Ruby Asabor (@lavishruby) is a 23-year-old serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker and wealth educator that provides content, courses, tools and resources for Millennials and Gen Z to accelerate their financial, academic and personal goals.
Ruby is CEO of Lavish Ruby & Company, home of the Lavish Life Academic Planner and Lavish Life Academy (LLA).
Her story has been featured in major publications like Business Insider, Entrepreneur, CNBC and Disrupt, and she has spoken at over 50 different colleges including New York University, Yale, and Howard University.
On episode 3, "The Million Dollar Mindset", Ruby and I discuss how she used social proof from YouTube to grow a loyal online community, how she made her first million dollars in revenue during the pandemic, the importance of playing for legacy, and much more!
Subscribe to Clout101 on your favorite streaming platform for episode notifications!
Follow the host on Instagram (@idiaogala), Twitter (@idiaogala), YouTube, and LinkedIn!
Ruby Asabor (@lavishruby) is a 23-year-old serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker and wealth educator that provides content, courses, tools and resources for Millennials and Gen Z to accelerate their financial, academic and personal goals.
Ruby is CEO of Lavish Ruby & Company, home of the Lavish Life Academic Planner and Lavish Life Academy (LLA).
Her story has been featured in major publications like Business Insider, Entrepreneur, CNBC and Disrupt, and she has spoken at over 50 different colleges including New York University, Yale, and Howard University.
On episode 3, "The Million Dollar Mindset", Ruby and I discuss how she used social proof from YouTube to grow a loyal online community, how she made her first million dollars in revenue during the pandemic, the importance of playing for legacy, and much more!
Subscribe to Clout101 on your favorite streaming platform for episode notifications!
Follow the host on Instagram (@idiaogala), Twitter (@idiaogala), YouTube, and LinkedIn!
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the Clout101 Marketing podcast. I'm your host Idia Ogala. On Clout101, we talk to some of the most successful people across different industries and decode the marketing strategy beyond some of the most iconic brands, campaigns and moments in culture. On today's episode, we have a very, very special guest joining us.
This is actually one of my favorite episodes to date that I've recorded. So I'm happy that you guys are listening. Ruby is a 23 year old serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker and wealth educator. She provides content courses, tools, and resources from millennials and gen Z to accelerate their financial, academic and personal goals.
She began her career, creating YouTube content at age 19 and has since grown her channel to over 200,000 subscribers and 6 million views leveraging this notoriety Ruby launched the lavish life academic planner designed specifically for college students and sold over 20,000 copies worldwide in April of 2020 in the middle of the global pandemic Ruby established lavish life Academy or LLA, which offers trading business courses and mentorship for gen Z and millennials.
And in less than nine months. She was able to amass nearly 8,000 members from 72 countries around the world. Her story has been featured in major publications like business, insider, entrepreneur, CNBC, and disrupt. And she's spoken at over 50 different colleges, including, and why you Yale and Howard university.
On this episode, we discuss how she built her online community. We talk about some key marketing tips for leveraging attention. We also talk about making her first million in the middle of a pandemic, but also about how to operate a business with purpose beyond dollars. Um, and what it looks like to build a Bulletproof legacy, um, for years to come.
So this episode is really dope. I'm excited. You guys are able to listen to it. And, uh, we just asked that on top of, you know, showing love and showing appreciation for this conversation. We also ask that you head over to Apple, um, and that you rate and review this podcast. If you can give us five stars, that would be amazing.
It does very, very well, um, for our discoverability of this platform. Thank you. And we hope you enjoy.
So the first question right, is very, very self-explanatory who is Ruby? Tell me a little bit about yourself, because from our limited research, it seems like there's a lot that stair, you know, from your time in college, your entrepreneurial journey, obviously being a first generation Nigerian first daughter, child of an immigrant family, I'm sure there's a lot that kind of went into the journey to allow you to become who you are today.
So just tell me about yourself and tell me about your, your upbringing, how it contributed to where you are today. That's a great question. I never really thought about, like, I feel like anytime somebody asks me this, I always think about like the present time. Yes. I'm 23. I am a cert entrepreneur, motivational speaker, YouTube or investor trader.
I run my Academy. Coming up. I was, of course, like the first of five, I played college basketball and basketball throughout like my entire childhood hood into college. I was always a very enthusiastic person about life in general. So I was always in a whole bunch of different things debate. I was in a whole bunch of different clubs.
I learned multiple different languages when I was growing up. I was on the diving team, elementary school and middle school. So like I had a lot going on throughout, like my entire childhood elementary school, middle school, high school university. Yeah. So I did a lot growing up and I feel like that's definitely helped me with just being able to manage a lot.
At my current stage, because I still do a lot of different things. I've been able to meet different people, learn different things. I'm definitely somebody that likes to learn. I think that's like one thing that I can credit myself to that I'll always put myself in a position to learn something new, just for the benefit of learning that new thing.
But overall, I'm just somebody that is excited about life and wants to do a whole bunch of different things and tries my best to do it. You said a lot of things, I think, you know, wanting to expand your mind is, is unique. That's the first step towards success to welcome different things that come your way.
So I think that that's dope. And you mentioned, you mentioned being a first, a first of five. Yeah, that's crazy. But also that lens, I guess, credence to leadership skills, you probably were, you know, kind of a mass in that, like, without realizing that you were doing that, which probably contributes to how you're able to lead teams today and be seen in that light today.
So obviously, you know, I touched on it earlier. First-generation Nigerian, I'm Nigerian as well. I understand the hustle and the grind and what's instilled in you part of growing up. Right. So talk, talk about that a little bit for people who maybe don't understand what comes with the territory of being Nigerian, of being a first generation person here, here in the States, and maybe some pressures that come along with that, but also some of the positives that you think have contributed to where you, yeah, I definitely do credit my parents a lot.
My parents definitely pushed me as well as all of my siblings for the route of education. And I think that's what really like bred my love for learning. We always been like a household that, you know, excellence is. Like mandatory, you know, like, whereas there's no, like in-between, it's either you're doing extremely well.
If you're only doing good, that's not good enough. You know? So I think that's a huge part of who I am today. I feel like that's a lot of what I exclude and the people that are around me as well. I think that's why people gravitate towards me, especially with like my Academy right now, because a lot of the stuff that I do teach comes down to how I was able to learn even my YouTube channel.
I taught a lot of the stuff that my parents taught me growing up when it comes to education, like, you know, studying all the time, making sure that you put your being ahead and your schoolwork, my YouTube channel was strictly on college, like life altogether. And people were very curious to how I was able to balance being a college basketball player, doing a whole bunch of different things like entrepreneurship and still getting a 4.0 in my biomedicine classes.
You know? So the values that were instilled into me when I was a child, you know, so. I definitely do credit my parents to that, but also was a lot of pressure. You know, like being the first of five, I have a sister that's 18 months younger than me. I have a brother that's, you know, and they're all doing amazing.
We're brothers, 20 years old. My sister is 21. I'm 23. And then I have two younger siblings and overall they're all doing amazing. But if anything came like out of line, the first person that they're going to look at is. Why Ruby's the reason, you know, if Ron is doing my 12 year old, brother's not doing well in school.
What did Ruby do at this time? You know, like if I was not in the right course, I would have been the blame, you know? So I always knew that in the back of my head, like I have to do well, not only for myself, but because I have four other siblings behind me. So I definitely do credit that as well. Just being.
To be a leader in many different aspects overall. Yeah. You also touched on the student athlete life, right. So how many years did you play play basketball? So I played basketball my freshman and sophomore year. I actually tore my ACL for the third time, my sophomore year of college. So I think my resilience definitely comes down to getting injured so many times and having to go through that recovery process and going through, you know, of course, of course, physical therapy, but that first time back on the court feeling after going through all of that.
But I started playing basketball when I was in seventh grade and I played all the way up until my sophomore year of college. And yeah, I tore my ACL the first time, 10th grade, 10th grade, it's where my ACL, then I got recruited into this like. Prep basketball high school. That was like number one in the country.
but I went to Lou hive for a year. So my ACL, my senior year of college, and that like messed up a lot of stuff for me. And then like, I still want to play, went back to college or went to college, played basketball for two years. And then I tore my ACL at the last game of my sophomore year. And that was the end of the end of my dirty basketball to get there.
