#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards

Breaking The Bank: How Tan Built A $50M DeFi Business By 30

• Jordan Edwards • Season 6 • Episode 279

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The corner office isn’t freedom if your time isn’t yours. Tan Gera, CFA walked away from a hard-won M&A career and built a $50M company by 30 by doing what most won’t: buying back time, moving fast, and letting asymmetric bets do the heavy lifting. We unpack the real pivot—from long hours and “Chinese wall” myths to a life designed around speed, systems, and sovereignty.

You’ll hear how Tan validated businesses the scrappy way—drop shipping to test demand before touching inventory—and why building while employed beats romantic quitting. He breaks down a practical crypto playbook: map allocation to risk so you know what to buy and how much, put core assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum to work in DeFi liquidity pools for steady yield, then channel those profits into deeply researched small caps where two winners can change the math. It’s a risk-managed approach to 100x potential, funded by gains, not principal.

We also get into the levers that make this more than theory: delegating low-value tasks, using AI to compress 12-hour days into four, and treating attention like capital. Tan’s health systems—sleep, sunlight, clean meals, meditation, breath work, and a 3:30 p.m. gym routine—anchor consistency. His lens on opportunity cost reframes delay as a monthly loss against your ideal life, injecting urgency without burnout. Along the way, we explore minimalism over material flex, renting for freedom, and philanthropy that ranges from daily kindness to building schools.

If you want financial sovereignty without waiting for permission, this conversation gives you a blueprint: active income first, allocation by risk, yield on core, upside with house money, and relentless speed over perfection. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review telling us the one task you’ll delegate this week.

To Learn more about Tan Gera: 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tan-gera-cfa_decentralized-masters-predicting-market-activity-7277156963543625728-ZVoG

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/



Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-edwardsconsulting/30min

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, what's going on? I got a special guest here today. Today on the hashtag Glockedin podcast, I'm joined by Tan Guerra, CFA, a former investment banker who walked away from Wall Street and built a$50 million a year company by the age of 30. He's the founder of Decentralized Masters, helping people grow and protect their wealth through decentralized finance. His story is all about breaking free from the system to build real freedom and purpose. Tan, thank you for joining the hashtag Clockedin podcast. I want you to take us to the moment you realized the life you were chasing on Wall Street wasn't actually the one you wanted. What was the breaking point and what did it feel like to finally walk away?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, uh, first of all, thank you for having me. I would say uh one defining moment, I had a few. Uh one was when I was in that huge tower, Wall Street, you know, that was the dream. Uh, I made it there. And then on the weekends, when my friends are going out, I'm actually stuck at the office. Literally, at some point it felt like working 24-7, which was kind of crazy, very unhealthy. Uh, so I was like, I'm making pretty good money, but I can't even spend it, you know. So what's the point? Yeah, that's when you realize. I mean, there are other things. Once you start getting what you wanted, that and you lose other stuff that you already had, but you didn't value much, that's when you realize what it's worth. And then there's another time where this is more about the industry industry itself. Is um one day, you know, I was in on this huge floor with a hundred bankers, right? Working for a big company that a big bank that I'm not gonna international bank that I'm not gonna name. Uh, but there are some rumors, and I talk to this guy who's you know VP, and they're telling me about this uh merger that is about to happen, and they tell me it's don't say much because our company is also our bank is also the market maker on that stock, okay. And so the team that is the trading team, they shouldn't know about this because you know that can materially impact the price, so you know, insider trading, etc. So that information shouldn't move. And that same night, I we were literally having drinks with that team. So I'm like, come on, like, you're gonna tell me that this information doesn't like you know move around? Of course it does. And so, I mean, that's when I realized all that bullshit about the Chinese walls and it's well handled, it's all completely rigged.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, that's tell us a little bit about for the audience that doesn't know, what even is investment banking, and then what are these Chinese walls that you're referring to?

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so investment banking is uh the premium service when it comes to banks, meaning it's it's banking for the biggest companies, and there are two, let's say, arms. The first arm is called financial markets, okay. Uh, it's all the services that go around trading and stocks and all that market, you know. Uh, so they provide services to hedge funds and they provide liquidity and they help them trade. And we're talking big, big numbers, right? They're selling them research. So, all that goes behind, like, you know, there are some asset managers or investors or hedge funds, they need services. Investment banks are the ones who provide everything. Hey, we need to buy this structured product or derivative or whatever. Okay, so investment banks do all of that, and then on the other side, which is I worked on that field initially, but then I quickly went the other way, which is the corporate finance arm, where basically now what you do is you help companies acquire other companies or uh get acquired or run some valuation projects, etc. So it's more you're helping the internal finance department of a big company uh on how to grow it. Okay. So it's less linked with the market, it's more with the internal like growth, acquisitions, etc. And I was especially specifically doing that. I was a merger and acquisition banker for a while, and so I was helping uh big companies find targets and acquire them and run the whole process, right? Run the math, calculation, etc.

