Next Level Pros - #89: Why Building a Personal Brand Is Key to Building a Business; Omar Eltakrori, Personal Brand Expert

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Welcome to a new episode of The Founder Podcast. In this episode, we step into the world of content creation with Omar Eltakrori. Omar shares his journey and the role of personal branding and high-quality content in 2024. With a deep dive into the strategies behind becoming omnipresent through video, he highlights how content creation is not just about spreading your message but multiplying your impact 24/7. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner looking to scale, Omar's insights into leveraging video for trust, reach, and ultimately, wealth will inspire you to hit the record button. Discover the transformative power of content and how it can elevate your business, expand your reach, and enrich your brand in today's digital age. Highlights: "The fastest path to wealth is through content creation... you become omnipresent when you create videos." "Everybody has their own path, but the one I would encourage is to just pick a platform and then commit to it... It's for everybody. It's going to be different."  "The key ingredient to success is obsession. The people who are obsessed with the process... are the people that succeed."  Timestamps: 00:41 - The Importance of Personal Branding in 2024 01:58 - Omnipresence Through Video Content 04:35 - First Steps for Entrepreneurs in Content Creation 06:08 - Leveraging Obsession for Success 09:02 - Going Live on Instagram: A Start 11:57 - The Legacy Podcast Concept 14:57 - Discovering Your Obsession 20:11 - Expanding Beyond YouTube 23:03 - Balancing Entertainment and Education 29:51 - Omar's Vision for the Next 5-10 Years Live Links:  Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind:h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com⁠  Golf with Chris h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com⁠  Watch my latest Podcast Apple- ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S⁠ Spotify- ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

I think one of the best compliments I get as a content creator is, bro, I've been following your stuff for years. Do you have years worth of follow behind your stuff? And if the answer is no, it's get started, but just commit to it. You know, like the content creator space, entrepreneur space, personal brand space, I guess you could say it's going to get smaller and smaller at the top because the more time goes on, the less people will lock in. Yo, yo, yo, welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I am joined by Mr. Omar Takrori. This guy is known as the video content king. Omar, tell us, why is a personal brand and quality content vital in 2024?

I think it's because the fastest path to wealth is through content creation. Tell us more, man. Like what, why? Yeah. You know, there's very few activities you can do right now that allow you to multiply yourself. And one way you can do that is by creating videos. And, uh, I know, like, I don't like to put the god card on it because we because god's omnipresent yeah but in a very like way creating videos building an audience uh reaching people at every minute an hour of the day you become omnipresent when you create videos and i we were talking before the podcast and i just think it was really cool that you were, you sold a company and you're doing well. And with all the things you can choose to do right now,

you've chosen to build your personal brand. So like you see the value in creating relational equity 24 seven and anybody who's in business should see that value. And so I say, why should you create a personal brand? Well, if you want to have the ability to ask people to do something, it's going to take trust. You know, people say that the way you conduct business is no like and trust, and that can be automated through video. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I love that. The whole idea of omnipresence is a very real thing. In fact, it was kind of the

basis of my business model as I was building it, not only internally, but also externally. So my background is in door-to-door sales. And the biggest pain point of door-to-door sales was the lack of omnipresence. The fact that I can only be on one door at one time, it was extremely profitable while I was doing door-to-door sales. In fact, like, you know, making $400,000 in the summer was like really cool and all those types of things. But like when we launched our business, very similar to what you're talking about is like,

how can we take door-to-door and spread it? And we called it digital door knocking. That's dope. And so that's where we initially started like shooting videos for Facebook ads and YouTube well before anybody was doing it. And so, yeah, that's a very, very cool and unique perspective because I think that's really the goal of any business owner is to create omnipresence where it's a lasting type of impact.

Actually, most people don't have a product problem or a business or solutions or whatever it is you sell. You don't have a business problem. You actually have an awareness problem. If more people knew about your business, you probably would have a higher likely chance to be doing more business. And so you can, again, meet new people by doing this. And I even like, I mean, not to just go to like, we can go the social media route and YouTube route. We'll go there. But you mentioned internal marketing.

Yeah. Like, I think the thing that I've been trying to do in the, you know, these last six or so years is just trying to get people to know the power of video, even internally. Right. You know, so I'm also a pastor at my church and we've used videos to create digital disciples, I guess you could say digital door knocking. We've got digital disciples, but we make internal courses that the church can take throughout the week. Uh, even our membership, you know, onboarding process, it's, it's, it's an online course.

