Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - Pokemon Cards Beat the S&P 500? | Asher Lara | Coffeez Ep. 308

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Gen Z creator and entrepreneur Asher Lara sits down with Joe. Dropping out to bet on social media, building 8 million subscribers, the real formula behind going viral, brand deals and building an agency, Pokemon and One Piece card investing, why personal brand beats a resume, and turning attention into a real business.New episodes every week. Pour up.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

One, two. Thank you, Asher, yeah, yeah. Alyssa. Let me get an iced peach green tea lemonade. Absolutely. Wait, Asher, are you, I heard that Victor Ortiz knocked you out and threw you in the hospital. Oh, I don't even want to talk about it.

Is that what's gonna be in your next year? I still feel it, that's why I need this tea. Oh my God, let me get this tea for you. While I'm doing that, I want you to pick your best favorite chocolate and have a bite okay for me. Tell me what you think. Thank you. You're welcome.

All right, Asher. I can't wait to see you get knocked out in your next YouTube video. Not down. Come on, follow me. I'm going to take you to Joe. Joe. The legendary Asher Lara in the building. Joe So Shalby, dude. What's up everybody? Welcome to another very special episode of coffees. I'm your host, Joe Shalby.

And today we're sitting down with one of the fastest rising young entrepreneurs of Gen Z, the one, the only, Asher Lara. Damn. That was good. I'm honored, man. Very honest. I wanted to be here. Thanks, thanks for coming. Yeah. You're in the building.

You got the whole crew here. Asher, I'd like to start to show off with the same question I ask every one of my guests. And I've never asked this to someone this young, but let's go with it. What's your morning routine? Honestly, I start the day. I check the phone. Like, I'm Gen Z. You gotta remember.

I check the phone. I look at how many likes views. I got all my most recent videos. I look at the YouTube AdSense, like how much money I made yesterday. I check out what's on the to-do list, you know, what videos I'm going to film, I text the team, what am I doing today? So I text with them today, like, dude, I can't be late for this coffees with Joe. And how much money you make yesterday on YouTube?

Like, a thousand? That's it? Yeah. YouTube doesn't pay very well. No, they don't, yeah. You made more money on Pokemon than YouTube yesterday, huh? That's true, yeah, probably, probably. You're a young entrepreneur now.

You're not just a social media influencer, so we've classified you outside of the realm of social media. You've got multiple ventures going on right now. You've used YouTube as a platform to basically catapult your business. How has social media really helped you elevate your business? And how are you leveraging social media to build your company currently? Ever since when I was like 17, I wanted just to be on social media. I just wanted to be out there because I knew like, I just wanted to create videos. And I saw one of my best friends doing it at the time in high school. And I was like, this is really cool. He was getting a bunch of likes and views. I was like, dude, I might be the coolest kid at school with like all these videos. So I mean, I knew social

media was going to turn into like an actual business of mine if I kept going hard at it. And then after high school, I just, I got into LMU. I went online for a year and then I dropped out just pursuing full on social media. Full on. Yeah, full on made parents really happy about dropping out of it. Oh, no, no, no. My Asian parents were not happy, especially my mom. But she's, she's handling it well right now. Yeah, she's like, Well, he's got 10 million. So I guess it's cool. It's a real thing now.

He's buying more houses than I ever could. No, no, no, no. I'm just going under your footsteps. So, Ashtra, for the people that don't know us, want you to tell the audience how we met. No, through Joey. Was Joey? Yeah, I met through Joey.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We met through Joey. Oh, yeah, we met through Joey. Yeah, that's right. Joey's my videographer. He actually came and met with the producers the other day. And, yeah, Joey was telling me I create for one of the biggest YouTubers. I'm his videographer, and I'm like, really?

And then, oh, here's, then, I don't think I was even that big then. No, you weren't, you had like 4 million subscribers. Oh, but here's how we really met. Joey was like, oh, Asher's mom is a loan officer. I'm like, oh, let's get her a job. So your mom got a job at the company. Oh, yeah, yeah.

But yeah, then she came down and then we met, and then she was pumped that, you know, we were working together. So she probably got off your butt for not going to school. Because now she's like, wow, you are doing some big things. Yeah, no, I mean, she still wants her to go school But I think Until this very day

No, no, I think That's never gonna stop No, it's never gonna stop For Asian parents, no But every single year, like she's brought it up a little less So that's what's better Like every Lamborghini I get She stops talking about it

No, no, no, dude I think I'm done with like supercars I think materialistic stuff I think It's not as fun I think you get much more joy About buying a Chinese meal Chinese meal

Yeah, let me, let's talk about it. Like, what do you think, do you think cards are a good investment? I sent a snapshot of the top 10 performing AAA asset classes to some friends. And number one performing asset class in the last three months was One Piece. Was One Piece? Really? Yeah, One Piece was 33%. Two was Pokemon, 32%.

And three was the SMP, which was 11%. Oh, I see. Like, One Piece outperformed every asset that's gold, Bitcoin, everything, Tesla, Nvidia. Yeah. I got into One Piece when the market crashed in, like, February. The market crashed in February.

