The Detached podcast
Welcome to the podcast. This is a space where I get to vocalize my thoughts and dive deep into conversations with some truly remarkable individuals. It’s not about surface-level chit-chat—this is where we get into the real stuff. We talk about the things that matter: health, fitness, relationships, and the process of breaking free from the limitations we place on ourselves.
I don’t believe in small talk, because nothing meaningful ever comes from it. So, let's dig deep into the topics that can actually change your life. I want to bring you value, provoke your thinking, and help you see the world differently.
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Sophia
The Detached podcast
EP : 88 From Drug Addiction to Crypto Influence: One Entrepreneur's Raw Journey
Ever wonder what's really happening behind those flashy crypto promotions and million-dollar influencer deals? In this raw, unfiltered conversation with crypto entrepreneur James, we strip away the hype to reveal the uncomfortable truths about blockchain technology, cryptocurrency investments, and the often-manipulated world of digital assets.
James pulls no punches as he shares his journey from ambitious 19-year-old recruitment company founder to successful crypto influencer. With refreshing honesty, he explains how blockchain works as "an online ledger that tracks transactions" and why it's revolutionizing payments and property transactions worldwide. But he also drops a bombshell that most won't admit: "95 percent of people lose money in crypto" because they don't understand what they're buying or when to sell.
The conversation takes fascinating turns as James reveals the inner workings of meme coins (he was involved in over 100 last year alone), the truth about paid promotions, and how top crypto influencers can earn 1-3 million dollars monthly. We explore the dark underbelly of the crypto space, including scams, botted accounts, and paid awards that create an illusion of credibility. His advice for newcomers? Invest time in education before investing money.
Perhaps most compelling is James' personal revelation about overcoming cocaine addiction, a struggle that transformed his outlook on life and business. "When you wake up every single day and the first thing you think of is when you're going to do drugs, once you get through that, the hardest battle is with yourself," he shares. This experience shaped his disciplined approach to business, relationships, and purpose—a philosophy that every challenge after addiction seems manageable by comparison.
Whether you're crypto-curious, already invested, or simply fascinated by the psychology of success, this episode offers valuable insights about wealth, freedom, and the relentless pursuit of growth. What limiting beliefs or habits might you need to detach from to reach your full potential?
Welcome back to another episode of the Detached podcast. I have quite an unusual episode today because I have someone from the crypto space known as James. Thanks for being on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 1:So the crypto space does seem to be quite challenging for people to get their head around, and I really want to kind of dive in a bit deeper.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, I was looking at the camera.
Speaker 1:I'm here, hello, I was posing. You can look at the camera if you want, or you can look at me, but yeah, so where do we even start? For someone who doesn't know what crypto is, what is it?
Speaker 2:So ultimately, it's blockchain and crypto right. Blockchain is ultimately an online ledger that just tracks transactions, so it can't be hacked, can't be changed, it can't be amended. That's why a lot of rwa projects, logistic projects, property is now starting to go to the blockchain as well. It cuts out solic, it cuts out false paperwork and everything can be tracked on the blockchain. It's great for payments. If I make a payment to you, you can't say, oh, it hasn't arrived the way it was. On the blockchain it is ultimately an online ledger, a system that's trackable, and it can't be changed, hacked or altered. That's kind of, in a nutshell, what it is.
Speaker 2:Obviously, there's so much more more to crypto. You can use crypto for payments. That's that's how I got into crypto. Um, to kind of get around the banks. If you walk into a bank in the uk and you take a thousand pound cash or you try and get a thousand pound cash, you have to fill out forms or paperwork. You can't work with cash right. So in crypto I can send you a million dollars right now. It costs me less than a dollar to send and it go through instantly, depending what chain you're using. So I I mainly use it for payments and that's how I got into crypto. And then there's there's so many more things that you can do with crypto as well.
Speaker 1:So what did you do before you got into this space?
Speaker 2:So I've done. I've been self employed since I was 19. I'm now 33. I had a.
Speaker 2:I set up a recruitment company when I was 19 called JR recruitment. I had one month's experience in recruitment. Previous that was in property. I worked for, I think, three or four different estate agents in the space of a year. Then I went into recruitment for a month and I thought I'm just going to set up my own recruitment agency. Didn't really know what I was doing but I just kind of winged it. Luckily, one of the estate agents that I previously worked for so I was specializing in property recruitment, so one of the estate agents I previously worked for he gave me some jobs to work on. I advertised the jobs, basically qualified people, sent over candidates and he took three people from me in the first month of me setting up the recruitment company and I kind of just winged it and learned as I went along. I think a lot of businesses is common sense, it's initiative, right. So if you've kind of got that sales ability, you can speak to people, everything else will follow. You can work it out.
Speaker 1:Where did you learn that wing it mentality?
Speaker 2:I think you're kind of just born with it. I don't really think it's something that you can learn. It's just initiative, and I think if everyone had initiative the there wouldn't be like different kind of categories like millionaires, billionaires and obviously middle class and lower class. It's, it's just something that you're born with. I don't really think that you can learn it what kind of kid were you then?
Speaker 2:naughty I got. I got kicked out of school. Finished school 14, um I was working in my mom's factory shadow watch company. So I was working in factory for a bit. And then I was working in a car wash um, when I was young as well, and they just paid me in cash. And then I was working in tesco um, I was working. I did like an apprenticeship in estate agent as well when I was like 16. I just kind of had like loads and loads of jobs and I think you need to do that to work out what you like doing. I don't understand why people do a job and they're stuck in that job for 30 years. There's so much out there. You need to do as many jobs as possible when you're young to work out what you like, what you don't like, and then you'll eventually fall in something and everything will come together.
