How Alex Warren went from homeless to millionaire at 21 | Business Casual
Dropping out of high school is something that, you know, I did not want to do. I, I was homeless. I didn't really have a choice. And I need to do something drastic to change the trajectory of my life and I have been doing content creation for a while and to be able to like influence people in a way where they could feel something was just a dream business casual for Morning Brew and this is business casual bringing you converse with people you know and some you may not know yet. To make business less intimidating because money talks, but it does not have to be dull.
I'm your host, Norah Allie. Now let's get down to business. Entrepreneurs are no stranger to risk. In fact, most of the people we talked to on business casual had to at some point make the big decision to just do the thing to make the leap.
But our guest today is someone who decided to go all in on his dreams when he had really nothing left to lose. Alex Warren is a 21 year old content creator on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. And as he said in an interview with Netflix, he's gone from -$600 and homeless to a millionaire, all in the ages of 17 to 20 of course, his success did not come out of the blue. Alex has been working for it. He's been uploading videos for 11 years, which, if you do the math, is more than half of his young life. And as he told us, he is a freak with the algorithm.
When it comes to Tik Tok, he studies and analyzes it. He ab tests posts over multiple accounts. He has a whiteboard. And to me it sounds a lot like a tech startup. And I was frankly blown away by just how thoughtful and smart Alex is about all the stuff that he makes, and it's all paid off.
Alex now boasts 20 million plus cumulative followers across accounts, and he recently released a single Remember Me Happy? He launched a podcast. He also stars in the new Netflix series Hype House. My conversation with Alex was surprising in so many ways and a testament to just how impressive full time creators can be. We talked about how to build a successful brand that's all over the place in a very controlled way. In his words, what it's like to go from having nothing to making and spending over $1 million in a year.
And he kind of regrets that overspending, how he's finally figured out how to manage his money and how his ultimate goal is to get to a point where he can just slow down. Me, too, Alex. Me, too. That is all next after a quick break.
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All right, Alex. Hi. Welcome to Business Casual. We usually like to start with an ice breaker that's workplace related, but I feel like you don't work at a traditional workplace, so I'm so shake it up a little bit. Okay.
I want to ask you if you have a pet peeve, specifically a tick tock related pet peeve, for example, I'll give you mine. I hate when people spread a single story over multiple parts, over multiple tick tock that annoys me and everyone else. Yeah. Do you have any pet peeves that come to mind? I have plenty. I think the biggest one for me is when? Because I'm in the music realm now too. My biggest pet peeve is when when people make up stories to get presents like the whole like, oh, my label, my label will let me put the song out until I get 100,000 presales.
And I just watch that and I'm just like, that's just like it's like selling a fake product and it's something where it's like, I hate it because like, you were so creative with that song. Be creative with the promotion. It's a huge, important part of it. Yeah, well, I guess to that point, what's your approach to promoting your music? Several.
Does it creativity come in for you? I mean, a lot of it is like, you know, thankfully I come from social media. So like, that's the thing where it's more of I have to prove myself in the music space as opposed to like musicians right now have to prove themselves in the social space to generate presales and streams. I'm unless you're like Harry Styles but like it's kind of like the thing where, you know, it's saying exactly what your audience wants.
And for me, thankfully, I understand what they want. Like, you know, they subscribe to the the couple's videos and they subscribe to that idea that, you know, I'm very open about my past and everything that I've gone through and, you know, it reflects in the music. So therefore, you know, when I promote it, I make the music about those things that I've gone through.
And it it really, you know, resonates with them because it's something that's relatable in my space. You know, I have a spam account where I just post like fun trends and stuff to my songs. It's like kind of like understanding what can do well without having to sell out.
Mm hmm. Can you explain what you mean by you have a spam account that posts trends? What is that? Yeah. So I have, like, five different TikTok accounts just to kind of like, you know, how TikTok is interest based. So your for you pages interest based. Most of my content on my main account is very much couple a couple stuff in promoting music in a authentic way where I'm just playing the song and hoping people will like it.
And then on my spam account that has I think almost 2 million followers, I just post like, you know, trends that have gone viral or videos that have gone viral. And I think they'd be funny if I added my sound to it. So like repurpose content or fill my own content of stuff that, you know, it's where they can see these trends with my song on it, but also I can, you know, feel things out and see if it'll do well and that I can I can do something similar on my main account. So that way it's not so much of a hit. Oh, is that common for people to have multiple accounts, spam accounts, try out different trends? And, you know, no, I'm just aggressive like that. I'm extremely aggressive.
