Transcript of Pokemon Cards Beat the S&P 500? | Asher Lara | Coffeez Ep. 308 New

1, 2, 3!

Hey, how are you doing?

Good, welcome! Asher?

Thank you, thank you. Asher, yeah.

Alyssa!

Let me get an iced peach green tea lemonade.

Absolutely! Wait, Asher, are you— I heard that Victor Ortiz knocked you out and threw you in the hospital.

Oh, I don't even want to talk about it.

Is that what's going to be in your next YouTube video?

I still feel it, that's why I need this tea. Oh my God, let me get this tea.

For you. While I'm doing that, I want you to pick your best favorite chocolate and have a bite, okay, for me. Tell me what you think.

Thank you.

You're welcome. All right, Asher, I can't wait to see you get knocked out in your next YouTube video.

Come on, follow me.

I'm gonna take you to Joe.

Joe, the legendary Asher Lara in the building. What's up everybody, welcome to another very special episode of Koffees. I'm your host Joe Shalby, and today we're sitting down with one of the fastest rising young entrepreneurs of Gen Z, the one, the only, Asher Larb.

Damn, damn, that was good. I'm honored, man, very honored to be here.

Thanks, thanks for coming. You're in the building, you got the whole crew here. Asher, I'd like to start the show off with the same question I ask everyone about every one of my guests, and I've never asked this to someone this young, but let's go with it. What's your morning routine?

Honestly, I start the day, I check the phone. Like, I'm Gen Z, you gotta remember. I check the phone, I look at how many likes, views I got on my most recent videos. I look at the YouTube AdSense, like how much money I made yesterday, you know. I check out what's, what's on the to-do list, you know, what videos I'm gonna film. I text the team, what am I doing today? So I texted them today like Dude, I can't be late for this coffees with Joe.

And how much money you make yesterday on YouTube?

Like $1,000.

That's it?

Yeah.

YouTube doesn't pay very well.

No, they don't.

Yeah, you made more money on Pokémon than YouTube yesterday.

That's true. Yeah, probably, probably.

You're a young entrepreneur now. You're not just a social media influencer. So we've classified you outside of the realm of social media. You've got multiple ventures going on right now. You've used YouTube as a platform to basically catapult your business. How has social media really helped you elevate your business and how are you leveraging social media to build your company currently?

Ever since when I was like 17, I wanted just to be on social media. I just wanted to be out there because I knew like I just wanted to create videos and I saw one of my best friends doing it at the time in high school and I was like, this is really cool. He was getting a bunch of likes and views. I was like, dude, I might be the coolest kid at school with like all these videos. So I mean, I knew social media was going to turn into like an actual business of mine if I kept going hard at it. And then after high school, I just, I, I got into LMU. I went online for a year and then I dropped out just pursuing full-on social media.

Full-on. Yeah, full-on. Made parents really happy about dropping out.

Oh no, no, no. My Asian parents were not happy, especially my mom. But she's, she's handling it well right now.

Yeah. She's like, oh, he's got 10 million. So I guess it's.

Yeah.

It's a real thing now. A lot of these— buying more houses than I ever could.

No, no, no, no, I'm just going under your footsteps.

So, Asher, for the people that don't know us, want to tell the audience how we met?

No, through Joey.

It was Joey.

Yeah, I met you.

Oh yeah, yeah, we met through Joey. Yeah, that's right. Joey's my videographer. He actually came and met with the producers the other day. And yeah, Joey was telling me, I create for one of the biggest YouTubers. I video— I'm his videographer. And I'm like, really? And then, oh, here's—

then I don't think I was even that big then.

No, you weren't. You had like 4 million subscribers. Oh, but here's how we really met. Joey was like, oh, Asher's mom is a loan officer. I'm like, oh, let's get her a job. So your mom got a job at the company.

Yeah, yeah.

But, um, but yeah, then she came down and then we met and then she was pumped that, you know, we were working together. So she probably got off your butt for not going to school. Because she's like, wow, you are doing some big things.

Yeah, no, I mean, she still wants me to go to school, but I think over there till this very day— no, no, I think that's never gonna stop. No, it's never gonna stop for Asian parents. No, but every single year, like, she's brought it up a little less, so that's, that's better.

It's like every Lamborghini I get, she stops talking about it.

Ah, no, no, dude, I'm— I think I'm done with like supercars. I think material— like, materialistic stuff, I think it's like, it's not as fun.

I think you get much more joy about buying a Chinese Mew.

Chinese Mew.

Yeah.

Let me—

let's talk about it. Like, what do you think? Do you think cards are a good investment?

I sent a snapshot of the top 10 performing AAA asset classes to some friends. And number one performing asset class in the last 3 months was One Piece.

One Piece, Pokémon.

Yeah, One Piece was 33%. Yeah, 2 was Pokémon, 32%, and 3 was the S&P, which was 11%.

Oh, I see.

Like, One Piece outperformed every— yes, I know, gold, Bitcoin, everything, Tesla, Nvidia.

Yeah, I got into One Piece when the market crashed in like February. The market crashed in February, uh, and then it pumped really high in January, and then February and March is when it kind of crashed. So I got into it when I came back from London, I went to a show. I think I bought like maybe $10K worth of One Piece and then it grew a little bit in April and I got a little bit more. And then—

and now it's just—

now it's like—

yeah, no, booming.