Speaker 1:How did your family treat that transition in between multiple jobs? How did they take that on board?
Speaker 2:um, they kind of left me to get on with what I want to do. Um, my mom's an entrepreneur, my dad was an entrepreneur, my uncle's an entrepreneur as well, so they've all had their own businesses um, some of them very, very successful businesses. Um, I never got any handouts, but they just let me kind of do what I want to do.
Speaker 1:And yeah, everything will fall into place. What?
Speaker 2:makes a good entrepreneur? That's a good question actually, I think, being able to do a business or do something in not working. But you can continue to try. A lot of people they want to have a business, they want to be an entrepreneur. As soon as it's get, as soon as it gets difficult, they give up. You have to continue working with zero results, knowing that if you continue putting in the activity, the results will come. And that's why the recruitment company in the beginning went really really well, because I didn't focus on the money, I focused on putting in the results. If I get x amount of jobs from clients, book in X amount of interviews, we're going to get X amount of offers, which is going to equate to deals right. So by putting in the work as a byproduct, you'll get the result, which is money. So you have to kind of have a passion and enjoy what you're doing and then the money will come.
Speaker 1:Would you say you're a very money driven person a very money-driven person.
Speaker 2:Money brings freedom. People say money doesn't buy happiness and stuff. But ultimately being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it flying business class anywhere, going to any restaurant you want, buying anything you want, obviously within reason. Not, I'm not kind of at the level where I'm like super, super yachts and jets and stuff yet, but I will be soon, hopefully. Uh, if I can tell you what I'm doing. Um, I believe that you have to have money in life to to be happy, because it buys freedom. If you're stuck in a nine-to-five for 30, 40 years, you don't have the freedom, you can't spend time with your family, with your kids, you can't go on holidays, you can't do what you want to do. So I work harder now than if I was in the nine-to-five, but it's because I choose to do it and then ultimately that brings the freedom and the flexibility. But I love what I do anyway, so I don't really see it as work when you were growing up, were you in a position that was financially stable?
Speaker 1:were your parents financially stable?
Speaker 2:yeah, in regards to handouts I didn't get handouts, but in regards to living in a nice house, going on holidays, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:Do you think that helps when you want to obviously make a lot of money, when you are operating from a place of abundance rather than scarcity?
Speaker 2:It sets a standard right. You don't want to kind of go from that and then you go and work a job and then you'll make an X amount of money and you can't afford to maintain that lifestyle. So I think there's two kind of people that succeed in life the people that have absolutely nothing and they're hungry to get it. And then the other people that have had a standard set for them. They haven't had the handouts and they now need to go and make it on their own way to maintain that life. I think the other side of it is the kids that come from rich families that are given the handouts, that don't have that kind of hunger inside of them. So I think it's like one extreme to the other. You've had it, you want to maintain it. Now you want to, like, prove a point and be bigger than the rest of your family. Um, or you're so hungry you haven't had anything and you you've got that kind of fire inside you to make it work like. Those kind of people are dangerous.
Speaker 1:They they can really like, do well what's your passion and purpose in life right now?
Speaker 2:I. I take every day as it comes, so I don't set a monthly goal, uh, weekly well, I set small weekly goals, but I just focus on every day as it comes. What I do is I, so my main thing now is content. I do the advisory side, I do the marketing side as well, but my main thing is content. Uh, basically crypto content creator. So I just focus on doing videos. I focus on networking, I focus on meeting the right people and everything else falls into place. I don't really have a business plan.
Speaker 1:I just focus on every day as it comes so cryptocurrency seems to get such a bad reputation for some people that don't have a clue about it. Um, with that being said, why do you think people feel a bit risk adverse to cryptocurrency, and why do you think it has a bad reputation amongst these it's?
Speaker 2:highly manipulated. Um, most people lose money in crypto. They don't understand how to do technical analysis, fundamental analysis. They they don't really know when they look at a chart, a bitcoin chart they don't a Bitcoin chart. They don't know if it's high. They don't know if it's low. They see people talking about Bitcoin. They go and buy it and then, even if they get a good entry, they're just right all the way to the top and the bottom again. So I think they're uneducated in the crypto space. They don't really know what they're buying. They just see influencers speaking about it or they see it on the news and they're going by it. Um, you can make a lot of money in crypto, but it's not. It's not easy. 95 percent of people lose money in crypto. You, you really need to understand what you're doing to make money in crypto where do you start?
Speaker 2:that's a very good question. I started on youtube, uh, but I wouldn't really advise that to. I suppose you. You can go on youtube, but there's a lot of bullshit. You need to filter through the shit to get to the good content. I wouldn't look at influencers that are shilling projects and talking about projects and saying buy this because nine times out of 10, they're paid to say that. I look at the actual stuff where it's people explaining about crypto, explaining about Bitcoin, learning how to trade, and then you have to kind of find your own way and see what you're good at and it's not for everyone. You need to kind of whatever you put in crypto, you have to be willing to lose. That it is very risky, but there again, the the rewards that you can get from it are massive what portion of your savings would you put into crypto?
Speaker 2:um, I don't really have. I've got savings for bills, but 90% of what I have is always invested. I always have invested either on the passive income that's bringing in monthly on like safe returns, and then crypto. Then I do some trading as well, then I invest into small businesses and stuff. So I don't really have savings. I don't believe in having savings every pound that you've got that should be out working for you to generate more money. I don't believe have savings. I don't believe in having savings Every pound that you've got that should be out working for you to generate more money. I don't believe in just having a million dollars or a couple of million dollars sitting there as savings. Like when you get to a very, very high level and you're worth like 50, 60, 100 mil plus, then yeah, have savings. But the level I'm at, I want it for me to get to the 100 mil plus level. I need the money to be working for me to be able to get there. I can't just have savings because it's a waste.
