Digital Social Hour - Avoid These Mistakes in Your Journey to Millionaire Status! | Dr. Farrah Gray DSH #586

Starting point is 00:00:00 projects, you know, so a lot of us don't make it out. But those of us that do, you know, I always believe it's best to not only fight your way out, but pull other people with you. You know, I would say, you know, a lot of times in this social media world, we only show our best. We don't show, you know, the shit that we actually go through. For sure. And a lot of people say, I want to do what you do. I want to do what you do. But do you want to do what I did? And that's what's critical, right? Wow.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Wherever you guys are watching this show, i would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe it helps a lot with the algorithm it helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team truly means a lot thank you guys for supporting and here's the episode ladies and gentlemen i have on a self-made millionaire at the age of 14 far gray thanks for coming on, man. Man, thank you for having me. Crazy story. At 14, to become a millionaire?

Starting point is 00:00:49 I mean, that is not common. Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that. Was that always a big goal of you growing up, to have a lot of wealth? Well, I believe that comfort is the enemy of achievement. When most people are comfortable, they don't think about what's possible for their life. So when my mom had had a heart attack, you know, she had two back-to-back heart attacks. And I woke up.

Starting point is 00:01:12 I was basically six years old. I said, I'm not going to come home until I've helped my mom pay the bills. So I saw oversized rocks in the streets. I started painting them. And I would ask people, would you like to buy this? And they would look at me like, isn't that the rock that was in front of my door? I'm like, yeah, but see, it's different. It could be used as bookends, paperweights, and doorstoppers.

Starting point is 00:01:29 So it was never wealth. It was more or less trying to get out of poverty. Because according to statistics, I'm supposed to either be in prison or dead. So that's why I got out there and tried to just help my mom and then grew my businesses from there. What are the stats on that where you grew up of who went to prison and who ended up getting killed? Well, I grew up south side of Chicago, 72nd and Jeffrey, Robert Taylor Projects. So a lot of us don't make it out. But those of us that do, I always believe it's best to not only fight your way out,

Starting point is 00:01:58 but pull other people with you. I always say a lot of times in this social media world, we only show our best. We don't show the shit that we actually go through. For sure. A lot of people say, I want say, you know, a lot of times in this social media world, we only show our best. We don't show, you know, the shit that we actually go through. For sure. And a lot of people say, I want to do what you do. I want to do what you do. But do you want to do what I did? And that's what's critical, right?

Starting point is 00:02:13 Wow. So the struggle of, you know, having nothing. My dad was a black leader and activist. His name was Khalid Mohammed. And my mom left him when I was younger. She said, this activism shit does not pay the bills. And I've got to feed the kids. These eviction notices, we're sleeping in and out of cars. I mean, this is crazy. And my father said, I've got to stay focused on the work with the

Starting point is 00:02:35 people. So my mom left my dad and that's why we struggled so much when I was younger. Wow. What was your father trying to achieve with that stuff? He was on the front lines. He was kind of like a modern day Malcolm X. He was on the front lines fighting for the liberation and salvation of black people. Wow. And this was pretty recent. Yeah. That's crazy.

Starting point is 00:02:56 Yeah. Wow. Just one lifetime ago. Yeah, exactly. I didn't know it was that bad back then. That is crazy. So how old were you when your mom left them? They started separating when I was very young, like a baby.

Starting point is 00:03:08 Oh, so you don't even remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would say not much has changed society-wise. There's a lot of institutional issues at this point that we face as a people. So the fight continues, and we all fight on different levels as it relates to those of us in the black community. Right. Were single parent households common where you grew up? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, single parent households are very common because I feel like the government

Starting point is 00:03:43 kind of promotes in many respects, single parent households can't have a man in the house. I'll give you food stamps. I'll do this. I'll do that. So it kind of isolates, you know, black men and pushes us out of the household in many respects. So interesting. It's very common to find, you know, a man who's a lot of them are trying to be fathers trying to be in their children's lives but you know i think the government aids in helping to get you out of there wow i actually never thought of it from that point of view to be honest yeah they say we'll do everything for you just so you don't need a man damn that is fascinating you got kids yourself right now i do

Starting point is 00:04:19 have a little one uh she's three years old nice congrats man yeah that's the goal of mine okay okay i can't wait i started late as hell i'm 39 was that by choice or like it was by choice um i feel that if you have children a lot of times too early it can derail um your focus and your career and by god's grace my grand my daughter's grandchildren uh are financially taken care of your daughter's grandchildren are financially taken care of. Your daughter's grandchildren? Yeah, so generations yet unborn. And that's what I always encourage young people to think about. It's not just about, can we cuss?