Like I'm very business oriented. Like that's the thing where it's like, you know, I love the business. I say analytical side of the business where like I really love the numbers analytically, seeing why people walked away, it's kind of like a fun game for me to be able to see what how I can make a video better.
And so, like, you know, I can't just do a survey and ask a thousand people what they think. So only people who are going to partake in the survey are the people who are very loyal to me. So it's like something where I have to then test out the waters on a second account. And so like if I make videos and I don't know if it's going to resonate well, my main account and most times if you know, you're trying out new things on your main account, a lot of people who have been subscribed to the normal stuff that you're posting, they're going to see that and be like, Oh, he's changing what he's doing. I'm going to jump ship.
And to prevent that from happening, I would post it on a different account that has a similar following of like, you know, demographic and like you kind of can see like specifics and I'll post things that I think, you know, would do okay. And depending on how they do on that account, then that determines whether or not I'm going to post them. I mean, I'm you're like a little tech startup.
You have a separate environment where you're testing out different things. May not it isn't like, whoa, what's happening? I like that a lot. Because, like, that's the one thing where people like, you know, I see them post under the stories and I see them post onto the social media and it's like, what do you think about this? And it's like you're, you're, you're asking a question. You know, you're going to get the answer, too, because, like, I could literally post a photo of my toe and let's just say my toe is one of the ugliest toes in the world. And I post it to my following. They want to make me happy.
The same way I want to make them happy. So they're going to be like, you know, that is a beautiful toe and they're going to lie to me. And so, like, that's the thing where it's like, you know, I have to I have to put it in a natural setting where you're going to be open for judgment and for people who don't really know who you are. That is so interesting. I did not know that was a thing that anyone did. But it sounds like you have more more of an approach to figuring out what works than than a lot of other creators we've talked to.
So I do want to back up a little bit a little bit for the uninitiated. How would you describe your brand on TikTok and who if if you could sort of summarize who your demo is as well? That'd be great. Yeah. I mean, my demo is very and this correlates with the brand.
I think my brand on TikTok is very all over the place in a very controlled way at that. That's the biggest oxymoron I could have ever used. But essentially what it is, is most of my demographic on TikTok is I would say 14 to 16. Yeah, like 13 to 16 or 13, 18 year old girls, which is like I think I have like 75% female because the couple videos and like most people who are engaging in content and having the follow typically tend to be female.
And it's a lot of times, you know, with my content, especially especially film with my girlfriend, my girlfriend is a hoot. I love her so much, but she's funny. She's the best part of your account for sure. She's and she's very relatable and she's very much like, you know, our couple and our dynamic is is something of kind of like a characteristic of what people either aspire to have or find relatable in their own personalities. The music is majority like it's right in the middle on the music and then on the YouTube, it's it's almost cut in the middle as well. So like, it's difficult to find a, like a hardcore demographic to kind of hit on if you're trying to essentially like pitch in a way, because it's so all over the place in each platform offering different things for each thing.
And my brand, this is very much a couple. Yeah. And this is a question that I think founders and company leaders ask is, okay, we know who are demographic is on certain platforms. Do we lean into that and create content that we know will resonate with them? Or do we try to expand who that demographic is? Let's say if you're trying to grow your following by ten X or 20 X or by magnitudes, do you want to start making content that caters to, you know, 35 year old men? That's just a weird example down the line. Sure. I think it's also very packed, though, because like for like I explained earlier, what I feel like a lot of companies haven't gotten the grasp on is the fact is that, you know, TikTok is very interest based and so no matter what, you should be looking at engagement.
And when you ask people for analytics, which no company has done this year, and I'm kind of like, I'm like, why are you doing this? Like if I started a company and I was looking at tech targets from a, I wouldn't ask them for their analytics of who follows them. You know, like that's the thing where, you know, you have to look at how often they're on the for you page and who on the for you page is looking at that because it's interest based. So whatever you're posting it's going to go off of the interest of that and then go on to every person like that account. And you want the people who are hitting the for you page all the time, not their following. If you're going for someone's following, go on Instagram, go on YouTube.
