Starve the Doubts

Personal Finance Tips on Tik Tok with Deacon Hayes

July 30, 2021 Jared Easley and Ms. Christine
Starve the Doubts
Personal Finance Tips on Tik Tok with Deacon Hayes
Show Notes Transcript

Deacon Hayes paid off $52,000 worth of debt in 18 months. He now candidly shares his secrets to success and business through his books, website wellkeptwallet.com, and social media channels like TikTok. He started doing TikTok videos over a year ago during the pandemic, but he already has nearly 15,000 followers on the social media app. Deacon - you never cease to amaze me

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TIk Tok with Deacon Hayes

[00:00:00] Has struggled with the whole, I don't want to be a personality. I don't want to be a celebrity. Right. But what I realize though, is it's like, it's not about me. It's about the people that need, whatever it is that you're gifting. And so if I'm gifted at helping people pay off debt or I'm gifted at helping people figure out how to make better choices, money, then I should be out there in all these different platforms, helping them, anyone I can, whatever your talent is.

Go out there and do it. Take action.

welcome. Back to the podcast. My name is Jared. I'm one of the hosts and of course joining me is miss Christine, miss Christine, how are you? I know you're good. I feel like it's as of this recording, it's Friday and you're probably sampling of it, right. Yes. After 5:00 PM Eastern, which? Oh, no. Okay. Fair enough.

So I guess that's after the, after, after our conversation with our guest today, which is deacon Hayes, Megan's a good friend of mine and somebody I've known for several years and someone that I'm inspired by, but deacon [00:01:00] paid off $52,000 worth of debt and 18 months, he now candidly shares his secrets to success.

It was books as website woke up wallet.com, social media channels, like tic-tac. He started doing Tik TOK videos over a year ago during the pandemic. And he's already got over or around nearly 15,000 followers on the app, not to bad deacon. I'm always impressed. Welcome to the show. Thanks Sharon. Thanks for having me.

So thinking, I believe we've done this before, but we're going to do it again just for fun. What's the best concert that you've been to or best concert. It was called that damn show. 96. It was like, it was like blink 180, Lenny Kravitz, copper, Roach, like about like all these, like, I don't know, just random bands, right.

Uh, sugar Ray, like, but I would have to tell you, I went with friends in high school and it was just, it was an absolute blast. Yeah. It doesn't sound like that bad, especially for that particular time period. Those were the acts for that time. And Lenny Kravitz Steinberg. Yeah. And notice, I didn't say these were like the best band.

[00:02:00] It was a fun experience, right? Like just a time in history with bands that were just like blowing up and friends and, you know, just a good, good time. What was that summer time? Outdoors and Phoenix. So it was like 120 degrees or, oh boy. Thankfully not, no, I think it was, I would, I would say it was probably in the fall, so it's probably like seventies and eighties.

So that is good. Well, fair enough. That's a better concert than what I was anticipating. So thank you for that. All right. We're going to transition into some fill in the blank. So first one is the key to winning a vacation to Hawaii is blank. Wow. That's a, that's a, you know, I think it differs from person to person, but for me, sending the most leads to one of my affiliates.

And not only did you send the most leads, but then you almost deleted the email that would have made the whole thing happen. It wasn't an email from the affiliate, right? It was not email from somebody. I think that [00:03:00] was managing the prize or whatever. And they're like, you won this trip to Hawaii. I am like, uh, yeah, about to delete.

And then I'm like, wait, is it possible? You know, like I just like, I'm going to open it just to see. And then it said, Isaiah, Isaiah. And I was like, oh yeah, I think we have a relationship with them, like an affiliate relationship. And then sure enough, I went to their site and they had like a big banner that says like, you know, contest between this date and this date, you know, for our partners.

And I was like, well, we're a partner. And I know we send leads to them. So like, maybe this is legit. So I replied and sure enough, like we had one. Wow. He didn't even know you were in the running for the vacation.

I was like, you didn't know you were applying for

vacation to Hawaii. I'm pretty sure I would delete it. So I'm glad you didn't do that. Yeah, I did. When that I get these emails from Nigerian princes from time to time. And [00:04:00] maybe there's some legitimacy to these things now that we know that they can want a trip to Hawaii. So thank you deacon for ruining my life.

When I answered all of these family emails, I would just say, yeah, I mean, it was in that continent, not continental. It was in the United States, right. That I want to trip. I don't know if you're Europe or something, if it was like, if it seemed a little bit more farfetched, I was like, Hawaii is kind of.