SPEAKER_00:

And just for the audience who doesn't realize, this is one of the most sought-after roles across the world because they make really good money and people want to be inside of this business. Every single person who's in the finance is like, how do I get to MA? How do I get to investment banking? How do I dive into this? So for you to be at that point and have your CFA, which is an incredibly challenging thing, were you feeling like on top of the world? Because it it's just it's so hard to be like, I want out after this.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I'm not gonna lie, at some point I did. Uh of course, because I passed level three of the CFA program at just 23 years of age, which is uh very, very young. And that actually opened a lot of doors for me, right? Yeah, uh, the reason why I did it is because I didn't go to one of the top, top schools in the world, and so the only way to level the playing field with them and have access to the best opportunities was doing that. So I had to get out of, you know, go out of my way, if you want to do something exceptional to be recognized as an exceptional talent, and so get access to you know, exceptional jobs. Uh, so yeah, I was pretty proud, you know, uh, especially because I come from a very poor um background. I mean, my not very poor, but like immigrants in Paris. And so we've like no one ever told us what to do. It's not as if my dad knew, and it's like, hey, you must do investment banking, that's how we break into it. I had to discover and like figure out everything on my own, like everything. Uh, so yeah, I felt like pretty proud, especially when I landed a Wall Street, you know, role. That was the pinnacle of like, okay, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and I want the audience to realize this because you're on this high high, and it's very hard to get. And like you said, there's a lot of people whose parents just go, do this path, do this, and we'll get you on Wall Street. But you had to do it a completely different way. And to even pass the CFA by 23s, you have to study months and months and months for this exam. It is not an easy. There's three levels, they're all incredibly difficult, and it's not an easy thing to get at all. So you start having these conflicts going on where you're like, I'm super proud of this moment, but I don't know that this is really what I want to do. So, so how did you battle some of that?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, uh, I didn't really battle it. Uh, I didn't really question it that much. I was like, you know what, I'll be an entrepreneur one day, I'll be an entrepreneur one day. It's in my blood. But these were just words, right? Of course. But uh COVID happened, and when COVID happened, actually, there's a phone call that changed a lot. So I had invested in crypto, I made a lot of money in the first crypto cycle, but I lost it all. Okay, so I made seven figures and I lost it all.

SPEAKER_00:

So I was still like China understands when was the first cycle for the audience to realize 2017, 2018.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, but so you know, I thought I was gonna leave my job, but no, not at all. So I just kept going. And then uh when COVID happened, so in 2020, the second cycle didn't really start yet. I was starting to reinvest a little bit in crypto because I believe it had bottomed, but nothing crazy just yet, right? I had to make it all back. So when uh COVID happened, actually, there's a friend of mine who called me, and he used to, it's a true story. He used to sit right next to me in class. So I was a naughty kid, right? I but I was very, very good uh when it comes to grades. I was always number one in my class. I didn't have to study much, never did my homework. I just you know, I was good with numbers, so it was easy. Uh he used to copy me on every exam, like literally, right? That was the thing. And so a few years later, we you know probably didn't speak for for a year or so. And he calls me and he's like, So, what you're up to? And I'm like, Yeah, I'm working this big bank, and he's like, How much you're making? I I tell him, you know, I'm making like six figures. I'm like 120-ish, even more for my first job, like big job. And he's like, Wow, cool, that's it. I'm like, What? Um I I literally I just bugged for a minute. I was like, What? What do you mean by that's it? Um and he goes, Yeah, I mean, I'm doing e-commerce and I'm making like you know, like 10 times that.

SPEAKER_01:

Really?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm like, shut up. What do you mean? So that's when I decided I realized, okay, wait, there is something else happening here because this guy is not very good with numbers, not very good with a lot of things, but he's hungry, okay, and he's doing way better than I am, which is weird because I'm in the best industry, the highest paying industry. It's very difficult to get paid more than what I'm paid right now as a 24 or 5-year-old, whatever that was. It's impossible. So, what are you doing? And so he explains to me he's doing e-commerce, etc. And so I decided that I would also start, you know, dabbling into things. So, fast forward, I launched that's a story by the way, that I literally never talk about, but I launched like 10 businesses different. Wow, 10 businesses in the span of like two, three years, while always reinvesting my profits into crypto. My only goal was I know this crypto thing is gonna take off. I have a clear strategy that I've built that later on became our ABN system that we teach to people, but I had like the whole thing figured out, I knew how I wanted to go there, but I didn't have capital, so I was like, oh, I need active income. And what I'm making at this big bank is not enough because it's never enough, first of all, but also because you know, my my family has needs, and like I have this thing to pay off, and like my student loan and all these things. So I was like, I need to make more. So I started like COVID let me do this, and my first e-commerce venture that went really well. I actually sold out uh later a few late years later, but it provided me an extra, you know, 10 grand a month or something like that that I reinvested in in crypto, and that's when you know I was able to really make a big difference.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I want the audience to realize here that Tan is in this job, in this place, and he easily could have just pushed off his friend. He could have been like, This guy copy me, this guy's nothing. But he was open enough to hear him out and have this real conversation because I want the audience to realize that even when you're feeling good, you still need to be humbled every once in a while and be like, what happened here? How does this work? What are you talking about? And I think that's one of the most powerful things to realize that people can make money in different ways, and then to have the resources and the foresight to even invest into crypto while you're trying to make your money, while trying to do all these things, like that's fascinating.