And I mean yeah sure it takes out of they have a huge following a massive following but even then most of the people with the massive following like my videos are 70% for you page 30% following. So it's like if you want to play it safe, go for the big guys. But they're going to charge more because they have that leverage opposed to people who are getting on the for you page all the time.
But it's on a minor scale. It's like my engagement is very much there, but it's very subjective and that's why I like demographic and stuff like that. It's very tricky to kind of play on TikTok because you don't really have a perfect analytic for that. Yeah, yeah. So I guess if you're a brand or a company that wants to work with the creator on tech talk, what are some of the questions that you think they should be asking? Like what? You know, what's the breakdown of the views that you get between for you page and from your following? What are some of the things, the smart things that brands should be looking at for creators they want to work with how often their videos are successful. The Avid So like how often are people watching to the video and how much they're engaging in it? Not even just that as well.
What is Avid the average viewer duration. So like how long they're watching the video because here's the thing of it you can get, you know, X amount of views, but at the end of the day, like, I want to know if they're going to watch fully for the product line because what if they decide to put my integration in the hard points that I want them to talk about at the way end? But people are cutting out 15 minutes before or 15 seconds before that. That's not that's not like applicable for what I'm trying to do that. So like that's something that I kind of hardcore set on. But also like if I do a brand deal with you and you know, you have history of doing brand deals, but those brands get significantly less. How can you like I hate to give it like if I was a company, I wouldn't want to give them a set thing to do.
I want to say, Hey, do you have any ideas for the brand? Do you have any ideas on what you would do with if I gave you this? What could you make out of it and how does that align with your content? The notion of getting on the for you page, obviously that's super important, but some people have created followings based on just trying to educate people on how to get on the for you page and how to get viral and how to get more viewers. Yeah. Is there a hypothesis in your eyes of how you can make it more likely to get on more for you pages? Yeah, it's just studying the algorithm. The algorithm is an AI based interest algorithm, and so many people are trying to monetize off that by creating fucking like discords and stuff and being like, pay me X amount of dollars for a session and I'll explain it to you.
And then you look at their profile and literally none of their videos are on the for you page and it's boosted if it's so easy and your teach me how to do it, why the heck are your videos now on the front page? And that's something that's like, you know, someone teaching you how to sing, but they don't know how to sing. What the heck is that? I have a really high engagement because I've cracked the pattern. But I can't tell you the pattern because it's different for every person. It's based on your profile and what your audience like.
Think of it like this. Like two rooms looks the same, like very similar. And it's like, you know, someone comes in and paints the room and they teach you how to paint. The other room is not going to be the same painting they taught you to paint and everything, but it's not going to be the same way. It's it's how you dictate it. And there might be a poor analogy, but essentially you have a certain fan base or audience whose are you subscribing to that to what you're posting? And then it's like, you know, if you're going to copy my content, it's not going to go on the for you page as it does for me because that maybe your fan base is 60% male and it's like that's not going to resonate.
So it's like finding why they signed up for you, finding like if you post a hundred times, you're bound to get one somewhat viral video or a video that does better. And then from that it's like, okay, that video did really good. How can I recreate that process? Or like you look at the analytics and be like, okay, people clicked off later. Why did they click off later? I posted this video on like so my best practice when I do is I have a whiteboard in here and I'll put a whiteboard up and I'll get six videos, three videos that I thought performed well and three videos I thought performed like really bad.
And I'll see in the numbers side, it's like it's like searching for something and you find it. You'll find why it did bad or why I didn't do as well, whether it's like, you know, the the shares or the engagement or the followers you gain from that post. And once you like find like the kind of differences, you can then hone in on it and figure out how you can change it in the content of it. Mm. Wow. You have a whiteboard that helps you analyze what works and what doesn't. Yeah.
And that's such a good point. It's so different depending on the creator. So for anyone to say like this, this is what works, this is how you game, the algorithm just doesn't make any sense.
I love talking about it. This is how I got to where I was. I studied the algorithm, so I'm a freak with it. I love talking about it.
But if that's something that like, you know, I'm talking too much about changing the subject, I will I will follow you. So let's talk a little bit about your journey. So you've been posting content for, what, 11 years now? Something like that, which is like half your life.
Yeah. So you dropped out of high school senior year to pursue content creation full time and it's clear that, you know, you've been at this for so long that you have your methods, you have your analysis. So it's not like you're just doing this willy nilly. But you were certain from a young age that you wanted to do content creation sort of full time and go all in.
