Hi, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of Money with Alpha. Today, I have a very different and exciting guest. Weve just met, but we've had some really interesting conversations. It's Prosper Taruvinga. Have I pronounced that correctly? Absolutely absolutely. You actually sounded better than my, my 10-year-old, so I like that. Well, welcome to the show. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here. Pleasure is all mine. So we were introduced pretty recently by mutual sort of networking people that we knew, and I was invited onto, onto Prosper's podcast called the Online Prosperity Show, and, and it was... We had some really deep conversations, and your, your history and your background is really interesting, and what you've managed to achieve growing up in Zimbabwe and moving to Australia, and you've got quite an inspirational story around that, too, which I was... One of the... A snippet you sent me to watch beforehand had literally had me teary because it's, it's, it's a beautiful story. So we'll, we'll delve into that a little bit, too. And then your journey into online media world and losing your Facebook page, and then now you've published a book with your experiences about owning your own media. And yeah, so aside from that brief kind of bio of what I know, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about you, your journey, where you've come from, and what you do now? Oh, absolutely. And thank you so much for inviting me back. I mean, it's only just yesterday when you were recording on my show, and now, you know, you're returning the favor, which is cool. But I must say, I'm seriously jealous, okay? I think this is the best I could do on short notice. Theyre a bit... They might be a bit heavy on your earlobes. Oh. Anybody listening to this, I'm, I'm wearing calculator earrings because I, I was wearing my money pig earrings on Prosper's show, and I joked and said I have calculator earrings as well, so I had to wear them today. Absolutely, absolutely. I need to step up my earring game, but I really appreciate this. So yeah, you've, you've said it well. I was born in Zimbabwe, and obviously you know, through trials and tribulations, I ended up here in Australia. And essentially, I do work with coaches and consultants to really help them to stop random acts of marketing, and I do that by really working with them until they own their media. And yeah, as you have already said, I put all of those systems, strategies, and processes into a book, and yeah, I can't wait to talk a little bit about that in, in, in your show today. Yeah. Wonderful. And of course, money journeys, and we're... This is a, this is a money show, so we will be talking about the money side, but it's also the journey and where we come from. And you asked me a question on your show, which was a brilliant question, which is, what language did you speak at home? And we're not talking about, you know, whether you spoke English or, you know, whatever language. It's the money language, and it's not also necessarily what is, like, spoken in words, but what we absorbed in terms of our experiences, and even our just perceptions, too, because perception is reality. And how did, how did all that kind of play out for you when you were growing up? Absolutely. So just so you have a bit of context of where I grew up we grew up in a time where there was a lot of inflation in the country. Mm-hmm. if I really want to put this into context, you know how you go into Cole supermarket and you want to buy milk, right? Yeah. And you know, as you... As soon as you get into the shop, you know, you get the catalog. So say on the catalog it says $2 for two liters of milk. By the time you walk all the way to the back of the shop and then come to Yeah. ... you're now expected to pay $5 for that, Wow. ... bottle of milk. So in essence, what that means and says is money was losing value speedy quick. So people didn't really subscribe to going to school or going to work, because if you would have been hired, say, for $20 an hour, by the time you need to be paid at the end of the week, they should be paying you at a rate of $40 or $60 an hour. And no business was able to handle that, Mm-hmm. money. So that meant a lot of people that were around us were just basically wheeling and dealing, and they were just making do with what was available. So you wouldn't be able to... Because of that as well, Alpha, you know, shops were no longer stocking goods, so people were now self-providing. So down the road, somebody would have bread, and up the road, somebody would have tea. So it was now a matter of wheeling and dealing. And I would maybe just go up in on the street, hear who's got what, and I'll just stand on the street and listen to what people are looking for, and I just become a middleman and get paid a commission for finding customers on the street for whatever that particular thing was. So you can imagine in a scenario like that, you don't necessarily look to, "Oh, I want to go to university, I want to work, I want to do whatever." You just want to survive for that particular day. Yeah. And that's the kind of scenario that I grew up in. Now, in the midst of all of that, we had an exchange student teacher that came in to my world, okay? Yeah. And she had a whole different world that she was coming from. Mm-hmm. So you could imagine she's not in a rush to go and find milk or bread or whatever