Starting point is 00:04:54 Yeah. It's not just about, I need to have my three-year plan, my five-year, my 10-year. I say, fuck that. You need a hundred-year plan. It's about generations yet unborn. What does your legacy look like? So if you're just planning for the next three to five years, you know, you have no legacy. And with entrepreneurship, I think it's about creating that generational wealth. So, you know, the next generation and their generation thereafter doesn't have to struggle

Starting point is 00:05:18 like you did. So you are the believer of leaving your kids with everything you've earned? I'm a believer in leaving them with the resources, right? Equipping them with the knowledge and information and of course the financial resources and you bring them up in the way that you want them to go. You know, training them, kicking their ass, teaching them, listen, this wasn't given to me. You're going to have to struggle. So I think if you create, and I was a little nervous about that, you know, having spoiled ass kids, you know what what i'm saying that don't amount to anything because they say it takes 40 years for the parent to build it in four years for them to mess it up but if you bring them up in the way that you want them to go i think that you'll see that they'll carry on with the legacy i love that

Starting point is 00:05:58 you had some interesting tweets man i want to go through some of these so uh you tweeted out stop dating while you're healing you're damaging damaging innocent people. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. One of my most recent books, I kind of switched lanes a little bit. It's called Strong Women Only Intimidate Weak Men. You know, we as men, especially those who weren't good at sports. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application link below and here's the episode, guys. We treat women like a sport, right? And I'll never forget, I was visiting my dad and I remember showing him all these numbers I got at the mall. I was a player. I was like, Dad, I got like, look at that.

Starting point is 00:06:47 I think it was like 20-something girls. Dad. Because it was a numbers game. A lot of them told me no, but I spent all day at the mall, from sunup to sundown. And my dad said, you're going to call every single one of them. And I said, well, no, Dad, I just got their number. It was cool.

Starting point is 00:07:04 It was fun. He was like, no, there's a young girl. I'm not saying all of them, but somebody well no dad i just got their number you know it's cool it was fun he was like no there's a young girl i'm not saying all of them but somebody's waiting for you to call you know so as the old saying goes never awaken a woman's heart only a coward awakens a woman's heart that doesn't have uh you know the intentions on truly loving her properly so i was like dang i thought player shit was cool that was like no's not cool. So it started just teaching me to be more responsible. And I would say, you know, especially we got the whole red pill, blue pill kind of thing. I would say if you show me a no good woman, I can show you a no good man that made her that way. That's true.

Starting point is 00:07:36 Because if they're like that, it's not by coincidence. It's a reason. You also tweeted out, once you mature, sex is mental. I won't even get horny if the vibe isn't right real shit yeah uh you know sex is a human basic experience you know something that's just attraction that just simply happens when we're you know when when you're connected with someone but i'm more of a sapiosexual you know i say her ass is fat, but her future is flat. I love that.

Starting point is 00:08:07 So she's got to have more than just looks in order to capture my attention. And then also when you're thinking about building a family, that's the mind that's going to raise your children. So I want that substance. I don't want a successful woman. I like an ambitious woman. Yeah, the looks will get you in the door, but if you want to stay, you need intelligence. Yeah, I love that. When did this mindset shift happen for you?

Starting point is 00:08:28 Because you said you were a player in the day, right? Yeah, as I got a little older, I started realizing that I wanted more substance as I decided to start working hard on my really, well, shit, I've been working hard since I was six but once I realized that I had literally become a millionaire and become the became a published author and a magazine owner as a teenager and just a really hard working career that I created or I would more or less say a calling right because I think a calling a career is what you're paid for but a calling is what you're made for so so many times I think we forget to really focus on our dreams because jobs pay you just enough, a J-O-B, a just overbroke position. They pay you just enough to forget about your dreams. So I think the greatest tragedy in life is not death. It's living and not knowing why you're here wow you know one of the greats of our time once said the two most important times in anybody's life is when we were born and when we find out