I, I think it went up like 100%. I doubled my money in like most of my cards.

Yeah, yeah. In the last 3 months it went up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That means 3 months prior to that, another 30. So yeah, you've doubled your money since February.

Yeah.

It's crazy. Yeah, there's no asset class performing like that.

Yeah, it's great, but it is a little scary though. It's like, when should I— when should I pull out?

For me, with my kids, um, we're just hold investors and we're buying raw and grading, so— and we're fixing, we're, we're, you know, fixing cards. We, we actually do the restoration.

Oh really?

So we, we clean them, buff them, get dents out. We do it all together.

That's crazy.

And it's a family project.

Oh wow.

So it's a great way for me to bond. You see Theo's calling you saying, hey, what card should we buy next? Yeah, because ears to the ground as to what investments are.

Exactly. I think One Piece Championship cards.

Yeah, that's a good idea. You heard it first here, guys. That's, that's the next big investment strategy.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, Asher, you're, you're like the only person I've been out in public with and every young girl on the planet is like screaming, oh my gosh, it's Asher, it's Asher, it's Asher. What's it like? You are the modern day movie star, you know. Back in the day, you know, it'd be like a, you know, some movie star and that's how people would respond. But now The real, the real stars are YouTubers and TikTokers. What's it like, like walking through a mall? Like, what's it feel like, you know? And like, is it annoying? Do you like it? Do you like the fandom?

Oh no, I truly enjoy it. I think that was my dream, like when I was 17, like starting. I didn't even really care about the money. I was like, oh, I just wanted to be famous, like make a couple videos and like people actually enjoy what I make. So now like when people come up to me, it's like, oh wow, like this is— it came true. Like, I get to meet people, so I'm super nice to everyone. I make conversation, but, um, I don't like— I don't think I'm like that famous, but like, so a couple people come up to me, say hi, what's up. But, um, yeah, I think it's pretty, pretty insane that that happens.

If that's a dream come true for you, just to be walking around, like, everyone's stopping. Yeah, no autographs yet. Everyone's just selfies.

Yeah, Gen Z doesn't do autographs. No, not really. What am I gonna do with that? I mean, I have maybe like a 1% chance out of like 100 people. But, um, yeah, I think YouTubers are kind of moving into, um, making their own televisions. So lots of YouTubers are doing their own episodes, movies. And I heard, um, what is that— what is that show, um, what is that movie? Obsession? That was— I think that was produced by some YouTubers. Obsession, the scary movie that's out right now. Yeah, I think that's—

yeah.

And also Backroom, that scary movie.

Really? So YouTubers are getting into full-on television?

Full-on television and producing. And yeah, it's kind of crazy right now.

Is that something that you have on your roadmap right now?

Um, no, not really. Not making any movies or episodes. I think I want to do— I want to focus a little bit more on my agency. And so I want to focus on kind of growing my friends and my clients' personal brands. Through like social media. That's what's like, like really cool to me.

Yeah. You started with me. I think I was your first client.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And now you got several clients.

Yeah.

And you're creating. But are you working with what kind of businesses are you working with?

I've, I've done like boba shops. I've done like bands, like, like singers. I've done who else? I've done actually this, this my most recent client, this she's called Leah Goldstein. You can search her up. But when we first started working with her in like April, she had like 20,000 subscribers. And like right now she has like 110 in like 2 months.

Nice.

It's pretty insane.

What's been the growth strategy for her?

Dude, I literally told them, I'm like, you got to do call to action interview style. So this stuff that kind of you did, like the, like if you follow me and I'll double your budget and stuff like that. So she's like a 14-year-old girl. And so she goes up to like random, like people, like, like taking them shopping. It's like really intriguing to watch.

14-year-old girl? Yeah, 120,000 subscribers.

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty insane.

That's amazing. Yeah, that seems like a cool strategy. How are you— how are, how are people finding you for this stuff?

Um, because honestly, market— no, no, not really. So I mean, I like word of mouth, like, yeah, just referrals. I mean, I usually like to keep it pretty separate because, um, I think my social media should just be about like me and like my lifestyle because that's what kind of keeps the brand deals going. But I think, uh, Iconify should be a thing like by itself.

So when you posted your first one, what did you think you were gonna get for— and was that successful enough for you?

No, my— well, my first video, I feel like everyone's first video is always like, it's like a— it's like the first step into something. So I feel like I knew it was gonna flop, I knew it was gonna do bad, but it was okay because I just wanted to post content. And so for actually a whole year I've gone literally— I was in like the 500-view jail. Like, I would only get 200 to 500 views. I'm not even kidding.

For a year?

For a whole year on one of my accounts.

What kept you going? I mean, that's like— that's—

yeah, I know.

I just—

sucks. I honestly don't even know what kept me going. I think I just had nothing else in my life, and then I was like, this is literally what I just want to do. And I posted it for a year straight, and then I was like, dude, this content is not working. Like, it was— it was—

what kind of content were you posting?

I don't even remember. I think it was just like Um, I think it was just like— no, it wasn't. It was just like TikTok trends, like here and there, just copying other creators. And then I started doing street interviews, and then when I like take people shopping and did stuff like that, and I was like, oh dude, this is working. So, and then I doubled down on that, and then I eventually took off. But I feel like trial and error is kind of what kept me going.