It seems like that was a blessing. I mean, listen, I get it. Like, I didn't get a chance to play in college. I didn't make it feel like my journey very, very quickly. I learned that basketball and college wasn't a thing for me. So high school was my, the ending point and that's when I pivoted to marketing was able to make it to the league on the business side.
But I don't know, I kind of, I kind of look at it and everyone that I've spoken to, all the former athletes, I've spoken to former ballplayers who ended up working at the league office, they all would, would mention those traumatic injuries as a blessing in disguise, a turning point in their life where they were able to maybe dedicate more time towards refining another craft, or maybe.
Being a source of inspiration for people who are also going through these traumatic injuries now at a younger age. And they're trying to figure out how to make it through how to persevere to get back on the court. So looking back at that situation, you know, how do you think that that's contributed to who you are?
Yeah, I think that definitely basketball is like, I think all basketball, I gravitate towards athletes a lot. Like I feel like we definitely have a different way of thinking because we do so much, like even in high school, like waking up at 5:00 AM, we would have 5:00 AM practices in high school. And my high school was an hour away practice having school all day, then having workouts afterwards.
Like there's a whole different perspective of life that you have to have as an athlete because you're seeing a whole different picture than what you see day to day. So I think that's a huge part of being of how I became who I am today. And not only that, but even in college, I think that my entrepreneurship definitely stems from the fact that we had so much time.
Strictly on basketball that I didn't have time for. You can get a job. So my freshman year, I didn't have time to get a job because we were on the road on the weekends. You would have 5:00 AM practices. And then afterwards were in class all day, then having to do study hall and all this stuff. So it's not even a thing that we had an opportunity to get a job.
So with that, I had to figure out other ways to make money. Cause you know, I had a lifestyle to up of hold. So, you know, that's how my first business started. And that's really where my head. Space came from with entrepreneurship, like knowing like, okay. I can only, I only have time, like specific times throughout the week.
How can I make the best use of it? How can I make the most money during the specific time? So you were a med student, correct. Okay. So bio med student, obviously student athlete, rigorous schedule. So obviously the time that you do have to be able to create that, I guess, stream of income for yourself is very limited.
So what idea did you want to dedicate your time to? What was that thing that kind of sparked in your brain that said, Hey, this is something I want to focus my energy on giving up. You're asking like, why I decided to do entrepreneurship? No, like what, what was the first idea? That they're pretty much what you said.
I only have two hours a day. Like I want to focus my two hours on this specific idea. Okay. So I started my YouTube channel while I was still playing basketball. So I was able to kind of build a following based on just being an athlete and, you know, Being a biomedicine student being able to balance both of it.
Overall people were gravitating towards me because I had a lot on my plate and people would be like, Oh, like Ruby's able to do this, this and this, and still do well in school. I'm only doing this and I'm not doing well in school. So I'm going to look at Ruby for motivation, you know, so I was already documenting my day-to-day life and I was able to kind of build some type of audience.
Around that. And my first business was called lavish life accessories, and I was selling sunglasses and a whole bunch of just like different accessories. Those are very like small business, but I have fun doing it. It was my first like, idea overall because I was, I got the idea of just being able to buy stuff in bulk and just selling it for more money.
And that was like my first business. And who puts you on to that, to that idea? What'd you get that from? I don't even know. I think I probably like got the idea from like YouTube or something. I'm still very big on YouTube, but I would just see what other people do and try and implement it myself. Like if they can do it, I could do it to a type of mindset.
So I'd imagine that that. Is what led to, you know, the interest in expanding and trying different things. Right. So at what point, at what point did you realize that you were really building a community of people that rock, would you, you know, love what you were, what you were giving them in terms of information, in terms of value and will be willing to purchase?
Yeah. So my first, really big business from that STEM from like social media overall is my lavish life academic planner line. So I created a planner line sophomore year of college. I kind of fleshed out the idea that my junior year of college is when it actually launched, but the. Theme of being able to balance life altogether, kept circling over and over again.
I started getting speaking engagements. I started, I would show like physically what I use to balance or organize my day. And it was a bullet journal that I was using. So it was just like a blank notebook. I created the pieces. I created exactly what I wanted in the blank notebook. And people were asking for me to create for themselves.
Like they wanted me to like replicate the process for them and. Immediately. I said, I'm not doing it. Like I don't even like myself. I was like, this is too much work, but, but overall, I couldn't really find a planner that I personally really liked enough to want to use. So I just made it myself. And once I posted my first like video, like walking through my planner, it was something very simple, like a 10 minute video, just walking through the pages of the video of my bullet journal.
That video ended up doing really, really well at the time of my YouTube channel. And I summed the idea of executing a planner during my spring break of my sophomore year. And by the end of the spring break, like I had the idea at the beginning, by the end, I already knew exactly who I was going to reach out to for manufacturing the production, the design, all of that stuff.
I basically thought about myself. I didn't hire anybody throughout the entire process. I created a plan for myself, a business plan. And by that summer I already had it created. So. It was definitely a process, but that was like the first major, like six figure business idea that I was able to create. So you identified that there was a need, right.
Based on what you needed for yourself to be able to sustain, but also based off of what other people were, you know, bothering you about trying to figure out how they can learn from you. And then you took that to help build out, you set the business plan and just figure out what your strategy was going to be, who was supporting you on this journey.
Was it, you by yourself, are you're tapping into friends to be able to create this? What was that like in terms of getting it from zero to, you know, production? Yeah. So with me, anytime I think of anything like any of my ideas, I really keep it to myself for a long time until it's actually done. I did the same thing on my YouTube channel.
Like when I started my YouTube, it wasn't really a known, I didn't tell my parents. I didn't tell my friends. I was blogging every single day in school, but everybody thought it was like Snapchat that I was using because it just, wasn't a popular thing. And. I'm not somebody that likes to ask for help or ask for like, you know, follow me or subscribe to me on here.
I didn't even post about my YouTube channel until I hit around 10,000 subscribers. And I posted, Oh, like, you know, I'm so grateful for all of my subscribers. And they were already following me on my Instagram after they subscribe to me on YouTube type of thing. But when it came to my planner in line, it was very similar.
I had the idea, I really did all the work myself. I use money from my savings, from like my YouTube channel and stuff like that to fund the planner line. It was from $10,000 to start. So I know that if I had told my parents at like 19 years old, that I was putting all this money aside to start a planning line, that isn't really common.
You know, I feel like planners would be like, stationery is becoming common now where people are starting, starting it up on their own. But at that time, I didn't know anyone else that had a planner in line. I didn't think it was. I was confident in myself. I knew that nobody else will be competent enough in meets, wants to help me with that.
So I really just kept it to myself until I started getting the actual inventory. And because it was coming to my house as kind of let my parents know a week before, like, you know, ups is coming with, you know, 70
don't even, we didn't even have a space for it. So we were keeping it outside in our backyard under like a shed. And we were just, you know, shipping orders in the house, like from that point. But afterwards, you know, people are always supportive when, when stuff is going good. So I, I really only sold the good for real.
So that's just the way that I go about doing things. Which of your, of your marketing, I guess, approach to getting these planters sewed. How much of it was. I'm a lay low on the planet side. Right. And strategize that out. I'm going to keep posting daily content on my YouTube to grow that following. And then literally just like cross promote those planners to the people on YouTube.
How much of it was that versus like, I'm actually going to sit down and map out like a marketing strategy and try to go on social media and find new people, you know, it, it was a mostly selling to that existing audience that you were generating from YouTube. Or did you have like a dual approach to do it with the YouTube folks also try and reach out to new audience members that you weren't communicating with at the time?
Yeah. So the first year, so I'm going into my third year. I have to play her line my first year. It was solely content marketing. I wasn't even thinking about marketing in general. I just wanted to create it and sell it. That was just my whole idea. And. I learned a lot on the way. Like I went to school for biomedicine.