Speaker 1:You mentioned a safe investment. What does that look like for you?
Speaker 2:Property. All of the money that I make in crypto are basically put into property.
Speaker 1:Okay, and is that based here in Dubai?
Speaker 2:It's all over UK and Dubai mainly.
Speaker 1:What's your thoughts on the Dubai market in terms of property?
Speaker 2:I think it's gone up a lot. I was looking at Jumeirah Golf Estates. It's gone up like over 100% in the last couple of years. I think there's a correction coming, so I'm just sitting tight at the moment to wait for the correction hopefully.
Speaker 1:When we mentioned there about where you look at your resources and you find out people on youtube to be able to educate yourself about cryptocurrency, who were the foundational people that you started learning from the beginning my favorite channel is cheeky crypto.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think it's a guy called chris nick and they got another guy now as well. Absolutely brilliant. Um, another guy's watching was coins kids. Um, another guy I was watching was Coins Kid. They're kind of the main two channels just because they don't really shill projects for the sake of shilling projects. The way that they make their money is from they're paid by YouTube and they also have a course and stuff, but the content is very, very, very good content. So those two channels the main channels I was watching.
Speaker 2:When did you start investing in cryptocurrency 2018,? I think roughly 2018. I've been doing it like full full time for the last four years, but I've been in crypto for about six years now, but the first two years I was using it mainly to get around the banks.
Speaker 1:So what's your idea about traditional banking now?
Speaker 2:I think look, bitcoin. People say that Bitcoin is going to replace fiat currency. I don't think that's ever going to happen. The institutes and the wells in crypto Michael Saylor, trump, a lot of countries, they own Bitcoin right, so they've got so much Bitcoin it can never replace like the dollar. So I think that crypto is always going to be volatile. Bitcoin is going to kind of stabilize a bit more as the years go on, but I don't think it's ever going to replace traditional um finance at what point did you feel like maybe buying the banking system is completely backwards?
Speaker 2:when they block your own money and you can't go and buy things or you can't put cash or take cash out of the bank. The bank should be there for you to basically put money into it and that's your money. But it's not. Whenever you put money into the bank, it's the bank's money and they basically give you an IOU check and promise you at a later date you can take it out and you have problems to then take it out, especially like international uh transfers and cash now you don't have to answer this question, but what has been the biggest loss that you've had when it comes to crypto?
Speaker 2:The biggest loss. Probably when I first started I lost over a hundred I can't remember the exact amount over a hundred thousand dollars in the first two years. And yeah, that was basically investing into the wrong projects. I was trading, didn't really know how to trade, it was basically gambling. And then I had some wins and then, yeah, just had a bunch of losses and you always think that you can win it back. It feels like the casino. When you first start, edge had a bunch of losses and you always think that you can win it back you.
Speaker 1:It feels like the casino when you first start. So would you say that cryptocurrency is like borderline, nearly gambling. For some people it can be like people's 100 100.
Speaker 2:Crypto is full of deagons. It's a very um, the market's manipulated. This is why I I trade a bit, but I don't really trade too much because you don't know whether trump's gonna announce something that's gonna completely mess up the market or if it's gonna, uh, basically make the market go up or down or whatever. So, um, I think it yeah, it's. It's pretty much gambling. You need to learn what to do. I think the best thing with if you're going to trade, do forex or or something like that. But trading crypto is very difficult unless you're going to trade the small moves and do like day trading.
Speaker 1:Who should you learn off if you want to learn how to trade?
Speaker 2:So I don't really do any trading content. Probably Cheeky Crypto. Those guys are honestly brilliant. I saw them at the event the other day, token 2049. I'd highly recommend them. Yeah, you can actually learn from them. A lot of influencers they're saying stuff because they're paid to say it. These guys, you can actually learn. They're really really good. I'm not being paid to say that. I've only met them once, so, yeah, Elaboration coming soon.
Speaker 1:In the industry, then, because there's so many influencers in the crypto space I see it all the time. I've seen lots of. I can think of one in particular as well. A lot of them can be quite shady.
Speaker 2:Which one's that that you can you say on camera or you can cut to that.
Speaker 1:I'll say maybe off camera, but yeah, a lot of them can be quite shady. So what has been your worst experience in the crypto space?
Speaker 2:I can't mention the name because it was an ongoing case in Dubai. But there was a influencer that's fully botted, but he goes for the award. All of the awards are manipulated the crypto awards you basically pay to win. This is why I don't bother with the awards. You pay to win the award. You go up on stage. It's all a load of bullshit, right, he was meant to be a big influencer, but he's not. He's fully botted. He went and done a number of rugs last year, um, and then there was a dispute with with me and him where I basically allegedly called him a scammer and then he went and went to the police and and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So I think the problem is the people that you look at that you think are high level in crypto. Most of the time they're broke, and if they're not broke, they made their money from scamming and then they've kind of got this certain image where the newbies in crypto might want to learn from their thinking, thinking they're someone and they've been successful, but they haven't. They've done it the bad way, kind of thing. So I think there's a lot of um, there's a lot of scammers in crypto. It's a bit like the, the wild west and it's very difficult for people to find good people to actually learn from. So you want to learn more, the fundamentals and learn about bitcoin, blockchain, crypto kind of what to look for in projects, rather than just following an influencer because you like their videos and then buying what they tell you to buy.
