What does Black wealth mean to you? Do emotions stir as you think of Black Wall Street and the devastation thereof? Is it too far-fetched to consider an “average” man or woman, black families, and the black community able to thrive in wealth? For some, maybe! For others, it is a possibility to achieve and see it transcend generations. But it is important to understand that wealth isn’t merely associated with the accumulation of dollars or property but what we do with it that causes it to be our greatest assets and not liabilities. The best way to tap into wealth, even this year, is by gleaning from the wisdom of wealth generators like Millenial Multi-Millionaire, Darryl Drake. The entrepreneur and skilled investor educates and equips a generation on how to elevate their status of wealth with NFTs, Cryptocurrency, and how to tap into the Metaverse. I had the privilege of speaking with him to learn just what all the hype is about and how you too can experience millions.
Check out the conversation here.
I’m so excited to be speaking with ‘the’ Mr. Darry Drake. You’re a multi-millionaire and a millennial. That’s so cool! For those who aren’t aware of who you are, please share what you do, etc, with the people.
Darryl Drake: So I’m Drake, I go by Drake, at least. I’ve been in the industry of direct sales for about 10 years; I actually got introduced to it by a friend of mine from my hometown. I was really just going door-to-door selling alarm systems and he had told me about this guy he had met that was making, like, $20,000 a month at the time, and that he was hiring. And coming from the city, where I come from, one of the worst cities in all the United States, San Bernardino, California with a crime rate at an all-time high, and school systems poor, etc., any opportunity, I had to be able to make it out I was ready to sign up for it. So fast forward, I’ve been in the industry now, roughly 10 years. And I feel like my life is on purpose.
Can you break down what this industry consists of?
Darryl Drake: Yeah, direct sales and network marketing. I have the responsibility to coach people, to coach them in business, in life, to take them from where they are to where they want to be. And I found that when you show a person how to operate at their highest level, the byproduct of that is that they become a producer. And so finding your qualities, tapping into your genius, finding out what makes you special, and what attracts people to you. And then through that, you attract your tribe. And that is how we’re paid here in this industry. The bigger your tribe the more money you make.
So how does that correlate with NFTs and cryptocurrency?
Darryl Drake: Yeah, so I always tell people, we are a financial literacy company, right? We are our platform. So everything that we offer, we have about 15 different products. Really, there’s no one size fits all, we have different products, because we have different types of people; we have people with a lot of time and no money, a lot of money and no time, some are financially literate and some are not. There are some who are 18 and some who are 54. So we have different products that are helping people to make, manage and invest their money. So let’s just say you have no literacy at all about finances. Well, we have something called Money Pro, where we teach the fundamentals of money and what to do with $1, and how to delegate your money in each area. And then as far as crypto, it’s fairly new. It’s becoming quite popular right now. So we’re not only showing people how to trade in the crypto through our experts that give actual, real-life education that you can apply immediately but also, the education behind it to where even if you’re just in it to learn about it you’ll know exactly how crypto works. Then we have the NFT which is new to everybody. When I talk about NFT I always make it simple. NFTs are really two things. The first thing is it’s like a work of art. It sits there. It’s nice. It may be expensive because of its rarity or because of who created it. But no real utility but it has the value. Secondly, NFT is its utility through almost an Access Pass. So let’s just say I wanted to release an album and what I do is I release it as an NFT. So now you can purchase my album which is really my NFT and when I have a concert you can come for free because you’re a member of my NFT. So NFT can be both of those things. It could be a piece of art or it could be an all-access VIP pass.
Is it quite easy to get NFTs? I came across it on Instagram. I heard somebody talk about it and then I went to their YouTube page. They said all you have to do is go to this website. And it had me thinking, is it really that simple? Because with things being fairly new, I know a lot of people are skeptical and they don’t really want to try it right off the bat. So is it as easy as they say, like cryptocurrency where they have like all of these apps that you can go to and buy cryptocurrency?
Darryl Drake: Yeah, and for the most part, I mean, do your homework, but for the most part, the major platforms are credible. A lot of them are regulated. You’re not gonna just lose your money, but you should definitely know what you’re doing because you could, you could legally lose it [money]. No one’s gonna take it from you. But you could definitely purchase at the wrong time or purchase the wrong cryptocurrency and really be in some trouble; it is very volatile. But you know, I believe that cryptocurrency is where we are going, it will be the main currency.
Oh, wow. This is true, with the world that we’re living in now I’m pretty sure the more digital we get, the more we will see the switch. And speaking of digital, I know you are teaching people about the Metaverse, which is fairly new as well. A lot of people don’t really know what it is. If so, can you share with us exactly what it is and how we can utilize it?