I didn't go to school for marketing or business or anything like that. So I would Google a lot. My marketing approach, looking back at that time was solely concept marketing. It was like Gary abuser pros where it's like documentation, like documenting your hire process and people gravitate towards you because of that, you know?
So I was, I've always been a very genuine person. I've always gave before I asked for anything in return. I don't really know how to explain like people that are like salesman. Like I'm not that type of person. I'll talk about myself for a couple of minutes. I'll say what I have to say. I know how to say it the right way to want people to want to buy from me or to benefit off of whatever it is I'm doing, but I'm never going to say you need to do this, this and this, or, you know, this is the best thing out there.
I'll tell you how it worked for me. I'll tell you how it worked for other people. But at that at the end of the day, it's your responsibility to figure out if it's your. You don't have your best interest. It wasn't until the next year that I really honed down and really understood that if I was able to sell this amount of planners by myself off of just my audience, all I need is.
You know, two, three, four more, and it's two, three, four times the amount of revenue, you know, so I think the next year I really focused more so on, like influencer marketing this till now, I haven't spent a dime on like ad spend or like ads in general for this business or lavish life Academy. I've focused more on the ad spend for a couple of jobs, shipping businesses.
Those are the only businesses that I use ad spend for, or Facebook ads, Instagram ads in general, everything else is more so just word of mouth and just the fact that people like what I do. Yeah. So if you would adjust your approach for, let's say for the new year mean, is there anything that you, would you dive more into ads for, for the plan of business, or would you kind of add more money to the influence of marketing strategy?
That's question number one and then two, which influencers were you tapping into date? You know, to be able to kind of sell, sell the planet product? I would definitely. Moving forward because I've always been an influencer or not, but since I've started business,
yeah. Oh my business entrepreneurs to journey. I know the power that influencers have if you pick the right one. So I'm definitely going to stay in the route of. Influencer marketing. Cause I know that the power that they do have in regards to all of that stuff, I think it really comes down to the business itself.
When you are doing more of a one-on-one interaction with people, or you're trying to sell based on a specific thing, you want to make sure that the audience itself has a connection with you. And it's hard to have that connection based on a Facebook ad or Instagram ad when they can go to anywhere to learn this information, whether for lavish Academy or I can go to staples and buy this planner, you know, there's specific wording that influencers use and I've been able to really learn and actually have in my influencer contracts to make sure that the point is coming across, you know, people are not going to watch the video and say, I don't think that this plan is going to be good for me after the influencer is saying exactly what I want the influencer to say.
I really think that there's a lot of benefit in influencer marketing. If you're doing it the right way. I noticed that as an influencer myself, I'll see specific contracts and I'll see the deliverables and requirements for this price point. And I'll see the same exact. Price point and a different contract and they won't have any requirements end of the day, you're doing yourself a disservice, you know, you know, directly influence exactly what you want as an outcome, just by wording and just by visuals, you know?
So I think that if you have a good influencer marketing strategy in place, you can really do wonders with the business. Yeah. I definitely agree. It's between influencer marketing. And then what you mentioned about documenting your process. I think those are our two. Really really I'll say cost effective marketing strategies that people should definitely employ for myself and for, for the brand that I'm trying to pivot to build.
I definitely understand the importance of documents in that because it builds trust. It builds social proof, you know, with, with an audience that cares about what it is that you're trying to, I won't say sell, but what you're trying to project. And then from there, as you mentioned, the sell becomes easy because they rock with you.
They trust you. And if you're not selling a lot, then it's like, they just say, okay, let me support this person and see what it is. And then the quality of your product. It keeps them coming back. So I like the idea of business planners and academic planners and stuff like that. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot that caters to, you know, our community or caters to, you know, creatives or caters to.
Young business professionals. I haven't seen that a lot. So when I definitely learned about your, your planners, I thought that that was, that was really dope. And then also another thing is that it's almost like they say, get into a business that has, you know, reoccurring revenue tied to it, right? So some people are doing tech products where it's monthly subscriptions and stuff like that, where they can charge you each year.
I think as long as there's high quality in the planet, that someone is executing, you know, producing, you know, I'm pretty sure you had a lot of return customers where you don't have to be marketing to new people. You can just pretty much maintain that communication with those people, with the folks that bought it the first time, maybe offer them a slight discount or something along those lines and be able to bring them back and have that guaranteed money.
So what has that been like for you with the reoccurring? Yeah. So when it comes to the planner line, my recurrent customers are, I forgot the exact percentage, but. I think that the most important thing when it comes to reoccurring revenue or monthly recurring revenue with lavish Academy is really just the value that you give.
I think that people genuinely like my planner there, they're waiting for it before the new year, like around may, June, I started getting. Emails and questions, DMS, you know, when's the next point or line coming out or when's the next plan? Or I use it from this point. So at this point I was able to do this, this and this because the planner, you know, and because we built a community around it is become a thing where, Oh, like I have a planner, let me get one for my sister, my mom, my brother, you know what I mean?
Like this has helped me so much. Let me make sure that other people can benefit off of it too. So I think that it's very important to build that relationship with your customers and with your audience in general, so that you can be reliable. I feel like a lot of people forget that not only, you know, is your business going to have that one set, but if you can generate a long lasting relationship with that person, and it's not only that one sale now it's now that one sale plus next years, plus every single other person that they tell about that.
Product or service, whatever the case may be. So I really, really, really put relations in the forefront as well as customer service, because all you need is one person, right. And that comes off of it. Like I think that's what really grew my Academy to where it is now. I haven't even used any influencers for lavish life Academy.
I haven't used a dime of marketing. Not one time you have influences inside of it, but you don't have them promote. Now on the outside,
influencers in the program have a whole bunch of different people, but I've never asked for anything. So I don't even have, I wanted my program to be genuine where people have the safe space of understanding that. Everybody in here is in here because they're doing the same thing and they're not here because they want to make money on the side by recruiting or make money on the side by referrals.
I don't want anyone to think that if they're talking about lavish life Academy, there's any other hidden agenda besides the fact that this program has helped me. Um, I've seen so much growth with lavish life Academy, just off of that one thing, because it's very easy to have a referral program. It's very easy to have, like anything else tied to it, especially if the program is doing well.
But I think because I completely separated that from my program altogether, I can have that genuine relationship with my audience and with people that are. Soon to be my audience to understand that everything that's being posted is doing is being posted from their free will. So I think that's definitely key just building the relationships and giving really high value and everything else will come and fall into place afterwards.
So before we pivot to the Academy, just a quick follow-up, could you mention the importance of, you know, retaining customers, communicating with customers, customer service? What's your process of obviously marketing? I understand the value of email marketing, collecting data, things like that. I'd imagine in your checkout process, you have those opportunities, those like access points to get first name, last name, email address, whatever the case may be.
But what's your, what's your process of like storing that data? Do you have like a communication cadence, like a newsletter or, you know, email sequence or whatever? Like how do you engage with them throughout the year? So that by the time, you know, December, November comes around that they're looking to go cop your, your, your next planner for 2021.
So we basically focus on community engagement. I have a series on that. I do like a couple of times throughout the year where I'll go on live or I'll have this semester. We had a couple of my interns go on, live about specific topics, just pouring value. So that's one way that we go about doing it. We do also, we have blog posts, we have newsletters.
We have a couple of, we have a good amount of people on our newsletter list based off of just understanding that there'll be able to get some type of value from it. I also have. Landing pages that are on my YouTube videos of I'm talking about a specific topic that I know we'll be able to help respond with the audience from my planner in line, I would typically have a link where they fill out a form in order for them to get that specific content or whatever it is that I'm talking about in a video.
And they're automatically added to my newsletter list. We also have text message marketing that we use as well. We started it a little bit earlier on, but I kind of let fall off of it. But overall text message marketing is definitely went to give a much higher return than email marketing. If we right way it's just.
It's just really finding the right platform that you can get, because you can easily put your number on like your story or something, but you want to make sure that the amount of money you're paying per contact is, you know, transferring, you know, you don't want to just have a whole bunch of people that have your, you know, text message number or whatever, which platforms are you using?
