Unlocking the Power of Personal Investments

Ready to take control of your financial future? This episode is a masterclass in investing that goes beyond the traditional avenues of stocks and bonds, venturing into the thrilling territories of cryptocurrency and real estate. As a serial entrepreneur with five diverse businesses under my belt, I’ll take you through the most vital investment of all: YOU. 

Discover why backing yourself and your skills can be a game-changer, providing not just fiscal returns, but a leap towards financial freedom. Let's face it, we've all dreamt of starting our own venture, yet the leap from contemplation to action can be daunting.  From cyber security to photography, no skill is unmarketable. So, tune in, and let's embark on this journey to success together!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Investing in Yourself
• 4:06 The Importance of Investing in Yourself
• 16:48 Profit Before Pain

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The more you know, the more you feel empowered. The more you feel empowered, the more you do, and the more you do, the more you succeed. The More you Feel Empowered, the More you Know. Hey, what's good, everybody. I think I'm live now, so just trying different setups here and today. I want to talk about investments. Right, you know, because everybody talks about investments and stocks, bonds, all that type of stuff, but just really want to get into it, especially in 2023, where it's going to take more than just what we used to make, more than just our nine to five, more than just even our side hustle, that type of stuff Like we're going to. It's where the point now we actually have to actually expand. We have to do things, have to invest and get return on those investments in order to be able to survive Because, as people can see, so many things are going on with our economy, it is important to invest. So, you know, I mean I would just. You know, just, it's all breaking up.

Speaker 1: 1:04

What is your biggest investor? You know, feel free to drop it. You know in the comments whether you watch it live or you watch it recorded. You watch it live. You know hashtag live, where you're from and if you watch the record and say hashtag, replay. These are the things I'm learning right. So you know, because, like you know, I've been really thinking about just a lot of stuff. You know when it comes to investments and so you know, let me know what your investments are while I talk about this a little bit, because, again, like I said, I've been having to put out content every day. You know, sunday through Thursday, last week was a really interesting week, you know, had some highs, had some lows, but I still got something out every day. This week my goal is to still go live. Again, I want to get to a hundred of these before I stop, and then hopefully I won't stop. I'll actually, you know, really good at it. So, yeah, that being said, what? No, I'm just going to what investments are and all that type of stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:05

So common investments that people know about. You know we got stocks and bonds. You know everybody knows about stocks and bonds. We've got stock market. You know the bond market, you know. You know interest and all that type of stuff. You know stocks go up and down. It's investing in a company or a product or something like that.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Then, of course, it's gambling. I got. You know, I've noticed a huge uptick in gambling. Yes, that is actually technically what we consider an investment. I mean, you're putting money and expecting a return. It could be dangerous Again. I've seen, I've seen statuses recently, you know. So, folks, they come up and then they go down. I wouldn't, you know. I always tell my he didn't get 10K because somebody didn't score 10 points, like, hey, bro, you know that's what you do.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Then you also have a cryptocurrency and if anybody, a lot of people, got gap very recently by crypto for no other reason than just how the market was. It was very volatile vehicle, you know, for a while it was really up, but then people started to, you know, just, things happened and it didn't quite work out the way people wanted to. But the one I want to talk about in real estate, of course, real estate is a has always been a common and good investment, you know, even though even in that it fluctuates, it doesn't always give the return that people want. The one I really want to talk about today is investing in yourself, right? Because I'm gonna tell you all great, no stock expert, not a bond expert, not a gambling expert, not a cryptocurrency expert, not a real estate expert. While I'm dabbing every single one of those, none of them am I an expert in. But I am an investment in investing in myself. You know, having started four businesses or five different industries, you know I know about investing in myself and I want to talk about that today. So you know again and when we talk about risk not sure why how I put me doing this crazy stuff we're talking risk of investing in the market.

