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Christian Arriola was born and raised in Juarez, Mexico, and moved across the border to El Paso Texas 8 years ago.
Hobbies: His hobbies are to read, golfing and building websites for fun
Favorite quote: Christian shared that his favorite quote is also the very first quote that he ever heard. This quote means a lot to him because it changed his mindset forever:
“It’s not your fault to be born poor, but it’s your fault to die poor” -Bill Gates.
Social accounts: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube
What are you working on?
I’m currently stepping down from my green tea business “lively matcha” and letting my business partner run it so I can focus on inspiring millennial entrepreneurs to chase their dreams and hustle their way to success. I launched a new podcast and YouTube show “The Hustle Show” and within a few weeks we hit the top 60 Business Podcasts on iTunes! This is extremely exciting for me, because it fulfills my passion and my purpose as an entrepreneur.
The whole idea behind the show is to have real no-filter conversations with successful entrepreneurs where we talk about behind the scenes of their Journey. On our show, we focus on all the struggles and ups-and-downs that they had to go through before reaching their success. The show has allowed me to coach and mentor amazing entrepreneurs by helping them overcome negativity, fears, doubts, and all their limitations by shifting their mindset towards success.
How did you come up with this idea?
There’s actually a funny story behind the idea of my show. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was eight years old and I’ve been through all the struggles, the ups and downs, and definitely it has been a crazy emotional roller coaster for many years.
The first six months of 2017 were horrible for me. I went through a horrible depression were I had lost my purpose and and I felt completely lost. I had been chasing success and money, and I lost myself in the process. My depression went for so long and so deep that it started affecting my family, my fiance, but more importantly myself; this depression was causing me to have suicidal thoughts! I had no real reason to keep doing what I was doing and I didn’t seem to understand what was the purpose of me working 16hrs a day and struggle for so long for nothing. That’s when I knew I had to do something about it to change my life around.
I jumped on a rental car the next day and started a crazy solo adventure 17hr-road trip. I wanted to disconnect myself for a full-week to reconnect with my purpose. During this trip I did a lot of meditation that reminded me that my purpose in this world was always to inspire other people to chase their dreams. I forgot my purpose because I was chasing money and success. Although I don’t think money is bad for you, it’s definitely not everything in life. But I had to learn it the hard way.
Once I figured out my purpose, I came back to El Paso trying to find a way to make a business out of my new vision. One night while I was driving back home, an idea hit me: I realized that there is no way I am the only one that is struggling and going through this emotional roller coaster. There has to be other people going through the Journey but are probably hiding it from everybody else. You see, all we see on social media is the glamorous side of entrepreneurship; fancy cars, big houses, and everybody’s crushing their success.
The idea of the podcast show came right after I thought about this and I said to myself: what if I were to create a podcast where we would focus solely on the struggles, the hustle, and the behind-the-scenes that nobody sees about an entrepreneur.
The very next morning I purchased the domain thehustleshow.co and the rest is history.
How is your company different?
I built The Hustle Show around my #1 passion and not around any trends like I had done before. For me The Hustle Show is my way to connect with people and help like-minded entrepreneurs to shift their mindset towards greatness. I have been able to mentor and coach amazing people who are already seeing the benefits of shifting their mindset towards passion, success and happiness. Our vision is looking to help not only our mentees but thousands of people every single day with our show, whether they’re clients or listeners.
What’s your dream with your company?
My dream is to grow along The Hustle Show to inspire tens of thousands of entrepreneurs every single day, to host our own mindset conference, and to be able to connect like-minded people in every industry to aim for greatness. I also want to grow a virtual team and have a well-oiled machine running 100% location free so I can travel the world to continue to meet more amazing people.
How do you creatively advertise?
Knowing how powerful podcasts are, I’ve been focusing on sharing my story on other podcast shows. I have also partnered up with local startup organizations where I help the local community while getting the word out about my show while providing inspirational value to everybody that attends to these meetups.
What was the biggest struggle you had to overcome with your show?
The hardest thing for me to overcome was the idea and the fear I had to talk to 7-figure entrepreneurs and interview them on a video call. Because I don’t have a media background and I had never interviewed anybody before, I seriously thought they would think that my questions were dumb and that I didn’t have what it takes to be a podcast host. The funny thing is that every single guest I’ve had and that I’ve interviewed compliments greatly the show and all the questions I ask; it’s still shocking to me!
What were your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?