Trial and error.

Yeah. So the first video, it always flops, and second video, third video, it seemed like, like the 300th video Exactly, yeah.

Yeah, you were 300 videos deep and it still didn't work.

Exactly, I mean, same for you, right?

Yeah.

You had a bunch of videos for, um, with Joseph Shalaby in the account, and then you learned what worked and then you doubled down on it.

Everybody wants attention. Very few people actually know how to earn it. Somewhere along the way, you figured out what millions of creators never do. Tell us about your first video that really exploded. Why do you think that the video, the very first video that exploded actually connected to people?

I would say that there's a lot of videos that are kind of just, just because they're like trending. And I could think of on top of my head, like a single video that I could actually break down and kind of describe why it blew up. And I think it's still one of my interview shopping videos, but I think the beginning, the hook was very good. When I went up to people and then I asked them a question, it was like, it was either like, um, excuse me, or like, sorry to bother, or like, hi, I think you're pretty, or something like that. I think that's what people are like, oh my God, like, people are talking to random people in public. And then in the middle of the video, I was like, over here, follow me, and then I'll double your budget. And then when people, uh, when people follow you, the algorithm actually sees it and then pushes out your video more. So that's why I think the number one thing is like watch time and then following and then shares and then stuff like that. But I think that video blew up just because like there's so much like call to action in the video and then the hook was very good.

People wanted to see the ending, but always something like that. So I don't think there's like a direct formula you can use for every single video because every niche is different. But I think if you can have a strong hook that you've seen work in your niche, you can kind of replicate it. Yeah.

How do you come up with your hooks?

I don't even know. When I'm like in my filming mode, I just like, I just know what to say.

It's just, it's just your gift.

Yeah, I think I just learned on the way.

You're always learning with social media. I think we're still just in— still, you know, we're reinventing ourselves now again, now with this whole new brand development that we're doing for my personal brand. And it's been a, you know, it's been a big learning curve for us as well. How do you continue to reinvent yourself?

Honestly, I think the people around me, and I think I try to keep up with like the new like creators, new trends that are like coming up. And I like, I feel like collabs are always a very good way because people want to see new faces on your page, new stuff. And, um, I think you can't ever be like the same as everyone else, right? You can't, you can't be unique, you can't stand out. So I think you gotta like switch up your content. So you got to keep up trends. Like, for all the Gen Z's— for all the Gen Z people out there, you know, like the 6-7, so you gotta incorporate the 6-7 in the videos. So it's like stuff like that, you just, you just gotta go like watch, kind of doom scroll a little bit.

Now, did you ever think that you would have actually built a real business around social media and it would become what it is today?

Um, I think honestly no, I really didn't think so. I I think I really underestimated myself. Honestly, when I first started, I just wanted to post and I was just like, just give me like 100,000 views and I'll be good. And eventually I did and I kept doing it. And then I did not know I was going to make, make money from it. I did not know like I was going to be able to like actually support my lifestyle from it. Yeah, I had no idea.

What's your highest income-generating source right now? Is it cards? I mean, you got, you got an expensive lifestyle, fancy houses. Yeah, lots of supercars. Like, what is it that, that's really fueling the engine right now?

Um, I would say YouTube.

Is it TikTok? Is it Instagram? Is it Snapchat? Is it—

yeah, so I would say, um, you can't always have one. So I mean, like, I would say in 2024 it was YouTube. So I think YouTube was— I was doing like 50K a month just off the YouTube videos. And then along with brand deals, along with, um, uh, I started like an agency called Iconify, which helps other businesses grow their social media through organic or paid content. So, um, I did that. And then, well, right now I would say the biggest thing is brand deals and also my agency.

What's the biggest brand deal you've ever gotten?

Um, dude, I don't know if I can say. I'll say their names. Okay, I don't know how— I don't know if I can say how much, but I'll say their names. Uh, I've worked with, um, YouTube Coachella, I worked with Invisalign, Vans, Journeys, I worked with PacSun, and I think the most recent one was like Google Gemini, like their AI app they just came out with.

Nice. I always see you doing some brand deals mixed into your content. I'm like, yeah, he actually mixed that in pretty well. Like that.

Thank you, thank you.

Yeah, that did actually look pretty cool, you know.

Thank you. Yeah.

It doesn't get as much engagement as your normal content, but it still gets a ton of engagement.

Mm-hmm, 100%.

What's the strategy when you're doing a brand deal and you're trying to stay on brand with your actual personal brand? And, you know, the engagement strategy, because you still want to pull in all the views but still want to keep it relevant to your personal brand.

Um, so you're saying like what keeps—

yeah, like how do you keep brand deals on brand with your personal brand?

Yeah. So I mean, usually when a brand comes to me, they know themselves that, oh, I can fit in this creator's niche. I can fit in this creator's organic content. So for example, they would ask me to do— if I'm a lifestyle content creator. So for example, Invisalign asked me to do 5 videos for a few months, right? So I knew like what type of story, like, like I can either do like a storytime, like how I was in high school and I used to got get how I used to get bullied for my teeth and I kind of like revamped into like, oh, now I have Invisalign and now I like talk to all these girls or something like that. Right. So that I kind of incorporate that into like my lifestyle.