I use community and I use or newsletters. I use MailChimp kind of switch over to convert kit though. Figure out the best way to go about doing that. But overall it's really comes down to like having a nurture system or your audience and just making sure that you're able to give value so that they, they stay on your newsletter list until it's time for you to sell yes.
100%. How many business interviews have you done? I don't even know, to be honest, I do a lot of like, Small ones. Like I don't post a lot, like really, really that's like one of my marketing for when a part of my marketing plan for next year, when he's just being able to document more. I'm asking someone on my team for that, because.
So much stuff. I think this is my today's December 10th podcast already this month. I already know. I work with business insider a lot. I did an interview with Facebook last month for their black Friday series real union.
I'm doing Dhabi next week. It's why, but I just don't do well with like reporting and like showing behind the scenes just because I'm personally, I really don't care too much anymore. As you see, I'm more so just about like business real, like, I just want to make sure that I'm giving the value to the, my paying customers.
And like when I was like Academy, because there's so many of them Instagram and like U2, I don't really care about that, like three months. But you, you got to get someone, as you mentioned, you got to get someone to follow you around and just do it for you. I'm telling you, I guess that's the way that's the way to go.
Cause you're right. Cause you start, you started by building this business by documenting everything. Right. You don't want to lose sight of that, you know? So you, you hustle, you put your brains and your energy behind the strategy. Cause that's, you know, obviously you're smart and that's okay. That's what's paying the bills, but yeah, you definitely need someone to just follow you and then develop a process.
Like, all right, this is, you're the editor, you're the person managing my content calendar. And then like, go ahead. Y'all propose stuff to me. I sign off on it and we post and that's it. I definitely, I definitely agree. I think one of, I got too comfortable with not posting and seeing, cause it's, my businesses are well, lavish step Academy is like recurring, you know what I mean?
Like people join and they're probably not going to leave just because the program is that good. That's a
very, very, very low. So I don't really worry too much once I get those people that join I'm basically set, you know, but I have to also realize that there's so much more that I could be doing, you know, like I don't, I don't want to ever get to a point where I'm too comfortable cause I've never, ever been comfortable, you know, but I'm definitely gonna work on building like immediate team in general or even like just starting off with a media assistant that focuses solely on.
YouTube content and Instagram content. And then from that point, I'll be able to use that as also content marketing. Cause I noticed a huge difference between the one month that I did post like a couple of months ago compared to now I only posted one video that month. I think it got over. I think it's almost like 200,000 views.
But that's, you know, that's like free advertisement and I'm also getting paid from YouTube video itself to be able to post a little bit more, you know? Yeah. You should even like, I don't know if you do this already, but like, like a Q and a, or like a, I don't know, interview series with members of the Academy that you post on your YouTube and on and on your Instagram and just use as, as you mentioned as ads to be able to, cause if you know, the product is good and you're focusing your energy on the product, as long as you have enough people coming through to check out what you're doing, they're going to stay.
Cause, cause you know, cause you're dope. So they're going to stay for that. And then if they enroll, then you have them in that cycle. So I definitely think that it's, you're at the you're at the point where scaling is dependent on what you're posting and then that will allow you to save money on the ads because you know, the ads can get expensive.
If you just reinvest that money into content production, then you should be fine. Yeah. I definitely that's part of like what we were initially going to do. Like something like the Eyo like the end. Or your leisure blonde, but I don't know. I just been very thrown off, but just even show, like I don't even post myself on my page.
Don't worry. I don't know. So I was, so what we're doing was we have like this thing that we're going to start up called testimonial Tuesday, and people will be able to like send a video in. Of their actual, like video testimonial and we'll be able to post it on the Instagram page, but I was initially going to do the face to face, like type of thing.
And I realized like, if I put that on myself, it's just never going to happen because I'm not going to want to do it. So I don't want to mess up the business, like the marketing strategy by relying on myself to do anything. I feel, I understand I get it, but I know, I know you'll be fine. I know. You'll figure it out.
All right. So I want to, I want to pivot into the Academy. I think that that's, that's very, very interesting. So I just want to set the stage. You had the planners, the planners were popping, your YouTube obviously was doing well and everything. So what inspired you to pivot into the Academy? Okay, so my YouTube channel, I think like back in end of 2018, beginning of 2019, I started a money Monday series on my channel where I would just use people that were around my age, like.
See people that are watching my college related videos. I wanted to show them more about how to level up in their finances, because a lot of the stuff that, you know, I had to learn, I had to learn myself. My parents really were very independent in my household. Like we really don't talk about. Anything, that's not related to education.
So, so when it came to like finances and stuff like that, as I was growing up in college, I realized that I don't have a big sister. Like I'm literally the big sister, you know? So I had to learn everything for myself and I wanted to be that person to be able to help other people that also don't have anyone else to lean towards.
You know what I mean? So when it came to the stuff that I was learning, I had to actively go out and learn from YouTube or Google, you know, how to build my credit, how to, you know, get your first credit card, like whole bunch of stuff that, you know, some families might have instilled into them. Like as soon as they hit 18, it's like, Oh, like, you know, this weekend, we're going to go and get your credit card.
That was never a thing. You know, with me, my parents didn't even want any of their kids working. And so they got a job after graduation. So my parents really. They really didn't focus too much on the financial aspect of college life. They really wanted us more so relying on them, which was completely fine.
They wanted us to focus on education. They didn't want me to, you know, work or anything, but at the same time, it's was like, y'all don't know what we do in college. You know, like the $200 or 10 of give me a month, it's not going to cut it anymore. Like that's high school stuff. So I had to really figure it out on my own.
And as I was doing that, I came across a whole bunch of different, like a whole different niche on YouTube. And once I started getting into that content, I realized that no one is like, our community is not going to really watch this unless they actively want to watch it. So I'm already giving out content and I already have a following based on whatever it is that I'm doing.
The people that are watching me, aren't the people that are watching these people. So I can really make the content that I personally like or learn and just teach other people. So that's how the one Monday series came about. I would start, you know, I made videos on how to make money from home, how to make money from your home phone, how to invest, how to build credit, how to budget a lot of stuff that people genuinely just don't know because they don't learn in school.
I just wanted to be able to give it out to people for free, like actual content in general. Lavish life Academy came about because I wanted to give like that one extra step. It started off with one-on-one mentorship, with people that wanted to start their own businesses. So I started doing one-on-one calls with people for an hour, and there was a set syllabus that I would use depending on if they wanted to start a business.
If they wanted to learn about marketing in general, if they wanted to, I also had like an Instagram, like YouTube, social media growth one-on-one available and then how to run your business. So the tools and systems I put in place to run my own business, like seamlessly, I would have different one-on-one people were able to book, but during foreign scene, it became a little out of hand because everybody was home and everybody wants to get the one-on-one.
So I was like, you know, my schedule one day. And I'm like, where I like I'm really doing the same syllabus calls on these four different topics. Six seven times a day, you know, like I was making the money from it and I was given the value, but I realized that I could only do so much a day. And so many more people are interested in it.
And then I came across the whole course aspect and stuff like that, and actually building a group mentorship instead of having the one-on-one interactions with people. So I started planning out how I would be able to do a group mentorship instead of just doing the one-on-ones and that was all for business.
And then I also realized that a lot of the members that were, or a lot of the people that were reaching out to me, they didn't have income in general. Like there's certain trying to start a business out of nothing. You know? So one thing that my sister actually. Asked me to help her with was to start trading.
Cause I started trading like a while ago. So that was just something that I learned because I just wanted to learn before it became very like mainstream. Like people talk about it a lot more on social media. There might be a negative connotation, says investing financial literacy and stuff like that, but there's a whole nother world that.
People just aren't tapped into because they just didn't have the opportunity to, so I learned about trading before it became mainstream, actually habit in my sophomore year blog. The same year that I was learning about the biz Michael planner business, I actually had two one-on-one scheduled or learning how to trade.
And this was before, like anybody was really doing it for real, for real. So my sister asked me how to, she said that she wants to start trading because she started getting her unemployment checks and she was like, I want to, I need to do something with this. You know? So I just taught her how to buy a couple of stocks on Robin hood.