Starting point is 00:09:29 why we were born so it was important to me to start taking my personal relationships seriously because a woman can be um you know our greatest gift or our greatest downfall if we have the wrong mate you know like they say behind every successful man is a phenomenal woman, in some cases, phenomenal woman or two or three, depending upon if you're a polygamist or not. Absolutely. That's powerful. What was it like retiring your mother? That was my biggest dream, man, to be able to retire my mother and my grandmother when I became a millionaire at 14. Because I think that it's really, it's really to me success to significance, you know, being able to tell my mom, you know, she threw away those pink pills that she used to

Starting point is 00:10:12 have to take every day for her heart because of the stress. And that was my biggest accomplishment. That's the most important thing that I've ever done. I would say now second to being a father. So retiring mom, grandmother, that's what it's all about. I call it success to significance. If your success doesn't help other people, it ain't standing on shit. Absolutely. You mentioned stress earlier. Did you ever deal with that yourself as well? Yeah, I deal with stress daily, but meditation helps me. I would say a lot of people pray. I believe in prayer plus meditation because prayer is our conversation with God. But meditation, it kind of allows us to listen to that voice, to be calm, to ignore and block out the negative noise of society.

Starting point is 00:10:56 So I believe in both. And that meditation keeps me calm. It keeps me centered and provides that clarity that I need in my business to start my day. Nice. Before the phones and shit start ringing. Right. I used to pray a lot, actually. And looking back, it's almost a form of manifestation. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:11:12 Because a lot of the stuff I would pray about as a kid would actually come true. It's true. It's true. Just to give a little bit of religion, Paul said that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. You know, so I've always been a visionary, someone who prayed, not a dreamer, because I believe that a dreamer keeps their eyes closed, where a visionary keeps their eyes wide open. So I'm always dreaming, kind of like a story that was always told to me about an eight-year-old. His name was Sammy. He was in art class, and he was drawing a picture. And his art teacher walked up and said, what are you doing?

Starting point is 00:11:47 He said, I'm drawing a picture of God. She said, no one knows what God looks like. He said, they will when I finish my picture. Wow. You know what I'm saying? That's crazy. You got to believe in yourself or nobody else will. But, right, you have that.

Starting point is 00:12:01 But prayer and faith without work is dead, right? So you got to hustle. I tell people that all the time, you know, even especially a lot of upcoming entrepreneurs. I tell them, you know, hustle will beat talent any day. You know, Abraham Lincoln said there will be things that will come to those who wait, but only what's left by those who hustle. You know, hustle is really, you know, pushing yourself. I tell people if you don't have hustle, learn to fail gracefully because nobody's going to give you shit. You know, people say, well, opportunity only knocks once. No, opportunity doesn't knock once, twice, or three times.

Starting point is 00:12:28 It's something you have to go after, put in a chokehold, and pull it in. So it's all about hustle. I love that because there's so many visionaries and dreamers that don't do well in business. That's right. But you've been able to pull it off. And I think it's definitely work ethic for sure. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:12:43 It's the discipline. As they say,. You know, it's the discipline. You know, as they say, regrets weighs ounces, but discipline is, you know, regrets, discipline weighs ounces, but regrets weighs tons. So, you know, I would say it's easy to do what I've been, to me, what I do today is easy, right? It was believing in myself, right? It was disciplining myself. And that's why a lot of people are not successful because success is dressed up in work clothes. Wow. It's just that simple.

Starting point is 00:13:09 Man. Sounds like you read a lot, dude. Absolutely. I love that. I don't read as many books as Cat Williams. Yo, a thousand a year? Right. But I get a couple in. In order to be an effective writer, I think you need to be a reader. Yeah. His whole scene just coming out right now really makes me think of the media and how they vilify people. Well, media stands for

Starting point is 00:13:31 most effective devil in America. Wow. Right. It can make you hate someone or love someone. It's no longer about the truth. It's about the narrative. You know, and a lot of times a lie is more entertaining than the truth. Most of the times. So and that's what circulates around social media. I'm not saying that Cat was per se lying. I don't have his experience. And I think there was a lot of truth to what he said. But that's pretty much how now everything works. It's all about really the power of the media is what it's about.