That's clever. Yeah. So who writes it? You do?

Well, me and like my YouTube strategist and like kind of my employees around me.

Yeah. That's, that's amazing. Now I got a funny question for you. Would you rather have $1 million or 1 million subscribers?

I think it really depends on where the subscribers are coming from and like what type of audience it is. Yeah, I think if you have young, old— sorry, young, young entrepreneur followers that want to like kind of like are intrigued in everything you're doing and want to like and want to like either learn from you kind of copy your lifestyle or like just buy whatever you're promoting, I think that's more important than $1 million. Absolutely. Yeah.

It's going to be, you know, with the trajectory you're going on, it should be a big thing.

Yeah.

Now take me back before millions of followers, before having all these businesses, before the supercars, before all the millions of dollars that you made. What was young Asher like growing up in, in LA? And I don't think you grew up in the hood. I think it was Alhambra or something.

Alhambra.

Yeah.

Yeah. So what was life like then?

To be honest, I grew up in Shanghai, China for like 9 years of my life. So I was born in Los Angeles in Alhambra, and then at 3 years old, I moved to Shanghai, China. I went to like a private international school. So everyone there spoke Chinese and English. And so that's why I'm like fluent in Chinese, but I'm also good at English. And then I moved back here Oh yeah, but when I went to that school, like, everyone was like insanely rich. I was like the poorest student there because it was like a Chinese international private school. Yeah, so 8th grade I moved back here, and then, um, I, I started social media when I was, I think, sophomore in high school. So that's when I was like 16, 16-ish.

Yeah, 16. And when was the breakthrough? First video that broke through, do you remember it?

I think honestly it was just like a silly video. So I made like the same content for a year straight. And I think I was just like, you know, I'm just going to change it. I'm going to do something like stupid. I'm going to do something random. And then I did like a video of me in class, like wearing like a mask. And then I think people were like, I just blew up because like my outfit was cool. And some— I think it was like 50,000 views. So not crazy, but it was like better than 500 views.

The first Breakthrough video.

Yeah, yeah.

How did growing up in two completely different cultures shape who you are today?

Um, I think it shaped me a lot. Like, I was in— like, I don't remember much of my childhood in Los Angeles because I was only 3, but then, um, I remember a lot when I was in Shanghai, China. Like, I would go take the subway, like, eat Chinese food all the time. Um, honestly, just, I think it was more like my lifestyle in school. I was like going to my friend's house and they had like crazy, crazy houses. Like, like, like also they— it's not the houses, like they owned like the entire like apartment community. Like it was crazy.

Like stupid money.

Yeah. Like we were driving around golf carts and stuff like that to get around. But, um, and I— and then I— and then when I went home, it was like to my apartment. So it was like kind of crazy, but um, my mom did a lot for me to go to that school. I met a lot of great people. Yeah.

Now, all the social media started, I guess, with, with something that you did with your best friend, right? Was it, was it a video that you did with your best friend? Was it a challenge that you did with your best friend? Take us back. Um, how did this all start?

I mean, I think it was me, like, me and my best friend, more like in a competition, like friendly competition. So he was growing really fast. I was kind of looking up to that. And I was like, dude, what is this guy doing that I'm doing wrong? So he was kind of doing like interview style content, but I was like, I don't really want to copy that. I kind of want to make my own like twist to it. So I started—

is that Justin?

No, it was Ryan Tang. That's his name.

But bigger than you now or no?

No, no, no. I mean, he's doing good, but I would say I've a little bit more than him. Yeah, but, um, yeah, so I started doing interviews and I started like taking people shopping, and then I think that's what people like really enjoyed because it's like interacting with like the real world. It's like people are like watching my videos like, oh, I want to meet this guy in person, I want him to take me shopping. Yeah, I think that's why people like kind of go up to you as well. It's like, oh, I wanna, I wanna get the Xbox that you're giving out. Dude, that was—

we totally pivoted from that strategy, but that, that it got annoying. I'm like, I'm glad I stopped that because—

but that got you to a lot of followers.

Yeah.

And then you pivoted out of that and then started something else.

Yeah, but You know, nothing will grow like that.

Mm-hmm.

You know, when you, when you do content where you're interactive, man-on-the-street content, and you know, being charitable, people love that the most.

Oh, 100%. Yeah.

Now my brand more focuses on just me as an entrepreneur, CEO, podcaster. It's not nearly as sexy.

Haha. No, it still is.

But it's still, it's still, you know, it's just a more elevated, uh, more elevated audience that's engaging with it now.

Yeah, I think that's, I think that's honestly what's better. I think some creators kind of tend to always chase virality and like always chase, um, like what's, um, what's making them the views like right now and not like longevity. So I think trying to change up your content, kind of trying to get out of your niche a little bit and trying to chase what's like the bigger goal, I think that's what's more important.

That's why you're here right now. Yeah, exactly. I know, I know you're not doing podcasts at a especially entrepreneurial podcasts yet, and I know you want to start that journey now.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm happy that you're taking that first step with us.

I always see the clips of— I always see the clips of— I always see the clips of coffee. I'm gonna say one time, I always see the clips of coffees on your, um, Joseph Shalaby page, and I think I told you like 5 times, I was like, I want to be on, I want to be on it.

