Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - David Shands: The Entrepreneurial Mindset, How to Build a Loyal Community and Hone Your Niche for Massive Success | E264

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Since David quit his job as a waiter at the Cheesecake Factory a decade ago, his successful businesses, compelling story, and unique teaching style have helped him build a large and loyal following. Now, he hosts The Social Proof Podcast and runs the Sleepless Knights Coaching Program to guide entrepreneurs and small business owners to entrepreneurial success. David is empowering a new generation of aspiring business owners and dismissing the myth that entrepreneurship is unattainable for those without social or capital privilege. In today’s episode, David will share some tips on how to build a viable online community and chase your goals on your terms and regardless of your background.   David Shands is an author, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and business coach. In a few short years, his “Sleep is 4 Suckers” concept has evolved from selling t-shirt's out of the back seat of his car, to selling his message on apparel across the globe. He is now the host of the successful entrepreneurial podcast, The Social Proof Podcast.   In this episode, Hala and David will discuss: - Life lessons learned at the Cheesecake Factory - What David learned from Steve Jobs - Struggling as a young entrepreneur - Learning to focus his efforts - Starting his own t-shirt brand - Why he started teaching entrepreneurship - Perfecting his craft on YouTube - Knowing what your audience is struggling with - Earning your listeners’ trust - How to build a niche community - And other topics…   David Shands is an author, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and business coach. David worked in various customer-oriented industries by day while building his own apparel business by night. In a few short years, his “Sleep is 4 Suckers” concept has evolved from selling t-shirt's out of the back seat of his car, to selling his message on apparel across the globe. He is now the host of the successful entrepreneurial podcast, The Social Proof Podcast. He is especially focused on helping entrepreneurs launch their own podcasts.   Resources Mentioned: David’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidshands/ David’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sleepis4suckers David’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sleepis4suckers/ David’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamsarebuiltovernight/ David’s Podcast (The Social Proof Podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/social-proof-podcast/id1374373035 David’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidNeverSleeps   LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course.   Sponsored By: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Articulate 360 - Visit articulate.com/360 to start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360 MasterClass - Right now you can get Two Memberships for the Price of One at youngandprofiting.co/masterclass Nom Nom - Go to youngandprofiting.co/trynomnom for 50% off on your two-week trial  HelloFresh - Go to HelloFresh.com/profitingfree and use code profitingfree for FREE breakfast for life! Help Save Palestinian Lives:  Donate money for eSIM cards for the people of Gaza at https://youngandprofiting.co/DonateWHala   More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com  Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review -  ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting   Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala   Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/

Today's episode of Young & Profiting is sponsored by Shopify, Articulate, Masterclass, NOM NOM, and HelloFresh. Shopify simplifies selling online so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Switch to Shopify today at Shopify.com-profiting. Articulate360 is a premier leader in workplace learning. Visit Articulate.com-360 to start a free 30 day trial. With master class, you can learn from the best to become your best. Get two memberships for the price of one at masterclass.com slash profiting. NOM NOM delivers freshly made dog food straight

to your door. For 50% off a two week trial, go to trinom.com slash profiting. Skip the grocery store and save time with easy, tasty recipes delivered to your door with Hello give it everything you got and aspire to be the best person that you know. If you are playing basketball, you need to be the best person on that court. In the fall time, there are leaves on the floor. My friends, I'm going to be in the middle of the night. I'm going to be in the middle of the night. I'm going to be in the middle of the night. I'm going to be in the middle of the night. I'm going to be in the middle of the night. I'm going to be in the middle of the night. I'm going to be in the person that you know. If you are playing basketball, you need to be the best person on that court. In the fall time, there are leaves on the ground. My friends say, oh, perfect time to play football. I don't know what makes me think, man,

I can go knock on my neighbor's door and maybe don't pay me the right to leave. I can't say I attributed it to personal development or I had a coach to say, go out there and hustle. That's why I think sometimes entrepreneurship is an eighth because I can't explain why my brain thinks that way. I don't want to play with y'all. I'm going to go make some money every journey.

There's a bunch of stuff that you've been through or you're going through, but we spend so much time complaining about that. That we don't find a lesson in. Once I started looking for the lesson in why I'm here, something clicked when I really jumped into the personal development space that I need to embrace why I'm here. I found it and I realized. Young M Profiters, I am so excited to welcome to the show one of my closest industry friends

in the podcast world and one of the hardest working people you will ever meet, David Shanz. David is an entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and fashion mogul. He's the host of the Social Proof Podcast and he's empowering a new generation of aspiring business owners across the country while dismissing the myth that entrepreneurship is out of the way for those without social or capital privilege. David is passionate about building communities and redefining how people view a successful entrepreneur. You don't have to have a million dollars in your bank account, He says you can be an average person ambitious enough to chase your goals on your terms and regardless of your background. David,

I'm so happy to have you here. Welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, likewise. I went on your show's social proof a few months back and it was one of my favorite podcasts episodes that I ever did. We got so much great feedback on it. I loved speaking with you in person. And then we got to hang out at the podcast summit. Then again, at podcast movements. So now you're one of my industry friends, which I love having my friends on the show.

So welcome, really happy to have you here. Oh, man. I'm in a podcast space, but I respect what you've done. And you're doing it better than me, so. I want to do another interview so I can learn more on how you're crushing it, but congratulations to all you're doing. Thanks, David.