SPEAKER_02:

You know what I realized is that I was still young and I didn't have uh big responsibilities, you know. Like I could just fail and go back to zero. It's okay. Like I'm 25. So I was like, let me just risk it now because uh I keep saying I want to be an entrepreneur, etc. But he he lit that fire under me. You know, I was like, okay, there's someone doing better than me. I may be book smart, but it means I'm not street smart. Now, here's the big thing that people uh often consider is like they go white or black. They're like, Oh, so if I want to be an entrepreneur, I need to quit my job and like raise funds and all this huge mounting. It's not true. I didn't quit my job, I did both, I just worked way more than anyone else.

SPEAKER_00:

I and that is so valuable to share because I actually had a client of mine, he was an investment banker, and I was coaching him. And I'm like, hey, if you want to do this startup, man, like you got to dedicate some time. He goes, I have zero time. So he legitimately quit his job. And I go, I didn't tell you to quit your job. Like, that is not what I told you to do. So I think you building simultaneously is the world that we're in, and that's what people need to do, so that it feels very comfortable when you take that transition because you're still making money. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02:

It's very important to keep this income coming because it will avoid you a lot of mistakes and it will let you actually uh focus on what matters most, which is speed. What I realized, uh you know, now being an entrepreneur, I failed a lot, right? I failed maybe seven businesses and I did well with three. And I did really well with my investments, which really you know pushed me. Uh but you know, this business, for example, is going well, etc. What I realized is that money loves speed, not perfection. Yeah, so when you have an idea, what matters is how fast am I able to execute and implement on that idea? Because within seven days, otherwise it's dead. And so, really, it's really about speed.

SPEAKER_00:

It's so true because people will sit there for months and months and months and be like, I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time. And that's the biggest fallacy that we all have. We all we have so much time. Yeah, how did you manage to watch every Netflix episode? Like, how do you know what's going on?

SPEAKER_02:

So, what I did, it was a bit cheeky. I did uh is I used um I delegated my work. So I was an analyst, I'm supposed to do that work. But what I did is I took that work and I gave it to uh freelancers that are hired. I'm not supposed I would be fired by my bank if they if they saw what I said.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no, but I love I love that you're sharing this because it allows you to open up the doors to realize that you can if you're making enough money, you can be a business owner inside of businesses.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. So use that money, that income that you're making to pay other, don't be afraid to spend, to get buy back your time, to dedicate it on building that thing that you want for yourself for the future. Okay, yeah. Uh another thing that I strongly recommend is to invest in yourself. When uh whenever I was stuck, et cetera, I just bought a a course or uh you know a program or a coaching thing, and I would invest, you know, sometimes a scary amount like 15k. But every single time it paid off, every single time it paid off, because you're gonna get that one insight that is everything, right? So don't be scared, like to use like money is just a means of getting back more time or more money. That's it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just the tool, and that's such a powerful thing because people, a lot of people I talk to and that are listening right now have money as their master, and that's not the case at all. It's just how can I provide more value? And then when you really think of a business as you're describing it, it's I can outsource a lot of these activities, like so many, and now there's AI to help you with majority of these. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Like if you're smart enough, I believe in any job today, it's impossible that it takes it your entire day. Otherwise, you're doing a$10 job uh that you should be either automating with AI or delegating to someone else, or and then when it frees up your time, just go into what you actually want to do, you know? Yeah, like and get started, like right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. So, so what was that first business that kind of took off that e-com one that was making you? What were you doing?

SPEAKER_02:

Renewable coffee pods. You know, there's a lot of waste when it comes to coffee pods, so it was just stainless steel coffee pods sold with specific uh coffee that goes because otherwise the quality decreases a bit. So I used to sell that and on the French market, and we actually made it to uh Printem, which is a very big, like uh it's it's known uh Galerie Lafayette that most people know as well. We were exposed there, uh, and then someone bought the company for me.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? So you made these so you got like uh a manufacturer to start building them, or you did you sell them previously, or how did you think about that?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh no, no, they were existing off the shelf. I'm I was good with marketing and like you know the the initial model was dropshipping when I started it, right? Yeah, because I wanted to test the market. By the way, if anyone wants to start an e-commer store, don't listen to whatever they do start drop shipping. The reason is, and that's the big lesson I need people to understand as well. When you start a business, the most important thing is you you be able to prove that you can sell it, whatever the thing is you want to sell. It doesn't matter what like just create a fake product that is what you think it's gonna be and how good it's gonna be, but prove you can sell it once you have a few sales, refund those people if you want to, but at least you prove to yourself you can sell it, then start building the product.

