#227 Waqar Asim - How To Build a Loyal Audience on Social Media

How can you build an engaged audience on YouTube, Instagram and your podcast?

On today’s episode, we sat down with Waqar Asim, creator, trader, and entrepreneur, to break down the exact strategy he used to grow a large audience and following in just 10 months.

We dive into his methods for creating a top 1% podcast, the impact of social media on his trading career, and the importance of balancing health, wealth, and relationships. Waqar reveals how his strong educational background and immigrant mindset shaped entrepreneurial career.

Waqar shares his trading strategies that build trust and offers insights on creating a sustainable business through adaptability and diverse skills. Plus, he reveals a deeply personal story he's kept secret until now. Make sure you watch till the end to find out!

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Waqar Asim’s Youtube: @WaqarAsim.


My Socials:
Instagram - Darrenlee.ks
LinkedIn - Darren Lee
YouTube- Darren Lee

(00:00) Preview and Intro
(00:31) How Waqar Asim Blew Up On Social Media
(06:57) Waqar’s Social Media Strategy
(11:48) The Secret To Social Media Monetisation
(13:50) Waqar’s Journey in Trading
(27:54) Twitter Growth Strategies
(29:04) Balancing Trading and Content Creation
(30:25) Educational Background and Personal Drive
(36:04) Dealing with Stress as an Entrepreneur
(38:21) Why Self-Worth and Ambition is Important 
(42:23) Thoughts on Materialism and Ego
(45:56) Waqar’s Arrest and Legal Battle
(01:01:35) Life Post Lockdown
(01:03:35) Waqar’s Battle with Depression and Mental Health
(01:07:05) Moving to Dubai
(01:12:26) Finding Passion and Purpose in Life
(01:14:52) Why Your 20s Matter
(01:17:08) Benefits of Therapy and Self-Improvement
(01:19:38) Lifestyle Inflation and Spending Habits
(01:28:33) Networking in Dubai
(01:34:24) Why Your Environment Matters
(01:39:29) Every Successful Entrepreneur Does This

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I'm basically making content for a younger version of myself of what I would want to hear, and that's why people can resonate, because I'm not pulling out soundbites that I hear on the internet and say trading is 99% psychology this is something we hear all the time. I come on the internet and say, well, it's really, really not, because I heard that, I tried that, I thought that and these are the reasons I believe it's not. When you have like this superiority complex, obviously it's a very negative connotation to it, but there's also huge positives to it, because if you feel like you are deserving of more self-esteem is a positive thing. You should have high self-worth, you should feel like you deserve more ambition, desire, confidence.

Speaker 2: 0:31

These are all components of self-worth before we start this podcast, I have one little favor to ask you. Can you please hit the subscribe button down below so we can help more people every single week. Thank you. Where I want to start, I guess, for you is I did not realize that you started your podcast in august.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Like that is actually insane man, isn't it? The quality of content I see putting out. I think I saw last night like you've done nearly 500 videos in 10 months with your podcast and shorts on youtube. Like that is like fucking crazy levels of like volume and quality and usually, like I would say, volume is the precursor to quality, but usually people spend fucking years eg me figuring out the quality side of it to get it right. And then, like you've got like 40 million sorry on youtube views. You've got 50,000 followers there, 50,000 on instagram. Like it's been very, very rapid for you. Like how has that come from you? Right, because you know you're the background in dentistry and finance. How the fuck did you get the contents of right out the gate.

Speaker 1: 1:37

So these stats you're giving me is also a bit news to me. I'm not so well versed on my own what I, but it's a mirror of um or a reflection of how I approach things, which is, I think a lot of things that we see as milestones, kpis, achievements and so forth are always downstream of of the base of of the work we do day to day. Uh, so that's what I've focused on, and then the results have been downstream. I saw an alex homozy quote, which I'm sure you've seen too, which was to the effect of it was like to get ahead in life and to be really at 1% kind of thing it's not as hard as people think and he was basically saying to be a top 1% podcast, you have to make 20 episodes, and if you've made 20 episodes you've beat the competition. So what I did was I decided launch date is August 1st and then in the three months prior I filmed 20 episodes, didn't upload any of them, so I had a 20 episode backlog and then I was in the 1% show.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Hold on, you didn't release the 20 episodes.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I didn't, no, I didn't film. I filmed them and then, when I had 20, then I actually started to release them and then I used that to build a bit of hype, like podcast coming soon, whatever, but the. So there's a few reasons that I could attribute the growth to. Uh. Number one was or why did I start it? So, man, I did a boat event in dubai, um, right before I started everything show and my youtube channel and not to put it in a bad way, but basically it was like I invited some traders. A lot of traders were in town, uh, so I thought, okay, let me host this kind of a boat event and then people brought up plus one, plus one, plus one, and ended up being from 20 people to like 50 people. So I had to double the boat size and I'm hosting this event and I'm looking around and they're all traders and they're all young, they're all like 18, 17, 22, 21. And I know the character types in the space and I can see who's like legit, who's been through the trials and tribulations and who's just a newcomer. Started six months or one year ago and they built a brand. Regardless of what I may feel or think of them, they were beating me. They had built a brand. They had 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 followers. They're capitalized on TikTok, maybe on Twitter, whatever it may be, but they've built a huge personal brand and therefore off the back of a business.

Speaker 1: 3:56

And I was holding myself to a standard of I'm too good for it, I don't need social media. I'm a real trader, so I don don't need social media. I'm a real trader, so I don't need to do all of this. And that pride that day was shattered for me. I was like well, why am I holding this? Because the game is the game and they're playing it better than me. So I decided that day I'm gonna start social media properly. I had, in the past, done it, but I've just given it up for two years. I hadn't, hadn't taken it seriously, I hadn't posted on youtube, I haven't posted anything. So I thought you, you know what. I'm confident I'm a better trader than all of them because I have eight years on them. I'm confident I'm better at business than them because I've been doing business for a lot longer and I have resources on my side.

Speaker 1: 4:34

So I thought let me start something. And a lot of people start a show, a YouTube channel, a TikTok account. They like to make something out of nothing. You know, they started with just a mic in their bedroom and that's the Genesis story for a lot of big shows and big online personalities. But I thought, what if I start to make something with something instead of from nothing? So I thought, let me start and do it all right. So let me bring in a team, employees and short form content, long form content, thumbnail guy and the full work. So it makes it a lot easier and more enjoyable too, because then my job is to just do the content and meet cool people, and then it's taken care of. I don't have to worry about charging the cameras, I don't have to worry about the edits or anything, it's all taken care of. And that that makes a low friction a lot more fun.

Speaker 1: 5:18

And for me, the podcast at least, was a was more fun orientated, passion, orientated, and I thought I was wrong. Now realizing, after speaking to you as well, I thought it would never make money. I thought it was going to be a complete like money pit, but I knew that I could grow into something. But I'm also aware how slow podcasts grow, because at least if you're doing a prank channel, you can. You can go viral. If you're doing like a you know how to make 10k a month video, you can kind of go viral. But if it's a two-hour video and I'm not known and the guest maybe isn't known, who's clicking that video?

Speaker 1: 5:49

the podcasts take their slow burners, but I knew I was. I was going to invest in and take the time and I just got lucky. I I connected with the right people and my first video, bro, imagine a first podcast, 80k views. Second one, 100k. Third one, 300k. I was like okay, what the hell is going on here? Because riz uh, who inspired me to start in the training space, he went from zero to 5k subs in two years and then from 5k to 100k in five months. So I knew that that happens. You start off slow and then it goes parabolic. Yeah, but I know you got to pay your dues for for one or two or three years. Uh, so I was, I was willing for that grind, but I just got lucky.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Bro, I love your approach because you understand the concept of paying with your time or paying with your wallet and, like most people, never do understand this Only entrepreneurs should understand that that you know in the beginning, when you're coming out of your closet, which I was in my bedroom, I only had the time on my hands, which was the microphone. I need to put time into it and then, over time, then, similar to yourself, I got my first camera, I got my first proper mic, I hired my first editor, my first thumbnail designer and then that took like one, two, three years basically to get to that point.

Speaker 2: 6:57

But I think, to take a step back, like you have a lot of like weird complementary skills that allowed you to double down on. But you mentioned about the guys who have been in the space for like six months and they grow these massive brand right. I think we're both like long-term players and we can understand how, like, doing anything for six months does not make you a master, right?

Speaker 1: 7:16

it doesn't make you an expert, right of course, but uh, we're in the digital era and tiktok. The algorithm is powerful and it will throw people into the limelight from zero to 100K followers just by having a Lambo and some jet skis in Dubai and people really build a huge brand off it. But there's no longevity in that brand and I've seen these kind of people. I've been in the space for almost a decade, so I've seen these kind of guys come and go and it's really hard for someone, at least in the training space, to last five years. You see, people come, make a mill and make a huge following and then disappear because they pulled the wrong thing, they lose their reputation, they do a scam or they give up. There's not many people that I can see that started five years ago and that's still here as a trader, online trader, like a social media Traders too, by the way, it's very rare for someone to last in the training space because people lose hope. Uh, they people think, uh, people give up in trading because they run out of money. It's not a money thing, it's a hope thing and therefore, I think, a sensible approach which you can touch on. Uh, in lasting in business, in trading and anything. It's uh, just don't die, meaning to say if you're going, if you're strategy hopping, if you're mental hopping, if you're hopping approach, drop shipping, e-commerce and amazon, whatever. As they say, you need 10 10 000 hours to master something. But if you spend 10 000 hours on 10 approaches, well, you put in the time but you didn't get leverage in anything. You didn't master anything. You became kind of well versed in a lot of things, but a master in none, but off the back of this, uh, like social media comments, so the complimentary skills.

Speaker 1: 8:45

So this social media game I don't think is a level one chapter, because there's a lot of people that try and do the social media thing. But you can very easily have attention, but you've got to convert attention into followers and believers. And then your tribe the numbers of followers and views is vanity Unless they rock with you, they truly ride for you and they respect your opinion. Then you impact their life in some way. Then you've got a follower. Then that's something meaningful. How are you able to go from just a random viewer and someone that's just casually seen your content to part of your tribe? Well, that's a whole journey in there and that's always going to be off the back of value in in the space that we're in, it has to be value, if you can, and and there's two types of content that we can touch on. Which is? One is entertainment, and that's going to be your Mr Beast videos. And then there's education, and that's going to be like a with a whiteboard and there's no animations. There's no, there's just a very boring.

Speaker 2: 9:43

Charlie Morgan.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Charlie Morgan, bro. I love his videos. So you, you got Charlie Morgan, which is deep education, you've got Mr Beast, which is deep entertainment, and then I think the new hybrid that I'm seeing is a very effective is this edutainment 100% hybrid content. Alex Hormozzi has nailed it you in his flip-flops, with his nose tape, in the gym, topless, walking down the street talking about how to scale a business yeah dropping volume.

Speaker 1: 10:07

What is going on here? But yeah, so the game is basically if you can and it's like a funnel actually if you can bring in people to your audience through something very generic like Homozy does he talks about how to get your protein in and Chipotle hacks and these kinds of things that's top of funnel. And then he nurtures them through his kind of animated hype, fast-paced content sub 10 minutes and then he has his one hour two hour presentations. That is just very slow, paced, very deep education, but that's a funnel, from casual follower to now part of his tribe. But the journey is in the Mr Beast video.

Speaker 1: 10:42

The purpose is only to watch the video. After that there's nothing left. You just watch the video, you pass some time and then onto the next, whereas the Charlie Morgan kind of video or education, the purpose is to change behavior. The purpose is to implement take something, implement it, see it works and come back for more, and then that's the purpose of education. You're giving value to change behavior. When I look at these tiktok guys and these, uh, short form guys, then they're never going to give impact or give value because you're stuck in a 10 second loop and you're focusing on the lambo and the lifestyle. So you're in the entertainment realm, but it's masked with this allure of it's trading and it's education.