Thanks. So I found out from my research that you grew in Jersey like me. I had no idea. I thought you were always from Atlanta. So you ended up being in Jersey for a long time. I don't think you moved to Atlanta until you were in high school. So what was the young Jersey boy David Chams like? Nucka head. I mean, well, I'm growing up in an environment. I'm from Willingboro, New Jersey. So

it's about 20 minutes from Philly, maybe 15 minutes from Camden, which a few years back was the murder capital. I don't know where it's at now. So we have a lot of people from New York, a lot of people from Philly, Camden. If you're driving around in a daytime, you're like, oh, this neighborhood is nice enough, but it was a lot going on. I've done all of the things that people from this area aspire to do, but I was so thankful

when my mom and dad split sounds weird. My dad moved to Philly, my mom moved to do, but I was so thankful when my mom and dad split sounds weird. My dad moved to Philly. My mom moved to Atlanta. And I moved down to Atlanta with my mom. And I got to see something else. Not the school that I moved to was even better, but my cousin was more positive. My family was really a little more connected. So I got to get out of that environment, do something different. I was playing basketball for my school and then I went to school and I love being myself.

I've had an amazing journey of changes, which were good. Yeah, and your father was also an entrepreneur. So did you get inspired by him at all in terms of you dabbling in entrepreneurship later on in life? Absolutely. My dad was an ultimate entrepreneur. He never really made a whole whole lot, but he made enough to take care of us. I learned so much from my dad. I'm so blessed I've had him. He's passed away now, but so blessed I've had my dad. He gave me so many life lessons like, for instance, if I asked him a question, he'd never give me the answer. It's not like I would ask him a question,

hey, dad, what's the right answer? He would answer my question with another question because he always wanted me to think. And he used to frustrate me so much. I'm like, Dad, what should I do? And he'll say, what do you think you should do? I'm like, Dad, if I knew, I wouldn't be asking you. But he always ultimately wanted me to make the decision. It'll give me like a little nod and say, job son, or I was playing basketball, I was good as a kid, but he would notice in my games that I was really good with my right hand.

So he'd had me dribbling up and down the street with my left hand, working on those weaknesses. This before I got involved in kind of like the pharmaceutical sales, but I remember being a kid and he said something to me, he said, give it everything you got. And I want you to aspire to be the best person that you know. So he said, if you are playing basketball,

you need to be the best person on that court. So it's these little principles that my dad taught me throughout my life. Again, he never made a whole bunch of money as an entrepreneur, but he was always going out there trying to get it. I love that. So you are now really successful, right?

You've got this huge show, social proof, you're a huge YouTuber, big on Instagram. You've got all these different businesses, all these different communities. But before all of this, you are doing a lot of service jobs. You're waiting tables for many years. So you worked a cheesecake factory in the olive garden, and you hustled on the side eventually, and no offense to any waiters listening to this podcast. But most people who are waiting tables right now

listening to the show don't want to do that forever. Of course, this is a temporary thing. And I never waited tables, but I worked in my 20s and teens in the retail industry non-stop. So like every story you could think of juicy, baby, abacromby, bazzam bodyworks, like, just every store in the mall I worked at for like 10 years. And it taught me so much. It taught me how to be a salesperson, how to not be shy, how to be confident, how to speak

with people, connect with people. And I still have those skills to this day. We talk a lot about skills stacking on the podcast. So what did you learn from your days as a waiter that you still carry with you today? Oh, everything. Good. It's gracious. I've always been an entrepreneur. I've always had a job and something on the side. I never just like just a just an employee like, oh, I was always hustling something right and I always wanted to be better and I knew I wouldn't be at the cheesecake factory forever so my first few years it was complaining

about the job, hate the job, I don't want to be not that I hated the job but I knew I wasn't going to be there forever but something clicked when I really jumped into the personal development space, I need to embrace why I'm here. And there's a lesson that I'm missing because I come into working, complaining about the job so much. So once I started looking for the lesson and why I'm here, I found it. And I realized there's so many things that I can work on. Now that's going to help me later, like for instance, I know I wanted to be a speaker, I came across, you know, motivational speakers, I'm like, dang, I want to do that

because they talk good. But I needed to be able to articulate my words a little better. So I will go to the table and I have to get the same pitch every day. My name is David, the fish of the day is salmon and my he-my-he comes up broccoli and mashed potatoes. Can I take your order? What can I get you to drink, right? My name is David the fish of the day and Sam and I he my here comes up broccoli and mashed potatoes. Can I take your order? What can I get you to drink, right?

But I used to slur my words, meaning I would say Sam and I he my he comes up broccoli and mashed potatoes instead of broccoli and mashed potatoes. It's a small change, right? I could say broccoli and mashed potatoes or I can pronunciation my words a little bit and say broccoli and mashed potatoes. And I would pronunciation my words a little more because I knew I wanted to be a speaker but this job is giving me opportunity after opportunity

after opportunity to work on my ability to communicate or, for instance, I understand that my objective is to make more money and the way you make more money is by getting more tips. And the way you get more tips is by making sure the bill is higher. So you'll make more money on a tip if the bill is $100 versus $20. So I'm thinking of all these different ways that I can get someone to buy more. And we're working at the cheesecake factory. So my objective is to sell more cheesecake. The cheesecake

is like $8, $78 around the time. So I have to really, really sell this stuff. And if it's five people at the table and they all get a cheesecake for $8, that's $40. If we're working off of a tip system in 20% is the goal. At a $40, that's an extra $8. What if I did that 10 times a shift? That's an extra $8. What if I did that 10 times a shift? That's an extra $80. What if I did that 10 times per month? That's an extra $800. So I got a chance to work on my sales skills by selling people cheesecake

because I knew if I couldn't sell a $8 cheesecake, I'm not going to be selling $30 t-shirt. So there was so many principles I learned from the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, and also I'm sure being likable, right? You needed people to like you to get those tips, and that's why I probably, while you're so bubbly and easy to like, right? And why people who don't even know you

are your fans and like you. Yes, a blessing, man. Every journey, whoever's watching this, there's a bunch of stuff that you've been through or you're going through, but we spend so much time complaining about the stuff we've been through or that we're going through, that we don't find a lesson in it. So, I don't know what it is. You might be in a toxic, terrible relationship and we're so in it and depressed about the relationship that we don't start taking notes in this toxic situation so we can start to