it is, because, you know, different levels there, things were supplied and things like that. Yeah. And it intrigued me, as in I was like, "Didn't this girl hear or... Nobody told her that you can't find stuff in the shops," 'cause she would go in, she's got money, and she wants to buy things, Yeah. and she wouldn't be able to find all of those things. But then she started also telling us about...... you know, Australia and what life was like there. So that gave me a whole different perspective of Yeah. ... and, and I kind of felt I was short-changed, you know. Mm-hmm. I'm like, "Wait a minute, all these incredible opportunities, and yet we're here-" Yeah. ... you know, trying to make a dollar out of whatever 50 cents that comes our way. And from that point, I started knowing there's something out there. There's, there's hope out there. Yeah. ... as soon as she was leaving after her two-year Yeah. ... she did something which, to me, really stuck with me. Mm-hmm. We, as African kids were singing for her and everything else. And when she was giving her speech, she mentioned a couple of names and then she says, "If ever you guys are ever in Australia or if I can... If you are ever anywhere near me, just-" Mm. "... look me up and then we can have a cup of tea." She called it a cuppa then, and, and obviously that's the Aussie slang for it. Yeah, yeah. And to the other kids, that was a farewell message. But to Mm. that became an instruction. Right. And for the rest of my life, I just started learning more, wanting to do more because I knew if I would learn how to speak English well and a little bit of mathematics, I could travel around the world Mm-hmm. and then I wouldn't have to endure what I was enduring in Zimbabwe at that time. Yeah. ... lo and behold, 2011, I found myself in Australia and yeah, I'd left everything that I'd ever known Mm-hmm. ... I'd just arrived in a world where apparently everything is cute, but is designed to kill you. I was gonna yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, Australian fauna the smaller it is, the deadlier it is. Well, not entirely but you know. And we have flying cockroaches. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, Mm-hmm. That was just probably one of the fun experiences, but yeah, wow. 'Cause the thing I really find interesting about that, that part of your story, thank you so much for telling it, is you all, all the, all the students who heard that farewell message heard the same words, but you took something different from it. And that, that part, that really intrigues me as a, as a keen person who's keenly interested in human nature how some see that as just what it is, and then you saw something beyond it. Was that, were you always like that? Were you always that, sort of like curious, trying to learn more and understand things more? I think, and that's a very brilliant question because what was then happening is while everybody else was just looking at survival, I'd already started seeing myself in, in her and Mm-hmm. the possibilities Mm-hmm. ... this too could be me. Yes. You know, and, and I'm... Once you envision, 'cause it's, it's a lot of visualization that needs to start happening. Yeah. When you can see yourself in certain positions you know, you will obviously put yourself in a position to achieve those things. But to the other kids, they definitely were just looking into, "Am I gonna survive today? Am I going to eat tomorrow?" And when you're preoccupied with Yes. you no longer have the brain or the wherewithal to think of what could be possible or a vision. I don't know if you've ever seen Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Yes. Yes. All right. So even though everyone was around, we Mm-hmm. all in Yeah. ... but for some weird reason, those words just struck me as I, I could, there could... There's more out there. Yeah. I could do better. Yeah. yeah. And not being constrained by not knowing what to do next. And I find that's what holds a lot of people back is like, "Well, what do I do next? What's my next step? How do I do this?" We get so caught up. And I'm, I'm talking from my own experience here as well 'cause I've been in that position where you get, like, the spiral of how but how but how. When in fact, it's almost, it's the wrong question. It's like, "Well, what, what do I... What's the one thing that I can do next? Or who can I ask? Or who can I talk?" So how did you then come to, to then leave Zimbabwe and, and did you end up teaching and traveling or did you come straight to Australia? How did that process happen? Oh, absolutely. So in the process of me trying to figure out my, you know, my, my next step... So I'll also let you know I don't know if they still do this, but for people from my country, if you if you wanna come to Australia or maybe a foreign country, Yeah. you have to apply for a visa. And usually within the visa, it's different for different countries Mm-hmm. ... because we were regarded as economic Yep. ... I literally have to showcase within Yep. ... you know personal way of living that I was not going to come in here and be a dole bludger. So what they would have wanted is to showcase that I have 90 days' Mm-hmm. ... of money Yeah. ... first 90 days at least I'm covered. Yeah. Okay. So but for me to put that together meant, yes, there was a lot of work that needed to be Yeah. ... saving and obviously trying to survive 'Cause 90 days in Australia