Speaker 1: 11:20

But it's not, you're just. You're just throwing lifestyle. So I thought for if and you have to also see what is the purpose of growing a brand and if. The long-term play is obviously selfish for everyone, as it should be. Uh, you want to give to your audience, give value, give value and then ask for a piece back, but you will always be disproportionate. But you know, if you give value to a million people, you will make a million dollars, but it will be disproportionate.

Speaker 2: 11:48

You would have given a lot more value to your audience and you'll monetize from a small subsect of your audience. You can't monetize the whole thing and, as a, 99% of your audience won't buy, but the 1% that do buy will pay you for the rest of your life, right, like that's the whole point, exactly so, and to find that 1% of your audience, you need to.

Speaker 1: 12:00

You need to hit the masses. You need to hit thousands and tens of millions of people to find this 1% audience and, as you said, they will pay you for your time because they don't want to watch through the whole content. So yeah, with the social media game, it's very interesting because people get caught up in the views but the views don't monetize. And I see these guys struggle, actually, because I've built friendships, I've got to know a lot of them and they're like okay, I made a lot of money with my ebook and it was $30 and like 20,000 people downloaded it and I came in a lot of money and I moved to Dubai and now I've got this nice car, whatever, but you're 19. What are you going to do when you're 40? You've got not really a business. You just got a quick cash grab. You dropped out of school, dropped, you dropped everything, and now you realize, okay, for you to really make a living, you've got to sell another 20 000 every year. Okay, now do the numbers. You've got to triple your brand in two years to then keep this. It's not a sustainable model, but at 18, 19 is very easy to see 200k come in and think, oh, this is my path for life. But for real longevity in business you gotta think, okay, I gotta really provide value and build a sustainable business. And there's also players in the space that are doing it, that are doing it really well and they scale it to 100, 200, 500k a month.

Speaker 1: 13:10

But that's not off the back of short form views, it's off the back of. You brought so much value to your audience that they feel the law of reciprocity that they want to give something back to you. Absolutely, you changed my life in this format. I want to know what you can do for me if I pay and that's kind of a principle for any base for any business and it's the hormones you want to get. Bro, you give so many nuggets. It's like give, give, give and wait for them to ask and your audience will tell you what they want to pay you for. So that was kind of well for my journey at least.

Speaker 1: 13:50

It was obviously the dentistry. Then it was my trading, and that trading, doing it for eight years, gives you a level of expertise that you can now come on the internet and give true value, because your value is based on experience, based on stories, based on relatability, that I was in your shoes not too long ago and I experienced these things and I'm basically making content for a younger version of myself of what I would want to hear, and that's why people can resonate, because I'm not pulling out soundbites that I hear on the internet and say training is 99% psychology this is something we hear all the time. I come on the internet and say, well, it's really, really not, because I heard that, I tried that, I thought that, and these are the reasons I believe it's not so I'm coming in with polarizing thoughts. I'm coming in with lessons and based on my experience, and I think that's the power of social media, where I can give the wisdom, I can give the experience, without the trauma and scars that I had to incur.

Speaker 1: 14:31

And that's why the audience can be like oh okay, this is true value here. And then I also give enough nuggets that they can take away, implement and try something out. And something I've been doing on my social media now is, well, a vehicle to grow really quick on my YouTube channel was this whole saying of would you rather learn from your economics professor at high school or would you rather learn from Warren Buffett if both of them tell you to invest in S&P? So the source of the information, the credibility of the information, is as important as the information itself. So I thought, okay, how can I really maximize for that?

Speaker 1: 15:07

I have a friend of mine, omar Ashraf, who's one of the biggest trainers in the space, and it's not like he's making these fabulous videos or crazy vlogs. He's making good videos. A lot of people are making good videos, but why is his videos on five tips of risk management getting a million views and then someone else's five tips for risk management getting 10K views? Well, the reason is Omar Ashraf came in and he showed proof undeniable proof that he made $20 million in trading. So now the question for the viewer is removed of can I trust this information? That's gone, Whereas with the other guy. It's still in there, like, okay, the information is good, but can I trust it? Is it real, if you can remove that element of doubts in your viewership to say I can trust this guy undeniably, like Hormozzi has come and said I've made $100 million? Here's the proof.

Speaker 1: 15:50

When you come to impact theory and you see this guy or Brian, who's the biohacker guy Blueprints, brian Johnson, brian Johnson Come in and he's made hundreds of millions of dollars. When you see these figures that have made huge exits in their companies. They have huge brands too. But it's not not a coincidence, it's the fact of you've achieved something in your life, you've shown proof of it, and then people are ready to listen because they see you as different to them. So I thought I have to do something.

Speaker 1: 16:14

The same and I think that's the reason my growth has been fast as well is because I didn't just come in and bring a team and bring fancy animations and bring a studio setup, because a lot of people can do that, yeah, and they'll still get no views. Uh, it's a case of you come in with experience, expertise and undeniable proof that you are who you say you are and you will always out to live and outperform and outgrow the tiktok guy. They'll outperform in the short term, for sure, and I do get a lot of envy, but I know in three years it won't be a. It won't be a factor because they will burn out their audience, because it'll be a casual viewership and they'll go on to the next guy who has, instead of a lambo, has a bugatti and then it's all about who you're marketing to as well.

Speaker 2: 16:51

Right, like um, like you have the eight years experience, which shows you as an authority, shows you as someone who has an experience, and I love how you're sharing your experience. It's not just your advice, just been like hey, like here's my stock picks, here's my fucking private uh telegram channel so no one can trace me, right, it's like you've actually done it, just like harmosi, uh, the guy from impact area, all these guys have gone and done it. But then, on top of that, then you're able to connect with the people. You actually are in the right audience. So let's just give an example like those like lambo, fucking tiktok kids, like if someone's in the space for six months and this is exactly I'm in the content space or the business space or in the sma space if you're attracting people from there, you're only attracting people that are not going to be their ideal customer anyway.

Speaker 2: 17:34

It's going to be the 15 16 17 year old, who's young, dumb and looking, looking to just have a scapegoat right, whereas how you've positioned the brand very, very well is like you're probably going for guys that probably are not just beginner traders. I know this is kind of tough because when you interview people sometimes you don't understand, you can't anticipate because you don't know their target audience, but it's like the way you carry yourself. It sounds like you're going for guys are much more pro, and how I understood this was are you familiar with Jordan Platten? No, really big SMA guy, probably right behind Iman in terms of education space.

Speaker 2: 18:10

But I said to Jordan I was like how did you start to disseminate your audience, Because his videos are like 500k, 600k, 700k views. And he was like very easy, Iman went after the 16 to 19 bracket, we went after the 20 to 24 bracket.

Speaker 1: 18:23

And the higher ticket price went probably.

Speaker 2: 18:24

That was it. So it was guys that were on their second program. He was marketing too, and I think this is just very valuable for people, right? Because I think I'm so glad when we've gone into this area because it's easy to be like content views, content views. I like what you're describing about as well, how we need to catch attention by talking about the matrix, talk about the system. That's fucking important too, but then we're bringing over those loyal cult followers who will buy any, and this is very interesting because this is what we do with all of our clients. Man content.

Speaker 2: 18:53

We need a connecting tissue, like if you imagine ligament in your legs, you have a connective tissue into that program and for most people they have the front office marketing. Probably no back end fulfillment and the conversion mechanism is not is non-existent, it's non-existent and that's kind of what we're solving. We're looking at the conversion mechanism, which is who are your cult, who's your loyal followings? Right, and that's how people like hamza have crushed it. Right, because he got the front end of the business down. School helped him on the back end. Well, you know, he used school as a connected tissue and then it was just a simple way to hoard people over.

Speaker 1: 19:31

So actually we could talk on this exact topic of hamza. So I met him in dubai a year ago a year and a half ago and he was going through a funk in his life, which he's spoken about in length, and he was just feeling a bit lost and, um, he was in this content grind of one video a day and it was, he was non-stop and he grew. He grew so fast because of it. But he started to realize, well, I had one percent of his uh subscriber count, but I was out. I was making more money than him from the online space and he was just like he was. He just saw this disparity, but I could see he was in a mental block. He had millions of followers and he was just about breathing because of his costs, his team obviously to output a video a day and have animators and all of these. He had like 20 30 people in his team the payroll the payroll was so high.

Speaker 1: 20:23

And then, whilst he was in Dubai, the funk began because he got demonetized on YouTube. He got banned from Skillshare and almost like a matrix attack that he was facing. So now he went from just about swimming, just about floating, to money is cut off. The employees are still there Now. He just couldn't breathe. And then that's why he went through this, moving to different locations and then ended up back home and then he started a lean operation again. So he he got rid of the whole team and it was just raw, unfiltered, unedited videos, and his viewership did drop significantly. You can look at his channel now. He's not getting the same views he used to, but he's realized he doesn't care, because the the views were always vanity and to a certain point, the views are important because they help you grow and help you find the momentum of the channel.

Speaker 2: 21:07

There's a tethering point, right, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 21:09

But he also realized that there's no point in growing endlessly because he's already at two, three million subscribers or whatever it is. Now it's time to serve his audience. Growth is no longer the priority here, because he's found that 1% audience that he needs is no longer 10 people. Over a million people is a significant chunk of his audience now. It's a sizable portion.

Speaker 1: 21:30

So then he was going through a mental block. He was like oh, I don't know if I should charge, I don't know if it's the right thing to do and I don't want to be called a scammer. And he was just having all these limitations. And I could see he was so caught up in the comments of his viewers, those small vocal minority that are just going to call you a scammer, no matter what. But the problem is if you have a 0.1% vocal minority but you have millions of subscribers, that vocal minority is actually a lot of people and it can fool you into thinking everybody hates you, everybody's calling you a scammer. So I tried to break him out of it and I think he went on his own journey and and came to the conclusion in the end that well, if you provide value to your audience, what's the?

Speaker 2: 22:11

scam 100. I always say, if you have an offer and you can help someone, fucking help them, because closed mouths don't get fed if you have, if you, if you can, if you're offering all the free content I didn't mean to interrupt you, but you know, if you're putting out the podcast and the clips and whatever and that's running man, people can use that, change your life forever. But then if, but then you having the offer, there's nothing wrong with that. Do you want to launch a podcast for your business, but you don't know where to start? Remove the stress, pressure and all the overwhelm that comes with it by working with podcast university. If you're an ambitious individual who wants to build your influence online, grow your own podcast and also stand out from the crowd, podcast university is for you. We help you with the strategy, equipment, the content, your guests, everything you need to create a top tier podcast. If you want to learn more, check out podcast university and start your podcast journey today no, because people pay for convenience, people pay for having all the information in one place.

Speaker 1: 23:04

People want to pay for your time, like there's people that are willing to pay. It's just that the kids in the kids in the philippines and india and you know, africa let's say who a hundred dollars a month is a lot, of course, a lot of money. They're just obviously going to label you as a scammer. But for the guy in the west who has a job and he has savings of 500 pounds a month or investing a hundred pounds a month is not asking for the world, especially when you value they are receiving. And the Testament is that the proof is that because there's hundreds or thousands of people paying for that service that he has and he's now changed his life financially also. But the point, the point that I want to bring all of this to, is we've kind of spoken about viewership and tribe and they are different things and to get your core tribe you have to give them value and you have to give them undeniable proof that you're an authority or credible figure. So that's one piece of the puzzle. So myself, the approach I took was in trading, there's a lot of stamps of approval you can give, but there's also ways to manipulate every single one of them. There's this, let's say's say, prop firms that we have. So you can get a certificate to show I made 10K and you have a QR code so you can actually verify that you actually made this money.