Retract okay, what were the signs that would have told me that this person is going to end up being this person later Well, if you learn it now, but it's how you get your next relationship you can start spotting those signs and you got Identifying what you want so you'll be in a blissful relationship because of the one you just got out of. But we can play in so much about where we are, we never spent time to identify the lesson. I think that's a really, really good point. So while you were doing this waiting tables for many years, you always had a side gig like you were sending. And back then, what year was this around? What were the years? I was at the Cheesecake Factory from 2006, 2012.

And then before that, I worked at Olive Garden for 10 months, before that. I worked at Apple Bees for like four or five months while I was in college. So like you were doing this for six, seven years. And side hustling really wasn't a big. Now everybody is like a side hustle. Or everyone is a freelancer. everybody is like a side hustle, or everyone is a free-lancer.

This is the new way of working because everybody realizes that having a corporate job is actually not secure, and everybody wants to be at least half their foot in entrepreneurship, right? So what was it for you because there wasn't many role models who were working on the side and working during the day?

Why did you decide to side hustle? What was your motivation? Well, I mean, my dad was entrepreneur. So he was an herbalist and an iridologist. So my dad, he could take a flashlight and like a microscope and looking your eye and he could tell what's wrong. So I remember one day, he was looking in my eye, what is flashlight?

It is a microscope and grabbed my foot and pressed a part of my foot. And I said, oh, what's that? He said, oh, I can see it. He said, your eyes are connected to your entire body and you can see what's wrong with the body there. And he prescribed, like, not prescribed, but he was so herbs. And I always just saw my dad doing it.

And another thing is, I don't know what gives someone the thought to go make money, right? So I live in a neighborhood, houses, grass, front yards, back yards. I go down the street. And in the fall time, there are leaves on the lawn. My friends see the leaves on the lawn and they to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school.

I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to go back to school. I'm me to rake the leaves. And I can go buy more basketball cards or we had snow days where in New Jersey, the snow has to be like at your neck for you to go to school. But my mom had to go to work because you had to play out of streets

all my neighbors would have to go to work and they have to shovel the driveway. So so that my mom can go to work. My dad would say, all right, you don't have school today because it was showed to try to school. I have to shovel the snow. Out of my driveway so that my mom can get out and go to work because they already ploughed the streets. My friends would call the house and say, yeah, we don't got school. Let's play football outside. You get your coat, you get your socks, double socks, thermals, you're out there, you're hanging out with your friends, we're chilling because we're excited, we don't have school. I don't know what makes me think to myself,

I'm gonna go knock on the doors and shovel snow and try to make some money. Again, I can't say I attributed it to personal development or my dad, I had a coach to say and go out there and hustle. That's why I think sometimes entrepreneurship is an eight because I can't explain why my brain thinks that way. I don't wanna play with y'all. I don't wanna go make some money.

I don't know why, I'm not there. I'm with you, I was the same way. I was selling so much since I was a young girl, always coming up with the next idea, putting my cousins to work, my friends to work, and always like the ringleader of some little business. So I'm with you, I don't know where it came from either. Probably like you, seeing my dad sort of do the same thing

and just wanting to grow up fast and make money. But you know, also you can't 100% attribute it to environment because I grew up, but me and my brother, we were in the house. My brother may have seen my dad not make a whole bunch of money as entrepreneur. I saw my dad not make a whole bunch of money as entrepreneur. My brother didn't become entrepreneur, but I did. So again, maybe I'm just trying to create a conversation for the audience in the chat or wherever you're at to identify, well, what made me different

or what makes you different? And I think we all have our own unique thing. Like I was watching the Steve Jobs movie. And at the end of the movie, Steve Jobs looks at a computer because at that time, it was a computer in your audience's young, so I gotta explain it. There was a computer, and on the sides, there was two speakers, and that's how you listened to the audio from the computer.

So at the end of it, Steve Jobs sits there, and he's in a company of all engineers. He walks over to the computer and says, why don't we just put the speakers into the computer box? Then we won't have to have these speakers that are connected to the computer. What makes them think that? I think we all just have these gifts

and I think we all have a unique brain and we really need to start to think, why do we think uniquely or why do we see things uniquely and oftentimes there's a business in that? I totally agree with you and I think it's an important point to know because some people are natural at entrepreneurship, they're really good, they're good at it, they're good at making money and some people do really well going on another path and you don't have to be an entrepreneur to be successful.

Okay, so let's talk about experiences. For you, you did so many different side hustles. So you did landscaping, wholesaling, network marketing, hand painted t-shirts, right? So you did a lot of different things and a lot of these initial ideas don't exist anymore. They essentially failed, right? So talk to us about why you think

some of these initial ideas didn't stick for you. Was it a marketing thing? Was it a mindset thing? Tell us about that. It's not that the business didn't work. It's just I didn't. I mean, I had to fall into an entrepreneur who sees myself doing something and I stay focused on it. Most of the reasons that I am not doing a bunch of the things that you just mentioned is because I just stop doing it. Or times got hard and I had a slow season and I'm like, oh, I can't do this anymore.

