Jun Yuh: How I Built A $13M Creator Empire From A Broken iPhone (& Gave My Dad $500K)

21:03And how can I leverage or exploit situations that maybe didn't even happen or weren't really that bad? And I think it's very easy, especially when the algorithm does favor like maybe negative content or things that aren't as motivating. So where is that line and boundary for people between this struggle and then things that are not being done for the right reason or that underlying why we keep talking about? I love it. So, okay, here's two parts. One is that if you look at all of my storytelling content, not a single one of them talks badly about my mom, about my dad, about my relationships. It is all the focus on my own personal maturation, emotional, spiritual, physically.

21:42And that's the biggest difference. People think that in order for them to talk about their own experiences, they have to talk about other people in their story. But when we were going through even all this podcast prep with your team, they had asked about what is my girlfriend's name? Ultimately, what do we experience? And no one knows this stuff because I've decided to keep those things more private. And ultimately, it's never been about those people. It's always been about my own exploration of life. And so if you start to focus it on that, people are not going to think that, oh, he's taking advantage of this bad scenario or experience.

22:10I think another part to it too is that when you're telling your stories, you're looking to talk about the transformation of it and not just the negative. So in real time, you're showcasing the fact that you've dealt with X, Y, and Z and how you've become a better person for it. And that transformation stops your content from being sappy or depressing, just being uplifting and enlightenment experiences. So there's another part to this as well. When I talk about track content, that's the storytelling transformational content, but there's also something called nurturing content. And I do this about once a week where I actually don't talk about transformation.

22:39I let people into my real life in real time. I do that less, but it's imperative that you do nurturing content so that you can tend to your audience. A lot of people struggle with unfollowings, right? So people that come into their audience and they lose followers over time. And it's because they never did nurturing content. Content actually tends to your audience. And so when I make a piece of content saying I am absolutely exhausted and anxious and nervous because I have 14 podcasts to record. I've never done this before this upcoming week. There's a level of humanity that's associated with that.

23:06And that's the nurturing side. But again, when I'm doing a track content, I'm usually focused on the transformation. And that's how you stop it from being sappy and turn it into something more empowering. It was not long ago that Katie and I first started HotSmart Rich. And it was literally the two of us for so long. But as we've grown our team and our business, our old tools just couldn't keep up, especially on the commercial side of the business. However, we recently switched to our sponsor, PipeDrive. It's an intelligent CRM platform and super simple to use. We need that. So we're obsessed with it.

23:37It has completely streamlined everything for us as we grow HSR. The setup was honestly so easy. And now that we've integrated all of our tools into the platform, Pipedrive is ready to grow with us because we're going to the moon. It adapts exactly how your team sells, fitting your unique pipeline, sales processes, playbooks, everything. It works just the way you do, and it's an absolute game changer. What makes Pipedrive so good is that it scales alongside your business. So six months down the line, your team isn't starting all over again with something new. That's just exhausting and it's not for an HSR girl.

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24:53And Built also has 45 ,000 restaurants, fitness studios, pharmacies, and other partners in their network. Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but I think a lot of being good with money is about simply not ignoring the obvious. You're already making this payment every single month. The only difference is whether something comes back to you in return. As soon as Bilt was explained to me like that, it became one of those things I just could not ignore. Join the membership for where you live at joinbilt.com slash HSR. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash HSR. And make sure that you use our URL so they know that we sent you.

25:30So can we break down the different types of content? Because you said storytelling, track, nurturing. Let's get broken down very easily for people. And then how you would think about actually putting a content strategy together so you're hitting those different types of content perfectly. Yes. Okay, cool. So there are four missions and I stack them up into a content funnel. And so at the very top, you have attract content. And attract content is meant to garner exposure and get new followers. and the best content for attract is going to be storytelling because people see themselves in your struggle and ultimately you're able to have them be empowered or be inspired and you want them to know of you.

26:09You can also do attract content with trends but people usually misuse trends. Trends have to be yours. You can't just copy and paste a trend. You have to add your own messaging or your own purpose or sentiment to it and that's how people come into your audience for the right reasons. Then the second mission is going to be called nurturing content and nurturing content is where you tend to your audience so that they feel as though you're a human being. And that is when you're showcasing the real raw reality of let's say your life or your struggles or maybe even your desires and passions, right?

26:37Or maybe you had a very big moment and you're like, this is how I feel because of it. That's nurturing content. Then I think about positioning content which you're exceptional at, which is actually showcasing your expertise. This could be talking head videos where you're actually teaching something or it could be brand building moments. So your podcast being such a success is a positioning piece of content. At the very final part of that, you have conversion content. And this is where you have an offer or a brand deal, and you're trying to get the attention from social media onto a landing page or to that brand deal and get them to buy.

27:08Now, I want to talk about cadences for each of these, right? And this is definitely going to differ based on who you are and what goal you have. But most creators need a bigger audience. And that's who I'm assuming is listening to this. Because a lot of people have great expertise, but they don't necessarily have really good attract content. So if the cadence was split, I would think about three attract content. I would think about one nurturing content. And then I would think about potentially two positioning and one convert at the most, right? And conversion content, the issue is that a lot of people want to make money, right?

