Turn What You Know Into What You Own | Arlan Hamilton

Brandon William Jones (00:01) We are back on Owner Mode Summit. super excited to have a living legend. You know, we talked a little bit before. ⁓ We're recording now around just how big she thinks, right? And how it's inspiring to watch her moves is literally kind of a limitless approach. ⁓ The introduction is a prolific investor, an author, a builder. She's been associated with many brands and platforms that span from tech to consumer.

and experiential and everything in between. We have Ms. Arlan Hamilton with us. Thank you, Arlan, for...

Arlan Hamilton (00:36) Hey,

thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Brandon William Jones (00:39) So today, the theme for today, of course, is our create pathway. And the idea behind this is taking what you know, your knowledge, your expertise, and essentially packaging that into value that you can either monetize or create value for other people. But the essence of it is not being dependent on others, right, to create your opportunities. And I would say, Arlan, you're the poster child of that in a lot of ways. But let's kind of start from the beginning.

I would love to hear your story and maybe tell it from the angle of what led you to what I think is a big differentiator and how you think about the world, which is how you approach risk, of demanding a place in rooms, not really shying away from what a lot of people get intimidated by.

Arlan Hamilton (01:25) Yeah, so I remember when I was like five or four, I was walking outside of my daycare and I was getting on a bus, like a shuttle, and I remember thinking the words, one day everybody will know my name, and I didn't know why I was saying that because I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't know what everybody was or who the world was. I just thought this world is a big world.

And it wasn't about being famous at all. I've never wanted that. But it's about like getting your message out to as many people as possible. And I think that was very ingrained in me at the beginning or just like native. And ⁓ I have just been stirring things up since I was very little. Like I would speak up for certain students. I was also like, you know, the tallest girl in my class for years and kind of have this imposing

figure a little bit and ⁓ you know for better and for worse there's a lot a lot to that but I think you know when my mother named me after her ex-boyfriend when my dad was late to my birth I come from a long like a royal line of petty right like I come from a royal line of ⁓ of just off the beaten path and people have been treating me like

a guy for most of my life because of my name and if they don't know me right and so it's it's been really interesting seeing as a black gay woman how other people are treated before you know me and I just don't think there's any room that you or I should not be allowed to be in you know within reason obviously right like I know privacy and all that but I don't think there's any

public space that you and I should be like, are we allowed to be in here? They're rich in here or they're fancy in here. It's all equal to me. So I've always just had that feeling. was just it's more logical to me than I think a lot of people realize. I think it comes across as like super confident, super brash, but it's just logical to me. Like we are all

equal at birth and I have no evidence to the counter of that.

Brandon William Jones (03:56) God, love it. And so, you know, as we kind of go through your career trajectory, ⁓ and I think folks know that you had some trying times as you've kind of navigated to the point where you are today. But it's funny, when you talk about this story as a youngster, you kind of had like an influencer mindset before that was really a thing, which is I want to make my voice heard, right? And then social media enters the chat, right? And folks like myself,

Arlan Hamilton (04:21) Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandon William Jones (04:25) I stayed away from social media. was like, I don't want my business out there. I feel like my resume should speak for itself. is clear as day to me now that the new resume is your social media presence. But you said that way before, and I would argue, you know, in a 0.01 % in terms of really leveraging the full strength of that. Can you walk us through your career trajectory and how the intersection of where you were and this platform that you can build through social media, helping create opportunities for you in the earlier stages?

Arlan Hamilton (04:35) ⁓ yeah. yeah.

Yeah, there's so much to that. I've had multiple careers and lives, but I would say that what I have found really fascinating and I haven't had a really a lot of time, like chance to talk about it recently. What I found fascinating is that in 2015, when I was making my mark on Silicon Valley, venture capital startup world, and nobody knew me, I was just starting, I had been homeless up until that September.

One thing that I did was write a blog post and that kind of went semi viral to me, right? Thousands of people saw it. And when I wrote the blog post, I got a lot of attention. When I started tweeting about raising a fund, not advertising, but just about the journey. When I started tweeting about these ⁓ black and brown founders who, and these women who were doing so much and nobody was investing in them.

When I was getting into Twitter wars with like billionaires and millionaires, people who cared about me would write me and DM me. And they would say, you're doing too much, you're too out there. That's not how this works. You can't do that as a venture capitalist. And I never listened to them. And I just built my personal brand and my brand around Backstage Capital the way I saw fit. And what I think is so fascinating today.

Is that the biggest funds in the world like Andreessen Horowitz, etc. That's all they're doing is when they when those same people were reaching out to tell me to be quiet They're now doing this as like their model and I just saw It just again comes back to logic. I just saw the wait the more people who know about what I'm doing the more opportunity

I will have for myself and for these investments I'm making for the founders in the hundreds that we're looking at at the time. We don't have any real money. We don't have any real connections. And I say we couple of people, right? So what are we going to do? We have to have some sort of leverage and that needs to be attention and awareness. And to me, it just made all the sense in the world. Now tying it back, you want it to go even further back.