Speaker 1: 24:11

But with prop firms, because they are also a business, they will give you these fake certificates. If you're an influencer and if because they know if you post their certificate and it says, hey, this fund paid out 20 grand to this influencer, well that's free marketing for them. So now there's these firms that will give you fake certificates and there's a lot of, basically, tricks and scams going on. Even if you have, like, a MyFX book, which is a big one, it's like this third party audit. But if you're doing your audits on an unregulated broker or a white label or your own brokerage, well then you can just fudge the numbers in the backend and then this MyFX will verify it, but you manipulate it in the backend. So I can go into every single way that these gurus are scamming and faking results Same business.

Speaker 1: 24:51

But there's really no real way, to be honest, there's no way that I can see okay, he's done this, therefore he's completely green, unless you've shown a live login on a regulated broker. That's really the only way, and even then you'll get hate for it because they're like oh you know, there's always people complaining their number could be higher.

Speaker 1: 25:09

Yeah, so the way I thought that is my undeniable proof is calling the market live. All my trades, every single trade I take, I call it ahead of time. I'm going to say I'm entering here exactly this point my stop loss, my, my invalidation is here and these are the reasons why. So it's an exact trade call out with a full explanation and case study and, of course, it's ahead of time. So I've been doing this on twitter now for six, seven months, each one of my trades and there's a public record. Now there's a public documentation and obviously on twitter if you edit a tweet, it will say edited, so I can't even go back if it's a loss and fudge the numbers to me. No, no, it's as transparent as it can be. Live call outs and some of my tweets are getting 100K views, 200k views, and I say all the time if somebody can catch me deleting a tweet or modifying or anything, call me out. And when you have 100,000 people watching and scrutinizing it, no one's. Six months of documentation of all my trades and I publicly documented about 55 or 60 percent gain. And just for perspective, if you have a prop firm account and you have, let's say, 300k in funding, that's not a lot of money in in the funding space. That's not a lot of money. That performance 50 percent on a on a 300k account, that's 150k. That's life-changing money. And what's cool for me to see is, like you know, giving to your audiences. I haven't charged anybody for this and I'm giving it for free. And there's, there's the just like.

Speaker 1: 26:34

A week ago there was a Moroccan kid and he tagged me in a tweet. He was like I'm hey, I'm 17 years old and I just made 10 grand. And he posted the certificates with the QR codes and I was like what? And he was like, and I replied, I reposted. I was like how did you? How'd you do it? It was like uh, I followed your signals and they helped. But, more importantly, I went through and I took screenshots of every single one. I put it into an Excel spreadsheet and I tried to study each one of your traits, to find the common denominators, meaning to say it was not just you know, uh, that saying of uh teach a man to fish versus give them a fish. He got the fish from me, but he also learned how to fish himself by deciphering the content and he reached a forward profitability. Bro, 17 years old, made 10 grand and I like to post it whenever I can.

Speaker 1: 27:18

Uh, this whole idea of getting funded so you can access a hundred thousand dollars in capital. You just have to go through a examination, evaluation portion and I repost the certificates all the time and I think just from this public content, dozens and dozens of people have got funded, dozens and dozens of people made money. So that's my portion of credibility, because it's undeniable proof. I validated myself by performing in the public domain and then also giving value to your audience. Where people are able to get funded, people are able to get funding, people are able to make money, people are able to find little nuggets that they can apply in their own trading, and I think that's been the main vehicle for my growth.

Speaker 1: 27:54

So, on my stats that you mentioned okay, these million views on my channel and so forth, the real kicker has been a Twitter man. So my YouTube channel maybe has 2 million views in the last nine months. Short form content maybe, I don't even know, but let's say a couple million on short form content. But on my Twitter I have 20 million in six months and that's all off the back of these signals that I've been doing, these trade callers that I've been doing because it's so abnormal, because no one's done it. In the history of the eight years I've been in the space, no one's done that.

Speaker 1: 28:24

It's gone viral. The whole project has gone viral and not only has it bought me a stamp of credibility and transparency, it's also bought me a stamp of virality and that people are just talking about me. There's buzz in the space. People are like hey, did you see what kind of this six month track record? And I think off the back of that I've been rewarded with 20 million views from a zero account, zero followers, zero subscribers, in six months to get 20 million impressions. I think that's pretty unheard of and that's a testament to the blueprint of growing on social media, which is come with undeniable proof and a huge amount of value and you will inevitably grow, and that's kind of been the formula for myself man, that's so, so interesting because, like you, you've flipped the entire script.

Speaker 2: 29:04

Basically, I didn't even realize that about twitter, man, because most people are going to hide behind what they think are the values, the strategies, keeping a very high level, but you've been able to document everything. Question for you on that is, like, how have you been integrating that into your trading? Because, like, what I love about what you're doing is you're technically, you're doing the task that you're also teaching in your podcast and everything else you have in the back end. But how do you set aside time? Like what do you? What do you consider yourself to be? Like a trader or an entrepreneur or like not like a content creator? But you know what I mean I'm saying like how do you?

Speaker 2: 29:36

because if you went all in on one or is, does it work? Because you're going more diverse, they're all synergistic.

Speaker 1: 29:44

Uh, if I trade and I make content about it, it's not really that much extra work, but it's also a factor of what I'm enjoying and also, uh, parts in life. So obviously I was a dentist or I'm a dentist, but uh, I was deep in the schooling system so therefore I was a full conformist to the matrix. I did the full a stars at gcse, a stars a levels going to university. Six years of dental school. I maxed out that category of doing well at school, doing well in education. And along that journey and that's the path that I was put in front of me from a loving perspective of my parents. They came from an immigrant mindset and education is what got them out of poverty.

Speaker 1: 30:25

My family is not a wealthy family. My grandparents lived a very, very modest life. Police, it was just a policeman. My grandfather was a policeman, my grandmother was a housewife, so you can imagine the household income was nothing in Pakistan. And my dad is one of 11 siblings, so a policeman's salary and 11 kids like you can imagine the financial situation. But my father's generation, all his siblings, all of them went deep into education. So all of my uncles and aunties are either doctors, doctors, high-level bankers, chartered accountants like very serious in education, and all of them have been able to escape that, like you know, from lower class to middle or even upper class, and that was in pakistan. That was all in pakistan, and a lot of them have now relocated. Uh, some of them are still in Pakistan, but the point being like for them, the real success, blueprints and everything was in education.

Speaker 1: 31:14

So that was obviously instilled in me in a young age and, to be honest, it's a logical path at a young age. What else you're going to do anyway? And even if you go all into the schooling system, learn as much as you can and you end up a dentist. You don't have to stay a dentist, but you will acquire so many skills learning how to learn, learning how to be consistent, all of these things university is, I guess, useful for, not necessarily for what you learn, but also it's more for what you become as an individual. In that bubble, because I had six years to I didn't have to focus on my rent, I didn't have to focus on my bills, I didn't focus on anything apart from learning. So that window in life I took as an opportunity. I don't want to just achieve my degree six years to learn only one thing is not enough, so I took it upon myself to use six years to learn as much as I could, and training was one of the things I as well as dentistry alongside, alongside.

Speaker 1: 32:02

But my man, it seems like dentistry is a very hard degree. I'm not going to downplay because I found it very hard, but, um, you have. You have periods where you have an exam, so you're gonna have two months building up to the exam, but you also have periods where you don't have exams. Yeah, when you're outside, exam season is it is more chill and people take that time off to hang out and do the student lifestyle, but uh, I took that as time to to learn why do you think that is?

Speaker 2: 32:26

because I know like that's the what you did. But why do you do that?

Speaker 1: 32:31

um, so I I like to ask that question myself to my guests on my show. Yeah, to find a common denominator. And for some people it's you're running away from something, meaning like you have a chip on your shoulder, something to prove, or you know. It comes from a place of insecurity. Maybe you got bullied, maybe you felt like you were not in control of your life, so you want to gain control, and there's many reasons, but it's it's very rarely from a place of aspiration. It's very rarely from a place of I want to achieve a lot. It's usually a place of I'm running away from something, something of myself and something I found in others too. If I kind of really think about it, I think it was from a place of control and I felt like at a younger age I wasn't in control of my life.

Speaker 1: 33:10

Just a quick tangent is even though I achieved very high grades, the education or the university system is very hard to get into. For dentistry, you can have all the A stars, you can do well in your entrance exam, you can do well in your UK CATs, but you just don't perform an interview. And, man, if you're doing an interview, and all of the guys have excelled in sports, all of the guys have a stars, all of the guys have extracurricular duke of venerable. I did all these things. Uh, I was playing, uh, you know, uh, county level cricket. I was playing, you know, I was doing all these things.

Speaker 1: 33:39

So my, my cv, my personal statement, everything was dialed in and I I got to the interview stages. I got an offer I got, I got really far, but the last hurdle stopped me. So I couldn't get into university my first year. So then I had to do a gap year, reapply and so forth. But that period of going all in and putting your whole self-esteem, self-identity, self-worth, my relationship to my parents to an extent was I want to make them proud. So I made my love in my head, my young head, 18 year old head, love was conditional in the sense of if I achieved, I could make my parents I mean, looking back, parents love you, no matter what. It is unconditional, but at a young age I felt love was conditional based on if I could perform. So you can imagine a young me putting all this pressure on himself and studying like whatever you know, studying like crazy and achieving the grades, doing all the extracurriculars, doing the Duke of Edinburghinburgh is doing the everything, everything. And uh, you were taught you work hard, you achieve results. And that was like a formula like you know, the more I put in, the more I'll get out. So that's a very liberating feeling because you feel like you're in control of your life as long as you put in the work. But then when you're faced by a system, that is well, what are they to do? Also, where dental school you have, everybody has a stars, everybody has top grades, everyone is everything and you're competing with the best, uh, best 18 roles in the country and they have to interview hundreds of people to give away 10 spots. The ratio in dental school, I think, is 30 to 1, meaning 30 applicants to one place and all 30 have top grades, all 30, have everything. So they're picking you based on, maybe, how extroverted you are, how confident you were in the interview, how well you interview the non-tangibles, and that's got nothing to do with how competent you'll be as a dental student, but that's how they have to pick their students.

Speaker 1: 35:20

So that portion for me was a huge trauma in my life because I felt like that gap year for me, all of my friends had gone to university Other degrees, you know. Maybe they went to an English degree or math degree or whatever degree they had. But I felt like I was behind in life now and I was like, okay, I'm stuck, I'm not progressing, I'm just stuck at home and I failed and wow, that was a big trauma in my life and I felt like I didn't have any control. So when I finally got into university, I've I think subconsciously it was for me I never want to be in that position again. I put in the work and still life stops me. So I think that was one of the traumas that I was trying to resolve and through finding control I wanted to find vehicles of life that I could have, success and financial-.

Speaker 1: 36:04

Control of your own destiny right Control of your own destiny. I think that was one of them. I think another one when I look into it I think it was Stephen Butler. He pulled out a statistic from somewhere and that's where I heard it. He was saying the common denominator is between top CEOs and top millionaires and top billionaires. You have a very high stress tolerance and I think that's very true and I do believe I have an exceptionally high stress tolerance and that's a common denominator between uber successful people. Another one was a superiority complex was the way he put it, and that can sound very narcissistic or egotistical, but I don't think it has to be quite that. I think for some people it can become that and I think there is a fine line between narcissist and a very successful entrepreneur. To be honest, a lot of the elites in the world are narcissists.

Speaker 2: 36:53

Man just on that as well, specifically like you can't achieve great things if you put yourself in the same brackets as everyone else, Like that's the whole logic.

Speaker 1: 37:00

That's where I think, the healthy balance comes.

Speaker 2: 37:02

You know, obviously you could put like Steve Jobs, maybe whatever spectrum you want to, but like fundamentally, you can't change how mobile phones operate if you think, like everybody else, right, and that can be from a creative aspect, from a logical aspect or even from a threshold perspective. So you finance background, a finance background too uh, I was in the fintech space highly regulated, the rules in finance means you can't go outside the rules. But to build stuff in the finance world you need to break the threshold. So you need to think outside of what's regulated and legislation and then lobby effectively to change the legislation.