I need to do something else. But it was like a slow month or a slow two months. Or I'm doing something and that thing starts to work but then I see my friend doing something or somebody comes to me with an idea. And because the thing that I'm doing is working, they come to me and say, Hey, you should do this with me. And I say, okay, let's do it. This is working. I'm going to do this with you too. And they both fail because success takes focus.

So any one of the things that you mentioned, I could have made millions doing. If only I stopped stopping and stopped getting distracted and stopped getting out of our feelings. Now I understand if I have a few bad months in podcasts or I have a few bad months in the morning meetup or a few bad months with income and anything that I'm doing, I understand it's not the end of the world. It's just a few bad months with income and anything that I'm doing, I understand it's not the end of the world. It's just a few bad months. But I couldn't handle that. I wasn't entrepreneurially mature enough to understand this is just a season and it's going to happen every single year. Every single year since I've been a full-time entrepreneur, I've had

a bad season. Every single one of them. Like it's not like I had a year where every year everything was amazing. I had some good years but there's always been a month or two where things get shaky. And that's the point where people quit and they start doing something else, they start hiding their tail and they start scrambling. But yeah, any of those things could have worked. I just, I was the problem. Yeah, and you have said this quote in the past, which I just want to read. My biggest mistake has been allowing other ideas to distract me from the idea that's in front of me.

I've learned that suppressing my creative ideas are hard to do, but it's necessary for my success. And I think a lot of people have this problem. They're sort of wanna be entrepreneurs or just going from idea to idea to idea to idea and they never just focus So how did you get yourself out of that pattern? Like what was the like the big turning point where you were like I added just focus on one thing?

I mean Start and stop a bunch of stuff. You realize you got to stop doing that. I mean you do anything long enough You start learning little lessons and then I started thinking about you start learning little lessons. And then I started thinking about, I get personal development for sure. And then I started looking at all the people that I admire and all the people that I admire have been doing the same thing for a long period of time.

So a lot of people, they're gonna buy a course for somebody, right? And they're gonna jump into the course, and they're gonna do it, and they're gonna start for a little while. But then they're gonna buy a course from somebody else. But all the people that they're going to do it and they're going to start full in a while, but then they're going to buy a course from somebody else. But all the people that they're buying courses from are like the people that you admire and want to be like, they've been doing the same thing over and over and over again

for a long period of time. They don't treat it like a side hustle. We treat our businesses like a side hustle. If it works great, if it doesn't, I'll just do something else. But you learn these lessons, you gotta lock in. Have to do something for a long period of time and keep getting better at it. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Something we always talk about on this podcast is trusting your gut and leveraging your creativity to make it as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, I always want to get better at these skills, so I took Whitney Wolf Hurd's new class on Masterclass. Whitney is the founder of Bumble. She's the

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Go to shopify.com-profiting and switch to Shopify today. Shopify.com-profiting. Pfft! Okay, so let's talk about the idea that did stick sleep for suckers at what point did you come up with that? Oh, I came up with the idea in college, and I had this, I had an email address,

sleepusforstuckersatgmail.com. And I don't know where I got it from. I think I might, when I was painting T-shirts in college, I might have made a T-shirt or something like that and I was like, oh, that's a cool name. But then I moved back to Atlanta from Alabama and them and I stopped using it. I don't remember how I started using it again,

but I was like, let me recover this email address and I sent somebody an email from that email address and I was like, yo, that's a really cool name. And I said, great, I'm gonna start making t-shirts. That's how it started. I just started pushing the message and I didn't stop. So that's kind of how I remember the concept, but I don't remember how I came up with the name. It's just-

Yeah, it sounds like it's been your match up for a long time. So now you are really big on YouTube. We've got over 450,000 subscribers and I'm a YouTuber and it is so hard to grow on that channel. So I really respect you. I always tell you like, damn, your YouTube channel is so fire. When did you start? I really only started seriously on YouTube like maybe two years ago. So it's been early. I've been doing podcasting for like six years. So my audio started by channel 13 years ago. Yes. 13 years ago.

Exactly. So it's like, I hope to be where you're at in five years or something. Hopefully it takes me a little less time than you. But I wanted you to decide to start your YouTube channel or what triggered you to take it to YouTube. I had a T-shirt brand, Sleepers for Suckers 2010. I started it and I'm always just thinking of ways I can get the message out because I tried to sell to t-shirt but I found out that I'm just bad at design.

Well, I'll get something that I like but a lot of people don't like it. So people weren't buying the design. But when I started talking about sleepers for suckers, geared towards entrepreneurship and anyone is willing to lose sleep to get what they want out of life, sleeping isn't just sleeping in a bed. If you work the same job for 10 years and you're in the same position that you were in 10 years ago when you started, you've technically been sleep for 10 years.

When I get a chance to start talking about it, people are like, okay, I buy a shirt. They weren't buying the shirt. They weren't buying the design. They weren't buying the quality. They were buying the message. So I said, I'm going to make a video and put it on YouTube. And anytime somebody wants to hear about the message, I'll send them this YouTube link. So it was starting watching it. And it was good. And I just kept making videos on and all of the spotty start stop to get here and not make anything get really inspired again and stop again.

