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It was never about the money, although you need money for the mission, it was always about the mission. I read a story about you going almost half a million dollars into debt. We had a rule. You can't turn on the heat in the house unless you build a fire. So you either wear a jacket or you build a fire. My wife started to have some health challenges after a mission trip and then got super sick and almost died.
Oh my gosh. It's what lit a fire that hasn't gone out since. When did you make your first dollar on YouTube? George, it was wild. I mean, you talk about big money. I made $2.12 the first time side income started coming in. You have followed our financial principles to gain financial freedom, financial peace, and you've become now a multimillionaire? Yeah. Yeah.
What's up, guys? George Camel here, and today is a good day because I'm about to hang out with an elite YouTuber, the one and only Sean Cannell. Sean is the CEO of Think Media and co-founder of Video Influencers, and he's the world's most watched YouTube strategist. His channels combined have over 2 million subscribers, and his videos have been viewed over 100 million times. And today, he's joining me for another installment of Millionaires in Cars Getting Coffee. Hey.
Cars don't make that sound. No, thank you. Okay. Especially Teslas. Did you know I can customize my horn sound? But before I pick them up, help me get my subscriber count just a skosh closer to Sean's by hitting those like, subscribe, and share buttons. All right, let's get this road on the show.
Sean! What is up? Welcome! Oh man, I am pumped. This is so exciting. Here we go. I never thought this day would come. Well, here it is. And we're here. We're doing it. George Campbell, Sean Cannell.
Tour coming soon to the Panhandle. Is this a new, like a white rapper tour we're doing? No one, not even your parents would want to see that. Well, this is an exciting time. We're doing Millionaires in Cars Getting Coffee. We've hung out previously. Yeah. You know, I've been on your YouTube channel and now it's time for you to be on mine.
And this is our best angle to get you on here because number one, you're a very successful YouTuber, which is perfect because this is a YouTube channel. And number two, you have followed our financial principles to gain financial freedom, financial peace, and you've become now a multimillionaire.
- Yeah. - Like, is this true? - Yeah, it's weird. - You wanna show me, I need like a bank statement, a net worth statement, I need proof. - Happy to verify all funds. - Show me the receipts! - Well, we'll get into all of that, but I kinda wanna go back to the origin story of Sean, 'cause everyone knows you, super successful YouTube guy, Think Media, but it wasn't always that way. So how did you get started? Like, was this 15 years ago you've been on this journey?
- Yeah, so I've been doing video for 20 years, YouTube for 17. - Which is pretty much like since YouTube's inception. - Basically, like right after. And so I kind of feel like I didn't choose video, video chose me because I just started- - That's what they say about the thug life. - You know what it is? Get rich or die trying.
But that's not my value system. But ultimately, my youth pastor handed me a video camera in a small town church an hour north of Seattle. There's like 16 kids in the youth ministry and said, hey, start making video announcements. And George, these videos were very bad.
You know, they were terrible. But back in those days, like, it was like, oh my gosh, she made a video. Like, I'm on the screen. Yeah. You know, like, look at. It was impressive. It was. And then I started doing Sunday church announcements, not just youth ministry. So I did two videos a week while I'm waiting tables at Red Robin. Why we're a young broke couple, my wife and I. And you were broke. What do you mean by broke? Like, are we talking in debt? No, we weren't like driving into debt, except that we got married in 2005, 2015.
And then we quickly bought a house without financial peace. In the culture of our church, we were...
And everyone was, there was a lot of people buying houses and there was like this frenzy of like, it's appreciating, like just find a way to get into it. Just like that. Look at how much, cause people had it at least right then there was such a boom. So I was like, right, I made $55,000 in appreciation just in the last six months. Why wouldn't you jump in on that? Yeah. Just, just find a way to get into it. And so with no education about even, we got into an 80, 20 arm. Oh boy. And, and,
We bought a 1969 house in Marysville, Washington that was like a lemon. - So it needed a lot of work. - Oh my goodness. There was black mold in both bathrooms, then it needed a new roof, then the drain field failed. It was wild how much stuff happened. 'Cause it also, in a baseboard heating,
And a wood fire stove. And before we knew the term... It's like Little House on the Prairie. I know. We had roommates. We were house hacking, which was a good idea, I guess, before the term got popularized today. Before there was TikTok to tell you how to do it. Exactly. We had a rule. You can't turn on the heat in the house unless you build a fire. You can heat your bedroom because you have a small room. But baseboard heating is too expensive. So you either wear a jacket or you build a fire. Wow. Okay, so...