Speaker 2: 37:38

And that was the first time I came into contact with this stuff, being like a lot of these guys, you know, like Revolute and Monzo and all these big companies, billion, billion dollar companies, all the guys thought about they knew what the rules were, they knew how to break the rules and then they knew then how to stick with that approach for 10, 20 years because up until that point in the history of money, no one had ever told them it could be like that, apart from that person. And I just always think about that. That's the line between like I don't even I remember hearing anything called leadership narcissism rob quindle moved us last week which is like like it's actually an effective, like really smart way to think about narcissism. Which is like the best leaders in the world view themselves as being able to provide for their team and their community and their service.

Speaker 1: 38:21

Yeah, there's, of course, like uh, when you, when you have like this superiority complex, obviously it's a very negative connotation to it, but there's also a huge positives to it, because if you feel like you are deserving of more self-esteem is a positive thing, you should have a high self-worth, you should feel like you deserve more, you should feel like I want more, like ambition, desire these are all components confidence, these are all components of self-worth. And then there's ego as well. Ego is like we are social creatures, so we want status is important. We want to compete Well, I think a lot of young men at least we want to compete, we want to up the ranks of status, we want to be perceived as successful. So these are all healthy elements if they're done right. But there is a fine line between that and then obviously narcissist or egotistical, or doing everything for vanity, doing everything to prove things to people, doing everything for social media. Obviously there is unhealthy components, but the core principle of it, if you have a high self-worth in the sense of I want to be a leader, I want to help my people, I want to help my family, I want to get my family out of this situation, there is obviously healthy components within that and that's what I had. I felt like I not in a bad way, it was really in a I want to achieve more in my life, I want to have more in my life, I want to do more with my life, and the job is not, is not that for me? So, even though I had that backing in my life of I've got this degree now that can make me 10K a month for sure, I didn't want to work, even though I was a conformist to the system by nature I'm a non-conformist and I remember, man, the last year of my university is when I had made a lot of money, I think two years from graduation. Two years from graduation is when I made my first million.

Speaker 1: 40:00

So I was a university student doing exams, doing thesis, doing case studies, doing homework, doing group projects, but I checked out Mentally, I checked out, but I was in such a weird position because I'd invested four years into a degree. And believe me when I say it was hard, that degree was hard and I'm not a naturally, let's say, I can't attend the lectures and pass the exam. I'm not naturally high IQ like that. I have to study a lot to pass an exam, whereas other kids in the university. They would just turn up to lectures and they somehow got better grades. So I relied on my work ethic with a bit of natural intellect, I guess. But the way for me to pass exams was work. It was not passively.

Speaker 1: 40:39

So when I'm trying to, when I'm four years in, I've invested so much time. My father has helped me get go to university, has invested a lot of time and money as well. I know he's extra hours, he's working extra shifts to afford me to be in university, so it would be a huge disrespect for me to drop out. So there was no option. I had to stick it through. And, yeah, from a young age my father gave it all to us.

Speaker 1: 41:02

To throw it back to my dad, he saw the root out of this poverty or success for him was education. So we didn't do fancy holidays, we didn't do crazy car nothing, nothing. We were a humble, maybe middle-class family, but we lived like a lower-class family because all of his money went into saving, to invest into a property and to give us extra education, extra tuition, extra. It was all in on education and I think that shapes me as a person as well, which is maybe certain traits I have, because that's the upbringing I have. Uh, but it would be a spit in my dad's face if I decided to drop out. So, as a sign of respect, I saw it through. I'm a believer as well. As how you do one thing is how you do everything.

Speaker 1: 41:42

So for me, it was not a case and I didn't want to drop out. I mean, I wanted to drop out but I knew it was the wrong thing to do. But in those moments, man, when, um, you can imagine I'm a young guy and I I when you first come across money, I think, despite what people may tell you, that you know, uh, materialism doesn't bring you happiness. And, and you know, when you first make money, don't, don't spend your first money. We all hear it on podcasts, we've all heard people say it. I had heard it all but, but I just had to. I had to taste it myself. You have to touch it to see if it's hot, kind of thing. So I did everything I wasn't supposed to do to then come to the same conclusion that money does not bring happiness and so forth. And I've sat on a podcast and I was saying the same thing. Just how life goes.

Speaker 1: 42:23

But you know a younger version of myself when you got a hundred grand in your bank account, you want to go buy that rolex, you want to go and buy a fancy car.

Speaker 1: 42:29

So I did it all. But I was also a student, so you can imagine the status as well that comes with it. Because I'm a student, my peers are all students, they're all taking the bus, but now I'm pulling up in a range rover, now I'm pulling up in a day date to my clinics and obviously, weird, weird situation because I'm still a student, obviously, and then I, at that point I covered my own tuition, I covered my own rent, but I started to also flex a little bit and that that is a way better feeling than me now being in Dubai and having a nice car or whatever, because now maybe in life people expect it, so it's not impressive, but no one expects it from a student. My classmates did not expect that at all. So when you pull up in that situation, it's a cool feeling that I mean, that's external validation to its essence, that was ego to its core, that was vanity to its core, but that was a younger version of myself but we're status individuals right, as in the status is wired within our dna.

Speaker 1: 43:22

It's not a negative at all 100%.

Speaker 1: 43:24

It's a feature, not a book if you, if you take it too far, and now that becomes your self-identity, if your watch and your car becomes your self-worth. That's the fucked up element of it. But to a basis it was a driver for me, like that's what got me, that's what kept me going. I was like I want to keep working on it because that feeling was such a high that I want to do it again. You mature and then you don't chase the feeling as much anymore, or at all, hopefully, but at that point that was a sick feeling. So I'm coming into lectures now. I'm coming into clinics now with a car that is worth more than the salary of my lecturers, who are all dentists and professors. And, as you can imagine, a nonconformist mind with a bit of financial success brings a level of I'm too good for this, I don't belong here. So that's when I started to not pay attention as much. That's when I started to. If the professors are telling me off, I'm being respectful. I never shout back or anything. I was very respectful Mentally. I check out. So that last year for me of university became like the first half of the year I was behind and I was like and that's when COVID actually was blind and I was like and that's when covid actually was. So now I entered like, uh, that recent yeah, yeah, so, uh, my financial come up has been uh, 2018, 2018, 2019 is when I first started to make money, and then covid is when, uh, you know, it's really started to pick up. So, yeah, not too long actually, but I can remember so vividly that I'm making a lot of money. I feel like I'm the big dog and you know the 18-year-old, 19-year-old TikTokers that I'm mentioning. I can resonate with that feeling because I was there not too long ago. And then obviously, you have to grow up, but that feeling of being a student but also making a lot of money, and then also feeling like you're above your professors, which was wrong of me.

Speaker 1: 45:10

And then there was a weird mix of things, because Madrid, where I was studying, it's not a racist place at all. I never felt out of place, I never felt racism, but when I had the car, I was stopped by the police every week, all the time, and I don't know why. I would be going to lecturers minding the speed limit, I would not be blaring music, windows down like normal citizens driving down the road, and I'll get pulled over every day. Well, no, yeah, every two, three days I'll get pulled over by the police and they would just want to harass me. I just felt like they wanted to harass me. They would say where are your documents, where are your license? And it got to the point because I had had it so many times. I knew the protocols. I had a folder with all the documents. They needed my license in there. So whenever I stopped I put the engine off, roll the windows down, my hand on the steering wheel, pass them this folder and then it was a process of 10 minutes of inconvenience.

Speaker 1: 45:56

And then there was a couple of incidences where I got a bit annoyed, but also the police guys were taking the piss. And I remember those certain situations where they're coming in and they're giving me attitude and I remember thinking why are you? I said to them why are you treating me like a criminal? Why are you assuming? By the way they were speaking down to me, I was like what have I done? Or like why are you stopping me? And they were like we have to check it and we're doing it for your safety. I'm like what does this mean? Are you checking his car for safety, or is it because I had a UK Range Rover. It was a UK car and I bought it over to Spain, which is perfectly legal because it was in the EU.

Speaker 1: 46:45

But one time they told me you need a sticker of the British flag at the back of your car by law. I was like I didn't know that. So I was like, okay, no problem, I'll buy a sticker and put it at the back of the car. And he was like well, no, we have to impound your car now because you broke the law. I'm like what do you mean? He's like we have to take your car now and we have to put it in the impound and you have to go pay this thousand euro, fine, to get it out of impound and all these costs and whatever.

Speaker 1: 47:12

The first time that happened I was just pissed off. Second time it happened, I was like, okay, this is very inconvenient, I'm getting angry now. My car in total got five times impounded. I got stopped in the streets at least 30 times, but impounded five times, and I've never told this story online. But when it kept getting impounded, I started to be like, okay, what's going on? So I called my lawyer. I'm like I'm going to get lawyered up now because this is getting crazy.

Speaker 1: 47:37

And when I started to notice they started to ask for the fines in cash, every time in cash. And I was like I remember one time they pulled me over and there was something about I don't even remember. There was some issue that I hadn't adhered to, some little law that I wasn't aware of. All my documents checked out, insurance, everything, mot all my documents are there, but they just find reasons. So there was one time they were like, oh, you need to pay this 80 euro, fine. I was like okay, I don't have 80 euros on me, can I pay with card? They were like, okay, you go find an ATM, but I'm going to call this impound truck again and if you come first with the cash, we're going to take the money, but if the impound truck gets here first, your car's getting taken. So I'm running around Madrid looking for an ATM to pull out 80 euros cash. And then when I get the ticket or whatever it's in Spanish, so I didn't read it properly. But when I read the bottom and my lawyer told me by law they have to offer you a card or cash option. They're legally obliged to have a card machine on them.

Speaker 1: 48:33

So when I started to think they're all just pocketing money off me now and they're all taking in cash so they're not declaring it most likely, I started to realize this is probably a mix of probably not racism, but it's a mix of the average salary of a policeman in Spain, is about a thousand euros a month. So it's not a high salary. Even though it's a Western country it's a low salary. So when you see a young guy in a nice car, obviously for them they feel a bit of resentment, maybe jealousy or whatever, like they're getting the emotions that I understand. So they would always take it upon them to see this as an opportunity for them to stop me and maybe make a bit of money out of a fine.

Speaker 1: 49:10

And I remember one situation man, because I had a UK car, I know that parking tickets I was not going to get because they're not going to send the ticket to my UK address most likely. So I knew I could be living kind of without paying parking. So my clinic I'm not a morning person, so pulling up to clinic at 7 am or something and the sun hasn't even come up the parking place for the clinic was like a five-minute walk to the actual clinic In the rain when the sun's not up. I didn't want to do it, so I used to just park on the street in front of the clinic. I know asshole behavior, but I knew I wasn't going to get the ticket. They would put a ticket, but they're not sending it to my UK address. So I had that kind of bravado around me and the police started to recognize this pattern.

Speaker 1: 49:51

So when I so one day I was pulling up to clinic and I saw a police car there, so I thought, okay, well, today I'm not going to park on the street, I'm just going to go into the parking and pay for parking whatever. But he came up to me and stopped me before I turned in and he said we're taking your car off you today. We know who you are, in the sense of we've seen you parking wrongly every day, so therefore we're taking it off you. I was like, hold on a minute, you're convicting me of a crime that I was about to commit. True, but I hadn't committed it yet. I was that day actually going to park correctly. So I was like, at least wait for me to do it and then take it off me. It was like you've assumed I'm going to do it, which you were right, but I'm not going to admit it. So that day he took the car off me and that was a big seed because it was in front of the clinic.

Speaker 1: 50:37

The lecturers are all walking past me and my classmates are walking past me I'm an hour late now and it became a whole scene. And then my lectures then saw me as a troublemaker and then made my life a little bit harder for me and gave me an extra headache and that whole non-conformist. I really felt like they're out to get me kind of mentality. And there was one really bad situation that happened to me where I was on the way to a surgery practical exam, and I was on the way to this exam and I was running a little bit late, so I was driving a little bit faster than usual, but I was also minding the speed limit.