But once I got consistent, that's when it started to pay off. But it took 10 years to get consistent. And there's a big lesson in all this. Pay attention to the demand that's around you. You started selling t-shirts, but really people wanted to hear you speak. And so you ended up leaning that way,

evolved the brand, and it stuck, right? So always pay attention to what people are asking you about, what people think you're the expert on, right? So at what point did you start making money? When did you start to monetize your YouTube and your entrepreneurship advice? I started monetizing advice on entrepreneurship when I started the t-shirt break. It became like me teaching entrepreneurship. Even while I was still working at the cheesecake factory, I just job in

this t-shirt brand and I'm building. And you should have seen me. I was hustling. If I wasn't at work, I was selling these t-shirts. And people would come on a Friday night to come get t-shirts from my job because I had them in the car and I had my phone and said, hey, you going out tonight? Okay, great.

Let me get you a shirt. Come up to the job. They would come up to the job. Be at the front. Hey, his David here. They say, well, yeah, you want to sit in the section? They're like, no, I just want to talk to him. If I go to the job, be at the front, hey, his David here. They say, well, yeah, you want to sit in a section? They're like, no, I just want to talk to him. If I go to the front, they give me the money.

I say, hold on. I go refill all the drinks for the people at my table, make sure they have bread, make sure their food was good, make sure their order was in. Run to my car, go get the shirt, bring it to the person. They leave, I come back, take care of my guests. This was my life. And people saw that and I started telling people, listen, I'm not going to be here long. I'm making money outside of my job and with my job. And it's

really cool. And I'm telling my friends and coworkers how they can do it too. And they began to be inspired. So when I did finally leave the job in 2012, October 1, 2012, I opened a kiosk in a mall, selling the t-shirts, but everybody that came to the kiosk got this little lesson in a mini motivational speech about entrepreneurship, not sleeping. And then in 2013, I opened another kiosk in the same mall, 2014.

I opened a storefront in another mall, closed down the second kiosk in the same mall, 2014, I opened a store front in another mall, closed down the second kiosk in the first mall, but then the mall made me move my store. They told me that a bigger store, a more national store, once my spot. So I have to leave a few months after I opened it. And I was devastated. But the cool thing was, throughout this process, I was writing this book. So when I lost the store, it gave me more time to complete my book.

And the whole book called Dreams Are Built Over Night, we finished the book because I didn't have as much time running the day-to-day business. And that came out, it was teaching entrepreneurship. Then I started speaking about the book. And then I went on tour with Eric Thomas teaching entrepreneurship because I had to book out. And then I started coaching, the book and then I went on tour with Eric Thomas teaching entrepreneurship because I had to book out and Then I started coaching and I was pretty much a

What I don't know 10 year journey in about three minutes Amazing it sounds awesome and you know, we're all about actionable advice on the podcast So I have to ask you for anybody who's starting their YouTube journey now, like you said, you started 13 years ago or something like that. But 2023, it's a whole different game. You're still crushing it. You still know how to get views and all of that. So how can we get more engagement on YouTube, more views and subscribers? One, you have to be good at it. I don't have a one, two, three step for someone that's not good. It doesn't ask good questions or put up amazing content or come out with shareable stuff. There's

nothing I can do for you. You have to practice the craft. It's really cool because for two years of actually doing the podcast and putting on YouTube, I wasn't thinking money. 10 years, I mean, while I was doing it, so I started 2010, I didn't start monetizing until 2020. For those 10 years, I'm not even thinking that YouTube makes money. I never even thought about it. My only thing was, are people liking this content?

Are they sharing it? Are they commenting? And I was focused on having a good show and being a good interviewer and being engaging. So that's where I'm blessed because I came before the era of jump on YouTube to make a million dollars. I had time to perfect my craft. So one, you just have to be good at it. I don't care if you're super consistent,

you have the best camera, best lighting. If the content isn't amazing, it's not going to work. So practice your craft. You really need to find a niche that you're passionate about and that other people are passionate about. And you have to brand yourself around this conversation. So I brand, my whole world is branded around podcasting

and entrepreneurship. One, I've been doing it for 10 years or longer than that. My whole life really, but this whole podcasting thing and entrepreneurship, my whole world is that. My bio says it. If you talk to me long enough, we're gonna talk about podcasting or entrepreneurship, That's my brand. So, I have a niche, I have an audience, I know all the things that my audience is struggling

with. That's how I can tell you. All right, so you got to stop stopping. One of the worst things that can happen to our entrepreneur is a little bit of success because other people see that little bit of success and they start inviting you to their thing that they're doing. And it's going to take you all path. The reason I know that is because I've been through it and I've been coaching entrepreneurs for the last decade on this space. So I know my audience, I know exactly what they're going through. So you need to

know your audience. Now exactly what they're going through. You for sure need to be consistent. So the best way to do that is have a consistent day that you record, whether it's every Wednesday, every Thursday, we record our podcasts, every Wednesday for sure. Now, if somebody can't do Wednesday and they're big enough guests, we'll do it on Thursday or do it on Tuesday because that's a long studio. So it's cool. But I have a specific date that we record. We have a specific date that we release. Ed is consistent. If you think of your favorite shows growing up, it wasn't sporadic when they delivered the content. It was the same time, same day, every single week, because

people put your show or your content into their life. So I released my podcast at 7 in the morning because I know there are people going to work and I want them to listen to my podcast on their way to work. Because I want them to be inspired, I want them to be motivated. And this is their thing. It's in the routine.

