a second.
If nothing changes, right,however you're living now, if
(27:55):
you don't take that step,especially the step to forgive
yourself, acknowledge whatyou've done and think about what
you will do instead, withoutthat, you're going to keep
staying exactly where you are.
So a quote from one of the mostunlikely people you'd expect,
but it's from Steve Harvey, ofall people.
He said if you're going throughhell, why stay there?
(28:15):
You're at the hardest part ofyour journey, right, there's no
reason to stay there.
Just keep it going and You'reat the hardest part of your
journey right.
Dr. Brooks (28:25):
There's no reason to stay there.
Just keep it going and allthat's left for you is up.
So, when it comes to investing,if they want to invest with you
through Stock University, whatdoes that process look like?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (28:32):
It's a very simple process and I focus very
much on personal attention andcare with everyone.
So I give everyone, even like,my direct number to contact me
at any time of the day.
But the process is reallysimple.
I make it really simple, Ibreak it down.
I direct them to, first andforemost, the video lessons on
my website, which are deeplycomprehensive.
They teach everything from zeroto 100, including which
platforms to use, where to fundyourself, what to do all those
(28:56):
different things right, and fromthere they have access to a
wonderful community where I'mpresent every single day,
teaching them more, showing themhow to do everything.
And most importantly, like Isaid, is I want them to be
comfortable.
So not only do I give them awhole month to learn, practice
and profit before ever gettingcharged, to see the results.
Before anything else, I don'twant people to trust me, just to
(29:17):
trust me.
I want them to see authenticresults and that's why I've even
invested for some churchleaders to show them that what I
do works.
Before they'll have me speakfor their church and whatnot,
but anyway, once they've hadtheir month of learning, I even
give them tools to invest withpractice money.
So it's not even real money thatthey're investing with.
First it's like this trialaccount, where they can again
(29:39):
practice with zero risk and onlyonce they're comfortable do
they fund themselves.
Money that I never touch, bythe way.
That's all for them.
I'm just teaching them how tomanage it, and then they just
start following along steadilywith some of the opportunities
that I'll send out, that I'mtaking myself.
So it is all the hand-holdingprocess zero to 100.
Very encouraging and deeply Ifocus on deep comfort for each
(30:00):
and every one of my people.
Dr. Brooks (30:02):
You have shared so much with us here on today when
it comes to your journey.
You started your first businessat 16 years.
What role did your faith playin giving you confidence to
pursue entrepreneurship at sucha young age?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (30:17):
Everything, everything, and, most
importantly, it played two bigroles.
I think, if we're puttingmyself on a boat and the boat is
entrepreneurship, faith was myanchor and my sail.
It was what anchored me deepdown into my purpose Whenever
the winds got too aggressive andthe temptations were strong to
do whatever.
It was such a deep anchorageinto hey, remember that you're
(30:41):
doing this for people and it'sone of the reasons why, even
today, I have the mostaffordable platform for everyone
is because it's here for thepeople.
It's a passion project.
I'm making, first and foremost,my profit from what I preach,
which is my investments, and theentrepreneurship is secondary.
Right, it's all a missionstatement.
And then, at the same time, myfaith was the wind to my sails,
(31:02):
where it kept me going forward,even when I would lose vision,
even when I had doubts.
It just kept me deeplymotivated when nothing else
seemed to work and when I had noreason to right.
Sometimes there's no light atthe end of our tunnels, but we
just keep walking and that's Godimposing us forward and saying,
hey, just keep going and you'llsee that light soon enough.
(31:22):
So faith was everything to me.
And thank you for that question, thanks for anchoring us back
into that.
Dr. Brooks (31:28):
You talk about financial freedom, but you also
emphasize mentorship and serviceover profit.
How are you able to balancebeing mission driven in a money
driven world?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (31:39):
First off, I would say it's by doing
exactly what I said.
So here's what bothers me aboutthe world of finance, and it
really is a crappy world.
Like I said earlier, there's alot of people that overcharge
and, like you said, it's plagued, and this scares people away
and that's what sucks.
It's plagued by the pyramidscheme, by the Ponzi scheme.
It's plagued by things likethat, which was an obstacle for
me to show people like hey,you're safe with me.
(32:00):
That's why I do things like thefree month and I'm so
affordable and I build thispersonal connection because I
have to.
I need to show them that thisis the right place in a crappy
world and that they need thistool.
We do, unfortunately, right.
We need to know about finance,we need to know about investing,
but the way that I anchormyself in a money-driven world
with purpose is because I don'tneed the money from the business
(32:22):
.
I practice what I preach and ifI'm preaching about success and
investment and I know thatthey're gonna see results, why
would I charge them first?
That is one of the main redflags in the industry is these
guys that do trading, but theywant to charge you $5,000 first.
Wait a minute.
Aren't you trading yourself Ifyou're sure that I'm going to
(32:44):
see results like why are youdoing that?
So I don't need the money fromthe clients, because I make my
money primarily from what I'mpreaching.
And then, even then, I wantthem to have the free time first
to see what I got, beforeanything else to see what I got
before anything else.