is very different to supporting yourself for 90 days in Zimbabwe. Well. Absolutely. They just needed to sight that Yeah. ... that it is That way you're not first day, second day, you're already on the queue on Centrelink. They just wanted to make sure Yeah. ... you know, if you're going to be coming here, you're somebody that can look after themselves. Yeah, so 00000000. And I must also say, I didn't then go the route of, you know, the educational route that a lot of people would have Mm-hmm. you know, because maybe their parents could afford. I literally had to look after you know, what was now the course of my journey, which was to work hard enough to save and then figure it out as soon as I arrive in Australia. Yeah. yeah, that, that, that took about three or four years to put together and as soon as I landed in Australia, I was, yeah, obviously looking now for the prospects and what I could then do in order to, you know, fit in and actually survive and Yeah. ... make sure the 90 days doesn't lapse before I needed money, Yeah. I had to look for a job. Yeah. So how did... 'Cause financial literacy, I mean, to be honest, there's, there's so many things we take for granted in this country. I mean, we have, we've won the geographic lottery, like really but we still, we still have, you know, everyone has their struggles but... And, and there is, there's, you know, perspective to all of that but when... Financial literacy is not taught here either so even, even though there's, there's a lot of benefits, there's still a lack of knowledge and understanding. How did you find that you sort of learned a bit about money beyond just the, you know, getting a job and paying bills and all of that? Did you like seek out ways to learn about it or how, how did that... How did you build up a bit more of an understanding about money when you came here? Absolutely. See, when I, when I then obviously started my, my way, I was working in a restaurant. Yeah. And one of the first things that I did was create a Facebook page for that Mm-hmm. Yeah. you know, in the hopes of, you know, creating an environment where we would have that cuppa with my teacher, you know? So... Yeah, yeah. 'Cause I was then trying to look for her on, on the internet and I got fired for doing exactly that, so that already put me on a, you know, on, on, on an uneven Mm-hmm. especially when it came to finances. So I had almost a month of trying to look for work and things of that nature. And while that was happening, a very fortunate thing occurred after I had been fired for opening that Facebook page. Mm-hmm. One of the girlfriends from a football team here in Mm-hmm. came to the restaurant and took a photo while at the restaurant and tagged that page. That was my saving grace. Right. So, so I was then called back in by the restaurant owner because he's like, "Wait a minute, I don't know what to do with this." Oh. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so he's like, "Fix this now." So that then got me started on my journey to digital marketing, okay? Yeah. ... so what I would do is, I would be working throughout the, the, the, the day in the Yeah. and then at night I'm working in the restaurant side of things. Mm-hmm. So doing the social media during the day Yeah. ... you know, working at night Yeah. ... that also came with its own problems. Obviously, I had to meet rent, I had to have a car, I had to survive and be, do and have, and everything else that came along with it. So one of the first things that I did was rack up a really big phone bill because I was calling back home, I had not met any friends and so you can imagine that Yeah. financially put me on a big, big back burner. The one thing that I didn't do was take on any credit card debt because naturally I wasn't inclined or taught about debt based on the system that I lived in. Nobody gave you anything. Yeah. Nobody would, would have money lying, you know, without them coming to collect on it, all right? Because it would be losing value, Yeah. I That was a lucky thing that I Yeah. so I never got myself into that kind of debt but I got myself into the debt that was... I've got a phone and obviously the bill just kept coming Yeah. ... I couldn't afford to handle it based on the payments that I did, right? Mm-hmm. So that made it very difficult for me. Another thing that I also did was, as soon as I got a car, which I bought a very cheap car from one of the guys 'cause I needed to get around in Mm-hmm. otherwise, yes, there is public transport but you'd need a car in some places 'cause we're finishing Yeah. ... and public transport would not be available then. Yeah. There's one thing that I started doing was rack up fines, parking fines and Oh. Yeah, because the signage isn't always clear either. Either. Yes, absolutely. So those also started mounting up and that, that was the kind of debt that I was in while I was trying to figure it out and don't forget I'm starting from scratch. Everything that I was getting, I literally had to make use of it and things of that nature Mm-hmm. ... as I was learning the whole social media side of things, I also started to study finance, you know. There was instances where you come across a book from Robert Kiyosaki, there's an instance you come across a book I've forgotten their names but, you know, you... The, these money educators that you would just keep coming around. Yeah. So while I was doing the wanting