Speaker 1:Never, ever, buy one influencer will tell you to buy where do you go for your resources to learn for projects?
Speaker 2:um, probably I know what I'm looking for now, but I mean probably chat gpt, coin market cap. Uh, coin market cap's great. You basically have the white paper, the company website you can do all of your research on on coin market cap and then chat gpt. Is is pretty good.
Speaker 1:So I don't know how you have to really question chat GPT you need to know the prompts. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:A lot of people use it wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing With AI. Now people are just like, oh, they get one answer and they don't question it you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly 90% of people I don't even think know how to use chat GPT properly.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what has have you ever been scammed then?
Speaker 2:From that guy that I was saying about a second ago. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:He basically did a project. He put it through to one of my friends. I didn't know it was direct. He put it through indirectly. I invested, got my whole community to invest and then he rugged the project. And then I basically get in trouble from the police for phoning him up and asking him about it.
Speaker 1:And it was just an ongoing when you were in the uk no, this happened over here oh yeah, if he was in the uk, a bit different story.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it happened over here, so um, when you say different story, what would happen? Can't say, you can't say on camera. He, um, you'll see from ireland, is similar to I understand a bit different from the Middle East.
Speaker 1:So do you think?
Speaker 2:obviously the Middle East now do you think it's drawn lots of people in like scammers? So basically, I need to be careful how I answer this question, because I love Dubai. I think Dubai is absolutely brilliant, the laws are great and everything but I think the problem is what it does allow people to do, and not directly it just happens. Right is, people will come to dubai. Um, there's a lot of crypto scammers everywhere, but a lot of them do come to dubai and they can do things on the blockchain. They can do things in crypto. Dubai is very advanced on the blockchain and the crypto side of things. But I mean, if you go to someone and you say I've been scammed in crypto, they don't very advanced on the blockchain and the crypto side of things, but I mean if you go to someone and you say, I've been scammed in crypto.
Speaker 2:They don't have that department or that division set up and I don't think any country does have, unless it's like high level and it's FBI or CIA or something, because in America it's very different. So a lot of people do come over here and they move here because they're basically protected by the law, because obviously you can't fight over here or something. There's like long prison sentences. So I mean it does bring people um to dubai because they're protected and they can do bad things. But then where do you draw the line kind of thing, the with the law. The law is very good because it is a safe country, um, and they just yeah, they just basically play the system when does it become a bit of an addiction?
Speaker 1:when?
Speaker 2:what crypto, yeah if it becomes an addiction, then you shouldn't really be in crypto. You need to be emotionally um you. You need to be able to look at your portfolio and it'd be 50 down and it's fine. You can't go and panic sell because you're always going to lose money. You need to obviously know when to sell and panic sell because you're always going to lose money.
Speaker 2:You need to obviously know when to sell and when to buy. You're never going to get it 100% right. You're never going to be able to buy at the top and sell at the sorry. Buy at the bottom and sell at the top Every single time. You might get lucky, but I mean you need to DCA, which means dollar cost average You'll, which you'll buy over a certain period, which might be the bear market, and then you'll start selling as we're coming into the bull market. I think anyone that's looking to get into crypto I'd recommend learning basic technical analysis, like learning the charts, support and resistance, the Bitcoin indicators as well, and just study it first and then start buying slowly. But you don't want to just come in and know nothing about crypto and just start buying crypto, because nine out of ten times you'll lose money a lot of people are saying now they feel like they're late to the game.
Speaker 1:Is that true?
Speaker 2:I won't really say late to the game. We're going to have a bear market right it's even recently. Most projects created 80 90 percent. Um solana went down to 100 from 280 and now it's up to 150. So it up 50%, I think in the last three or four weeks. I'll just say I don't think you're ever really late to the game in crypto because it's always evolving. You've got AI. That's becoming very popular. You had a massive meme super cycle of all of the meme coins. There's always new narratives. It's about finding the good projects early and getting involved in them. So I wouldn't say anyone's late to the party I'd say you just need to study and you need to basically get lucky with the right projects. But the way that you get lucky is putting in the work and start studying.
Speaker 1:When you say meme coins, can you break that down for the listener?
Speaker 2:So meme coins are basically pictures of coins dogs, cats, stupid narratives. A developer goes and launches a coin, either on PumpFun or direct launch on Radium, and they will do advertising around it. They build a community around it and they try and be the next Shibarino, dogecoin or WIF or something like that, and they're trying to do Bitcoin. But the problem with this is most of these are scam coins. You don't know what's legit, you don't know what's a scam and there's mainly the dev that wins from these projects. The dev is a developer, um, and obviously early buyers as well into the projects.
Speaker 1:So it's complete gambling have you made any crazy money out of meme coins?
Speaker 2:I could have made a hell of a lot last year. Um, I made good money last year, but I mean I could have made probably 10 to 20x of what I made last year and what was that on? What the check? Which which chain?
Speaker 1:Yeah, MemeCoin.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was involved in 100 plus MemeCoins last year yeah, I was involved in a lot of MemeCoins last year.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So yeah.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned that. I did see on your website that you've invested in 400 startups.
Speaker 2:Over the last seven years. Yeah, not all startups, some are basically early. I get otc deals with projects um some some big projects, some small projects, um meme coins as well, some meme coins, but with utility. Uh. So yeah, over the last seven. Seven years is probably over 400 now.
Speaker 1:Last year was over, probably about 100, 150 altogether so year, what was the most consistent startup that you invested in, like? What was the consistency?