And then it pumped really high in January. And then February and March is when it kind of crashed. So I got into it when I came back from London. I went to a show. I think about like maybe 10K worth of One Piece. And then it grew a little bit in April and I got a little bit more. And then. And now it's just, now it's 10% a month.

Just blooming. I think it went up like 100%. I doubled my money in like most of my cards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the last three months it went up 30%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That means three months prior to that, another 30. So yeah, you've doubled your money since February.

Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. There's no asset class performing like that. Yeah, it's crazy. But it is a little scary though. It's like once I pull out. For me, with my kids, we're just hold investors and we're buying raw and grading.

So, and we're fixing. We're, you know. Fixing cards? We actually do the restoration. Oh, really? So we clean them, buff them, get dense out. We do it all together. That's crazy.

And it's a family project. Oh, wow. So it's a great way for me to bond. You see Theo's calling you saying, hey, Ashtra, what card should we buy next? Yeah. Because your ears to the ground as to what investments are. I think one-piece championship cards. Yeah.

That's a good idea. You heard it first tier, guys. That's the next big investment strategy. Yeah. you know Asher you're you're like the only person I've been out in public with and every young girl on the planet is like screaming oh my gosh it's Asher it's Asher it's Asher it's Asher What's it like you are the modern day movie star you know back in the day you know it'd be like You know some movie star and that's how people would respond but now the real the real stars are

YouTubers and TikTokers what's it like like walking through a mall like what's it feel like you know Like it is it annoying? Do you like it? Do you like the fandom? Oh, no, I truly enjoy it. I think that was my dream like when I was 17 like starting. I didn't even really care about the money. I was like, oh, I just wanted to be famous. Like make a couple of videos and like people actually enjoy what I make. So now like when people come up to me, it's like, oh wow, like this is, it came true. Like I get to meet people. So I'm super nice to everyone. I make conversation. But I don't like, I don't think I'm like that famous.

But like so a couple people come up to me. Say hi. What's up? But, yeah, I think it's pretty insane. That's insane. That's a dream come true for you, just to be walking around, like, everyone's stopping. No autographs yet. Everyone's just selfies. Gen Z doesn't do autographs. No, not really.

What am I going to do with that? I mean, I have maybe like a 1% chance out of like 100 people. But, yeah, I think YouTubers are kind of moving into making their own televisions. So lots of YouTubers are doing their own episodes, movies. and I heard what is that show What is that movie? Obsession?

I think that was produced by some YouTubers Obsession. It's a scary movie that's out right now. Yeah, I think that's Yeah, and also backroom That's scary movie. Really?

So YouTubers are getting into full on television. Full on television and producing and yeah, it's kind of crazy right now. Is that something that you have on your roadmap right now? No, not really. Not making any movies or episodes.

I think I want to do I want to focus a little bit more of my agency. And so I want to focus on kind of growing my, like, my friends and my clients, like, personal brands through, like, social media. That's what's, like, really cool to me. Yeah, you started with me. I think I was your first client. Yeah, yeah. And now you've got several clients.

Yeah, yeah. And you're creating, but are you working with? What kind of businesses are you working with? Um, I've, I, I've done like bobo shops. I've done, um, like bands, like singers. I've done, um, who else? I've done, um, actually this, this, um, my most recent client, this, um, she's called Leah Goldstein. You can search her up. But when we first started working with her in like April, she had like 20,000 subscribers. And like, right now she has like 110 in like two months. Nice. So it's pretty insane. What's been the growth strategy for her? Dude, I literally told them, I'm like, you gotta do call to action interview style. So this stuff that kind of used. You did like the um like if you follow me and i'll double your budget and stuff like that so she's like a 14 year old girl and so she goes up to like random like people like like taking them shopping it's like really intriguing to watch 14 year old girl yeah yeah 120 000 subscribers yeah it's pretty insane that's amazing yeah that seems like a cool strategy how are you how are how are people finding

you for this stuff um honestly no no no not really so i mean i like to word of mouth like yeah just furrows. I mean, I usually like to keep it pretty separate because I think my social media should just be about like me and like my lifestyle because that's what kind of keeps the brand deals going. But I think I conify should be a thing like by itself. So when you posted your first one, what did you think you were going to get for? And was that successful enough for you? No. Well, my first video, I feel like everyone's first video is always like it's like a, it's like the first step into something. So I feel like I knew it was going to flop. I knew it was going to do bad, but it was okay because I just wanted to post content.

And so for actually a whole year, I've gone literally, I was in like the 500 view jail. Like I would only get 200 to 500 views. I'm not even kidding. For a year. For a whole year on one of my accounts. What kept you going? I mean, that's like, that's, yeah, I know. I just sucks.