Speaker 1: 4:06

One of the things is you have very, very little control over it. You know you're not working in those board rooms I don't know boards of these companies. You can't even go out and buy enough or tell enough people about something in order to control that stock. You know there's no stock manipulation that you can do. It's actually not even illegal for you to do it. And then you're really trusting someone else will invest in themselves enough to make your investment worth it, and so you're essentially relying on their self interest to make you money. That's very, very risky. You know I often don't like to invest in something that I have no control over and that's kind of scary. And then often they can take years of your investment. And again, I'm not saying don't invest, I'm just saying understand the risk Of making those investments right, because you know it is. It can be scary and one of the worst things about it is, if you lose, you lose everything. You know.

Speaker 1: 5:00

You know, like I know, people had a lot of money in crypto stuff. You know whether it was dogecoin, bitcoin, sheba, ethereum, all of those and every last one of them has tank. You know, if you like right now, if you invested 10,000 dollars in crypto and Bitcoin a year ago, you've probably lost half of it at the very least. Even in stocks, you probably lost about 10%. But you know I invest. You know. Yeah, like I said, I invest in myself and I'll talk about why my biggest investments are actually Right, might be important, but yeah, anyway. Number one, because you are your best asset. You have control over you, have control over yourself, you have control over what you do, how you invest, how you move and all that type of stuff. So that's that's one of the things that's very, very, very, very important. Then the one of the other things is every investment in yourself makes you more marketable.

Speaker 1: 6:05

As many of you may know, you know I've been in photography. That was a very marketable skill. I'm a cyber security expert. You see I got the the mass hanging in the background. You know I'm an ethical hacker. You know right now do I want businesses? You know done that type of vending politics. Every time I've invested in myself and learning that it's only made me more market because, if nothing else, it it has increased my knowledge of different subjects. Also, it always increases your earning potential.

Speaker 1: 6:36

The more that you know about anything means you can walk into doors that you previously cannot do. For instance, even as a consultant. Right now you know of my hot ticket clients also get headshots. You see I'm saying it makes it that much more marker because, hey, we're going to business, everybody wants a nice headshot. You know Also teach my clients how to actually protect their businesses as they're growing, because I'm an ethical hacker. Like I know how to set your business up, how to set your systems up, so that you don't. You know why you're making money. You know help you to make money. Also, have you protected from hackers or things like that. Of course it makes you more marketable. You can walk into different doors because you can actually say you know People that you're connected with will always they'll promote you like, hey, he can do this. Hey, she can do that, she can do this.

Speaker 1: 7:22

You always able to come up in conversations and that helps you up as well. Even when you lose, you gain. You know, sometimes people have. You know, there've been times I've invested in programming things that nature and didn't quite turn out the way I wanted to, but I've learned something, you know, and it's added to my repertoire as a, as a business person. So, you know, I mean, yes, I did invest in learning some things about, about real estate, and while I did not, you know, make any money in it and I didn't even attempt to I learned a lot about it and that helped me, you know, and it's made me more marketable so I can talk knowledgeably, knowledgeably, about it to other people. What are the other things? Is it actually increases your drive and self determination, because the more you know, the more you feel empowered. The more you feel empowered, the more you do, and the more you do, the more you succeed. Right, so you know, you really want to ensure that that, as you invest in yourself, you internalize the things that you're learning and you make it better, and it's the only, in my opinion, sure way to financial freedom. You know whether or not, and I took it all the time.

Speaker 1: 8:31

I don't think everybody's supposed to be a four-time entrepreneur like myself, because it's like you know you can't just you know you really can't. Just you know, slide your way through stuff and again you know you never know when your job is going to. You know falter. You know we would love to. You know it's not like it used to be, where people know that they've been at a job for 30 years, retired with a nice pension. You know, even now, the things that we, that they have in, like 401K, 403b, things like that they're based on the market and you could be there for all these years and if you retire at the time of a crash, it becomes a problem.

Speaker 1: 9:05

But when you invest in yourself, you invest in skills, you invest in talents, you invest in knowledge that makes you better at stuff that actually can get you financial freedom. You know, when I take trainings, I'm always thinking about how do I make money off this? Because I want to be financially free, be able to do what it is that I want and desire to do. You know what are ways to invest in yourself. This becomes very, very, very important because you know you always want to know how to invest in yourself. You know what are ways you think there are. You know what ways are you investing in yourself. Here's just a few that I do. Number one is hands-on training.