Dr. Brooks (32:57):
I like the authenticity that you're sharing
and you have been very openwith us.
As we wrap up, what is onemessage or a piece of advice
that you want to leave with ourlisteners who may be navigating
their own entrepreneurialjourney?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (33:11):
Keep in mind a lot of the time we get
stuck in this linear cycle andyou forget that it just takes
one decision to break away fromthat.
I spent three, almost fouryears struggling in my business
with no success, to suddenlybeing catapulted way over six
figures with just one decision,and that was to follow faith,
become a public speaker and tocontinue to focus on purpose I'm
(33:33):
a public speaker and tocontinue to focus on purpose, so
my ultimate message is justgoing to tie into things
Remember that nothing changes,nothing changes if nothing
changes, and that there'snothing riskier than staying
where you're at.
So change something.
Dr. Brooks (33:46):
That is good advice and I am so just honored to
have you on this episode today.
I like that you lead with yourfaith, because sometimes in the
entrepreneur's faith, those thathave a higher belief, sometimes
they don't bring that into thatfaith because they don't want
to offend anyone.
Thank you for not shying awayfrom that and for really letting
people know that is theprinciples that drive your
(34:10):
interactions with people, thatdrive your decision-making.
If someone wanted to get intouch with you, how?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (34:14):
can they do that?
There's three big ways.
You can go to StocksUnicom,S-T-O-C-K-S-U-N-Icom, SpeakUp
Express, which is my business ofpublic speaking, which is just
SpeakUpExpress.
But I also never afraid toshare my number directly for
people that want to ask mequestions because, again, this
is a purpose for me and even ifmy phone blows up, I like to
(34:36):
speak with people directly andhear about what their struggles
are, what their goals are.
So that would be 407-952-4871.
And, Dr Brooks, thank you somuch for such a wonderful
conversation and it really isrefreshing in my world of I
speak a lot for a lot of otherstages, but it's so refreshing
always to come back to the faith, to give back in this world
(34:56):
specifically.
So thank you for thisopportunity.
Dr. Brooks (34:59):
You are definitely the first guest that ever gave
their number out on thisplatform, so I will make sure
that I have all your contactinformation in the actual show
notes.
So again everyone, thank you somuch for listening.
Intro (35:13):
Thanks for listening.
Please rate this episode andshare it with your family and
friends.
To learn more about your hostor to book a coaching session,
visit wwwbrooksdemmingcom.
Until next time, rise.
You're listening to the Off Balance Podcast, where faith
, family and business collide,hosted by Brooke Stemming,
doctor of BusinessAdministration, business Coach
and Resilience Expert.
Each episode features real-lifeconversations to help
entrepreneurs like you buildresilience and lead with
(00:22):
confidence.
Dr. Brooks (00:37):
Welcome back to Off Balance.
I'm your host, dr Brooks.
On today's episode, we'retalking about building wealth
which can feel out of reach.
For a lot of people, the stockmarket can seem overwhelming,
full of risk and reserved forthe rich, but what if we didn't
have to be that way?
Today's guest is here to helpus see it a different path, one
that's more accessible andgrounded in purpose.
My guest today is SebastianUgatagi, a faith-driven
(00:59):
entrepreneur, full-time traderand founder of Fox University,
where he helps people grow infinancial freedom through
mentorship and practicaleducation.
He's been at this since he wasa teenager and his story is all
about purpose, bold moves andserving others along the way.
So please help me welcomeSebastian to Off Balance.
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (01:20):
Hi, it's good being here.
Thank you so much.
It really is an honor.
Dr. Brooks (01:24):
Sebastian, I am so excited to have you with us
today.
I gave our listeners the shortversion of your story, but I
love them to hear it from you,so can you introduce yourself
and share a little bit about whoyou are and the work that you
do?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (01:38):
Absolutely.
I'm more than happy to.
So.
I come, of course, from abackground deeply rooted in
faith, and a lot of that stemsall the way back to my family
who came to this country.
We're a family of immigrants,and I'm an only child, and we
came here looking for theAmerican dream, but all that we
found was the same poverty fromour home country, venezuela,
just at a different level.
The house was nicer, but thetime was less.
(02:01):
The quality of life was less,was nicer, but the time was less
.
The quality of life was less,and I realized, before we knew
it, my parents were stuck inthese never-ending 12-hour
shifts almost every single day,leaving little time for anything
else.
And as I stepped more and moreinto the world of the church, I
think so.
That's a story that applies toway too many people, and even
(02:22):
though we have so much in ourspirit here in the church world,
we have so little in thematerial world to actually
execute on these things, andthat is a tragedy that, from a
young age, I wanted to change.
So I educated myself a lot inthe world of finance, in the
world of entrepreneurship, whichsome other problems come into
play there that we'll speak onshortly.
But my purpose quickly became,after I found success with that,
(02:42):
to spread that especially tothe aspiring financially free
Christian.
Dr. Brooks (02:49):
So when you transitioned to the United
States, I can imagine youthought that this was going to
be the land of milk and honey alot of opportunities.
But when you got here and yourealized that it was the same as
your home country, how did thatmoment make you feel in real
time?