The last thing I did before launching my fund was I was on the road with different musicians. So that had been a lifelong dream of mine to be a tour manager, production coordinator, et cetera. So I had been on the road with Tony Braxton, with Jason Derulo, with a couple other people, international names, and worked my way up over ⁓ maybe two decades almost.

And I saw what they were doing, which is they got attention first and then they use that attention to bring in opportunity. And then they got into some of these tech deals.

And at the end of the day, behind the scenes, the Ashton Kutcher's of the world, the world, the Troy Carter's of the world, the chameleonaires of the world, what they were doing was using their their fame to get into rooms that most people couldn't get into to make these $50,000 investments. So I said, well, I'm not famous, but I can make myself known by a certain group of people. And my my thesis, my thesis or my

plan was I want to be the first call that any woman in America or any black person in America that's kind of the straight up calls the first call they make if they're starting a company that's kind of where it started 2013 2012 and it certainly turned into that I didn't know and how it would turn

Brandon William Jones (08:59) It's funny because, so I went to HBS for business school and one of my good friends ⁓ was a founder for a food delivery company when these were like all the rage. I get a call, I'm in Silicon Valley, I'm at Google. I get a call from him asking me if I could make an introduction to you from his wife who also was HBS because she was launching a concept and she literally was going around saying, who can introduce me to Arlan? And that obviously speaks to.

Arlan Hamilton (09:10) Yeah.

⁓

Brandon William Jones (09:28) exactly what you just said, which is you want to be what people think of. So let me take a step back. It's going to be kind of a tough question for you to answer, but I'm curious how you would answer it, which is you did something really impressive was you were able to raise millions of dollars based on essentially a platform that you were able to create using social media to put a message out there, position yourself as a conduit, right? The connection between founders and capital, right? How much of that would you say if you had to break it up into

the message itself, your ⁓ boldness in being the messenger of that message and the timing of when you delivered that message. Between those three areas, how would you kind of split it up percentage-wise as far as how that all kind of came together?

Arlan Hamilton (10:16) I ⁓ is driven by my drive like it was driven by the fact that I just didn't give up no matter what the timing was because you say the timing it was all kinds of times it was timing where no like I was literally told to not say the words black founders by a million multi-millionaire millionaire investor I should say Jason Kelly Hannes Jason Kelly Hannes told me do not say the word black do not say women we don't do that here

Okay, and this is many lives ago ⁓ before we became friends and then we weren't again. And so the timing was always different. It was either people were not checking for it or everybody was scrambling to find the black person who had already established themselves in this lane because they needed to have some sort of plug because now the world is watching.

You know, so it was all kinds of that. And then I think what the through line was through line was the drive. Like I kept going no matter what good and bad times. I didn't let either one tell me what it was because I knew it was all fleeting. But the biggest part of it was that the founders themselves existed. The founders themselves were the were the receipts. They were the proof.

and I'm not trying to be like Columbus, I discovered them. They were already there. I'm just trying to point at them. Y'all look, they're here. We're here. And so I think it had everything to do with the caliber of the talent and my ability to spotlight them.

Brandon William Jones (12:05) So along your journey, and then we're going to kind of get into this idea of how you thought about opportunity once you're kind of mobilized and built a foundation of your brand and how you thought about that brand and the future of that brand. But before we go there, as I hear stories you talk about, you come across a lot of interesting people along the way. And in some cases, I would imagine it's polarized interactions, big support, in some cases, some hate coming your way.

But you've been in the conversation and you've been able to have kind of interactions with folks. And I would argue that's a form of being in the room. You're able to connect, make your own assessment based on your own interaction of what they're about and maybe the opportunity to collaborate. But what is your observation from kind of having had these interactions with the Mark Cubans of the world, the Sam Altmans of the world, these folks who are really moving and grooving, you know, in your early experience with them, like kind of how...

Arlan Hamilton (12:35) yeah.

Brandon William Jones (13:03) What's your kind of ⁓ perspective on that for the audience who are maybe struggling with just getting their message out enough to get in these rooms to begin with? What would reinforce or maybe be a misconception that you've seen based on your experience interacting with these folks?

Arlan Hamilton (13:19) Yeah, so you're talking about like Mark Cuban. ⁓ He invested six million dollars into Backstage Capital. Essentially, it's a joint venture with the two of us. So I own 30 % of it. He owns 70%. He put all the funding into it. That was his decision to do that split, which is unheard of. And I then share my carry with our investors by like voluntarily. And so Mark and I have

met a few times. I've interviewed him twice on stages and see him all the time. And ⁓ I would say for like and just I'll tell you this even with all that I'll tell you like it is like I have no reason to sugarcoat anything right because of that that you I think before the call you called me a free agent that that's what it what it is. So Mark in my opinion here's a couple things he is

He's very direct. He does not. He may be wrong a lot. Like I tell him he's wrong a lot, but he's direct and he knows what he wants and he knows what he's going to say. Like, you know, he's he's to the point. And I think you have to be when you get as many requests as he does because I get asked a lot and I think he's the only person I know that gets asked more for stuff. So that directness is there.