Speaker 1: 9:41

And when I say invest, I'm not just a time investment, I'm actually talking about a money investment, because those who pay are those who actually do. When you actually put money to, when you actually make that a true investment in it. You know put the, you know whether it's low ticket, high ticket, whatever it is, but you actually put your money where your mouth is, the money where your mind is. You're actually. You know you're actually investing yourself and saying that you believe in you and you believe what you're investing in and that way you're actually able to make the progress that is necessary for you to get a return on your investment. Right, that's what it is. Also, books, e-books and audio books always getting that knowledge going into your mind. You know I would also add podcasts to this. Anyone who knows me they know all day long I don't listen to music. Yes, I really listen to music. I listen to music. I love playing music, but I very rarely listen to music. Most of the time I'm listening to podcasts, I'm listening to e-books and I'm learning and bringing in knowledge that is investing in me. That's actually helping me to reinforce the things that I'm getting in my hands on.

Speaker 1: 10:49

Training, develop a new skill on your own Just all of you know. A lot of people don't know I picked up photography on my own. I didn't take any classes or anything like that that you know I picked up a camera. You know I was working in Detroit and I was, you know, going over to the rent center and you know, just taking my camera places and shooting and that's how I started to get the get the skill and it actually helped me expand your networking. You know not just expand your network, but your networking. You know putting yourself in places where you can meet people, putting yourself, you know, stepping outside of your comfort zone, knowing people Like I encourage people, if you want to, to come to our business retreat out in Vegas where you've been able to meet other business people. You know expanding that, strengthening promising relationships, those relationships that are bringing you, that are helping you to go to where you want to be.

Speaker 1: 11:43

You want to strengthen those relationships, you know, whether it be business relationships or personal relationships, if they're beneficial to you and where you're going, you want to strengthen those, you want to nurture those, you want to make sure that they're, that they're better, and investing through attrition you're like what does that even mean to me? Investing it through attrition is making sure that you are giving a negative investment to those things that are not helpful, whether they be relationships, whether they be time wasters, things like that. You know, and this isn't. You know a lot of people I gotta cut this off, cut that off, cut this off don't necessarily cut it off, just begin to. As you begin to move in these other directions of investing, those things are slightly far off. You know you don't want to. You know offend people, you don't want to hurt people's feelings, you don't want to. Just, you know. You know just break stuff up, like I'm kind of burn bridges and things like that, but through attrition just kind of say you know what? This isn't quite working, so it kind of gets replaced. You know no longer. You know playing this video game, now I'm reading these books. You know stuff like oh, my gosh, yeah, I mean, that's that's.

Speaker 1: 12:47

You know, through attrition, that's how you kind of invest in yourself, because you're pulling back and you're gaining back the time that you need to be able to build what it is that you want to build. So, um, you know, tell me in 2023, you know, how do you plan on it? How are you going to invest in yourself? You know what, what? What are the things that you're gonna do? I would love to hear what you're doing, or see it. Read it, whatever. Uh, you know, are you, you know? Are you taking any kind of training? You know what are you doing? You know, let me know below what it is that you're doing and I encourage you, you know, get somebody who you can be accountable to.

Speaker 1: 13:24

You know, a, I have a number of programs which we invest in, um to in order to build your own business. Of course, I'm gonna plug myself. That'd be smart. But, yes, even in your children. You know, we're doing our cyber business camp, um, this year, and I'm actually letting adults take it as well. Uh, because they say, hey, they saw the results from the children. They want to jump in and they're literally taking the time off so they can learn these skills.

Speaker 1: 13:46

So, how, how do you plan on investing in you? Um, so, yeah, what up? Don't you hear my man Rod? Uh, yeah, what up, don't you? He was out there, out there in Detroit. Um, he's also a fellow photographer that's gone into the entrepreneurship, um, under the entrepreneurship phase. Uh, like, I have as well. So you know he's doing a whole lot. He's out in Arizona and you know we've done I've been on his podcast a couple times. Hey, I didn't get back on there, bro, I got some other stuff I want to talk about. But, yeah, I know my man, he's out there.