I read a story about you going almost half a million dollars into debt. Yeah, well. What happened there? So we actually bought another house on declared. You kept yours, had a mortgage, got another mortgage. With this idea that, okay, so we'll turn this one into a rental. Problem is if like more money is going out than coming in.
that's bad oh i'm gonna write that down so we find a tenant but the appropriate rent for the house was like a thousand so we were like 250 negative every month oh gosh but not only that washer and dryer goes out you know this issue goes out and so so that is i've heard it called maybe an alligator that's that's burning a hole in our pocket but still like but just hang on because
because appreciation. - What was happening with your marriage at this point and your actual normal day-to-day life? As you're trying to, or were you building the business at this point, the YouTube business? - Well, not building the business. So my wife was actually more of the primary bed red winner. She's nannying, waiting tables, working at Starbucks. I'm waiting tables, working at the church, eventually quarter time. And then the business started to, I started a video production business.
and started doing wedding videos and some like web design work and stuff for others. But yeah, definitely had insane financial pressure. Our marriage was doing good, but this also was a time in our life when my wife started to have some health challenges after a mission trip and then got super sick and almost died. - Oh my gosh. - So in 2009, all of this stuff actually all hit kind of at the same time. - Came to a head. - Because we actually found ourselves in a hospital room for six days by our side.
and thinking about not just seeing my wife on a hospital bed, but the tenants had lost their job and stopped paying. So that house just had to go into foreclosure. We couldn't float that. And then the house we were living in, we're feeling crushed by that.
And then, and then the church that we were part of too, had a moral failure and some senior leaders mismanaged money, stole some money. Which now affects your career and income. Yeah. And so that fell apart as well. So George, I'm like in that hospital, those six days. Was that your rock bottom? I think that.
My perspective is trying to see the opportunity in every problem or just what good is it going to do to wallow in despair? So you're just resourceful, resilient. Let's get to work. With every challenge, you're like, all right, we'll figure this out. We'll figure this out. And that was really the spark for me because it also... I felt really challenged and even a little bit insecure as a man where I was like, I'm seeing my wife. Not only the pressure that was on her for finances, like I got to step up. It's what...
lit a fire that hasn't gone out since to go all in on YouTube and figure out how to make money online in an ethical way, you know? And that also was then still a journey. It's not like, you don't go zero to six. I don't think, you know, you don't turn your side hustle all of a sudden. - Yeah, what was the trajectory to go from like, when did you make your first dollar on YouTube? Like, do you remember that moment, that day, that month? - It was right around then, but the next move we did, and the right move for my family was a door open to move to Vegas.
to take a role as a director of communications at a church with healthcare, with not a great salary, but benefits and benefits, stability. And then, and then the commitment to while I am doing the right thing for this season for my family, I am going to, um,
Also, then just really be diligent about working on my side hustle, which I did. So you do it the smart way, full-time job stability while working on the side hustle, trying to gain some momentum with that. Yep. And first dollar I want to say was right around 2011. And it was actually, you know, you're not monetized yet for the YouTube Partner Program where YouTube pays you for views when you have a small channel.
But I signed up for Amazon Affiliates, the Amazon Affiliate program. Oh, yeah. And after putting some videos out there and some people clicking on my links, George, it was wild. I mean, you talk about big money. I made $2.12 the first time side income started coming in. That's a lot of dough. But was that a light bulb moment? You're like, okay, well, if this thing scales and I grow up to this, it could be this much. Or was it like, okay, that's cute? Huge light bulb moment because it was... I was like, I wanted to click my heels like a leprechaun. I was like...
I was like, this is $2.12 more. It's what it represented. Don't despise small beginnings. It's proof of concept. Like, I literally did just make money online. And what... I don't understand this yet. What if I could scale this up? What if I could learn how this works? I was like, okay, wait. Make YouTube videos connected to a way of making money $2.12. The thing here is like, this proof of concept...
If I figure out that process, get better at making videos, get better at understanding these different ways to monetize online. You start to dial all these things in and now we can scale this up and make a living. I love it. Hey, Sean.
Hey, we're gonna get back to the conversation in just a moment. But first, I wanna tell you about where to stash the cash in a place that can earn you some really sweet interest. And that is a high yield savings account offered by Laurel Road, a sponsor of today's video. Right now, your account balance earns 5.15% APY plus a ton of other great perks.
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All right, Sean, let's get our coffee. That's part of this. It's millionaires in cars getting coffee. Without that, it would just be millionaires in cars, which is less exciting, to be truthful. Well, I just realized, though, because we did put our orders in ahead of time, that it's 90 degrees in Nashville. And you ordered? Hot black coffee. Here's our coffee order. Hello, good sir.
What's your name? I'm Johnny. Johnny. Thanks for the coffee. Of course. Appreciate it. Thanks for doing it. I know this is not your normal, part of your normal deal to bring coffee out to guests. It's all good. But we appreciate it. Special guest.