And then, and then when we have a connection, like when a phone call is started or when a when a coffee date is you know created we're starting at a further level rather than always starting from zero you know so this is why i mean i think about people in real estate like how many times you answer the same question over and over and over again when somebody comes out comes to you hey i'm ready to buy a home like you get pre-approved no what's that like That should be on a video and use it internally. So when people reach out, you have something that could save you time, save them time. So when you do meet for coffee, we're at step seven as opposed to step zero. I love it. I love it. So where would you say are the first three or four steps that entrepreneurs, because one of the things that

you shared with me earlier was like, most entrepreneurs want to be content creators and most content creators want to be entrepreneurs. So what would you say are the first like three or four things that a entrepreneur that wants to be a content creator needs to take? Yeah. I feel like it, everybody has their own path, but the one I would encourage is to just pick a platform and then commit to it for a season. And there's, you know, and don't, and don't be, don't look at the scoreboard, right? Like it's like, Hey, I'm going to take the next 60 days to be consistent on YouTube. And this is more about, you know, uh, discovering like the process.

This is more about hearing my voice. So many people need to see themselves on video, hear themselves on video. And so just getting videos up for a consistent period of time will get this, what I call the discovery season out of the way. And everybody has to go through that because we all hate ourself when we see ourselves on camera. And if you don't initially,

you might be a little bit into yourself a little bit, but I would say pick a platform. So let's just say you choose YouTube, okay? So it's like, all right, I'm gonna go consistent, one video a week on YouTube for 60 days. I would just turn on a camera and just start talking. So really, I mean, you're talking about go and crawl, right? Go and try standing up, fall a bunch of different times. Doesn't really matter how many times it takes, just go and crawl, right? Go and try standing up, fall a bunch of different times. It doesn't really matter

how many times it takes. Just go and do it. Yeah, because, and for everybody, it's going to be different. But this is also why I'm taking, I feel like this season, like the early 2024,

I'm realizing that there's a lot of 40-year-olds, people in their 2.0 era that have so much, there's richness in their experiences. Easy, that have so much there's there there's there's richness in their experiences easy easy quit dogging on this i'm 40 next month dude there's more wisdom more experience but i would say you had so much to offer starting from zero right rather than a young gun you know we got young guns it's awesome i mean i'm i guess i'm kind of a young gun i'm 32 32 okay that's awesome you're a millennial yeah yeah still i'm at the top good good but but there i think that's the part people don't realize is that they have something to offer even if let's just say like

let's be very impractical in this sense if you if i say turn on a camera and just start talking talk about something that you experience how have you been married for 30 years? How did you get over that divorce? How have you been able to influence your kids to be world changers? What is that? Like just, and I think if you can just do that for, do it for yourself, it really is,

it's a season where I'm doing this for myself because before you even go in, like when I say all in on building your personal brand, there's this pre-decision that needs to be made. And this decision or decide, when you break up that word, it means to cut off all our other options. So D and inside.

Get rid of B, plan B, plan C. Yeah, and just like, I'm gonna do this. And just know, like take it from guys like us, that it would be highly worth your time to go along down this path. Now I say YouTube because I love that it lives. I love the, when people go on the platform, they turn their phone sideways.

I watch YouTube on my television. So I hang out with creators on YouTube. On Instagram and other vertical platforms, I'm just getting bite-sized pieces. Dopamine hits. Dopamine hits. I'm in a mindless state when I'm just getting bite-sized pieces. Dopamine hits. Dopamine hits. I'm in a mindless state when I'm consuming on Instagram. I agree there.

Which I, like, you don't have to disregard it. You know, like I build my personal brand on Instagram, but I create intimacy with people on YouTube. And so, you know, I launched a podcast in September and I don't upload shorts. I don't upload shorter versions of my conversation because I want to create the expectation from the viewer that when you click on one of my videos, we're hanging out for an hour or an hour and a half. Love it. So

creating that expectation comes from just showing up consistently and how you choose to show up. And I think we just undermine the power of just like honestly turning on a camera, just going live too. So maybe, okay. so that's the YouTube route I would say if you want to do it on Instagram just go live on Instagram really just hit the live button and then do the thing so let it sit live on your your your page and so you have this you have something to look back on but more importantly you're just getting that thing out of the way. So on going live, I love just kind of diving into some of these tactical aspects. So going live on Instagram, are you going live with guests,

going live solo, inviting different people? Do you care about if people are jumping on immediately? Do you jump right into the content? You know, what would you say? I mean, again, I don't wanna get too tactical. If you're doing it in the beginning phase, just do it. But if you're like now asking like, what is the best practice when you're doing live streams?