SPEAKER_00:

People do it the other way. I love that because there are so many people that think to start a business, I need all this money, all these things, and it's like, no, you don't even need the product, you just need the website, you just need the website to work, and if someone buys, then you go figure it out. Like, yeah, you can have a couple distributors, there's uh there's so many things on Alibaba and all these different websites now, but like you need to create the demand.

SPEAKER_02:

So that's it, it's just a process, right? So I started with drop shipping, I saw it worked. I did all the branding, I saw it worked even better. Then I bought some inventory and I brought and I brought it to France, right? And then it worked even better, and then I bought some coffee that I found from Canada that I bundled to. But these are steps when you have a lot of demand, when you scale, when you have money to actually put that as a risk and buy inventory, then you do it. But initially you start with like nothing, you just prove that you can sell it. So I did that, I did another brand. Uh, we sold scarves, uh, it was a fashion brand. Yeah, uh, we we did like a million dollar in launch in like two months. Wow, and then we got hit by a lawsuit by Hermes because they said that this tiny little piece of the head of the horse on your designs has been patented. And I was like, That's not like this that's a that's a horse, like it's not yours, you know. Yeah, but a pr they're really good with IP, so we just stopped it. Unfortunately, it was a good brand, it did really well, but we stopped it, and then I went into I was like, you know what? Why am I doing this? Like, my real strategy has always been to put all the proceeds from any business profits that I make and put them into crypto, and like that's what I really love. That's what I actually spend most time doing. Like, why don't I just create something linked with that? And by then I already had made really well in the markets.

SPEAKER_00:

And what what cryptos were you investing in at this point? Like, because you sit there and you're just like, Oh, crypto. People are listening going, is that Bitcoin, Ethereum, or is this a small cap one?

SPEAKER_02:

Like, how do you probably owned all of it at some point? So in 2017, it was different. In 2021, it was different. In 2021, what I was able to figure out is a strategy where um the most important the most important part is one, you have to start by understanding what allocation fits your risk criteria. So, for example, there I think there's two main questions that people who want to invest money are never able to answer. What do I buy and how much of it do I buy?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_02:

So the first question is what do I buy? So I was able to map every single crypto and what it does, and why I should hold this or that, and then what percentage? So, for example, okay, uh a good healthy portfolio will be I'm making this up, right? But for example, not too aggressive, like conservative is gonna be 20% Bitcoin, 20% Ethereum, and then uh 10 of five different blue checks, and then another 10% that I keep for just trading. That's conservative, I feel good with this, I control the risk. Now that I know what I'm gonna hold, the second step is I'm gonna actually provide liquidity on these. I'm gonna use DeFi liquidity pools to juice up the return. Why? Well, I know that the investments that I made, I believe they're gonna grow in value in the next 18 months, let's say. Okay, okay. Why would I just sit on them?

SPEAKER_00:

Explain what what is DeFi liquidity pool? Explain all that.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, let me take an image because it's always better, it's more understandable. It's as if I bought a beachfront property that I know is gonna increase, appreciate in value. Okay, this beautiful house. That house is my Bitcoin. I know it's gonna appreciate in value in the next 18 months, and now there's people knocking on the door and saying, Hey, I want to rent this house from you, they want to be my tenants. Why would I say no? Makes no sense, right? You would get that extra 10% yield on the property price every every year. Well, you can do the same with crypto, so you lend out your Bitcoin or your Ethereum or whatever that is on a DeFi exchange, and you provide the liquidity for other people to make trades, and you get a cut of that trade. Okay, that's what a DeFi liquidity pool is, and so that also allows me to hedge my investments because I know, for example, on my Ethereum, I'm making an extra 20% yield a year. If it goes down 20 down 20 in a given time, I'm hedged because I'm making that as a yield. But when it goes up, that is actually compounding my returns and it's becoming exponential year over year. Yeah, so that's the strategy. Once that is done, and my phase A, which is the allocation, and my phase B, which is getting my money to work for me, what I what we do and what we specialized in, is okay, crypto is the only opportunity where you can literally make a hundred X on an investment, but it's highly risky because actually most of them go to zero, they're never a hundred X. So, how can I make it that even if it goes to zero, you know, I don't mind, but if I hit the 100x, you know, my portfolio is really gonna explode up. So, what we do is we take the proceeds from these yield that we get and we invest them in very specific small cap uh gems that we call, thanks to our deep research, and that's what we developed a lot. How to find those microcaps, what are the patterns you want to follow? And by having these three steps, well, now you enter those microcaps, those native market gems that we call with profits only. Yes, so even if it doesn't win, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00:

There's no risk, so the whole idea is how to remove the risk because if you think about it, say you have ten thousand dollars in Ethereum, you're making twenty percent regardless. So you get an extra two grand, you put that in 10 different small size, 10 different micro caps, which is probably like under 10 million, under 100 million dollars.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, none of eight are gonna fail, but two are gonna give you a 50x.

