What's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and this is Inspire Guys people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose Welcome to episode 189 faith finances martial arts in music with my guest today, Elliot Shaw Elliot's gonna be jumping on in a minute. He's a licensed financial professional martial artist and entrepreneur He believes in faith over fear. You could definitely check him out on Instagram at Elliot Shaw official.
We'll talk more We're gonna learn about his background growing up We're gonna have to try to get some money tips from a right I know that I really believe strongly in financial literacy on this show and we are definitely as Christians always trying to challenge ourselves To have balance when it relates to money and understand that financial literacy is a positive thing It is not something that we should be afraid of we shouldn't be afraid of money and I think that happens a lot of times for Christians because We really lean on a one aspect of you know The love of money is a root of all evil everyone knows that you know but not so many people quote all of the other scriptures in the Bible that tell us to be good stewards of our finances and You know to have discipline to really believe in delay gratification and those type of things So I want to get Elliot's perspective on that we're gonna figure out like you know We're gonna learn a little bit about martial arts today You know what I mean my martial arts capabilities go as far as a Bruce Lee movie But I definitely love to like fake a stance or whatever Elliot's you know pretty impressive with his martial arts so we'll learn about that and my man is a drummer like he can he can Actually play too like I've checked it out. Y'all know you know I'm saying I come from a music family My brother's our drummers, but Elliot is legit So look if that sounds interesting to you, please check us out sit back relax enjoy the inspiration share it Like it comment whatever tell somebody else about it, but we're gonna have an amazing time today I promise you if we don't you know just act like we having a good time, all right Guys people we are back with Elliot Shaw Elliot what's up, man? How you feeling? Okay?
Well, I'm feeling great. That was a fresh opening Song right there. That was tight. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate it, bro You definitely got to check out my music then J wheel music for anybody out there who doesn't know I have a catalog of about 75 songs hanging out there on Apple podcast and things over the past 10 years So yeah, hopefully you find something you like in there But today is about you Elliot you look you're an intriguing guy to me because I'll tell you what I'm always intrigued by people who have the capability Or capacity to be involved deeply in multiple things like so meaning like you know I know sometimes people can make an argument that is better to be a master what they say Master don't be a jack of all trades in the master of none But like I do find it impressively intriguing when people are able to be really good at multiple things or really passionate about Multiple things and you definitely have some layers that I want to unpack as it relates to you know faith and finances and music and martial arts Before we jump into that though I want to learn a little bit about Elliot who you are Can you just kick it with us and tell us you know who were you you know whether it be high school college that age Which our reputation was You know and kind of with the background of your childhood was like whatever you want to share about that We'll kind of help us before we jump into the rest of the interview Absolutely. Well, first off I just want to say thank you so much for having me on your podcast This is absolutely a blessing to be here with you J. Well and to be able to share my story and connect with your audience So thank you so a little bit about my background from New Jersey J.
Well, and I were talking a little bit before you know typical Jersey boy got that personality to say what I say what I feel Say what I mean no matter what whether that creates some heat or not, you know, it is what it is Good. So for me, I grew up In a family that was really really loving my parents gave a lot to me and my sister that sacrificed a lot They didn't have a lot to give I always like to tell people I grew up in a wealthy town But not in the wealthy family, but we were wealthy with love and we were wealthy with God Which was a which was big from me growing up I grew up in the church I grew up with a father who really loved to talk with me about wisdom and the Bible religion talk about philosophy just talk about all these things with me and made me very inquisitive as a child and Growing up, I'm not gonna lie. I was kind of an outcast. I wasn't one of the popular kids in school I got bullied a lot.
I got me fun of I was actually I was a little bit shorter growing up and You know, it caused a lot of pain for me I didn't have I felt like I didn't fit in but as I started to get older I kind of I took that and made it like a chip on my shoulder and and my dad was actually a big part of that you're probably here a lot about my dad and this and He always like helped me take that and turn into a mentality of okay you got to go out there and out work everyone got to prove everyone wrong and I took that mentality into starting to lift weights when I was 13 with my dad He brought me into the gym was like you're gonna start lifting weights are gonna be a monster on the field You're gonna start playing sports. You're gonna get big and strong like everyone else. He's like he pushed me into playing drums You know, my parents are both musicians so I grew up in a musical family as well and and He just pushed me to work harder than everyone else and to be a man to go up to people shake them shake their hand look them in the eyes make sure that was known by people and luckily for me and I grew to about six foot two by the end of high school and Filled out my body pretty nicely played multiple sports became, you know, a multi sport athlete went to college for baseball playing music And but I kept that same mentality of working hard and something that you mentioned before about you know How you can be a master of none of the jack of all trades I've always felt like you know, God made us in his image and with the ability to do anything that we truly do set our mind to so Why not do multiple things and master them? Who says you can't do that with enough time with enough discipline with enough focus effort towards anything?