to learn about marketing so that I can maintain my job and, you know, what I'd already started, I also started learning about finances and money and things of that nature Yeah. as, as your world starts to expand, the people you start meeting, the, the events you start getting invited to, the things you start hearing, it starts making sense. Mm-hmm. All right? Even though I was going to my shared apartment but I was meeting up with, you know, really high level people. Yeah. In the city that were coming to the restaurant, and things like that, and the things they would talk about. Debentures, or... Right. You know what I mean? I would go and look it up, and I'm like, "What is that?" What Yeah. And that Yeah, yeah. You know? The, the only big word I knew was Kardashian, now I now knew debentures. So... All right. Put them in the scenario then. So, yeah, I'm just trying Yeah. ... connect the dots of those two names, or those two words. Absolutely. Well, it's just a big word that, that I just could think of on short notice. Yeah. it, you, when, when I, I started Yeah. ... most of these concepts. And in the process of wanting to do well in business, I also now needed to manage money, you know? Yeah. And things, you know, just started sort of coming together by themselves. Because once you're in a certain wavelength I viscerally believe money is very, very spiritual. Mm-hmm. Because if you elevate your Yeah. I've been to places... I, I, I'll let you talk, but I've been to places where I've paid zero money. Yeah. I'm treated like a, a king. Yeah. Yeah. And I've just gotten there just because of what I know and who I know, and what got me there. Yeah. And to think that I haven't paid a single cent, and people would've paid maybe thousands of dollars just to get the kind of treatment that I got, it Mm-hmm. ... unheard of. Yeah. Yeah. There's a, there's a different level of, of thought. And, and, and and correct me if I'm wrong, but from, from what I'm hearing as well, is there was a not as much of a bar-... 'cause I think a lot of thing that holds people back is this whole, "Oh, I'm, you know, who am I to do this? Oh, I, I can't learn this. I, you know, I'm not smart enough." I don't know. Like, it feels like that, that wasn't sort of too much of a constraint. I mean, I'm sure there were doubts in your mind as well. But your desire to learn and to grow and to evolve was stronger than, than what was possibly holding you back. Is that, is that, is that correct? and, and you, you actually spot on on that, because the one thing about it is, what I was trying to run away Yeah. ... was bigger than what I was getting myself into. Yeah. You, you understand? So if Yeah. now was in a position where, if I didn't make it Mm-hmm. Yeah. I was gonna go back to that... Yeah. ... you know, inflation and everything else. So if you weigh those options, it's easier to sit and read for 30 Mm-hmm. than to live for, you know... Poor state. three seconds in, in... yeah. So, so the fear of what I was coming away Yeah. ... was a lot bigger than if I could just put... apply myself. And I'm coming from a place where I was a clean slate. Yeah. Right? So I had not had that influence of maybe a lot of school, which would've maybe wanted me to get it right, because I see this in my Mm-hmm. And I'm saying this with utmost love and respect. Yeah. My kids always want to get the right answer. Yeah. You know what I mean? And, and I, and I feel like that is a symptom of over-education, where they need to rest assured they... as long as they get the right answer and then they go to bed, Yeah. It doesn't matter if they've learned it. Yeah. And... Yes, and it's something that I battle with all the time in my household. Yeah. Yeah, that is extremely profound. And there's, there's so much in that. And I... 'cause like with, yeah, my daughter, we, she goes to a different sort of school. She goes to a Steiner school. And that's one of the reasons she goes, is because it's not about, you know, getting it right. And she still constantly wants validation. Yes. And I do home well, I do some homeschooling with her as well, 'cause I homeschooled her for a year, so I've just sort of like continued to do the home learning. Right. And I said to her, "Look, I don't care if you get the right answer. Show me you're working." Yes. "And I can see how your brain is actually coming up with the answer, especially in math." I was like, "Just show me how you got there, and, and then we can talk about it. I don't, I don't care if you got the answer." Or, I mean, obviously in math there is a right and a wrong answer. I don't I don't want to you to always get it right. I want you to understand the process, and so that you can figure it out when it's something you don't know. And that goes for, like, learning to read, write, spell, like all of that. But I, that is such an important thing, because you're right, there is a lot of over-education to the point where our kids are stressed. They, you know, their, their worth is graded on whether or not they are good at all the things. And you're like, "Well, not everybody can be good at all the things." There's so much more to our, our knowledge and experience, and our value as humans. So I absolutely love that. Your, your kids are lucky. I hope... are we recording this, right? 