And then I taught her how to also trade and she loved the trading aspect so much. And because I'm oldest sibling, you're generally forced to be able to teach people. Especially younger people, how to learn things easiest way possible. That's what I've been doing since I was in high school, trying to teach people like my siblings in middle school.
So I'm naturally good at teaching because I've had to do it my whole life. So when my sister came up to me wanting to learn how to trade, I was able to kind of give her like the full process from like the beginner to like the little advanced area. And she asked, she was the one who gave me the idea to be able to teach other people.
So once I started lavish type Academy, I kind of created two different directions, one just for entrepreneurship and one for four X trading and the Forex trading one took off, like people were genuinely interested and I actually give credit to the, all the other programs that did people wrong because they knew exactly what they didn't want.
And I knew exactly what they didn't want also. So I was able to really focus on those different aspects and just focusing on teaching people how to trade overall and because. It's actually a great stream to fall into. And because you can start off with such such a small amount of money, it was something that people were attracted to.
Especially during quarantine, they had unemployment checks coming in. They had the time to learn. So during that time period is when it really took off. I started it and ended up April led drew in currency, and I spent like a month. Planning it all out. And then April, I launched it a hundred people joined the first day of the program, which was, and you know, if you know about Kajabi, you know, the, the pricing, the price point for that website is a little hefty.
So when I first was trying to figure out like what platform to use, I was nervous. Cause I'm like, what if enough people don't enjoy it? You know? Like what if I can't make that money back from that one-time fee of like a thousand plus dollars for a Kajabi, but I was able to get a hundred people to join the first day.
And that was just strictly off of me posting on my stories that even posted on my actual feed. And from that point on, it just continued to grow from there. And it was more so like a lot of word of mouth. I see a lot of people talking about it, like their experience from it on like Facebook, like they'll say like, Oh, like I just joined this Academy today.
Wish me luck. You know, two months later I'm making so-and-so amount of money and people really think it's like, It's not possible. And so they see as possible, you know, and the fact that people know, like in the back of their heads, Ruby doesn't do any referrals. Ruby doesn't do any recruiting or any type of like marketing like that.
They automatically know that it is a genuine review because they don't get from talking about it. So I'd definitely say a lot of, well, first of all, congrats, that's amazing a lot of software, I guess, systems or programs like that, that a lot of them do though, referral based thing. And it kind of shoots the credibility because, you know, people that are making money to drive folks to a specific platform.
So I think that that's dope that you don't do that. Like again, I can see that raising the credibility of the program and having them trust you more, you know, which will make me more likely to just give you more money. So I think that that's important. You mentioned a couple of other things. So you mentioned that you were offering a service that made sense.
You will making good money off of it with the one-on-ones. Then you realize that you can't scale by doing, you know, you only have a fixed amount of hours in the day, right. To be able to do these appointments and regurgitate the same information. So you figured out how you can automate that and scale.
What into that beyond just being sick and tired of having the same conversation over and over again, that was went into, into that process. And then how did you get to co con jobby as the platform that you wanted to use to be able to execute this program? Yeah, so it definitely wasn't a lot more, it was, it was really just understanding that I could be doing so much more with my time than doing the same calls over and over again.
Initially I would kind of think about what I'm going to say. And then afterwards, I was like, you know what? I only have four different types of calls. I might as well just create a presentation. They're going to be able to, you know, well, it's an interactive presentation, but it's going to be the same concept every time from that point, I also realized that, you know, there's so many different people that are in different lengths of business, like so many different directions that there's more I can be doing with them once they actually learned the content first.
And then they'll be able to ask the questions later because there's no point of me reading through a slide or like a presentation when they can just. No, watch it on their own time and then add to meet the actual questions when they digest the information. So it was really just like a switch of mindset overall of understanding that I can be doing this, this, and this to actually benefit people more than, you know, booking a one-on-one for an hour and then booking a follow-up one-on-one with the next step afterwards.
So that was that. And then also understanding that you can, like, like you said, scale a lot more when you already have like, when it's already automated. If the course there it's already, you know, it's not active income anymore. Now it's passive. I only have to show my face once a week, one hour, instead of having to do six hours back tobacco one-on-one.
To make that same amount of money. So that was definitely the starting point, but when it came to picking Kajabi over like teachable or any of the other platforms, it really came down to doing my own research and just begging her out. What would be the best to scale. I looked at people that were in similar places that I am, that are at the level that I want to be at and really figuring out what they use, because if I'm trying to get there, I have to think like them, I have to use what they're using.
I have to pick her up, why they're using this instead of this, you know? So I do a lot of competition analysis for people that are not within my own range. I would say, I personally liked to always, like, I think it's my parents again, like being African where you, you just want to be the best at all things, you know?
So in my head is like, wow, look at my competition when I can look at people that I know is not my competition in any means, but I'm trying to get there, you know, while they look at the ocean, when I can look at the stars, you know, so. I think that that was a huge part in my decision making process for Kajabi overall.
I just thought that that was like the most common use based on all the other people that have the community or the platform that I personally have as well. Yeah, yeah. A lot, a lot of good things here. So for people listening, I think something that's very important, which I feel has guided you on this journey is using those initial folks that you were doing the one-on-ones with as like almost like market research.
I think that's very important because even when I'm consulting, I see different trends and different pain points that people are complaining about. Same questions that they're asking, you know, getting lost at the same. The same point in their process. And I think that that's, that's very important because when you can identify that those trends, then you're able to provide solutions that, you know, stretch far and wide.
And then that's when you're able to scale appropriately, because if you're not paying attention to those things, to those pain points and then figuring out how, whatever service you're offering or whatever product you're offering, can help plug some of those holes. Then it's hard for you to get to the level that you're at, where you're, where you're able to scale.
And then the other thing is vertical integration. I'm always talking about that. So leveraging one business, to be able to kind of cross promote, cross sell, and not have to recreate the wheel. So it seems like, I mean, with you and with every other guest that's on this platform, it's like. Are the CEO of, you know, you're the CEO of Ruby LLC.
Right. And then from there, making sure that you're good, making sure that you're consistent with the content that you put out right. To start that consistency has led to arms coming out from the middle of that LLC, where you're able to do the planners were able to do the Academy. I feel like. You've built an audience and if you want it to go and do hair, so hair
right after the accessories, my hair, when did my planner line? Cause that's like easy when you out. I don't discredit that for nothing. I definitely think about partnering with another person who can manage the logistics and just be the face of the brand. And then that way you have an extra source of income coming in, and then the more data you can use to sell some of your other products, but.
I just think that that's, that's very important. And I think it all starts with consistency. LeBron says it all the time. He's like, if I'm not great on the court, all these other operas, the billion dollar Nike deal and all these other opportunities that they're not gonna, you know, be presented to me if I'm not handling my handles when it comes to what I have to do.
So I think that that's something that we all can learn from, you know, business minds and like master marketers like yourself. So I wanna, I want to talk numbers a little bit, right. Flex a little bit. So in terms of the planners and in terms of the Academy, can you just tell us like a number of how many planners you've sold like today, how many members are in your Academy?
And, you know, if you want to talk numbers in terms of how much money you've made in both of those businesses. I think that that would be very helpful to, you know, let people know how credible you are in case I haven't read something on you online or checked out your social media when it comes to the planner line.
I don't know for a fact, how many planners have been sold to the date, but I know that based on like the revenue overall, it's around over $500,000 on the planner line, but that's also since 2018 when it launched. So from July of 2018. So now it is over $500,000 where the Academy, we have almost 7,000 people in the program.
Well, not in the program that has joined the program since started in August. I mean, you said April, April. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just April and that's all again with no ad spend no marketing. Literally I've only posted, I haven't even posted a video about lavish tip Academy. I've mentioned it in a video. It really came from more so word of mouth and just like.
Our biggest marketing is really just testimonials. And the fact that people are getting what they're paying for, they're getting what they're paying for and making the money back almost immediately. So it was like, why not? Like I might as well just do it if I'm going to make the money back next week type of thing.
So lavish life Academy, we're narrating
almost 7,000 members.