I honestly don't even know what kept me going. I think I just had nothing else in my life. And then I was like, this is literally what I just want to do. And I posted it for a year straight. And then I was like, dude, this content's not working. Like it was, it was, like, what kind of content were you posting? I don't even remember. I think it was just like, um, I think it was just like,

no, and it was just like TikTok trends like here and there. I was just copying other creators. And then I started doing street interviews. And then when I like take people shopping and did stuff like that and I was like, oh, dude, this is working. So, and then I doubled down on that and then I eventually took off. But I feel like trial and error is kind of what kept me going. Trial and error.

Yeah. So the first video, it always stops. And second video, third video. It seemed like a third one. It's like a third hundred video. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, you were 300 videos deep and it still didn't work. Exactly. I mean, same for you, right?

Yeah. You had a bunch of videos for, um, with Joseph Shallaby in the account and then you learned what worked and then you double down on it. Everybody wants attention. Very few people actually know how to earn it. Somewhere along the way, you figured out what millions of creators never do. Tell us about your first video that really exploded. Why do you think you think? Why do you think that the very first video that exploded actually connected to people? I would say that there's a lot of videos that are kind of just just because they're like trending and I could think of on top of my head like a single video

that I could actually break down and kind of describe why I blew up. And I think it's still one of my interview shopping videos but I think the beginning the hook was very good when I went up to people and then I asked them a question. It was like, it was either like, excuse me, or like, sorry to bother or like, hi, I think you're pretty or something like that. I think that's what people are like, oh my God, like people are talking to random people in public. And then in the middle of the video, I was like, over here following me and then I'll double your budget. And then when people, when people follow you, the algorithm actually sees it and then pushes out your video more. So that's why I think the number one thing is like watch time and then following and then shares and then stuff like that.

But I think that video blew up just because, like, there's so much, like, call to action in the video. And then the hook was very good. People wanted to see the ending. But always something like that. So I don't think there's, like, a direct formula you can use for every single video because every niche is different. But I think if you can have a strong hook that you've seen work in your niche, you can kind of replicate it. Yeah. How do you come up with your hooks?

I don't even know. When I'm, like, in my filming mode, I just, like, I just know what to say. It's just your gift. It's just natural. Yeah. I think I just learned all in the way. You're always learning with social media. I think we're still just, still, you know, we're reinventing ourselves now again,

now with this whole new brand development that we're doing for my personal brand. And it's been a, you know, it's been a big learning curve for us as well. How do you continue to reinvent yourself? Honestly, I think the people around me and I think I try to keep up with like the new, like, creators, new trends. that are like coming up and I like I feel like collabs are always very good way because people want to see new faces on your page new stuff and um I think you can't ever be like the same as everyone else right other you can't you can't be unique you can't stand out so I think you got to like switch up your

content so you got to keep up the trends like for all the gen z for all the gen z people out there you know like the six seven so you got to incorporate the six seven in the videos so it's like stuff like that you just you just got to go like watch kind of doomscroll a little bit Now, did you ever think that you would have actually built a real business around social media? And it would become what it is today? I think, honestly, no. I really didn't think so. I think I really underestimated myself.

Honestly, when I first started, I just wanted the post. And I was just like, just give me like 100,000 views and I'll be good. And eventually I did and they kept doing it. And then I did not know I was going to make money for. I did not know like I was gonna be able to like actually support my like lifestyle from it. Um, yeah, I had no idea. What's your highest income generating source right now? Is it cards?

I mean, you got, you got an expensive. Fancy houses. Yeah. Lots of supercars. Like what is it that that's really fueling the engine right now? Um, I would say- YouTube, is it TikTok? Is it Instagram?

Is it Snapchat? Is it? Yeah. So I would say, um, you can't always have one. So I mean, like I would say in 2024, it was YouTube. So I think YouTube was, I was doing like 50K a month just off the YouTube videos. And then along with brand deals, along with, I started like an agency called Iconify, which helps other businesses grow their social media through organic or paid content.

So I did that. And then, well, right now I would say the biggest thing is brand deals and also my agency. What's the biggest brand deal you've ever gotten? Dude, I don't know if I can save. I'll say their names. Okay, I don't know how, I don't know if I can say how much, but I'll say their names. I've worked with YouTube Coachella. I worked with Envisaline, Bands Journeys.

I worked with Paxon. And I think the most recent one was like Google Gemini, like their AI app they just came out with. Nice. I always see you doing some brandy as mixed into your content. I'm like, he actually mixed that in pretty well. Thank you, thank you. That did actually look pretty cool. It doesn't get as much engagement as your normal content, but it still gets a ton of engagement.

100%. What's the strategy when you're doing a brand deal and you're trying to stay on brand with your actual personal brand and the engagement strategy? Because you still want to pull in all the views, but still want to keep it relevant to your personal brand. So you're saying like what keeps... Yeah, like how do you keep brand deals on brand with your personal brand? Yeah. So I mean usually when a brand comes to... to me, they know themselves that, oh, I can fit in this creator's niche.