I also think that he's incredibly intelligent. Like he comes across as like a jock type or like a, I don't know, whatever, frat boy type, but he is incredibly intelligent. And I've seen him do what I do, which is you're in a room with 20 different entrepreneurs and you can talk about each of their companies and each of their industries, you know, at the drop of a dime and help them in some major way.

I've seen him do that in person with no cameras and just really care. And I think that he is, I don't think he's like someone that deserves a parade. I don't deserve a parade for spotlighting the talent that's already there. I think he's a very wealthy man who's incredibly intelligent, savvy.

He realizes like he said to me I said why did you invest when you don't like to invest in other people's funds for the most part? He said you're in rooms. I'll never be in So he's he realizes just like with his basketball team black people made make me So I'm not gonna leave them behind I'm not gonna be a fool and That's the kind of what I've observed about him. I think he's incredibly fair he's

⁓ He is He can change his mind with evidence. So we've had a lot of those discussions where I'll bring something to him And he was like nah, I don't like it and I'll say no this is why and then sometimes he'll just invest in stuff Beyond the six million just because I say that he should and he said, okay, I trust you you said it I'll do it for you ⁓ And then sometimes, you know we get into heated arguments

And it just happens that's what you do and you have two people who are very sure of themselves But care you're gonna have a little bit of butting of the heads and that I think he would find everything I just said very fair ⁓ Sam Altman I've known Sam Altman. So I've known mark since 2018 2019. I've known Sam Altman since 2014 When before I was I had the fun and while I was homeless

when I first got in contact with him and he was at the time he was at Y Combinator I think he was already leading Y Combinator when I met him and this is something that very few people know I can't for the life of me remember if I put it in either of my books but very few people have ever talked to me about this and that is that he was attempting to make backstage capital before it was even in existence

the first fund to go through Y Combinator. He took that to his board or team or whatever. And they had just in that year started taking on nonprofits as like this whole like shaking things up and ACLU and all that. And ⁓ hadn't started yet, but you know what I mean? That started, they eventually happened. And he took it to them and they said, no, they said it doesn't work for our business model.

Brandon William Jones (18:05) Mm.

Arlan Hamilton (18:05) And so that was kind of kind of the kickoff was he connected me to his lawyer so that could have a really fancy lawyer without any money. He didn't know I was homeless. I didn't tell people back then, but I had a lawyer who was like the best. So when I got investments, I could make some moves. And then he took me to Y Combinator. So I found that to be great. And then I saw him rise in the ranks. And then, of course, he launched.

Brandon William Jones (18:25) guys.

Arlan Hamilton (18:33) OpenAI and ChatGPT, Backstage Capital, because of that relationship, I sent him a message and I said, I want Backstage to be an investor, like a direct investor in OpenAI. You need that. You need that on your cap table, even though it's a drop in the bucket of what you've raised. And we made an investment within weeks. So we are, Backstage Capital is an investor in OpenAI. And we are one of the, I think we're the only black led investor on that cap table.

Brandon William Jones (18:53) Mmm.

Arlan Hamilton (19:02) I could be wrong though because I don't know assumptions by names, but I think we are because it hasn't been ⁓ disproven when I say it out loud to him.

Brandon William Jones (19:13) Virtual round of applause for that, I think when we talk about, know, one thing I mentioned to Arlan coming into the call was, you know, there's a lot of doors to be opened in a lot of ways. You're kind of busting a door open, right? You know, for lack of a better word, whether that was backstage capital, the open eye investment. And I just want to just comment on some things I heard, which are more subtle through lines, but I think are important for the audience to hear. So one, have a message, have a perspective, right? And so understand what you stand for.

Once you do that, feel comfortable standing on it and being open about it because it sounds like a lot of people will try to coerce you to be quiet, be less brash about it. But at the end of the day, the benefits, it seems, outweigh the cons as far as the people that are for you are going to open up opportunities. And so then you're getting invited into rooms because you have this perspective that other folks aren't sharing with them. And the smart folks will say, I can learn something from this perspective. Bring this person into the room.

and share, and then that creates relationships and that creates opportunities. So I just want to kind of highlight some of the nuggets I'm hearing in terms of how to navigate and how to think through being yourself authentically, but also creating opportunity from a long-term perspective. It's not transactional, but meeting people in 2014, being consistent about what you stand for, that not changing, and opening opportunities later. So from your branding perspective, I think you built a voice on social media.

That translated into a fund you were able to raise, which was pretty groundbreaking at the time. How did you think about your brand? How did you think about that past Backstage Capital as a platform to build other brands? How would you propose people think through personal branding, the value of personal branding, the flexibility that allows you? What has to stay consistent, even if other things are changing that you're building on that platform?