27:37So they think about converting every single post, but they forget that there's a real human being on the opposing side of the screen. You have to earn that goodwill. And what's beautiful is that I'll do conversion content once per week, but the amount of traffic that we get will make up for most creators six conversion posts, right? And it's just because I've done the funnel effectively. And that's how I want everyone to think about content. Content needs intention. It needs missions. It needs purpose. And that's how you can give it that mission or that purpose. So let's go back a little bit to when you hit a million followers.

28:05How'd you or how'd you not at this point monetize your audience? That's a good point. So I've done every single way of monetization under the umbrella of social media. So in the beginning, I've done affiliate deals. I had done, let's say even platform payouts I've obviously gotten advantages of. But in terms of my own offer, nothing. I had nothing to my name when I had a million followers. It was only after about, I would say probably one and a half million, two million followers, where I really start to open my eyes to what is possible. And that's when I start to fall in love with this idea of equity and ownership.

28:39And I'll tell you exactly what I mean. And I know this is where we're going to have a lot of parallel. That's why I think you're phenomenal. But when I first started, I was doing an affiliate deal, right? And I'm just going to say the name was Alphalete. And I really loved Alphalete and Christian Guzman and what he was able to do in the fitness space. And I looked up to him my entire life. And this was such a beautiful moment for me. And I thought, all right, I'm going to do an affiliate deal with Alphalete. And I went ahead and let's say that I made$3 ,000,$4 ,000 or$5 ,000 for them. I was getting 10 % of that, right?

29:07What does that actually mean in the long term of things? I might've been earning a few hundred dollars, but that's not going to change my life. It won't, right? And then I saw it, I'm like, but they're getting$3 ,000 or$4 ,000. Why can't I just develop my own thing and just reap the benefit of that reward? I'm hardworking just like you are. So when I thought, all right, let me own something, it was only after that I started to release my own products. And it is ridiculous to say this aloud, but I was doing the math on this now preparing. It's been about less than three years in totality of me doing business.

29:38And we're now upwards of$12,$13 million. And it's the idea of owning, right? Right now, as I'm doing more investments, I can see, all right, now I'm playing this long game of I hope that in 10 years I have all of these different creator brands underneath me. But, yeah, it took me a little bit of time to understand that world. You are such a confident person when you talk about money in a way that, to your point, I'm like rooting for you. And I think it's because I understand your story a little bit more. So for people that are listening, can you share a little bit more about how you grew up with money, what your relationship was like to money?

30:13And we can go from there. Yeah. So for me, I grew up in quite a tumultuous background. So I can give the full origin here. We grew up as Korean immigrants. I traveled to the U.S. when I was just three years old. And I only knew America. But all I saw in my internal home was hardship. So my dad didn't speak the language. My mom didn't speak the language. which eventually when I was about 13 years old, my parents got divorced. And my mom, who was my best friend up to that point in time, left to a completely different country permanently. And I lost contact with her for over 10 years. And what was the outcome of that was a lot more struggle.

30:47So we got to the point in which we were moving homes and had to move every six, seven, eight months because we couldn't afford to live where we were. And we finally found ourselves in a tiny apartment where me and my brother were sharing a small room together. And my dad was sleeping on the living room floor. That was my reality at 14, 15, 16 years old. And the idea of money was impossible. It wasn't even something that we could fathom. And I grew up watching my dad, he works construction, and he would go to Home Depot and I would be the one going with him at 13, 14 years old because he couldn't speak the language.

31:19And what I saw was that people were taking advantage of him. What I saw was that people looked down upon him because he couldn't speak the language. And that was heartbreaking, but at 14, you can't do anything about it. That's why I went on this great mission to realize that why can't it be me? why can't I? Why can't I be the one to change my family's legacy? Why can't I be the one to end the generational trauma? Why can't I? And so I had this great belief that, you know, if I, at first, I thought it was the engineering route, I thought I was gonna be the best engineer in the world. And I was like, I'm gonna be the biggest, most successful engineer that anyone could ever possibly fathom.

31:53Obviously, life took me a little bit differently, but that's how I treat everything. And so when I started to develop my business, it was a no brainer that I want to showcase the reality of it because I came from nothing. And it is harder for somebody to come online and say, hey, you should do X, Y, and Z and get somebody to believe it if they don't look like them or sound like that. I hope that people listening and seeing this is like, oh my gosh, he's so relatable because he's going through exactly what I'm going through right now. That's why I feel confident about talking about money. Money is just energy.

32:18Money is an output. It's a byproduct of impact. And I think that impact is the forefront of everything that I do. And that's why I'm so confident that one day I'm going to do$100 million. And I know that right now, and I can say that verbally because I know that I'm going to keep working as hard as I possibly can to leave further impact on so many people out there. But that is the whole wiring of my brain. So like, if you look at the comments of those videos, you're exactly right. These are people that are rooting for me that want it to happen. And I want other people to win just as much. And that's why I'm showcasing the behind the scenes of it, even though I didn't come from money at all.