'Cause I'm just gonna grab this small snippet and, and, and play it over and over and over again when they forget. I will... Yes. Well, you can you can take whatever you like. You can say, "I'm telling them," "they don't know who I am." "They are very lucky. And listen to your dad." Absolutely. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm. So, so in terms of like, 'cause learning and all of that, and then you start to build. So you're learning your you know, there's, there's a whole like array of, of, you know, sensory overload as well as knowledge overload that's going on for you. And, and that probably a certain sense of you need to become self-reliant and sort of "successful." And I use that word in inverted commas, because it's a, it's an overused word and it can mean anything. ... but to be able to become self-reliant, and moving and developing into the into the, like the digital media kind of space. How did that grow to the point where you started to take on clients, and then what happened when you got banned? How, how did all that happen? Absolutely. So for those that that can watch, I mean, they, they probably can see the trauma behind me there. So in order for me to then get started on this journey, I was grabbing as much education as I could. I couldn't afford the courses, but I discovered something. Mm-hmm. If you go into Salvos, Mm-hmm. or Goodwill, there's always a section that has books. Yes. So I would then go in regularly, and I would make it a pastime during the weekends, and I now know Vinnie's is open on Sundays, and that just really blew my mind. All right? And I'm still a regular there. You know, and, and that's how I've managed to really fill up my, my bookcase, and some books that I can't get Yeah. ... I would get in the, you know in, on Amazon now that I can afford it. But what I was then doing was I would go on Mm-hmm. and hear you know, everyone that was selling a course or things of that nature, they would maybe present it on YouTube and maybe give you a snippet of what they will be talking about. You know when they give you a preview, or like if you go on Amazon and look at what they are talking about, the topics that the book is about? Before I could afford it, I would write down what those things are in that book and make a mental note that whenever I go to a Vinnie's, I'll be looking for books that speak to that particular topic. Mm-hmm. So that was years and years. It was literally me going to Mm-hmm. and in that process, I was also growing the business, and once I felt like I had a Yeah. ... something magical also happened. Facebook opened up Facebook Mm-hmm. and I was, "I think this is the next frontier," 'cause that's what everyone was talking about. There was courses on how to go live, how to maintain an audience, how to do all of those things, so I started a Mm-hmm. ... and it was Lunch and Learn with Prosper, and every single day at 2:00 PM EST, I was sitting in front of my computer for 30 minutes, and I would talk to people and just maybe regurgitate stuff that I would have learned. So obviously, I was coming in with that energy, that hunger, that let's see how this is gonna go. After about fourth or fifth episode, people started hanging Mm-hmm. and I started seeing regulars, and then I just really started knowing that, oh, wow, this might actually be something, and everyone was just doing all of this. So... And a very funny thing happened one day. I think I was with my wife. She was pregnant at that time, and I... 2:00 PM came by, and I couldn't do a video, and everyone was on my Facebook profile and saying, "Hey, where are you at?" "Where "I'm, I'm waiting for the show." Yeah. I'm like, "Wait a minute. So, so there is an audience." So I then obviously started telling people, "Share, just bring a friend," whatever it is, and I was answering questions, and I added an additional show. Mm-hmm. On Fridays, it was now one hour, and it was a Okay. and that's where people were asking me questions Mm-hmm. ... from there, I created a blueprint of what I was actually doing. So I was just literally showing people how I'm doing what I'm doing and everything else, Yeah. ... people, somebody reached out to me and said, "Teach me what you're doing." Yeah. Mm-hmm. I first started in the course sort of arena, teaching people how do, how to do stuff online, like maybe start a Facebook page or Yeah. and then people started wanting, "Hey, can you do this for me?" Yeah. And it ended up me providing services. So I started learning how to do those services, 'cause the one thing that I was not afraid of was being a rookie, 'cause I had nothing to lose. Yeah. So I went in, started everything else. I learnt about SEO. I learnt about social media, email marketing, started creating little PDFs, pamphlets, and I was giving people an opportunity to download them. Mm-hmm. Started really gaining a lot of momentum until it happened. Yeah. That was in 2020, and I'm getting ready to start my day. I, I Mm-hmm. I've got an audience and people, and everything was happening within the Facebook platform, you know? Yeah. And yeah. I got a call from one of my clients, and then they said, "Mate, what's going on?" And I was like, "Well, what's what's happening?" And they said, "I just had a $7,000 charge on my credit card, and the only person that's using that credit card is you. Have you become the prince of Nigeria?" And I was "Wait a minute. What are you talking about, mate?" And what had happened was, and I still believe up until this day, that this was an internal Facebook