How did that moment make youfeel?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (03:02):
in real time.
I came here young, so I didn'tget to register that until I saw
how the system robbed me of myfamily.
In a way, my parents, who werealways very loving, kind,
creative people, became onlydefined by one thing, and that
was exhaustion.
Over time I only knew them whenthey would come home to sleep
to go back to work the next day,and a lot of people feel that
(03:24):
same story.
So I would say it was a verydeeply disturbing revelation.
But the more that I studied thesystem, the more that I
realized there is potential here.
We're just not doing the rightthings and because of a lack of
education we're stuck in thistrap.
So again, my purpose became toeducate people on what these
(03:45):
tools are and how accessiblethey really are.
Dr. Brooks (03:48):
So let's build on that.
How does that connect to thecompanies that you started?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (03:55):
I have two big companies.
One of them is focused onpublic speaking, but my primary
one, and the one that I am mostspeaking on today, is my
business in finance, which hasseen a lot of success,
especially ever since I doveinto the church world.
Now, the reason why I've seenso much success with my business
of finance teaching people howto invest properly is because it
was deeply rooted in purposeand again in faith.
(04:17):
The issues that I came acrosswhen I was beginning to
enlighten myself as a teenagerabout all the tools that we have
in the system.
The main issue was howdifficult it was to learn.
Everyone seemed to just becharging a ridiculous amount of
money for basic information,right, and that I realized.
I looked left and I looked rightand it was pushing everyone
away.
(04:37):
Everyone in the world was beingpushed away from learning about
these things because it wasbeing gatekept, it wasn't taught
in colleges or in schools.
We never enlightened to thesethings.
So I made the sacrifice offrontlining that education,
teaching myself everything thehard way, and then, with my
business, I began to open thosedoors for other people to learn
without ever having to pay untilthey see results, and that is a
(05:00):
philosophy that has brought meso much success in my business
and has set me apart so much.
Dr. Brooks (05:06):
Yeah, when it comes to stock market, like trading,
it can be very overwhelming.
So if someone is listening,they're trying to build for
retirement, but they don't knowhow to start.
What would that look like inpractice for them?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (05:18):
Well, starting off as an investor or a
trader, it looks so muchscarier than it is right.
So one thing that I do, forexample, to help people.
I recently got flown out toVirginia to speak for a big
church, for a church leader whoI invest for and all the people
there.
They knew little to nothingabout the market previously to
me coming on, but through myspeaking and my presentation I
(05:42):
was able to give them all a verystrong fundamental
understanding of all thesethings, completely for free,
really, at the end of the day.
And so the main things that Isaid to them as beginners, to
really give them a foundation isplease, the most important
thing is, just do your research,learn.
You'll realize very quicklythat this stuff is not as scary
(06:02):
as it seems Now.
As a matter of fact, when thestock market was initially
created in the 1920s, it wasdesigned for the average working
man and woman to beat inflation.
As inflation was rampant, thegovernment created this method
for us to be able to break freeand have some kind of financial
freedom.
Now, something very funny thathappened was, as big investors
(06:24):
began to emerge, theydeliberately created complicated
terminology to scare away theaverage working man and woman,
believe it or not, and to thisday that takes effect.
To this day, people areterrified of investing in
themselves, even though it's waymore effective, way more proper
and liberating than working ajob, all because people are
scared away from it.
(06:45):
So to a beginner I would sayjust have the audacity, have the
bravery to take one step intothe world of that.
Begin to study a little bit andyou'll realize that you can do
it.
Dr. Brooks (06:56):
When it comes to faith and finances.
The Bible talks about we wouldbe the lender and not the
borrower, and God also talksabout rest, and what I recognize
sometimes with entrepreneurs iswe are so burned out.
So what can financial freedomlook like for us?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (07:12):
Well, dr Brooks, I love that question
because this weekend out inVirginia, I just got finished
wrapping up a presentation onthat exact thing.
Now there's a very popularscripture.
You may know it Proverbs 10, 22.
This is one that everyonequotes God gives freedom, wealth
and adds no sorrow.
Right, we all know that one.
But there's actually analternative translation which I
(07:33):
think, especially to the workingentrepreneur, is far more
adequate, and it says that Godwould add wealth without painful
toil for it.
Now, that's an interesting wordToil and wealth.
Toil versus wealth.
Now, what is defined as wealth,be it directly or indirectly, in
the Bible is not necessarilycash, but the freedom to love
(07:54):
our families, to follow in God,follow our faith.
That is wealth.
And sure, we need money toachieve those things to a
certain extent, but the key tothat is the toil part.
Now, if you're an entrepreneurbut you're working more hours,
maybe even for less pay, thanyou would with a regular job,
there's something that needs tochange there.
And going back to the greatliterature from Robert Kiyosaki,
(08:17):
rich Dad, poor Dad.
If you're familiar with thecashflow quadrants, being
employed or self-employed aren'tvery different, but once you
get to the other side, the keyto wealth lies in being an
investor, which is, instead ofadding and subtracting cash as
we do with our paychecks and ourbills, it's just adding and
subtracting.