32:50I've had a lot of people on the show who come from maybe not the same, but a similar background. and they often use this word, I had a scarcity mindset towards money. I was so afraid of spending money. Like I'm sure, you know, buying the first camera equipment or like the first big investment, almost felt like a punch in the gut, right? Because when you're not used to being around money, it is something that made them feel more scarce towards it. So is that how your brain worked initially? And then how did you actually move to a place of like looking at it as a currency and a tool and a way to create opportunities for yourself?

33:19It's such a fascinating question. and I'm going to be extremely real and raw with you. I had nobody around me that was rich or well off. I couldn't even think of the word scarcity mindset because I didn't have anyone in my life to explain that to me. I didn't know what it was. Interestingly enough, I think that was the greatest benefit because I started to leverage it like a superpower. And I still do it to this day. Even to this day, right, my accountant tells me that I have to spend more money. We get the tax bill and we're like, holy cow, here we go again. There's a lot of money that we've spent.

33:48And there's a part of me that doesn't really care. As in like, I feel as though I want to do things in the most raw and stripped down version as I possibly can. So even if you look at my setup today, it's not as though today I have a ton of fancy equipment or anything of that nature. I was creating content with that shattered iPhone 12 about four or five years in. And then at a certain point, people were DMing me like, don't you think it's tired for a new phone at all? I'm like, I didn't even think of that. And so even to this day, I don't know if it's scarcity mindset. It could totally be that.

34:15But I'm engineered in the way of I don't think money defines who you are. and I don't think money makes you overall better. I think you should become better from a human level and the tools and gadgets and things of that nature might just amplify it. I've seen people make very similar common mistakes. Let's take a brand founder. They have the vision, they have the idea, they've put in the reps of understanding what the consumer wants. They spend$100 ,000 on a brand design when they have no customers, they don't have any POs placed yet and they're sitting on inventory, they spend 100 grand or 30 grand on a brand design and they don't know where to go from there.

34:49Have you ever made a similar type of very large investment, whether it's in your personal life or professional life, that you have regretted? This is where my accountant would probably be like, I wish you did something like that. And honestly, I don't really spend that much money. And the only money that I spend that's large sums are either investments currently that I feel very confident in or it's for my family. So I recently gave my dad$500 ,000, and that was a very cool moment for me. Now, I look at that, I think the money's gone, but it makes me feel significant. It makes me feel like I've done something right.

35:24And so I've never had a big investment. Like, for example, I drive a 10-year-old Jeep Patriot, right? And it has dents on it. It has a lot of things inside of it doesn't work. But I've never been a big spender. So one day, though, I'm sure I will make the mistake. And I'm excited to let you know when that happens. It's funny, though, like listening to different people and their relationship with money, I think specifically because especially a lot of entrepreneurs, they're looking to make very smart decisions with their money. They actually don't like to spend a bunch of money to prove things to other people.

35:57And I'm so interested for someone that's online. And obviously, you do have an audience of people that expect things from you or you can signal certain things. How do you think about the way that you show up as it relates to talking about money and signaling and all the things that everyone feels like they're a victim to online? I believe it has always boiled down to if I was watching somebody growing up, who would I want to watch? And there's been a lot of moments in my life where I would watch a creator and I would love them, but ultimately they start to change, right? And it's noticeable from the audience's perspective, especially if you've watched them for a very long period of time.

36:33And I never wanted to be that person. So for me, it's always this goal of saying, all right, what do I actually need? And yes, money can buy me convenience. And it's also really cool because now money allows you to be more generous. And growing up, seeing my dad work blue collar, even jobs, let's say, like room service, or let's say somebody that's helping my bags go up to a hotel room, which I never thought was even possible, that you can be so generous at those moments. It makes you feel good. So there's a lot of expenditure in that way, but that's not in front of the camera. And I think that when I am in front of the camera, I just want to be the version of me that I would be proud of looking at when I was younger.

37:08And don't get me wrong. I think money can buy you a lot of really great opportunities. So here's another example of this. It's not an investment that I regret, but it was a lot of money. So we just hosted an event in New York City. And it was, I'm not going to lie, it was my fault because I really wanted to make an in-person event. And I wanted to make an impact on the local community. So I said, let's do it. I don't care how much it costs. I know we could do it more optimized, but just let's do it. And so we did it. And this turnaround was about one and a half months. And we then went to New York City and we had this amazing experience.

37:36And I was there from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. just like meeting every single person. It was the coolest thing in my entire life. We lost$50 ,000 from that event. And it allows you to really focus on what's important. Like money gives you that luxury. So we're going to go and host another event in London. I'm like, let's do it even bigger. Let's do it even better. Yes, can we do it a profitable way? And we probably should. But it's like I just love that type of experience. I think money has given me that freedom to do it. and I don't necessarily want to lose that. And I think it requires me to stay rooted in my own beliefs.

38:07A lot of people listening to this will also feel like they're starting from zero. Like they don't have the income to be able to like afford camera equipment. They're like you, maybe they're not 14 years old, but they're thinking like, okay, if he can do it, I can do it. I want financial freedom. I want to attract opportunities. I want to be chasing them. What is the number one piece of advice that someone listening to this after they listen to this episode can immediately go and do? Delay gratification. So the first thing is that when someone thinks about money, they immediately think instantaneous.