I can fit in this creator's organic content. So, for example, they would ask me to do, if I'm a lifestyle content creator, so for example, Invisaline asked me to do five videos for a few months, right? So I knew, like, what type of story, like, I can either do like a story time, like how I was in high school and I used to get, how it used to get bullied from my teeth. And I kind of like revamped into like, oh, now I have Envisaline. now I like talk to all these girls or something like that right so that um I kind of incorporate that into like my lifestyle that's clever yeah yeah so who writes it you do um well me and like my

youtube strategist and like kind of my employees around me yeah that's that's amazing now I got a funny question for you would you rather have a million dollars or a million subscribers I think it really depends on where the subscribers are coming from and like what type of audience it is. Yeah, I think if you have young old, sorry, young, um, young entrepreneur like followers that want to like kind of like, are intrigued in everything you're doing and want to like, and want to like, um, either learn from you, kind of copy your lifestyle or like just buy whatever you're promoting. I think that's more important than a million dollars. Absolutely. Yeah. It's going to be a, you know, I With the trajectory you're going on, it should be a big thing.

Yeah, yeah. Now, take me back. Before millions of followers, before having all these businesses, before the supercars, before all the millions of dollars that you made, what was young Asher like growing up in L.A.? And I don't think you grew up in the hood. I think it was Alhambra or something? Alhambra, yeah, yeah. What was life like then?

To be honest, I grew up in Shanghai, China for like nine years in my life. So I was born in Los Angeles in Alhambra And then at three years old I moved to Shanghai China I went to like a private international school So everyone there spoke Chinese and English And so that's why I'm like fluent in Chinese But I'm also good at English And then I moved back here

Oh yeah but when I went to that school Like everyone was like insanely rich I was like the poorest student there Because it was like a Chinese international private school Yeah, so at eighth grade, I moved back here and then I started social media when I was I think Sophomore in high school so that's when I was like 16 16 and when was the breakthrough first video that broke through do you remember it?

I think honestly it was just like a silly video So I made like the same content for a year straight and I think I was just like you know I'm just gonna change it out I'm gonna do something like stupid I'm gonna do something random and then I did like a little a video of me in class, like wearing like a mask. And then, um, I think people were like, they just, I just blew up because like my outfit was cool. Some, I think it was like 50,000 views. So not crazy, but it was like better than 500 views. So yeah. So yeah. So yeah. How did growing up in two completely different cultures shape who you are today? Um, I think it shaped me a lot. Like I was in like, I don't remember much of my childhood.

in Los Angeles because that was only three. But then I remember a lot when I was in Shanghai, China. Like, I would go take the subway, like, eat Chinese food all the time. Honestly, just, I think it was more like my lifestyle in school. I was, like, going to my friend's house and they had, like, crazy, crazy houses. Like, like, also they, it's not the houses. Like, they owned, like, the entire, like, apartment community. Like, it was crazy.

Like, I... It's like stupid money. Yeah. Like, we were driving. around golf carts and stuff like that to get around. But, and then I, and then when I went home, it was like to my apartment. So it was like kind of crazy. But my mom did a lot for me to go to school.

I met a lot of great people, yeah. Now, all the social media started, I guess, with something that you did with your best friend. Right? Was it a video that you did with the best friend? Was it a challenge that you did with your best friend? Take us back. How did this all start? I mean, I think it was me, like me and my best friend more like in a conversation.

competition, like friendly competition. So he was growing really fast. I was kind of looking up to that. And I was like, dude, what is this guy doing that I'm doing wrong? So he was kind of doing like interview style content, but I was like, I don't really want to copy that. I kind of want to make my own like twist to it. So I started, is that Justin? No, it's Ryan Tang. That's his name. Is he bigger than you now or no? No, no. I mean, he's doing good, but I would say I've, a little bit more than him. Yeah. But, um, Yeah, so I started doing interviews and I started like taking people shopping and then I think that's what people like really enjoyed because it's like interacting with like the real world It's like people are like watching my videos like oh I want to meet this guy in person. I want him to take me shopping

Yeah, I think that's why people like kind of go up to you as well. It's like oh I want to I want to get the Xbox that you're given out Dude, that was we totally pivoted from that strategy But that got annoying. I'm like I'm glad I stopped that because but that got you to a lot of followers Yeah And then you pivoted out of that and then started something else. But, you know, nothing will grow like that. You know, when you do content where you're interactive, man on the street content and, you know, being charitable, people love that the most. Oh, 100%.

Yeah. Now my brand more focuses on just me as an entrepreneur or CEO, podcaster. It's not nearly as sexy. No, it still is. But it's still, you know, it's just a more elevated, more elevated audience that's, engaging with it now. Yeah. I think that's honestly what's better.

I think some creators kind of tend to always chase virality and like always chase like what's what's making them the views like right now and not like longevity. So I think trying to changing up your content and kind of trying to get out of your niche a little bit and trying to chase what's like the bigger goal. I think that's what's more important. That's why you're here right now. Yeah. Exactly.

I know I know you're not doing podcasts at a especially entrepreneurial podcast yet. And I know you want to start that journey now. Yeah, exactly. I'm happy that you're taking that first step with us. I always see the clips of, I always see the clips of coffee. I always see the clips of coffees on your Joseph Shalachby page. And I think I told you like five times. I was like, I want to be on it.

