Miles Beckler on Building Wealth From Scratch

This transcript is auto-generated and lightly edited for readability, it may contain errors.

[00:18] Sammie Ellard-King:

I love what you said there, man, because we have a I have a system which I teach people three bank system, you struggle with saving, then have your money come into one account, pay yourself first into an account. And because everything’s digitized these days, it’s so easy to swap 20 pounds, 50 pounds over halfway through the month, like clockwork, you do it every month. But then don’t own the app or the card for that bank account. So you physically have to like phone them up. And then just having that block in place will stop you on 95% of the time. If you really need the money, go and get the money. But like you don’t need the money, right? Because you’ve budgeted, you’ve done your audit, and the money comes in, bank number two, all of your direct debits and bills and subscriptions and like fixed costs come out. And then what’s left in bank number one you’ve budgeted for is the money. Spend that money. And then don’t spend any more than that because you haven’t got any of it. Because the money in bank three doesn’t exist to you. And if you separate that, it’s a really good system. And so I love that you did you did that because I had to do that to myself too. I was crap. I was absolute crap. And so I had to like, what do I have? How do I just stop myself from spending money on a credit card? How do I stop myself money from like loading up these things? You answer is cut them up and like place blockers in place.

[01:30] Miles Beckler:

I learned a five bank account system from uh um an audio seminar on Audible called Prosperity Consciousness by a guy named Frederick Lehrmann and it’s kind of outdated. Brilliant. Okay, so you’re familiar with it. Yeah. So and and so that was so once I started separating for myself, I I stumbled upon that Nightingale Conant um seminar, and that got me because he’s got the play account, because you we we need to honor that we still need to go out and play. So so some of what comes in can go into the play account, the long-term savings and spending account, the forever wealth account. And like it, it really by using this kind of discipline and and operating with discipline in this manner, um, you start to feel good because you start to get the results, and you like all of a sudden I have an emergency fund. All of a sudden something went wrong in my car, and I was actually able to pay for my own product. And I have to like call my dad at the age of 22 and be like, dad, like, you know, like and this builds confidence. And these are the little wins, right? And one of the truths about winners is winners just win and we keep winning. And it’s not big wins, it’s little wins. We make lots of little wins and we keep that momentum behind us, and then you start to feel really, really good. Um, and it’s just it again, it’s it becomes a virtuous cycle. And uh I love the fact that you and I both started from this point of being just absolute rubbish with it, which I think 99% of people are. And we were able to build new habits and we were able to implement systems, and just by doing that and then relying on them and sticking with them over long periods of time, massive change is is caused by these little habits over long periods of time.

[02:59] Sammie Ellard-King:

Yeah, 100%. I put out a video yesterday saying I’m gonna have X amount in retirement, and people lost their absolute minds. And uh like that was me being conservative as well. And that was also just from investing. And people are like, how is that even possible? I’m like, it’s totally possible for you too. That’s the point of me doing this video, right? To show you what is actually available when you put your mind to it. Because I’m just an everyday guy, just like you. And look, look what happened. And I’m gonna be in that position in 30 years’ time, but I’m also now in a comfortable position after just eight, nine years of doing this, right? So, like, that’s the damage you can make if you just go through exactly what Miles said right there. And it’s literally just laid out for you. If you put that into practice in six, seven years’ time, life looks very, very different.

[03:48] Miles Beckler:

And a lot of people will hear the six, seven years time thing and be like, oh, I don’t have time for that. But like the truth is the next six or seven years of your life are gonna happen anyways. And in the digital marketing stuff and what I teach is I’m like, mate, just start publishing content, right? Just start because six or seven years are gonna pass anyways. And if you’ve been publishing, so I did something like 800 YouTube videos in the course of like seven years, give or take. Um I could have just not, I could have been lazy. I could have not published those videos, but doing that created yet another asset that’s generated additional cash flow. And it’s like small, right? After 90 videos, I had like 150 subscribers. Most people look at that like, oh, this stuff doesn’t work. But the results compound over time. And our brains, our human brains, have a really difficult time understanding exponential growth. We understand linear growth very well. One, two, three, four, five. We’re taught that as a kid, right? But one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one twenty-eight, whoo, this is the exponential growth, a consistent doubling. If you take a penny that doubles every day for 30 years, or for 30 days, excuse me, you end up with like millions of dollars from a penny that doubles every day. The power of compounding. Um, and so giving knowing when people are like, oh mate, like six years, wow. But when you get to the six-year mark, if you’re making small, consistent actions over time, you’ve got this giant snowball of momentum behind you that starts with something as simple as putting 25 pounds away per week into this other account or putting 50 pounds a week into this other account. Um, it just it it I barely can explain it, but I’ve seen it happen in my life in so many lives that it’s just I trust it fully now, which is why I just keep looking for ways to how do I put more of my money into these compounding machines at this point?

[05:39] Sammie Ellard-King:

It becomes addictive, doesn’t it? Like I and I would say that like even in three years. Last month we did more than I made in a year of my job before, and that’s like the compounding effect after three years of building digital assets, right? So, like that’s what’s possible in that sphere. And what does that look like after 18 months, 24 months? It looks like job replacement income for a lot of people, and that was me getting up at five o’clock in the morning, doing five till nine, going doing my job, coming home, saying hello to the missus, then going back to work again till you know, uh basically my eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore. And I did that for I did that for a year and a bit, had a little bit of burnout. Yeah, absolutely. But guess what? I was then making my job replacement income plus my income, yeah, funneling all of that into building more assets, looking for more opportunities, and then suddenly it’s like pushing the snowball off the hill. And then you you you have you’ve got choices at that point.