38:37And that's the issue where I think a lot of people burn out. But if you can delay gratification, expand the horizon for success, and become valuable to the marketplace, meaning that you actually develop a skill that people would pay for, that skill needs time for nurturing, though, right? You should go and work people's projects for free if you can, right? Get the exposure, get the experience. And when I was hustling, that's how my entire life was. I was always trying to get in the right rooms. I was always trying to be connected to people. But you have to have that grit. And then once you can delay gratification, ultimately the money will follow.

39:07And so I hope that anyone listening and watching this is like, yes, money is great. But it took me a long time. So I talk about my business experience of the last less than three years not doing well over 10 million. But nobody sees the four years of me creating content before that, right? When I was by myself in my college dorm room and people were making fun of me. But it's just simply because I could delay gratification. I think that's the first priority for most people to tackle on. So you're creating content in your bedroom. Yes. You get a million, a million and a half followers. You then start to monetize.

39:40What are the best ways to monetize your audience? What are the things that maybe you would recommend you don't actually go into because you learn the lesson the hard way? How should people start to think about having multiple different income streams as they're thinking about monetizing their audience as a creator? What I would recommend people not to do, and it's not inherently that it's a bad thing, but if you want to maximize your effort, affiliate deals where you're getting a small percentage of it. And I know this is what's actually happening. And it's my first time saying this publicly, but I feel comfortable and confident with you.

40:08So I'm just going to do it. But this is what actually happens from the creator's perspective when you're doing affiliates. In order for you to make real income, let's say that you want to make$5 ,000,$10 ,000 with affiliate income. What do you actually have to do? You have to showcase your product so many times. I mean, the brand's product to your audience, you almost become their mascot. You almost become this person that's constantly trying to be somebody. You're like, buy this, buy this, buy this, buy this. So you're letting a brand borrow your audience. And although there's moments that it can work effectively, why not take ownership of it?

40:41And now digital products have made it so much easier. So when I released my first product ever, it was called The Guide to Academic Success. And it was literally a 63-page PDF that I took a lot of time and effort putting together. But at the end of the day, it was a PDF. A PDF made me$100 ,000 the first month as being an entrepreneur,$100 ,000 the second, third, fourth month. And then I released a physical book that landed number one on Amazon's new releases, skyrocketed business to a million dollars while still in my labs, right, as a college student. But that's the power of ownership. And I'm the type of person that I want to push it to as far as I possibly can.

41:13And if there are other people listening to this, and I know your audience is especially ambitious, it's like, why not own the thing? Now, I don't think that you have to immediately start doing a ton of products, but find that one thing that you want to develop and practice marketing it. People think that all attraction content is good for your brand, but it's not. It's like you have to actually learn how to market your products. You have to learn how to take that trust and goodwill and give somebody something valuable with your product. You have to learn how to connect those two pieces, right?

41:37You have to bridge that with your content. So learn how to do it with one digital product. I think it's the easiest way to start. You've obviously done an exceptional job at like not being lumped in with like the digital course creator. So I'm wondering, like, how did you think about positioning that so that we can steal your secrets? I would look at Harvard, for example. Harvard makes a lot of its money through online courses, but nobody looks at Harvard and thinks they're a course seller. They think about the reputation. They think about the brand. They're like, of course, if I can learn for a fraction of the price with Harvard's education online, of course I'm going to do it.

42:13That is what I believe my personal brand has effectively done. The people that are doing it wrong is that they're jumping from product to product. They're selling something that they don't know. They're ultimately trying to do these get-rich-quick schemes. And it's given the world of courses a bad rep. And I think it's starting to change. I think more people are starting to open their eyes to what online information can in fact do for them, especially as you see some of the biggest personas online. They're all doing it behind the scenes, right? Because people want it. Why wouldn't you want to learn from somebody that has actually done it exactly the way that you want to do it?

42:42Of course you're going to. And if you could speak directly to that person, let's say with a coaching perspective, of course you're going to do it. So I think about Harvard, I think about the Ivy Leagues that were somehow able to turn courses into this amazing benefit for the audience. And that's how I envision my content. So when people look at Creative College, Creative College has its own library of programs, masterclasses, courses. Even if you think about the actual business, masterclass, right? They go ahead and they have some of the largest names on the planet doing course content for them.

43:10You don't see anyone looking at them thinking, oh, they're a course seller. You think of, oh my gosh, it's so much value, so much great reputation. So ultimately, that's how I want people to perceive it. And that's where it goes down to this idea of making good content. If you can make good content, control that personal reputation and actually be yourself online, people will not make those comments about your core seller. When you think about your revenue overall, how much of it is still from brand partnerships, the gatekeepers that you're attracting the audience to that's giving you a brief?

43:39Like, what is the breakdown of that revenue? A very small fraction, a very, very, very tiny percentage. And in fact, I've never also said this publicly, but even when I get brand deal money, which can be a lot, right? It can be 50 ,000, 60 ,000, 70 ,000. It can be those amounts of money. I actually take that income and I put it straight into my other businesses, which is the actual thing that I want to build equity for in the long term. So brand deal money, it's like I'll only do it if I feel very aligned to it and I will actually enjoy that experience. But I don't even think of that as like real income for me anymore.