Instead of doing that, we beginto multiply what we have, and I
(08:42):
think that ties into what yousaid about being the lender, not
the borrower.
What we have, and I think thatties into what you said about
being the lender, not theborrower, being something that
provides multiplies, as opposedto having to always toil and
sweat and shed all these blood,sweat and tears for a system
that doesn't leave us with verymuch at all after that.
So it's a question of learninghow to invest, even as an
entrepreneur with a business.
Think about how, think inexponentials, how can you put
(09:02):
what you already have to scaleand work for you?
Dr. Brooks (09:06):
I know.
When I first started inentrepreneurship, I was still
working my nine to five and whatI recognize in entrepreneurship
is almost, like the Bible says,toiling.
I would get up early, stay uplate.
I didn't have a return oninvestment, so I had to step
back from the drawing board.
What strategies do yourecommend for entrepreneurs
those that are listening to helpthem evaluate where they are
(09:29):
and to determine where they needto go?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (09:31):
That's a really good question.
I would say to you, as anentrepreneur, there is a time
for what I call blind faith,which is you have to follow in
your vision, right?
You're not going to see returnof investment at first, but it
is something that later on youhave to hold on to your vision,
right?
But there's also a time whereyou need to go back to the
drawing board, like you said,and think okay, I need to make
(09:51):
this viable.
I need to make this viable ASAP, because at a certain point
you're putting in a lot of workand not receiving too much for
it.
Right?
I would say, in my journey atleast as an entrepreneur that
had to face struggling in mybusiness for three years before
ever seeing any success threeyears before ever seeing any
success think creatively aboutwhere you're going to find
(10:12):
growth.
Don't blindly stumble into thesame brute force solutions that
may or may not work for you.
In my case, for example, Ispent over $20,000 out of my
pocket trying to get Facebookads to work.
Not a single client camethrough.
But then I began publicspeaking and within one stage,
(10:35):
my business quadrupled.
The amount of clients that Igot from that was crazy.
And then I got connections forother stages.
That's what worked for me.
But every entrepreneur, you haveto realize that traditional
marketing is dead.
It doesn't work the same waythat it used to.
You have to be creative, youhave to think outside of the box
and you have to connect withpeople.
Authenticity and you're aChristian.
(10:56):
You're a Christian, which meansthat you're rooted in
authenticity.
You're thinking about how toprovide.
Make that the forefront of yourbusiness.
Don't think in the way thatother entrepreneurs think about
take.
You need to think aboutproviding and how to make your
client know what you'reproviding in a way that they can
connect to Be authentic, bereal and be creative.
That's my best advice.
Dr. Brooks (11:17):
That ties lightly into my next question.
The Bible also says that weperish from a lack of knowledge.
When it comes to education,what can you recommend for those
that want to grow in theirfinance?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (11:28):
There's two big things that I would always
suggest, and I may be a littlebiased towards some of them.
I believe that everyone shouldread Rich Dad, poor Dad.
That's one of the best booksfor understanding basic finances
.
But then I would say to you,there's a lot of the financial
books out there that don'tactually give you something
tangible to work with.
I would say, as far aseducation goes, try to find
(11:48):
someone that teaches the kind ofthings that I do.
Try to find someone that'saffordable, first off, and
authentic.
Obviously, the world of financeis riddled with a lot of BS
people, unfortunately, so youhave to be careful.
You have to find the rightpeople that you trust, that are
ideally also in the faith,because you know that they'll
have your back, and they'reusually people that can teach
you more practically what youcan actually do with your money.
(12:11):
In my case, for example, Iteach investments, long-term,
short-term.
I even do some investing onbehalf of some church leaders.
Those are the things that bringpeople direct and tangible
results right off the bat, andit's very real knowledge and
information.
That's what I would say as faras finance goes.
Dr. Brooks (12:27):
Public speaking is a really good arena to be in.
Will you still run FalkUniversity?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (12:33):
Yeah, absolutely.
As a matter of fact, it'sbecome more prominent since I've
stepped into public speaking.
Whenever I go out to speak, Ihave to select what my audience
is going to be mostly inclinedto.
For example, sometimes I'llspeak about my secondary
business, which is a publicspeaking agency that puts
aspiring speakers or evenexperienced speakers out on
(12:54):
stages across the world.
So that's one of the mainthings that I do.
But I've never stopped doingfinance, because it is a deep
passion of mine, in order to getback to the church and to kill
the generational poverty thathas taken place in the church
and instead replace it with anundeniable generational wealth,
and that starts with education.
But transitioning to publicspeaking was one of the best
(13:17):
decisions that I've ever takenbecause, as a faith-based and
purpose-based entrepreneur,there's no way to connect
through ads.
People just scroll past that.
There's no way to connectdeeply with someone unless you
do speaking.
All the entrepreneurs that wegrew up watching what they did
to get successful doesn't workanymore.
The world is, frankly,oversaturated with faux
(13:39):
entrepreneurs that are justlooking for a quick buck, and we
need to stand out with theirauthenticity and our voices, and
that's why my secondary purposehas become to empower people in
the world of public speaking.