Speaker 2:When I say startups, a lot of them have been meme coins, where they don't last for that long. So I'll invest in it. Some of them I'll basically provide the liquidity for. So if someone's looking to do a meme coin, I'll provide the liquidity. They'll basically come up with a plan. Sometimes you make a lot, sometimes you lose a lot. So as long as I'm winning X amount of projects, if I'm losing the next bunch, it doesn't really matter, because you've made money so far when you said someone comes to you and they're developing a meme coin, then how is that process?
Speaker 2:So they're basically come with the idea, come with the narrative. Meme coins is very narrative based, right. So you'll need to have like to see where the trump stuff when trump stuff's happening. You'll need to have something like in the trump narrative, um, or if it's like cat season, dog season, um, or if something's announced in the news, it's it's kind of like proper full-on deegan. Like I don't do the meme coin stuff anymore, uh, but last year communities were holding and everyone kind of wanted to win from it.
Speaker 2:Now it's always been PVP, which means player versus player. So if I buy a 100K market cap and you buy a 200K market cap, if I sell, that's like me versus you. Basically it will then go down right. So it's always been like that. But people would hold for longer. What's happened in the last? Like four to five months, like this year, especially after Trump and the Argentinian coin as well, people hold as soon as they're in tiny bit profit, they just dump. So before you could actually build communities and build cults, now you can't. It's very, very difficult. So now I'm still. I've always been in utilities. Last year I was mainly in meme coins, but now I'm kind of fully going back to utilities.
Speaker 1:Because the space changes so frequently and you need to keep up to date. What does your lifestyle look like right now?
Speaker 2:This week or just in general.
Speaker 1:Well, give me your run through of this week.
Speaker 2:So this week's been the biggest week in crypto in the whole crypto space. Had token 2049 been to about probably 15 to 20 side events, um, maybe a bit less, but yeah, around that figure. Um, just literally networking. Going to events um, some of the events I'm paid to go to and then do, uh, not promotion but just like videos, tweets and bits like that for new projects that are up and coming. I'm also a brand ambassador for OKEx as well, so I'll go to their events and do some content and stuff. So this week it's just been purely events.
Speaker 2:My typical day-to-day wake up about eight, go to the gym, come back about 11, 11, have morning meeting, uh, anything from half 11 to 12. Um, then I'll basically do content and um send free to the editing team. Um then play playstation for an hour, two hours, um, take some calls and yeah, that's basically what what my day-to-day is. So, yeah, a lot of my stuff is on the phone now and content and going out and lifestyle and bits. It's more of, I say, lifestyle business. I don't really like sound of that because it sounds lazy, but I mean my job is to put out as much content as possible. Um, so it's just someone following me around with the camera or doing youtube or or something like that is there some days that maybe you don't want to show up to the camera?
Speaker 2:Oh, every single day. I don't like the camera. Do you know what? I'm getting used to it more.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I'm just still. I've only been an influencer for about a year, but the way how I blew up quite quick is I had a Forex group before so everyone in the Forex group when I kind of came over to the crypto side. In terms of content, I've been in crypto for like full time four years, but about six years since 2018. But I mean I wasn't doing any like videos or anything on it then. I was mainly in the Forex side. So I had a company called LimitlessFX. We basically had a trading group. We had a massive, massive community. So when I started doing the tokens and the coins and stuff and all of the promo, all of those guys came with me. So I already had a following. I was already doing like the Forex side of things. So I'm still getting used to even though it's been, I say, a year, it's been roughly about a year I'm still getting used to the camera and different kind of content and stuff. And I think when you're doing content.
Speaker 1:You're always learning as well, right, you're always learning, kind of. So, yeah, what are the unseen parts behind being an influencer?
Speaker 2:doing like 20 30 takes of video when it should, and usually the first time is fine, but I'm just kind of. What I do now is, even if I don't really like the video, I still just post it because content is content. I was looking at gary v's stuff as well and he mentions, like just post anything. You want to post a fucking picture of a banana? Just post a banana. You want to post a cup? Post a cup. Like, just post content, post pictures, and then it will boost in the algorithm, like you just need to be consistent. That's one thing I've learned, like in anything as well.
Speaker 2:In any business, consistency is key. You have to, especially with content. You have to continue posting stuff. So I've got a sub account. I've got my main account. I've got Twitter. That's fully managed for me. I've got a whole team on Twitter. Um, the thing that I'm slacking on a bit is the YouTube. I need to kind of pick up the, the YouTube videos. Um, instagram's cool. I've got like so much content to post and I haven't posted yet. I need to post that. It's just like this week's been so busy that I haven't had a chance to get everything done, but I'm going to build a team around the Instagram shortly. Twitter's always taken care of for me, but yeah, I just need to be posting more content.
Speaker 1:With being an influencer. Do you think it steals your presence a little bit?
Speaker 2:What's that mean?
Speaker 1:steals your presence a little bit. What's happening?
Speaker 2:like your presence as in being present in the current moment because you're always on. Yeah, that's, that's a really good question. It's like a lot of the time, even when we're eating or something, I need to take a picture or a light. I'm still getting used to that side of it, like if it's not on the instagram, it hasn't happened. So I just need to have that mentality of if we're in steak, take a picture, picture of the steak. If we're driving around, take a picture driving around. If the Burj Khalifa is in the background, take a picture of the Burj Khalifa. And I know it sounds stupid and I used to look at these people before and think this is like fucking cringy, but you have to do it, especially if you want brand deals, if you want to like be an influencer, yeah, you have to do this stuff, you stuff, you have to be proper, active. I'm not as active as I should be, but I'm getting there slowly did you ever think that you're going to be an influencer?