When I tell you, so when I became a millionaire, I really didn't want to post about it at all. Like I'm not somebody that's like showy, pretentious. None of that. I really, you know, I probably posted six pictures on Instagram of 2020 altogether, you know, like just not that type of person. And I don't want to say any more.
I just used to do it because I was a quote unquote influencer. Now I'm just really focused on living my life and giving back as much as I can. But when it came to like that millionaire status, because it's so like not common becoming like a millionaire at 22 or whatever the case may be. I didn't really think of it as that big of a deal at that time, because I'm the one that's seen the numbers every single day.
You know, like I'm seeing a hundred thousand dollars a month, a hundred thousand dollars a week is not a big deal to me, but I forget that it's, it's a big deal to other people. It's a big deal to a normal person, you know, But overall, I hit the millionaire status way earlier on because I don't have just lavish type Academy, you know, like I ha I became a millionaire, you know, a lot earlier on, in 2020 altogether, but overall I really like the numbers really matter, but they really don't at the same time, because at the end of the day, what are you doing with it?
Like, what is, what benefits do you have of saying that you're a millionaire or that you made so-and-so amount of money? How does that benefit anybody else? You know, like somebody else might want to become a millionaire too, but that's, you know, that's on them to actually do the work, you know? So I I'm really trying not to push that narrative altogether.
It's really about what you're doing with it. Even when it comes to leadership Academy as a whole, there are people that are making good money in the program. Like, you know, and that's the reason why it's growing so fast. Like we've seen people that made like a hundred thousand dollars in like two, three days, like I trade live.
So I was talking about that as well. So I traded live and my program, I do webinars every single week. My highest profit, like in a day has been over $200,000 and people in a day. Yeah. And that's what investing how much money for that 200,000, right. $4,000. That more, I think after two hours, it was at 40,000 by 1:00 PM.
It was at 200,000 and that's live, you know? So at that point it's like, You know, you can really make as much money as you want in this world. But like, if you're not a balanced person, what's the point, you know, like what are your real values? And that's what I'm going to teach my program all together.
Like we're going to make the money. Like, there's no doubt about it. We know what we're doing. I don't even see money the same anymore. I can really do whatever I want. I still live at home. I'm 23. I still live at home. I value friends because that's what I, I care about. And I'm at a stage right now, also that it's like, we can do all this, but at the end of the day, also like.
Who are you really trying to impress money, becomes status. And that's not what my values are overall, but going back to like the money thing. I think that I personally don't, I used to have goals like money goals and stuff like that. But once you hit a specific amount, it's almost like the money attracts you.
Like the money's never going to go away because you know exactly what to do. And you know, if you're not doing it, it's not going to come, you know, not to put those standards in place for yourself. So seeing the a hundred thousand dollars in a day or $200,000 in a day, you know exactly how to replicate it because you put the actual effort to do it.
It's not something that came by accident. So if next week I tell myself, you know, today I want to make. $200,000. Again, I know the steps that's in place, but at the same time, like, are you going to go? Like I haven't even, or people that really know about that specific milestone, I guess, is people that are in my program because I do everything live, you know?
So October 13 people know how to get to it in the course, October 13th webinar, you know, and they're had there, they say October 30th webinar, the day will be made $200,000 off of the Dow Jones stock index. You know, but the same time it was like, we can do it again if I want to do I really want to, or, you know, It's just the whole thing.
I had to really understand it too, because a lot of times when you reach a certain point, you realize that the work that you're putting in, isn't really changing that thing. You know, like you're not genuinely making an effort to change things around you it's really no point, but you are doing that. Right.
So you should, you should feel proud of yourself. I was talking to Maddie, Maddie, J to do from. I bet. Yeah. So he was on the podcast and everything, and we were talking about passive impact that people talk about passive income, a lot, and all that, all seven and eight sources of income, all that stuff. But I think as you mentioned before, once you get to the level that you, once you get to the number that you've always wanted to get to everything else, you realize how much it doesn't really matter, then everything else is what's unlocked.
Like other things begin to fill you up, right? So he was mentioning how passive impact is what he's chasing, so he can make the money. He can do, do what he got to do. But at the same time, if people around him are struggling or if he's not able to replicate that for people who want to learn how he got to, where he got to, it's not, it, it's not as fulfilling.
So it seems like you're doing that with your, with your program. 7,000 people was a lot, and you mentioned a hundred thousand dollars. People are making here and there that's, that's not, that's not anything to downplay at all. So I think you should be proud of yourself. And as long as you're continuing to plant those seeds and other people, you know, that legacy that you're going to build for yourself is going to be.
You know, way, way more vast than what money can can do than what money can kind of, I dunno, I guess, I guess explain, explain to you. Yeah, no, definitely. And yeah, that's one thing that like push it. That's why I love lavish Academy so much. Cause I have that, like that interaction that I always wanted, you know, like when I started my YouTube channel, it was to help people, the money Monday series was to be able to help people, the YouTube channel in general, like the college experience like blogging was because I never had an older sibling to show me what college was in America.
My parents even have like the experiences themselves. So it was more so a thing where I wanted to make sure that I can be that person for other people. And seeing that value come back with lavish life Academy and people, you know, saying that, you know, I was able to feed my daughter this week. I was able to get the funds to send my child to America from this third world country or, you know what I mean?
So that's, that's a different type of impact then. You making $500,000 in a month, you know, or $200,000 in a day. So that's the type of thing that I personally am longing for overall and what I'm able to do for people moving forward altogether. Yeah, that's amazing. Can you just talk briefly about your experience being obviously you're, you know, you mentioned what 23 now, right?
23, a black woman in the business world doing your thing and killing it, but just talk about what that experience has been like. I'd imagine there's a lot of ups where you're feeling like, damn, I got the world on my shoulders and people are looking up to me and I'm doing my thing and I'm setting a strong example for people to follow.
I'd also imagine that, like anything else, there's also some downs where you feel discouraged or were overwhelmed wherever the case may be. So what's been balancing that like, and how do you, you know, free yourself when you're in like slumps. Yeah. So that's definitely like, that's a part that people oftentimes forget.
Like there, we see the highs, we see the numbers, but like at the end of the day, how's the person really doing any type of thing. I think with me, it's definitely been growing pains. I feel like because I have so many people counting on me. It becomes a difficult thing for me to understand that I have to also count on myself too.
I'm like that person for so many people that I have to make sure that I'm on point 24 seven, and that I'm actually like, you know, pulling through and giving the value that they want. So my program, I have to give signals, so I teach people how to train. And I also give them the trade ideas that I personally trade myself.
So for example, today I woke up this morning and I was able to make 1,450 pips off of the Dow Jones stock index. Right. So people didn't know how to trade, know that that amount of pips is a lot of money for. Everyone, you know, so I know that I can do this today and people are making money or doing this today.
I have to replicate it. You know what I mean? Like I can't just do it every now and then type of thing, people are only using that as their livelihood at this point. So I'm trying to make sure that I'm doing that, but I also have to make sure that people understand the day I'm still human. You know, like I'm not a robot I'm doing the best I can.
And there's a lot of people in the program. And one thing that people forget to realize as well, like the program is a mentorship, you know, like people forget a lot of the times, especially when it comes to black women or black people in general that, you know, you won't do what you're doing. Like you won't give that negative review or you won't get that, you know, sly comment or you won't go out of your way to make somebody feel bad about something when it's.
A multimillion dollar business that you don't know, but my multi million dollar business, you're going to do it through because you know me, or because I look like you, or I'm in a place where, you know, it could be you, but it's not, it almost brings it like down to the floor type of thing. Like I'm with you guys, which I want to be.
But at the same time, this is a business, you know? So people sometimes and like customer service emails, like the people that are offering on stock, they're like, wow, I've never worked with people that are so rude in the emails. Like I've worked with so many different businesses and I've never gotten emails like this, where there's terms and services or terms and conditions in place or a refund policy in place that people just think that they're above because.
I'm 23 black and a female. So at the end of the day, there's stuff in place that has to be done. And we can't cut corners for everyone just because you look like me, you know? So that's definitely one thing that I struggled with a lot with just like holding my ground and people like making sure that people understand that the end of the day, this is still a business.