Yeah. So cool. Yeah. Now we're going to be collaborating on it. Now this is about to blow up, baby. 100%. About to blow up. And we're going to take, we're taking this show to another level.

But now kind of elevating your brand, elevating our brand, together. We're doing this together. We're winning together. Yes, sir. Years later. Yeah. Let's go. Now, you know, at what point did you realize, and this might have been recent for you, at what point did you realize that you're just not creating content anymore? You actually have a tangible money-making business. It's like when did I realize that? Yeah, when did you realize? Because you just started this content game.

Yeah. Like three and a half years ago. and you went and you exploded on YouTube and then you just started taking on clients and you know with me but with me I think I was your first big one but you started making like just ridiculous sums of money in the last couple years yeah um I think I mean my first biggest brand deal I think was nine thousand dollars and I think that was with um fashion Nova so when I told my mom that like she was really hyped but she was like still go back to school that's like nothing but um I think as just these brand deals started coming in, I was like, dude, they really want to work with me.

Like, why does Vans journeys want to pay me 12K for three videos? And then I was like, bro, this is huge. Like, I'm going to keep doing this. But I think that's what I realized, like, I think, like, just having, like, an audience and be able to kind of make, like, storylines, kind of make, like, lifestyle content, kind of make content that people can relate. And also, like, eventually buy your product just because you're promoting it. I think that was like, oh, wow, this is really.

really going to work. And that happened when the last two years? I think ever like yeah, ever since I blew up, I started realizing that. But I think that's why I told people it's so important to start like a personal brand. And I think that's exactly what what you've done, which is huge. That's what I've done. You know, now personal brand is imperative with the world of AI. I was talking about personal brand before AI took off. Now personal brand is all that's relative. If you don't have a personal brand in any industry, you're just not going to survive because of the world of AI, people don't care about the customer, the company anymore. People care about the person that they're working with because of AI. Everything is like centralized around

the actual individual and not the, not the company itself. But that wasn't a thing, you know, back then pre-AI, pre-AI, you know, personal brand was just, you know, you sell your product or whatever. Now personal brand is like, it's your entire business. Do you think personal brand is better than a resume? Absolutely. Personal brand is your resume. Yeah, yeah. It is your resume. Because now chat GPT, it's literally indexing every single word that we are saying on this podcast right now. So this is like your first thought, this is your first thought leadership podcast where all of your thoughts now are outside of the interviews and the relatable content. Now people get to hear Asher's intellect.

And they can talk to chat GPT about what Asher said on coffees. What's his opinion about this? And it can formulate true opinions about you based on. on the narrative that you're explaining on this podcast. So personal brand now is your resume. Personal brand now is your identity. And it's basically any opinion that's formed around you because every word that you say is indexed on AI.

Yeah, that's really cool. AI really changed the game. It changed the game. So had I known what I had known back then about personal brand, I wouldn't have done a lot of the silly videos that I did. Like feeding people with tarantias. Oh my, yeah, I remember that. That was crazy.

What do you think the biggest mistake is that creators make when they're chasing viral success? I think just caring about video going viral is not really going to get you anywhere. Like, if you keep chasing like virality, is that, yeah, then you're not really building anything long-term. So I think you want to build something that's more like, this is what I'm promoting. Like, this is why I'm kind of. posting on my platform. This is why I want to like keep posting. So I think if you if you just keep chasing like oh this viral video, I'm going to do this video, do this video and it all does good. But like my audience is like just just likes me because of the video. It's just not really

building any core audience. So that's like that's pretty much what every creator chases initially is virality. Yeah. What is it that you think that you did different outside of chasing virality? I think honestly, every niche is different. So I have more of a younger audience. So I actually, I've got a, I've, I've got, like, I've gotten a girlfriend to be in my video. And that was like, it's like, it builds more of like a life stuff, like a more of like a real life, like audience. So it's like, oh my God, like what did you and your girlfriend do? Like, who's this girl?

Like stuff like that. She was also a mega YouTuber. Right, right. Like another influencer, yeah. You said you broke up with her live? Live? No, no, no. He didn't break up with her.

She broke up with him. There's some gossip. You want to walk the audience through what happened? No, actually, every time I broke up with her. You broke it with her? Yeah, every single time. I don't know if I should say this on camera, but I don't think she wants her to say this,

but every single time I broke up with her. But it's just personal reasons. But yeah, I think something that kind of, like, made me different and, like, made something to have a core audience was, like, something that happens in my life. So, like, I got a girlfriend, and then, like, people want to see what's, It's like the next girl with like stuff like that.

Yeah. It's funny. Like every 11 to 15 year old girl is gonna watch this YouTube video and go, huh. What's happened with Ashton and his girlfriend? Oh, he broke up with her. That's not what she said on her YouTube. There's gonna be videos made about this. Yeah, clips of clips of this video.

You know, going viral is one thing. Turning it in to a multi-million dollar business is a whole other spectrum of virality. Now, you managed to do this before the age of 20, which is something different. Now, walk us through making your first million dollars. How did that feel? How did it feel to make your first million?