Yes, best practice is to get right into the content. You know, all right, we're just going to let people come in. All right, you know, I've got my, you know, I got my water, I got my LaCroix. How's everybody doing? Where are you watching from? And it's like, dude, what people don't realize is live streams, you want to actually prioritize the replay value as opposed to the live value or like the instant live value. So yes, address people who are there,

but just address them. You don't have to wait to get started because now once this live sits, it can go and do work. And so I always, uh, I always like to come a little bit prepared to a live stream. And then I love that you brought up the idea of like bringing somebody on, dude, if you feel too intimidated or it's just a lot to just shoot a video all by yourself. Yes. Either physically bring in somebody that you personally like or love and just talk to them and talk with them about something. Or yes, you can do it digitally on Instagram where somebody can get, can jump on your Instagram live.

But you know, back to the YouTube thing. Yeah. If, if it's, if by yourself is just a little bit too much, I would encourage you to just tap a friend, a spouse, um, and, and just, and just shoot, you know, I did this, um, conversation with my five-year-old daughter and it was for my use, like documenting this time in her life. She's about to be a big sister.

She's about to turn five years old. And I just wanted to capture her essence. And this is what I teach. It's called a legacy podcast, where you just sit down with a loved one and capture a conversation. And now you have this piece of content that forever will serve you. And unlike a home video, this is just a conversation. Like,

you know, I, if you have a grandparent, maybe they're on their way out, or maybe you're, you know, you want to learn about your parents. So my parents migrated my mom from the Philippines, my dad from Saudi Arabia. I want to sit down with them and talk about what that was like, you know, and now I'll have this thing forever talk about what that was like, you know, and now I'll have this thing forever as you know, when they, you know, eventually pass on. And, and there's no pressure there. I'm just having a conversation. We just turn on the camera. And it's just it's cool. That's the legacy podcast. I actually tag it's funny, my, my daughter was like, you know, we were talking about LaCroix's. And I posted clip on my Instagram and LaCroix reached out, sent a care package.

Like, just from doing something that I did to serve my, you know, me and my wife Amanda, we just wanted this thing. So, yes, bringing in somebody is a really good idea, especially starting out. Because it's interesting you bring up, like, doing something as a legacy or doing something without regard to the end game, right? I think that's

actually a huge key for any entrepreneur in anything, whether it's content creation, building a business, right? The longer that you can be obsessed with the input and not the output, like no regard to what result I'm getting, what fruit I'm tasting, how much money's in my bank account or whatever else. I think like that is one of the biggest keys to life. 100. Just to be able to like, you know, I don't care who watches this. I don't care who benefits from this. I'm just going to put it out and I'm going to fall in love with this.

And I think ultimately that's where we become professionals is because we don't do it only for the end result. I think people that are very transactional, they really screw things up. Yeah. I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I've been on my own since 2016 and I'm still just like figuring out business and like what business is, you know, lead gen, conversion, fulfillment, customer life, you know, retention and life. customer life you know retention and life like i'm learning all these things and basically like the observation i feel like i have from successful entrepreneurs and creators is the the key ingredient to success is obsession the people who are obsessed with the process obsessed with helping helping people, obsessed with the doing of this stuff

are the people that succeed and not obsessed with the results, like you said. But like, I obsess over video, you know, like this is a joy. Like, I can't believe that my life, I speak on stages, I get invited to do podcasts, I can do podcasts and I'm making a living and a really good living and a living that's allowing me to be very generous too from the thing that I I'm obsessed about. Yeah. And I think sometimes people can get maybe a little, um, insecure about the things they're obsessed with. And, and I guess maybe another word could be passionate, but passionate about, but if you could stay in that, then like, yeah, the, the results become less like, it's crazy. december so i launched my podcast in september on in december the youtube ad sense like the amount google paid me for me showing up and having

conversations with people it was about 7500 that's like that could change somebody's life yeah it's great but then that's me though like i'm just like cool yeah like what's the next interview like that we're gonna get you know like how do we uh you know how are we gonna do 2024 and so and that's just because yeah i'm really uh i i love this stuff and i think um like with anybody like you said there's a there's a theme amongst people who are successful when i put that in air quotes because, you know, success is relative, but is that, you know, if you lean into your obsessions, it, it, I promise it can, it'll pay you back, you know? Yeah. So what do you think like your obsession roots from? Like what life experiences have created this type of obsession? I think if I were to go back, I think about my, my,