Yeah, so cool. Yeah, now we're going to be collaborating on it. Now, now this is about to blow up, baby. 100%, about to blow up. And we're gonna, we're gonna take— we're taking this show to another level, but Now kind of elevating your brand, elevating our brand together. We're doing this together, we're winning together.

Yes, sir.

Years later. Yeah, let's go. And now, you know, at what point did you realize— and this might have been recent for you— at what point did you realize that you're just not creating content anymore, you actually have a tangible money-making business?

Um, it's like, when did I realize that?

Yeah, when did you like— because You just started this content game, yeah, like 3 and a half years ago, and you went and you exploded on YouTube, and then you just started taking on clients. And, you know, with me, but with me, I think I was your first big one. But you started making like just ridiculous sums of money in the last couple years.

Yeah, um, I think, I mean, my first biggest brand deal I think was $9,000, and I think that was with, um, Fashion Nova. So when I told my mom that, she was really hyped, but she was like, "Still go back to school. That's nothing." But I think as just these brand deals started coming in, I was like, "Dude, they really wanna work with me. Why does Vans Journeys wanna pay me $12K for 3 videos?" And then I was like, "Bro, this is huge. I'm gonna keep doing this." But I think that's when I realized, I think just having an audience and be able to kind of make like storylines, kind of make like lifestyle content, kind of make content that people can relate and also like eventually buy your product just because you're promoting it. I think that was like, oh wow, this is really going to work.

And that happened when? The last 2 years?

I think ever like, yeah, ever since I blew up, I started realizing that. But I think that's why I tell people it's so important to start like a personal brand. And I think that's exactly what you've done, which is huge.

That's what I've done. You know, now personal brand Yeah. Is imperative with the world of AI. I was talking about personal brand before AI took off. Now, personal brand is all that's relative. If you don't have a personal brand in any industry, you're just not going to survive because of the world of AI. People don't care about the customer, the company anymore. People care about the person that they're working with because of AI. Everything is like centralized around the actual individual and not the, not the company itself.

Yeah.

But that wasn't a thing, you know, back then. Pre-AI. Pre-AI, you know, our personal brand was just, you know, you sell your product or whatever.

Yeah.

Now personal brand is like, it's your entire business.

Yeah. Do you think personal brand is better than a resume?

Absolutely. Personal brand is your resume.

Yeah, yeah, that's—

it is your resume because now ChatGPT, it's literally indexing every single word that we are saying on this podcast right now. So this is like your first thought— this is your first thought leadership podcast where all of your thoughts now are outside of the interviews and the relatable content. Now people get to hear Asher's intellect, and they can talk to ChatGPT about what Asher said on Coffees, what's his opinion about this, and it can formulate true opinions about you based on, on the narrative that you're explaining on this podcast. So personal brand now is your resume. Personal brand now is your identity. And it's basically any opinion that's formed around you because that's because every word that you say is indexed on AI.

Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, AI really changed the game.

It changed the game. So had I known what I had known back then about personal brand, I wouldn't have done a lot of the silly videos that I did, like, like feeding people tarantulas. Oh my.

Yeah, I remember that. That was crazy.

What do you think the biggest mistake is that creators make when they're chasing viral success?

I think just caring about a video going viral is not really going to get you anywhere. Like, if you keep chasing like viral— virality, is that— yeah, um, then you're not really building anything long-term. So I think you want to build something that's more like, this is what I'm promoting, like, this is, this is why I'm kind of posting on my platform, this is why I want to I keep posting. So I think if you, if you just keep chasing like, oh, this viral video, I'm gonna do this video, do this video, all does good, but like my audience is like just, just likes me because of the video. It's just not really building any core audience.

So that's it. Like, that's pretty much what every creator chases initially is virality.

Yeah.

What is it that you think that you did different outside of chasing virality?

I think honestly every niche is different. So I have more of a younger audience. So I actually, I've got a, I've, I've got like I've gotten a girlfriend to be in my video and that was like, it's like it builds more of like a lifestyle, like more of like a real life like audience. So it's like, oh my God, like what did you and your girlfriend do? Like, who's this girl? Like stuff like that.

She was also a mega YouTuber, right?

Like another influencer. Yeah, you said you broke up with her live? Live?

No, no, he didn't break up with her. No, I broke up with him. There's some gossip. You want to walk the audience through what happened?

Uh, no, actually, every time I broke up with her—

you broke up with her?

Yeah, every single time. I don't know if I should say this on camera, but I don't think she wants me to say this, but every single time I broke up with her. But it's just, um, just personal reasons. But, um, um, yeah, I think something that kind of like made me different and like made something to have a core audience was like something that happens in my life. So like I got a girlfriend and then like people want to see what's like the next girl I'm with, like stuff like that.

Yeah.

It's funny, like every 11 to 15-year-old girl is going to watch this YouTube video and go, huh? Like, is that what's happening with Asher and his girlfriend? Oh, he broke up with her? That's not what she said on her YouTube.

There's going to be videos made about this. Yeah.

Clips of clips of this video. You know, going viral is one thing. Turning it into a multi-million dollar business is a whole nother spectrum of virality. Now, you managed to do this before the age of 20. Which is something different. Now walk us through making your first million dollars. How did that feel? How did it feel to make your first million? And then how did it feel when you realized, dude, I'm a multi-millionaire now, I could have all this other extravagant stuff that I'm gonna blow my money on? Which we'll talk about you blowing your money in a second.