Starting point is 00:14:01 We're pretty much in what I call the attention society. It's about social digital currency. Yeah. And the negative headlines get probably five times the views as positive ones. Always. A lie or the negative headline can make its way around the world before the truth gets up in the morning. And it's a shame because I'll have on some brilliant guests that talk about just inspiring people and they don't get as many views as someone talking shit about someone. Right. It's like, damn. As soon as they name the names that's it yeah once you start name dropping i mean we were talking earlier about the fresh and fit situation yeah pretty crazy and it's unfortunate but i think i think people will wake up over time there's a

Starting point is 00:14:39 spiritual awakening i could feel it right now yeah i think it's on the rise um you know and i would say i don't criticize the negative. You just put the clean glass next to the dirty glass and let the person make the choice. You don't have to criticize the dirty glass. Yeah. You're very aware of who's in your circle, I bet. Absolutely. And I've always kept a good circle around me. It's one of the greats of our time once said, if you can't change the people around you, then change the people around you. Because some people are so negative that they can walk into a dark room and develop. You know what I'm saying?

Starting point is 00:15:10 Yeah. Those are the kind of people that you have to get away from you and only surround yourself with people that are going to, you know, big you up. Right. I think, as Kanye said one time, you know, if you hang around people who don't know who you are, then you'll forget who you are. Wow, dude, you're spitting these deep quotes right now. I really got to reevaluate some things in my life. For real. I love it, man. You're so educated. It's impressive. And that's another thing. You know, I didn't go to college. I have three honorary doctorates. Actually, I think I was one of the youngest to ever receive an honorary doctorate.

Starting point is 00:15:47 I got one when I was 21, and I'm 39 now, my very first one. And I've received two others, and I've lectured at probably over 100 colleges and universities. And even my book is recommended reading at Harvard. And that means a lot to me because I had a teacher one time tell me that I wouldn't be successful. She was used to people saying what they wanted to be. And I told her I was going to be a millionaire entrepreneur and I kind of fixed my clothes. And she looked at me and she said, no, you're not. She said, you're poor and your family's poor. You better go find somebody to work for. That's just unrealistic. Think about a job. And I looked at her and I remember, you know, saying to my grandmother, I said, Grandma,

Starting point is 00:16:26 you know, my teacher told me that I couldn't be successful. And that's when she said to me, you know, did you believe her? I said, yeah. And she said, the funny thing is about an insult, it's not the insult, it's about the part that you believe is true. She said, you believe that, didn't you? She said, I don't want you to ever believe that again. She said, never allow, and she had read this, never allow anyone's perception of you to become your reality. And she said, you can be anything you want to be. Everybody puts on their pants one leg at a time in the morning unless they jump in them. Wow.

Starting point is 00:16:58 I said, okay, Grandma. She said, wake up every morning and say, why not me? She said, fuck anyone's perception. My grandma cussed all the time. She said, fuck anyone's perception of you. Wake up every morning and say, why not me? She said, fuck anyone's perception. My grandma cussed all the time. She said, fuck anyone's perception of you. Wake up every morning and say, why not me? Why can't I? So that attitude propelled me. So it didn't really matter what other people said. I knew that I had to face rejection. And that's my message to a lot of young entrepreneurs. Don't look at no as a door. Just look at no as a not right now, you know, and to continue to face rejection.

Starting point is 00:17:27 Because I think that everything we want is on the other side of fear. We have to continue to push ourselves past that no, just like you've done with your life. You know, it's not always yes, but no is just, you know, it's a matter of just navigating past that and having that fortitude and determination. Pushing past fear has been the best decision I made. I couldn't even public speak. I would have an anxiety attack. I was a huge introvert growing up. This is not natural for me.

Starting point is 00:17:50 It's something I had to push past fear to get to. And look at you today. Yeah. One of the biggest shows in the world right now. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Did you ever reach out to that teacher? Make amends?

Starting point is 00:18:00 She reached out to me. Wow. She acted as if I forgot. The teacher reached out to me and she said, I saw you on TV. I think I was on 2020 at that time or something or somewhere on one of the Oprah platforms. She said, I saw you on TV and I'm so proud of you. We did it. I said, we did it?