hack, because if it happened externally, and I stand by this, I would have been asked for 2FA, two-factor authentication. Yeah. But nothing happened, so virus or something had Yeah. ... got into our business account and Yeah. ... started creating ads on behalf of the accounts that we had at that particular time. Mm-hmm. By the time we got it shut and everything else, it had reached about 55K in ad spend, and we had to actually shut it down, and...Um it's, it's in the book. You, you read about it. Yeah, And when it was all said and done, it took about three months to shut down the case. The whole thing cost me close to $250,000 in terms of damages. Oh, my word. Yeah. And everything else, reputation, whatever it is that I had to figure it out. Mm-hmm. So you can imagine I just... I had just only started to get momentum and I only started to really grow into who I was becoming, and I had all of this taken away from me Alpha. Mm-hmm. Yeah It... It was not easy. No, I can't was not easy. So so what I then went on and did was, while this was Mm-hmm. within the first week, Facebook completely shut me out. And now I can't close any of the ads, and that's why it kept going, you know, it kept billing. Right. And we literally had to call you know, someone and... But we later discovered their Singapore, whatever their customer care is, and we told them something was happening. Mm-hmm. And they just sent me back an email that had a codename Fabiola on it. So, I think it was something internal that they actually Yeah. ... and they had given it a name. Right. So, while that was happening, Facebook gave me 30 days to prove my identity to get my account back. But for some reason, Alpha, I just wanted it to all go away. Yeah. Like I just did Yeah, turn off want any of this happening. Yeah. Yeah. Because I built, I built all this credibility, I built all this Yeah. ... and the very first thing that a client calls me up and says, "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you." Oh. And he automatically put me in the same brackets as the scammers in Nigeria. Yeah. ... that, that, that is the one thing that really hard to gain trust and it's so easy to lose it. Yeah. Yeah, but it's... I find it with these Facebook pages, people are doing Facebook pages for their dogs. And when I, when I got married and had legally changed my name, I was trying to change my Facebook account because, you know, of course, you had to have your legal name on there, and they wouldn't let me change it. Mm-hmm. And I was like, "Seriously." Yes. "I'm showing you my passport and my married name." "Like this is my... You're not allowing me to comply with your rules." Oh. So, and that... I mean, that's minor, like in comparison to what you've experienced, but yeah, it's unfortunately, I think there's too many stories that are negative when it comes to this. But that, this one is... This is extreme. Oh, my gosh. So, how did So, so Yeah, what did you then do? Because it's... I mean, there's, there's... I suppose you could say there's silver linings to some things, but how did, how did you kind of progress from here? We were back to square one. Mm-hmm. We were back to square one, no contacts, no reputation, and I did mention, you know, I had my, my wife pregnant at the time I was starting, and kids. Mm-hmm. We'd bought a, a property. Obviously, we were starting a life. Yeah. And all of that was wiped from under my feet. And because I'd already gotten myself into the rhythm of showing up at 2:00 PM AST on the day that I had to do it for the very first time and I didn't have an account to do it Yeah. ... I thought maybe let me open another Facebook page. But I was like, "No, I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna engage with this. I'm not gonna engage with this." Okay. Because it was really emotionally draining. Yeah. It was not the money. It was just the fact that what I had worked so hard to Mm-hmm. was just taken away just like that. Yeah. So, I'd been tinkering with creating a podcast, so I just decided, "You know what? I've got a microphone. I might just start my own podcast." Yeah. ... there we went. Yeah. For the next 12 days, I was doing exactly the same thing that I was doing. Mm-hmm. Which was just you know, creating content at 2:00 PM AST. I didn't want to show my wife that anything had changed. Otherwise, that was also going to be obviously not good. So, I, I wanted to make it work before anything would have come around. Yeah. But the first 12 episodes that I did, Alpha, I was so angry. Yeah. And I was just yelling at Mark Zuckerberg, and I was just saying all of these things, "Why would you let people do this? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" And half of the time I would just end up crying. But I think I needed that, and I think that was the silver lining because I then got back to myself. The other day, my little girl just knocked on the door before I went live, and then I was like, "Wait a minute, this is just me. I'm in my office. I'm in my household, and I'm bringing all this energy into the people that I love." Yeah. So I went in and I deleted those 12 episodes, and I was like, "Let me, let me continue the job that I started." Mm-hmm. "I'm gonna restart these episodes." And then I just started talking into the microphone, and that... I just thought, after 30 minutes, "That's it." So, I then started the Online Prosperity Experience. Yeah. And I think during that week, I then heard that Taylor Swift... It's a very funny story. I heard Taylor Swift had gone on and recreated all of her music catalog, and now she is not beholden to any music label or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah, smart way. And on that day, on that day, she was wearing a red dress, and everyone was just excited for her and things... like that. So I've got, I've got a very red shirt. I'm gonna wear it one day for you, Alfa. And then I wore it, and I'm like, and I was like, "I'm gonna do what Taylor did." Taylor Swift. Yeah. I was, I was channeling my Swifty. Yeah. And and I went on and I said, "I'm gonna recreate what I was creating, and I know people will find me." Because people were already searching where did I go and things of that nature. So, so I started really creating content from the heart, talking about my journey, my process, and everything else. Yeah. And what I then started receiving... Obviously, when you post your shows, people will find you on Spotify, and people are like, "Oh, we were looking for you. I didn't know where you had gone." Yeah. And I was like, "Wait a minute, I didn't need Facebook after all." Mm-hmm. So what I then started doing was creating PDFs that would go with every episode. So I might just talk about, say, a money concept, and then I'll say, "Download this PDF." That PDF became my saving grace, because then I would then have these people into my mailing list. Yes. Yeah. So now I was a Swifty. I'm like, "I no longer need the recording label that's Mark Zuckerberg. I now have direct contact with my real estate. So we started doing that. Okay. So I went in, and I think I created about 56 videos, I mean audios. Mm-hmm. And that was, that was the episode then. And I felt, "No, no, no, there's gotta be more." And then, obviously as we went on, Taylor Swift had about six or seven albums there, and I, and I was like, "What if, what if I just put this 50 into one season-" Mm-hmm. "... of the show?" Yeah. All right? And then I'll start again, another, another season. So I, I enveloped that one season. That was one year, and I did 50 episodes. Yeah. And then the next year, I did, I did a little bit more, and then I just started enveloping them into seasons. So, that episode has now been sunsetted, but it's, it's got six seasons. Yeah. All 50 Yeah. ... each of the seasons, and each episode is 30 minutes long. Yeah. And now, if you look at my infrastructure and everything else, each episode has a PDF that drives traffic to my mailing list, and that is now how I started to really notice that I could Yeah. ... social media if I really owned my media. Yeah. And from there, I then started looking at, "How can I... Is this real?" Okay. And I, obviously I had started gathering clients as well, but this time the clients I was getting were very good quality clients, because they're people that Mm-hmm. spent time listening to me on the podcast. Yeah. Yeah. So some people started asking, "Can you do this for us?" And obviously the agency was still running, and I actually hired, because now I had a recurring client. At that time they were paying me about $2,500, and that was enough to get a VA. Yeah. And I said I was gonna get somebody, and I was gonna focus on creating content. And if you'd noticed, that's when Joe Rogan was given that $100 million for podcasts, and I was like, "I'm gonna make a crack at it if this is now a $100 million industry." Yeah. And the rest is just work and now learning so much so that I can be that guy that can do what I went on and created, Alfa. Yeah. That's amazing. long answer to your question, but... Yeah. But no, but it's a, it's a powerful story, and it's a powerful message, 'cause it's interesting. I mean, I love listening to podcasts. I do it in the car, you know, on the way home from school drop-offs or pick up, on the way to pick-ups and all of that. And it, it's a really, really good way to absorb. And I've, I'm an auditory learner, so for me, it's, it took me a long time to get into podcasts, 'cause I was like, "Oh, you know, I don't..." You know, listening and doing other things, and I thought, "No, driving is actually a really good, good one to do." But having the, the vision to do what you've done, and then also a lot of the podcasters are like, "Oh, you need to own your own real estate. The algorithms keep changing pages keep getting taken down. You know, people aren't seeing your Reels," and whatever else. And you're like, "Oh my God, you can make yourself crazy trying to please some artificial intelligence algorithm sitting behind whatever smokescreen." There's, like, The Wizard of Oz sitting back there so I think kind Yeah. Yeah. Maneuvering stuff like a puppet. But yeah, having, having your... And doing it in a way that is very authentic to you, and then attract, having people kind of attracted to what you're, you're doing, and then being smart about it too. So I think that's a, that's a wonderful story, and lots of lessons for our listeners in all of that. But that's amazing. So what's, what's next? So you've, you've just published your book, like, just now in, in July. What do we When this airs, it'll probably be around the end of August 2025, and the book will still be pretty fresh. So yeah, how did you feel about seeing your name on a book and having it in print? Like, what's, what does that feel for you? So you... And thank you so much for that. So obviously