Honestly, it's, it's like, um, like I can— I only know like probably like a handful of people like around my age that are actually like making this much money. But I feel like—

I don't know any 19-year-olds making millions of dollars.

Yeah, well, it's like around my circle, like, I— there's only a few, right?

But, um, I guess like because they're all other YouTubers.

Yeah, yeah. But even like that, even like compared to the like widespread of like other YouTubers, I feel like it's still pretty rare. Like there's many content creators, they have like millions of followers, but they don't make that much. Um, and I think I'm very lucky to be able to like make good money. So I don't know, it feels very crazy. I think I used to spend my money on a lot of like stupid stuff, but I think I'm just like starting to like slow down on that.

Yeah, I mean, you just told me now you sold your McLaren. Yeah, awesome, because you're not blowing all your money on cars that you don't drive or you crash. I mean, you've crashed Lambos, you've crashed McLarens. I don't think you last in any supercar. I don't think—

no, I don't say that.

Haven't crashed a supercar. Every single one of them. Have you not crashed? Like, has there been one supercar that you haven't crashed?

Yeah, like the ones I'm driving, the ones I have right now.

You haven't crashed any of them?

No, but not the ones I have right now in the last couple months. Yeah, yeah, but like the ones I don't have, I crashed. Yeah, I, I'll say this, like, it is not my fault.

Like, not—

I've, I was like Dude, it's like—

are you taking videos?

It's the wind, it's the wind. I'm kidding. No, but I actually got T-boned like just randomly by this, by this Asian lady. I mean, serious, like I was in my Urus. Like, we could probably pop up a photo somewhere here. But yeah, it's like—

if you had to start all over today, zero followers, zero customers, what would your first move be?

But I have all the knowledge I have right now.

But you have all the knowledge you have right now, dude.

I think I could get to a million subscribers in like a month.

No way.

Um, I think actually starting from zero to having a lot of subscribers, it's pretty simple. I mean, when you had like, what is this, 60,000 followers on IG, and then you went to a mil, like you felt like you grew very quick, right?

Yeah. But now it's hard to get to 2, right?

So I'm, I'm at 8.78 mil, but I was like, I think a few months ago I was like 8.5. So like I remember a month I was doing a million subscribers in 28 days, but that was like in 2023.

And like, but subscribers are harder to get now.

Yeah. And I think it's like when you already have so many subscribers, it's like people see that and they're not really inclined to subscribe to a bigger channel. Right. But I think you can still make it work. But just that's my experience. But if I start from zero, I probably like I'll probably do the content I'm doing right now. And then I would do street interviews that I refer you to do. I refer all my clients to do, and I'm going to do it myself. But it's like taking people shopping and then having a call to action in the middle of the video. So it's like, I'll double your budget if you follow me. If you follow me, I'll give you $1,000 right now, something like that. But you say that in the video to Not, it's like a not directly call to action, but it's like an indirect CTA. So it's like you say that to the guy in the video and they're like, the person, the audience watching it is like, oh, maybe I'll get $1,000 or maybe my budget will be doubled. My budget will be doubled if I see this guy in real life.

Yeah, what if you start with zero and you're broke?

Like no money at all?

Yeah, no money. Like you can't take people shopping and buying them $5,000. I mean, 'cause when you film and when I film with you, it's not cheap.

No, when I, when I did that, I used my mom's credit card and then I paid her back. I mean, serious, when I did that, I think I, I was doing like $20, $20 products. I was just buying people that and I just paid my mom back.

You're like, Mom, when my YouTube checks start coming in, I'm going to pay you back.

Yeah, no, but the thing is— oh no, no, I did pay her back. No, but the thing is, I, I did sneaker reselling, so I had money saved up. So that's how I kind of paid her back too.

You used to resell sneakers?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the market Oh yeah, okay, now he— now you're reselling Poké— I mean, the money.

Okay, then I would do Pokémon. I would do Pokémon vending. I would do— I would do TCG vending. I would— every weekend I go to vending, so I would make probably a few thousand dollars there. I do— I know this 14-year-old that vends. He makes like, at shows, $10K a month just vending. This 14-year-old?

Yeah, at shows.

At shows, yeah, every single weekend. So I would do Pokémon vending and then also do content, so that will fund my content, and then I'll like snowball it. Yeah.

So what do you think the hardest thing is about having millions of people watching you grow up online as a lifestyle content creator?

I think the hardest thing is you have to— like, I have to make content kind of based around my life. So when I want to shoot a video, it's like I have to shoot the video with the friends that my audience likes to watch, or like a girl that my audience likes to watch. I think that's a hard thing about a lifestyle content creator, trying to like depend on other creators or people to be in your video is very difficult. So yeah, I always have to beg them to be in my videos.

Yeah. Now, do you ever get those moments when you're like, you feel a lot of pressure to create content, where you feel a lot of pressure to create content and you really don't want to?

I don't think so, actually.

You just always are— you wake up, you're ready to create content. Yeah, it's like first thing in the morning, that's the first thing that you want to check off on your list.