And then how did it feel when you realize, dude, I'm a multimillioner now. I could have all this other extravagant stuff that I'm going to blow my money on, which we'll talk about you blowing your money in a second. Honestly, it's like, I can, only know like probably like a handful of people like around my age they're actually like making this much money but I feel like I don't know any 19 year olds making millions of dollars yeah well it's like

around my circle like there's only a few right but um I guess like because they're all other YouTubers yeah yeah but even like that even like compared to the like widespread of like other YouTubers I feel like it's still pretty rare like there's many content creators they have like millions of followers but they don't make that much and I think I'm very lucky to be able to like make good money so I don't know it feels very crazy I think I used to spend my money on a lot of like stupid stuff but I think I'm just like starting to like slow down on that yeah I mean you just told me now you sold your McLaren yeah yeah awesome because you're not blowing all your money on your car is that you don't drive or you crash I mean you've crashed

lambos you've crashed McCarrens I don't think you last in any supercar I don't think No, I don't say that. Haven't crashed a supercar. Every single one of them. Have you not crashed? Has there been one supercar that you haven't crashed? Yeah, like the ones I'm driving. The ones I have right now.

You haven't crashed any of them? No. Not the ones I have right now. You've probably just got them in the last couple months. Yeah, yeah. But like the ones I don't have, I crashed. Yeah. I'll say this.

Like, it is not my fault. Like, I've, I was like, dude, it's like. Are you taking videos of your soul? It's the wind. It's the wind. No, I'm kidding. No, but I actually. I just randomly by this Asian lady.

I mean serious, like I was in my Euris. Like we could probably pop up a photo somewhere here, but yeah, it's like... If you had to start all over today, zero followers, zero customers, what would your first move be? But I have all the knowledge I have right now? But you have all the knowledge you have right now. Dude, I think I could get to a million subscribers in like a month. No way. Um, I think actually starting from zero to having a lot of subscribers,

it's pretty simple. I mean, when you had like, what is the 60,000 followers on IG and then you went to a mill, like you felt like you grew very quick, right? But now it's hard to get to two months. Right, so I'm at 8.7, 8 mil, but I was like, I think a few months ago I was like 8.5. So like, I remember a month I was doing a million subscribers in 28 days, but that was like in 2023 and like.

But subscribers are harder to get now. Yeah, and I think it's like when you already have so many subscribers, it's like people see that they're not really inclined to subscribe to a bigger channel, right? But I think you can still make it work, but just that's my experience. But if I start from zero, I probably like, I'll probably do the content I'm doing right now. And then I would do street interviews that I refer you to do. I refer all my clients to do and I'm going to do it myself. but it's like taking people shopping and then having a call to action in the middle of the video.

So it's like, I'll double your budget if you follow me. Like, if you like, if you follow me, I'll give you $1,000 right now, something like that. But like you say that in the video to like not, it's like a not directly call to action, but it's like an indirect CTA. So it's like you say that to the guy in the video and they're like, the person, the audience watching it is like, oh, maybe I'll get $1,000 or maybe my budget would be doubled it. my budget would be doubled if I see this guy in real life. Yeah, what if you start with zero and you're broke?

Like, no money at all. Yeah, no money. Like, you can't take people shopping and buying them $5,000. I mean, because when you film and when I film with you, it's not cheap. No, when I did that, I used my mom's credit card and then I paid her back. I mean, serious, when I did that, I think I was doing like $20, $20 products. I was just buying people that and I just pay my mom back. You're like, Mom, when my YouTube checks start coming in, I'm going to pay you back.

I'm going to pay you back. Yeah, no, but the thing is, oh, no, no, I did pay her back. No, but the thing is, I did sneaker reselling. So I had money saved up. So that's how you kind of paid her back to. You used to resell sneakers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the market's dead now.

Oh, yeah. Sneaker resell market. Now you're reselling Pokemon. I mean, the money. Okay, then I would do Pokemon vending. I would do, I would just do TCG vending. Every weekend I go to vending. So I would make probably a few thousand dollars there.

I do, I know this 14-year-old that vends. He makes like 10K a month. just vending. It's 14 year old, yeah. It shows? I shows, yeah, every single weekend. So I would do Pokemon vending and then I also do content. So that will fund my content and then I'll like snowball it. Yeah.

So what do you think the hardest thing is about having millions of people watching you grow up online? As a lifestyle content creator, I think the hardest thing is you have to, like I have to make content kind of based around my life. So when I want to shoot a video, it's like I have to shoot the video with the friends that my audience likes to watch or like a girl that my audience likes to watch I think that's a hard thing about a lifestyle content creator trying to like depend on other creators or people to be in your videos very difficult so yeah I always have to beg them to be in my videos yeah now do you ever get those moments when you're like you feel a lot of pressure to create content where you feel a lot of pressure to create content and you really don't want to I don't

think so actually you just always are you just always are you just You wake up, you're ready to create content. Yeah. It's like first thing in the morning, that's the first thing that you want to check off on your list. Yeah. I mean, I've never like, I never was like, maybe like when I'm really tired, but I don't think I was like, damn, I just really don't want to film today. I don't think I ever said that. And you have multiple channels.