Dr. Brooks (13:51):
I think it's great for us to be empowered, because
sometimes we have these greatideas and we don't have the
necessary means to get thoseideas out.
But we have someone that'slistening and they're like I'm
so traditional and I don't wantto get into investing public
speaking, running ads, whateverit is.
What mindset shift can theyadopt to transition into how the
(14:14):
world is evolving?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (14:16):
I would say , even if you don't want to get
into public speaking, you haveto be creative and think about
new and ingenious ways to getyour idea out there, right.
However, I would even go as faras to venture as if you're
going to be an entrepreneur,even if you're going to be just
a Christian, a leader, a fatheror a mother of a household right
, you need to refine yourspeaking.
(14:37):
You have to In order to embodya vision.
We're all visionaries.
At the end of the day, we'reall passionate, we're all
dreamers.
We all have an ideal life forourselves, and in order to
frontline that and to be thecrusader that God has destined
us to be for our dreams andpurpose, we need to be
articulate.
We need to be able tocommunicate that.
So, to someone who's having aproblem transitioning into this,
(15:00):
I would say find someone thatis willing to coach you or even
just watch YouTube videos.
Typically, with some of myspeakers, the people that I put
out on stages and I work with.
When I meet them, they have alot of issues with their
speaking, but within just acouple of sessions I'm usually
able to fine tune and refinewhat it is that they're missing,
and usually within just somesimple exercises, they're able
(15:21):
to very quickly improve thelevel of their speaking by 50%.
I would even say that's reallygood.
Dr. Brooks (15:28):
You have spoken on many stages, from churches to
schools to seminars.
What's been the most memorablespeaking and what did you teach
about in the intersection offaith and finance?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (15:41):
Well, it lines up pretty perfectly with
that.
I had spoken for a church, areally big church, in January it
was for my spiritual father,and because of that speaking
arrangement in January, it wasfor my spiritual father and
because of that speakingarrangement I had been invited
to go speak at the UnitedNations, and so I went to the
United Nations with them.
It was an incredible experience.
It was specifically a CSW9, theBeijing Women's Conference on
(16:02):
Women's Rights, and I got tospeak there and just share a
little bit about my experience.
A lot of my clients are women,for example, especially black
women in the church, or a lot ofmy clients in StocksUni, and so
I was speaking about how, hey,I met a lot of these women who,
prior to meeting me, were neverincluded in conversations of
entrepreneurship or finance.
(16:23):
Now, that's strange.
Why is it that we'reautomatically disqualifying
these people and thusdisempowering them, as opposed
to doing the opposite?
And why is it that we'reautomatically disqualifying
these people and thusdisempowering them as opposed to
doing the opposite?
And within the United Nations,one of the main topics of
conversation was how do wefurther empower women, and my
main conversation point was wesimply need to have more
conversations and enlighten themfurther to the tools that they
could use.
(16:44):
That was probably my favoritespeaking arrangement so far.
Dr. Brooks (16:47):
That is such an honor to be able to go and speak
at the United Nations.
How were you able to preparefor your topic?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (16:56):
This is what I tell all my speakers,
especially when they get nervousthinking about how do you
prepare for this stuff.
I tell them let me put it thisway when you speak to friends or
family, do you feel like youhave to prepare, or do you get
nervous?
Not really, because you'reusually speaking on things that
belong to you.
You're speaking about yourself.
That's it.
You have to internalize yourpassion, your business and your
(17:17):
faith so deep to the point thatyou could step on a stage right
now and speak just straight fromthe heart.
It's not just improvising orscripting.
It's more of embodying yourmessage so deeply, to the point
where you don't really need toprepare, because a preparation
has been done during the yearsof blood, sweat and tears that
you've poured into your vision.
Dr. Brooks (17:37):
People say that they are a jack of all trades.
I'm sitting here and I'mlistening to you and you have
knowledge in so many differentareas.
So if you have someone that'slistening, how can they niche it
down to become an expert in oneof those areas but still
operate in other areas?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (17:55):
Right, I would say I don't think I'm too
much of a jack of all trades, asopposed to, I have a few
specialties Right, and each ofthose specialties were created
through years of dedicationuntil near perfection.
And then I would focus on thenext thing.
There's something called shinyobject syndrome, which is very
common in early entrepreneurs,and what that is.
(18:16):
You're getting distracted by amillion different opportunities.
For example, early in my careerI was doing real estate.
I had my real estate license at18.
I was doing Amazon dropshipping, I was doing stocks.
I was doing a million differentthings and none of them were
succeeding because I had todedicate 100% to one thing first
, and that's what I did.
(18:37):
So, to answer your question,anyone that's having a hard time
either deciding on a businessidea or doing too many things at
once and seeing no success,pick one thing to get good at
and once it begins to fly solo,move on to your next specialty.
No-transcript.
Dr. Brooks (18:57):
So the media can have us comparing ourselves to
other people.
So what advice can you givethose listening to stay focused
on their own journey?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (19:06):
I have a hard time with that as well.
I get very distracted.
I have really bad ADHD, so Iwork at home, which makes it
even worse.
But I would say, no, you'reabsolutely right.