SPEAKER_00:

A 50x on on that on 200 bucks is like ten thousand dollars. Like you you start thinking.

SPEAKER_02:

So that's 20. So that's 20,000. So now with an initial 10k in Ethereum, I may I took the 2k in yield, I put them into two invest, I mean 10 different investments, eight failed, but two gave me 20k. So now my 10k is up to 30k, and that is without the Ethereum performance. If Ethereum doubled in value, my 10k is now 20k with Ethereum and 40k with the that's our strategy.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that's what that's been working with. And so for you, at what point were you like, I'm done with the bank?

SPEAKER_02:

Very good question. So when uh I made a killing in the 2021 cycle with my strategy, did exactly what I explained, right? I just I was ruthless in applying that.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is all while you're working, building the businesses, doing all everything. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh, all at the same time. I was just working a lot, but I was very smart as well as how I was delegating my bank's work. What was taking other people like 12 hours of work a day? It was taking me four.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and that comes from systems like, for example, a lot of investment banking is making uh marketing material or making presentations. There's a new there's a new AI, like I have to give presentations for speaking engagements. I made two of them this morning that would have I I don't even know that I could have made them. I literally don't even know. It was 60 slides, I did two of them in two hours. It's it's just not possible otherwise.

SPEAKER_02:

Like back back in the days, my AI is was freelance workers, but now with AI you have no excuse. So exactly I I would have probably, you know, it's just that you you need to want more, and you need you want to be smart about things, yeah. And like, how do I get back my time and how do I just get this done in like one hour, you know, instead of a day? And so then with the extra time that you gain, it's what are you gonna do with it? Most people would go in the park and like you know, but not me. I was like, I want to make it. So work on a business, get some active income. That's what most people should do and stop there. Because I was specialized in investments and I knew that I was good at it, I just didn't have enough capital, I put it to work with my own strategy, and that just you know skyrocketed me.

SPEAKER_00:

And so you start to realize everyone's sitting there going, like, what is Tan talking about? And you start to realize that if you put constraints on yourself and you ask yourself better questions, kind of like how Tan sat there and went, How can I do a 10-hour job in one hour? Most people in their job don't think about that, but you ask that question, and then it makes you way, way more efficient. Wait, I don't have to send out all these reports, I don't have to do all these things. Maybe this person could help me. And you ask these things, and you're going to accelerate your life exponentially. To how Tan's describing exactly what happened to him.

SPEAKER_02:

I went from uh, and again, I'm no special, it's just that I was hungry, right? Very driven. Um, all the the people working in financial industry or consulting industry are at least as smart as I am, like easily, right? Uh, it's just that I I was I was more dedicated, more hungry. That's it. And so I went from literally having zero to my name and having student loans when I was up until I was 23 and I started actually working to over eight figures now. And it's just because I since then I never stopped. Every single year I was like, okay, I want to do better, better, better. And fast forward to today, I just turned 30 and we have 130 employees. And I'm the first one surprised. I'm like, whoa, you know, what happened here? Um, 4,000 clients, like it went just crazy. So when you have the deep belief that you can do something, just do it, but just be quick. Speed is everything. Speed is everything.

SPEAKER_00:

The other thing that I like that you brought up is that you started to, it seems like you were marking more on the business, on your job than actually in the job. Because most people sit there and go, let me do the Excel as quick as possible. And it's not that, it's how do I remove this from my plate? How do I simplify what I'm doing so I can actually focus and find the right investments because that return is going to be exponential in comparison to where you're at?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I mean, my time was just my time has always been everything to me. It's it's like right here, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, the hourglass. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02:

It's like my time is everything. How can I always juice the max out of my time? It's always the first question I asked every day. So you were asking when did you uh you know quit your job? It was a I always had a rule. It was like, as soon as I'm consistently making more with my active income, not my investments, my investments were already doing well. It's like when I'm making more with my active income than I am with my banking job, which is not easy to hit because it was a good salary, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh it's also super challenging because what people don't realize is hitting that active income, you're theoretically working for that bank 80 hours a week. How do you do that in 10, 20 hours? Meanwhile, when you get your full time back, you're like, whoa, I can do so much more now. Exactly. So it's this big challenge, and a lot of people, even Gary V talks about it, where he's like, dude, if you can get half the money you're making in a quarter of the time, you're gonna double up very, very quickly. And people don't have that belief in themselves. So it's that trust of like, hey, I'm gonna make double because now you're making double the money. So now in your head, I make if it's 120, now it's I made 240. And it's like, now I gotta get back to the 240. You know what I mean? You leave it.