Why was that? And I feel like you realized this before a lot of other people realized this. Yeah. I mean, I mean, first to hit on like, you know, dropping out of high school is something that, you know, I did not want to do. I,
I was homeless, so I didn't really have a choice. But that's something where it's like, you know, I had to put all my eggs in a basket and kind of be like, okay, you know, I can't look for a part time job because I was working in a restaurant. I'm like, there's no moving up. There's no promotion that I'm interested in for the long run, and I need to do something drastic to change the trajectory of my life.
And I have been doing content creation for a while, but I was in love with I was in love with putting something out, making someone feel a certain way like that. The idea that someone could then, you know, message me and say, this changed my life or, you know, this is, you know, I really, really look up to what you're doing is something I always aspired to have and to be able to, like, influence people in a way where they could feel something was just a dream. And so, like, music was the start of it, of it. Like, I would post singing clips all the time and I just really realistically had no confidence in my ability to do that.
And I did have a confidence in my way of making film and like making making videos to portray a feeling. And so, like, you know, I really took a lot of inspiration from like, you know, a lot of movies and TV shows and YouTubers who were doing that at the time and making them either laugh or sad or making them feel a certain way with certain music and whatnot. And so I just went hard on that and I was posting that. And then utilizing the fact that musically I had at the time, I was gaining a following pretty quickly on there because no one was posting comedy videos.
It was all lip syncing like F Boys. And so I knew I didn't have the body or face for that. So I had I had the face for radio, so I had to figure out like what I had to do to kind of like influence a decision. So I make comedy skits and funny things and, you know, I would film my girlfriend and have fun. And they were doing really well. And then I just put my YouTube clips and shrunk them down into short form, 15/2 clips that were really fast and like highlight reels of the highlight reel YouTube videos.
I was doing and would promote the video and like make it off a cliffhanger. So that way when you watched it, you were like, Oh shit, I want to see more. And then it was like full video on my YouTube, and then it would get them to go where the money was. And I was building following their well, getting them to go watch the full version and be more invested in it. At what point? So so you're figuring out how to get more followers over time.
At what point do you decide to lay out a plan, whether it's a career plan, financial plan, figuring out if you can sustain yourself by doing this for a living. Was there a moment where you just had to figure out what the future might look like? I really had to choose, pursue this and have the chance that it would absolute be suck or pursue the restaurant industry of what I was busing tables and one seemed a lot more lucrative, but also one I was actually passionate about. I just never felt like with the way that my life had gone in the current moment, that I could actually do that.
And so I was just like, you know, frickin I'm 18 living in someone else's car right now. Like my life could not get any worse at this moment. If there's a time to try this and there's a time to really go at this, it's now opposed to when I'm 24. And so it's like, you know, there was nothing I could lose.
I was already homeless. I already had -$600 in my bank account. I already didn't know where I was going to eat.
This was like this was the moment where I was like, okay, this is now the time, if not never. The scale at which your followers grew was pretty quick, from 1 million to 14 million followers in one year. Was there a point at which you started feeling different or living your life differently, or starting to spend on things that you didn't think you'd be able to? Yeah, walk me through like when I was for you. This is one side. Like, you know, going from homeless to, like, millions of dollars is. Yeah, as awesome as that is.
And I'm not going to sit here and tell you about the terrible things that it was because it wasn't. And I'm not going to try and convince you otherwise, my poor me. But like this is something where I didn't know what the hell to do.
Like, I didn't I went from it went like this. Nothing, nothing, nothing for like, ever. And then all of a sudden, $1,000 and then all of a sudden $2,500. And that's when I was like, okay, I can quit the restaurant job and go out this full time. And then it went from 2500 to 5000 and then went from 5000 to 10000 and then 10000 to 25000 and then all the way up until like, you know, $400,000 a month.
And this was something where it was like very fast and it creeped of extremely fast to the point where, like, I didn't save for taxes. I spent almost all of it. And it was like, I think in one year I spent $1,000,000 and I had I had no money for taxes.
I was like, you know, I'm going to continue making this. I just signed a deal. You know, I'm just going to spend it and like, you know, I'll get I'll make it back the next month and just pay that on the taxes, not realizing that more money coming in means that half that money is going to go out. So I'd have to have two months of no spending to make up for the one month that I had not paid.