You can become a master at anything So why not just find a time in each day to focus on different things if that may be You know a hobby like music an instrument if it's a sport whatever it may be dedicate time to it and and say discipline block out the distractions Stay focused. So so for me this to kind of continue my story from going from college on I kind of left the church at that time and I'm not gonna lie. I want to get a little deep here I kind of walked away from God and and I went out just to kind of see what was out there and And I didn't really know what I believe I kind of believed in all different things at the time and Yep, and but I always had a relationship with God, you know, I never stopped talking to God I never stopped praying to God and just a couple of years ago In 2020 I went through a really tough breakup You know a lot of people had a lot of tough things happen to them in 2020 whether it was losing people, you know, losing relationships You know a lot of hardship obviously and for me I got out of a relationship of multiple years and I was kind of as people like to say codependent where I had my identity wrapped up in this other person I saw my whole future in them and it felt like I was dying without relationship ending and it actually it got me to the point where I Was I was feeling like thoughts of suicide just to be honest with you, you know with all the uncertainty in the world Everything going on that was so crazy and feeling like my whole life was ending I was asking myself, you know, would anyone really miss me if I was gone? Like what would happen if I wasn't here and I went on this walk one night It was it was July in 2020 I went on a walk around the neighborhood and I was just crying thinking about the ways I was gonna end my life and I stopped Yeah, it was it was a low point and I stopped on a street corner And I looked up and I said God and I meant to be here and literally that moment it started raining on my face.
Wow And sent chills through my body and I knew that I knew obviously that meant something and I took that as an answer Yes, you're meant to be here and Yep, and I started that actually started leading me into martial arts which we can get into a little bit later But that led me back towards towards God and I started talking to God more and more And then really the moment that led me into being a licensed financial professional, which is something I had no background in before Is last year or 2021 actually for a new year now I was running my own personal training business and I was just killing it, you know, doing really well when all the gyms were shut down I actually had invested in all my own equipment. So I started training people in homes So when all the gyms were closed and everyone had nowhere to go I had the goods I had the kettlebells and dumbbells and everything so I was doing I was doing great And I thought it was never gonna end and then I got covid out of nowhere and it put me in bed for literally a month in bed Barely moved didn't eat I had all the symptoms you could have I had and she's I lost 35 pounds I would like I would just fall asleep. I wake up every half hour in like a pool of sweat I didn't even realize I could sweat that much and it got to the point where you know how like when you have a flu You know, maybe you might wake up in the first thing you don't really feel good But then as the day goes on you feel a little bit better Yeah, and then it was non-stop the worst I ever felt in my entire life 24-7 never ending for a month and And this is this is actually what drove me back to God and drove me into my profession now Is that a lot of people they think that they find God in these high moments where these these miracles happen where everything's going well It's like oh God is great But sometimes it's suffering sometimes it's struggle and that's what actually drives you to God because you realize that's when you meet him And in those moments laying in my bed just staring up just praying to God every night God, please give me good health and Give me a chance to change my life because while all this was going on my bills didn't stop money was still going out You know people were still saying hey, you got to pay us So I was laying in bed helpless watching my bank account just go down down I had to start maxing out my credit cards to pay my bills I had to start selling stocks and selling cryptocurrencies just to be able to pay off my credit cards and I asked God Please give me a chance to change my life financially And I want to be able to help others with their money and I want to work on a team of people that are empowering positive that are here To make a difference I knew I'm here for something more and I just prayed to God every single night for those two things good health Chance to change my life financially help others and when I finally recovered from COVID My senior broker who's actually my mentor in this business found me on Instagram reached out to me gave me the opportunity To do what I do right now and I remember reading his message It just tears pouring down my face realizing this is my prayer answered and I just dove in and never look back I love it. I love it.
You said a bunch of cool stuff man So so hey, I love you know the line about growing up in the wealthy neighborhood But not with the wealthy family and you talk about how you guys had had love and I love the admiration for your father and how that is Such a huge part of who you are you talk about even those conversations that he would have with you and the scripture comes to mind You know a scripture most people know right where you talk about training up a child the way they should go and they won't depart from it And although you had those experiences in time like most of us do where you lose Site of the road that God is supposed to play in your life I do truly believe when you have a parent that set the foundation the way that your father seems to have do That that it does it is when you have a strong foundation It's hard to leave that forever, right? You can have temporary periods, but it's hard to leave that forever and then The rain man, that's that's heavy, you know to be at a stage where you're asking God I think you know if we being real so many people find themselves in in that same type of a moment of asking God Like what is my purpose should I be here and if I'm being honest? That's why this podcast is about balancing faith in business to guide you to your purpose because the goal is really to show people out there That you do have a purpose, but it just might not be something that you thought it was and you know You talk about you know having covet and in finding yourself getting a message from your mentor that led you into the finance the finance perspective profession, but Did you ever think that you would be in finance like before that moment or how did that go like at what point where you like? Okay, finance is it for me that that is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing Yeah, it's a great question.