Speaker 1: 14:16

I see Rose of Johnson. She's talking about she's building her relationships in Prince George's County, in DMV, and let's talk. Let's see, I'm here, uh, in Prince George's County. I'm Pete. Prince George is proud and I would love to talk to you and see how we can help and work together.

Speaker 1: 14:32

Um, also, you know, learning how to use artificial intelligence and workflows and data analysis wow, that is uh, hey, that's that's kind of amazing. You know I've been doing, I've been dealing in AI for a little bit and I actually plan on talking about it. You know the benefits and whether we should, whether or not we should be afraid of it, because some people are very afraid of artificial intelligence. Um, personally, I'm not, from what I've seen thus far. Um, I do think there are some dangers to it, but I'm not hugely afraid um of it. But, yeah, I would definitely um, I definitely look forward to uh having these conversations.

Speaker 1: 15:06

So let's all um invest in ourselves in 2023, primarily because there are other people out there that are investing in themselves. Uh, we don't want to be left behind. You know, this is the time for us to be independent and our thinking, independent and our movements and moving the direction that's going to um, that's going to help us um. So, yes, you know, if y'all have any questions, comments concerns metaphysical speculations, I encourage you to like, share. You know, tag somebody below that you feel is, you know that wants to invest in themselves, encouraging to watch this video. You know, follow me on YouTube at launch with Carl. Facebook, twitter, all these other places. You know all those good places Instagram, even on Twitch a great matter. So I was actually at launch with Carl, so you know, I would love to continue these conversations.

Speaker 1: 15:56

This week's gonna be great. I got a number of things coming up. We're going to be doing a perfect customer challenge, which we teach people how to actually find the perfect customers, you know, not just your target market, but those who you enjoy working with. It, gives you the best return and gives them the best results. So it's going to be a really good month of March. I'm really looking forward to it.

Speaker 1: 16:15

If y'all have any questions, comments concerns metaphysical speculations, if you want to just talk, holler, you know, find out how to grow your business from the ground up. Hopefully you've got my book Seven Day Business Plan. You know best out on Amazon all that stuff going on. So let's talk, let's make it happen. I wish everybody here much success because it's very, very important that we all succeed. You know, I don't. It's not a competition. Even if we're competing, you know we can lift as we climb and do all this type of stuff that is necessary. So, um, that's that.

Speaker 1: 16:48

And if I got anything else, I appreciate the hug. I'm getting hearts on it, not just like some hearts. Yeah, that meant, brother, feel good. Like a brother feel good. But all right, that's about it. How much on it? Peace, I want you to have profit. My program, profit before pain, helps you to put money in your pocket so that you can actually have that motivation to keep going. So many times we quit and we stop our businesses because we haven't experienced the profit that we want.

Speaker 1: 17:17

I'm the type of person. I've been through it. This is what I've used to launch both of my businesses. I had a photography business I use the same program made $3,000 the first week. I launched, where I'm also an ethical hacker and I I launched my ethical hacking classes where I teach people how to protect themselves online, and I made $5,000 my first time. One live with it and it continues to be made in May $20,000 the first month.

Speaker 1: 17:43

So I'm telling you, this works. That is my solution. And in my four-day to launch program, you work with myself. You work with my team. We use our templates, our methodologies to get you off the ground. You're in the room with other entrepreneurs who want to help you.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Now I'm telling you you may be hesitant, but I don't want you to be in the same position next year when you haven't started fulfilling your dreams, you haven't started doing what you want to do. You haven't started doing what you want. We don't want you to experience this pain again. Let's get you making this money. Let's be real. That's what it's about. You want to be able to make an honest living.

Speaker 1: 18:16

So click the link below sign up, let's get the work, and come to my webinar. Let's see how this work. We can work together and, as I've said before, I will be your seventh customer. You go through my program and we get you a viable offer that I hope you develop. I'll be a seventh customer. Even something that I would never use in my life, I will still purchase it and give it to somebody else. So let's go for days to launchcom. Let's make it. Are you the person who's been thinking about starting their business forever? You know you have an idea. You have something on your on your mind or your heart that you've been wanting to do for so long. You just haven't got it off the ground. Well, I'm Carl Gray and I'm a business law specialist.