my dad has an obsessive personality. Yeah think that that would probably be the the foundation of it because i kind of have an obsessive personality if i find something that interests me for a season dude i go all in there was one time i like went on one camping trip i'm like dude i'm outdoorsy i'm buying patagonia i'm buying like i bought a forerunner and then i realized like dude i'm a city boy what am i doing but but golf came along the way in 2020. Nice. And this has been an obsession that has stuck around. Um, I, I think, I think, yes, I think I, part of it came from my dad, but you know, when I professionally, I feel like it came from me being a, um, being in love with learning. And so when I, when I say say obsession when i was behind the scenes i

spent you know nine to twelve years behind the scenes being the product the person behind the camera creating all this stuff and and me just learning i loved learning new things you know how many years did you say i've been doing video for 15 years right probably did not like of like behind the scenes work for about nine to 12 years you know it's interesting because a lot of people aren't willing to go through that right like i i think we live in a society that like wants to put in work for 12 months 18 months and be like i need to be the boss i need to be the guy driving you know i i fell into that trap early on in my career right like i was like i'm really good at this technical work.

I was really good at sales. And I'm like, I already do everything that it takes to be successful to be a business owner. I'm going to go and run my business. And so I think that is definitely a key aspect to your growth. The fact that you were willing to put in the work for that long behind the scenes before you decided all right now i'm gonna go and crush it no for sure i think one of the best compliments i can i get as a content creator is bro i've been following your stuff for years like do you have years worth of follow behind your stuff and if the answer is no it's get started

but just commit to it you know like and i it i i realized that the the content creator space entrepreneur space personal brand space i guess you could say it's gonna get smaller and smaller at the top because the more time goes on the less people will will lock in you know even right now dude honestly my YouTube is flooded right now with all of like these YouTubers I love following calling it quits or saying, Hey, I'm taking a break. Yeah. And, and it's, it's enlightening because I'm like, what about like, I don't, I mean, I think this is a blessing, you know, like to be able to do this for work. Yeah. And I, I honestly attribute it back to maybe a, maybe a lack of systems, like things in place

that you put so that you could still have your life and you, maybe you started serving the wrong thing in the process. But I do think the other side of it is the, is monetarily, monetarily, most, most people won't get burnt out if you feel compensated. Like if you feel like this is worth my time, I like what's happening. This makes sense. Usually it keeps you going too. Um, but I think people, you know, get, get caught up in feeding the beast of whatever platform they're trying to dominate. Right. And that you can't do that for a long period of time. Right. You know? Right. No, I, I feel that I understand like, I mean, content creation is tough, right? It's fun, right? There's definitely fun aspects. You know, me and my team, we've been, I mean, running a crazy tour.

2024, here we are, like mid-January. This is our third content creation trip, right? We have done three different pick up, fly away, interview, anywhere from six to 12 entrepreneurs in one trip. We're week three. Like I can see why something like this burns the average person. Right. And so that, you know, just understanding, but you know, for me, the thing that I've found is like, if we can learn to choose the immediate pain and get, you know, and fall in love with the long-term fruit rather than getting the short-term fruit

and having that pain of regret and everything else that's associated, like that's really what I've found that really drives success in anything. Yeah, which is, I would say, hard to do with this illustration. So when you upload something to YouTube, it ranks your videos.

This video upload today is ranked out of the last 10 videos you uploaded. And so we're fighting to get today one out of 10. And if your goal is what you're saying, it's like, nah man, this is a great conversation. We did the best we can. Let's freaking move on to the next video. It's hard to draw that line.

And I think that's why we just need more people who talk about this and who talk about it's okay to upload a 10 out of 10, you know, video. It's fine, you uploaded it, amazing. Move on to the next thing, like, you know? And so, yeah, it's hard to do because when you upload, you know, I upload a reel on Instagram and I'm like refreshing right away.

I want, I want 1500 views within the first. Yeah. So you got to fight that for sure. No, for sure. So you talk about, so you believe, you know, YouTube is really like the number one platform in 2024 that creators need to be focusing on. Then go in live. What, where else would you focus or would it just be those two? Yeah. that's how i would encourage it people can start on instagram i feel like it's a instagram's great especially for millennials millennials with money are on instagram um and the reason i say it's not a bad place to start either is because of stories yeah i you know youtube has stories but it's not consumed the same way and i've actually one of my goals this year is to just be more consistent on stories because that really builds a brand. That's like, people know that I love golfing. People know that I love coffee. People know that I, I'm a pastor at my church. I'm not, I'm not, I don't have to be so

intentional about building the personal brand by using stories. But I would say that that would be like the next phase. And that's kind of my journey. I like, I went, you know, I was doing YouTube for other people. And then when I started teaching it on think media, I did that for years before I took my, my brand serious on Instagram. But then I would say, you know, hop into another platform. And this is, I actually teach this thing called the content quadrant and it's, it's your mindset and your message. And then it's the method and the makeover, which is kind of like getting all the stuff dialed and how you choose to show up. And then it's the money and the makeover, which is kind of like getting all the stuff dialed and how you choose to show up. And then it's the money.