So I never particularly thought I would be in finance that field But I was definitely interested in in money and growing money investing I was doing a lot of research on my own looking what are the best options to become wealthy what are wealthy people doing? So when I got the opportunity it just seemed like yeah This is something I can now learn about I can become a professional and help others do but this is a no-brainer So what Elliot can you tell us a little bit about you know what do you how do you help people who are your kind of Ideal clients. I've obviously seen a lot of your Instagram videos and I want to unpack some of those But just give the audience an idea of like hey what you do exactly professionally in the finance world Yeah, so the company I work with we focus on helping pretty much everyone Especially the people that haven't gotten the financial knowledge that the wealthy have because just to be honest You know note no hate towards the traditional industry But they're pretty much focused on the wealthy and the biggest families that we see that have been billionaires for generation after generation The reason they create that generation of wealth and keep it It's not just because they're born with a silver spoon in their mouth every generation because they're passing on the principles and the knowledge to the children So we're taking it on us to go out there and educate families on financial literacy and giving them the tools and the same resources that the wealthy have So they can become financially independent free and become wealthy themselves and pass it on to next generation And with that said I want to talk a little bit I'm really I was really excited to talk about this with you because Financial literacy right like it's such an important thing and you said it like the really wealthy families and individuals in the world Are into passing on wealth and I think so many times with us we kind of get caught up into like Just making money like without any real purpose But I wanted to ask you like why do you think people struggle with financial literacy because in my opinion it You know I'll leave it there I'll let you answer it and then I'll maybe share some added you know opinion after that But why do you think people struggle with that just generally understanding money? Yeah, I'd definitely love to hear your perspective too.
So a couple reasons why I think people struggle with financial literacy is number one We're just not taught it where we don't learn anything in school about money I don't think I really sat down with anyone of the hundreds and hundreds of people this past year that I've been doing this where they had some type of financial Education before meeting with me. It's very very rare So we're really just not given that education to begin with and number two our society as a whole just seems to push a lot of Yolo style living and you know for lack of a better term like hedonism where you just kind of live in for your pleasures And today and you're not preparing for tomorrow So you know people struggle with money because they're not thinking about the future and becoming wealthy you have to think long term I love that and I agree with that so like that that first part about like the fact that it's just not taught the curriculum isn't there You know For me, you know just being transparent. I mean I graduated college 16 years ago now and when I graduated college I'm like here. I am with a business marketing degree But I couldn't tell you necessarily anything about you know certificates of deposits or you know What's the difference between where should I sit my money because a traditional savings account doesn't really garner any real interest And how do I invest those are all things if I'm being honest that I taught myself over the past 10 to 11 years Just on my own and you know using Google and not literally just on my own But you know taking advantage of resources and individuals out there so I think that's the first part I do agree like the education the curriculum, you know, it's literacy It should be a part of what we're learning but then there's a second part for me Elliot where I kind of feel like People don't really want to learn because they're lazy And so I see a lot of people that talk about money and stuff and just to give you a little idea I was born and raised in Detroit on the east side like you know I'm I was surrounded by poverty and I'll just say from a mindset perspective, you know There's still a lot of people even in middle class that like they have a poverty mindset So to me Elliot, I'm like how do we get people to want to better themselves?
And I'm just curious what you as you're talking to people up about money Do you tend to find that your clients or just people you come across are hungry and thirsty to genuinely learn? Or do you come across a lot of people who are looking for a get rich quick Scheme and idea and you know Just want to be a millionaire overnight because I think financial literacy is about the process of actually learning how money works And it's much different than most people you emotionally think Yeah, good points excellent points all around there Well, what I found is it kind of depends on the person you're sitting down with on what they're looking to do You know if you're sitting down with just to be honest like an early 20s guy who's you know single You know, he's looking to get rich quick. He's not really thinking about you know building a fortune for you know long term Sustainably for a family anything like that. He's not really thinking like that.
It's either he's making a million dollars today Or he doesn't want to hear about but when you sit down with people that are families maybe a little bit older They have people that depend on them. They have more stable careers You know, they're a lot more focused on on the education learning about it and really doing what what it takes to become financially independent And and I'd love to add this and you just kind of made me think about this But like, you know, what is it really gonna take to get people to to want to learn financial literacy and become good stewards of their money? I think it's reading this right here. I think it's diving into the word and reading what's in there.
All right, so all right I love that because I completely agree Which leads me to something else I want to ask you about you have a you had a video on Instagram that Kind of sparked this thought in this question. It was like, why do people why do you think people perceive money as evil and poor as righteousness? This is a big topic of discussion So I think the perception that people have is that money is evil because what they see is they see they see these big Wealthy elites that that basically seem to control the world and can like dictate anything and they the rules the laws don't apply to them And it seems like they're greedy They think that if they became wealthy they had to have done it by you know stealing from the poor knocking the poor down and that's the only way to get there and When you really dive into it, of course that exists like there are people that have done that but you find that a lot of wealthy people I would say the overwhelming majority of wealthy people did that and stay there because they did it the right way and they're some of the most generous giving people you will ever find and Being poor as righteous, you know, there are things in in the Bible that might confuse you when it says that I think Jesus says For a it's easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven It doesn't mean a rich man can't get into heaven. It's just showing you the responsibility That's on you that when you have wealth there's a lot expected from you.