Speaker 1: 51:06

I was just driving, let's say, a bit aggressive and I pull up to a red light and I stop at the red light and there's a car next to me I haven't even told my parents this story, so hopefully they don't watch this but there's a car that pulls up next to me at the red light and it's like a old 2008 Volkswagen, like the typical run around 18 year old guy car, and it's a beat up car and there's two lads in there, two spanish guys, and they're both in like nike hoodies. So they roll down the window and they start shouting something at me in and and they're like, roll the window down. So I say okay, I roll the window down and I look at them and they're yelling something at me and I wasn't paying attention. I had music on, I wasn't really listening to them and they had a strong spanish accent so I didn't. I didn't catch what they said at all. So when the light went green, I just saw these guys yelling at me. I thought, forget that.

Speaker 1: 51:53

I roll the window up and drive off when the light is green and I drive off kind of aggressively to kind of be like I don't know if they were hurling abuse at me, I don't know what they were saying, but I just saw kind of chavs in a beat up car and they're wearing hoodies. So I thought nothing it and I drove off and I look back in my in my mirror and I see the blue lights undercover cops. I was like here it goes again. This is this is chapter 30 of me getting pulled over at this point. So I know the process. I pull over to the side.

Speaker 1: 52:20

I pulled into a petrol station. I pull over to the side, I turn the car off, I roll the windows down, I get my documents, I put them on my lap and I put my hand on the wheel, because I've done this 30 times now and these guys come up to me and they say get out the car. I'm like, well, that's not usually what happens. Usually you say get your documents. What do you mean? Get out the car? And I know that europe is not as safe as dubai. So so I know as well like I'm wearing an expensive watch and it's expensive car, and even though they've got blue lights, how do I know? They didn't buy these blue lights of Amazon. And it's just two guys that are just about to rob me.

Speaker 1: 52:52

So I said very aggressively I'm not getting out the car, but you can have my documents. So he got a little bit heated and he said, no, get out the car, get out the car. I'm going to ask you one more time get out the car. I'm saying. I'm saying no, you can have my documents. I'm not getting out of the car because I don't feel safe. So I locked the doors. My windows were down but I kind of pulled the window up to half so we could hear each other. But I'm not getting out of the car and I didn't want him access to me. And I said to him call the real police. Because I said I don't know who you are. You're in a hoodie and you're a random guy. I said, call the real police.

Speaker 1: 53:32

And it was a young guy and he was a gym head. You could see he was a big guy and I think he got a bit of like rage in him and he said you don't think I'm the real police, I'm going to show you, kind of like. I think I heard his ego to say you're not the real police. So he started to then lean into the car, grab me and try and pull me out and try and unlock the door, wrestle me out of it. So I was like this is getting really out of hand.

Speaker 1: 53:44

So I pulled out my phone and I started to record and little did I know in Spain you're not allowed to record the police. That's considered a crime. In UK you can. In UK you can record the police, but in Spain? Apparently it's not.

Speaker 1: 53:55

So I started to record and then he got even more aggressive. I was like perfect, I've got him, I've got him on camera, perfect. And then the other guy yanks the phone out of my hand. I didn't know he yanks the phone out of my hand, so now I don't have my phone. I'm getting wrestled and bullied by another police guy. I'm like this is a mess.

Speaker 1: 54:12

So I was like this can go two ways, either I. Well, there's only one way. I've got to comply because this is getting out of hand. So then I said, okay, I'll drop my ego, because at that point it was just fighting egos. So I was like of the car and immediately he starts roughing me up. He pushes me on the bonnet, he starts tapping me aggressively to find something. I was like what exactly are you looking for? What do you think I have? Like what do you think I've got a gun on me? He's like I don't know what you have.

Speaker 1: 54:45

Arrest in the car. Before I got out I was like am I under arrest? He said no. So okay. So why is so? I'm complying. I kept saying am I under arrest? He said no. I said so. I thought okay, I'm gonna get out of the car, I'm not under arrest, and hopefully he sees my documents, calms down and whatever he says uh, I need to see your id driving license. Like I got my folder, everything is there, everything you need is there. He says, no, I need your passport, like why am I?

Speaker 1: 55:07

gonna have my passport on me and I'm also late for an exam. He's like, no, I need your passport. So he said, okay. I said I have a picture of my passport, my phone. He was like okay, that would do so. He says he says I say well, he has my phone. He says, okay, show me your phone and show me your passport. This is what he was doing. Smart of him. I didn't realize at the time. He wanted to delete the video, so he went off.

Speaker 2: 55:26

He went off to look at my passport.

Speaker 1: 55:29

But he went and deleted the video. I'll come back to this point and I'll mention how. I know this because it was in the recently deleted. He didn't go, but he deleted the video. And now it's getting heated. He's writing some things up, whatever, and now the real police actually come, like the actual cop car, and now they're coming a bit more calm and he's still heated. So I'm telling them what happened. He's now saying no, no, no. He tried to turn the engine on and drive away, like I've been stopped 30 times, there's no chance I'm driving off, there's no benefit in me running away. I've got nothing to hide. But he had now run with this narrative that I was resisting arrest and I was trying to run away and turn the engine on. So he's like he's under arrest. Now I was like Uh, so he's like he's under arrest. Now. I was like I just checked with you, like 10 times I'm under arrest. And now the real police show up he's got an hour show face and say he did, he followed procedure. So I ended up getting arrested. What I ended up getting arrested. And this was also during Ramadan, so I was fasting. I was late for an exam.

Speaker 1: 56:25

Next thing, you know, I'm in now being taken to a police station I still don't know what, for I didn't commit a crime. I had all my documents, I had insurance, I had everything clear and I also said to them I got stopped two days ago and now I started to keep a record every time I got stopped and I showed them. I had a diary Every time I got stopped. I had the date, the time and who stopped me. So I showed them. Like I haven't stopped 30 times. All my documents have been good at this point, so there's not an issue with the car.

Speaker 1: 56:51

So why am I here? They were like, uh, we'll get to that, so okay, whatever. Now I'm in a police station and they have to say take your shoes off. They check my shoes for drugs, or whatever. They say take your top off, take your trousers off, okay, take your underwear off. Like hold on, what's going on here. So they stripped me down naked and they're like squat and cough. I was like what the what the hell is going on? What the hell is wrong.

Speaker 1: 57:15

So I'm now in a police cell, fasting because it's ramadan. I'm trying to keep my calm because I am fasting. If I get angry, I break my fast. So now I'm just in this weird situation and also now sunset, so it's time for me to break my fast as well. So I just now comply. I'm just saying whatever they say is true. Now I'm in a police cell and they've done my whole strip me down, give me clothes, and I'm in a cell and the cell is literally just a mattress. And now I felt so angry because I was like I now have to ask to go to pee, I have to ask to break my fast. I didn't have food on me, so I said, hey, do you have any food?

Speaker 2: 57:52

for me it's like uh no, we don't. So it's not a real prison, it's a holding thing, so like we don't serve food here, like, well, I need to break my fast.

Speaker 1: 57:57

It was like, okay, we have some, uh, jamon, which is ham, swanish ham. I was like you know, damn well, I can't eat pork to break a fast. So then they got some biscuits from a vending machine for me and that's all. I had to break my fast and I had to stay in the cell overnight and that was a process. They were like we're going to process you and probably you're going to be let out tomorrow. So they said so I was like how am I going to eat and how am I going to also eat for the next fast, before before the next fast, that's? And, by the way, what's happening with my exam? And, by the way, can I call someone? So I'm getting, I accept my fate, I accept I'm here. I'm here is what it is now. And then they let me access my phone to call someone. So immediately I call my lawyer and I tell him what's happened and he said, okay, I'll send someone to the prison cell. So then I get processed and usually they said you're going to be here for at least 24 hours and that's usually the process. I think they do that and that's their normal, customary process.

Speaker 1: 58:51

My lawyer came at like 2 am at night, which is obviously a night. Call out is expensive and I think that cost me like 1.5K to get a lawyer to come out and solve this whole situation. Take my statement or whatever. But because that police, the policeman, had seen that I'd done this, I think they got a little bit nervous now because they realized, and I also got vocal and said I'm not going to let this go, I'm going to sue you guys. I'm going to pursue this legally Because this was straight up harassment. I didn't do anything. So I asked so when they see a lawyer has actually come now and they know the price to call out a me at 2 am, came to my cell and came to apologize. He was like you know, man, everything got escalated. I know you're a good person. This I didn't mean for this to happen. I know there's there's real criminals out there. I was like you're just doing this now, you're just apologizing to me now because you think I'm going to sue you, because you've seen the lawyers appear now. Oh my God. So I just said it's okay, no problem, it's okay. I was like, whatever it is what it is. And then, yeah, I get out of the cell and the first thing I do is go to my phone to show them the video, because my lawyer's here and I want to show them the video to the police and say this is why and I couldn't find the video, I was like, oh fuck, and I didn't think of the recently deleted at that point. So then I had to pay some fine or something.

Speaker 1: 1:00:15

And then I end up home I'm exhausted. I haven't eaten all night. I've been fasting 24 hours. At this point I missed my exam as well, so I'm a mess. And now it's like 7 am. So now I'm like okay, I can now go home, can go to uni and try and explain to my professor what's happened, because I had another exam that morning. So I'm like, and I'm an emotional wreck at this point. So I drive to uni now to my campus, and everyone's asking Wakara, where were you? What happened? Because people are miscalling me and I can't pick up the phone. They're like Wakara, you're missing your exam. So now I rock up and everyone's like you would never believe what happened. I've been in prison all night and I haven't eaten and I'm trying to fast. It was just a mess. So then my lawyers were like you know, you can take this now legally, whatever. I just thought forget it.

Speaker 2: 1:00:59

It's going to cost so much money.

Speaker 1: 1:01:01

It may cost a bit of money, but I thought I'm just going to let this headache go. I graduate in a month, so I let it be. I don't know why this story came up, but it's back to the point of, like that mindset that I had at that point was very nonconformist and all these little pressures that I was getting was very like rebellious, and then also getting my lectures shouting at me unnecessarily because I think the car was a mistake. That car bought me too much attention from my professors, from the police, so I was like I sold the car, I sold the cars, I forget it, uh, and then, um, okay, I was cursed the car.

Speaker 1: 1:01:35

The car brought more headaches than I should just take the bus like everyone else. But uh, yeah, the mentality I had was I, I, I wanted it was a chip on my shoulder and it became exaggerated at that point, uh, but, yeah, uh, when I eventually well, also, I was falling behind at uni at that point, so that that final chapter for me was like, if I don't, if I don't buckle up, I'm gonna have to, I'll fail that year and I'll be in year for another, I'll be in uni for another year. And that, for me, lit a fire on them because I really don't want to be in madrid with this situation going on, with the professors not really on my side. So I'm going to knuckle down and focus on my exams and really just make sure I pass and graduate, because I don't want another year. And then COVID hits and I remember I had a final exam of surgery, surgery four exam. And at this point on average we're doing 30 exams a year between like 10 modules and each module has three exams. So very intense degree, and so I'm used to exams. But this surgery exam, the final exam, is the hardest exam of the degree because each exam so far was like you study the curriculum for the exam and then you take the exam, whereas this surgery exam was like retrospective You've got to remember the content of the five years because they're going to pick information from the whole curriculum. So such a mass it was so much content and so deep and so specific, like random facts from two years ago that I definitely don't remember.

Speaker 1: 1:02:55

So I remember studying so hard for this exam and then I get COVID like one week or two weeks before the exam. So I'm a write-off. I'm a write-off. I can't study at all. And I remember, at this point, this big exam that's going to decide if I graduate or not. And I I'm just at this point, this big exam that's gonna decide if I graduate or not. And at that point I just wanted to graduate, leave, move off to Dubai, focus on my trading, focus on my career, and I knew this one thing was probably gonna mess it all up. And now I've got COVID, for sure I'm not graduating. So COVID makes me miss that exam. And then they set an extra date for me. But I'm thinking, for two weeks I haven't been able to study for this huge exam that requires studying every day. I'm going to fail for sure. I'm here for another year, fuck.