How do you get, turn these viewers into customers? And then the last thing is multiplication. So I feel like you'll know that in your knower when it's like, okay, it's time to try this next platform or it's time to now, you know, distribute this long form piece of content across different platforms, but not dump it. You know, I think, I think people think it's like, no, just shoot one long piece of content, throw it in AI and then upload it on every platform and then just keep doing that. And it's like, no, I'm a firm believer is that you should understand the platform you're on. And as if it's like a country

and speak, speak the language of that platform. Yeah. Right. So, and so with Instagram, you know, I find practicality, it does really well on Instagram. Sharing practical advice, you know, it just does well. As opposed to, you know, TikTok, I feel like does the, or as opposed to YouTube Shorts, that's usually more the entertainment route. Practicality on YouTube Shorts doesn't do so well. Entertainment on YouTube

shorts does well. That's why you'll see these people on the street and they're doing like these funny things like out and about, whether it's pranks or things like that. It's more entertaining. And so speaking to entrepreneurs, you know, being, being the source of information for a person before they work for you is the greatest conversion tactic you can have. Yeah. So a couple of questions. So one, you bring up like entertainment on YouTube shorts and whatnot. If you're an entrepreneur, you want to share a message with the world. How do you balance entertainment and education, like a edutainment or what, like what, what would you say some best practices are for that? You know, I actually feel like the OG edutainment guy is Bill Nye, the science guy. He was the guy

who made learning fun. Yeah. Um, my thing is as far as the word balance goes, I think it's just more about self-awareness. Yeah. Like, how are you? Like, are you, are you a dry humor type of person? You know, are you silly? I don't, you you know don't be somebody you're not yeah um i find i guess people people say i have a dry sense of humor and i think it's because there's only a few people that pick up on it when when what if i'm preaching on a weekend it's just like dang it's crickets and then afterwards people are like bro i was dying dude so i'm realizing like okay maybe i am a funny guy and i could lean into that more, but not trying to be somebody you're not, you know, you could sense that you could sense a, you know, a lack

of authenticity online and it just gets the, it just gets the scroll. Yeah. I love that because, I mean, what would you say to like an entrepreneur? Cause really in this day and age, it seems like everybody is doing the same exact thing, right? You see these Instagram reels, it's a talking head, same words, same images, talking about the same exact crap. Like, how would you say, what would you say to that guy that just feels like, man, I can't do anything to be unique in this world? Yeah. Number one, if that comes out of your mouth, that's a limiting belief. Yeah.

I think the goal is to just do what you like, right? So you talk about that. Dude, I never tapped into the Alex Hermosi style of captions. Everybody in the entrepreneur space did though. And I just stuck with black and white text. I'm a Helvetica guy.

I'm just keep it simple. And it's worked for me. I think it's just kind of what resonates with you. And don't do it just because somebody else did. Like Alex changed his stuff to black text and yellow box. And that's all he's doing now. And now I'm seeing entrepreneurs do black text with yellow box. It's like, dude, you can't create your own

thing if you're just always a step behind alex you know you actually can create your own you know look yeah by just whatever resonates with you and i think i think trying different things is important um i understand that we live in a you know like in this space that it's like dang they're doing something new it's working i want it let's implement it there's a there's a balance between you know riding a trend for the sake of impact to increase your impact versus like we're just gonna copy everything we see yeah you know and um so i i feel like that just comes more into knowing who you are self-awareness is probably one of the biggest and probably like overlooked traits of entrepreneurs. Yeah. We don't work on ourself enough. Yeah. I think the more you know

yourself, the more you, you actually will be unattracted to that stuff. Right. You'll be like, man, I don't, I don't want it to look the same as everybody else. How can we make this look different or be different? Um, I was helping a pretty well-known podcaster hook up his studio. Sometimes I do this where I go out and hook up an office and stuff. And he's been doing it for 11 years. And I love what he said. He's like, not a lot of guys in the game for 11 years.