So, you know being poor being righteous I don't think that's necessarily true and and the way that I like to put it to people is if you were to take yourself right now and clone yourself And that clone of you is exactly the same as you where it's they have the same thoughts the same heart the same intentions Everything about them what they want to do is exactly the same, but you're broke and you give them ten million dollars Who's gonna do more good in the world? The one with the 10 milli it's the same person same intentions that I love that example because That is when I when I read the word right because I want to address like you you pointed out something super dope Which is if you really want to learn the value of money You have to read the word and for me the Bible in and of itself is about balance You have the Old Testament the New Testament There are some groups of people who can form a whole new religion because they only read the Old Testament, right? And if you if you take just half of it Then you can end up somewhere that God did not intend for you to be and then there are people who build a whole different religion or denomination Or for like two scriptures and a new testament and they don't consider the the whole what I what I found Elliot when I really back in about 2014 develop a love for reading or reading in general Was when I really read the Bible and allowed it to allow God to speak to me versus me reading it with some intention or agenda already At hand I found things like a parable of the talents where the individual with one talent was actually the evil one And those are the things for me that we have to understand a balance of scripture like you said Yes, there are responsibilities that comes with being wealthy to whom much is given much is required And so there may be more on you to think about doing the right thing Which may lead to it being easier for you to do evil because of access alone But that doesn't mean that the person who dug the hole and hid their talent is godly and that's the one thing I could tell you Come in from poverty being around people who are still trapped mentally in poverty That's probably one of the number one tricks that an enemy to me It's to not allow the freedom of your mind to even obtain wealth like to be trapped mentally To think that you are doing the better thing by doing nothing. It's just a very dangerous place to be to me You talk a little bit about something I believe is called the 72 rule like what I want to do now Like we talked a little bit just about the value and actually learning about finances and always try to at least pull out one thing in an interview That if a person listens to 45 minutes to an hour of us talking that they could say I took one thing from this interview That was practical that was tangible that I literally could use for my life So the 72 rule can you tell us what that is?
I wasn't even aware of this until I watched your instagram video So maybe like I'm hoping that someone out there might learn something and again financial literacy is about the process It's not about being a millionaire overnight And this is one of those things that when you start learning things like this your life can change when you continue to develop so 72 rule What you got for us Elliot? Well before I even tell you about the rule of 72 I have to shout out my girlfriend Monica because she's been running my social media recently She's been filming all these videos for me editing putting it all out there all the effects And she's honestly the brains behind you know everything I'm doing right now and to have her in my life is it's a blessing from god you know and she's There's there's not enough. I can't I can't stop saying enough about her She's just absolutely incredible and I can't even mention this without mentioning her first So Thank you. So the rule of 72 we had a lot of fun making this video too.
She was laughing while we were making this We're talking about how you know when you open up your savings account statement And you've seen that it's grown by a couple pennies and it's like oh congratulations You know now you made two cents and and I was asking people you know how long is it going to take you to grow a dollar? Just one dollar So the rule of 72 is an equation to figure out how long it's going to take for your money to double wherever you're keeping So the way that you find that out is you take 72 You divide it by the interest rate that you're getting where your money is so for instance Let's say you're getting 10 interest just to keep it real simple So you would take 72 divided by 10 that equals 7.2 That means it would take 7.2 years for your money to double in that location So if you had a million dollars, you got 10% interest 7.2 years later, you have two million dollars Now, uh, I was talking about in the video I can kind of dive a little bit deeper here is that when they do studies on people that invest in the stock market long-term Just based off of investor habits the way that people buy and sell because typically people buy and sell based off of fear So when the market starts dropping people freak out and they sell so they sell when it's low and then when the market starts going back up They panic and they have faux mose so they buy so people are buying high selling low So they're not getting the typical average rates of returns that people are saying the stock market does So they might say the s&p 500 returns eight or nine percent over the last 30 years or so But people are getting about three maybe four percent Because of how they're buying and selling so if you say someone's getting three percent if you divide 72 by three That's 26 that means it takes 26 years for your money double That's almost two generations man And then on top of that, uh, this is just the kind of to add a little humor here and also it's just sad You know the typical savings account you're getting on average like 0.01 percent interest It's embarrassing that's gonna take you like what a thousand years to double your money if you divide 72 by 0.01 And that's that's the I think the reason I like that that information is because that's what's at stake part of financial literacy is really learning how money works Because when you think about and look I know some people like there's like uh back in school like i'm never gonna use this math I hate to put it to you money is numbers like it is math So like it is important for us to understand interest rates and percentages both in what our rate of return is Whether it be an investment or an account but also in the interest that we're paying so many people for instance I think the number one area i've seen this in my life and the people around me get impacted is buying cars because the car Generally speaking is an investment also although the last couple years you could have made some money selling cars So again, that's that's one of the things with financial literacy is understanding timing You talk about it with when do I buy when do I sell not you know buying at the top of the roller coaster and selling at the bottom of the drop You want to do that in reverse and so it is important for us to understand because I see people with cars Elliott go out buy a car which is generally or typically not a good investment Have a very high interest rate on a car that they didn't research the car has high maintenance Is not it does not hold its value even with you know, even though cars aren't good Investments you can still maybe find a good car there's so much research you could do but my point is most people with cars And I don't have any data. This is just my opinion the average person is upside down in a car loan by the time They're like four years three to four years into it and it's because we don't understand these numbers So thank you for the rule of 72 y'all googledat or rewind it this go back and watch the replay I just think that's super valuable valuable or check out Elliott on his instagram page All right, so there's a couple there's a couple things I want to jump into before we get you out of here Elliott and Look man, you went to martial arts and I'm like I kind of have an idea because I again, I checked out your instagram and I think it's an interesting Some of at least what I saw on a post was very interesting with led you into martial arts But can you just share a little bit about the background of like, you know, how you got into it Um, and then you know, maybe just talk about what it means to you at this point. Not that you aren't into it Yeah, absolutely.