Arlan Hamilton (21:04) A lot of questions. What I will say, ⁓ be willing to, well first share your voice. Like share, and so many people are, I don't wanna put myself out there like you said earlier, but what's the alternative? You gonna work for somebody else the rest of your life or you gonna hate your job the rest of your life or you're not gonna have any options? Some people love their jobs, but don't you wanna have more options? So I think it's like you have to weigh the two options. And I think,

You said what should stay the same. My willingness to be, to fail in public is like, it's off the charts. My willingness to get L's in public is just like, infinite. And that's why I think people ride with me for so long. Like I have people who still to this day, like I'm about to get on a plane to New York and I'm going to have.

At least somebody come up to me on that plane or in that airport and say, saw you in 2013 or 2017 out of this. It's that. And I think it gives other people permission to do that. When it comes to like the personal brand, it's like authenticity. know that's kind of, you know, a plain word, but it's true. Like whatever your thing is, your thing may not be super confident, super.

kicking in doors, super willingness to fail. It may be something else. It may be I'm a timid person or I'm a very like pragmatic, logical person and I don't like to take risks. But whatever it is, be authentic in it so that when you win, the right person is winning. Because you don't want to keep the mask on. I mean, it's exhausting. So for me, personal brand, came from, I like certain words.

Because my name is Arlan and I never really met another Arlan until I was in my late 20s or whatever and they were all dudes ⁓ or dead doctors, white doctors for some reason. There's a lot of dead white doctors named Arlan that spell them the way I do. Anywho, because I've had this name that kind of stood apart where if you're on a road trip, you go into the gas station, you don't see your name on a key.

I think a lot of people can relate is it just sort of made me feel like, I stand apart. It's just the way it is. So I like words and names like Backstage Capital and ⁓ Interlude Magazine, which I used to have and and Runner and Yacht Water and all these different words and names. And I think the most important thing that will help your audience is to know that

Even though you see me, if you've known me for a while or if you're just learning about me today, even though you'll see all these brands and companies that I own, launched, co-founded, etc. What I did was I worked on Backstage Capital for a decade. And that's all I did all day long, seven days a week, every waking hour was work on this one brand. So it was the brand of me.

But it was backstage backstage backstage. And then once I established it, not to say that we, you know, had incredible success yet, but we will. ⁓ I know more than everybody else does when I know what's going on behind the scenes. So I'll just wait and I'll have a wait. Because I established that foundation, that's when I felt comfortable like moving to something else and. ⁓

I'm an entrepreneur first. So I felt like I was very proud of what I established in the foundation that I set and all of the seeds planted. And now December, 2024, I made the announcement in Inc Magazine that I was stepping back from day-to-day management. So now a team manages it. One of your HBS

⁓ friends britney davis she manages it along with kelly o'connell and ⁓ i'd just bring an opportunity and i'm the largest a cold

Brandon William Jones (25:40) So when you build this platform, you have to kind of choose where you're to spend your energy. As you mentioned, you have inbound coming all the time, right? But you have what I would consider to be an eclectic portfolio of endeavors, of ventures, right? All of them exciting in their own way. What is the through line? How do you decide and curate kind of what's next for you? ⁓ What's the method to the madness?

Arlan Hamilton (25:56) Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Do you mean the companies that I own or invest?

Brandon William Jones (26:09) like a water brand

and then, you know, now you have a basketball league. All these things individually are very exciting. But how do you think about what you're going to put your name on, what you're going to focus your energy on? What is the through line, the philosophy that

Arlan Hamilton (26:22) Yeah

so the way to think about this is not so many not so much of you have all these things is how many things that I say no to.

Brandon William Jones (26:30) Mmm.

Arlan Hamilton (26:32) hundreds and hundreds of real viable opportunities. And so I spend a lot of time thinking through my own pain points and the pain points of people around me and entrepreneurs and customers that are in the thousands and the hundreds that I get to observe. And then I also really want to do things that are

impactful and fun. That's pretty simple. So with Yachtwater, that kind of came from a tweet where a friend of mine, an investor friend was saying, you know, they were asking for their founder. What do you do when an investor says they're going to invest 100,000 and then they ghost you and then they come back when you're doing well? And my response on Twitter randomly in 2021 was you splash them with your yachtwater. Right, like you just

pass them on by in your yacht. And everybody loved it, got all these likes and stuff, and people were talking about it. And that just haunted me for like three and half or two and a half years. And I finally said, I want that. And then what I said was, I don't just want a water brand. That doesn't interest me. What if we had a water brand that was co-owned by more than a thousand people? So now we have 700 retail investors from Reg CF. We also have... ⁓

I'm from Jackson, Mississippi, and their water is as bad as Flint. And so I have been having behind the scenes discussions with their government, with their team, like infrastructure teams. That's a whole other story, by the way. It's really, really scary stuff. But I thought about what what could I do there? And I started working with someone who works with Matt Damon and his water ⁓ initiative.