It's a reasonable thing to have when right. Versus like some, all expense paid trip to Australia, you know, that would be a little bit more fishy. Okay. Why love Hawaii? So I'm guessing you had a good experience there. We did. Now we have a four and a six year old. So as you probably have experienced with young kids, it's a little bit more.

Not as much vacation, more, you know, there's a lot, you're doing kids wise, but it was fun. It was definitely a plus. Yeah, your time you get to go on Hawaii on someone else's dime, but it's kids are not, that's the way to do it. Continuing on with finish this sentence. If you ever go to family camp blank, [00:05:00] make sure.

To try the milkshakes and that bring it all to the yard. Yeah. Christine knows about that. So you and your family didn't go to family camp in California. How was that? It was awesome. It was, you know, just like time for the kids to, to go out there, meet other kids their age, do outdoors activities, get off technology, all that kind of stuff.

It was faith-based. So it was a lot of people there that had the same values as us. Great, like meaningful in-depth conversations. Just being outdoors. And that also being in the cool weather, we live in Arizona where it's a hundred and something degrees right now. So in California it was like in the seventies.

So it was just, it was great. That's great. Good for you, man. All right, we got another one for you. When you find out that your book is available in the Phoenix public library blank, do a happy day. Now I can't say that my books have been in the public library. So how did you find out about this? What's the story there?

Funny. So I had this reporter that I worked [00:06:00] with for years and she would just, she would text me and be like, Hey, I want to do a story on a family paying off debt comment. Well, you know, I want to do a story on X, Y, Z. So she did actually, she's now like a reporter for like MSNBC in New York city, but she still had like her Phoenix library.

Yeah. Account, you know? And so she was, she was looking at like new books that were just submitted and she had tagged me in Instagram and said, oh my gosh, deacon, your book is at the Phoenix public library. And I'm like, this is amazing. So I found out about it. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I love the fact that you just randomly found out through someone else.

Yeah, I can tell you the last time I've actually been to the library like myself, especially with COVID. I think it's been closed for most of the time. So it was like an online thing, you know, like to know that you could be notified. So this is our last finish, the sentence, try to contain yourself. They can, uh, the, the key to paying off two mortgages early is to, uh, have a plan, [00:07:00] have a plan because Margaret is last time I check those.

That's a lot of money plan to pay off. You did something. Not most people do. So. Yeah, it was really just the plan. I mean, I would imagine. Yeah. Are you very intentional, maybe I'll re grease state my fill in the blank. I would say have a strong word. I think for us, both of our parents didn't really handle money.

Well, growing up, my parents both were divorced and they both had foreclosures and bankruptcies. And so for me, I had this strong why of like, I don't ever want that to happen to me. I want to live differently. And so I'm going to figure, and that was really motivating for me.

now tell us about the well-kept wallet and what inspired you to. So, yeah, that's, that was really, when I got married, I realized like, I was really bad with money and I was like, Hey honey, let's combine our finances and figure out how much debt we have. So between like [00:08:00] student loans, car loans, credit card debt, we had about 52 grand in debt, outside of mortgage debt.

And I actually had three mortgages at that time because it was the, it was about like 2008. So, you know, the housing market was going up. And so I was like, I'm gonna buy a rental property. I'm going to be like a real estate mogul and that didn't work out either. But all that to say is I realized I didn't really know what I was doing with money.

So I just figured, Hey, let's develop a plan. Let's figure it out. And so I like to learn from people that have been successful with money. So I've read books. Dave Ramsey, Ron blue, Larry Burquette anything that I could kind of figure out how money works. And I really liked it that snowball because I'm a simple guy and it's a simple plan, which is you just pay your debts off smallest to largest, regardless of the interest rate.

So we decided, Hey, I'm going to start the site well-kept wallet. I'm going to kind of document our journey of like paying off our debt and like tips and tricks and things like that. And so that's how it came about. Yeah. And it's served you well, as far as I can tell, I mean, that's certainly opened up a lot of doors and a lot of neat things have come from that kind of spinning off [00:09:00] that you've tried a lot of entrepreneurial endeavors over the years, or several, at least in, and I'm curious, what are some lessons learned?

And maybe you have a good story of something that's happened or something that you learned from those experience. Yeah, well, so one of the early businesses that I started wasn't E-bay business because I thought, you know, my family was in the antique business. And so they were very much in the like fine undervalued products and resell them for more.

And so I thought eBay was a great place to kind of do that, but I was more into technology. So I, I love electronics, video games, like things that I understood. So that's what I sold on it. And I did it for about a year and I sold about 40 something thousand dollars in products, which I thought was great.