If anything ever happens, like there's a misfire on the scheduling or something like that, I get messages. Hey, you ain't released that, so what happened? What happened? What happened? I'm like, whoa, whoa, let released ever so what happened? What happened? What happened? I'm like, whoa, whoa, let me find out what's going on. Because I show into the framework of their lives and you can't disappoint or you'll break trust. So if you say every Monday at seven o'clock it's going to release and sometimes it's at seven, sometimes at 2 p.m. Sometimes it releases

on Tuesday. Sometimes it just doesn't release that week. You're breaking the trust because now I can't trust you to put this in my schedule anymore. And also looking at the trends studying, your craft, studying what's working in your industry. If you put all of those together and you're good at it, it will grow, period. I feel like you hit so many, so many great points. I agree with everything that you said. Also didn't think about money for the first two years, just thought about service and being a great host

and being engaging to your point. If you don't have good content, you've got too much competition out there. You've got to study your craft. This is why, and it's a little, it's a bit much, and it's doing a lot, and it's heavy left sometime, but I don't do virtual interviews, not because I don't want to talk to the person, but I'm just so used to it, and I was like the best way for me to do it at the time. I started before COVID, so we got a lot of virtual stuff after COVID

or door to code because we couldn't, right? But even now, if I got a fly to somebody, I'm going to go because we're thinking information first and quality first, but also you have to start looking at the trends in your industry. There's a point where I'm getting tired of interviewing people. I'm good at it and people love it, but I can't just keep interviewing people and that is the whole thing. I have to like spice it up. So I'm interviewing successful people and the people love it. I'm not going to stop it, right? But it started to get a little bit redundant and I started seeing a whole lot of other people interviewing successful people,

which when I started in, when I started this podcast in 2018, there wasn't a lot of that. You didn't see a whole lot of influencers or entrepreneurs that you didn't know getting interviewed. You just didn't see it. Celebrities, yes, radio interviews, yes. But an hour long conversation with someone

that's been successful, you just didn't see it. So at that time, it was cool. 2018, 2019, 2020 is going down, 2021. And then we hit a point where because everyone's at home and they're seeing this, and they see shows like mine growing or like earlier leisure or people have been in the space for a minute, the market gets flooded with other people. So the same guess that I get, you can find 10 other interviews with them being interviewed. When I started, it wasn't like that.

I did a lot of people's first interview or second interview. Now they're stars and now they're all over the place because there's so many outlets to get to and even the mainstream platforms are now interviewing influencers and entrepreneurs that you've never heard of. It just wasn't like that before. But now I see I'm starting to get bored with that. So now I'm interviewing beginning entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs that are struggling. And I'm doing it in an entertaining, almost like hurl-clutching way because I'm real aggressive. We call it the hot seat and it's really, really uncomfortable. But now I'm just uncovering something that hasn't happened in my industry. You don't get a whole lot of content from people that are not successful yet. So now I'm just uncovering something that hasn't happened in my industry. You don't get a whole lot of content from people that are not successful yet.

So, now I'm going to bring you people that are not successful, and I'm going to coach them, and it's going to be entertaining, and I'm going to be slightly disrespectful. But it's also going to be helpful, because I'm coaching them, and that's the pivot. So, there's always something going on in your industry that is soon going to be boring and soon going to be commonplace. And if you stay sucking that, there's going to be somebody that comes out to eat your lunch because they're going to do something innovative and they're watching how, okay, everybody's doing this.

Let me do this now and they're going to take your audience. So I want to put that out there. It's a really, really great point, super smart. But let's move on to another topic that I want to make sure we hit. I want to talk to you about building a niche community. You mentioned this earlier, and you were a master at networking building community.

And so I was honored to speak at your Miami podcast summit that happened earlier this summer. And you put on this event in just a few months. It was executed flawlessly, it looked amazing, super well attended, really popular people were speaking. And I'm confident that it's gonna just become like a yearly staple podcast, like one of the biggest podcasts conferences out there.

There's not that many out there that really get that big. So my question for you is, how are you able to attract a specific audience? So let me just give you a little bit more color. So I'm Arab American, right? But my audience is like 0.01% Arab. There's no Arabic people listening to my stuff because I don't talk about that. I don't brand it that way. People might not even know what my, they know that I'm not white, right? But they probably don't even know what I am. So how are you able to attract black creators?

Because really, it just seems like this podcast summit just attracted so many black and diverse creators. And you really spoke to them. They pulled out their wallets and flew out to Miami with very little notice. And I was just like so shocked. I remember I talked to one of my best friends is the CEO of POTFEST. And when I told him about your ID,

he's like, he's not going to get anyone. He hasn't started marketing yet. Oh, it's dead. Don't even show up. And I was like, I think he's going to get some people, you know? And he ended up working with you in the end. And you guys are cool now. But when he first heard the idea, he was like,

oh, this is going to fail. He hasn't even started promoting yet. And I was like, Oh, this is going to fail. He hasn't even started promoting yet. And I was like, well, you don't know David. So talk to us about how you were able to get people to come out to this conference and support you. I'm glad I know that. I didn't even know that. That's interesting.