And especially with thisemerging kind of hustle culture
right, where we see so manypeople doing so many things and
they're doing so great, itbecomes really intimidating and
(19:28):
it has a reverse effect.
What was once supposed toinspire us is actually just
crushing to us, because we sitin bed and we're feeling about
all these different things thatwe want to do and when there's
so much focus on so many things,it's not inspiring, it's
oppressive and it makes ourgoals seem so much further than
they are.
But, like I always say, youfocus on one thing, you keep
your feet to the, you keep youreyes on your feet and you just
(19:50):
move forward and you'll realizehow far you get over time.
It's not about doing it all atonce.
If you get distracted withsocial media or seeing all the
different things that there arearound, just again, refocus on
just one thing, even if you donothing else.
Just perfect that one thing andyou'll realize that doing one
thing is better than doing whatmost people do, which is nothing
(20:12):
.
Dr. Brooks (20:12):
That is very true, but for those that are listening
, they're like Sebastian, youare successful, you have arrived
.
Can you share your journey,because some people may look at
you and think that this happenedfor you overnight?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (20:25):
I love that question because, truth be told
, there's a huge misconceptionwhen it comes to seeing success,
and it is.
We see the flower, but we don'tsee the roots right.
We only see that one thing thatstands out of the wealth, the
traveling, all those things, butwe never see that all of those
things are a false byproduct ofsuccess.
Real success is made in allthose years of blood, sweat and
(20:46):
tears that it took to get towhere you are today.
Everything else is just thereward for that.
So, to share a little bit aboutmy journey and what it took for
me to get here, I was astruggling entrepreneur for a
long time.
I graduated high school and Igot nothing no opportunities for
college.
My family was deeply in debt sowe couldn't even afford it,
even if I wanted to.
(21:06):
But I knew that wasn't wherethe path lied for me.
Despite my parents' wishes, Ijust began to frontline
entrepreneurship on every sourcethat I could find, like I said
real estate, amazon,dropshipping stocks, everything.
I just dove right in and ittook me a long time and a lot of
struggle, but I eventuallybegan to see some success.
(21:27):
However, at the same time andthis is deeply integrated into
my story and one of the thingsthat I mainly speak about.
At the same time, just as Ibegan to see some success
following my dreams and passion,after 17 years of long grueling
shifts and losing everything myparents after long 12-hour
(21:49):
shifts.
For all those years, they lostboth their jobs at the same time
and got nothing out of it.
They never invested during thiswhole time because they thought
that it was risky, because theywere so obsessed with this
consistency that the job gavethem and they never realized the
riskiest thing that you can dois stay where you're at.
(22:09):
That is the riskiest thing thatwe can do.
The riskiest thing we can do isnot take our lives into our own
hands.
So, thankfully, because I wasbeginning to see success, I was
able to help them out of thatand through that and continue to
establish systems that wouldfund my family and others,
thousands of other families.
So I want to share that storyso people can understand that it
(22:31):
isn't easy first of all, butwhen you suffer today, you may
just find that you don't have tosuffer tomorrow.
If I would have followed theirsteps and their dreams and their
idea of consistency, we wouldprobably be homeless right now.
Dr. Brooks (22:48):
I interviewed Stefan and he made a statement.
He said being poor is risky andthat sat with me.
So you have someone that'slistening and they say,
Sebastian, I don't have themoney to invest.
How can they start small?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (23:03):
That is a great question.
So I actually just finishedspeaking about that, because a
lot of the people at the churchthat I spoke to were not in a
position to buy a house and putit up for rent or do Airbnb, and
it's sad that we're taught thatthe only ways to invest are
these massive tens of thousandsof dollars to put down into
things like stocks or realestate properties.
(23:23):
But you don't have to do itthat way.
What I teach, for example, isprimarily something a little bit
more short-term.
In the world of the market,where you can just set aside a
small amount of cash, doshort-term investing, and with
the same small amount of cashthat you set aside one time, you
can scale it up over time,steadily, slowly, right, but
it's still money on the sidethat you would otherwise not
(23:44):
have.
One of the people that I spoketo over this weekend was a lady
telling me that, hey, I'm notmaking a whole lot of money and
I'm deeply in debt.
What can I passively do?
Is it safe for me to invest?
Should I?
And I told her you have to.
You are not in a position tonot invest, because if you keep
working and paying off your debtas a subscription that you
(24:05):
can't put more money into whenyou need to or help pay it off
faster.
Guess what?
That is a 30 year financialdeath sentence where the
interest is going to eat youalive.
You cannot operate that way Ifyou are lacking money.
What you need to do actively isthink of ways to generate more
to be able to pay off debt, andso that's what I'm doing for her
(24:26):
.
With short-term investing, youdon't need $10,000.
I suggest anywhere between 500to 1,000, a one-time investment
into your own account that youcan now use to slowly scale up
and over the span of even just.
I've had people that have made$10,000 in a month, not to set
that as a standard, but to justshow you that there's so much
(24:46):
prosperity that can be in placefor you when you start walking
in the idea of multiplicationand exponentials, as opposed to
this false consistency of a job.