So It kind of starts about 12 years ago 12 or 13 years ago I didn't actually start doing martial arts that long ago But uh an event in my life led me down the path that eventually caused me to start training martial arts So I was jumped and it was a very Traumatic experience. I was jumped by multiple people. I was jumped from behind. I had my face smashed essentially Um, my head hit the concrete below me.
It was unprovoked and it was very It changed my life and luckily one of my friends who was trained mixed martial artists there with me Was able to defend the people off from doing any further damage to me while I was unconscious on the ground And what that did for me was it just it was a moment in my life where I felt so vulnerable and so helpless I always thought at that point in my early 20s like oh, you know, big strong athlete I can defend myself and then all of a sudden I was just in one punch just knocked unconscious Almost had uh brain damage when I went to the brain doctor the next week And I just realized wow like I I need to be more aware of my surroundings And it really got me interested in I started studying On the side brazilian jiu jitsu and there's something about it It just got it just intrigued me and I wanted to train and I had a couple times a couple moments in the last 10 10 or so years Where I had opportunities to to train but it just didn't happen But then in 2020 right after that that moment with the rain that I was uh telling you about It was the same month. I was introduced to one of my good friends one of my brothers rj who is a high level brownbound jiu jitsu We were introduced at a get together and he mentioned that he trained jiu jitsu And I just I felt in that moment wait, this is this is uh, this is the person like I knew that I got it. I was supposed to be here And I just felt that god was gonna start leading me down past and I'm meant to go And I told rj that day Hey, I'd like to train jiu jitsu with you do you do one-on-ones and he said yeah, I do And he also said you know a lot of people have told me they want to train but no one actually follows through So we'll see and I was persistent with him. I stayed on him and I was like listen I'm serious can we start training and he eventually realized how serious I was about it and he said yeah Let's do it started training one-on-one with him Absolutely fell in love with the art the fact that uh you can learn how to use your body To defend yourself while also attacking someone else, but you can subdue them without causing a lot of damage It's pretty incredible.
Yeah And The fact that I was able to start training martial art that 31 years old no prior experience of any kind dove into jiu jitsu started training at a gym I'm now a blue belt. I've competed three times and this is not to brag I don't like bragging, but just we need this is this is I was interesting I've watched the videos you're doing work outs. I can only dream about doing so I definitely want to yeah Like feel free to share man. Well, this is more I just want to say this isn't bragging This is more to share to others that if there's something that you're looking to do and you think you're too old You don't have enough experience or you can do that get that thought out of your mind Literally do anything that you really want to do and I started at 31 no prior experience and now in three competitions training jiu jitsu I've won two gold medals three silver medals, you know on a fast track that I can become a black belt Maybe in the next 10 years it's something I didn't even do until my 30s So is that how long it takes to become a black belt like what's the average because you say in the next 10 years and you're already blue So like what is the average time it takes to become a black belt the average time?
That's hard to say maybe 15 years Okay, that's heavy like the reason the reason that stood out to me right is because let's be real That's the first thing it's the only thing we know because of movies and stuff So you think you know martial arts like oh you are you a black belt? That's like literally just walking around asking people are they billionaires like no, I'm not a black belt There's a bunch of other dope stuff you can be before you get to the black belt But I never knew like the time and the reason I'm asking is where that is stood out Is we talked about financial literacy and I kind of have this this kind of idea. I did a I did a show Um, you know with a co-host that comes on the toy early We did a show a few months ago and it was called the 10 year marathon And we talked a lot about like if god leaves you leaves you down a path Don't give up until you put in 10 years and I think a lot of people Again, we want stuff to happen overnight. So we want to be black belts.
So just to know that like to be a black belt It must be like it. I'm sure I mean It is such a high degree of difficulty or A lot of effort that has to go into it that has to be proven I just think we can use that in a lot of areas of life. So that's that's real cool. Um, you definitely like I said Um, you do workouts that I'm like, man like, okay.