I mean, you got Ashtralara in Espennial, which is crazy. Yeah. Why don't you have Ashfalar and Mandarin, by the way? Because YouTube is banned in China. But I have a red note and a dowing account, which has a few hundred thousand followers. A what? Of a rent note. It's a Chinese app.

And then Dohing. It's like TikTok but Chinese. Oh, wow. Yeah, but yeah. Is you speaking in Spanish? It's actually dubbed in Spanish, but I don't really work on that channel anymore. That channel's kind of dead. It's got like 700,000 subscribers, right?

Dude, I think I paid more money to get my videos dubbed in Spanish. And now you just started a new Instagram, a new YouTube, collect Max. What's the goal? That was just an Instagram account. What's the goal with that new channel? What are you trying to make happen with it? Honestly, Are you going to monetize that?

Dude, honestly, yes. And I feel like you should do this too and every other content creators should do this too until it gets patched. But I've got brand deals just like 5K and just opening packs on video. So I'm like, dude, I'll do it. Like I'll, like, oh, you don't even have a big following.

Yeah, so that's what I'm saying. So like I literally, if you just make videos and if you average around like 100K views, so I'm averaging around like 50K views. On collect max? Yeah, which is pretty crazy. I have like 500 followers, but these videos are like, I try to make a lot of videos and make a consistent, but I want to get like a retaining deal from this pack opening company.

So I just rip packs for like 5K a vid for like five, five ads a month. You know, I was just like, why, why not? And I love Pokemon, so. That's awesome. Yeah. And you just came up with this. How many months ago? Like 30 days ago.

The collect mix started 30 days ago and you're already getting a brand deal? Yeah, yeah. I need to do that with my kids. Yeah, you should. You should, honestly? Yeah. Like a family channel opening packs, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think we're going to start that.

I just don't know the exact cadence. Like, just opening packs? I mean, just see what other creators are doing, like, in the TCG space and just, like, kind of copy it. But, like, if you do it, like, as a family, I think it would be pretty cool. Yeah. We also are, we're also restoring cards, which is fun, too. Oh, yeah. We do that.

There's a lot of stuff where we can restore. I see a lot of creators doing that, too. What's the biggest lie that social media tells young people? I think really nothing is like easy. So I think you see like your favorite streamer, favorite YouTuber like buy like a new super car and you're like, bro, I want to do this. But actually takes a lot of failure, trial and error. I think it takes a lot of like hard work and like kind of like almost something that makes you different about other people to really be like I want to do this like 110 percent, like 200 percent in. Like even if my videos flop, I'm going to keep going. But I think that's

with anything. I mean, I've met a lot of people that I feel like their jobs are easy and then I talk to them and then they tell me about their struggles. It's like, oh, it's actually really hard. You've proven that you know how to get attention. You've actually proven that you could turn attention into money. And you've proven that you could turn your attention into a real business. But now what's next? As I said, I think focusing on my, um, focusing on scaling my YouTube, my long-form YouTube videos, that's important. So I'm still struggling with that. How are you going to your long form YouTube. Dude, I think right now is a perfect time.

It's in summer. So I literally just told my strategy I'm like, dude, we need to post two times a week. Like, at least like... YouTube long form. Yeah. What kind of long form you're going to be posting? I want to do like more collapse with other people

because I feel like I've been doing a lot of videos in my circle a lot. So I kind of want to get out of that. So a lot of collabs. And then... So I want to do more long forum and then also I want to focus on my agency because I feel like that's very scalable

and actually, we just got two new clients for next month, so which is pretty insane. Yeah, long form is a very difficult strategy to crack. But yeah. It also pays the best for you, I'm sure, on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think that's one of the best forms of content.

There's a lot of longevity in it. Now, five, ten years from now, what do you think your content strategy is going to look like? I think I'm being a Pokemon master full time. No kidding. You might be just doing ripping packs, you know? Honestly, if it pays off. Dude, these companies are actually like pain creators so much to do it. It's crazy.

Yeah, but they know you're a creator already from your regular Asher-Laura. Yeah, yeah. So you just have this separate. But even that, I think it's like gambling, but not really gambling. It is fully gambling, actually. Yeah, but like people don't think it's gambling yet, though. Yeah, it's really gambling because your probability is like one in 700 to rip anything. It's just because it's Pokemon, like people don't think it's gambling.

It's like they're fully gambling websites. But it's like, it's not like 21 plus. Yeah, it's just like gambling for kids. Yeah, but your son can play it, like, which is crazy. When people stop calling you an influencer one day, what do you want to be remembered for? A content creator turned into an entrepreneur, but I started, like, I would say a young contractor turned into entrepreneur. What kind of businesses do you want to have?