But when I'm doing like my P and L and looking at all my costs and looking at shipping and eBay fees and PayPal fees and all the stuff that was involved, I basically made like a thousand dollars. I'm like I worked for a year and I made a thousand. I was like, this is ridiculous. Like, I can't do this anymore.

I know some people are Uber successful and they [00:10:00] figured it out, but I was like, I really need to find a different path. And so that's where websites were really appealing to me because you could make money, different ways. You can make it through affiliate marketing through partnerships, through display.

Through different social media channels and, and having, you know, different partnerships there. And so that's where well-kept law really became the front runner of saying, Hey, here is a vehicle where I can, I can make a full-time living, quit my job and do something that I'm actually passionate about. Now, can you tell us what you consider your best or most successful personal finance story is for me personally, for someone that I've kind of worked with, it can be.

So interesting thing. So, you know, we paid off 52 grand in debt in 18 months, which is awesome. And then my mother-in-law had come to me and they had like $460,000 in debt and they're in their sixties and they're like, Hey, we want to retire someday. And we want to figure this out. So I'm like, okay, well, let's sit down, let's put together a budget.

Let's kind of see where you're at. And so, thankfully [00:11:00] my father-in-law was an orthopedic surgeon, so he made a good living. It's just, they always, they were living paycheck to paycheck. So we sat down and put together a budget and said, Hey, I think that if you guys really. Paid off these debts and then took the money you're paying towards your car loans.

And they had a home, you know, they were renting out, they had a mortgage on it. I was like, if you just focus, you can pay this off in four years. She's like what I was like, yeah, you make a decent living. It's just a matter of like cutting back and being consistent, you know? And so by the grace of God, they paid off all 400 and something thousand dollars in four years.

And that was, you know, it's exciting because it's family, it's like, I can take something I learned and then help somebody else kind of do the same thing. Wow. Yeah. That's that is anytime a year, 400,000 or four years. That seems out of reach for some, but I'm glad to hear it. I mean yeah. With a plan. And like you said, intentional, and just being really practical with what you're doing, you can do that.

I love that. Uh, so you and I first connected through [00:12:00] podcasting, I don't know, podcasting, something that you've enjoyed and you've been doing off and on. And I'm curious, what are some things that you love about podcasts? Well, I'm an auditory learner myself. So I really, it's hard for me to read like a 2,500 word article, but I can listen to like a 30 minute podcasts, you know, so I can actually digest more content through audio than I can from reading something.

And so that's why I love podcasts. And also the accessibility, like in your car, working out, walking, like there's just a lot more, I think, functionality to being able to learn and live your everyday life through listening to the podcast. Oh, well said. So what made you decide to start using tech? So the funny thing is I was really getting stir-crazy during the pandemic because we were locked down for like a month and I'm at home and I've got two young kids and we have a lot of books that rhyme, like a lot of kid books.

And I love to rap. It's like my secret passion. I'm like [00:13:00] come to the right show. I'm going to rap children's books on Tik TOK. That was like my thing during the pandemic. And so it was cool. It was fun. But then I was like, I really don't. I mean, this isn't something I want to do for a living. Like I just thought it was interesting, unique, different.

When I get a few hundred views, but I was like, Hey, I wonder if I actually, if I did this for my business, you know, like what if I actually took, took personal finance nuggets of wisdom and put them on Tik TOK and you know, and it gave people relevant, accurate information when it come to economic events that have to do with money.

And so I kind of transitioned from wrapping children's books to them. And it even, it actually exploded, which was amazing, but that's how it got started.

think of Tik TOK and I'm in full transparency. I'm not on Tik TOK, but when I think of [00:14:00] it prior to hearing your story, Okay. You got to do some, you have to have some gimmick, you gotta be like extraordinary or something, or you gotta be able to, you know, come up with something super creative or you gotta dance or whatever.

And I was thinking, that's what take doc is. And so when I go to your channel and I say, okay, you're, you're just in front of the camera and you're just sharing personal finance tips. Kind of surprised by that, like that's working. And so I want to hear what are some lessons that you've learned, you know, aside from the rapping children's books that you've learned from using tech talks and specifically that would be beneficial to people that are podcasting that want to leverage potentially leverage tick-tock to maybe get more people, to be aware of what they're doing with their pocket.

Yeah, I think one of the first things, and I hate to tell you this, but it's to be a user of Tik TOK, because what happened was I was just using tick-tock and all of a sudden it learns me like their algorithms. Very fascinating, because they will show me personal finance videos, health videos, like working out how you can improve, you know, your posture, your, [00:15:00] your abs, whatever, you know, cause I'm like, yeah, I want, yeah.