No, for real. He's like, bro, I've uploaded 1800 interviews. Yeah. One a week for 11 years. And I was like,

dude, kudos. And then, uh, but he was like, we always try to zag while everybody's zigging you know zigzag you know everybody's everybody's doing the zig we're trying to zag and so you know he even said like one way we did that is that we started read nobody was doing this mr beast was but like

nobody was redubbing podcasts into a different language and he's like our podcast is amazing so we got it redubbed in Spanish, started a Spanish channel. And yesterday he just passed a million subscribers on his Spanish channel. Like not, not, not necessarily following the trend of what's going on, but just trying to figure out a way you could better serve people. Yeah. And if, if impact is the goal, it'll change your, your, your way of helping, because then you're not trying to go the slowest route. You're trying to make the most impact. I love that. Like, I think what you just said there is probably the key to success in life, right? Really doing things for the benefit of

others rather than just your own self-interest in the moment, right? Like how can I serve? How can I impact? How can I change lives? But then going back to like being your own unique person, right? Like how can I serve? How can I impact? How can I change lives? But then going back to like being your own unique person, right? Like the goal that I've found in success is like that I've just got to know myself and be myself and consistently do that over and over and over again, regardless of what everybody else is doing, because that's really what's going to make us unique. And it's interesting in the entrepreneur space, you see this, like everybody's just flowing with the trends, right? When Bitcoin's up, everybody's talking about Bitcoin. When NFTs are going, man, everyone's an NFT expert, right? It's like, know your lane, do your thing, repeat it, rinse and repeat, go a thousand feet deep to hit oil right dedicate a

decade of your life not the next 10 days not the next 10 months but the dead the next decade and and so i i love like the principles that you're focusing on because these are these are things that i actually believe and i like when i see older and i more wise and more experienced people you know get the content bug like number one it it just reassures me that i just need to keep teaching this thing and like don't follow any shiny objects yeah but my my business mentor his name is myron golden i love myron dude we're homies yeah no he's yeah so i'm in his inner circle okay and he was saying how like he's like dude i went into my 60s saying i'm gonna give youtube 10 years yeah i don't i don't care what it what will happen out of it but i'm gonna give my i'm gonna give it

10 years he's two and a half years in or about two years in has over half a million subscribers and his business has completely exploded he attributes the recent blow up of his business obviously it is the come up of his, of his staying in entrepreneur, going through those seasons. But the biggest shift in his business was that he started creating content. He started putting out his knowledge and teaching and, and there's it, it, in so many ways, it's that simple. Yeah. You know, especially in his case, he's literally like whiteboard or vibe board in this case is digital. And he just teaches, he teaches principles. He teaches things he's learned in business. He's teaching something that he just figured out. Um, and, and, and he's, and he's like 63. So there you're, you can never be too old to start. That's for

sure. And if you are old, I think you have a headstart because of the experience. So you talk about dedicating, I mean, you, you know, that you need to get away from the shiny object and you need to double down. Where do you see the next five to 10 years for yourself personally? Great question. I guess I don't think about it too much because I just think in like years, you know, like, especially being a follower of Jesus, I try to get instruction for one year. Like, what's my instruction this year?

Last year, I felt like God gave me the permission to go for it. He said like, if there's a door, go through it. If there's an opportunity, say yes. This year, I feel like it's a year of building structure because of what will happen in the next five to 10 years. So what I feel is gonna happen in the next five to 10 years is I believe I'm gonna create one of the best coaching

and consulting education businesses that are helping other businesses with content creation, just making it easy. You know, if there's, if you feel like this thing is hard, I think I found a way to make it easy and just talk in a way that makes it, you feel empowered. Like, dude, Omar, what you're saying, I can do that and so i just leaning into that you know i i think just stewarding the relationships that god brings me and um and yeah dude i would love to make millions and millions of dollars to fund the kingdom um i i feel like this will be my first seven figure year i see the path i can see how we're gonna get there it's just

a matter of doing the work yeah um but But I also am very open-handed. You know, anything can change. You know, God could tell me or tell our family to shift, drop, and he knows he has my heart. So if that were to happen, then my plans are changing. So it's kind of hard to, like, answer the question knowing that I live a very kind of go with the flow. And when I say flow, I mean, like like go with whatever God's leading me to do.

Yeah. And so, yeah, I feel like, yeah, I can go either way. Yeah. So you're clearly a believer in Christ, which is awesome as I am. So there's a lot of people that would say that money is evil, capitalism is evil, that are of the believing side. Like, what do you say to those type of people? Does God want to bless his followers with financial freedom?