But yeah, I mean, one, it's something that hasn't happened yet. And I'm not saying there hasn't been podcast education conferences, but there hasn't been one where there's predominantly black people there. There's sometimes we speak a different language than other nationalities, right? So for one, I've been doing conferences since 2018. So it says in my first one, 2022, me and a partner of mine did an event called Black Equity Con and we had 2200 people there. Now, this one's a little more niche

specifically for people that want to podcast, but they haven't seen it. Like they didn't see podcasts or podcast movement because those audiences those Summits or conferences aren't targeting us So my audience this is the first of its kind. They've seen they're like, oh wow I didn't think I can go anywhere for podcast education. I'm like, all right cool. I got you and Plus I've been an entrepreneur in a community for again a decade. So I mean, it's a heavy lift and I lost money, which hopefully I don't lose money this year,

because I'll get sponsors, but I'm just all used to doing everything myself. I just put my own money up and I want the money to come back. But we had about 750 people there. We want to double that this year, but I looked at it as not winning how he thought of one going to win because we thought we might have 1500 people there this year, but I looked at it as not winning how he thought it wasn't going to win because we thought it was my 15 hundred people there this year. We only had like 750 and I'm like, dang, this isn't good. But everybody had an amazing time. It was just phenomenal. So I've been in a space for a long time. I've been very consistent and when I say I'm going to do something people can trust it. Yeah, and they show up, but really I want you to think about this question in terms of how are you able to attract the specific audience, the niche audience, black and diverse creators?

Because, like I said, it's not an easy thing to do to attract a specific audience and these people are buying from you, they're watching your show, they're coming to your conferences, you've got them on lock, right? So what is your advice on attracting a niche audience? I'm not 100% sure. I can, somebody's just starting out. I'm not 100% sure I can give them the answer to the question other than the fact that I have been doing this for 10 years. And I'm black.

It's not like I'm saying, okay, I'm specifically wanting black people to be here. I did, but it's not like I even have the option of getting another audience. I don't have another audience. I was just telling your producer before the show. He said, you know, what's some of your goals with social proof?

I said, I'm trying to get some more successful white people in the show. I just don't know it. I only know black people because I'm black. It's just who I am. A black person that goes to a predominantly white school will have white friends. And the worlds that they're in will be white. And they can call white people and say, I need help with this particular thing. If a white person goes to a predominantly black school,

that person will have black friends. And if they need something they call their black friends and say, hey, I want to do this. And you embody that culture. I've only been in the black community my entire life. It's all I know. So once I start promoting I'm speaking the language of the people I've been involved with for the last 38 years of my life. So I'm not 100% sure how I can tell somebody who's not

black. You know this how you need to get the black community. I mean I'm sure I can if you know we did a consultation but in this, I'm sure I can if, you know, we did a consultation, but in this answer, I am black. And I know what my people want. I know what my people don't have. And I'm speaking their language and I'm delivering it in a way. I went to both the other podcast conferences and I did not have a good time. I didn't really learn anything. I didn't learn anything new. It was hard for me to receive the information. I was a little confused at what was going on. No fault of their own though, because they're not speaking my language. And 100% positive that they don't have people

at the helm of this conference, that looked like me, that represent me because they just don't know the language no fault that their own Okay, I'm probably not going to attract a lot of white people why because I don't speak their language nobody's fault I don't speak French. I don't speak Spanish Managed people may not speak English. So we're gonna have a disconnect them. I'm not gonna understand what's going on So we have a different flavor not better on. So we have a different flavor, not better or worse. We have a different flavor.

We have a different flair. We have a different way that the conference needs to move. For my audience to say, this is good. I have to connect to my people. And then I got to bring some games on the stage that my people recognize and say, hey, I want to meet this person in person. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.

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to start a free 30-day trial. That's Articulate.com-360. It's a great answer, and I am a branding expert and just a few things. People like people who are similar to them, right? People like people who share the same identity, part of the same group, part of the same community. And also people are attracted to brands that resonate with them. And so when you're thinking about creating a brand, you actually need to mirror your audience. So you are your perfect audience and you take it upon yourself to talk directly to that community.

For me, I never bring up that I'm Arabic. I never talk about it because I don't identify with that, right? I grew up in America. I just feel American, right? And so for you, you identify without you speak about that. In my opinion, that's why people are really attracted to it because you are fostering black community and creating communities and speaking about it. You know what?

Actually, the reason, because I came to you and I said, Hey, I think you should partner on this next podcast summit. And it's not just because you're an amazing speaker and you are an amazing speaker. We did the survey and you were on the top speakers at the event So we love to have you back next year, but I just saw How you were able to get wipe you to get you money and I'm like, yo, how is speaks their language? And I went this to be a multicultural diverse event now We're not changing the way we do things in terms of bringing that flare that we bring so we're we're going to run it the same way we did last year. But I'm, I need you to attract people that

I can't attract. So that's why I asked you, I'm like, Oh, we should probably connect. I was talking to Jessica too, like, yo, we need to like do some stuff together because you all figured out how to give why aren't you to give you money? I haven't figured that out yet. All right. I'll give you a hand next time around. Sweet. Sweet. All right. So my last question is I know you got to go. The last two questions that I ask all my guess is what is one piece of actionable advice that our young and profitors could do today

to become more profitable tomorrow. If you have a product, go ask more people to buy the product. And it sounds simple, but a lot of people in the stay in the Asian entrepreneurship, they don't ask people to buy their product. They make videos, create content, and they say, click the link in my bio. But if you have a product, you're going to have to walk up to Hollis to Ha and say, would you like to buy this? Not just a story behind it, not just, hey, this is a cool design. And then Hollis said something like, all right, well, I'm going to check you out, send me your website and you send it to a website. No, you need to ask, would you like to buy this right now? If you adopt what I'm saying, you will make significantly more money today.

