The Universal Struggle of Content Creation

Max: You’re struggling with posting content. You’re lacking motivation or consistency with it. You’re seeing other creators have it so easy, going viral. And here you are taking forever to post, sitting in front of an empty screen, not knowing what to write, editing for hours, and then finally posting a video that you’ve got a good feeling about only to get 100 views.

Look, while most of my other videos here on this channel are very technical, very how-to, I want to give you words of encouragement here. Every time you feel discouraged or you’re about to give up because the whole online world seems to have conspired against you, you can watch this right now and keep going. I promise this will be your lifeline.

I’ve actually built three multiple seven-figure online businesses from scratch using social media. I’ve made over eight figures in cash collected. I’ve been on four world tours, yada yada yada, all that. I’m not telling you this to brag. I’m telling you this to show you that I have the same doubts. I struggle with the same downtimes and the same frustrations. So, let me tell you, this is normal. What you’re experiencing is normal.

But here’s the thing, there’s really, really amazing things that can help you keep going. I’m going to share mine with you and I’m sure you can resonate with them and you can use them yourself to finally start posting consistently and finally start building the brand that you actually want that you actually deserve. And then after this video, I’m going to eat this delicious Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

The Strength of Mothers – Putting Things in Perspective

Max: So, a lot of times when I pick up my phone and I get discouraged or I don’t really feel creative, I think about one person, my mom. My mom is the embodiment of a strong human being, of a strong woman. She brought up three kids, me and my two siblings. And trust me, we were brats. She brought us up alone. She worked a full-time job on the side. My memory of my mom is coming home tired as hell when it’s already dark outside. And instead of relaxing and watching TV, she would cook. She would cook for us to have meals that are healthy for the next day.

I would always show up at school with my lunchbox filled with vegetables and healthy things while I actually always looked at my friends in school whose mom just gave them money so they could just go buy shitty chips and Coca-Cola. And I almost envied them. Now thinking back to that, I can appreciate how much effort my mom put in. She would sacrifice everything for her kids. We didn’t have a lot of money, but she never made us feel that way. We didn’t really have a lot going for us, but she never made us feel that way.

I was a difficult child. She would defend me in school for the teachers who were complaining that I was talking back at them. She’s the embodiment of the saying of behind every strong man is a strong woman. I truly wholeheartedly believe that. And my mom is still there for me every single day. I’m on WhatsApp with her all the time. We’re sending messages back and forth. I ask her for advice on business. She doesn’t have a business. I ask her for advice and love matters like everything and she’s there for me.

But look, the reason why I’m saying this is because sometimes it can seem like posting content is hard. Just think about the mothers of this world. Maybe your own mother. Maybe you’re a mother yourself. Every day I talk to so many new mothers and mothers with kids that are already adults and they want to build their own business. They want to start posting content. And I always tell them this, you’ve already done the hardest thing in the world. Giving birth, bringing up a child, making that child become a productive member of society. You have done the most difficult thing in the world already.

I got so much love for all the mothers out there in this world because I know you’ve got the toughest job and you’ve mastered it. Posting content is easy. Like my job compared to that, compared to what all the mothers out there have done, I just sit around on my freaking phone and I have fun and I shoot stupid videos and I edit some things and I add a little bit of music. Who cares? Like that is actually pretty freaking simple. So if you can put things into perspective, maybe your mother was very strong, maybe you’re a mother yourself. Put things into perspective. You’ve already done way way way way harder things, right?

I mean, I have a client, Sinikka. This is so beautiful. She literally went viral back to back while being pregnant. She was like she was about to give birth. She would still post content. She had the right type of attitude and she still went viral back to back. And it’s so amazing now every time I talk to her and I know she has like a tiny little baby with her and the baby can grow up in a household where the mother is successful because she realized that the hardest thing is already done. Posting content ain’t that difficult.

Life Lessons From Dad – Money Isn’t Everything

Max: The second motivational trigger, someone that I want to give a shout out to as well is actually my dad because what my dad did is he taught me to stay down to earth. Even once I started making a lot of money, I became a millionaire at age I think 26. In 2016, I made my first million. And you know, in your middle of your 20s, you make a lot of money, it can mess with your mind a little bit.

So my dad would always say just because someone has money doesn’t mean they should be treated differently. Treat everyone the same way. From the hotel staff, the receptionist all the way to the manager of someone or even the owner of the chain. I want you to treat everyone the same. And I’ll never forget that.

I take my dad out to yearly father-son trips. Actually, it’s pretty cool. We rent a car. We drive around. One time we drove through Scotland. One time we drove through Portugal. It’s really, really cool. And you know, we always stay in hotels together. And I would just leave the hotel room a mess. You would see my clothes lying around and you know like the bed sheets turned upside down. And when we would leave my dad was like, “Yo, don’t you want to clean up?” And I’m like, “Well, no, we got hotel staff to do that for us.” And he’s like, “No, like that. Have some decency. You know, you can’t trash a hotel room. You got to have manners no matter how much money you’re paying someone.” And that really stayed with me ever since then.

And the other thing that he really did is he always made sure that I have a good relationship to my grandmother and you know my grandmother is an old woman and I’m a young man. There’s not really that many things you have in common. But he always said look your grandma lived through a lot. She lived through a world war. Like go talk to her. Go learn things from her. And you know when I was a teenager I’m like I don’t care. But my dad really made sure that I would visit her every single week and I would hang out with her and I would spend time with her and a really beautiful relationship blossomed from that.