And so there's all kinds of impact there. I'm also sober now for eight, almost nine years, eight and a half years. And so I wanted to give alternatives to people. So I think through like, what is the impact here? And what is also in alignment with what I want to do? And I also want to have fun. And I think it would be fun to walk into a room or walk into a stadium or walk into a concert and

And the cans, we have three different brands under the Yachtwater Global ⁓ conglomerate now. ⁓ You know, very indie. But how fun would that be to walk into a place and people are holding that? that's why. then women's sports. mean, come on. I've been a I've just I don't know how you don't want to be in that lane. And I've talked to every WNBA ⁓ team there is over the past.

four years and there's a lot of politics and now we're seeing it play out but I always like behind the scenes I saw all this like my god it's so there's so much going on I don't know if I want to just be an investor in one team or something like that so I was like well what can I look for that is different and something an opportunity came to me and they were building from the ground up and I decided to be part of that so I just think that it's all about like staying aligned

staying focused, not going to every shiny object. Because like I said, for every one of these, I can tell you a hundred that were offered. And I said no.

Brandon William Jones (30:05) Right.

So what is Arlan Hamilton's goal setting process? So I know, for example, you've launched, and we should talk about this as well, your first million, which out the box, huge arena, right? know, kind of the who's who on stage, the live event. Right. I'm talking about the live event.

Arlan Hamilton (30:24) the live event. Because my book is called Your First Million and there's Your First Million Live. Yeah.

Brandon William Jones (30:30) Again, going back to these really ambitious goals, this would have intimidated a lot of people because it's a capital intensive exercise. A lot of ways you're mobilizing your base that you built with your book, probably more than ever before to show up, et cetera. How do you set goals? What is your goal setting process? Do you set goals? How do you think about achievement and what you're looking to do? so we talked about what you say no to, but what are the visions that you have for five years, 10 years, one year, if at all?

Arlan Hamilton (30:38) You

for your first million live or just in general? Yeah, I don't know if I set goals. Like I don't do like... ⁓

Brandon William Jones (31:03) No, just in general, because that is the output of...

Arlan Hamilton (31:12) like vision board type things. I do, I will say this. I have an exercise that I introduced in my first book, It's About Damn Time, where I talk about writing your own headline. And it's the same, it's in the same lane as vision boards and the secret and all that, which is what do you want to be said about you in five years? What do you want the truth to be, the headline to be? And I use that as a north star all the time still. And I use that early on when the toughest times.

raising backstage the toughest times. So like with your first million live, I looked at it and said, know, I have all these people, have so many entrepreneurs and so many investors. I want to get them in the same room together. I know so many people who are millionaires and so many people who are just starting their careers and their journeys as an entrepreneur. I want to get them in the same room together. So the tagline is we're current and future millionaires convene.

And that's where it just really started. It was like a germ of an idea. I did envision the stage. I envisioned I said, I wonder if I could get TLC to put on an arena level concert at this thing the first year. And then next thing you know, I'm watching TLC put on an arena level concert at your first million live. And it's just kind of like. I don't look at things as like, that's crazy. I can't do that. I never think that. I just think I don't have the money for that.

Where do I go and get it? How do I earn it? What partnerships do I create? And what you know first and foremost what impact is it going to have? Is it going to be like this vanity party? I don't need to put on a major wedding like I don't need to do that. My own wedding wasn't that so why would I do that? No actually if you can get 2,000 people in a room there's an unlimited amount almost

of opportunity that will be created. And that's exactly what happened. So I just, I just, if I want something to exist in the world and it doesn't already exist, I get, I set myself to the task of creating it.

Brandon William Jones (33:24) And so for the audience and please don't take offense by this parallel, but I have to say this because I see the parallel, which is when you combine for the audience, a very strong vision, in this case, I want to see TLC doing this thing and you made it. So visualizing this thing, like a really clear vision, a supreme level of confidence, and then ultimately the superpower of willing to take public L's. It reminds me of Kanye before he went left, right? Where he is...

Arlan Hamilton (33:30) Ooh.

⁓ Well, he went

right let's talk about where it really went Kanye Okay, I thought you were gonna say Elon Musk and I was gonna be more offended. But yeah Kanye ⁓ Okay, I haven't been

Brandon William Jones (33:55) Right, exactly. So he inspired a lot of people. Exactly. And the reason I'm saying that is because I

think all those things are individually hard to do. A lot of people struggle to have a vision of where they want to go. A lot of people struggle on having supreme confidence. The biggest struggle probably is willing to take public ills, particularly if you have already been perceived as successful already in your life, because now your acne is in.

Arlan Hamilton (34:20) Yeah,

I think the only pushback I'll have there is I think that Kanye is a megalomaniac. So I think he is an egomaniac. So I, a lot of moves I make could seem like that, I can imagine. But if you saw the work that was put into it and all the people that are put on by them, that to my detriment, like constantly to my detriment, ⁓ I don't relate to that.

Brandon William Jones (34:30) For sure.