Starting point is 00:18:21 I said, you told me I would never be successful. I said, but the success that I've been able to achieve not only has helped me, but now I'm able to help other people. I have a foundation. I said, I'm on the board of United Way, and I'm able to help so many different people. I said, so the success that I'm receiving now, I'm loving it because she had recommended that basically I go work at McDonald's. So, you know, I've learned to never allow the negative noise of society to tell me what's not possible for my life. And again, I tell young people that reach out to me, you've got to stay focused and you've got to stay disciplined, right? So I tell people, even if you're not motivated, because they ask me all the time, what do you do for motivation? I said, even if you don't have motivation, stay consistent. And that's the problem. We lose our way and we're willing to give our job more time and attention than we're able to give to ourselves because we don't look at our downtime. So I kind of call it entrepreneurship, kind of the Tarzan effect. As one of my good friends always talks about the

Starting point is 00:19:26 Tarzan effect, he said, you don't let go of one branch until you get to the other one. So I tell people, stay at your job, but also use your downtime because your downtime can either pull you down or you can use that to elevate yourself. Are you reading in your downtime? Are you working your business in your downtime? Are you cold calling in your downtime? Are you hustling in your downtime? What are you doing in your downtime? That's what's fucking you over. It is what you do with your downtime.

Starting point is 00:19:54 And it's okay to party and have fun, but you're celebrating the struggle. Give yourself something to celebrate and maximize that downtime that way. And it's a quote that, I don't know when I said it, but it's now been quoted a billion times. Even I saw it on the NASDAQ Twitter with my name on it. It said, build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs. That was you?

Starting point is 00:20:15 Yeah. So, you know, I don't hell remember when I said it, but it's something that I live by because so many of us, again, are afraid to be who we are supposed to be. The richest place in the world is the cemetery because so many people have died with their natural God-given talents. They never painted the Jacob Lawrence picture, Picasso picture. They never wrote the book that was within them. So they had so many gifts that died within them, that haunted them, right? And that could have only been birthed through their innovation. This podcast, Digital Social Hour, could have only been birthed through you. So if you would have thrown it in the trash and didn't overcome your fears, you would have not been able to inspire the billions

Starting point is 00:20:59 of people through your reach that you've inspired. So I always encourage people, there's something great inside of you. Stop hating, stop being a critic, because unfortunately, social media has created a whole generation of critics versus creating. So they're so busy being a critic with no credentials, and that they will say, oh, I don't like this podcast, or I don't like Far Gray, because they're not living their purpose. when you walk in purpose you collide with your destiny i've never met a hater ever in my life that was doing better than me right so there's so many haters that if they were just doing what they were supposed to do and got the hell out of everybody else's business they would be 10 times more successful so when people say far i want to be just like you i say no be no, be better. I was talking to a marketing genius, Ryan McCrary, the funnel doctor who handles a lot of my advertising. And as we were conferring on the importance of really utilizing your gift, your

Starting point is 00:21:58 talent as an entrepreneur and actually promoting yourself, that's another critical thing that I always tell entrepreneurs. A lot of entrepreneurs are good at what they do, but nobody knows what you do. That's true. So your visibility is just as important as your ability. Yeah, that's so true, man. I don't want to die with any regrets.

Starting point is 00:22:17 It's always in the back of my head. And that's the key, to literally live your life to the fullest. As they say, when someone dies, there's the sunrise and the sunset, and in the middle there to the fullest. As they say, when someone dies, there's the sunrise and the sunset, and in the middle of it, there's the dash. The dash is your life. What did you do? Did you die empty? And that's the key. That's the key, man. I saw my grandmother die with regrets and my father. I said, I never want that for me or my kids. So even with my kids, I'm going to let them do whatever they want to do, man. Yes. Yes, absolutely. I'm not going to make them get a job, go to college if they don't want

Starting point is 00:22:48 to. They want to go off and do whatever they want to do. I'm cool with it. You know, as Khalil Gibran once said that your children, you know, they're not necessarily of you or they come through you, right? So you can give them your love to paraphrase it, but you can't give them your thoughts. So I'm always, even at my daughter at three years old, I'm always paying attention to the little things that she enjoys, her area of excellence. So I think that's the biggest secret to success is really finding your area of excellence. And I always encourage people, if you want to find your area of excellence, ask yourself three questions. What comes easy to me but harder to other people second question what would i do and literally work for years and years and years and

Starting point is 00:23:32 never have to get paid for it because so many people hate their job right you know i always ask people you know whenever i'm doing public speaking i say how many of you like dogs that raise their hand i said how many of you um have dogs that raise their hand. I said, how many of you have dogs that raise their hand? I said, do dogs like bones? They say, yeah, yeah, dogs like bones. No, they don't like bones. That's bullshit. They like steak. They settle for bones.