SPEAKER_02:

So actually, now that you say that, you're right. Now that I think back, I probably should have quit sooner. Really? Uh, but my rule was I want to make at least as much as I'm already making with my bank, and that's when I eventually quit, especially because they called me and they were like, Okay, it's time to come back to the office, you know, after COVID. I was like, hell no, I'm not coming back, you know. Uh but I mean working from home, guys, all of you most likely at least have one day or two days, that's the day. That is the day where you have to do something for yourself and be smart. Of course. And the weekends as well to get ahead. I to this day, I work every single Sunday. Yeah. Every single Sunday I work. Because it's the one day where you can just get ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. If COVID didn't happen, do you think you'd be in the same position you're in?

SPEAKER_02:

I've asked myself that question. I think my fire and it would have just uh taken longer, like more time, but I would have gotten there eventually.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's just no, absolutely. But I I I was in a very similar position as you where it's as soon as you go fully remote, you have to sit there and ask yourself, how can I make the most of this? How do I make this a better situation for me? Like when I went fully remote in 2020 when COVID happened, dude, I ended up traveling around the United States and I ended up meeting the girl in my dreams, like while I'm working on all my stuff and having the job and doing it all, because you start to realize like, what am I doing with my life? Like, how do how do I how do I make the most of this? Like, yes, this is very scary for a lot of people, but I need to I need to maximize this.

SPEAKER_02:

For sure. I mean, for anyone listening, I think there has never been a better moment to try with AI, with uh crypto, with all these things happening, and with remote work, uh, with the like the freedom we get, you know, to just invent all the content that is out there, the free content that is amazing education, all the programs and the online education, the coaching, you know, that you can get from people who've done what you want to do. I mean, there has never been a better time. I think at this point, uh, it's a choice. And one thing I I believe people should have as a mental model is like the opportunity cost. Nowhere, no one ever thinks about that, but let's say you're in your dream life, you want to be making, I don't know, I'm making this up, but like 15k a month and you want to live uh in the south of France. Okay, uh, every month that you're not doing it, some people think, okay, right now I'm at five and I have a job and I'll get there. No, but I when how I look at it is like I'm minus 15 for I'm minus 10 for the month. I lost 10 grand because my opportunity cost is that I didn't build this life for myself already, and so I lost that amount. And that adds up really quick, and you're like, whoa, if you start thinking about it like this, you go much, much faster, and you get to the results you need, which is speed again.

SPEAKER_00:

Because the best part, I love that because what it actually does for you is it makes you feel regret even early on, like you feel the regret of oh my god, I didn't do it. Because that's the biggest issue with people is they lift their heads up, they put their head in the sand, they work their job, they get their promotions, they do their thing, and then they're 60 years old and they're like 80 years old, and they're like, What did I do wrong? Like, like, and then they start going, I should have done this, I should have tried this. And Tan's bringing up incredible points of just go for it. Like, there's literally zero cost at this moment to go, hey, I'm gonna open up shop, I'm gonna make a website. It literally costs a hundred dollars. Like, start the website, see if you can drive traffic to it, and start collecting your first dollar.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, it really is anyone can do it at this point. Anyone can do it. Like, I've seen 14 years old people, like youngsters, everyone's doing it. At this point, it's a choice, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh and what would you recommend to someone if they were sitting there, they're listening, they go, Tan, he's got an incredible business, he's done it all. But like, if they were starting today, what would you recommend for them?

SPEAKER_02:

Focus on the active income and how to drive traffic to a website. That's literally how to drive traffic to a website. That's the name of the game. Um, and then eventually you'll figure out how to make them convert. Yeah, right. So you could sell a physical product, an info product, right? Information, uh, any of those, and you would be fine. I know that people think you need a big personal brand. This is so not true. I don't have a big personal brand, and yet we we do 50 million a year in revenue, so it's not true. Uh, there's plenty of ways to get traffic on the internet. Just invest some time on YouTube and look and watching the right videos. Uh, you know, type you have to start somewhere, and you'll see the algorithm will guide you the moment you put your head into I want to do it, and very, very quickly you have to act. Like you can't just be sitting and watching, you have to act and build and do it yourself. Make the mistakes, pay people, get their you know, lose some money, you have to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to get the insights. So at Edwards Consulting, we have five pillars: it's mental health, physical health, community service philanthropy, spirituality, and relationships. I'm gonna ask you today where you're at on these five different pillars. So we'll start off with mental health. Tan, just today, how is your mental health feeling on a one to ten and what kind of helps you get there or struggle with?