It's something that you signed up for this sum that you paid for it. I can't give you whatever it is that you want, because that's what you paid for. You know? So, and I'm also a very empathetic person. And I think that's one thing that messed with me. Cause I'm a very emotional person. I'm like very loving.
Like I really genuinely want people to succeed in life. And I think people take advantage of that a lot because I'm very accessible. So we have a group chat and I'm in the group chat literally all day. I don't have anyone talking for me. I do all my live webinars, myself and people forget that in the day.
Like I am running a 7,000 member program. Like the next person is not going to do this. At all. So that's definitely one thing. Another thing is just the hiring aspect. I know I've talked about this before, but hiring people that are in a place to really lead and succeed without the help of me. I think that a lot of times I'll bring people on my team and I would have to walk them through every step of the way.
And it's almost a thing where I'm not going to do it unless Ruby says that I should do it. And at the end of the day, if I can do it myself, I would have just sent it myself. You know? So there was a lot of times where I would delegate and because it just too much of a back and forth before it gets done, I'll spend the time doing it myself.
So I have to realize that I can't continue to do that because at the end of the day, my main. Focus should be on what I need to do. Everything else should be delegated. And I just have to find the right people to delegate it to. And then just understanding like the levels of, or the structure of business when it comes to employees or just having people on your team.
I was always just the, you know, not only the CEO, but also the manager, HR director operations. I have people that are helping me, but I was too much of that forefront along with running the actual business. I'm the brains of everything. I'm constantly thinking I'm constantly trying to make decisions. And if I'm the only person making decisions at the end of the day, it was the point of having, being able to delegate, you know?
So that was definitely another thing that I had to learn overall, but a lot of it is really just being able to be in a place to understand what has to be done differently, because if you're the only person thinking. Or making those changes you won't know until you find out, you know? So that was a huge thing for me as well.
Just having like that type of mentorship, I would say, or just having something to lean on. That's not just myself and, you know, just me figuring out what I figure out and that's the end all be all. But it really came down to me understanding that just because I'm 23 and you know, it doesn't mean that I have to hire people that are younger than me all the time, or like around my same, like around the age that I'm at right now, once I figured that out, I made it active efforts to try.
I haven't done it yet. I haven't done it yet, but that's like a goal. Well, it's the bring people on, on salary. That's really. Like experts at what they do. So I don't have to worry about educating and training and teaching and they can actually teach me stuff that I don't know and bring actual ideas that are different and things of that sort exactly.
And vice versa, because I'm sure, I mean, you're experience is vast as well. Yeah. You keep mentioning 23, but there, there are some people who haven't accomplished, who are experienced that can add value to your business, but who haven't accomplished what you've accomplished in, you know, in their lives. So I think that at that point, you'd be paying for people to help you grow your business, to help take things off your plate, but also for the mentorship as well.
That's a very, very good investment. I know we talked about it before. I have to introduce you to some folks, but I think that that's, that that's dope and it's cool. It's cool that you identified that, right? Like some people are struggling or trying to figure out how they could get from point a to point B, but they don't know what they, what they lack.
Right. They don't know, or they're not receptive to. What they need to be able to get to the next level. So at least, you know, I think that that's more than half the battle. And then as you continue to push to be intentional about the energy you put out, I'm pretty sure you're going to find some people that make that make sense for you and your business.
Thank you. Hopefully. Thank you. Thank you. No, for sure. All right. So we're almost done. There's two more sections. One is the best practices section. So it's pretty much like the key takeaways that the audience that's listening can, can kind of use to build what they're building immediately. So just, just wanted to tap you for a couple, a couple of answers to these questions.
So what are some actionable steps that the listeners can take? If they're trying to identify opportunities in a digital space and build a business? So, I mean, this is obviously stemming from what's happening with COVID people being unemployed, people trying to get resourceful and figure out what, what makes sense for them to even jump into, you know, you were able to jump into the YouTube stuff early.
You were able to leverage. Everything to build the plan of a situation and do all that stuff and build digital businesses at a good time. So if someone was listening to this and was trying to figure out how they wanted to identify an opportunity, do you have any advice for, I definitely. I don't want to say I disagree, but I think that it really comes down to perspective.
I don't think that it's, anything's ever a good time until after the time, when you look back and say, okay, that was a good time. Anytime you're doing something, you are taking China's to take an initiative based on whatever is going on. When I started my YouTube channel, no one was on YouTube now everybody's on YouTube.
So I think that when it comes to like good timing and anything of that sort, it really just comes down to you just doing it. I feel like the biggest step is the first step in anything, because I wanted to start a YouTube channel back in high school. And my mom was like, you're not doing that under my roof.
You know? So I started my YouTube channel when I could, when I was not under her roof, you know, I was able to do stuff on my own, you know, so. I started my YouTube channel, where I didn't have people like that. Following me that I personally knew nowadays everyone has a YouTube channel and they're able to post about it on their stories.
It's not, it's like normalized now, even when, when it comes to lavish life Academy, there was so many other things that were against me. There's so many other huge programs that are out right now that if I looked at them and said, okay, you know, they're already doing it. There's already so many people that have a negative connotation towards what I'm about to start a whole business doing.
I would have never gotten to the place that I'm at now, you know, so I really think it comes down to really understanding what it is that you want to do and being competent enough to do it. And then also educating yourself because when it comes to anything, and this is why I spoke at. I got featured on business insider a couple of months ago when it came to my own analytics with YouTube, even though I'm not as active as I am, as I used to be, but I'm one of the highest paid users in general when it comes to CPM, because I would know how to leverage whatever it is that I'm doing.
So you're not going to know what to do when it comes to stuff like this, if you don't learn it. So I think the biggest thing is to understand how you can benefit off of every single thing that you have going on and understanding that even though you might see it as a negative, there is a positive that can come out of it.
And a lot of times people forget that there is a positive that comes out of every single situation. And when it comes to YouTube or like, you know, me being a black woman, 23, I was able to leverage all of those different aspects because. I know the benefits that come from all those different aspects. So I think it really comes down to taking that first step, educating yourself and trying to just be the best that you can be at that specific thing without worrying about everything else around it.
Because you know, for us, it is one thing, but comparing yourself is literally the theme of all joy, like comparing yourself and seeing what other people are doing and saying that you can't get there because they they're already doing this and this and this, or they have the upper leg, they have this connection worry about what you have for yourself first and how you can benefit off of that before looking at everybody else.
Those are my top three. What about building a strong brand? So obviously, like we mentioned before, your community seems to rock with you very, very heavy, where you could say, I'm going to go sell soap tomorrow and you probably make $500,000. So it's like, are there any keys to brand building that you want to impart with the people?
I would say that it's important to give value. I think that would be because most of my businesses had value behind it and had a reason for them to benefit off of whatever it is that I'm doing. That's the reason why they're following. Like, even when it comes to my Instagram, I gained like 10,000 followers in the past two months.
Haven't posted really any pictures or anything like that. I just show my day-to-day life on Instagram stories, like on the scenes of my businesses and stuff like that. But people see value in that. So you have to really understand what value you can bring to the world and capitalize off of it as best as you can.
And then don't forget to strategize. Also, I feel like the strategy is definitely key. Understanding what steps you need to get to the specific goal you're trying to get, get to I'm a big planner, and that's why I created my planner line, but I always would have goals and have three steps to actually get to the goal and actually have dates assigned to it.
So it's one thing to have a goal. It's one thing to have plan a plan for it. And there's another thing to actually start doing it. And a lot of times people, especially when it comes to like new year's goals and stuff like that, you know, your 2019 goal becomes your 2020 goal becomes your 2021 goal because you never put a plan in place that actually has dates.
You know, you have the whole year to complete a goal and then. It's definitely, you know, it's December 15th and you look back and say, Oh shoot, I had the whole year. And I'm just thinking about this now. So I think it really comes down to seeing what you want your brands to look like overall and actually making us a plan to actually get there.
Yes, that's all good information. And then some productivity hacks. So obviously you've done a lot. You've been able to, to maintain efficiency through all the different things you've had to navigate. So are there any productivity hacks that you've learned to help make your marketing more impactful? I don't think I have an answer for the marketing aspects for like productivity and religious and marketing, but I think when it comes to like just day-to-day life and getting things done, it really comes down to.