Speaker 1: 1:03:35

And that period for me was the only time in my life I think I've had a form of depression or a form of anxiety, and I used to be this firm, like Andrew Tate kind of sentiment of depression is not real and you can control your mind. You can control your mindset positivity, like there's no reason we should be depressed unless you have a clinical hormonal imbalance. And that was my firm belief. And then I was in this window of desperation, loss of hope, anger, stress, extreme stress, and then anxiety came in, depression came in and then also this whole like. I've been a student for six years. I've been. Madrid has been my home. Now I'm having an identity crisis because when I graduate, everything I know is home, is leaving, all my friends are going to graduate and move back home.

Speaker 1: 1:04:23

And also for me I was like where do I belong? Do I want to go back to the UK Because I'm not going to be a dentist? So where do I want to go back to the UK? Because I'm not going to be a dentist? So where do I? Where do I be a trader from? So I also felt this uh, whole like weird eerie feeling of I don't know who my friends are going to be. I don't know where I'm going to live. Life as I know it is going to change. I'm also very stressed about this exam. So it was just a weird mix of events. Put me in a hole. Put me in a hole and the stress response my body was. It was was so visceral I lost appetite completely. I couldn't eat. I was getting losing hair dandruff like crazy. And now I really understand when people end up in a funk and their life is real, like it can be just your external environment.

Speaker 1: 1:05:00

And the mind is so powerful because I knew all the things of like go to the gym routine positivity. I knew all these things but for the life of me. I positivity.

Speaker 1: 1:05:08

I knew all these things but for the life of me, I couldn't get out of that funk and I was doing everything I was supposed to do and I was just stuck in this rut and this serious depression and I felt lonely. I had people around me, I had housemates, but for some reason I felt so lonely, so depressed, so anxious and it was crippling. It was a crippling feeling and I couldn't study for the life of me, I couldn't do anything and I started to reach out to my parents, I started to reach out to friends, I started to reach out to old high school friends in seeking of some connection. I don't know what, but that period for me was like the only time I've had something, something negative, to such effect. So when people go through certain periods in their life, I can really resonate because the mind is so. You can have a positive spiral, which is what we are on now, but you can also have such a negative spiral where your brain has a conformational bias. Your brain looks to seek to validate its own beliefs. So if you feel like you're stressed, if you feel like you're stuck, no matter what's positive in your life, your brain will disregard that and hyper-focus on what. It will affirm its belief. That's how the brain is wired. The brain doesn't want to be discorrect or the brain doesn't want to be wrong, and that's how you end up in a negative loop. And then the little negatives that come up in your day add to a compound and you end up in a real rut.

Speaker 1: 1:06:15

So, long story short, I got out of that window and I graduated in the end. But wow, that was the hardest thing I ever did. But then when I graduate I'm like, okay, all is good. Now Let me fly off to Dubai. And here we are years later. But I know for a fact I started to do a bit of shadow work. I started to. I think a personality type that's developed in me right now is a form of I'm very stoic, which is a positive in trading. I'm very calm, I'm very level-headed, I don't get angry, I don't get emotional, and these are all great for an entrepreneur, as a trader. These are all great attributes. But in certain elements in life it's not good at all. So in a relationship area, in a friendship area, relationship with my parents area, I know if I feel sad I can switch it off If I feel sad.

Speaker 2: 1:07:05

I can switch it off If I feel like, if I'm about to have an argument with someone, I can let it go.

Speaker 1: 1:07:09

I've become super non-confrontational. I've become super stoic and level-headed too much. So there's something I recently came across called dismissive avoidance. I don't know if you know what this is, so there's four attachment styles. This is all something I'm learning. There's four attachment styles.

Speaker 1: 1:07:25

So you know how you have love languages in a relationship, you have words of affirmation, you have physical touch, you have acts of service. So these are how we can receive love. So I know for myself words of affirmation are gonna do nothing for me. So in a relationship, words of affirmation are not gonna be useful to me, but acts of service, maybe a little bit more Gift giving couldn't care less Physical touch I think that would be something for me. So I'm aware of what I am. But also we can mistakenly give love in the way we think how we receive love. So because for me I prioritize well, I don't prioritize words of affirmation, but maybe a partner in you prioritizes that. So you've got to give love differently to how you maybe receive love. So I'm starting to learn about all these things and I started to realize I'm a dismissive avoidant and I was like, okay, what is this? So there's also attachment styles. So, just like love languages, there's ways people connect and you're going to have anxious attachment where you're like if you have abandonment issues from your childhood or whatever, or maybe you've had a couple of breakups in your life, you become very anxious. So then in your relationship you're going to be very like where are you? What are you doing? Why haven't you replied to me? You didn't say goodnight to me, who are you out with? And you become very clingy and that's from a place of trauma, that's a trauma response and you'll be very on top of the partner and that's an unhealthy attachment style. You'll also have what I think I have is dismissive avoidant. The moment I feel like someone's on my case, I'll check out. The moment someone starts to fight with me, I say no problem, you're right, I'm going to carry on working.

Speaker 1: 1:08:54

And signs of an entrepreneur, of a high level entrepreneur. I've come to find out, like we said, there's a fine line between high level entrepreneur and narcissist. There's also a fine line between high-level entrepreneur and dismissive avoidant. And the reason for that is because we have such a high stress tolerance, because we have a low tolerance for BS and when you have an anxious partner, let's say who's nagging you, that you didn't reply to me in five hours. I'm going to be like I got more things to focus on. So the entrepreneur mind apparently is very common with a dismissive avoidant, because we, as entrepreneurs, we are not going to focus on things that are going to be energy voids or not so useful conversations, and we also are going to be not emotional, we're going to be logical, whereas we know usually a female can be more emotional and not so rational in these kinds of things. So that can lead to clashes.

Speaker 1: 1:09:42

And I've started to realize, I've started to manifest certain behavior types off the back of the trauma that I mentioned to you from my university of lacking control, not making university gap year. Off the back of this conditional love that I felt like as a young man I had with my parents, because I felt like I would only be receiving love from my parents if I got into uni and I got these good grades. It was a fallacy, but it was a belief system I made for myself. So that trauma, plus seeking validation from my dad and realized it was a big one, plus the trauma I had from not getting into university first round, plus this huge trauma I had of not graduating, built such a shield around me which I love, by the way but I know it's super unhealthy because I feel like I'm invincible in the sense of my life can be collapsing around me and I'll be unfazed, I am not going to be emotional, I'm not going to be stressed, I'm not going to panic, and that's a very reassuring feeling. But it's also a very unhealthy feeling and I thought it was a good feeling and I thought, okay, well, nothing can faze me. If things are wrong, I can handle myself. I'm hyper-independent, I'm hyper-focused, I'm hyper high stress tolerance and this is great for a career, this is great for moving forward. I can be ambitious, I can have a drive. Nothing can stop me. And off the back of it, I've grown a lot financially in my career, in my social media. It's led to all these positives.

Speaker 1: 1:10:56

But the hidden part of it is your social sphere is very unhealthy because off the back of it, I've started to realize, coming onto a holiday, coming to Bali, I don't get excited and just like I don't get emotional and just like I don't get stressed, I also don't experience joy as much. I don't get excited as much, I don't miss people as much, but I don't get excited as much. So both ends of the spectrum has been dialed in, which is unhealthy because you're also missing out on a positive experience of life. I also don't get homesick anymore. I don't miss people as much. So there's obviously negative remnants and negative experiences that come out of it, which obviously is something I don't want. So, despite making me feel like invincible in business, it's also very unhealthy for a holistic man that you want to be from well-being relationships, love, intimacy, family connection all these things. It's a negative. So this is something that I'm uncovering about myself and learning about myself. But to kind of wrap this into a message on social media, you can be stuck into the one-liners on TikTok and the Andrew Tate clips and the work hard, be resilient, be a top 1% man and that will lead you down a certain path and you will end up being focused, dedicated, hardworking, high stress tolerance, high self-esteem and through achievement you will reinforce that. So now you start to achieve more, you will start to see a positive feedback loop of I work hard, I get positive results. So therefore, let me work hard. Through that you will achieve fulfillment For a man.

Speaker 1: 1:12:26

Our passion is not derived in the end goal. Seldom is our happiness achieved in success of a goal. Rather it's upon the journey of that goal. So when we realize we achieve fulfillment in pursuit of a goal, our passion comes when we start to get good at something. We're not born with a passion. We get good at something. That positive feedback loop births a passion.

Speaker 1: 1:12:48

As a trader, I don't have a passion for lines on a chart. I developed that passion because then it became like a puzzle, it became like solving something, it became analytical. I really started to build a passion in it, but it became when I started to see mastery in something. So, as men, we see mastery, we see pursuit of a goal, we see happiness, we see fulfillment, we see passion, we see growth. All of these things are traits of what a man wants and that's how we achieve our fulfillment and happiness.

Speaker 1: 1:13:15

But along that journey and you'll feel great, you'll see personal growth, you'll see status growth. You'll see your social sphere growing, your network growing. You're collaborating with other people, growth. You'll see your social sphere growing, your network growing. You're collaborating with other people like. Everything will be great. But don't neglect the behind the scenes stuff of like what is your true wellbeing like? Because you might not feel it because you're only going to feel more bulletproof, but it might creep back later in life. And these are not issues that I'm facing heavily now, but I'm glad that I'm aware of them, because one day when.

Speaker 1: 1:13:42

I have a wife and have kids. I don't want to be a dismissive avoidant, and the more I've looked into the the traits of a dismissive avoidant, the more I feel like I'm reading a biography on myself. So I'm working on that and I'm seeing how I can, you know, negate this are you an entrepreneur who wants to build your influence and authority online?

Speaker 2: 1:13:59

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Speaker 2: 1:14:13

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Speaker 2: 1:14:52

But the fact that you recognize it right now means that basically it's focal and what's focal is causal and if you're aware of this, you can approach your life in that realm.

Speaker 2: 1:15:00

There is nothing wrong in your 20s to max the fuck out of your wealth, because then you don't need to be so conscientious of that wealth, which is a huge pressure. You know, maybe your family may have faced that my family to face that as well, for our entire life, for fuck's sake. And, as a result, you can focus on the health and relationship aspect and the fact that, like, I see so many similarities in you of me, in you, just in terms of like how you approach things, the all-in approach, the logical approach, the non-emotional approach. But most guys will stop there and I think you probably have seen that in dubai and whatnot, right, and I've seen it here as well. Like, guys will over index on one of the verticals. You also have the opposite man. You've guys in bali and thailand who over index on the relationship and then, as a result, their health is shit and their and their wealth is shit, right.

Speaker 2: 1:15:49

So so do you think that's a natural temperament, or is that, uh, nurture and life and society, that kind of shapes one or the other I think that, like people like us are, we're good at what we do, so therefore we want to index on that and maximize the fuck out of it and therefore sometimes we leave the awareness that, okay, you know, making 100k or 200k or 200k a month, that's good. Like we need to focus on other things and we almost like negate the other stuff. And I've a very similar like experiences to you in terms of how it shaped what you do and I always ask this question to myself is do I just do the things? Do I do the things that I do because of the things that happen to me in my life, which is almost like an awful question to investigate. I think it's true positively and negatively, but the things that I've experienced has allowed me to view pretty much anything as it's possible.

Speaker 2: 1:16:41

Like you said there, it's that resilience. But one thing that we're actively working on and, like me and lisa recently engaged, is like, how do we maintain that level of the connective tissue between relationships and other aspects and, at least said to me yesterday, being like you know, you got a coach for endurance, running for strength training for nutritionists, you got a business coach, you got a sales coach. You need a therapist and a relationship coach. What did you say? That's exactly what you said you need something.