44:12So I would say 98 % of my income and the money that Creator College builds and that's underneath my personal brand is through the actual businesses. And a very small percentage has anything to do with the brand deal. And that money will actually get streamlined into the other businesses. And is that because you don't think that brands do a great job with creator marketing? Some do. And I've been in rooms where they don't do a very good job. The brands that actually give freedom to the creative to make something aligned to them is phenomenal. The ones that don't are the ones where I'm like, you guys are like 10 years behind.

44:44How can you imagine that a creator is going to bring attention for your brand and you're scripting their video when you've never scripted any of their videos before? And so ultimately the brands that get it, I believe ManyChat is a phenomenal example. I'm working with them right now and they've never, ever told me that I have to say X, Y, and Z thing. And that's why our brand deals start to work really well. And so ultimately I think that brands can be good at it, but it's more of a personal experience. I don't necessarily think it's because of the brand side. I think just because of my own side of like, all right, if I get to build my own things, and I'm also the type of person that gets very distracted, and I don't want any external distractions if I can help it.

45:19I'll focus only on the thing in front of me, and then I'll do a very good job with it. I've realized if I could channel my energy into my own businesses and have ownership around those, then I would start to build long-term wealth for myself. And that's the way that I've always thought about it. It's fascinating talking to you because I feel like you figured this out very early. generational wealth, equity, ownership. It was such a struggle for me to get creators to invest even in angel investment opportunities because they were so used to getting a huge check from a brand partner. It's like they can clock in, they can clock out, they do the brief.

45:51They don't even really care about it because they're like, there's another brand that's going to come in down next month. Where did you learn that that was going to be your path to generational wealth? So I actually just broke down the numbers when I was sitting there and I was looking at the brand deal income. I thought to myself, do I need a lot more than this? Do I physically spend more money than this? The answer was no, right? I already told you that I wasn't a big spender as it was, and especially as a college student. Literally, my only, this is my real credit card statements, it would be Chipotle and it would be gas.

46:21So it would be like Chipotle, Chipotle, Chipotle, Chipotle, gas, Chipotle, Chipotle. That's all I was spending money on and my apartment fee. But in that regard, I thought to myself, what actually do I care about? I care about my dad. I care about my family. And I want to make sure one day that they can look at me and think, wow, they have a level of freedom that they never once had before. I was not going to get that with the$20 ,000 or$30 ,000 or$50 ,000. I wanted to go much bigger than that. And that's when I start, even to this day, I'll get income from the businesses. And I'll think to myself, I'm like, am I actually going to spend this much money?

46:51A lot of it goes to my personal investments. And the rest goes into angel investing. So I'll hear a lot of creators. And I think the era is changing, which is beautiful to see. I think a lot of creators are starting to recognize this. and they'll be in my DM. So a lot of these big creators are in my DMs. Like, would you actually invest into this thing? We'll go on to calls. And I'm like, this is cool. Like I can help you do this thing. And so that gets me excited because I'm like, I don't care about taking money out of this business. I don't need it. And instead, what I'm going to do is effectively play the 10 year game.

47:17And hopefully by then, all of this will start to make sense. And I'll be like, cool. Whether I exit, whether I don't exit, I'll have that type of opportunity and option. So that's where it starts to think. It was just like, do I actually need that money? And I think a lot of creators don't do that. I think creators get the money, they just spend the money. And effectively what happens is you're on this hamster wheel. And I think I've done a good job getting out of that hamster wheel. Well, I think that what you've done when you've lived your life, based on what you've shared with me today and the research I've done, is like you have lived experiences, you study those lived experiences, you find trends, you create systems, then you live by those systems until it doesn't work and you kind of re-formulate.

47:51So we've talked about the creator vision framework. What are some of the other frameworks that you fundamentally live your life by, whether it's to create content, whether it's to make money, anything that you do, what are some of the other frameworks that you've developed? A lot of it boils down to consistency. And I genuinely believe that if you don't give me any system, I'll be the laziest human being ever. And I truly believe that. And so I run my life through systems because it's the only way I know that I will be fulfilled in my experiences. Everything I do though is quite consistent. I don't do a lot of things.

48:22So you can ask anyone on my team, I live quite a boring life and I get a fun chance to meet people like you. And I'm like, yeah, this is the highlight of my year. But ultimately, my regular life is not like that. I actually live quite a boring one. And ultimately, it is this perception of how can I do things that I feel is extremely aligned to me? And how do I ensure that I never lose sight of that? And so for me, I won't miss a day of working out. Actually, my girlfriend challenged me this past Christmas. And she's like, you should go work out more consistently, because there's a season of time with work that I was like, really not in a good state physically.

48:53She's like, you were so much happier back then, you should go and do more of that. So I haven't missed a day of working out since Christmas. And no matter where I am, no matter how much I try that. And I haven't missed a day of posting content in the last six and a half years. Like every single day I've gotten a video out. But what I do is that I'm very good at saying no. I'm very good at saying no because I realize it's a deeper yes to the things that I really want. So it all boils down to having priorities. And I only have like five or six priorities in my life. And I'm going to make sure that I'm really good at that with a consistent standpoint.