Starting point is 00:23:52 And we keep settling for jobs that don't feed who we are. So I tell people the third thing is to give back, right? So if you can answer those three questions for yourself, what comes easy to me but harder to other people? What would I do and do it for free? Because the job you're living and you're living and working a job that you hate. And the third question is, how can I be of service? Because I believe that we should all be ashamed to die unless we've made a contribution to society. Nobody gives a fuck about your individual success.

Starting point is 00:24:19 What are you doing to make this world a better place than how you found it? And I say once you're able to answer those three questions for yourself, the world, the marketplace will open up for you, your gifts and your talents. You'll never have to work another day in your life. Why? Because your work will be your play.

Starting point is 00:24:35 I love that. And for you, that's public speaking? Public speaking, writing, and entrepreneurship as a whole. I've got everything from car dealerships to commercial real estate. Myself and a group of investors have some Marriott and Hilton franchises. I've got a publishing company. Well, mostly our backlist catalog, residential real estate. I don't know why I did that. That's probably the worst thing.

Starting point is 00:25:02 Residential real estate? Yeah. I'm a landlord. I've got about 90 properties now. And they're all cheap properties. They only cost me like $10,000 to $40,000. Oh, Section 8? Well, some Section 8. Some I didn't feel like doing all the work to meet their requirements. But being a landlord is like the worst thing in the world. Customer service? Oh, there's something Customer service. There's something always wrong. There's something always to fix. Somebody's always not paying their rent. So a few of my friends in the industry said, that's not what you want to do. But of course, growing up, I went to all those lion ass seminars that said passive income.

Starting point is 00:25:37 There is nothing passive. Everybody watching, there is nothing passive about owning real estate and being a landlord. That is not passive income. There is always passive about owning real estate and being a landlord. That is not passive income. There is always a problem and a headache. But I believe diversification is really the key. I also have a media company. I own one of the largest black-owned media companies in the world. Now we've reached over 20 billion impressions. So I believe that, you know, news is so powerful because digital social hour and then it's media because the media shapes the conscious and subconscious of the people. So we publish. At one time, we were up to publishing as many as 60 stories.

Starting point is 00:26:35 We don't need to do that as much. We publish new stories. We create video content. Some of my content has been licensed by Akon's page, the rapper, the games page, Taye Diggs, George Lopez and countless others. So I own a lot of different companies that people know about and don't know about. You know, so I think diversification is key because one income is too close to no income. Yep. Learned that the hard way when crypto crashed, had all my eggs in that basket. Wow. But now it's back. So this time I just got to be smarter, man.

Starting point is 00:27:06 Yes. Bitcoin just hit all-time high, literally today, actually. $72,000. You have any crypto? I have some, yes, but I got in and out quick. Okay.

Starting point is 00:27:15 I made a couple of million and I can't even take credit for it. Someone close to me said, buy now, sell now. I said, buy what? They said, buy this, this, this, this, this, this. Now go sell. I love it. Oh, okay. So buy this, this, this, this, this, this. Now go sell. I said, oh, okay. So yeah. We all need someone like that. We do. I love that, man.

Starting point is 00:27:31 It sounds like money is just more of a side thing. It's not the main thing for you. You're more about passion and purpose. Absolutely. Because I think the money will come as long as you're doing what you love. The money will be there. And even if you don't know how to monetize your gift, I tell people, stop doing it alone. Connect with people, have a network of people. Everything that I'm doing is not because of Farah Gray being the smartest person in the room. It's because I surround myself with a grade A team. And I tell people, I used to have a student venture capital fund headquartered on Wall Street. And I started learning that even when you're seeking funding from private angel investors, high net worth and accredited investors or a VC firm, they go right to your team. The hell with your idea.

Starting point is 00:28:13 Who the hell is going to make this work? When you're investing in the stock market, okay, you can look at different factors to help you make a decision. But if you don't rush and see who is the captain of this ship and what is the team, is this an all-star team? Is this a grade A team? Then you have nothing. So I'm more or less about investing in people versus ideas. And when I really realized and learned that, I realized that I could continue to scale with the right team. So teamwork makes the dream work. Team's important, man. It's all about the people.