Speaker 2:I. I made good money in crypto. I saw how much influence is making. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna fucking do this, because these guys make stupid money. And for me, I actually know what I'm talking about in crypto. You look at most of these influencers, they haven't actually made money in crypto age, made money from doing videos. Most of them are scripted. I do scripted stuff occasionally, but most of it I'm like I don't, I can't be bothered to do the scripts and everything. So I'll just talk, right, yeah, and if it's wrong, just edit it or whatever. But did I think I was going to be an influencer? No, yeah, I was just doing the Forex stuff, built up a really, really good community, then went into the crypto side of things and just literally fell into it.
Speaker 1:Being a crypto influencer. What kind of money can you make?
Speaker 2:One to three million dollars a month, roughly like the good ones.
Speaker 1:And is that like, how does that roll out? Is that like a monthly thing? Is that that's?
Speaker 2:monthly. I come from sponsorship, that come from brand deals. Um, what I'm doing is I'm getting in with the solids companies, um, like the really good exchanges and the solids projects, because what I don't want to do is be that guy that's shilling shit, like just shilling projects for sake of projects, where they pay you 10, 20 grand or whatever. I want to be working with good projects where you can speak about the project. It's actually genuinely good project. The tech that they're building is very, very good. So when you're telling someone to buy it, it's going to benefit them, right?
Speaker 2:Um, I've done a lot of that content, but I've also been paid to do other stuff where I haven't. I've done research about the project seems okay, but it's still a risk. But that's why you're saying not financial advice and some of them gone really really well, other ones haven't. So you always need to bear that in mind. Like, if I'm posting stuff, nine times out of ten is is paid, but a lot of the time it's actually good projects, because most of the projects I work with are really really good.
Speaker 1:So yeah, is there any times where you've thought, shit, I shouldn't have done that, or you have a bit of a regret? Like miss misleading people. In a sense, I'm not saying that you're misleading people who just said it's not financial advice you know what it is is.
Speaker 2:I posted a coin white rock okay. I was doing, uh, basically promo for a company called WhiteRock. I posted 150 million market cap within and I knew their whole marketing strategy and everything that all of the people that were going to be posting it as well. Then it went up to 800 million. So people done what's that? Like a 5X 500% gain. I posted about Saros coin the other day. That went up.
Speaker 2:Another project I was working with is called sorted wallet and it's nothing posting for to get like for people to invest. It's basically a wallet that they're building for africa to give access to, to people like third world places, um, to be able to sign up and then, uh, trade crypto and stuff like that. So it's benefiting people. So everything I post. Last year I've got a deegan group as well where I'll post kind of meme coins which are very high risk and some of them do really really well, other ones don't. But on my instagram, on my socials, I'll try and post like solid, solid projects or basically platforms that are going to help people, because if I consistently post shit, I'm going to lose all of my following, right, if people are losing money. So I don't really shill stuff on my socials. In my gambling group people know it's a gamble right so they sometimes make money.
Speaker 1:We have a gambling group, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's called. It's a public group. I haven't posted anything in there for about a month, but when the meme coins were very, very active like last year, and kind of beginning of this year I was posted some of the coins did really really well, like really well.
Speaker 1:Do you have any like crazy um stories that you've seen some people go from ragas obviously rags to riches. Is there any kind of really fair it?
Speaker 2:happens a lot in crypto. But the problem is you don't know what's real, what's not real. That's the thing. Um, have I seen firsthand what regs to riches? You can't believe everything you see on social media. So you don't know. In terms of personally, not really, because people that I chill with now I didn't know from before, I don't know where they were before. Most of people from uk I've cut off.
Speaker 2:Um, to get to where you want to get to, if you want to be successful, you have to cut off the people that are basically dead weight, and that probably sounds mean to say. But if someone's fucking holding you back and they're not moving forward, like when you surround yourself with people that are successful, you're going to become successful. So you need to have a bit of initiative and and whatever and drive. But if you're hanging around with losers, you're going to be a loser. Like when people ask me oh, let's go and hang out, let's have shisha or whatever.
Speaker 2:I don't go and hang out for the sake of hanging out. If we're going for a coffee, we're going to be getting a deal done. If we're going shisha, we're getting a deal done. I don't see the point in just chilling for the sake of chilling anymore. So I think, to get to where you want to get to, if you want to make money, if you want to be successful, you need to basically always kill two birds with one stone. If you want to go out and chill, make sure it's productive, like and you're actually doing something with it, rather than just wasting time, because every single minute that goes past with one minute closer to death. So why are you going to go and waste like 60 minutes or a couple of hours just doing fuck all?
Speaker 1:when did you apply this to your lifestyle?
Speaker 2:probably about two years ago, if. If I'm being honest, when I first started making money in cryptos, I was spending a lot, I was traveling and stuff, and now I treat it as a proper business. I've treated it as a business for a while, but I mean, yeah, probably about two years ago.
Speaker 1:And would you say now you're like you nurture the relationships that you're in now, or do you think it's like everyone seems a little bit disposable now because you're on this climb?
Speaker 2:what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1:because, I think I get it, but yeah because as you take a step forward all the time, you know some people aren't going at the same speed as you. So where, when will there become a point where you just keep driving, driving, driving, driving? Then you're just losing people along the way that you don't have I think it always happens in life like no one's in indisposable.
Speaker 2:So the if people aren't on the same path and they're not keeping up the same pace, that's them problem. If they want to stay in a circle, then they can keep up. If not, it's dead weight. You can't be friends with everyone. You need to pick your circle and when you die they're not going to be in the same coffin as you, so like. You come into this world by yourself, you leave by yourself and you, if you want to make it, make a like, put your footprint on it. You, you gotta do it by yourself. You can't rely on others or be in a circle where they're just holding you down.