49:19And then accountability is like a big part of that, right? As in like I journal a ton. I ensure that every single day that feels that I'm making progress in some capacity. But that's it. Like, I don't do anything else in my life. And I think that allows me to channel my energy in ways that I believe is productive for me. Hot take incoming. Making more money as a creator doesn't actually require you to have more followers. I see so many creators getting this wrong. And this is part of the reason why I love what our show partner Stan is doing with their V2 of their funnels and order bumps. Because if someone is already buying from you, that's a completely different moment than someone casually watching your content.

49:54It means that they trust you, they're paying attention, they're already in checkout mode. So instead of sending everyone to one link and hoping for the best, Stan helps you create a smarter buying journey. And with order bumps, someone can add something extra at checkout with one click. If you are building a creator business, this is the kind of thing you should be obsessed with, like every brand founder is. I'll let you in on one secret. The top earners on Stan all do this. Sign up today to set up your funnels and order bumps and get started with a 30-day Creator Pro trial at link.stan.store slash Maggie.

50:29Everyone has that one brand they always reach for because it's a trusted classic, right? For me, that's Lululemon, and they've just become a sponsor of HotSmart Rich. Sometimes I wonder if I love it so much because we're both Canadian, but really, I know it's because their styles are consistently so flattering and comfortable. This top in particular, their Flow Eye Tank, is one of those pieces that's actually perfect for LA because it's lightweight and buttery soft, but also minimal and sleek. It's why racerback shape also gives me a lot of movement when I'm doing low impact workouts. And because it has added lycra fibers, it stretches easily, but also holds its shape over time.

51:10And that can be said about any of my Lululemon clothing. It always lasts for years. So don't sit on it if there's something you've got your eyes on. Lululemon offers free returns too. So there's never a risk if you change your mind. Head to lululemon.com to get your hands on their flow-wide tank in so many different colors. Can we talk a little bit about how you leverage AI with your systems? How do you feel about AI as a creator? That's a great question. I believe that people are using it in the wrong way, and I believe there's a right way to use it. So the wrong way would be, hey, Chachptee, hey, Claude, can you give me a content idea and write me a script?

51:45and then you say verbatim and you put it onto the screen. Could it be helpful for someone to go from zero to one, potentially in that regard? But here's the actual expert way of using AI in your content workflows. And I hope that all the people listening actually start doing this. AI is really good at seeing holes in your own workflow, in your own way of thinking, in your own even assumptions of your audience. So I'll show you exactly how I've used it about eight months ago. And that's what transformed Creative College Sense. When I first started creating content with the idea of promoting Crater College, I kept using the word Crater a ton.

52:18I kept saying, if you want to become a Crater, do this. And I started to see that my content performance was going down. And because I'm such a numbers person, I was like, all right, what is going on? And so I used Whisper. I'm not sure if you use Whisper yourself, but yeah, it's phenomenal in the sense where you can just do these humongous voice messages. So I did one of those ginormous voice messages and I stated basically all of the assumptions that I had about my world, about this Crater landscape. And I asked it and the prompt was, after a ginormous 28-minute voice message. It would be, can you find common, let's say, holes or common, I would call them blind spots, in my line of thinking that you can fix and then update my way of thinking to ultimately help me do it better.

52:56And what it actually told me was that people don't wake up thinking that they wanna be a creator. Actually, they never think about it at all. What people think about is fear of visibility, fear of being seen. They think about the fact that they wanna go and do something that they enjoy, that they feel aligned to. No one ever wakes up and thinks, I want to be a creator if it is a very small fraction of people. So I started changing my content strategy altogether. And I started to create more about communication, about psychology. I started to create content about business and mindset. And those became angles in which I would help people build personal brands.

53:29And what ended up happening is my content started performing better and Creative College started making more money. So what I used AI to do was to simply challenge my way of thinking, help me understand my audience better. And I think that's what people should utilize it for. So it's like, what is my strategy? What do I think is a good strategy? What should I say in my content? Can you find holes into it and change your way of thinking? And then ultimately the cherries on top would be, can you help me optimize this caption? Help me optimize the script. But that is such a smaller fragmentation of what I actually use AI for.

53:55I've also had a lot of people on the show that have a theory that the creator landscape will look very different with AI by the end of the year. And I don't know if you've seen any of these like AI podcast women that are from AI. Have you seen this? Oh, the AI avatar landscape. I've had a lot of people on the show who have a theory that content creation, creators is going to look very different by 2026, by the end of 2026. What is your perspective on that as someone who teaches people to become exceptional creators? I believe that AI will transform the way that content creators approach their work and how the world perceives them.

54:35Because as AI gets better, we're going to lose the ability to discern whether something is real or it's fake, especially online. You just mentioned that podcast girl. I've seen quite a few of these AI avatars online too, where some people in the comments just can't even notice that it's AI. It's like, that's only going to get worse. Now, this always boils down to my definition of personal branding, because I truly believe that a personal brand is simply your public reputation and content is one medium to build that. But that's why in real life experiences are such a big part of this. And that's why I wanted to do the New York one.