Starting point is 00:28:46 Yes. I love that. And that's how we can reconnect it through an associate of yours. Exactly. Nathan, shout out to Nathan. Shout out to Nathan for making this happen. Yeah. You mentioned subconscious programming earlier. I'm fascinated by that. Do you think the media partakes in that on purpose? Oh, absolutely. The media knows its power. And they know what they

Starting point is 00:29:06 admit and omit, right? So that's why now we're living in an age of citizen journalism. So it allows us to connect their 196,940,000 square miles of the planet Earth. So now when everyone picks up their phone, we have access to literally one individual, one citizen journalist who only has maybe 10,000 followers can disseminate information around the world and it goes what we call viral. So I think again, utilizing our platform to combat the traditional media and to tell the truth because it's all about narrative, not truth anymore. Right. Twitter comes to mind when you talk like that for me.

Starting point is 00:29:49 It does. You know, Elon is an interesting character or ex now as I guess he's calling it. So, yeah. It's interesting what he's doing. I just feel like the other platforms will shadow ban or delete certain posts if you talk about big pharma, big food, certain topics. But Twitter seems to keep everything, which I like. They do. They do. You know, so I think freedom of expression is important, but also not putting out false information, right? That's another problem with social media. People can say anything and it goes viral. And next thing you know, it becomes the gospel, becomes the thing that

Starting point is 00:30:25 everybody's talking about. Right. Sounds like you've had to deal with cancel culture. You know, you can't cancel anybody that you didn't hire. You know, I don't work for anyone. That's why I think it's important to make your money outside of, you know, being a public figure and public attention. I have made more money than I can count through speaking engagements and books and some of the biggest clients in the world, whether it was a Hershey's or a Johnson and Johnson or Wells Fargo or One United Bank or Chase Bank or Deloitte have been my clients over the years. However, I think it's so very important to diversify and have businesses that you cannot get canceled from. That way you can speak your mind and be independent. That's the key. Absolutely. What was it like getting

Starting point is 00:31:10 featured on Oprah? Wow. That was a game changer. Mainstream media was a big time game changer. Shout out to Stedman Graham, her significant other, who then introduced me to Gayle King. Gayle King then made the introduction between myself and the Oprah Winfrey platform. And then to read that, you know, Oprah's saying I'm an all-star with priceless advice. And it was a game changer. It made more people pay attention to me. And my books have been, you know, taking off. Now I'm at seven books. They're in 24 countries, 13 different languages, and sold and or downloaded because I gave a lot of digital copies away for free, 2 million books.

Starting point is 00:31:55 Wow. Yeah. That's incredible, man. So that was, like I said, a game changer for me. I would say drop some ink and make them think. I like to really, regardless of the fact that people say, people don't read anymore. Yeah, we're doing more reading than we've ever read. Status updates, tweets, messages, text messages. We're doing more reading,

Starting point is 00:32:18 but it's about engaging them with content. So I wrote my first book at 19 and I'm 39. So celebrating 20 years as an author. Incredible. You got a personal favorite book? I don't give credit to one book. I do not. No. It's kind of a melting pot. Yeah. So you like a bit of everything? I do. I do. I only read nonfiction. Okay. Yeah. Because I don't have time to entertain myself with fantasy. Unless I'm watching a movie or entertainment, but not when I read. I want to make sure it's feeding my conscious and subconscious.

Starting point is 00:32:51 Interesting. I'm very aware of that now with the music I listen to, the books I read, the videos I watch. I'm not going to lie. I used to watch drama videos, like Drama Alert, people talking about celebrity rumors and stuff. And it just doesn't feed me anymore. No. no. Like it's so pointless. It is. It is. And I like to mind my own business these days. Yeah, absolutely. But they say, mind your own business and drink water. You got to drink glass water now because of the microplastics. Right. I've been driving my family crazy. I'm like, get those plastic bottles out of here.

Starting point is 00:33:23 I mean, it's expensive, but we work hard to get to where we're at now. That's right. That's right. Anything you want to close off with or promote, man? Just follow me everywhere. Pretty much Far Grey on all social media platforms. Cool. We'll link it below.

Starting point is 00:33:36 Thanks for coming on, man. All right. Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for watching, guys. See you tomorrow.

Digital Social Hour - Avoid These Mistakes in Your Journey to Millionaire Status! | Dr. Farrah Gray DSH #586

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