If you can't hold yourself accountable, try and make somebody else hold you accountable. I think that I've been able to seem like the most success. Once I had somebody working with me at my office, I used to have just like solely virtual help, like virtual assistants, virtual employees, stuff like that.
But once I had somebody that would really sit there and like, look at me, okay, Ruby, you know, get off your phone. Okay. Ruby, turn off clubhouse. I don't even want to hear it no more. You know what I mean? Like that's when it actually becomes a thing where you know, that person's telling you to stop when you can't stop for yourself, because you can use every app, every, you know, tool in the books.
But sometimes you need somebody to actually like slap your hand and tell you to stop. So that's definitely one thing that's helped me. But besides that, I think calendar blocking, cause that really helped when it comes to like productivity and managing my time overall. And then. That's really it, I think managing time, based on calendar blocking and having accountability partners.
And what have you learned about yourself from this journey? I mean, I know you, you mentioned a lot, but if there's one thing that you can take away from, from, you know, who you are based on what you had to enter and how you were able to evolve through this process, what would it be? Yeah. So I think the biggest thing that I had to learn about myself is to remove all the limiting beliefs.
I feel like a lot of times when you start something, you start hearing voices in the back of your head or voices outside of your head, or voices from friends and family that say that you can do something. And I had to really understand that you really can do whatever it is that you want in this world, as long as you put an actionable plan behind it.
And it's actually a goal that you can do. But I think that one of the things that my parents would say to me all the time when I was in like elementary school, when it came to grades was like, you know, if there's a scale of one to a hundred. And somebody is out there getting a hundred, that person doesn't have two heads.
If I had them, like
one thing they're like, that actually makes sense. You know, like at the end of it, we all have blood running through our veins. We all have the same, you know, we don't, we might not have the same circumstances, but we still have opportunity for another day to get to that specific goal. And I think that's one thing that I had to really understand as well, growing up that, you know, I might not come from the best background or I might not have every single thing that I wanted, but I have the opportunity to get it if I want to.
And I put a plan behind it. So one thing that I don't do when I don't let people that are around me do is to have limiting beliefs or have excuses at the end of the day, you have to hold yourself accountable. If I do something wrong, if I'm late to something I'm never pointing my fingers. If I can't pull through on something, that's even seen work-related.
That's my fault. You know what I mean? Cause there's so many different things that could have been done differently. And that's one thing that I had to teach my insurance that were working with me this semester that, you know, it doesn't matter if it's a group work or, you know, two people that are working on something.
If it's not done by the. David it's do you personally could have done something differently to make sure that it was done? So it doesn't matter if the person that didn't do it, whatever the case may be, you personally could have figured out a different plan to get to the destination. You just didn't do it.
So I think a huge thing is just understanding that there's, you know, a whole bunch of different roads to success. There's so many different ways to get there. You just have to make sure that you're getting there. Yeah, I liked that so much. You say you don't let people around you who have limiting limiting beliefs.
I love that. I love that because it really just drowns your energy or drains your energy, as you say, and it makes it harder to fill your cup. So I think it's important to surround yourself with like-minded individuals because they keep sharp. So I like that. Thank you. Okay. So a couple of rapid fire questions, just first thing that comes to mind, try to spit it out.
Okay. I'm a thinker, if you have to think it's okay. Yeah, but the first question is what's one fun fact about yourself. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, you can't say basketball then said everything about myself. He was told you guys speak Chinese. I like to travel by myself. Oh, okay. Okay. Why is that?
Actually, I think I know the reason why, but tell us why, why that is because the different energies can be draining and sometimes we just need time to think yourself. I like that what's one book podcast, or like piece of content that's helped you along the way. I would say a person, I would say Gary B I know a lot of negative connotations towards him, but I think he's definitely somebody that's pushed me a lot to go for different things and just be somebody that as a learner of life or someone that wants to just actually get the information to see what they can do with it.
So I would say anything that he does. I agree. I think people get too lost in how the messages delivered that they forget. It just completely missed the message and this, like, you know, we, we can't be picky in our interpretation. We gotta be able to take the gems no matter how it's delivered and run with it to be able to evolve.
So I like that. What's the best piece of life advice you've you've been given so far. Damn. How are you going to make these type of questions back with fire
to say, what's your favorite color? How old are you?
Well, actually I just didn't, that's my fault. I wouldn't say it's advice, but it's like a scripture that I go by. So my only tattoo is Psalm 46 five, and it says, God is within her. She will not fail. And I feel like the way that you interpreted that is based on your own actual interpretation. So I think it doesn't matter what it is that I'm going to do.
I'm going to find success in it. It is something that I personally don't see, you know, face to face value, something that I might realize. In the long run. I got the tattoo after, you know, I tore my ACL multiple times and every single time I would do it, I'm like, damn, like, what's the chances that I'm the person that's tearing my ACL again and having to do eight months of recovery, you know, so and so forth.
But there's so many positives that come from every single situation. And I think that's. That's one thing that I had to really learn based off of that as a whole, like that, like that a lot, if you could choose one person to be your mentor, who would it be? And I know you mentioned Gary V you can say that if you wanted him to be a mentor, but I have a feeling, it might be somebody, I would say Michelle Obama, I genuinely love that woman.
And I think that she has a lot of different values that align with what, the way that I think overall, and just being able to have conversations with her on a consistent basis can definitely, I think will change my life completely, but I'll take the value that I can get on the internet for now. Okay.
Hopefully she listened to this podcast and maybe she'll reach out to you directly, so we'll make sure that we get in contact with her. Okay. And then the last question, who's on your board of directors. And I like to ask this question because everyone is a CEO of their life. Right. And companies, in order to be successful, they have influential people on their board to be able to steer them in the right direction.
So who's, who's on that board for you. It could be your family. It could be business advisors, a coach therapist, like people just give different answers. I've heard so many different incidents. So you could, you could literally anyone who motivates you, keeps you on track, you know, is aligned with shirt with your core values.
All of that. So this is definitely something that I thought you were being 20. Cause
personally right now, like, as I mentioned this earlier on that I'm a very independent person. I don't really ask for help a lot. I've never had a mentor per se. I've invested in like educational platforms and stuff like that, but I genuinely don't have anybody that I talk to about my businesses. I really just learn what I have to learn and do it.
So I would say that my aunt who said this is God gives me the strength to be able to do what I'm doing right now. So I'm gonna give him the credit, but I really don't talk to my family about business or my friends about business. I make all my decisions by myself and then everybody else that is around me that are in my business, I'm delegating.
So I don't really have that upper hand. That's telling me what to do if that makes sense. So as of right now, I don't really have a specific answer besides just like luck or God's grace and God's favor, but hopefully, you know, this time next year I'll have a different answer and I'll have somebody that's actually directing me towards that.
There are different things that I'm trying to do. Yeah, and that will definitely, I got two people in mind. I forgot to introduce you, but I, I got you because it's been amazing that you've been able to accomplish all this without that support. So I can only imagine where you build, build your businesses and even just build yourself too.
If you had that support people who were matching your energy. So I like that. And again, congrats. Thank you for joining the podcast. I was a chosen. Yeah, it's going to be a fire season, so yeah, I'm definitely happy to have you. And if you could just like shout out anything that you want to plug, you know, I know you knowing you, you probably have a book on the way or something or a soap company.
So just like whatever you want to plug, just say right now, so people can come. You guys can just follow me on Instagram. I'm not really that much of a plugger. You guys, Instagram stories, that's it at lavas Ruby. And if you guys want to get some motivational content at lavish life Academy, we post a lot about financial education, just like all things, wealth education in general, on our page two times a day, 12 and 6:00 PM.
You'll see a different posts. We have a lot of great content on there altogether right now. Okay. All right. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me. Oh, no problem.
Thank you very much for tuning into today's episode. We hope you found immense value in the discussion, but more importantly, we hope you were left with some practical gems that you can use to power your hustle immediately per episode notes for resource lists and cheat sheets, please visit clot one-on-one dot com and to stay up to date on all things.
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