Yeah, I mean, I've never like— I never was like— maybe like when I'm really tired, but I don't think I was like, damn, I just really don't want to film today. I don't think I ever said that.

And you have multiple channels. I mean, you got Ashilara en Español, which is crazy because— yeah, why don't you have Ashilara in Mandarin, by the way?

Because YouTube is banned in China. But I have a— I have a RENNO and a Douyin account, which has a few hundred thousand followers.

Oh, what?

I have a Ren Note, it's a Chinese app, and then Douyin, it's like TikTok but Chinese.

Oh wow.

Yeah, but yeah, you speak in Spanish? It's actually dubbed in Spanish, but I don't really work on that channel anymore. That channel is kind of dead.

Really? It's got like 700,000 subscribers right here, dude.

I, I think I paid more money to get my videos dubbed in Spanish.

And now you just started a new Instagram, a new YouTube, Collect Max. What's the goal?

That was just an Instagram account.

What's the goal with that new channel? What are you trying to make happen with it?

Um, honestly, monetize that, dude. Honestly, yes. And I feel like you should do this too, and every other content creator should do this too until it gets patched. But, um, I've got brand deals just like $5K and just opening packs on video. So I'm like, dude, I'll do it. Like, I'll—

like, you don't even have a big following.

Yeah, so that's what I'm saying. So like, I literally If you just make videos and if you average around like 100K views, so I'm averaging around like 50K views.

On CollectMax?

Yeah, which is pretty crazy. I have like 500 followers, but these videos are like— I try to make a lot of videos and make it consistent, but I want to get like a retaining deal from this pack opening company. So I just rip packs for like 5K a vid for like 5 vids a month. You know, I was just like, why? Why not? And I love Pokémon, so.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

And you just came up with this how many months ago?

Like 30 days ago.

Collect Mix started 30 days ago and you're already getting a brand deal?

Yeah, yeah.

I need to have my kids.

Yeah, you should, you should, honestly. Yeah, like a family, like, channel opening packs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we're gonna start that.

I just don't know the exact cadence, like, just opening packs, like, um, I mean, just see what other creators are doing, like, in the TCG space and just, like, kind of copy it, but, like, If you, if you do it like as a family, I think it'd be pretty cool.

Yeah, we also, we're also restoring cars, which is fun too. Oh yeah, we do that. Of course, there's a lot of stuff where we, we can restore. I see a lot of creators doing that too. What's the biggest lie that social media tells young people?

I think really nothing is like easy. So I think you see like your favorite streamer, favorite YouTuber, like buy like a new supercar, and you're like, bro, I want to do this. But actually takes a lot of failure, trial and error. I think it takes a lot of hard work and kind of like almost something that makes you different about other people to really be like, I want to do this like 110%, like 200% in. Even if my videos flop, I'm going to keep going. But I think that's with anything. I mean, I've met a lot of people that I feel like their jobs are easy and then I talk to them and then they tell me about their struggles. It's like, oh, it's actually really hard.

You've proven that you know how to get attention. You've actually proven that you could turn attention into money, and you've proven that you could turn your attention into a real business. But now what's next?

As I said, I think focusing on my, um, focusing on scaling my YouTube, my long-form YouTube videos, that's important. So I'm still struggling with that.

How are you going to scale your long-form YouTube?

Dude, I think right now is a perfect time. It's in summer, so I literally I just told my strategist, I'm like, dude, we need to post 2 times a week. Like at least like YouTube long form. Yeah. What kind of long form are you going to be posting? I want to do like more collabs with other people because I feel like I've been doing a lot of videos in my circle a lot. So I kind of want to get out of that. So a lot of collabs. And then so I want to do more long form. And then also I want to focus on my agency because I feel like that's very scalable. And actually, we just got 2 new clients for next month, so which is pretty insane.

Yeah, long form is a very difficult strategy to crack, but yeah, it also pays the best for you, I'm sure, on YouTube.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think that's one of the best forms of, um, content, and there's a lot of longevity in it.

Now, 5, 10 years from now, what do you think your content strategy is going to look like?

Um, I think I'm gonna be a Pokémon master full-time. No, I'm kidding. Uh, doing ripping packs, you know, honestly, if it pays off Dude, these companies are actually like paying creators so much to do it. It's crazy.

Yeah, but they know you're a creator already from your regular Ashralar, right? Yeah, yeah, I play. So you just have this separate—

But even that, I think it's like gambling but not really gambling.

It is fully gambling, actually.

Yeah, but like people don't think it's gambling yet though.

Yeah, it's really gambling because your probability is like 1 in 700 to rip anything.

Yeah, but it's just because it's Pokémon, like people don't think it's gambling. But it's like they're fully gambling websites. But it's like, it's not like 21+.

Yeah, like, it's just like you're something for kids.

Yeah, but your son can play it, like, which is crazy.

When people stop calling you an influencer one day, what do you want to be remembered for?

A content creator turned into entrepreneur. But I started like— I would say a young content creator turned into entrepreneur.

What kind of businesses do you want to have?

I wanna, I wanna focus kind of on the business that I built, Iconify, um, and then also Also, maybe like, I don't know, just kind of learning from other— yeah, like coffee shop, influencer coffee shop, influencer coffee shop. Yeah, no, but like, I, I don't know, maybe like meet some nice, uh, business friends who can give me some advice on like what businesses I should buy, like kind of get into, or— yeah, because right now I have no idea, only content, content and, uh, cards.