Speaker 1: 1:17:08

You need something on you know you're gonna have we. I have a resistance to that, but I'm sure it's worthwhile but.

Speaker 2: 1:17:15

But it's also um. I did therapy in the past and it was very helpful, but I think it was very much symptoms led. It was like I got, I got this problem, whereas the problem is is you right and like the bottleneck is always you. So I think it was the fact that I kind of realized that like it goes deeper.

Speaker 1: 1:17:33

So therapy is a difficult one because I think we can all benefit from it and despite a man's ego, there is benefit in it. But there's also a big issue because unless you're winning, willing to uncover what's there, uncovering it one thing, but also willing to address it is an issue.

Speaker 1: 1:17:48

That's a problem Because you might feel like, like I'm saying, I feel like I'm a dismissive avoidant. Okay, this is some self-research. I've done a couple of books and YouTube videos. But what happens if I go to a therapist now and I say I've got these and this is how I live and these are my traumas and so forth? And they say, well, based on my experience, on the dismissive avoidance I've met, here's 50 other problems you have. Now I've gone from one problem to 50 because of therapists and now I feel like I've made a few steps back. So you also got to be in a chapter in your life where you're willing to address these things.

Speaker 2: 1:18:16

Exactly, and that's why it's like almost a time allocation. But what you want, kind of like the grass is green where you water it right. So if you want to work on your like your mental health, you can, you can do that right and focus on it. And that was the biggest thing for me. Like I've had some like really horrific traumatic events in my life that my brain has suppressed, horrific awful things, basically awful in terms of how I've approached it. And it's like the unbundling to rebundle approach, which is almost like you need to again drop the ego. It's like glass you need to shatter all the glass. So glass can glass. Good example right, you got a mirror, you can smash all the glass and then rebuild and create a new mirror with it, but you honestly have to like smash the whole thing down before you can recreate it.

Speaker 2: 1:18:56

Um, and that's kind of where I'm at now a small bit, because, again, to your point, the wealth stuff is kind of taken care of, like got a good, got a big business, it runs it, cash flows, it's not really problematic, it's fine. So it's almost like you get to the next layer, and a guy here would be great for you to connect with is ibrahim turner very similar. In this pursuit he maxed out the cash. Then he realized he was super unfulfilled and all this kind of shit, and now he spent the last couple years kind of he calls it conscious entrepreneurship so it's basically like developing that internal state for external and like.

Speaker 2: 1:19:29

Sometimes we get lost in the numbers, right, like and and man. You can get lost in any numbers. You can get lost in 5k a month, 5 million a month, you know that's especially being in dubai at least.

Speaker 1: 1:19:38

There's always another level and uh, well, that's what I don't even know the level you're like.

Speaker 2: 1:19:42

This is not enough bro, even when I went for dinner with you and burned the other day, like my observation of burn was the fact that, like he was just so far on in his journey that like almost anything, any nothing, it phased him. So he had like 20 employees, whatever, and we were half of that size and it was just a very interesting observation because the way he handled the stress and the pressure of running an organization was just super interesting. Like it was, it was almost like to me like yeah, there is those 17 more levels within those levels and man, I guarantee you iman looks at someone and says the same thing oh, for sure you know.

Speaker 1: 1:20:18

You know what it is, though it can seem quite like um, what are we pursuing and why do we keep doing it? At least from my lens, it's a case of what else am I going to do? And this is so much fun. I got no other hobby. I got no other thing I want to do. I don't watch tv, I don't watch movies, I don't watch netflix. I don't watch anything. I like to work. Yeah, super weird maybe, but I like to do it. The reason I asked you a moment ago do you think it's nature or nurture the temperament of someone to keep going? So I think we're now recently said of like um, I can give you the map, but who's going to follow it?

Speaker 1: 1:20:50

kind of thing it's like uh knowing the blueprint is not the key. The key is adherence and consistency upon it over time. Time is the real factor. 100 and um 100 what I think I forgot who said it, but basically society or god or whatever, has modulated the population to the point where not everyone can be an alpha, because if everyone was an alpha in society, who would be the follower?

Speaker 1: 1:21:12

Bro, 100% so you need to have one or two alphas in a cohort and, by nature, in our DNA. The rest have to be followers. Otherwise we would be at war with each other and not a social creature. It's a bell curve. So, yes, so if we, you also have to know yourself as an individual. If I'm not an alpha, but I see these top g and iman and these guys that are clearly alphas and that's what I idolize and that's what I look up to. But I know deep down I'm not an alpha. If you try to embody their traits and their characteristics and their everything, you're going to be not living to your strengths. Forget identity crisis and not true to yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:21:47

You're not playing to your strengths, because there is no shame. Social media has glamorized it, but there is no shame in being number two in being a top CEO in a company, but it's not your company.

Speaker 1: 1:22:00

If you want to be a CFO and make 200 grand a year, you've done well financially but you have no risk on your head, you don't have employees to pay for, you don't have the same stress, you just do your job.

Speaker 1: 1:22:10

Go home to your loving wife. And the way society is modulated is not only can some people are leaders and some people are followers in our nature that you can't change and can't fight. So don't try, there's no point. The other one is not everyone has the same stress tolerance, so at a certain point you can manage it and learn and flex that muscle. But they'll reach a point where it's not in your nature and it's a point of everyone can probably be a billionaire, but not everyone is willing to sacrifice what it takes to be a billionaire Because, let's say, you reach a point where you've made a hundred K a month and you've got a family and you've got kids and you've got a wife, are you still willing to not see them every day, to be all in on your craft, to pursue a billion when you're already financially abundant?

Speaker 2: 1:22:54

probably not for most people and that's the driving factor, right, if you're going to drivers as like, driven by like was like purpose, different kind of driving forces driven by like you want to give back, you see, like a new future.

Speaker 2: 1:23:06

And the last one is driven by madness yeah and driven by madness is like where you know you have the ceo who's actually not even going, or the founder that's not going for status. They're literally just building out of that madness. They've created that ecosystem and that chaos. Mind could be in their mind, basically, and I think I think, like, largely to some degree that can be. You know your ultra athletes, your top bodybuilders, it's the guys at the very, very top because they never settled along the way and that's like admired. But as to your point, like, so I always say some guys are great employees. I see a lot of entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2: 1:23:38

I meet a lot of entrepreneurs yeah, but I meet a lot of entrepreneurs who are struggling and they're I'm like I often say it to them and not in a belligerent way but I'm just like you should just be like a sales rep, get paid, you should just be in marketing, you should be a cmo, like you should do that, whereas, like for us, I think, like, the longer you spend in the arena, the less pressure you have on, like the variability of entrepreneurship, so I can sleep well at night. You know I didn't in the beginning. Yeah, so for a.

Speaker 1: 1:24:04

So upon this topic, like, obviously it's glamorizing social media to be your own boss and be an entrepreneur and this and that because of the notable figures that are exactly that. So a lot of people, I think, are going to start living not true to themselves, which is one thing, but a bigger issue is you're not playing to your strengths, because I guess the society that I think is modulated is certain men, and I think specifically men, are going to chase money, power, status and control and that's going to be their priority within their DNA. It's their natural temperament. Other men are going to focus and prefer and prioritize love, relationships, friendship, and that's totally okay, that's within your nature and obviously there's a bit of both in everyone. But it's where you are on that spectrum and if you feel, obviously you've got to put in sacrifice on your love, friendships and all of these things to achieve something.

Speaker 1: 1:24:52

But not everyone is willing to go endlessly to it. Some people would just be like, okay, I've made, I have a salary of 100K a year, I'm more than comfortable. I want to now focus on my life, on my, on my family. So then you, that kind of individual, is probably best served in being a very high, skilled, high income individual that brings so much value to a company that you don't need employees and risk and sacrifice because you've gone through that system like I just offer engineering.

Speaker 2: 1:25:19

I worked for the big tech companies. I've been working for consulting firms. I know exactly how it is. You're not a 21 year old tiktok dude, right like I. That's why I really value your opinion on this. We're very, very similar with our perspective on this stuff, because I do see that like on the spectrum again back to health, wealth and relationships, when some of it is half semi-solved, they will start to like, re-evaluate, and that's why giving advice is you'll be very careful what you give as advice versus experience.

Speaker 2: 1:25:43

Because advice like I had a guy today say to me you know he wanted to push on. He wanted to push on, but his partner was less inclined. She wants to be more family oriented, located to her family in the uk, and I was like this is a decision that you're gonna have to make whereby you look at your life in five years and does your life in five years look like maybe being in asia and making a couple hundred thousand dollars a month and being very committed to that and, yes, you can take care of your partner as a result, but are you willing to make that sacrifice or do you want to go back to the uk, surround yourself with the uk environment or just a local environment and have a bit more of that lifestyle right, because you know we, I know what we preference. But I'm saying to some degree people are their own uh agent. Right, they can do whatever they want. But I think it's interesting because you can adopt someone else's goals right, and that's where the podcast that's what a matrix is actually.

Speaker 2: 1:26:31

A matrix is someone else's control on your thoughts 100% and what I always ask people ask Luke Bellmer, this was is entrepreneurship a matrix? Because I believe that the whole idea of moving to Dubai for the reason to be in Dubai, so you're seen to be a successful entrepreneur, and then buying the watch because you for the reason to be in dubai, so you're seen to be a successful entrepreneur, and then buying the watch because you're being seen to be buying the watch and driving the car is a form of a matrix. Right, because of why we started this. This endeavor was to have that freedom time, location and money freedom whereas I've had a. I want to ask your question this so I see a lot of guys and I interview guys who make 100k a month and they spend 99k of that a month. I've seen so many dudes right, and I often ask people like what's your perspective on that?

Speaker 1: 1:27:12

it's this concept I maybe came up with myself. It might be a thing online, I don't know. I just look at it and it comes from a more training perspective. Was this rate of replenish?

Speaker 1: 1:27:20

meaning to say, if you cashed out and you've exited your company and you've made a million and then you're you're like, not really actively working on anything, so your income is actually your month a month income is very low but you're very liquid because of uh, this exit event, your rate of replenish is very low. So you've got to be caught. You've got to be cautious how you spend because that money's not coming in every month. But if you're in a different situation where you've got some business set up that's helping you make 200 grand a month, you can spend a lot more aggressively than the guy who's more liquid because he's got a million in the bank because of the rate of replenish. So I think, when it comes to spending, I think you have to obviously be sensible and intentional.

Speaker 1: 1:28:01

But another thing is spending versus parking money. So when you put money into a car, but another thing is spending versus parking money. So when you put money into a car, let's say you buy a 300 grand car that didn't cost you 300 grand, that costs you your depreciation when you sell it in two years and in that two years if you lost 30 grand, 40 grand on the car, but that car enabled you to unlock more followers, more business, more status, more entering, more rooms. Is that 30 grand cost and a worthwhile investment? Don't look at the money you've spent and parked. Look at the cost and what you get out of it bro, you think so fucking differently.

Speaker 1: 1:28:33

That's so interesting in terms of the watches I've got. I've got maybe 1.3 million dollars in watches and they're only and I'm not wearing one today and I really feel naked but in dubai and and it's truly a Dubai thing I don't take my watches to the UK, I don't take them abroad, I don't bring them to Bali. They're all in a safety deposit in London and the rest are in Dubai because they're safe to wear In Dubai. It's worth it because, first of all, if I buy a 100 grand watch, I'm not really gonna lose money on it and because I buy a lot of my watches retail, meaning directly from the boutique, I can buy a 100 grand watch for 60 grand. So it's become an investment. One of my watches that I bought I bought for 70 grand euros in Madrid from AP and at the highs of the market it was worth 250. So that was a huge amount of money made. I didn't sell it but also being able to walk around and have a valued 250k ap on your wrist and you walk into a room and in dubai, the life I have.