I wish I could do that All right, lily, this is a super left field, man, but you got to give me like a can you give me like just one stand Like is it is you just about the stances or no like just an arm movement? So let me know it's real like what you got You just do just a little bit different man. I mean, it's body. It's body.
Okay. I got you You got a great. I don't want to I don't need no moves because then you just so you got to like grabbing Okay, yeah, we don't need that you you try to break some bones or something here All right. All right.
Let me let me actually this because I definitely before I let you go Want to just talk briefly about music you you talk about how you're from the music family I'm from a music family. I actually played drums from fourth to eighth grade. The only reason I didn't play in high school was super embarrassing Is because I went to the band room I found out where it was again I had played from fourth to eighth grade and the school bands play snare play trios on toms and um Went to high school and probably what other band members love about the band It was a uniform and I wasn't feeling it and I saw the uniform. I was like, bro I'm not putting that hat on like I just I literally saw him and I walked away and I never played But I'm curious where did you get a love for drums because I checked out some of your drum videos And you're I was surprised just to be honest a lot of people say they play drums.
They got that good You were actually a good drummer. So tell us a little bit about music and what that means to you like Well, thank you. And I can't say that if I had the same Opportunity I probably would have made a decision the same decision as you gave well, son of a blade. I feel better So for me, you know growing up in a musical family my parents the way they met in college in New Jersey is that my dad had a band My dad played music from when he was a little kid and my mom's a singer and he asked my mom to be the singer for his band So they had a wedding band together Eventually got married had me and my my sister they had a wedding band and then they had a wedding band Okay, I just had to throw that in there.
Yep. Yep So me and my sister were we were raised surrounded by music my parents brought us to concerts everywhere So I I initially got started singing in the choir in church My mom was the cancer for our church and then I started playing saxophone in fourth and fifth grade I was in the choir again in middle school then in high school That's actually when I started playing drums and the way that I actually got into is I was watching the Yankees game With my dad and my grandpa and that song, you know I kept clapping. I was clapping to that. I was like 13 years old and my grandpa was looking at me And he looked at my dad and he's like he's got some rhythm.
Maybe he could play the drums and my dad was like yeah Maybe he could so brought me to a store. I sat down on an electric kit. I started playing the guy asked my dad Wow, how long's your uh your son been playing? He's like this is the first time and he was like you need to he was like You need to get your son some drums right now.
So started playing started a band when I was 14 I actually have the same band today. We're called flounder been together for almost 20 years Wow Yep, and um Yeah, just being able to play drums with my parents in their band. We had like a family band me my sister my parents Playing all different weddings and church events and music is just a huge part of my life So I love it. That's real cool.
And it sounds like it's a family occasion So it brings you all together like I said, I'm a part of a music family. My brother, uh, jorel goes by jorel hits He's actually a drummer that goes around in the city of Detroit and he plays in front of different murals So he actually plays outside almost every day like literally one of the most dedicated people Um, it's called vibes around Detroit. Um, he does that and he also has a band as well, but um, yeah He's a dope drummer. My brother darius, um is um started as a drummer Uh, but it's now um a worship singer leader travels doing music darius james, um, puts out really dope content as well Um, so yeah check them out.
I've seen you some stuff on ig before I get you out here I got one question for you. Yes, sir And that is what inspires you if you were um, you are obviously a person that has we talked about having a lot of interest Um, and seems to be driven and passionate about the things that you uh, you do touch But what actually inspires you to keep going? What inspires me to keep going is it's god I know that god is the reason that i'm alive and i'm still breathing God has gotten me through every single thing every single challenge i've i've been through in my life I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for god And I know that god has a purpose for me and every single day I work my butt off to show god that he made the right decision by keeping me here giving me a purpose And um, I I just hope to inspire others to to work hard in their lives and make a difference And I think that the most important thing that we can all do is support each other and help each other And give back to those that aren't as fortunate as we are So what inspires me every day is waking up showing god that i'm going to go out there Prove him right help people give back and hopefully have fun along the way Elliot Shaw people Elliot, this has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time Uh to come on and talk to the people and inspire guys people.
I've enjoyed um talking with you Please do stay in such man. Um, I'll keep supporting what you're doing out there on ig and look forward to more videos Thank you to monica everybody follow Elliot at Elliot Shaw official on instagram and you have a good night my brother All right, jable. Thank you so much for having me on definitely staying connected with you man I love this podcast and um, god bless everyone god bless. All right, Elliot Yo, that was Elliot Shaw man a um, you know license finance professional as well as um, i'm a martial artist and has a hobby in music Couple things I want to talk about coming out of that interview first of all if you enjoy that, uh, please do share it Please like subscribe all those things tell somebody about the show.
