My Story
I have been documenting my online entrepreneurship journey every since I made my first dollar and here is proof:
You know that saying that money doesn’t change you it just makes you more of who you already are? Well here is me 2 years before I did the first post above sharing my first dollar made online telling the world that I’m an entrepreneur:
Today I’m that same bright eyed energized optimistic person romantic about the life of making money online and entrepreneurship.
If you read between the lines between those two posts you’ll accurately gather that it took 2 years after declaring to the world to ‘watch me go’ to make just $1 ha!
I started dancing back then and quickly became addicted. I stopped drinking alcohol and instead of partying and drinking spent all my time dancing and after 2 years I actually got to dance professional for T-Pain. (I do drink in a celebratory fashion today but I have to be careful because every day it feels like there is something to celebrate business wise!) This is me on stage with T-Pain in my very first concert as a professional dancer!
I actually learned how to dance and go pro from YouTube all while going to college at Unversity of Dubuque in Iowa. This is the first time I ever danced in public at a college talent show (I'm wearing the glasses):
My first business was based off dance and I started created content about dance in 2010. For the first year the only person that watched was my mom :)
This is my first dance video that broke 1 million views:
This is my first music video after I became a professional dancer for T-Pain which was the official soundtrack for Step Up 3D:
Back then I was starting to make money from YouTube Adsense and trying to get paid to teach dance workshops in different studios which could get paid $500 in a day. A LOT of money to me back then considering my first job out of college paid $27K a year. I didn’t know anything about collecting leads and funnels but I was trying. This was my promo reel I would send to dance studios to try to teach workshops. (I knew even back then that creating content and videos could help turn into money and I was finding my own ways to do it with the skill sets I had)
Eventually I got smarter and made my first digital product. It was a series of 60 minute dance tutorials that people could pay $25 a pop for. It was this endeavor that allowed me to make $5K a month and quit my 9-5. The website is still around today: https://brambilabong.com/
This is the First vlog I ever made when I went to Poland 12 years ago as part of a brand deal with Kia from dancing (it’s super bad but it shows you where we all start!)
The idea of doing a scholarship is something I have personally benefited from. Many moons ago I was just like you trying to make money online and start an online business but had no money to buy any programs. Back then one person I learned from was Marie Forleo and she had a program called B-School (it’s not around anymore) and it cost $3,000 which I could not afford. She offered a scholarship program which you had to submit a video to apply for. This is the real video I submitted:
I won it and her training was the first formal online business course I ever received:
Getting this course helped prove to me how valuable courses are and showed me how much time I wasted trying to figure it out on my own.
I’ve since become one of Marie Forleo’s most successful people who have taken her program. Probably in contention for the top spot and now she uses my story to promote the impact she is making. Here is a quick clip of me on her show in NY from a few years ago:
I know how powerful a scholarship opportunity is… trust me! When I made it into Marie Forleo’s program which I could not afford I did not waste a minute. I wasn’t going to let that opportunity slip past me and I went ALL OUT and here I am :) I currently offer my own scholarship program to learn more about that visit here.
My journey has not been smooth at all. Far from it. I struggled for the majority of my time as an entrepreneur. I have failed a lot because I have tried a lot. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed. People that don’t fail in entrepreneurship aren’t trying hard enough. But there is making sure you are failing the ‘right way’ which is making sure when you fail it’s not SO bad that it puts you in a financial hole and also making sure you are learning from what is not working to improve.
Eventually I got burnt out on dance. I started tinkering around more with affiliate marketing and drop shipping and selling on Etsy back in 2014. I also started to record myself talking about side hustles instead of dance for the first time. This is one of the first business vlogs I ever recorded from back then re-posted on my channel:
I really hope you don't watch the next video in full but from this little side experiment I actually gave one of my very first business side hustle talks to a group of entrepreneurs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 1 Million Cups. I spoke previously in front of audiences about dance as I used to go to schools as a motivational speaker and dance and talk about pursuing your passion and how to overcome bullying - but this was my first ever business talk:
After living in Iowa for 10 years my wife and I moved to Dublin, Ireland for a year.