Speaker 1: 1:29:33

If you're living a life where you're just going to the office every day, the watch is not serving you anything, but if you're living a life where you meet 10 new people a week, which is very normal for me. I'm meeting people all the time. I swear to god I I've met people. I put my arm, my hand out to shake the hand and before they make eye contact with me, they quickly look at the watch. They have already profiled me and that moment of first impression they've already realized this guy has achieved something. If he's got a 200 grand watch on his wrist, he's probably someone worth listening to, probably someone I should take seriously, someone's opinion I should value. That's brought me access into that conversation at a better level. It brings you status online. It brings you status in person and it's not costing me money. It's parked money and in a lot of my watches it's made me money if I want it offload so that I might.

Speaker 1: 1:30:16

You might see I spent a million dollars on watches. I spent $0 on watches. I've parked money from my bank account to watch portfolio. That's bringing me access to people, bringing me better conversations better. It's just a plus in my life because I'm in Dubai. So that's how I look at that in terms of spending. Same for a car. I can have an expensive car and I'm going to lose money on it. But can I make more money because of the depreciation In my unique situation? Yes, if I was just a family man no social media, the car is going to bring me nothing. So it's your life. Set up so in my twenties, being online, being in Dubai these things play to my favor, so I play the game. It's not a vanity thing, it's a benefit thing. But if I was living in Bali, I would not do any of that, because it wouldn't make sense.

Speaker 2: 1:30:57

So interesting how like Dubai is basically its own vacuum within like a system.

Speaker 1: 1:31:02

You know what I mean which is like a positive. It's a positive, obviously net positive, if you can control the emotional side of it instead of like getting lost in like the numbers, or getting lost in like the pursuit of going I think what you were referring to was more the lifestyle inflation which is, uh, picking up bills you can't afford, going clubbing and going to tables you can't afford, and that kind of spending 90k when you're making 100k and also having the appreciation yourself of, like, where you're currently.

Speaker 2: 1:31:26

Actually. I know, obviously, like you want to be progressing more, but it's almost like slowing down to appreciate what you've achieved. Like I remember seeing, um uh, simon squibb interview james blackwell on this recently and like james blackwell said he was, you know, he was like I think you should get to like four or five mil liquid and leave Dubai. You know, come in and get yours. Come in and get what you need.

Speaker 1: 1:31:47

Yeah, there is power in that sentence and I think Dubai is, um, I mean my, my situation is a little bit different because, uh, it's a Muslim country and I and I would like to be in a Muslim environment. Obviously, there is hell and heaven, both in Dubai, palm and the degeneracy that. There is all of that there too, but there's also brilliant family communities and it's all orientated on religion and there is both ends of that spectrum. So when I look for a place, I want to value someone like james, who's uh, who loves europe. He's a friend of mine, I mean, he loves europe. His values maybe are different and he's also been in dubai longer than me, so he's got the benefits out of it and on to the next that brings in value. He wants to go back to the UK, yeah, I think. I mean I think he's looking at tax havens for now, monaco and so forth, but I think home is home, and for him UK is home, whereas UK is not so much home for me.

Speaker 1: 1:32:34

UK is where my family is right now Exactly, but it's not a home feeling. I left a decade ago and no part of me is called back there.

Speaker 1: 1:32:42

There's no tax advantage, there's no life advantage, there's no network advantage, there's no growth, there's no advantage for me, there's none there it's just bad weather and weird people, in my opinion, whereas Dubai at least, I feel like I resonate with a lot of people I'm also getting a huge tax saving and I think, at least in your 20s, two years of tax savings brings you 10 years ahead Freedom.

Speaker 1: 1:33:02

Especially in your 20s. Because, man, if you can double your income, what can you do with that money and the compound effect of it? So I think, a priority number one for any individual and I've said this before the moment, you can afford to move to Dubai and be break-even, meaning, okay, you're making savings on tax, but it's going to cost you more to live there, rent and lifestyle. How much more do you think? Well, not crazy man, you can. You can depends really what you want to live and what you want to show. If you want to live a normal, humble life in dubai, you can get by with two grand a month.

Speaker 2: 1:33:31

You don't, you don't need that much similar to singapore right like I was paying like 5k a month in rent in singapore and because there's a lot.

Speaker 1: 1:33:38

That's a lot of money it's a lot right.

Speaker 2: 1:33:39

But this because the singapore scene isn't that big, the network scene we weren't really going for flashy dinners and stuff and, um, I wasn't making a lot of money when I when I used to live there, you know. Now it's completely different look at it.

Speaker 1: 1:33:50

Let's say you're paying five grand a month on rent, you got 50 grand fixed expense, and let's put that into dubai's perspective. I've got 50k fixed expense on rent and I'm making 100k a year. Yes, I save 50k a year on tax, but I put that same 50K back into rent and I think that's still worthwhile. I mean, I wouldn't put that much rent if you're making 100K a year. But meaning to say, if you move to Dubai and the tax savings you gain, you deplete it all by the cost of living in Dubai. It's still worth it if you're in the online space because the network it will unlock the mindsets will unlock Just now in Bali I was saying it to you the other day the villa I got there was no reason.

Speaker 1: 1:34:24

I have eight bedrooms and a helipad and four swimming pools, but believe me and I'm there, no one's, I'm not there with my boys I've got 15 staff, a butler and a chef and all of these things. Okay, and I didn't really post it, I didn't vlog it or whatever. That was just for me. But that gave me another feeling. I was like I want this in my life and maybe not in Bali, but like if I can build this something in Dubai. Okay, that's gonna be a lot more expensive, but that gave me a fire. That environment gave me fire and aspiration is a real thing. So if you move to Dubai as a young man and it's a breakeven move for you, but you meet higher caliber of individuals in terms of people on your wavelength If I go, all of the people that are in a good career or they moved to London, they moved to Manchester, they moved out of the city. So that small hometown, the guys that are still there that I know, I feel like I go in a time machine and.

Speaker 1: 1:35:14

I'm back to 18 and they're working the same job they were when they were 18 and they're going to the same parties and they're doing the same drugs and they're doing the same shit. That is a void on your mind and when you're in that environment, you don't realize it until you leave. And then you have better conversations. And now I go for dinners.

Speaker 1: 1:35:29

I made a tweet about this and the comments were weird. Actually, I made a tweet. It was like I can't remember the last time I had a conversation or went for a dinner and it wasn't like this where we talk about mindset, religion, status, career growth, all of these things, all of these things the exact same. When I had conversations with those guys when I was 18, it was about gossip, who's who's shagging who? What's going like small town talk. That is trash conversation and your mind is going to go nowhere. If and if you can elevate to an environment where you have the other kind of conversations, do that for a year and tell me you don't have different thoughts and your thoughts are going to lead to emotion.

Speaker 1: 1:36:03

Your emotion is going to lead to behavior. Behavior is going to lead to outputs. So your your direct inputs. Humans, we synthesize inputs to outputs. If you can get better quality inputs through social media, through content, through books, through podcasts, through your friends and your conversations, all of these inputs will lead to paradigm shifts and greater outputs.

Speaker 1: 1:36:20

100 and a small town environment is a void that people don't realize until you leave, and the comments on my twitter were like sounds so boring, you need to switch off. You need to take a break. Life's not all about money. I'm like you're in the small town environment, which is why I think, which is why you think like but you don't love it though right and like.

Speaker 2: 1:36:36

That goes back to, I remember um, it's about alcohol too, right. People say like, oh well, like your life must be so boring with alcohol. It's like no, because I don't drink alcohol, my life is opened to all the other possibilities. I can have these amazing conversations, I can travel, I can go different places. Because I don't drink alcohol, I don't soothe my brain I'm not part of that void by just being fucked down with some alcohol and we finish up on this point.

Speaker 1: 1:36:58

What things do you take? Because I know you're, you're a sober man, you don't take um intoxicants. But do you take any psychedelics or microdosing? No, because a lot of people in bali, I feel like they're on that wavelength yeah, nothing for that uh these no, nothing no I've done a lot of shrooms and acid like younger, but not not as I'm not as I've given up alcohol.

Speaker 1: 1:37:25

I'm two years in 10 days okay and uh, yeah, man, it's just, it's just the return entrepreneurs fool themselves, because I see a lot of these woke entrepreneurs that say you need to do ayahuasca and shrooms and microdose.

Speaker 2: 1:37:38

They're for different reasons they're there for different reasons, like to do a personal right, like a lot of traumas that entrepreneurs have which put them in a position where they built the millions because they're able to get that mental. They're able to face, like rejection, 24 7 is obviously a deeper issue, which is why, like things like ayahuasca and why psychedelics might help them, right might. It might help them, but that could also help the person that works in tesco, right isn't? It's not necessarily specific to that.

Speaker 2: 1:38:03

The only reason why I don't drink is because you know, similar to where you described, that I'm not intelligent. I was not a good student. I'd work a thousand times harder than most people. So they get to 80 of someone else takes a lot for me. So that's when I knew when I, when I quit alcohol, I could focus on the podcast. I could have these longer conversations been recording for like nearly two and a half hours and then, as a result, I could have a better input for better outputs and better outcomes, because I spent a lot of my 20s as a, let's say, just like someone who took risks and took chances but not getting the outcomes that I wanted, whereas when I decreased a dependency on alcohol, I was able to focus much more on that and all the other spiraling benefits.

Speaker 2: 1:38:43

Yes, that happen, positively or negatively happened, and it all happened right and bro, like you know to your point about the feedback coming from people like, there have been people that have completely changed their lives from watching my videos of being like I'll stop drinking for a week, maybe a month, maybe a year. Some of them come directly, some of them come indirectly. A lot of guys do come directly now at this stage because they see other people doing it. A lot of guys who have stopped drinking alcohol because of me, but I'd never tell anyone to do it and I also don't think alcohol is bad. This is a fun. What's funny is, I think, for someone to just drink and have like one or two beers or like whatever. I think it's cool, but for me, in the online space, I'm not going to be one of these other guys if I did the stuff that I used to do back in the day, um, and that's kind of where I kind of think about it. We'll wrap up on this point because I think this is going to be a student.

Speaker 1: 1:39:29

One last message, uh, off the back of kind of what you just said about alcohol and um and so forth, and also I might have given off a a weird perspective in terms of lifestyle dubai which. Which has its place, but the the thing I want to say is there's been huge CEOs, huge millionaires, billionaires, everything that have achieved all their success whilst being overweight, drinking, smoking and all kinds of crap, meaning to say these are not necessary pillars to achieve your success.

Speaker 2: 1:40:02

They are prescriptions.

Speaker 1: 1:40:03

They are benefits, they will aid you, but they're not requirements and I feel like a lot of people get caught up in the affirmations and the meditation and the journaling and all of these things and they'll do anything but their to-do list and the to-do list is what is going to make you money. So, dubai, networking, social circle, all of these things, that's not your to-do list. The watches and this and that is not your to-do list. The watches and this and that is not your to-do list. So you can have bad thoughts and still do the right thing, and that's better than having the correct mindset and the cold shower and doing the wrong thing so your, your decision and your behavior is number one, and all the other stuff is supplementary.

Speaker 1: 1:40:38

So, um, that's kind of the lasting message I want to give. Drink or don't drink, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 1:40:42

Do your to-do list there's millionaires in skull and stoke and skuntorp right, there is some of them out there, so it's like this is the extra stuff on top. But oh, man, that's such a good point because I often say, like you don't need to join another man's group, you need to actually just do the fucking work. And then, when you've reached that level, it goes back to the status. That's when you focus on the other aspects of life. If you want that, or if you're driven by madness, you go build that, building another company. You know.

Speaker 2: 1:41:05

But, man, this was an amazing podcast epic work, man, this is fun, this is fun honestly, man, we both think very, very similar, very similar wavelength, um, and I can help you with in the future.

Speaker 1: 1:41:16

Just let me know bro, thanks for being happy the next time in dubai.