Thank you for the people rama and bridge it I saw y'all in the comments much left to y'all Couple things I want to unpack that I took away from this interview and the first thing is In the first question or the first segment where he was talking he talked about how you could do anything And some people will tell you to only do one thing or only focus on this thing or whatever and don't get me wrong I think there's different personality types that have different capacity levels to be able to take on multiple things But it resonated with me because i've always been a person where I have to do multiple things I have to be doing you know my interests are just broad like i'm always, you know, I love investing I like reading about that. I like the bible. I like faith. Um, I like music, you know, and so i've done fashion I'm constantly doing things but what I want to tell people out there um as it relates to balancing balancing it if you have multiple interests I do think there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it Let's first talk about the wrong way And that is if you're a person that have multiple interests but you never commit to anything Uh, one of the toughest things to do when you're interested in multiple things for real Is to figure out which one you're serious about And so my advice to you if you're a person that can't decide between going to school or working this job or starting this business or you know Folding the clothes or whatever is prioritize Prioritizing is something that is strongly overlooked to me by most people And that is that you literally first have to tell yourself I can't do everything at the same time.
So I have to be able to Rank these things and call one of them more important than the other And I'll give you a real life example that I'll be transparent for me, you know for I don't know how many years Um probably for 10 years straight. I would I had always put out a music project music is something I literally love At one point it was like that was what I wanted to do And I've always um created music and you can search j will music and or type j will music and you'll see so many projects and so many songs And the last few years it was challenging for me when I had to report prioritize And decide that j will music was not as important as inspired guys people And the importance of prioritizing is had I not put I believe in putting things in their place So had I not put music in its place then I would be always conflicted So again as a let's double click that and go into the next layer So people would call me to book me from music events And it came to a point a few years ago where I had to start saying no Some things that I typically would say yes to and the reason was because I had put music in its place as a second priority So this I could no longer live it out as a number one priority So when you prioritize things it is challenging because sometimes you have to give up something or step back from something or sometimes It's people that you have to step back from or places that you got to step back from so that you can focus on the thing That is now the most important thing So prioritizing is important And then you need clarity of thought on when when you call something the number one thing like for me Inspire guys people. This is very important. This podcast is more important than me putting out music or Um doing a doing an event or something like that.
It doesn't mean I don't do events It just meaning on the rank of priority. I don't do them before this is done So for you, what does that mean for your life? That means that you may be a person struggling between Do I start this business or do I go to school? And that just means you need to sit on a prioritizer ask yourself for real All right, go down each of those paths if I go to school Is gonna take you know, let's say three years to finish your degree or something you already Excuse me, business school.
So you you're gonna take three years to finish school during those three years You're not gonna be able to do the business nine times out of ten So that's where you prioritize where do I start the business first get on my feet? Do I need a degree to do the business? These are the questions you have to ask yourself and what we cannot do that a lot of us do is wing it 2023 is the year that you need to stop winging it winging it hasn't gotten you anywhere it hasn't made you money It is it's only made you confused. It hasn't expanded your network.
You don't have stronger relationships by winging it Maybe you haven't exerted as much energy. So you feel like hey, at least I'm not tired of worn out But you're not where you're supposed to be because you're winging it you need to plan in order to be in business Even if you have a career stop winging it So many of us are winging it because we're lazy and that's what's being exposed when you're a person that don't want to re-plan Strategize don't want to brainstorm Sit down and have singular focus on figuring something up and then move on to the next thing So yes, it is very possible for you to be a jack of all trades like an Elliott But i'm gonna tell you something that I noticed from Elliott just from talking to him just now just from following him on instagram Oh, he he's a licensed finance professional. I could tell that he puts the retirement effort into that Just from here him taught the 72 rule different videos that I saw from him I'm like this is somebody that is serious about finance and then the same thing with jujitsu. Oh, he definitely looked like he will He flipped like my man is out here.
You know what i'm saying? He don't he's not making up the moves now me I'm gonna make up i'm gonna make up a karate move like if you if you walk up on me Like if you catch me slipping enough we could definitely like you know i'm saying we could fake it You know i'm saying we could fake some karate at least maybe to get some people up off me or scare him But we don't really know it and so what am I saying? You can't just wing it with certain things Jujitsu is not something you could just go and wing it. He said he had a trainer He had someone who had already been experienced to guide him along the way Why am I telling you this because as a business professional as an entrepreneur as a person that wants to find your purpose You are not going to be able to figure it out all on your own There are going to be things where you have to listen to someone else you have to trust someone else and Your life isn't going to change until you decide to change I can create this is episode 189.
I think yeah 189. I can create a thousand podcast episodes and have great content But until you decide to use it for your life It means nothing and you know what fresh guys me y'all i'm gonna just be all the way real with y'all What fresh guys me is People will apply things that don't matter more than it before they apply things that matter And it's like we'll take useless information. I'm gonna give you an example Let's say uh, there's some trending topic in the world today on twitter or instagram or facebook Everybody talking about it. It could be a tv show everybody talking about it They applying all this effort all this energy just to share it to argue about how good it was or how bad it was And that tv show makes you no money it gets you no closer to your purpose get you no closer to god literally awaits the time But it's not a problem that you watch the tv show It's a problem that you prioritize the tv show over your purpose And we have to learn how to reward ourselves with entertainment versus lead with entertainment I believe in rewarding myself with entertainment.