And so like it was just this whole thing I just kept buying cars and I kept buying, you know, just the dumb things. And I was like, you know, my family. I was like, you know, here's a car, here's all this, here's all that.
And it's like, you know, I'm going to have to pay taxes on that. Like, there's a things so it's like, you know, I never thought about it. Do you find that this is sort of common where people like you, you create, you get a big following, you make a lot of money suddenly and no one is around you to advise you on your finances. Have you seen this happen to your peers? No. This is so stupid.
I thought I would too. I thought like it's just you. What? I went around to, like, my friends and, like, I'm not going to name names because they obviously don't want to. I feel like they don't like it when their money is, like, out in the open. But like so many of my friends, I was like, Oh, hey, like, you know, taxes really bit me in the ass. You're like, Yeah, you should get to go.
And I'm like, What? And they're like, they're like, Really? Yeah, I'm for financial team. And now thankfully I have a whole financial team that handles every single thing to the point where if I want to buy a car, they'll literally like handle everything and it gets shipped to my house. And it's really, really simple and really awesome. But like, it took me a while. It took me two years to get to where I am today.
And now I have like separate business accounts and I have so many aliases and escorts and I'm like different, like, you know, cause I'm always doing company things and like, I suck at, I suck at spending, I suck at saving money. And so they take my cards and I go, Can I buy this? And they say, yes or no, and then I do it. So you have all these things that you're doing, right? You're a musician, you're a creator, you are part of Hype House, and there's the Netflix series about it. You also have a podcast which we'll get into in a moment, but how do you determine the portfolio of things that you want to do, whether it's balancing what's revenue driving versus what's just brand building? How does that calculus happen for you and your team? Well, when it comes down to like, you know, with me is I've realized over time it's like when you chase the money for a while, it stops coming. And it's so strange that happen. You mentioned Hype House is like something for me is when I when I had left the Hype House and no longer a part of it, but I helped create it.
And everything was, you know, a few months ago I had to say around six months ago, I decided to leave just because it was like something for me. It's like, you know, if you hang on to something for too long, it's just not going to get what you're trying to get out of it. And so we built it up and whatever. And, you know, Thomas had taken over and we were just like, you know, me and Culver wanted to, like, go off and focus on different avenues of life and be an adult. And the biggest thing for me is like, you know, music is really the true passion.
I've been obsessed with it ever since I was a kid, and I never thought it was possible. And, you know, when I found out labels wanted to sign me, that was the coolest part of it. But when it comes down to it, whatever you focus more on, you're going to make the most money on like I know social media. If I put every ounce of attention into that, I'm going to make tenfold what I'm making now.
I found if you do an arena tour and you saw 25,000 tickets, you can make profit $1.6 million. And so I mentioned that people were doing the 90,000 stop tours each. Each stop is probably 3.2 million, $3.6 million per stop profit. And so that's like that's crazy to think about, but you have all this avenue sinks and stuff, like if a TV show or movie wants to play your song, you can charge up the but and brand deals too in commercials especially because you would become like if you're going trajectory wise to a mainstream singer those deals could be multi-million dollars just for a 32nd commercial. And so those are the things you have to, like, seize.
Like if you focus so hard on music, you could get to that point, but also you have to enjoy it, whereas you burn out. And that's what I watch a lot of people do, is they just chase the money and burn out and all of a sudden it's gone and they then go, I want to be an actor now that all my engagement is down and I can't make any more money out of this, and everyone's like, Why do we want you to be an actor after we just saw you get completely like irrelevant or like your views have gotten? That's a poor, poor phrasing of words. But like, you know, if you if you chase the money for so long and it wasn't your true passion, you should have done it at the height of your career when the money was coming in. We are on a podcast, so I have to talk about your podcast yo podcast ception. So it's called Locked In With Alex Warren. So you walk in influencers and your, your friends in a room, you ask them questions, you make them uncomfortable.
They can't leave until the clock strikes zero. Yeah. So we've, we've heard from plenty of creators who like the idea of hosting podcasts for some reason. That's kind of the cool thing to do these days, which makes me feel good as a podcast host. So why the podcast route for you? What was the impetus for this particular podcast? I mean, for me, if you have enough I love talking, but also a big thing is like, you know, I've experience a lot of loss in my life and I've experience a lot of bad shit that's happened. And so I didn't realize that people wanted to hear about it.