While living in Ireland in 2019 I was starting to average $1,000 a day from my online incomes (mostly from selling physical products as an affiliate. I've been the number one affiliate for many companies like Pique Tea, Peak Design, Ladyboss, HastyBake Charcoal Grills and so much more. Walking down the streets in Dublin where I used to live I made this video recollecting some of my more spectacular failures:
Sometimes I wish I would have documented my journey even more… other times I’m glad that I didn’t because it means I spent time living! For some reason I captured myself in Barcelona making $30K in a day for the first time from affiliate marketing selling physical products click here to watch it on Facebook.
The truth is I NEVER wanted to teach people how to make money online. I was happy living in my van with my near 1M followers just talking about living in a van and the beauty of making money online and doing the occasionally silly dance move like this:
But then a terrible program called Legendary Marketer had affiliates of their program that kept stiching and dueting my videos to sell that sketchy program and people started to think I was part of it! I would wake up to messages that said “you scammed me I bought your course for $7 and all it did was ask me to upsell to $2,500!” and I would reply... "dude... I don't have a course what are you talking about!?"
When I learned what was happening I was really upset on how Legendary Marketer and it's affiliates was promoting and using my content. So I decided to create my first program and to make it extra clear that it was mine and that I had no affiliations with any others I called it the BRAMBILA Method.
Here is a video of some sketchy affiliate back in the day sharing my video that was promoting legendary marketer or some other BS program that I wasn't affiliated with.
This style of video is a 'Reaction' video. My video (on the right side) went viral and so his video which copies it is just his reaction. But you can see at the end it says 'hit the link in my bio' and since this video is years old the link in bio is obviously not the same as it was before. Click here to watch.
@simply.close #duet with @adrianbrambila #makemoneyonline #business #sidehustles #affiliatemarketing #learnaffiliatemarketing ♬ Blade Runner 2049 - Synthwave Goose
As you can see it's very hard to tell from the TikTok duet feature that I am NOT associated with that terrible program. (BTW I have NO idea who this is. He has 1.3M followers and used my video without my permission to promote an offer that I am NOT affiliated with).
This is one example of hundreds that were starting to happen. I did not teach people how to do what I was doing and I didn't care to at the time mainly out of fear of being labeled as another internet guru (except for having a lamborghini I lived in a van lol). I just wanted to clear my name away from Legendary Marketer and all other people who were stealing and dueting my content to promote shady courses. I did not care if my program did well...
But when I launched The Brambila Method program it did do really well and I don’t mean in terms of financial success on my end…
People who started learning from me started to make money online! Some people would make hundreds per month, others thousands, some would go on to quit their 9-5 jobs or retire early. I’ve even had someone become a bonafide millionaire from my classes her name is Morgan Rainey my most successful student (MAJOR disclaimer although she has done it I don’t advertise that I help people become millionaires because she is the exception not the average result! Most of my program teach people how to make their first dollar online. I love helping beginners! If you are looking to become a millionaire from scratch I am NOT your teacher)
My favorite part of creating my first real program The Brambila Method was that I dedicated it to my Grandma. She brought my family from Mexico here as a single parent since her husband (my Grandpa) was murdered when my dad was about 5 years old. Despite facing the worst adversities known to man kind including child loss (something I sadly share in common) she is still spirited. I wanted to interview my Grandma - it was amazing and I highly recommend you interview your grandparents and parents in a formal capacity you will learn so much. Here is the interview:
I learned from this experience of creating my first program how fulfilling it is to me personally to help someone make money online from scratch and now I have created multiple programs for beginners and advance entrepreneurs! Across them all I have one rule. I only teach things I have done successfully myself that I feel are replicable.
Whether you are someone new, someone who has followed me for years, if you ever hit the like button or purchased one or many of my programs I want to say thank you. I never wanted to be a teacher I used to often partake in making fun of the gurus of make money online but ultimately I'm glad I am. Teaching people and watching them grow is out of all the things I do for work the most fulfilling.
THANKS FOR READING GOD BLESS & PEACE!
- Adrian
ps: out of all the thousands of pieces of content I created the most viral piece of content I've ever made was actually an audio. It was called 'welcome to the new rich' and it became a mainstream audio now totaling over 500 million listens from people who have used it. Check out the original here: https://www.tiktok.com/@adrianbrambila/video/7131547385947295022?q=welcome%20to%20the%20new%20rich&t=1722351756523
@adrianbrambila Welcome to the new rich original video #welcometothenewrich #newrich ♬ original sound - Adrian Brambila