So I don't watch a bunch of tv I don't like I don't I don't just allow myself to just sit around and be entertained Until I have earned that entertainment meaning I've read the book. I've read the bible I've listened to the educational podcast. I've studied I've planned I've strategized. I've checked uh knocked out my to-do list for today You gotta discipline yourself.
So, um, hopefully you've enjoyed today's podcast. I have enjoyed it I enjoyed talking to Elliot and kicking it with y'all after listen This is inspire guys people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose Hopefully you're getting closer to your purpose with every single episode I get emails and things all the time about people that started a business people that went back to school people They got a promotion on their job. That's why I do this show for those emails for those people out there who are serious Like this is for you because I believe this content will get you where you need to be Elliot said he asked god to let him know if he was supposed to be here and then it started raining on his face Man like whoo sometimes a rain is that was some good rain, you know what I'm saying? And the other thing Elliot said that I want to touch on before we get out of here was He said that so many of us look for miracles and signs and wonders to be the reason that we follow god But sometimes it's the low points that lead us to god I want to say to you right now if you out there listening if you are at a low point in your life Don't let a low point be a reason that you leave god The bible says draw an eye to me and I'll draw an eye to you that means draw closer to me I'll draw closer to you so just look at it as god is like a magnet The closer that these two magnets come together at some point they connect And you want to be a magnet that is trying to get close to god so that you can feel that connection because as you are getting closer He's coming closer and don't let these the issues of life stop you from living in purpose I know that it's tough.
I know that you have been through some things There are people out there that have been through things that I can't imagine I'm not here to dismiss and tell you that whatever you're going through is not serious Whatever you're going through is not painful or hurtful or whatever happened to you in the past isn't serious What i'm telling you is that when Jesus went to the cross and died on that cross It was so powerful that he can cover anything Imagine having an issue in your life and telling god through your actions of not trusting him or following him That this situation is bigger than you God, you don't understand You died on a cross can't cover this one No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no It don't work like that people when Jesus died on that cross. I know there are some things you are holding on to yourself Holding you're holding against yourself. There are things you've done that you can't forgive yourself for because you feel like this was too bad This makes me this way and i'm here to tell you if you truly repent and turn away from your sins and accept jesus christ as your savior There is literally nothing that he can't save you from. You know how much that gives me peace?
There is nothing that you have done that is more powerful than the cross. When Jesus went to that cross and died for our sins, that was power, life changing power. And so many times we allow ourselves to walk through this life. And through our actions we say, yeah, God, I know you died for my sins, but this sin is too big for you to forgive me for.
It don't work like that people. You have purpose. And if you seek, you will find. You shall find, you will find.
I don't know. I feel like I was about to end it real good on a powerful note. And then I just kind of went sidebar and I got caught. It was the ye because I don't usually say ye.
It was when I decided, you know how in your mind you're like, I'm going to go with this. And I went with the ye. And as I was seeing the ye, it was like, shall we all seeking ye shall find? Or will I, y'all just witnessed in real time confusion.
A man that was confused about ye, shall ye will, jay will. It always happened like that. And I thought I was about to end on this strong and powerful note. And I was going to press you off and y'all were going to feel like, yeah, this is why I listen to this podcast because my man just be, it didn't work that way.
And sometimes things don't work out exactly how you would want them to in life. I want you all, I want to say this before we wrap up. We talked about a lot today as it relates to finances. Finance is one of those things that I think we really need to seek God for direction on how to leverage and learn about finances.
Don't allow yourself to be led by emotions when it comes to money. Start with the Bible and start with truly reading within context so that you can understand how to balance it. Don't tell yourself, oh, like, okay, God want me to be rich or something. And then like people say that.
I don't think everybody going to be rich. Okay. It's not going to happen that way. But rich also ain't just the end all be all.
Some of us act like if you ain't rich, you ain't living good. It's a whole bunch of levels of living good that comes before rich. It's a whole bunch of levels of living blessed that comes before rich. I know that everybody wants to be rich, but you don't have to be rich to be blessed.
You don't have to be rich to learn how to be a good steward. If you are a good steward, faithful over a few, I'll make you ruler over many. But it starts with being faithful over that few. If you are faithful over a few, God will give you whatever expansion and increase you are supposed to have.
The problem that we have in life is that we are not faithful over the few because our eyes are on the riches. I'm telling you today, get your eyes and your mind off being rich just for a second. Get your eyes and mind focused on being a good steward, faithful over the few. And then once you learn how to do that and build your character and God allows you to have some growth, then you'll be ready for the riches.
I say you can't get rich without doing it. You can get rich doing it. You do it. But you know, you want good money.
You want good money to God want you to have him bless you with. Not just money to be money. You know what I'm saying? So, look man, I enjoyed you all.
Hopefully you all enjoyed me.