The biggest failure came right during the first interview, while recording episode 1! I had no clue what I was doing or how it was supposed to be done, so I rely on my screen recording software to record the video call. However, I ended up with the video recorded with no audio! I felt a complete loser. I thought I was going to have to call this person again and re-do the whole episode. For me, this was devastating! Luckily, I always try to have a “plan b” and I did for this call too. I had placed my phone on top of my laptop, to record his audio in case something went wrong (which it did happen). That was the audio we had to combine to the video and remastered it to make it sound better.
Ever since that interview, I switched to a cloud recording software and I also record both audio tracks (mine and guest) locally on an external device that I know will never freeze or give out like software does. There’s no more playing around with this setup!
The biggest success was definitely the day when I got the very first email from a fan. He had listened to every episode at the time and he wanted to say that he got so inspired by my podcast show that he was going to make the leap of faith to works on his side business like never before. Best feeling ever!
Value-add questions
Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
For every entrepreneur I say, don’t focus on chasing success… Instead focus on your passion and money will forever follow you. Plus, it will allow you to keep the excitement at a max level every day! This will get you through the rough days and get you closer to your dreams.
Teach us something about Personal Branding:
Here are my coolest tricks of personal branding I’ve learned after having a podcast show. Once you have identified your niche and have a clear idea of your ideal customer this is what I recommend you do:
- Start thinking of “you” as a brand and you will be future-proof… The biggest entrepreneurs crushing it right now are not the ones that make the most money or have the most luxurious life; they are the ones that have the best personal brands. Simply think of Grant Cardone and Gary Vee… Both are successful business people, but the incredible social following they have has allowed them to explode as icons and has opened amazing opportunities for them, as everybody wants to work with them. I always say that I rather create a legacy than a product! And I want you to do this starting today.
- Position your personal brand as a thought leader. To achieve this you have to be seen everywhere! Start pushing content out around your niche. For example, if you’re a fitness coach create videos on youtube talking about it, post interesting images on Facebook and Twitter, post inspirational images on Instagram, write articles about fitness on Medium and LinkedIn; and last but most importantly: pitch yourself to podcast shows related to fitness! Who do you think I would rather hire: a stranger who calls himself an expert in fitness or the person that has been giving me free content for months and that has been featured all over the place? I think you know the answer.
- Don’t be afraid to post personal things. As a matter of fact, when I post things about my personal life, the engagement goes through the roof! People love seeing that you’re a human like them and that you have similar problems like them. This will create instant connection with many people and boost your personal brand to the roof!
Why did you decide to start mindset coaching and mentoring?
I know most entrepreneurs have heard of the term “coach” because many people will recommend you to get one. However, when you’re in early stages you need the most support and guidance you can get. At the same time, when you’re starting out is really hard to find a coach that is the right fit for you. I had this pain in my journey. I couldn’t find one that would meet all the things I was looking for until recently.
For this reason I decided to open myself and my experience to other entrepreneurs who need guidance and support on shifting their mindset to be unstoppable. It’s also an incredibly rewarding feeling when one of my mentees shares with me how his life turned around because of the tactics I taught them.
What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?
I finally understood that fear is completely normal and it’s actually a great thing to have when you’re an entrepreneur. The important thing is to learn how to flip that fear that is stopping you and turn it into fuel to your desire! I love my fears, because they’re now fueling my burning desire to succeed doing what I love.
What do you think you do better than most people?
I believe I finally figured out something very important: how to be myself without faking it. I consider myself the best at being me! Now I can talk about real stuff without worrying about what other people think of me. On The Hustle Show, I really let stuff out to the public that a lot of people is afraid to say. For example, I talk about how much time and money I wasted on college and I share my opinion with the world… or maybe how hard it is to be an entrepreneur when your parents are the #1 factor to doubt yourself. I came to realize that faking your personality on the media is worthless, don’t try to be a copycat of anybody… Be original, be yourself, and whatever your points of views are, let them out the way they are.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Your number #1 priority should be to invest in yourself!
I recommend focusing on your mindset, self-development and your personal brand. Your brand name should always be your priority. You can do so by listening to awesome podcasts like The Hustle Show (or any other, there’s many great shows out there), read a lot about personal development, and challenge yourself today to be a better person than yesterday. I promise, if you focus on this, success will follow you around and there won’t be a way to stop your greatness!
What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?
My all-time favorite books are:
Rick Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Ask Gary Vee by Gary Vaynerchuk
And I actually have my Hustlers Book Club, where you’re invited to join us reviewing the best entrepreneurial books.
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
I know The Hustle Show has an incredible future for the podcast show, the mindset coaching and to create a truly incredible live event for entrepreneurs to connect and shift their mindset towards success. I know we have what it takes to help tens of thousands of young entrepreneurs and guide them towards their success.
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