Darryl Drake: What it is now is so preliminary. It’s at its early stages. But what I’ll say is that we already live in the metaverse. When this interview is over you’re going to get on Instagram, for instance, if you’re, not I am. So we’re living in this alternate world, whether we’re going to ‘gram, or we’re going on Facebook, or maybe we’re just going on Google or maybe we’re going to Amazon, but that is an entirely different world. That’s not the physical. So that is all Metaverse is. You have this Oculus that you put on, and now you’re in Instagram instead of on Instagram. There’s like the Apple Store, there are clothing stores, there are different things in the Metaverse. These major Fortune 500 companies are not buying real estate and Metaverse just for the fun of it They know what’s about to happen.
Definitely a lot of changes! Just how beneficial would it be for someone who’s a startup company to join the metaverse? Is it something that you really should consider right now? Or just don’t even think about it?
Darryl Drake: I don’t think that’s the best use for early entrepreneurs to put their money there. I think we’re really three to five years out from really experiencing what the Metaverse could be. So, no. But if one can afford to purchase some land in the Metaverse then go for it. That’s like saying, “hey, would you purchase land in California before it became California?” Of course, it will be a couple of years for people to start buying some property from you.
And how beneficial is it for the black community, because that is one community that isn’t as adept to the finance world and business at times, to learn about cryptocurrency and NF T’s and the metaverse?
Darryl Drake: If I had to choose between the three, I would go with cryptocurrency for sure. It is the new currency that is allowing you to make money off of the new currency. So everyone is going to have Bitcoin, everyone’s going to have cryptocurrency. It’s just a matter of how are you getting it at the end? Are you getting it and actually spending $15,000 today or holding it for five years and now that 15,000 is 150,000? Now you have the ability to use those funds and purchase whatever it is you want to purchase. I believe that in the next five years you’re going to be able to buy homes and start businesses with cryptocurrency.
Would you say that money is becoming obsolete? Or should people still of course have their cash flow but highly consider investing in cryptocurrency like one would for the stock market?
Darryl Drake: Here’s the thing, we’ve lost 7% due to inflation over the last 12 months. Say for instance you had $100,000 in your bank account last year, well you now have 93,000 and you didn’t even touch the money. Now you have $93,000 in purchasing power, so you literally lost 7% of whatever you had just sitting in the bank. So to answer that question if you would have put $100,000 into let’s just say Bitcoin 12 months ago you’d probably be at you know 200,000, 300,000.
You are a multi-millionaire. Is that through cryptocurrency?
Darry Drake: Yeah. I bought Bitcoin. I bought the majority of my bitcoin at the end of 2019. November 2019. But I had the money to buy at that time because of network marketing. So network marketing is definitely still the active income.
And so for people who want to get to that millionaire status, or even billionaire status, whatever the case may be, but they don’t have the funds to like purchase a Bitcoin, like you were able to, what would you suggest they do so that they can begin to generating wealth?
Darryl Drake: I think everybody can afford to buy Bitcoin because you don’t have to buy an entire coin. So you can buy a piece of Bitcoin. You may only buy $1,000 worth of bitcoin, but a Bitcoin goes from 35,000 to 40,000. Now your 1000 just went from 1000 to 1500.
That’s great to hear. Many can still start the process of generating wealth because it’s not so much about how much you put in. So what is one thing that you would like to leave the community, the black community, black men, per se, that wants to build generational wealth, especially within the black community, so that is always circulating?
Darryl Drake: I think financial literacy is so crucial to the progression of our community. Especially for our black men. We are expected to lead and while we do have phenomenal superwomen, at the end of the day, we are held to a higher standard. And I think that it’s not enough now to just make money. Right? We have to get from that mindset of, “let me hustle, let me make some money” to us looking at our money like an army. Think of it like this, every single time I send $1 out or I deploy my soldiers, those soldiers need to come back with more soldiers. But when we’re in the club, we pop bottles and we’re just killing our soldiers. So how can we war when we’re killing off all of our soldiers. And so when I look at our community, it’s not that we lack the skill to make money. We know we can make money, it’s that we lack the knowledge of what to do with a $1. Because in knowing that, we can save a couple of bucks, but if we can leave $300,000 to a kid of ours that understands what to do with $1, then that 300,000 can turn to 300 million or whatever. So I think we just can’t be lazy in the details. We have to not only make money, but we have to give our money and assignment.
Is this something that you teach your clients when they come to you?
Darryl Drake: I’m not a financial advisor or any of that, but a lot of what I learned, I’m excited because our community provides this type of education to aspiring investors. You can get this type of information inside of our platform.
How can people connect with you, social media, and/or website, so that they can be able to get this type of wisdom?
I am Darryl Drake on all platforms. Instagram, Facebook. Tik Tok, I am coachdarryldrake.
It was a pleasure speaking with Darryl Drake, just in time for Money March. It’s the last month of the first quarter which is a great time and an opportunity to sit down and look at your finances to see and create your plan for the rest of the year.