SPEAKER_02:

Today it's a seven. Uh, the reason is I didn't do uh breath work for a while. It's planned for the weekend that helps me stabilize a lot. Uh, but I did have good sleep. I did uh get some sun in the morning. Uh my eating schedule is good. Um, so yeah, that's why it's a seven. I could be better. I got a little bit angry today at some point because something wasn't done the way I like it to be done. Yeah. But uh other than that, yeah, seven. So how do I maintain? I love meditation. That that really helps. Yeah. And breath work.

SPEAKER_00:

I I yeah. So for everyone listening, if you start to realize how Tan operates, he goes, These are the five things that I want to complete today. If I get these five things done, then my mental health's gonna be there. And a lot of us just go, I'm waking up and I'm not feeling happy today. Like, what's wrong? And it's like, you need a framework to actually help you get there. So I appreciate you sharing that.

SPEAKER_02:

So actually, uh you're right. I can just detail. I know that if I get my eight hours of sleep, I know that if I get uh sunlight early on, I know that if I eat at the right time with healthy food, and usually, usually, if I'm able to uh meditate during a day, my mental health is going to be close to a 10. Uh, it's just that I need also those uh once-in-a-while sessions that I do, either breath work or uh EMDR that I've been doing. What's that? Uh I think it's eye. Wait, let me type it out. It's like some kind of a therapy.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Uh it's psychotherapy using eye movement.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh yeah. So I do some of these uh, you know, maybe twice a month. Okay. And that that balance brings me to 10. Uh, also, I need to avoid alcohol. If over the weekend I had a drink, then my mental health for the next the first three days of the week is not as good.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? And this is an awareness thing. This is a 30-year-old. Like, that you're supposed to be partying, having fun, like, and you start to realize that that's that's a sacrifice, that's a societal thing that we're told, but that's not true. Like, fun is being successful, fun is building the business, fun is helping people create the lives that they never thought were possible. So I love the reframes that you're having here.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, I was a big drinker. I was a big drinker at some point. I was even a big smoker, uh from 18 to 22. Yeah, I didn't have an easy childhood, let's say, so I had to escape. And smoking and drinking allowed me to do just that. Uh, but as time went by, it was very difficult. I always taught and I labeled myself as a drinker, I labeled myself as a party here, I labeled myself as a smoker, but I was able to give up cigarettes, I was able to give up weed, which uh that was early on, right? I didn't smoke any since I'm 22, I think. Uh, I was able to give up alcohol, which is recent. Like now I can go easily three, four months without drinking. Then I'll drink a bit, you know, for two weeks if I go on holiday or something.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's super interesting because like, especially where everyone's around. Like, I was in Amsterdam this past weekend, and we just flew back to the States, and you start to realize that everybody there is like, oh, you partying, you partying, you party. And I'm like, not really like that. Like, like, that's not really the style, but you you you feel the cultural pressures, and that's why you got to remove yourself from those and get out get in the right rooms and get around the right people.

SPEAKER_02:

So that has a massive impact. Just who do you hang out with?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. So, for your physical health, how do you feel on your physical health on a one to ten? And what are maybe some tricks for that?

SPEAKER_02:

9.5.

SPEAKER_00:

What are what how how are you at a 9.5 and what could the audience kind of take from that?

SPEAKER_02:

I go to the gym from Monday to Friday at the exact same time, and I didn't miss for maybe two years.

SPEAKER_00:

What time?

SPEAKER_02:

3 30 p.m.

SPEAKER_00:

Really? Why that time?

SPEAKER_02:

Because I eat my lunch at 1 p.m., so I need the two hours of digestion is perfect. Because at that moment is when people crash, right? So hormosey says either you go nap or you go to the gym. I go to the gym.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. No, but these are all systemized things to figure out what it takes to be successful. So I appreciate you sharing that. Um, and then community service philanthropy. How do you feel about that? Some people are active in it, some people are just like, not for me.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh, I think it's about small gestures. So there's two ways to do it. In your small gestures in your everyday life. For example, when a delivery person comes, hand them out uh a glass of water, a bottle of water, something like that. That's the smallest, you know, micro level that you can do every day. Just help someone out, you know. Uh, and then on the macro level, uh, we're building schools in India and Morocco. My business partner Salim is uh Moroccan. Uh, we didn't really talk about it as much, but we're doing it as a company, right? Like uh uh we have a task force that is focusing on that only, and uh it's it's probably gonna be announced soon.

SPEAKER_00:

You you gotta share that more often. Yeah, because it inspires the people, they realize what journey they're on. And I love how you shared an example that was like anybody could do that because we all have an abundance, we all have way too much stuff, and it's like just give some of it away. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't bring you down, it actually brings you up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um I'm not a big material, you know, materialistic guy. Like my mom, for example, she just keeps everything, and I just throw everything, I'm like, or give it away, or like I'm like, I don't know, I don't want more stuff. Yeah, I just want less clutter. I don't like clutter, I don't like things. There's no point.