Speaker 1:You gotta do your own thing how important is it to actually have a circle, though, of really successful entrepreneurs for your success?
Speaker 2:when, when you say circle, I kind of well when I said it's not kind of people that I hang around with every single day, it's more that I can pick up the phone with, do deals and they're friends. But they've got the same mindset where we're not going to go for a coffee for sake of going for a coffee. Phone me anytime let's have a quick chat, um, and if we meet it's something productive. So I don't really have any friends that we just meet for the sake of meeting is completely pointless. So all of the people that I work with or everyone that I'm kind of friends with, we're not friends to go out and chill. We're. If we go somewhere, we go to an event together, we go for coffee to talk about business, we do something that's productive what do you do for self-development?
Speaker 2:self-development in terms of fitness side of things, or everything I haven't even had time to think of kind of what I do for self-development. I think in the crypto space you're always learning, like even with ai and decentralized science. I know absolutely nothing about decentralized science is there's a lot of people building. I don't even know what it is right. But, um, I was with a potential client the other day and they want me to be an influencer for their project and they're doing decentralized science. So I said, look, it's fine, but I can't influence people and do videos until I know what it is.
Speaker 2:So I did a quick interview with them and I said, look, let me just go away, let me learn about it, because if you want me to be a, a ko or influencer or whatever, I need to at least know what the fuck I'm talking about right so I I think those kind of situations where I'm in a room with people and I don't really know what they're talking about, but I'll go away and learn and then next conversation we have I'll at least have an understanding and then I can tell my community and and kind of educate people on it. So I think the self-development is I'm learning every single day and every single week in crypto. I go to the gym. Quite I haven't been light in the last week so I'm starting to get a bit fat with that. But I love going to the gym for kind of mainly mental health if.
Speaker 2:I'm being honest, whenever I go to gym, I just feel amazing. I start off my day with the gym and that's part of my work as well, so I'm not rushing to get it done, I'll just. I go to Oxygen Gym in things like.
Speaker 1:Mergen, Kranij Al Kranij.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's near the thing. Amazing gym. They don't actually let females in, have you?
Speaker 1:Oh, that one. Oh, that's that one. Yeah, so they have another one. I think females are allowed in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. This one it's like no music, it's like very strict. It's local guy that owns it, absolute beautiful gym. They've got like spa and swimming pool and stuff like that. So I'll kind of go there, train, eat and then come back and yeah, that's kind of like my self-development, as well as just learning every single day would you say you're very disciplined by the sounds of things, because now, even with your friendships, gym self-development, would you say you're a disciplined person.
Speaker 2:Compared to how I was before, yes, but compared to how I want to be, no. I think the thing is in life, you're always chasing right the person I want to be in five years. When I get there, I'm going to be the person I want to be in the next five years. So I think, no matter where I am, I'm never going to be completely satisfied. I'm always going to want to be better. But that's what drives you through life right. You can't be comfortable, otherwise you don't have a purpose. What's your purpose? So I'm 100 times better than I was five years ago, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be in the next five years, and then, when I get there, I don't think I'll be satisfied. I want to be in the next five years and then, when I get there, I don't think I'll be satisfied and I'll want to be kind of even better.
Speaker 1:Do you think your happiness will increase in five years' time?
Speaker 2:My happiness will increase. I don't look at. I look at happiness on a daily basis. Am I happy today? Great. Am I going to be happy tomorrow? I don't know, we'll see. So I think happiness is more mindset. Um, yeah, I. I think happiness is never judged by money. It's never judged by. It's just judged by how you're feeling on the day. You're always going to go through shit that's going to make you unhappy, but it's just about how you deal with it and then kind of problem solve on the downside what has been the biggest struggle that you've had in your life probably drug addiction wow
Speaker 2:yeah, I was addicted to coke for about five years, um, so, yeah, that's probably I, I think, getting through that. Now my mindset is I don't give a fuck about anything, I can do anything and everything's easy. Because when you wake up every single day and the first thing you think of is like when you're going to basically do drugs, once you get through that, the hardest battle is with yourself. So now, whatever I do, whatever problems I have, everything's easy. So that's why I'm just chilled and it's kind of every battle that I have now is just a walk in a park, because anyone that can get through like drug addiction is, yeah, it makes you a lot stronger, like mentally how long have you been clean?
Speaker 2:um, I'm not one of those people that keeps the exact date. I know the people have their little tags and they keep the exact date. About three, about three years roughly, and do you think. But I I say about three years for the last year and a half before that it wasn't my. My worst times was probably between maybe 22 to. The dates are kind of all jumbo. I could be completely wrong here, but maybe 22 for about three or four years, like that's when I was, because I went for a stage when I was really bad. Then I went for a stage where I was doing it like once a month. But for me it's either you do it or you don't. It's fully kind of like three years, I'd say.
Speaker 1:In those times? Was that because you were surrounded by people that were doing it, or what?
Speaker 2:It's not really an issue when people's the environment you're in, it's like I, I get that, like that is a part of it, but for me it's still an excuse, like if you're going to do something that's up to you, you're responsible for yourself. If I told you to go and jump off a cliff and you jump off it, that that's your fault, right, it's not mine. So I mean I can't really blame it on a circle that I mean if I'm doing it, it's up to me. I'm an adult. As soon as you get past like 17, 18, you're responsible for shit, right? So it's not because of the circle, it's because of me. If, if the circle is part to do with it, then it's my job to get out of the circle.
Speaker 1:It's my job to get out of the area else to, to kind of um, make things better to your addiction.
