The modern day American dream can be best summarized with a garage full of luxury cars, connected to a jaw-dropping mansion, sitting under California sun while an entrepreneur in casual clothes says into his handheld camera, "Hey guys, I'm here in my garage…"
This is the phrase that took Tai Lopez, someone whose story begins with him not having more than a few dollars to his name, from his friend's couch all the way up to making YouTube videos of him in the garage of his California mansion, talking about the importance of his books and their enclosed knowledge—which so strategically sat just above a Lamborghini.
What has made Lopez an Internet sensation, however, hasn't been his lavish lifestyle (although that's certainly played a part). It has been his desire to educate his audiences on the importance of establishing good habits, learning from valuable resources, and most of all, reading.
Watch on Forbes:
He calls this intersection "edu-tainment," giving his audiences just enough lifestyle footage that they feel entertained, without losing the educational aspect of his message.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Lopez and reflect on his journey. How did this entrepreneur with hundreds of millions of views to his name go from rags to riches?
1. Take Risks At An Early Age
Lopez had the hunger to be an entrepreneur ever since he was a young kid. His first step into the world of entrepreneurship was at six years old, when he began selling tomatoes for his mother.
"My mom had these cherry tomatoes she would sell. The problem was, nobody really bought the tomatoes. So, I took it upon myself to sell lemonade with sugar instead. In the time I had sold one bag of tomatoes for 25 cents, I was able to sell ten times more with my lemonade stand," he said.
In a sense, this is a metaphor for how Lopez executes his social media content today. He knows that in order to reach large audiences, he needs to give the people lemonade—not tomatoes.
2. Adopt A Lifestyle-Focused Mindset
Part of becoming successful, he said, is about figuring out the lifestyle you want to live and then working backwards. You have to reverse engineer where it is you want to end up, and what you can do in order to get there.
"I always knew whatever I ended up doing, it needed to involve traveling," he said. "I enjoy meeting new people, interesting people, smart people. I like reading. I wanted a life with a bit of adventure. So I thought hard about what I could do that would allow me to do all of those things. I asked myself what my business would have to look like in order to accomplish those personally satisfying goals. And the personal brand you see today reflects exactly that."
If you want to live your ideal lifestyle, you need to ask yourself what you can do that will manifest that lifestyle in the first place. From there get excited about that lifestyle and mentality and that passion will overflow into your work and success.
3. Develop And Promote A "Daily Brain Budget"
Lopez, who frequently advocates for books and mentors over a college education, believes there is no excuse for someone to not be reading and learning every single day. From autobiographies to self-help, celebrity stories and beyond, Lopez has built a following off of sharing stories and lessons from every industry that people can learn from.
His theory is that we should all have a "daily brain budget." What he means by this is understanding how much input you need in order to continue a positive growth curve for yourself.
"If you aren't prioritizing and setting aside time for your own development, you're going to fall stagnant," he said. "You have to make the time, and invest that time wisely, no differently than if you were to invest any amount of money in yourself."
Sign up here to get top career advice delivered straight to your inbox every week.
4. Test, Optimize, Repeat
What many people don't know about Lopez's viral YouTube ad, "Here In My Garage," is that it was recorded multiple times, and different versions were tested.
"Everything you do, especially the things that become successful, have some element of luck and skill attached to them," he said. "With that video in particular, I had an idea for it and shot a few different versions, but really I didn't know how it was going to perform. So we split tested it, and one of them ended up going viral."
He went on to explain that part of entrepreneurship is to always be doing and improving. You have to try things in order to know if they're going to work or not. And, as his grandpa had told him, "Once is luck, twice is skill. I've done it more than once at this point, so now it's a skill."
5. Build A Personal Brand Around What You're Best At
Lopez has a personal brand recognized by millions around the world. But ask him how he's built that for himself, and he won't say self-promotion.
"People think it's a show, but these are just the things I like to do. I built a personal brand around who I already am, instead of who I wanted people to see me as, and I think that's where a lot of people go wrong. It has to be authentic, otherwise no one is going to get on board," he said.
He went on to explain that while people can't necessarily succeed by following his same formula, because each person succeeds in different ways, they can learn from the principles he shares and apply them accordingly.
After all, he said, "If I can do it, you can do it."
Brian Rashid is an international speaker. Say "Hi" at connect@brianrashid.com.