55:06That's why we're gonna be doing the London one, the Dubai one, the Miami one this year, because I truly believe the next iteration of this, and I hope you join me one of these days. You can join me at an event and you and I can do a live podcast in front of a lot of people. And I think we'd crush it. But in that regard, it's those intimate experiences I think people will hold onto tighter. And I truly believe though, So there is a part to this I haven't seen anyone online talk about. And I want to give the consumer more flowers in this case. And here's what I mean. I actually do believe that the public perception of AI is not good, as in most people do push back to the idea of having AI avatars and creators.

55:46And I think it's fascinating because a lot of these business owners will be like, oh, I'm going to use AI to leverage and I'm going to have all this output because I can have all these AI avatars underneath me. But you're forgetting the fact that AI is meant for the consumer. It's as in people are watching this content because of the interest that they have. And I think most people from the consumer's perspective, at least at this point, are pushing back on it. So I don't think it's going to be by the end of 2026 where all these AI avatars are taking over social media. I think it'll take a lot more time because I think the public, the consumers are smarter than that.

56:17They want better than that. Now, to protect yourself from that, there's obvious ways to, let's say, do more in-person experiences and events and build those communities. But I think we're very far away still from this world of where AI avatars and creators are going to take over social media. You have 9 million followers across platform? Something like that. 8 to 9, I think. You've obviously learned a lot from them as much as they've learned from you. What are some of the most shocking things you've learned about consumer behavior and trends from your audience as you've been building with them for the last couple of years?

56:50You know, it's hilarious. So when I first started doing this business, I thought that I wanted to do a fashion company. So I thought that was a cool thing to do. So ultimately, I thought that I was going to develop a clothing company. And then I posted on social media and I said on my stories, I said, hey, so what do you guys want? As in tell me, tell me specifically, what is it that you guys want? And I talked about this idea of a clothing brand and it was crickets, right? Even at hundreds of thousands of followers, people were like, why would I want to buy clothes from him? And this is where I think people get it wrong where they think of merch and they're like, oh, I'm just gonna do a merch line and make a quick buck.

57:24But I was thinking deeper than that. I'm like, what does my audience physically want? And then I went down the line. I was like, all right, so maybe I'll create this program around content creation. And back then, nobody wanted that for my audience. It's like, all right, so what do they want? So I just did an open Q &A to my audience, a survey, and I did it twice every single week for about three months straight. And they just told me. They told me that they wanted more time to be doing their hobbies, their passions, that they were stuck focusing on school and studying and that they weren't performing well in their exams.

57:52They felt like their work wasn't worth it. And I saw that and I was like, how stupid would I be to not develop a product geared towards these individuals? So I think there's a big lesson here where you have to validate the idea and social media gives you that opportunity. opportunity but ask ask your audience ask them exactly what it is that they want and do as many lives that you can do do as many of these posts where you just physically try to garner that interest now there's gonna be a lot of people online that say then what if i don't have an audience yet like who do i ask at this point then you have to think about who are creators that are already developing the thing and selling the thing that you ultimately aspire to sell you should study their content you should start to see how are they approaching their content and what are people saying in the comments?

58:33Is there a missing gap that you could potentially take advantage of? So consumer behavior is this idea that people have needs and desires, and it's not a selfish pursuit. Entrepreneurship is much more of an intimate service. If you can start to see it that way, you can treat content that way. And you start to get this formula for exactly what people want. You develop a product, and ultimately, content creation allows you to scale that at a great scale. When you think about your inspirations, mentors, people that you look up to, Who would those people be? When I think mentors and I think people that I look up to, I think more from a personal level and not necessarily business acumen or let's say success acumen.

59:12I just think about the human underneath it. So my dad is the forefront of all of my role models. And it's not because he was always good with money or that he knew how to make. It was never that. It was more along the lines of I just like the way that my dad approached life. I just like the way that he was so nice and he was kind and he was generous. and generous to a fault because he didn't have money to be generous, but he still did it. And so when I think about the biggest role model in my life, it's always him or my brother is a big component of it as well. I think my brother had a lot of hardships in his own respective way.

59:41And I look at him, I'm like, I wanna be you. Like, I still wanna have your personality and your generosity. And then when I look at other people, I start to look at athletes a ton. So I look at athletes in the sense of their hard work and their discipline, right? And so for me, when I look at an athlete, I think about like how much do they have to work to get to where they are, right? And I think about that. I'm like, how do people go to their interview post conferences and what are they saying? Like, how do they embody work ethic? It's just a part of who they are. So I think there's elements of that.

1:00:09I think there's also an element to my girlfriend that I always look at as like a huge role model for me. And she has taught me so much about empathy and she has taught me so much about how to be kind and generous to people. And she has been like such the epitome of how do I keep June humble as much as I possibly can? like everything that she does I feel as though it's so impressive like I look at her and I'm like holy cow like you should be the one in front of the camera like you do so much for me in ways I could never imagine so I think it's it's it's elements to my girlfriend it's elements to my dad and a few athletes that I look at but that's kind of when I think about role models it's what I think of with that Junyu is there anything that we haven't talked about that you would be sad if you left and we didn't get to?