SPEAKER_00:

I like memories, I like moments because they all carry you with you, you know what I mean. I literally came back from this trip. We were gone for 45 days, get back. The AC's got an issue, the trash can, the automatic, I gotta change the back. Like, it's just the stuff starts to own you, and it's like, what's the point? Like, how do you get rid of all this stuff? And that's why I like I I think I agree with you in the crypto front, where it's just it's very liquid, it's very tradable, and you can get around that kind of stuff easily without having to carry that cost of it all. So, for you, what about relations? Yeah, you can go.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I was just gonna say it's funny you say that because uh, you know, in in our parents' generation, they're they've been told uh they need to buy a house, they need to buy a car, they need to, you know, all these things which are which can become liabilities instead of assets, actually. Well, I'm a big renter, I love to rent things because I change my mind pretty often. And so when I don't like anything anymore, I can just say, Oh, I'm tired of this, I want to change. And then I rent something else, uh be it a car or a house or anything.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I was talking, yeah. No, I was talking to a client and he's like, Yeah, like if I keep going on the path, I'm on, like, hopefully I'll buy a million-dollar boat. And I was like, bro, a boat literally you can rent for three grand a day. Rent it for a month straight and let me know that you still want to do a boat. Like, if you rent it for a month straight, that's a hundred thousand dollars or ninety thousand dollars. You're gonna be like, I don't want to spend this much time on a boat. I'll rent the boat once a month, and now you're at 36 grand, which is the maintenance cost on a million dollar boat. I'm like, come on, like, really think about this. And people don't do that because they think the aspiration of I need the big yacht or I need the big house or I need the bit, you don't need big stuff. Simplify, simple as that.

SPEAKER_02:

What you what you're craving is the moment you are on that boat with your friends, but that only lasts like five hours. You don't need to buy it for that.

SPEAKER_00:

I completely agree. And then what about relationships? How do you think about relationships on a one to ten? And I know that's kind of wide ranging, but it could be family, friends, co-workers, partners.

SPEAKER_02:

I'd say seven, and seven because my bucket is very full when it comes to friendships. Like it can't be fuller than this, it's great. My bucket is it's a bit more difficult when it comes to family, but that's just how it is, you know. Yeah, you don't like uh you just play with the cards you're dealt with and you try to play the best you can. So that's what I'm trying to do.

SPEAKER_00:

The biggest thing that that's helped a lot of people is realizing that as an individual, you only choose one person, you choose your partner, you didn't choose your parents, you didn't choose your brother, you didn't choose your sister. So I share this with a lot of people, realizing that like those relationships, yes, they're important, but they're very optional. And if they're not with you or supporting, then it's like you don't have to go above and beyond for that kind of stuff. So it kind of makes that yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So I do go above and beyond, and especially because in our world that I play and I happily play it, like there's no problem. It's just that it's a bit complex, right? Of course. But so what I mean by this is like we're working through it, it's not perfect, but we'll get there. And then the final aspect is just a void, uh, but that I'll fill when it's time, it's not just time yet, I guess. Uh, with all that craziness of building this massive business and then the second business, and then all these things. Uh, it's a bit difficult to focus on uh you know finding a partner, yeah. But it's okay. I mean, there's time, uh, it's not uh it's not a necessity for now, so it's just not a priority.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And then spirituality. How do you feel on spirituality on a one to ten seven again?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I do dedicate time to it, not as much as I will in the future, uh, when I grow up. But it's more again, it's a matter of choice. Uh when it comes to you know building my own family or spirituality, I know that I will start dedicating more time to this. Yeah. Maybe once I'm 33, 35 beyond. Uh, because I have a clear plan of what I want to achieve in the next three years. Yeah. Uh and then you know, that will take more more time. Business will take less.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. Dan, you're incredible. Where where can people learn more about you and more more about uh decentralized masters?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh all right, thank you. You're incredible too. Uh so what they can do is they can go on dsen-masters.com, which is our website. Um, they can read about us. We have a YouTube channel, there's a lot of content out there, uh, press articles as well. But on that website, they'll be able to apply to work with us. What we strive in doing is we help people regain control of their financial future, uh, and implement an actual strategy to invest their own money and grow it. Um, so you know, reaching financial sovereignty, the dollar is collapsing. I personally don't trust this financial system and the banking system because I've been there, I've seen you know what is in there. Uh, so I have a strong belief uh that the the money is gonna go digital, and so everyone's gonna go in that direction eventually. Digital assets, DeFi, because uh every financial asset on the planet is gonna come on chain, yeah, whether you like it or not. Everything right, stocks are already on chain, tokenized real estate, tokenized gold, tokenized bonds, like everything's coming on chain. So you will be able to manage all your investments from one place, all yourself. You just need the right guidance, and that guidance is us.

SPEAKER_00:

That's incredible. Thank you.

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Jordan Edwards

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