I thought like, you know, it's the whole mindset of, you know, you hear me complaining about depression and trauma and the things I've gone through and everyone's like, Oh boo hoo, the millionaire is fucking sad. And so it's like the whole thing is like I always was under the impression that it would be like that big thing where like, no one wanted to hear what I had to say because of that. And in reality it was something weird, like I never viewed it as the way.
And funny enough, Logan Paul is the person who made me think this way of like, people want to hear what you want to say. And that's because I was thinking of it in a negative context. But I'm not thinking of who it's going to help.
And like when I was a kid and I wanted to do this and I had, you know, a terrible childhood, horrible childhood, I thought for sure it would never be possible. I never thought it'd be possible to get to where I am today. I never thought it'd be something of, you know, the capability fruition. And instead, you know, it is and I could I could talk about my experience.
And so it's really cool. I was with Tana Mojo, funnily enough, and she was telling me about all of the things that's going on in her life and other the hard childhood that I never knew about. And everyone just has a certain notion they have with her.
Like, you know, she's a a dramatic person. And so I was like, why don't you talk about this? Why people would love to hear people would be inspired by this. And she's like she's like people only want to see, you know, my, my provocative videos. And that's about it. Like, that's and I'm like, that is a problem and you know it. And so I created this thing of like, you know, I have a whole gimmick.
It's locked in, you know, be scared, be uncomfortable. And in the end of it, we end up talking about such uncomfortable things or like things that would be viewed as uncomfortable, but about the childhood. And it's like a whole therapy session between two people. And I'm just really good at talking and also listening, and that's the whole premise of it. And people listen to it.
They're like, I cannot believe this person is actually like this. And it's like, I call it the truth behind the clickbait. Literally because of Tana Mojo, it's because people find out stuff about someone that they thought was just clickbait or thought of who they were and then got to see the real meat behind it. Yeah. And you have a really great ability to get people to talk about things that they haven't talked about with other interviewers or other on other platforms. I listen to your episode with Harry Jowsey. Yeah, from from Too Hot to Handle.
And you had this conversation that I thought was so interesting around Onlyfans Yeah. And how much money people make on Onlyfans Are you surprised at the lucrative nature of the platform and even for for you guys talked about the fact that you talked about the fact that he put a sex tape on only fans and it was behind a paywall for $200 per person. And he's making millions of dollars on that. Yeah.
What just generally what are your what are your thoughts on onlyfans and smart as hell? Are you kidding? Like you have to think about it like this. A I didn't understand it in the beginning because I looked like the human embodiment of the Michelin Man. But anything else beside that is like, you know, no one's going to pay money to see me naked.
They've watched Star Wars. They've seen job done. You don't know that.
No, I get it. But like, it's it's something where it's like, you know, you see these attractive people on Tik Tok run on Netflix or on anything and, and, you know, as as teenage hormones and locked up cabanas, everyone was like, wow, like this person is extremely attractive. And you know how humans are. They're very you know, I'm not going to get into anatomy, but like it's the thing is, like people are curious.
People want to see what that what what I'm not I'm going to get it. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. So the idea that you could monetize off the fact that people are already thinking that about you are, you know, you see tech talk and whatever guy or celebrity is becoming famous, you know, or someone's talking like right now, it's the guy with the mustache. It's Miles Teller. How much money do you think Miles Teller would make right now if he made an all the fans, literally $1,000,000,000? My point is, like much money, these are things where it's like, you know, this is crazy to think about is someone can actually monetize off the fact that someone is looking at them in a in a sexual notion that way. And it's like they're like, I need a bag.
People are already saying shit about me on Twitter. People are like already like making fake videos of me on on different, you know, adult videos and stuff. It's like, I'm going to fucking make my bag.
And like, that was like the whole idea, I think behind it. And people just followed suit after bad maybe made millions of dollars already and then current cops and then, you know, these people are becoming multimillionaires and I'm wondering what the hell their taxes look like. Me, too. Well, Harry said that part of his reasoning for putting out this sex tape was that it was he he said this.
He said, it's my retirement plan because he doesn't want to be on Onlyfans forever. Yeah. So do you. Do you have a retirement plan, Alex, such that you're not constantly on this like we'll of making content or I guess you love it so much that you don't. I think it's an unhealthy obsession and that's something where it's like, I've been told I need to go to therapy. I agree. I do. It's and in all seriousness, it is very unhealthy.