Arlan Hamilton (34:48) But I understand the creativity side of it for sure. envisioning a world that doesn't exist, kind of Mad Max, not Mad Max, but envisioning a world that does not already exist and putting a little bit of that artistry to it. I thought you were gonna say Elon Musk and I would have been offended.

Brandon William Jones (35:09) So let's get a little bit into the sausage making and, know, Kanye, for example, he's known for when he did 808 and Heartbreaks, flying people to Hawaii, having a certain studio experience. He's, he's regimented. We're doing this at eight. We're going to the gym. We're doing this. We're doing that. I'm curious to kind of get under sausage making. And we were introduced to a mutual connection, Mel, shout out Mel, who you've worked with on some of your, your ventures. Help us understand one, you're super prolific on social media.

You're very active. You're writing a lot. You're putting stuff out there a lot. You have all these ventures happening simultaneously. And then you're doing a bunch of planning for whatever's coming next. Give us some insight into how you organize. What are the systems? How does this all work kind of underneath the surface?

Arlan Hamilton (35:54) wish I could give you some really interesting answer, but I don't have one. I wake up, I always have something to do. I always decide what am I like inspired to do today? And then I do it. And I have, I've had large teams before and I've had, I've gone through all kinds of layoffs and all kinds of ups and downs financially. And I've had...

really lean, lean, lean teams. And ⁓ I think when it is when you find somebody like Melanie Jones, who we both know connected us, who is right now training executive assistants because she's so, so good at what she does. I'm sorry, she's training chiefs of staff. Chiefs of staff because she started as my executive assistant and then she became my chief of staff. When you have one or two like...

forget A players but just like you can't even describe them. That's super helpful because they're playing at your level and they're running with you and then I really like now at 45 after all I've done and all the kind of seeds planted just waiting for the harvest I really like calm and simple. So I do a lot of the stuff myself

Like I mean, when I go back to my email, I'll probably have 20 emails that I need to respond to that are like $10 customer service messages. And I upload everything on YouTube and I just when it it kind of inspires me to do it because I love it. And I think that I think that having like I do have editors, so that's helpful, but I usually just upload.

Like today I'll put something up and it's just me talking for 28 minutes and just I'm just gonna upload it. I think that the closer you can be to the process of the content creation, the better. Now I gained 150,000 YouTube subscribers in I think 18 months or something. I think that's what it was, yeah. And when that started to take off, it wasn't when I was in the studio, when I...

flew across the country to meet up with producers. It wasn't any of that. It was when I opened up my laptop, just like I am here, got on Zoom or whatever I use, QuickTime, whatever you have, and pressed record and came with the quality of the content. And I taught somebody, every video has to have a purpose. So when I go on YouTube, I'm not just going to do fluff. I'm only going to upload if I have a purpose. So I record. When I started doing that,

I started having like 300, 400, 500 people subscribing a day. And then it just grew from there. Same thing with Instagram. So there are certain tools, think AI is like incredible to say the least, and there are certain tools that can help you. But I just don't have a system. I wish I could tell you I did.

Brandon William Jones (39:09) Well, I guess your system is consistency because that's one thing that's been been true. I want to get back. Good.

Arlan Hamilton (39:13) Yeah, all day, all day. There's, I mean, let

me, let me say this, like I'm on school, S-K-O-O-L, I'm on school. I started August 4th, 2024, and I have not missed one day since. And you can see that on your, on your profile. You see it with green dots. Mine is solid. It's very rare, solid.

Brandon William Jones (39:34) What's

the secret in your opinion? And it's probably not a secret, but what is your secret to remaining consistent?

Arlan Hamilton (39:42) I only do what I want to do. So if I want to do it, then I enjoy it, then I keep doing it. So a lot of times people are looking for what can make me money or what's the niche I need to be in that's going to make the most money the fastest. And so they start making content for that thing and they start putting together lead magnets and PDFs and AI tools. And then they're like three months in and like, I don't really enjoy this. So of course they drop off.

because why would you keep going? you either make your hobby your main thing and then you're just set. Like if I could make a living, which I say if, I could. I could make a living from my loving watching General Hospital. If I wanted to, I could just create an entire YouTube channel, an Instagram channel, a school, and I could just be off to the races podcasting about it. So you either make your hobby your main thing and then you're kind of

You're kind of going to be consistent. Don't let anybody tell you it's too childish or foolish or whatever. Just do it. People are making bank on Pokemon and all that. Do it. Or you tap into your lab framework, which is your what have you learned from? What have you then applied to your life? And then what have you benefited from or someone else has benefited from it? And if you can find that and then you align that in the Venn diagram of I also enjoy it.

then you're you have a foundation of something real instead of like going to chat gpt and saying what are the top 10 industries or the top 10 niches that i should start my youtube channel on that rarely works out

Brandon William Jones (41:24) And so assuming you apply the lab approach when you determine what is valuable. So when you're consistently coming to YouTube, you're doing videos, you're using that lab format to say, here's what I'm going to talk about. How much work goes into scripting versus freestyling? And are people overthinking sometimes? Just turn the mic on and get better over time.