So I was in the mall selling t-shirts, and I tell people all about the brand how cool it was, and they'll say, hey, you got a website? And that was the moment I knew you weren't buying anything. But someone said you got to ask for the sale. And asking for the sale isn't checking me out. Asking for the sale is, would you like to buy this? And it was so incredible how sales doubled, tripled

when I started asking people to buy. And there's another thing. I made them tell me no three times. Would you like to buy this? No, not right now. Okay, well, really, I'm going to ask you another question. Would you like to buy it just right now? You're here. I have the product. And they said, well, no, not right now. And I said, to buy it just right now? You're here at the product. And they said, well, no, not right now. And I say, well, why not right now? Now is a good time to buy. You would be surprised how many people bought on the second or third of them. It's incredible. So if you have a product or a service, you will make more money if you just ask people, ask more people more often to buy what you have

to sell. Period. Love it. And what is your secret to profiting in life in this can go beyond business, beyond the topic of today's episode? Building a community, getting people to like you. I started out with a couple people. I'm saying, hey, come over to the house. Let's just figure out some ideas. I'm going to order pizza, come over. I've been doing that since I lived in a one bedroom apartment. And it's grown now, but I've been building a community for a long, long time now. So one of my theories in life is, if I'm

around enough positive people, I'll be positive. If I'm around enough successful people, I'll be successful. If I'm around enough people who want to be more successful eventually we will all become more successful together. I have to get around an environment that pushes me, inspires me and motivates me. Period. So you need to start building a community and I'm not saying you have to start your own community. If you're not going to start your own community, you need to be a part of one. That's why we have the morning meetup. We have over a hundred people that join a call every single morning

at 8 a.m. Eastern time. And we have a theme for the month. We read about 15 books a year together. We discussed the books for on the call every single morning. And I'm teaching entrepreneurship. I've been on all week and I'm there every day. It's not like I have a higher than people to do it or somebody sits in my place.

I do have other speakers come on to join and things that I nature and we have a team. But I am on that call every single morning. And my friends say, yo, how do you do it every single morning? I love the community. It's not a money grab for me. I tell my community, I need this morning meetup, more do you do.

I love being around you. I love seeing the bright faces in the morning. I love the testimonials of the winds. I'm in this community every day. So right now, start building a community by being a part of one first. So this is called the morning meetup. And I think you said there was 100 people every day,

but it's a thousand people. I think you misspoke as almost a thousand people every day join his morning. There's about a thousand people in the community. Okay. Join it somewhere, basically 125, 200, but we're looking to go to 10,000 a year. So amazing. So how can people join morning meetup? How can they learn more about you, David? Oh, absolutely. Go to themorningmeatup.com, the morningmeatup.com, the morningmeatup.com. Also, go to your Apple or Spotify or YouTube or device and go check out social proof podcast. Just type in social proof podcast and hit the little follow or subscribe button. And all the things that I do are right there and I guarantee there's so much valuable information, not only

for me, but dozens, dozens, dozens of other really, really amazing entrepreneurs, people that really have the game and we're freely sharing it. So just the podcast alone has helped so many people quit their job, build six to seven figure incomes. It's incredible. So go to social proof, podcast on your app or Spotify device or YouTube and I'll check me out. Awesome, I'll put all those links in the show notes.

David, you're awesome. I loved our conversation. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Having my good friend, David Chans on the show and hearing his story really took me back to my early days working in retail at stores like Abercrombie and Bath and Body Works. Working in sales is such

good training ground for business and for life. My days in retail taught me how to be a salesperson, how to be confident, how to speak with people and connect with them in a short amount of time. So many skills I still use to this day as an entrepreneur. I loved hearing David talking about how we would try to boost his tips by upselling customers at the cheesecake factory where he worked. He learned a lot from that time in sales and from his days hustling to make it where he is today. I appreciated his candor and how tough

that hustle could have been at times. Like David said, success takes focus. And sometimes he would have so many balls going at once that he would drop them all. And with so many false starts and so many distractions, he got lost at times. Eventually he came to be comfortable with setbacks and not losing focus. And even if he had a bad few months when it came to earning money or creating content, he learned to just take those knocks and keep pushing ahead. And ultimately, he took those hard knock lessons and those insights that came from them and

shared them with wider audiences, helping others learn from his mistakes. And doing that, David has created a vibrant community on his podcast, on his YouTube, and in his morning meetups. He has touched the lives and the businesses of so many other entrepreneurs with his knowledge and his passion, and he's earned their trust and loyalty in return. I appreciate your trust in loyalty, Yap fam.

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you listen, learn and profited from this conversation with the wonderful David Chams, please share this episode with your friends and family. You can help us build a vibrant community of fellow young and profitors. Just hit that share button and text the link to this episode to someone you know who could benefit from it. And why not drop us a five star review on Apple Podcast while you're at it?

Help us make sure that others can find us and learn from the same amazing conversations. You can find me on Instagram at Yavathala or LinkedIn by searching my name, it's Hala Taha. I also want to shout out my amazing production team, my executive producer Jason, Amelia, our assistant producer, for Khan and Hashem, helping us with guest outreach. Greta and Sean for supporting our research, Krity Ash, Garema, Ambika, and Aaron

for helping us with sales and ad-ups on the network. Thank you guys so much on the ad-ups on the network. Thank you guys so much on the production side on the network side and of course everybody on our social media agency side. You guys are absolutely amazing. I am so blessed. This is your host, Halla Taha, aka the podcast princess signing off. you