On Faith, Finance, and First Principles | Dan Brigham

Tyler Gardner (0:00)

Hello, friends. This is Tyler Gardner welcoming you to another episode of Your Money Guide on the Side, where it is my job to simplify what seems complex, add nuance to what seems simple, and learn from and alongside some of the brightest minds in money, finance, and investing. So let's get started and get you one step closer to where you need to be. My guest today is Dan Brigham, also known as Dan the Budget Man on Instagram and TikTok.

What initially drew me to Dan's content and his spirit of creating is that he's highly practical in his approach and he is not selling you on, well, anything. No courses, no paywalls, no subscription services, no nonsense. Just financial literacy through the simplicity of note card math and his controversial series, Smart Guy vs Dumb Guy. Additionally, Dan's story is one that many people can relate to. He was over $100,000 in debt not too long ago and simply felt left behind. By harnessing his natural capacity for grit and dedicating some time, well, a lot of time, to his own financial literacy, he was able to pay off his debt in just two years. Not only that, but he now commits a great deal of time to helping others do the same. His mission is to inspire people that they can in fact change their current course. They can build wealth and they can, with hard work, ultimately be financially free. But, and perhaps this is really what drew me to inviting him on the show, he does not want to hear excuses, and he believes that's truly one of the first things that needs to go. So without further ado, a conversation with Dan Brigham about debt, Dave Ramsey, dealing with the daily grind that all of us have to face, and figuring out what success actually looks like. We live in a world where everyone online these days is a guru, or an expert, or a money coach, and half of them are just shouting louder than the rest. How do you think about earning trust and standing out without sounding like just another guy with a ring light and a Canva template? In other words, how do you specifically build trust from an online and highly skeptical audience?

Dan Brigham (2:16)

On the one hand, I posted this video over the weekend, and it was about investing. And when I talk about investing, I'm really just encouraging people to do it, and still telling them what to do, because there's other people that can tell them what to do. But more so just being like, hey, this is the value if you start doing it. And so I posted it, and it actually started to take off and do well. And there's always one comment that might stand out to you. And someone commented and was like, do you have your Series 7?

Tyler Gardner (2:46)

Yeah.

Dan Brigham (2:48)

And I was like, you maybe just obliterated my entire credibility for talking about this. And so I definitely feel like an imposter at that time. And I've gotten very comfortable of just trying to tell people, I'm not an expert on this.

And I think what people are craving oftentimes isn't necessarily the fact that I'm credible. It's, I think that they feel like they can trust me because they've been following what I'm saying. And I've provided this level of consistency that I can be trusted. And these people are trusting you, then you need to have that integrity. And rather than focusing on my credibility, I need to show my integrity. And it's really hard to do that. You can show your credibility immediately. It takes a long time to show your integrity.

Tyler Gardner (3:37)

So I'm curious, how do you think about building that kind of trust in a space where so many people are performing expertise instead of embodying it?

Dan Brigham (3:47)

The first part of that is what is your personal goal? What is your agenda? Because we do all have an agenda and I don't sell a course. It's one of my taglines. So even if I wanted to, it's too late. I've already told everyone that I'm never going to do it. So I've kind of like...

Tyler Gardner (4:03)

Oh, and then trust me, once you say it, you better stick to that.

Dan Brigham (4:07)

Yeah. If I just give a lot to people, I trust that I'll get a lot back and return. My mindset going into it was just give as much as you can. The last part is that I've been trying to incorporate just being vulnerable about where I am. I was the broke person doing dumb things, and here are the things that I did to change. The part where I feel like an imposter sometimes is actually just more of the fact that I'm sharing things that I used to do more, but because I'm in a different stage of financial stability, and because I'm in a different stage of where I'm building my wealth, I'm not doing the things that I did when I had $100,000 in debt.