Arlan Hamilton (41:44) Yeah,

it all depends on what you're doing. So some people are going to be doing straight up entertainment stuff and that's really viable. Like my brother runs Real Life Street Stars. So he runs the blue couch white light wall that you see a lot of you know, it's been repurposed like billions of times and these interviews that are scandalous. ⁓ And so he's going to have a different kind of vibe than I'm going to have. But when it comes to education, even if it's not about teaching other entrepreneurs how to make money, whatever your whatever your lane is, if you're teaching

My suggestion is right in the middle. Not to script. It looks too fake and it's not landing with people. People have all these options. They can go to masterclass if they need to watch that. And it's also not winging it to the point where you're just getting on there wasting people's time. You're just him highing. You're taking forever to get to the point or even start. Please don't have a theme song if you are not Oprah Winfrey. Please, we don't need that on your YouTube videos. Give that to your family in a Vimeo.

Instead, right in the middle, bullet point outline. Plan your video. What is this video going to be about? What is it going to be the takeaway? What? Why am I doing this video? What am I going to teach somebody or help somebody with? Or if I don't, if I'm not a teacher, what am I learning that I can just share my learning experience? Bullet point it. Have it somewhere in front of you. I always put like a little page, you know, you can on your MacBook, a little page. Have some information there. Bullet points.

and go. Now you're not going to be perfect at this out the gate or great at this but that's why you need to put up 10, 20, 50 videos. Not so you can start making money immediately and like that's how it happens go viral it's so that you get the reps in you build your chops you learn from every video and you get a little bit better but that's what I would do I I

don't script. Like I think there was like a month where I was experimenting with scripting and I just am so robotic that it doesn't work.

Brandon William Jones (43:44) Can

you tell us a little bit around, you know, there's multiple platforms that could be overwhelming for folks, right? You know, some people would say stick to one platform. Other folks would say have a tree trunk and have branches and what's your, how do you deal with that? Cause you seem to be pretty prolific on blogs, on social and on YouTube at the same time.

Arlan Hamilton (44:04) If I had to choose just one to go all in on and I was not allowed to go anywhere else when it comes to content, it would be YouTube. YouTube has depth and analytics and algorithm that you cannot compare to any other place. Like I think the closest you can get to is what Meta does with their ads. That's how granular and precise YouTube algorithm is.

So what YouTube is doing is trying to put your, it's trying to make the viewing experience for the viewer as great as possible, as accurate as possible. So next time go to your homepage on Zoom, I'm sorry, your homepage, go to your homepage on YouTube. Look at your homepage, look at what it's feeding you. It's pretty good. So when you put up a video,

It takes the transcript and it says, okay, this video is about this thing. I'm going to put it in front of these people and see if they like it. Now you can have the best video content in the world. You could be teaching something like that should be paid for. But if your packaging is bad, no one's ever going to click on it. And if they don't click, they don't watch it. So you need to have your thumbnail, that picture that's on your YouTube. The thumbnail needs to be clear. There's multiple things about that, but

You can even look it up on YouTube. How do I have a great thumbnail? ⁓ You need to have your title that needs to be a specific way and then your hook, the first thing that you say. So the concept is part of the packaging. What is this video about? What's the point? The thumbnail and the title will get people to click and then the hook, the first few words you say that reinforce the thumbnail and the title will get people to stay.

because it's the payoff. And the longer you can keep people watching, the more that tells YouTube, I like them. They want people on their site so they can sell ads. They can put place ads. So the more you can keep somebody on YouTube for them, the more they like you and they put you in front of people. So all you need to do is have the right content and YouTube will help you find the right audience.

Brandon William Jones (46:24) Got it. What tools, especially with AI now, are you using? What's your go-to stat?

Arlan Hamilton (46:32) Chat GBT all day long, a little bit, ⁓ everything. use chat GBT every day. I use it to help me brainstorm, to organize, to go granular. Like one thing you can do is like if you're trying to figure out what to offer, what product to have, think about what your overall niche is gonna be, kind of lane you're gonna be in. Say what are the 10 steps to doing this? Like I wanna be a painter. What are the 10 steps to becoming a painter? It gives you the 10 steps.

Brandon William Jones (46:34) What do you ⁓ use it for specifically?

Arlan Hamilton (47:02) Go to the first step. Say, what are the 10 steps of the first step? When it lists that, you have your first 10 videos that you can put on YouTube, or your first five lead magnets, or your first name of your product. OK, you can get more and more granular. Now, you may decide, I don't want to talk to beginners. I want to talk to people who have reached a certain point and they're over here. And that's where you can play with it. So I do it with that. do it.

to then to create prompts. So I have prompt shop in a box where I give you my 125 bestselling prompts, like the words that you put into chat GPT and AI to have an output. And so that's the tool I use is prompt shop in a box. I use chat GPT, a little bit of cloud, but the big one, the big one that I want people to take away is, and I'm not getting paid from them. I wish I were lovable.