Speaker 2:Did you feel like you were maybe escaping something? Yeah, I think that's what it is right. You, you just want to. It's mainly escapism. So, um, I think a part of being happy is being able to just not be on any drugs and just be happy with yourself and just kind of have a coffee and you're cool. Right, because this is the problem with drugs is, once you get addicted to it, you're just reliant on it and it's the only thing that makes you happy, like, fuck everything else, you just want to do drugs did you ever reach a stage, though, where you've completely exhausted it, that it wasn't enough?
Speaker 2:what do you mean?
Speaker 1:because when it becomes an addiction when most people become addicted to drugs, food, sex, porn the normality of the, the first time you try it it's never got feels the same 100.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're always chasing, it's never the. So I was basically addicted to coke. Yeah, so the the. It's like the first line you do is amazing and then you're chasing. It's never the same it's never the same. You just become addicted, always chasing for that first feeling and how did you get off that cycle?
Speaker 2:um, I think it's when I had had, uh, kids. Yeah, I kind of just I tried rehab, I tried all these, nothing worked. And then I just went cold turkey like completely just stopped, uh, when I had kids and I don't know. It's weird, I've just never done it again. So, um, I don't really know. Everything is a bit of a because I was fucked up for like a long time in terms of like drunk and do drugs and shit. So everything's kind of a bit of a blur in terms of dates and stuff. So I I try and kind of remember, like in terms of what happened when it happened a bit, but it's all because I was always fucked up. I just can't really remember shit. But um, but yeah, I think it was just when I had kids and yeah, do you think maybe the kids gave you a bit more purpose in life?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you have your kids here in Dubai? Yeah, yeah yeah, what's it like having kids in Dubai.
Speaker 2:I don't have to worry about them. If I was in the UK it would be obviously a different story, so I don't have to worry about them as much. We've got two nannies that look after them. Obviously, I see them every single day. I work from home most of the time and, um, yeah, you, you don't have to worry. And I say worry, obviously you're always going to worry, right, but I mean, compared to the UK, you've got people like you've got pedophiles kidnapping children. You've got you've got all these gangs from from different countries and stuff that coming over. It's a lot of crime, right? Um, in the in Dubai, you don't have any of that. So I mean you've got more peace of mind. So you're always going to worry, right, but I mean you've got peace of mind that they're going to be fine when someone's struggling from a drug addiction, what kind of advice would you give them after living through this?
Speaker 2:that's uh, that's a very good question. What advice would I would I give them? That's a very good question. What advice would I give them? I don't actually know, to be honest, because the thing is giving advice. People say, when people ask questions about, oh, would you give advice? It's always the basic stuff and it's kind of textbook.
Speaker 2:It doesn't really work With drug addiction. It's not easy, so it's not like I say, oh, it would be better, and just don't do it like that shit does without. That's not going to be helpful to anyone, right? If they're going for it. I don't actually know the question to. I don't know the answer that question.
Speaker 1:If I've been honest could you give yourself any advice? Your younger self don't do it.
Speaker 2:This is the thing is such a I don't think anyone that's going through it will understand anyone that's not. They might say they understand, but I don't think they fully understand. It's the hardest battle that you're ever going to go through. And if you get through that, which most people don't, everything else in life is easy. So if anything, I'd say it's probably I don't sound stupid, but it's kind of a good thing if you've been good, if you've gone through that and you got out the other side, because it makes you a completely different person and everything else is so fucking easy. Like every problem I have now, it's not even a problem compared to what I used to have, so it just makes you a lot stronger mentally and yeah, it's uh, but it's difficult.
Speaker 1:It's difficult it puts things into perspective right yeah with an addiction. Do you think it ever goes away?
Speaker 2:perspective. Right, yeah, with an addiction, do you think it ever goes away? I'm addicted to work now, but I love work, so it's not really work. It's kind of like this is work. I'll speak now. Right, saying doing videos and going to the conferences and stuff, that that's work and I'm a bit followed around with the camera and stuff. So I say I'm just addicted to that. I'm addicted to C4 and coffee and vaping, which is kind of a saint compared to before.
Speaker 1:It's a better addiction.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:With the podcast being called the Detached Podcast, I always ask a traditional question what would you detach yourself away from? That's limiting you today?
Speaker 2:In what retrospect, in terms of what kind of?
Speaker 1:it can be, self-beliefs it can be what I get rid of c4, it can be. Yeah. Is there anything that you'd get rid of that's limiting you to be your true potential self?
Speaker 2:probably yeah, 100 probably the fear of speaking on stage, because once I cross that, I've done it before on a panel, but I've been asked to speak on stage in terms of keynote speaking, a bit in the crypto space, um, and I've got some speeches coming up at the end of this year as well, so probably that's the last thing to get. I've got over everything else and that's probably just the last last thing that I need to get over, and that will come with practice, that will come with time and it will be easy eventually, and then I'll look back on it and it'll be like yeah, that was walking the park, but probably that one fear of speaking on stage, like I'm meant to be cool in terms of speaking in front of the camera, I'm doing content and stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean, when you're speaking on stage like I don't know, it's just, with everyone looking at you, I I kind of I've got that mentality like I don't give a shit what people think about me. It's it's like you're gonna have people love, you're gonna have people hate you. But when you're on stage, that kind of just goes all out the window and you're like fuck, everyone's like looking. So just kind of what?
Speaker 1:that last hurdle, yeah so public speaking is actually the second most fear thing in the world and the first thing is death. So don't be worried, that's. It's a common thing, so it can be developed. But uh, I just want to say thank you so much for being on the detached podcast. You've been a real pleasure thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 2:It's been great.