The simple answer I will give you is yes. And why? Well, number one, the love of money. It's not money is evil. No, the love of money is evil. And serving money, when money's your master, that's evil. But there is too many times in the Bible where it talks about prosperity and people hate that work, especially the people that are like kind of closing their fists right now. That's the, the, the author meme, I don't know, Arthur, the, um, the cartoon,

but, um, you know, there, you know, you find in Deuteronomy, it says, God has given you the power to create wealth. What else does wealth mean? What do you want to like, what else does wealth mean? You tell me like, I do think it's beyond money. And I think with God, it's always more than money, but what the heck does wealth mean? And then, and then it's like, what's the reason so that you can establish his covenant, that making money is not evil. It's actually really good because of what you can do with money. You know, it's very hard to be a blessing if you yourself aren't taken care of. The Bible talks about, you know, love others as you love yourself. You can't love others unless you love yourself.

I believe you can't take care of other people unless you take care of yourself. And so to say that, like this train of thought that is, you know, God wants you to suffer and be poor and, and that lack means holiness, I actually think is demonic. That's just my theological opinion, I guess you could say. But when you, when you realize that God wants to get money through you, then, then that's when, you know, the, the blessings come. And, and honestly, this is why, dude, I live way below our means. Like I could be driving a way cooler car. We can really live in a way bigger mansion or I don't even need to live in a mansion. My house is 1900 square feet. My mortgage 1500 bucks. And it's allowing us to bless people. And so I believe God wants to get more money to me. And, and that's my belief, but

now I can't speak to people's hearts, right? I do. I did a podcast. Um, the, my most, uh, right now viral podcast is with a guy, brilliant marketer, brand guys, name's Chris Doe. And, um, there was a moment where he was trying to share a story and he was talking about, you know, we're talking about pricing cause he's really good at helping creatives price their work. Right. And he was like, you know, it's kind of like church where it's like, you pay what you want, you know, like I was like, what do you mean you pay what you want? And he was like, you know, like's kind of like church where it's like, you pay what you want. You know, like I was like, what do you mean you pay what you want? And he was like, you know, like in church, you just, you give whatever you feel like

giving. I was like, not really. He's like, what do you mean? I was like, the tithe is very clear. It's the set amount. You know, he's like 10%, it's 10%. He's like, yeah, but that's not a rule though. I was like, not a rule, but it's a principle.

Literally what tithe means. Yeah. It means 10. But here's what's great. What do I, what am I getting at with this? principle. Literally what tithe means. Yeah. It means 10. Uh, but here's what's great. What, what do I, what am I getting at with this? The amount of comments that came from that awkward moment or through our conversation reveals to me that so much people don't, they don't understand money. They don't understand blessing. They don't understand,

you know, prosperity. And I could define what is prosperity. My pastor actually likes to define it like this, uh, having enough to take care of your needs and then having more left over to take care of others' needs. And so, so many people are like, nah, man, yeah, New Testament, it's a suggestion, you know, I guess people are saying,

and I'm like, no, it's pre-law. It's actually before the covenant. And then we see it, we see Paul talk about saying, pay your tithes to the storehouse. It's so like, I don't know what you guys are talking about. But anyway, and then we see it, we see Paul talk about saying, pay your tithes to the storehouse. It's so like, I don't know what you guys are talking about, but anyway, all that to say, it's just revealing where people's hearts are, even believers that it's revealing that they, they are still, there's a journey to be had with, with finances. And dude, I, I love living my life

knowing that money doesn't have a grip on me. Do we just, you know, it's January at the time of filming this and we get our giving statement from the church. And we're in a process, we're building a $17 million building to be done in October. It's gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be incredible. And just to see how much we gave,

I'm like, bro, we gave somebody salary. Like, this is incredible. I used to be in ministry and I used to get paid that much in a year. Like, that's the goal. So yeah, just to get kind of passionate about this because I feel like number one, this is the beauty of business that we can accelerate income so that we can make a difference faster. And, and then the second part is that more believers would understand this principle

of generosity, that God actually wants to get you more so that you can do more for the kingdom, not for yourself. Um, and, and of course he's going to take care of you. Of course you're going to be taken care of. But dude, I, if, if, even if let's just say, let's remove everything out of the picture, like forget the Bible right now, which one would you go with? Which one do you, you decide? It's like, let's, like, why are, I feel like sometimes non-believers have more faith in this, in this ability to know that there's more out there and that there's more in order to make an impact.