And over the years as I was on world tour and I was traveling the world, we would start writing letters to each other. Like here I was social media and email and everything. And then I would write physical letters back and forth to my grandma. And thinking back now, it’s a really really beautiful thing. And my grandma died about a year ago. She turned 99 years old. She almost made it to 100. And towards the end, she couldn’t write letters anymore because she had arthritis. And so I would just start writing her postcards. There’s this cool website where you could take iPhone photos and it turns into physical postcards. You send her those. And she has like a stack of like this many postcards at home cuz I would send her a postcard every single Saturday.

And when she died, I was really really happy that I actually took the time and got to know her. And my dad was the main catalyst behind that. He knew that I would regret it if she one day died and I never really got to know her. So look, money is not the goal. If you make money the goal, everything becomes hard. Make people your goal. Make the people in your life your goal. Make the people that are your clients your goal. Make the people who watch your content your goal. Make them your goal and money follows. That’s the weirdest mind fuck so to speak I could ever give you. But don’t care too much about the numbers and about the money. Care about giving value and being there for the people in your life. Whether it’s digitally through a screen or personally because you actually know them.

Love and Loyalty – The Power of Genuine Relationships

Max: That brings me to the third person that I want to give a shout out here and that’s my girlfriend. My girlfriend and I, we’ve been together for nine years now. She never cared if I made money. In fact, it’s really funny. My very first online business was an online coaching business for dating and personal development. And she’s a pretty girl, you know, she don’t need dating advice. So, when I told her I’m a coach for dating and personal development, she’s like, “Oh, no. This poor Max, nobody’s going to pay anything to this guy. He must be broke as hell.”

Funny enough, I met her in 2016 just after I had made my first million. So, she didn’t even know that I had any money also because I dressed like a bum back in those days. And she would still be attracted to me. She would still love me. And I remember I would start flexing some money once we were together for like half a year. And I would ask her things like, “Baby, you know, here’s a map of the world. We’re going to go anywhere you want. Just point at it. We’re going to go on vacation there.” And you know what she said? It still warms up my heart to this day. She said, “I don’t care as long as it’s with you.”

And I would push I would say, “Yeah, but what kind of hotel do you want to stay at a five-star hotel?” And she’s like, “What? What are you talking about? I don’t care. Let’s just have fun.” It’s not about where we are. It’s about who we’re with, Max. And again, that stays with me until now. Like up until this day, it’s such a beautiful thing to be told as a young man who wants to be successful and who wants to impress women to just have a truly honest woman there that is extremely beautiful, way out of your league, so to speak, but still so down to earth.

And she stayed with me during the struggles of my third business. Like we were struggling with that third business and I was stressed out and I was an asshole I was not the nicest person to my girlfriend. She stayed with me. She hung in there because she believed in what I can do. She seen it before and she knows that hard work brings in good results eventually. You just have to be consistent with it and you just have to never give up. But even when I was about to give up and I didn’t believe it was possible anymore, even though I had built two multiple seven-figure businesses already, she knew I’m just going to let Max cook. I’m gonna let him be. And now we’re crushing.

And that brings me to this whole idea of because she was totally fine with not being in five-star hotels. Because she was totally fine with her boyfriend being stressed out. I’m going to give her everything. I’m going to give her everything for the rest of my life. So whenever I’m picking up my phone and I don’t know what to say or I’m feeling a little burnt out, I’m like, do it for her, right? Be loyal to the right people. And when you struggle and you want to give up, keep going for their sake. That might be your girlfriend or your husband, might be your kids, might be your grandkids. At least do it for them at the very least. If you can’t do it for you, do it for them.

The Real Reward – Making a Difference One Person at a Time

Max: That brings me to the last point. That’s the most important motivational drive here. It’s you. It’s you watching this right now. When I had 100 followers and zero money when I started like in 2011 or something like that, I was elated. I loved what I was doing because there was someone dropping me a like or a single comment on something and I’m like, “Holy cow, I just made someone else’s life a tiny little bit better. Maybe my content made someone smile. Maybe I taught them a tiny little new thing.”

And even nowadays when I have my coaching calls with my clients, I always end it with if you learned a single thing today, just a single thing over the last two hours, comment a hell yeah down below. And people would just, hell yeah, hell yeah. And I’m like, wow. And even if it just was a single person saying, I learned something. Yep, Max. Yep, I learned something. I would still be elated.

Even nowadays, like it’s all about like flexing and look at all the cool awards and look at how much money I’m making. Like sometimes I have a tough day and I really don’t feel good enough. I just see a single comment on one of our new small accounts with like a couple hundred views and it sincerely makes my day. Like literally like I see a single comment of someone like, “Oh, cool. I learned something new. Oh my god, Max. How come your channel is so small? Like you should actually have more followers.” I’m like, “Thank you.” It sounds so weird and it sounds so weak almost, but sincerely like every single comment can make my freaking day. And that is I believe a great way to put things into perspective.

There’s a great online website. It’s called visualizecrowds.com. Cuz sometimes we say, “Oh, my video only got a hundred views.” Visualize 100 people in a room. Visualize them in this tiny little office. 100 people wouldn’t even fit there. Oh, I only got a thousand views. A thousand people? Are you kidding me? That’s like a college basketball court full of people. They watched your video. 10,000. We always want to go viral. We’re going to talk about millions of views. A million is stadiums full of people. A 100 is already freaking great.

Celebrate the small wins. Don’t just do it for yourself. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for the people. The people in your life, the people who can watch. Think about the mothers in this world. If you’re a mother yourself, you’ve done way way way crazier things. And always make sure to not put money first. Put the people first and money will follow. This was a little bit of an improvised video here. I wanted to bring this out to you. I just felt really motivated today. I hope it inspires you. I’ve got a lot of love for you if you’re consistent. And if you want to build this, you got this. I’m rooting for you through the power of the internet. Just stay consistent. Much love.