The first cut is the deepest and the first sip is the bestest. Someone should write a song about that. Tell us about, do you remember the day that you were like, oh my gosh, we have a million dollar net worth? Like talking to your wife about this? There was like no celebration. There was no like countdown to like, oh, we're officially like we're millionaires.
almost like it's still surreal. And I think also... It's just sort of a number on paper, but your life, because your life didn't change drastically when you hit this... Well, it actually didn't change at all. This number. I mean, it has risen, like, conservatively risen with, like, a big gap between, you know, sometimes people's lifestyle inflates. And ours has gone up, but so smallly, you know, conservatively. Like, I knew I made it, George, when I could go to Chipotle, and if they said, I'll take guacamole, and they go,
you know, that's going to be $2.75. - The big warning. - And I'm like, yeah, I'll take two scoops then actually. I'll take, you know. - So what is a splurge now for you? Like what is something you've splurged on recently that, you know, 10 years ago would have blown your mind, but now it's like, no, this is worth it for me. - My splurge, I think we're starting experiences for sure. And even my wife and I will still say, oh, that hotel is too expensive.
Like it's past the tipping point. That's ridiculous. You know, we might look and we'd be like, oh, we could be in the presidential suite. You know, put that on Instagram stories. Like, no, we don't need that. Who cares? You know, that's just for you out of convenience. And it's nice to have a little luxury you're paying cash for. I don't know if you know about that line that like that they talk about where it's like it's true in like cameras. Like if you don't spend a lot of money, you can tell the quality is not very good.
And then you spend a little bit more, but then eventually you get to this place where like the diminishing returns audio equipment could be that. - Oh yeah. - And so I kind of feel like that too. - Diminishing returns of money and happiness of like, okay, get it going way over here. It's not gonna increase happiness by 10X just 'cause you spent 10X. - Or even just, you know, spending a hundred dollars on dinner each 200. Okay, it could be, it's pretty nice. You know, maybe some very special places for like 250. If we're spending like a thousand dollars each,
And maybe even been in those environments when somebody else was paying and I had it, I'm like, it wasn't even that good. This is not $1,000 good. It wasn't even good sometimes. And maybe that's the taste. You're like, I literally would have loved to go to a fuzz spot instead. So why do you still do this? Because truthfully, you could probably go, all right, I'm good. Going to retire early. Going to go do something else. It's been fun. What keeps you motivated now? What is that why? It was never about...
the money, although you need money for the mission, it was always about the mission. And I think on the one hand is because YouTube changed my life and has helped us create freedom. And I want to tell other people about that. But I think the other deeper why that drives me is the Bible really is our blueprint. And I see like a real lack in culture right now of values, of faith and family kind of being lost.
And in a lot of ways, I see YouTube as like a mission field. I mean, Ramsey, the media company, is helping people in anxiety and mental health and relationships and money and leadership and business. And we need that. And so that's what kind of keeps me going is our company is about mission. Money is so important and it drives it. And we want... And also, how can we lift now the families and the people that work for us? I'm fighting for them, fighting for what could happen in the future. And I think Leaders Asks...
not just like what's in it for me or what can I get, but also asks how far can we go and how much of an impact can we make? And so that's what keeps me going. That's beautiful. Well, man, this has been so fun. Would you request a like, subscribe, a share? I think in a way only you can do. Yeah, well, listen, I mean, Jordan,
George Camel rhymes with Sean Cannell. Okay. That's one reason. That's I know. Yo, if you got value out of this video, super grateful. If you watch this long in the video, man, your attention could be a lot of places. And so really appreciate you being a part of this conversation.
you hit the like button, check out show notes in the description down below and check out George's book. I mean, he's going to help you. It's fire. Not go broke. This guy YouTubes, you can tell that was a great, very low key, not too salesy, just perfect amount of authenticity. Yeah. You nailed it. It was authentic. I mean, you're doing incredible work and actually
If we can, put a link in the show notes. We had a conversation. We did. On my podcast, the Think Media podcast. How we grew this channel. Yeah. And so I think checking that out, there's a ton of wisdom in that conversation. It was an honor having you in the show. And so if you're going to watch something next, that might be something to check out. Well, man, make sure to check out all of Sean's content if you want to nerd out.
on how to successfully launch, grow, sustain a YouTube channel as a creator. Sean, always a pleasure hanging out with you, man. Thanks for being here. George, thank you. Hope you guys enjoyed that conversation and huge thanks to Sean Cannell for putting up with my shenanigans. Oh, brother, this guy stinks! If you liked this video, be sure to check out this one to see what happened when I picked up Alex Hermosi to get some coffee slash muscle milk at a gas station. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