Dr. Brooks (24:57):
I grew up with so many limiting beliefs.
When it came to money, it wasnot talked about in my home.
My parents did not share theirfinances with us.
But when it comes to you, youhave helped over 1200 people
with their finances.
What have you learned aboutteaching those financial
principles to people of faithwho may have grown up, like
(25:18):
myself, with limiting beliefsaround money?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (25:22):
who may have grown up, like myself, with
limiting beliefs around money.
So, first off, I'm deeplyinspired by these people because
I'm seeing a shift in the worldof the church where it is well,
let me put it this way A lot ofmy clients are Black, older
women, right, who you wouldexpect to be the last people to
be able to break out of thoselimiting beliefs because they've
grown up their whole life, oldschool.
(25:42):
But I'm seeing a huge shift,not just in the church world but
in the general world of peoplerealizing that the systems that
we live in they're not for us,we are working for them and that
has to change, right?
I've noticed how deeply of ashift that has been happening
and how many people have come tome looking for solutions and
how brave they are.
One of my clients is thisretired black woman that has
(26:05):
cancer and she obviously withretirement.
It's not easy.
Retirement doesn't work how itused to.
Social security is down thedrain.
But this lady is the first onein my class, every single
morning, just there ready tomake money and it's so inspiring
seeing someone who wasdisqualified from the idea of
(26:26):
entrepreneurship, from investing, from success, just unincluded
in all of these things, justhave the courage to stand up and
do it herself.
So from working with peoplethat have had so many limiting
beliefs for so long, I love howmy conversations are able to at
least spark a flame in them, tohave the courage to step into my
world for a second and justexplore, just having the
(26:48):
audacity to explore a little bit.
And I try to make it easy forthem by giving them as much time
as they need for free untilthey begin to see results.
Dr. Brooks (26:58):
Sometimes, when it comes to destroying those
limited beliefs, the first thingthat we have to do, I believe,
is forgive ourselves.
So we have someone that'slistening and they just are so
hard on themselves.
I shouldn't have got myself indebt.
I should have known better.
What advice can you offer themto move forward?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (27:13):
I would say that there's two big things.
Right, there is nothing wrongwith where you are, because it
was simply a consequence of yourprogramming from the system,
but there is something deeplywrong with where you allow
yourself to stay right.
And if you've been sufferingthis long and you're being
crushed by this weight, realizethat it's not going to go away
(27:33):
until you do something about it.
You have to do something aboutit.
So, for example, that lady thatwas telling me over this week
and how deeply in debt she isand how she doesn't have the
money to do very many things.
I said to her yeah, you shouldbe investing.
You have to, because if nothingchanges stupid sentence.
But think about it for a second.
If nothing changes, right,however you're living now, if
(27:55):
you don't take that step,especially the step to forgive
yourself, acknowledge whatyou've done and think about what
you will do instead, withoutthat, you're going to keep
staying exactly where you are.
So a quote from one of the mostunlikely people you'd expect,
but it's from Steve Harvey, ofall people.
He said if you're going throughhell, why stay there?
(28:15):
You're at the hardest part ofyour journey, right, there's no
reason to stay there.
Just keep it going and You'reat the hardest part of your
journey right.
Dr. Brooks (28:25):
There's no reason to stay there.
Just keep it going and allthat's left for you is up.
So, when it comes to investing,if they want to invest with you
through Stock University, whatdoes that process look like?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (28:32):
It's a very simple process and I focus very
much on personal attention andcare with everyone.
So I give everyone, even like,my direct number to contact me
at any time of the day.
But the process is reallysimple.
I make it really simple, Ibreak it down.
I direct them to, first andforemost, the video lessons on
my website, which are deeplycomprehensive.
They teach everything from zeroto 100, including which
platforms to use, where to fundyourself, what to do all those
(28:56):
different things right, and fromthere they have access to a
wonderful community where I'mpresent every single day,
teaching them more, showing themhow to do everything.
And most importantly, like Isaid, is I want them to be
comfortable.
So not only do I give them awhole month to learn, practice
and profit before ever gettingcharged, to see the results.
Before anything else, I don'twant people to trust me, just to
(29:17):
trust me.
I want them to see authenticresults and that's why I've even
invested for some churchleaders to show them that what I
do works.
Before they'll have me speakfor their church and whatnot,
but anyway, once they've hadtheir month of learning, I even
give them tools to invest withpractice money.
So it's not even real money thatthey're investing with.
First it's like this trialaccount, where they can again
(29:39):
practice with zero risk and onlyonce they're comfortable do
they fund themselves.
Money that I never touch, bythe way.
That's all for them.
I'm just teaching them how tomanage it, and then they just
start following along steadilywith some of the opportunities
that I'll send out, that I'mtaking myself.
So it is all the hand-holdingprocess zero to 100.
Very encouraging and deeply Ifocus on deep comfort for each
(30:00):
and every one of my people.
Dr. Brooks (30:02):
You have shared so much with us here on today when
it comes to your journey.
You started your first businessat 16 years.