I want to, I want to focus kind of on the business that I built, I conify, and then also, also maybe like, I don't know, just kind of learning from other. Yeah, like coffee shop. Influencer coffee shop. Influencer coffee shop, yeah. No, but like, I don't know. Maybe like meet some nice business friends. We'll give me some advice on like what businesses I should buy, like kind of get into.

Yeah, because right now I have no idea, only content. Content and cards. I've helped you a little bit with your business strategies. Yeah. Do cards have been insane the past three months? It's been slowing down though. I don't, I think it's still booming. Slow me down a little bit.

Pokemon's kind of drawing back a little bit. If you had one hour with every month. high school student in America, what's one lesson you would teach them? I would say school is not the only way to success. And I would teach that in a way where I would really have them try to find what they're good at, what they really enjoy, even if they make, like, no money. Because I feel like success is a very subjective term. So I feel like you can find success in just being happy, but like it's not all about, like, money.

So I think if you just find what you love doing, I think, yeah, doing good escrow is not the only route to success. Makes a lot sense. Do you think attention has become more valuable than money? And why? I think attention is money. I wouldn't say more valuable. I would just say it kind of leads into money. I think that's for every business.

Like without attention, without customers coming in, without like people come in and watch me. Like, there's no way I can make money. So I think right now there's a lot of people coming up to me. for advice, like, I want to do this with my business. Like, I want to be known for this guy in my niche. I want to be like this content creator. So it's just like everyone's coming to me, like wanting to do something on social media because they know the importance of it. What advice would you give the 17-year-old Asher before you posted your first video? I think 16 to 17 is when I was kind of like failing. So I would just say you're exactly where

you want to be. You want to be failing at this. Like, you want to be. failing right now because if you're not failing right now I just got like success with my first video I feel like I might get a few good videos and then I'm going to go back to failing because I don't really know with like my failures and why they didn't work you know so I think I also learned editing on the way you should learn a lot of things on the way so I would tell myself 10 year old self like what you wanted is very it's very soon but you just got to keep on going yeah I like that I like that I mean first you learn perseverance through social media and it's a lesson that people spend a lifetime sometimes trying to attain yeah dude i think honestly when i was like 16 like that my failing period i always

think about all the time like it was like also 22 2021 2021 so i was like like i was in my room i was like writing down on my like notebook i was like dude like this is what i want to do like i was like, like, I was telling my friends, like, no one in high school, like, believed in me. Like, everyone was like, dude. I was like, no, you're not going to do this. Like, this content's dumb. I mean, it was done at the time, so that's why I failed. But, like, I just remember, like, I wanted it really, really badly.

Now, what's one thing that you hope people understand about you, beyond the followers, beyond the fame, beyond the social media influence, beyond the supercars? I think I'm still, like, only 10%? where I really want, maybe not 10, like 20% where I want to really, really be. So I think there's a lot of new content going to be coming. There's a lot of collabs that are going to be coming. I think a lot of big stuff I want to be doing. So, I mean, I want people to know my real personality through the videos a lot more.

But I'm still growing. I'm only 20 years old. I turned 21 literally, oh, I turned 21 this month in a few weeks. Happy birthday. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Career is over. All your followers are long gone. What do you want people to remember about Astralara?

Me making my content, kind of failing for so long. I think just everything that I do in my life, like always having positive energy, I think that's what I want to be remembered for. Oh, I want to be remembered for being on coffees, for sure. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Let's go, yeah.

This is like my first big podcast. Let's go. See, young entrepreneurs on this show, first debut. And your first. First Thought Leadership Podcast, let's go. Mm-hmm. Now, we're going to conclude with a small little game show called Build It, Buy It, or Pass. So you're going to basically say one of those three things.

You ready? Personal brand. Build it, buy it or pass. Play Pass. I'm kidding. Build it. Of course. I was about to say.

Coffee shop. Nah, pass. Unless is with coffee. Yeah, I would say buy it. Crypto. How can you build it? Buy it, yeah. Yeah, buy it.

All right. AI marketing agency. Build it. Restaurant. Depends like what. I know so many restaurants are not doing that good. I would say depends. Probably buy it.

Buying an existing business. Yeah, buy it to build it, yeah. Take a guarantee $250,000. job or build your own company. It's what you define as success. So if that 250 a year, it defines success for you, then sure. But if your success wants to be making maybe 100K for first year, or 60K for the first year, like, but your business is like what you love to do, then build it. Quit college or start a business? I think depends on the person. I think if like you know what you're going to do when you quit college, then to build it. Hire best friend as your business partner.

I pass. Go all in on artificial intelligence for the next five years um build it now bonus question and you can only keep one followers or money which one do you choose and why i think for my type of audience i would say i think i could gain it back so money let's go so easy for these young influence you can followings yeah asher you've been a pleasure to have on the show the first young superstar gen z entrepreneur if people want to connect with How can they find you? Finally on Asher Lara on every single platform. Like literally anything.

Literally anything. And then the Chinese platforms. Yeah. Doying Redno, if you want to find me there, Ashlarara. Let's go. Yeah. Thank you, coffees. And I would be getting my own coffee shop.

Let's go. Yes, sir.