1:00:55Yes. So everything that I think, I think that just this one thing of, I think content and I think success in life boils down to two things and their psychology and their skill. And I think skill is often glorified as in, I need more information, but people forget the psychology associated with it and the resilience and grit that it requires in order for you to do big things in your life. And I want anyone listening to this thinking like, yes, I can learn the skill, but don't forget the mental, emotional, and spiritual work that is required to be successful. Something that I've had to learn a lot is the emotional maturation of, I have this income now, but like, how do I treat people?

1:01:30How does that influence me? How can I ensure that my emotional regulation is just as strong? And I think those things behind the scenes, the psychology is actually what is transcending to all of the success. So if there's anyone watching, listening to this, I just want them to simply realize that don't forget the hard work behind the scenes, even if the outside starts to change. It's amazing. Okay. We're not done because we're doing some rapid fire. You cannot say Chipotle for any of these answers, okay? I'm trying not to. Jun Yu. Yes. What is the last thing possible that you put on your credit card?

1:02:02The last thing that I just put on my credit card was room service. And it's because I want to do a lot of preparation for this one. So I thought, all right, I got to expedite my convenience here and I just order room service. What is the last most expensive thing you've put on a credit card? So we're hosting our London event, and we had to put our deposit for that. And that was very, very, very, very expensive. And I wanted to also do these little goodie bags for everyone that comes through. And that meant that we were paying all of this with this one-third party people. And so we just gave them a big lump of change.

1:02:39And that was the last thing that I put on our card. Of course, it was generous. Yeah, I was hoping to. What is your credit card and why? My credit card is American Express. and I use my credit card for all my business expenses, but I use it because it gives me a lot of these points and benefits for it. So my business card that I think about spending for everything on my daily experiences, and because my life tends to be business, a lot of them tend to be business expenses and I get a lot of travel points for it as a resultant of it and I get these benefits. So that's why I use it. If you could only consume one person's content for the rest of your life that's not yourself, who would it be?

1:03:11It would be, I believe CAT. Cat. CatGVT does it really well. And I'm interviewing her soon, but I am a fan of her in the standpoint of she gets the content marketing while also getting the business component. And that is very rare to find within a creator. So when I think about the new age of creators, she's on my list of, I think she's doing it the right way. So I'd be more than happy to consume her content. I love her. You can only pick one for the rest of your life, both to create and to consume on. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Instagram. Not YouTube? Not Instagram. I'd create it on Instagram.

1:03:44I think that the amount of connection points to your audience. So wait, this is such a good conversation. I know this isn't rapid virus. No, keep going. Keep it going. So for me, I think because I've been creating YouTube content for a while as well, and I really enjoy it. But the misnomer is that with long form content, you can have a lot of deeper connection and short form content can't reciprocate that. And I disagree because let's say that you're posting YouTube content and it is a 15 minute video and you post it once a week. And let's say that you get a 10%, 20%, 30 % watch time on it. So you have a few minutes of watch time.

1:04:17Imagine that you're posting short form content every single day for a minute plus. Then what happens is that throughout a week and these contents people are watching all the time. Let's say that they're watching you for 10, 15 minutes as well. But then they're showcasing onto your explore page all the time and consistently. Then you have Instagram stories. You have Instagram lines. Then you have the ability to respond to people on DMs all the time. And so I think people just making this blanketed statement of YouTube is a better long-term platform, I disagree with. I think YouTube is phenomenal.

1:04:43But I think there's a lot of connection that you can build through Instagram as well. I love that. Okay. Brand deal you'd never take no matter the money. Oh, my goodness. What? Brand deal I'd never take? A brand deal that I'd never take. Okay. I've never said this, but you know those gambling sites? Yeah. So I've gotten a lot of offers from those where they're like ginormous payouts. And I don't blink an eye. I don't even respond to those emails. That's one that I would never, ever, ever do. Brand deal you'd have to take no matter the money. I think Apple would be a one because I'm a huge proponent of using your phone for content.

1:05:26And I think that Apple does a really good job, obviously, for a creative. So that's one where I could imagine a cool collaboration around. I'm obsessed. Okay, two more. So I do these HSR love notes to retrain my toxic brain. It's an affirmation. If you could only say one HSR love note for the rest of your life, what would it be? It's meant to be hard. That perspective, I believe, changes everything. And I think that when we seek easy, we lose ourselves in that process. So if you expect it to be hard and expect the fact that hardship is not a sign that you're doing it wrong, but it's a sign that you're actually doing it right.

1:06:00It makes you better for it. You develop quicker. You also learn a lot more. And ultimately, I think it makes you fulfilled when you can overcome difficulties. Okay. And Junio, how do you own the room? I own the room with all the preparation that I've done before I've come into it. I am an absolute workhorse. And I love to prepare. And I love to be overprepared. But when I go into a room, I know exactly who I'm going into that room with. I know effectively how I can communicate with them. that makes me own the room. Junyu, you are one of my favorites. Where can people find you and how can HSR help you?

1:06:36So one, you're already helping me because tomorrow you're going to be with my first set of interviews. But they can find me at Jun underscore you across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. But we're also releasing Creator Unplugged. So Creator Unplugged, they can find us on YouTube. And if you guys want to watch more of Maggie, you can do so there. Thank you so much for coming on. We love you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

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