But yet it comes to the believer. And I get, I think I get passionate about it because it's given, it's taken a journey for me. It's messed with me in business. This, you know, I hate to make generalizations because sometimes it's very ignorant to do so,

but a lot of Christians in business are very hard, afraid to charge because they're cheap. And a lot of that train of thought comes from, I think, incorrect teaching around finances in the local church. Yeah. I actually have a couple of hot takes on that. I actually say that you should keep your business and your charity separate, right? Like charge what you need to as an entrepreneur so that you can on the backend be very generous. 100. Right?

Because a lot of times entrepreneurs think that they're giving a service to society by undercharging for their work or whatever else. No. That's really good. No, absolutely not. Because people pay for what they value, right? And so by paying more, they're saying,

I'm going to use this product. I'm going to use this service. Like this is really valuable to me. When they underpay you, they're like, your stuff is garbage. You know, I'm just, I'm probably not going to utilize this. Like I've paid for so many cheap things that I've never, ever used because it didn't cost me anything. Exactly. When you pay, they say when you pay, you pay attention. Yeah. And so like, that's, that's my philosophy is like, one,

you should be probably the highest in the marketplace when, when it comes, when it comes to price so that two, you can be the highest in the marketplace when it comes to generosity. That's really good. You know? And, and,

and so, and, and then the, the other thing is I truly believe that generosity and giving back is the most selfish thing there is because it's so rewarding. It rewards the person that is generous, that gives. It's like, man, if more people knew how good I felt in this moment by giving, like they would realize this is the hack to true joy, true happiness. True. Yeah.

That's what the Bible says. It's more blessed to give than to receive. Yeah. And so immaturity, spiritual immaturity looks like acquisition is the highest form of blessing when, you know, letting go and giving is the highest form of blessing. And I love that you separate the two because, because businesses can't tithe, people tithe, you know? So I think that's, that is really good wisdom because I would say there's a gray area where if you're starting off in business and you're a sole proprietor and you're like, dang, like

this is the first time I made all this money. Well, it's like, well get the structure out in place too, where like your business is a separate entity from who you are as far as the person like yeah like i said like businesses don't give people give you know but that is that's such a a true life hack and it's and it's cute honestly it's cute to see these very well-off entrepreneurs sometimes do these like you know little charity events and it's go great i love it but i know they're they're not even tapping into close of like what really could be done with the resource they've created. Yeah.

But that's just a personal conviction on mine. I'm not trying to put convictions on other people. You're good. I love it. I love it. So what are two to three resources? So going back to the content creation route, what are two to three resources that you would highly recommend, whether they're books or mentorship programs or coaching or courses or whatever it is that you would recommend in 2024 for people that are watching this right now that say, I want to go and launch my personal brand. Yeah. So I would say I'm a shameless plug as I do these challenges. They're five day challenges and I give away so much game on these challenges. You'll get so much out of it. It's called the content to cash challenge. Whenever I would say sign up for the next one that comes up, I try to do them at least every other month.

And so that would be a great way to get your answer, your questions answered and get that like immediate kind of like information you'd need. And then, and then I would say use YouTube. I mean, you know, consume, consume, uh, you know, think media is a great place for the practical stuff. If you search think media, you'll learn how to use your smartphone to create videos, like the technical aspect of stuff and make it easy. Yeah. And you're, you're a, uh, a content creator for think media. Yeah. So think media is dude, it's a, I would say it's probably one of the top YouTube education channels on YouTube.

That's awesome. We just passed 2.8 million subscribers. Amazing. On my videos alone, I've created a little over 300 videos that my face is on and they've accumulated to well over 50 million views. That's amazing. So I know a little bit of something about YouTube and how- Thing or two.

Yeah, thing or two. So, but that's free help on Think Media. And I also have a podcast that I think would help people. A lot of the conversations that do really well are around personal branding. And so if you wanna go deeper and really marinate on this idea and topic and how it can actually work for you,

I would say check out my podcast. It's called The Department with Omar El-Takrori. And I like to say, I interview people who are killing it in their department. I love it. I love it. Omar, thank you so much for your time. This was awesome content. I know the YouTube worlds, the Apple podcast, everybody's going to love what they totally took from this. Last but not least, if somebody wants to get more information from you or follow you, what's the best platform to get you at?

I would say follow me on IG. Just type in Omar E-L-T and then I'll show up. I'm not going to make you spell out my whole last name because you might get lost. But Omar Altacori on Instagram. I'm very active on Instagram. If you DM me, I'll respond.

It'll be me. That's awesome. It'd be cool to connect. Awesome. I appreciate you. Appreciate your time today. That's awesome. It'd be cool to connect. Awesome. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me. Appreciate your time today, my man. Until next time!