I want to get rid of the dad box. I want to get back to like being fit, all that kind of stuff. Anyways. Tik TOK learns. And I started seeing some of these personal finance videos and I started seeing, well, I'm like, well, I could do that. Like I could, I like that. Like, that's actually interesting. And you could kind of combine your creativity right?

Of like, it's not, sometimes it's not just me being a talking head, but maybe I'm having a conversation with myself playing two different characters and that's kind of fun, like the scripted out, make it funny and engaging. And so I like the aspect of being a little bit more creative and I also liked that.

They're less than 60 seconds. Like I love YouTube, but to produce and to spend the time it's a lot to make like a 15 minute video. So I feel it takes hog. It's just a very low barrier to entry. So if people are looking to do it, it's, it's one of those things where be the user first so that you understand how it works and what type of content does well.

And then the other thing is, is understanding how the algorithm works, which is they want people to watch the video [00:16:00] all the way through, but also they want people to watch it more than once. So if you can make it like, so my most popular video got over 500,000 views, which was incredible. And I think the reason was, is there was so much packed in that short video that people would have to watch it more than once just to kind of get all the details out of it and pause it and listen.

And it was applicable to them. So I think I was very similar to you. I didn't want to be the dancing guy where I'm pointing to different directions and like, you know, here's what an IRA is. Here's what a 401k is. Like. I felt like that's just not me. I just wanted to provide value. I wanted to be something that I was interested in.

I want it to be relevant and helpful. I mean, so those are kind of some of the tips that I have there. Now you felt that you were looking for something production, how with your Tik, TOK and YouTube, were you able to find someone to work with you? I was, I got a couple of guys who basically doing a brainstorming session here soon because what I realized is like, I'm a good visionary, but I'm not a good operator.

I'm not like, how do I get this done? Right. And so I got a [00:17:00] couple of guys. That are going to help me with that. However, if someone's listening to this and they're like really interested, definitely send me a message because I would love to get more people just to kind of get an idea of who's out there who could help cause really I want to help transform people's lives and I need all the help I can get to do that when it comes to helping equip people with, you know, sound financial advice.

Can as much as it pains me, I'm going to, we're going to keep this one a little bit shorter, but before we wrap up, I want to ask you a couple of final questions here. One who is doing something that interests you. Ooh. Well, so when you say that, so on Tik TOK, there's this guy, Humphrey gang, and I think his symbols Humphrey.

And he is just doing a phenomenal job. Like I think he's probably in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, but his stuff is super engaging. He's got over 2 million followers on Tik TOK and I'm like, I'm just really blown away by just his consistency, the quality, which is he's doing great stuff. Okay. I appreciate that.

Okay. Now how [00:18:00] can our listeners check you out on tech talk and stay connected? Yeah. So it's at the deacon Hayes is the, is the symbol. I tried to get deacon Hayes, but somebody else got it, which is crazy. Cause I felt like,

yeah, that's not cool. What's up with that. I know when I messaged him, like, is there any chance I can buy it? But I was like, I got the cold shoulder. Didn't even get a response. So fair enough. All right. Well, dig in. We always like to close out with final thoughts. Uh, so, you know, you've been responsible, you've been prudent with finances, you're trying new things and doing fun things with your kids and doing this tic-tac stuff that what's a final thoughts for somebody that wants to step out of their comfort zone and make something big.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I struggled with the whole, I don't want to be a personality. Right. I didn't want to be, I don't want to be a celebrity. Right. But what I realized though, is it's like, it's not about me. It's about the people that need, whatever it is that you're gifting is. And so if I'm gifted at helping people [00:19:00] pay off debt or I'm gifted at helping people figure out how to make better choices, money, then I should be out there and all these different platforms, helping them, anyone I can.

So if you're listening to this and you're like, Hey, you're good at building stuff. You're good at, I mean, there's a guy that's, um, he's like a plumber and he's got a huge following on Tik TOK. Right? There's another guy. You know, like she makes stuff and it's, it's fascinating to see him makes that like, whatever your talent is, go out there and do it take action.

And then you don't have to be perfect. Like it's, you're going to get better over time. So it's really just taking the first steps and starting to take action, make your first videos, make your first piece of content and really just put it out there to try to help other people in whatever area that is.

Uh, well said they can congrats on your success. Look forward to hopefully run into, uh, whenever that is wherever that is. Maybe that's an Austin this fall. Maybe that's a Nashville for PM. Maybe that's something completely different, but, uh, yeah. Look looking forward to keeping in touch and seeing how things develop.

So we wish you the [00:20:00] absolute best and thanks for taking. Yeah, likewise. Thanks for having me on .