when, when we first started, you, you did mention there was that stint of me on, on national TV and things like that, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Being on national TV, I've been in magazines, I've been on really big podcasts, I've been around really influential people, but nothing beats seeing your Yeah. ... on, in a book that you've written. Yeah. And, and you know that...Whatever you've written is now set in stone, so unless they delete the Yeah. ... this piece of content is gonna be Yeah. ... time in memoriam. Now, I come from a long line of non-authors and non-readers. Mm-hmm. So not only have I broken the Yeah. ... curse wealth-wise, life-wise, and everything else, I now, I now have set myself a Yeah. ... to be the representative that any other kid out there would have wanted to be because they don't have any role models. No. No, that's, that is beautiful and powerful. There's have you heard of Ed Mylett in, in, in America? He's a The, absolutely. I think he's got a book, just one more than a podcast or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he talks about the one in the family, and you are the one. Yeah. In, in your family but also your community and broader, and just generally. I think for anyone who has ever kind of not thought they could do anything or do, do much or amount to much, you've proven and busted so many myths and beliefs and stories, not just with money but with so many things that's, it's tremendous. I appreciate that. And it's still work in progress. But you asked what's next, right? Yeah. What's next for me is I'm creating a community around this setup because there's no point in just showcasing what is possible without proximity because representation matters, all right? So if people can see it, like you're talking about Ed Mylett, he's got the the podcast, he's got immersive Mm-hmm. things of that nature. I've just been operating from, from the outskirts, you know? I do have a Yeah. and I do know a lot of people but I haven't really ventured out there. I literally just had created my business in such a way that if somebody's not cutting a check, I'm not leaving my house, and it's just been like that. Yeah. I think what's next is people are gonna be seeing more of this face now. Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. Yeah. And it's a, such a happy, friendly face too. And you've got such an energy, which is wonderful. But yeah, bring it on. All right. Like glow and grow, scale. Absolutely. Yeah. I think it's brilliant. Well, definitely keep, keep watching that and I look forward to reading it 'cause I, I haven't got it yet 'cause it's brand new and I only just found, I haven't had a like even with Amazon, I haven't managed to, to get it yet. So ... deliver it to me, what, what are we today? Yeah, probably tomorrow or on the weekend 'cause they deliver on Sundays. Anyway. That's wonderful. I'm very, very excited for you and I'm, thank you so much for, for coming on the show. And we'll put your links and things in, in the show notes, but where is the best place for people to find you? Is it your website where, your show on Spotify? Like where, where can people find you? Absolutely. So being a marketer, I've worked really hard to make sure that if people type my name, you know, they can find me anywhere else. But the easiest way is also since my name is Prosper, and people might remember Live Long and Prosper, the company that I work for is Live Long Digital Yeah. you'd be able to find me on there. And I think I'm the only Prosper Taruvinga on LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. I do not have Facebook. If you connect to a Prosper Taruvinga on Facebook there, that is definitely not me, and I vowed not to return Mm-hmm. this book is actually a five-year anniversary of not having stepped into anything in the product of Meta because to me, it doesn't matter. So find me on LinkedIn, Yeah. find me on my website, or just go on your own journey to own your own media. Yeah. You'll find this on Amazon as well. Yeah. Wonderful. I, I love that. And yes, there's there's so many different ways we can connect in this world. Yeah. So fantastic. Just not on Facebook Well, I'm looking forward to watching your journey more and seeing you more as well, and maybe going to an event. If you hold something in person in Melbourne, I'm happy to travel. Love Melbourne, love the food, you know, brunettis, oh my goodness. But yeah, so I look forward to, to following your journey more and thank you so much for, for coming on the show and being so open. Alpha, I really, really appreciate this, and this, this is amazing. Like, like I was saying, I'm only now just venturing. I've done all this content and all this stuff but I haven't been even on other people's podcasts, I have not been taking any interviews. But obviously now that I am, you're probably one of the first ones that I've done in a very, very long time. So I really appreciate you taking notice of that. And yeah, keep doing what you're doing 'cause money, money really is important, and I just wish a lot of people would know how to use it and be around it Yeah. to know that it is a tool. Yeah. ... absolutely. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you so much and I really appreciate you coming. It was lovely to talk to you. Thank And everyone listening, what a treat. Have a wonderful week and I will catch you on the next episode.