[06:36] Miles Beckler:

Choices, options. That’s the it’s just that’s what it’s all about. Because most people feel stuck and they’re stuck because of all the choices and decisions they’ve made in the past. When you spend all your money every month, you’re stuck in that job. You can’t leave. But when you’ve got 12 months of uh if you’ve got 12 months in an emergency fund and you’ve got a budding little digital business that’s making 900 pounds, 1200 pounds per month, you have options. And and you, you I’ve seen people pull the pin and say, you know what, boss man, I’m done. You know, you you have more options. I did it. I did it. Exactly. Right. And that to me, and that’s kind of what wealth really is, right? I measure wealth in time. How many years can I go without ever having to work again? That’s how wealthy I am. It’s not a net asset value number. It’s not the multimillionaire number, it’s none of those things. It’s how long can I go without ever having to work again in my life? Because I don’t believe any human being came on this planet to literally work all day, every day for 40 years. I mean, here in America, we have we have some serious workaholic issues, right? Um, you know, we take the least amount of holiday travel vacation time out of just about anywhere. Um, the the sickness rates and the challenges we have physically from the ailments, from all of this kind of overworking is uh crippling to a large portion of our population here. But at the same time, just with starting to make different choices, with starting to think differently, with learning new terminology, right? Like I just literally didn’t know what an asset was versus a liability was. And I didn’t realise I was spending all my money on liabilities and what that means. And so it’s it’s a process of self-education and then self-experimentation to find the process that works for you. Um, and then from there, consistent habits over time. Um, another thing I found is, you know, I work out, I’ve got a big garden, I’m harvesting strawberries and and berries here. I paddleboard, I camp. So many, I hike all the time, I hike dozens, if not hundreds of miles every winter for my winter home down in the southwest. And and so many of the things that I love to do that just bring me to a state of joy, that make me feel alive, they’re damn near free. Like, really, truly hiking, go park at a trailhead and go hike for four miles in a national forest here. Like I live near one, so that there’s an expensive, but like like we don’t, I don’t feel compelled to do expensive things to make me feel good. I actually can feel really good hiking in nature, paddleboarding, camping with my wife. And these are very inexpensive things to do, um, which allows funnel more money into those assets that generate more cash flow that creates this kind of positive snowball.

[09:01] Sammie Ellard-King:

You’re so right. Like the things that I’ve put back in my life once I got to that point are all things that are literally to do with like getting out with the dog and finding a new trail to like go and walk with him and or uh working with the PT to like increase my health. And these things, yeah, okay, I pay for the PT, but like I could just could just do it in my garden. I like getting shouted at because I need I need that I need that. I can’t. Know thyself, right? Yeah, exactly. So uh you know, I know I’ll do five reps while he’ll make me do 12. So that’s the that’s the difference. So um, but their interest is interesting that actually all the things that bring me joy, like I’m looking at a hiking trip in Switzerland because I just want to be with nature. I want to go and see the mountains. Like that’s that’s my thing. Like, I so I I I resonate with what you said there quite a bit because I can actually see how that is value. But if I was stuck in my nine to five, those things wouldn’t be happening and I wouldn’t have been able to have been able to bring choice. So obviously we’ve mentioned like building digital assets quite a bit, but I want to talk about this. If someone’s listening going, yeah, but I don’t want to do that. Yep. Um like do you feel like anyone can do it? Anyone can run their own business? Is this a path that reserved for few, many?

[10:15] Miles Beckler:

Like Yeah. So I used to think that anyone could do it. Like, and I used to actually think that I was on this planet to help everyone do it, break free from the corporation and set yourself. But what I now realise is there are personality types in our world. Like, we need operations officers within our businesses. I need people who run media and who can run Facebook ads for my business. Like, like businesses need great employees. So there is kind of this almost like overlap where you can be uh some mashup of an employee entrepreneur, right? And you can take a very entrepreneurial approach to your job to find new revenue streams for your business, to find new avenues for monetisation within your business, to find ways to add value to your company, to their customers. And oftentimes, this will allow you to make more money. Because, like, my my philosophy on business is extremely simple. You can have anything you want in this world if you help enough other people get what they want. That’s an old Zig Ziggler quote. And we, as digital entrepreneurs, we help people get what they want through content, through courses, through trainings, et cetera. But even major corporations are helping people get what they want, right? Like REI is an outdoor company here in the United States, and they help people who want to go hike to get the right shoes, to get the right backpack, to get the right things. And there’s a way for someone to improve how that corporation delivers value, how many people that corporation reaches, and how much value that corporation brings to the world at large. So there’s always a path to expanding one’s value in the world. And when we expand the amount of value we bring to the world or to the marketplace, there’s a natural, something we call the law of attraction. That maybe gets you in that kind of like ownership role a little better versus being a tiny cog in a gigantic wheel. And so there are many different paths. I do think that everyone should be building some sort of a personal brand right now, because I think as someone who hires, I want to like people can apply for a job, but what have you been doing with your free time? Have you built a blog? Have you built a YouTube channel? Do you have a social following? Are you sharing? Are you creating content on anything just for the love of sharing what you’re about, whether it’s racing simulators or hiking or travel? If someone applies for a job in my company and they haven’t taken any action in the real world and they’ve got this long resume, oh, I’m so excited. I want to do this. Oh, mate, what have you been doing? And so actions speak much louder than words. And so I think everyone should be consciously curating their own personal brand one way or another, in order to kind of open up more doors and to prove to the universe and to prove to future potential employers that they are the kind of person who goes above and beyond, who who creates more than they consume. Because this is this is what CEOs want to see. Um it’s one thing to say it on a resume. It’s another thing to dedicate three years of your life writing a blog about something that you care passionately about, and that alone will put you um heads above the rest.

[13:46] Sammie Ellard-King:

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