Lovable all day long is an AI agent that helps you build landing pages helps you build ⁓ products ⁓ Lead magnets the delivery like I have different dashboards and OS's that I built vibe coded on Lovable and then I've like one of them prompt shop in a box just the sales page alone came from Lovable has made more than a hundred thousand dollars since October and Then I have where I deliver the product

Unlovable which is like a full dashboard. There's one of them YouTube OS where I just give you everything I just described but I give you the tools for it has 21 AI tools inside of it that I buy Yes, well, it's love. It's an AI agent Exactly. Yeah, I they did the two 2025 lovable rap for the end of year I'm in the top 1 % of users because I use it so often

Brandon William Jones (48:39) and you're building this yourself.

I mean, you are in level, but yourself doing okay.

Arlan Hamilton (48:56) Also in the top 1 % of viewers of my pages Because I promote it with YouTube. So everything I've said today I do That's what I want everybody to do it. It's not difficult, right? It's it's just like you go into lovable Chad GPT you ask it Hey, give me a prompt to put into lovable that will give me the best Landing page for this the sales page the best copy that it'll give it to you go to lovable plug it in

Brandon William Jones (49:03) Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton (49:25) and it'll just give you 80 % of a page and then you just work with it. And then you can just, you know, this would have taken weeks or months and yes, like there are some people who are out of work because of this, because you're able to do it yourself. But if you are someone yourself who is a web designer or someone like that, this makes you Iron Man.

Brandon William Jones (49:30) Mmm.

⁓ So, Chaggbt and LevelBull are your go-to AI tools. I know you have a flight to catch, so I'm going leave you with one last question. A thousand plus folks are watching this. This is called the owner mode summit because there's folks who are maybe at high paying jobs, in W2s. This idea of security is fleeting because of AI, because of geopolitical activity, you name it.

But folks are now at a point where they're saying, I need to understand what I'm going to do. You specifically have built, you've been really successful in building a brand that has been able to provide flexibility and options for you to live the life you want to live and make a good living while you're doing it. A lot of folks here maybe haven't built their social media presence. Maybe they're starting from scratch. Can you just speak to why it's so important to get started and what would be kind of the, in your opinion, the urgency of getting started sooner rather than later?

Arlan Hamilton (50:41) I mean, they said recently there was a report that said every, I think they said it was like every 12 weeks now, the tech stack completely changes on AI. And that's only going to accelerate. So it's not about like knowing everything that's going on in AI, because we'll never catch up. The people who are the most advanced people don't know everything that's going on in AI, because it'll always be changing. But if you don't get into the arena,

to understand the overall concepts. What is an LLM? What is chat GPT, large language model? What is an AI agent like lovable? What does that mean that they get together and they do stuff for you? If you don't get those concepts and just learn a few simple things, then everything is gonna feel so foreign to you that you will feel completely left out. And this is finally the meritocracy that Silicon Valley has been.

talking about for decades. It's finally based on anybody in the world can have the same access to the same tools and the same information and learn it. when we are in a meritocracy, I know this for myself and I know this for the people I work with, black people, brown people, women, ⁓ LGBTQ plus, et cetera. When we are in a meritocracy situation, we tend to overperform. Because when you put us on level playing field,

We're really good by and large. This is the moment for you to get on that level playing field so that you can outpace everybody. And then you can have options. So it's not about like, I got to make millions even though my book is your first million. It could be what if I just replace my salary by putting up a lovable page that makes money while I sleep or starting a school, S-K-O-O-L that has, you know, 100 people in it.

Brandon William Jones (52:10) Hmm.

Arlan Hamilton (52:38) and gives me an extra couple thousand dollars a year because of different methods. So I teach this inside of my five day challenge. It's a free challenge. It's called the $100 offer challenge. So day one, I help you find your offer and I give you a custom GPT to do that, which is an AI tool. Day two, I teach you how to promote it. Day three, I teach you how to build the audience. Day four, I teach you how to sell it. And day five, I teach you how to put it on automation. So you can

sell in your sleep. And it's all free is at arlinsyourfirst5k.com. And hopefully you'll put that on the screen or send it out to people. Because I want you to have this access. Right now there are 10,000 people in it. 10,000 people. It's real and it works. So please come in it. Please, please, please do this for yourself.

Brandon William Jones (53:16) We'll definitely follow up with that.

We will do

it because Arlan is the real deal. She lives it, right? A lot of people talk about it. I think that's a big difference with the folks that you see out there. Who's done it? Who's talking about it? And with that, I know you got to catch this flight, Arlan. Thank you so much for dropping these gems, creating some urgency, and showing some forward thinkingness. Congrats on all your success. Consider us friends here. Audience, give her a virtual round of applause for Arlan. And with that, we will let you go. Thank you so much, Arlan. We really appreciate you.

Arlan Hamilton (53:58) Thank

you, Brandon. Amazing. You did an amazing job.

Brandon William Jones (54:00) All right,

take care.