My whole thing is I go to bed at like 4 a.m. and I wake up at 730 and it's like 3 hours of sleep. I work from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed, I don't leave the house, which is just crazy. I, I don't have a social life like I don't have friends I live with just my friends I grew up with and, and nobody. It's serious and I'm okay with it, though.
That's the weirdest part. The reason I'm okay with talking about this is I'm fully fine with it. I have dogs, I have chickens. I have tomorrow. Right? I have dogs, I have chickens, I have cats. I have my three friends I grew up with.
I have my girlfriend is practically my wife and that's like, you know, and I have a mortgage and I have my life and like, that's like I feel like I'm a 28, 29 year old who has got his life figured out and he's raising kids. But in reality I'm raising Australian shepherds and I'm dating a girl. And so it's like, you know, I'm so focused on working and setting up my life to be, you know, be able to retire and like maybe that's just like selling enough records or doing whatever, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it and to me is like sitting around and watching all these people in this. There's offices and social media.
Everyone goes irrelevant for one moment. Their views drop, their money goes down and they start freaking out and panicking. And I've been able to dictate when that comes for me and you know, right now would be that point. But somehow I've passed through it and I'm still averaging insane views. I'm still, you know, ranking in like a lot of money. And like, that's something that I had prepared for that.
And therefore, I'm able to not freak out during this moment and be able to coast. And so, like, right now I'm just, you know, planning for music, making sure that I have enough to what it takes to prove to the label and prove to the fanbase and prove to whoever made out the fact that I could do music and be able to like, you know, I built a studio in here and so I could just, you know, amass my time and I take vocal lessons 5 to 6 times a week. I take piano lessons, music theory lessons, everything.
And I've watched all these tiktokers go to music and not know what they're doing and then get shelved because all of a sudden they lecture a month social media to make an album, come back and no one cares about them anymore. And that's something was like, I have to cover all my basis and it's a lot of excruciating work and it's eventually going to pay off. But at what moment am I giving too much and taking too little? So I do want to ask you a couple of bonus questions before we let you go.
Sure. Alex, if you're down. Yeah, I love it. So this is for this is for a segment called Shoot Your Shot. So I would love to hear what your biggest ambition is, your moonshot idea, your biggest goal in life. This is your chance to put it out in the world and shoot your shot. Yeah, I mean.
I mean, go for it. My biggest my biggest goal is nothing monetary, to say the least. It's just for me to be able to slow down, relax, and be able to just have the house that I want with the woman of my dreams and the children that I would love. And that is the main goal is, you know, by 30 to have all life figured out to the point where I'm just as much as it seems I got my life figured out right now. Is this just a set plan that I think of what's going to happen? You know, I'm working towards that plan, but at the same time, it's like I just want to be able to wake up and worry about normal things. I haven't been to a doctor since I was 17.
Like, I haven't. I just yeah, like I don't have time to focus on, like, my own health, which is just nuts to think about. And so today I went to a chiropractor today because I TMJ and you know, I have to they were doing some jaw adjustments.
The first time I sat down and he's like, We're going to align you all up. And I was like, I haven't done anything for my own body. I've been living off fucking DoorDash and Chipotle for like, I eat like a dog because it's just as fuel and I keep going, but it's like to be able to wind down and worry about, like, trash going out and walking my dog and like just normal things and be able to just be like, Hey, honey, do you want to go to the beach today? And like, that's what I dream to be able to do that, because if I was to do that now, I'd have to give up so many things that may hinder me in the future. And so it's just to be able to be present for my kids and be present for my wife and be present for my life and be able to enjoy the things that I worked so hard to build. That's so wonderful. But Alex, it sounds like you're such an ambitious, driven, hands on person.
Do you think you'll be able to slow down ever, or is it? Oh, there's always going to be a new milestone. I think I'll be able to slow down. I just don't think I'm going to be able to stop. That's the problem. Yeah. Yeah.
And it's like, we need you to get your annual physical. Alex Yeah, we know. That's when they know. That's when they do like this.
Oh, God. What, are you afraid of, the doctor? Yeah, I. So I tried. I tried to go to the doctor when I had some downtime, and I, it's so funny. I, I went and I was like, I've been in a while. I have a bullet in my lungs.