What role did your faith playin giving you confidence to
pursue entrepreneurship at sucha young age?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (30:17):
Everything, everything, and, most
importantly, it played two bigroles.
I think, if we're puttingmyself on a boat and the boat is
entrepreneurship, faith was myanchor and my sail.
It was what anchored me deepdown into my purpose Whenever
the winds got too aggressive andthe temptations were strong to
do whatever.
It was such a deep anchorageinto hey, remember that you're
(30:41):
doing this for people and it'sone of the reasons why, even
today, I have the mostaffordable platform for everyone
is because it's here for thepeople.
It's a passion project.
I'm making, first and foremost,my profit from what I preach,
which is my investments, and theentrepreneurship is secondary.
Right, it's all a missionstatement.
And then, at the same time, myfaith was the wind to my sails,
(31:02):
where it kept me going forward,even when I would lose vision,
even when I had doubts.
It just kept me deeplymotivated when nothing else
seemed to work and when I had noreason to right.
Sometimes there's no light atthe end of our tunnels, but we
just keep walking and that's Godimposing us forward and saying,
hey, just keep going and you'llsee that light soon enough.
(31:22):
So faith was everything to me.
And thank you for that question, thanks for anchoring us back
into that.
Dr. Brooks (31:28):
You talk about financial freedom, but you also
emphasize mentorship and serviceover profit.
How are you able to balancebeing mission driven in a money
driven world?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (31:39):
First off, I would say it's by doing
exactly what I said.
So here's what bothers me aboutthe world of finance, and it
really is a crappy world.
Like I said earlier, there's alot of people that overcharge
and, like you said, it's plagued, and this scares people away
and that's what sucks.
It's plagued by the pyramidscheme, by the Ponzi scheme.
It's plagued by things likethat, which was an obstacle for
me to show people like hey,you're safe with me.
(32:00):
That's why I do things like thefree month and I'm so
affordable and I build thispersonal connection because I
have to.
I need to show them that thisis the right place in a crappy
world and that they need thistool.
We do, unfortunately, right.
We need to know about finance,we need to know about investing,
but the way that I anchormyself in a money-driven world
with purpose is because I don'tneed the money from the business
(32:22):
.
I practice what I preach and ifI'm preaching about success and
investment and I know thatthey're gonna see results, why
would I charge them first?
That is one of the main redflags in the industry is these
guys that do trading, but theywant to charge you $5,000 first.
Wait a minute.
Aren't you trading yourself Ifyou're sure that I'm going to
(32:44):
see results like why are youdoing that?
So I don't need the money fromthe clients, because I make my
money primarily from what I'mpreaching.
And then, even then, I wantthem to have the free time first
to see what I got, beforeanything else to see what I got
before anything else.
Dr. Brooks (32:57):
I like the authenticity that you're sharing
and you have been very openwith us.
As we wrap up, what is onemessage or a piece of advice
that you want to leave with ourlisteners who may be navigating
their own entrepreneurialjourney?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (33:11):
Keep in mind a lot of the time we get
stuck in this linear cycle andyou forget that it just takes
one decision to break away fromthat.
I spent three, almost fouryears struggling in my business
with no success, to suddenlybeing catapulted way over six
figures with just one decision,and that was to follow faith,
become a public speaker and tocontinue to focus on purpose I'm
(33:33):
a public speaker and tocontinue to focus on purpose, so
my ultimate message is justgoing to tie into things
Remember that nothing changes,nothing changes if nothing
changes, and that there'snothing riskier than staying
where you're at.
So change something.
Dr. Brooks (33:46):
That is good advice and I am so just honored to
have you on this episode today.
I like that you lead with yourfaith, because sometimes in the
entrepreneur's faith, those thathave a higher belief, sometimes
they don't bring that into thatfaith because they don't want
to offend anyone.
Thank you for not shying awayfrom that and for really letting
people know that is theprinciples that drive your
(34:10):
interactions with people, thatdrive your decision-making.
If someone wanted to get intouch with you, how?
SEBASTIAN UZCÁTEGUI (34:14):
can they do that?
There's three big ways.
You can go to StocksUnicom,S-T-O-C-K-S-U-N-Icom, SpeakUp
Express, which is my business ofpublic speaking, which is just
SpeakUpExpress.
But I also never afraid toshare my number directly for
people that want to ask mequestions because, again, this
is a purpose for me and even ifmy phone blows up, I like to
(34:36):
speak with people directly andhear about what their struggles
are, what their goals are.
So that would be 407-952-4871.
And, Dr Brooks, thank you somuch for such a wonderful
conversation and it really isrefreshing in my world of I
speak a lot for a lot of otherstages, but it's so refreshing
always to come back to the faith, to give back in this world
(34:56):
specifically.
So thank you for thisopportunity.
Dr. Brooks (34:59):
You are definitely the first guest that ever gave
their number out on thisplatform, so I will make sure
that I have all your contactinformation in the actual show
notes.
So again everyone, thank you somuch for listening.
Intro (35:13):
Thanks for listening.
Please rate this episode andshare it with your family and
friends.
To learn more about your hostor to book a coaching session,
visit wwwbrooksdemmingcom.
Until next time, rise.
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