I've helped you a little bit with your business strategies.

Yeah, the cards have been insane the past 3 months. It's been slowing down though.

I don't— I think it's still booming.

It's slowing down a little bit. Pokémon's kind of drawing back a little bit.

If you had 1 hour with every high school student in America, what's 1 lesson you would teach them?

I would say school is not the only way to success, and I would teach that in a way where I would really have them try to find what they're good at, what they really enjoy, even if they make like no money, because I feel like success is a very subjective term. So I feel like you can find success in just being happy, but like it's not all about like money. So I think if you just find what you love doing, I think, yeah, doing good at school is not the only route to success.

It makes a lot of sense. Do you think attention has become more valuable than money and why?

I think attention is money. I wouldn't say more valuable. I would just say it kind of leads into money. I think that's for every business, like without attention, without customers coming in, without like people coming to watch me, like there's, there's no way I can make money. So I think right now there's a lot of people coming up to me for advice. Like, I want to do this with my business. Like, I want to be known for this guy in my niche. I want to be like this content creator. So it's just like everyone's coming to me like wanting to do something on social media because they know the importance of it.

What advice would you give the 17-year-old Asher? Before you posted your first video?

I think 16, 16 to 17 is when I was kind of like failing. So I would just say you're exactly where you want to be. You want to be failing at this. Like you want to be failing right now because if you're not failing right now, I just got like success with my first video. I feel like I might get a few good videos and then I'm going to go back to failing because I don't really know what like my failures and why they didn't work, you know? So I think I also learned editing on the way. I should learn a lot of things on the way. So I would tell myself, 10-year-old self, like, what you wanted is very, it's very soon, but you just got to keep on going.

Yeah, I like that. I like that. I mean, you learn perseverance through social media, and it's a lesson that people spend a lifetime sometimes trying to attain.

Yeah, dude, I think honestly, when I was like 16, like, that my failing period, I always think about all the time. Like, it was like also 2022, 2021, 2022. So I was like, like, I was in my room, I was like writing down on my like notebook. I was like, dude, like, this is what I want to do. Like, I was like, like, I, I was telling my friends, like, no one in high school like believed in me. Like, everyone was like, hey dude, yeah, they're like, no, you're not gonna do this. Like, this content's dumb. I mean, it was done at the time, so that's why I failed. But like, like, I just remember, like, I wanted it really, really badly.

Now, what's one thing that you hope people understand about you beyond the followers, beyond the fame, beyond the social media influence, beyond the supercars?

I think I'm still like only 10% where I really want it. Maybe not 10, like 20% where I want to really, really be. So I think there's a lot of new content going to be coming. There's a lot of collabs that are going to be coming. I think a lot of big stuff I want to be doing. So I mean, I want people to know my real personality through the videos a lot more, but I'm still growing. I'm only 20 years old. I turned 21 literally— oh, I turned 21 this month in a few weeks. Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

Career is over, all your followers are long gone. What do you want people to remember about Ashralara?

Me making my content kind of failing for so long, I think. Just everything I do in my life, like always having positive energy. I think that's what I want to be remembered for. Oh, I want to be— I want to be remembered for being on Kofis, for sure.

Let's go, let's go, baby, let's go!

Yeah, this is like my first big podcast.

Let's go! See, young entrepreneurs on this show, first, uh, debut and your first thought leadership podcast. Let's go! Now, uh, we're gonna conclude with a a small little game show called Build It, Buy It, or Pass. So you're gonna basically say one of those three things. You ready? Personal brand, build it, buy it, or pass?

Buy, pass. I'm kidding, build it, of course.

Yeah, I was about to say coffee shop.

Um, nah, pass. Unless it's with coffees. Yeah, yeah, I would say Buy it.

Crypto.

How can you build it?

I would just buy it. Yeah, buy it.

All right.

AI marketing agency.

Build it.

Restaurant.

Depends like what? I know like so many restaurants are not doing that good. I would say depends. Probably buy it.

Buying an existing business.

Yeah, buy it to build it. Yeah.

Take a guaranteed $250,000 job or build your own company.

It's what you define as success. So if that $250K a year defines success for you, then sure. But if your success wants to be making maybe $100K for first year or $60K for the first year, like, but your business is like what you love to do, then build it.

Quit college or start a business?

I think depends on the person. I think if like, you know what you're going to do when you quit college, then to build it.

Hire best friend as your business partner.

I pass.

Go all in on artificial intelligence for the next 5 years.

Um, build it.

Now, bonus question, and you can only keep one: followers or money? Which one do you choose and why?

I think for my type of audience, I would say I think I could gain it back. So money.

Let's go. So easy for these young influencers to gain followings.

Yeah.

Asher, you've been a pleasure to have on the show. The first young superstar Gen Z entrepreneur. Thank you. If people want to connect with you, how can they find you?

Uh, find me on Asher Lara on every single platform, like literally anything. Literally find me. Yeah.

And then the Chinese platforms.

Yeah, Douyin, Redditor, if you want to find me there, Asher Lara. Let's go. Yeah. All right, thank you. Coffees. And I will be getting my own coffee shop.

Let's go.

Yes, sir.