I've been shot before. And I was like, I want to just make sure, like, I'm not like, I'm not like going to die or something. And they're like, okay, cool. Yeah.
We don't the only way we can tell us if we draw your blood and be able to do this, and I'm terrified of drawing my blood like I do tattoos. Fine. But drawing blood is terrible. And I go, okay, sounds good. He leaves the room to go get the stuff.
I leave and I've never been back. You ran away. I'm so scared. Yeah. So I have to face my fears.
You've been. I think I'm supposed to pay for that. To nuts. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm worried about the payment. We can real quick, if you can share. Yeah, I have a bullet in my lungs.
It was a it was a minor. A minor thing back in the day. I was, I think 18, 19. It was right when I was like finding a place like again, this everything messed up.
That having me is when I was homeless. But there was something where I was like, you know, I didn't have a place to live. And so I had like go house hopping. And one of my friend's houses there was a parent who owned a air rifle.
Those chambered in 177. So if you know anything about bullets, it's the smallest screen of a actual firearm. And, you know, they they were messing around and didn't know it was loaded and shot at a shot at something.
And, you know, ricochet and stuff like that entered my body and stuck in my lung. It Oh, my God. And so the bullet the bullet that was shot at me is like sharp on the end and flat on the back. And so once it enters, you know, it's going to play pinball with my interior stuff.
And, you know, it's like my lung. And if I tried to take it out, it would be a higher chance of death. So it's like, you know, start doing that. Oh, my gosh. That's that's nuts. Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah. Even more fun story. The Doctor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put that on your to do list. Okay.
I will be following up with you to maybe make an appointment. Yeah, okay. Very last question, Alex. Very last question. Super easy. Yeah.
What is the best thing you saw this week? It could be a tick tock. It could be a TV show episode, an article your girlfriend's face in the morning. Really? Anything that brought you joy, I mean, my girlfriend's face to play it safe. But we've been watching Modern Family a lot like we've been.
I watched it growing up and stopped at a certain season and to rewatch it and stuff. It's like, I wish that real life was like Modern Family. That would be the dream.
Dream Life. What character would you be on? Modern Family? I'm Phil. I'm still all the way. You're Phil? Yeah, yeah. I'm like, it's so funny. Your girlfriend like Claire.
No, she's like another Phil. Yeah, we're to Phil's. Okay. Alex, this is a game called Two Beats and a Miss.
That's our business slang version of two truths in a life. Okay, crazy. Some of the Naomi three things. Two things are true. One thing is false.
First thing, Nikita Dragon has five known dragon tattoos. Okay, I know you know Nikita well, yeah. Number two, Jack Wright graduated cum laude from his high school. And the last thing is, Thomas Petrou is half Greek.
These are three things, and one of them is a lie. So I know Thomas is Greek. I know Nikita has a dragon tattoo.
I don't know how many. And what did you say? Jack graduated from cum laude from his high school was. I mean, this class Jack did not graduate type of this classes for you are correct. Jack once asked me ask me something and I immediately knew I was like, I didn't graduate from high school, but did you? Jack is the sweetest motherfucker ever. But he's I call him the human embodiment of a of a of a golden retriever.
And he also thinks like it do. Oh, my gosh, that's so sweet. So it turns out his twin James did graduate. James is a fucking genius.
Oh, we love James. Yeah. Okay, that's it. Thank you for playing. Thank you.
Thank you for having me. This is business casual. And I'm Nora Ali.
You can follow me on Twitter at Nora Kay Ali. And I would love to hear from you if you have ideas for episodes, comments, thoughts on episodes you loved fun segment ideas, shoot me a dime and I'll do my best to respond. I'll at least read your team. You can also reach the BCC team by emailing business casual at morning Broadcom or call us that number is 8622951135. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to business casual on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
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Sarah Singer is our VP of multimedia music. In this episode from Daniel Marcus and the mysterious Break Master Cylinder, thanks for listening to Business Casual. I'm Nora Ali. Keep it business and keep it casual business casual. If you like what you saw and you like what you heard, you can listen to the entire episode of this podcast business casual anywhere you get your podcasts and please go ahead and subscribe to the Morning Brew YouTube channel and go ahead and click on that alarm bell.
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2022-07-19 00:36
