--- title: "Brad & Lex on Overcoming Financial Ruin, Trailer Park Living, and Building a Massive YouTube Community Through Radical Authenticity" url: "https://authoritymag.co/articles/brad-lex-on-overcoming-financial-ruin-trailer-park-living-and-building-a-massive-youtube-communi" publisher: "Authority Magazine" author: "Ming S. Zhao" authorUrl: "https://authoritymag.co/authors/ming-s-zhao" interviewee: "Brad & Lex" category: "Pop Culture" datePublished: "2022-10-26T21:46:31.511Z" dateModified: "2026-11-12T17:07:29.145Z" tags: "Pop Culture" --- # Brad & Lex on Overcoming Financial Ruin, Trailer Park Living, and Building a Massive YouTube Community Through Radical Authenticity *YouTubers Brad and Lex share their harrowing journey from financial ruin to building a 270,000-strong subscriber base by embracing total transparency and self-care.* > At first, we didn’t tell any of our subscribers about the trailer park scammer drama we were dealing with. Then we once were visited by several rats in the walls during our livestream and everyone was freaking out like whoa, what’s that noise!? --- At*times it feels like wellness or elevating one’s well being, is diametrically opposed to high achievement and high performance in one’s career. The stress, mental energy, long hours, lack of restful sleep and preoccupation that result from a high-achievement life seem to directly inhibit wellness. And yet, in order to sustain the creativity, flexibility, mental acuity and resilience that are necessary for high performance, wellness and wellbeing of the mind, body and soul are also mandatory. So how do we achieve both? This is the question I’m hoping to answer through conversations with high-achieving leaders and influencers who are practicing their own philosophies about how to maintain their wellbeing.* *As a part of our series about “*[Social Media Influencers Share Their Top Self Care, Wellness, and Beauty Tips](https://medium.com/authority-magazine/search?q=Influencer%2520Top%2520SelfCare%2520Wellness)*, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brad & Lex.* *YOUTUBE CHANNEL >*[https://youtube.com/bradlex](https://youtube.com/bradlex) *Brad & Lex are Youtubers & high school sweethearts that have been together for 15 years. They landed in a trailer park right as the pandemic kicked off, after being scammed for their life savings. Despite their bad decisions, the duo were able to create a youtube following of over 270,000 subscribers.* --- **Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory of how you came upon this career path and to where you are today?** Before we started on Youtube, we landed in a trailer park after being scammed for our entire life savings. We lost all the clients that were keeping our small web design business afloat, and it was March 2020 — just as the pandemic was really kicking off. It was the most stressful time of our lives. We were flat broke and the scam landed us in a trailer park (which we thought we’d move out of in 3 weeks or less). We started a youtube channel reacting to content online and created a community of over 273,000 subscribers. We also started livestreaming 4 times a week. **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?** Yes. Our subscribers. We couldn’t have dug ourselves out of the massive hole we created by acqurioing thousands in debt & then giving our savings away to a scammer. They hung out with us, encouraged us, and helped us build ourselves back up over the last couple of years. Everything we’ve gone through (covid, both of our 30th birthdays, threatened eviction, running from hurricane Ian, and now becoming pregnant with our first child…) — they have been there for us with all the love and support a person could ask for. **Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?** At first, we didn’t tell any of our subscribers about the trailer park scammer drama we were dealing with. Then we once were visited by several rats in the walls during our livestream and everyone was freaking out like “whoa, what’s that noise!?” So we ended up telling them the whole story on the livestream and then making a video series about it called “trailer park chronicles.” We learned that you can be honest with your subscribers and they will still like you. They may judge you but we were surprised how much support we received, and how many people actually lived in a trailer park at some point! **As an influencer, you have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. In fact, perhaps most people who tried to follow a career path like yours did not succeed. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?** Don’t tell anyone. We avoided telling family & friends until we had around 20,000 subscribers. Most of the people close to you will have an opinion that will negatively affect you. Whether they are hyper critical or jealous or just opinionated — none of that will help you. Your videos will suck at first but they’ll get better and you don’t want people in your ear discouraging you & bringing you down. Some things you just have to learn for yourself. **Can you share with our readers some of the strategies you’ve used to build an engaged, loyal, and large online community?** You need a name for your community — ours is the “Couch Gang.” You also have to be yourself, don’t try to be a 2nd rate evrsion of someone else. Authenticity is really important modern day. **Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. In my work, I focus on how one can thrive and care for oneself in three areas: body, mind, and heart. You are a busy person with a demanding schedule, can you share with our readers two self-care routines, practices or treatments that help your body thrive? (Kindly share a story or an example for each.)** There were a few self-care things we did (while on a budget) that really helped us get through and helped the creative juices flow, allowing us to get to where we are today. First, we spent lots of time chilling on the couch. Our culture encourages the grind all day, work non-stop, and party all weekend lifestyle, but we didn’t have much business during the week or money to spend on the weekends. So we found joy in watching crash-and-burn dating shows on Netflix and it really sharpened the conversation skills we use today in live streaming. Secondly, sleep is essential. We didn’t realize this until we began live streaming 4 nights a week. Sleep is critical to mood maintenance, focus, and remaining quick-witted on camera. **Can you share with us two routines that you use to help your mind or heart to thrive? (Kindly share a story or example for each.)** For the mind — we meditate every day. For the heart — we try to be grateful for everything we have, even the challenges. **Can you share five ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)** 1. **Stop caring what others think of you**. We used to post on social media trying to impress old high school friends. Once we stopped and just stared being ourselves online, we took off. 2. **Accept the facts of where you are.** I was in denial about living in such a gross place (we had bad rats & mold for a year or so). 3. **Stop trying to feel beautiful.** Feeling beautiful is irrelevant and fleeting. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 4. **Surround yourself with people you want to be like.** There’s nothing worse than competing with people you don’t admire. 5. **Find people you can be yourself around.** There’s no uglier feeling than trying to be someone you’re not. **Is there a particular resource, a practitioner, expert, book, or podcast that made a significant impact on you and helped you to thrive? Can you share a story about that with us?** EOS — End of Sentence Youtube channel. He does it all by himself, and edits all his videos on his phone in iMovie and has over 800,000 subscribers — that is so inspirational. **Do you have a story about the strangest, most bizarre or funniest wellness treatment that you’ve ever experienced?** Brad was at a low point and was trying everything to get well. He went to an energy healer and the lady walked around the table he was laying on belching out loud. Needless to say, he never went back. **As an influencer, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.** Mind Your Business Movement — A lot of problems in our society come from people poking their noses in other people’s business. Mutual respect of others’ boundaries would bring so much good to the world. **We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you’d like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. :-)** Scooter Braun — we would love to be able to sit with him and learn some branding tips that could help us get things to the next level. **What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?** We’re on youtube as Brad & Lex and we have 4 different channels. On instagram, facebook, and twitter we’re also under @BradandLex or @BradnLex. **Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!** --- Source: https://authoritymag.co/articles/brad-lex-on-overcoming-financial-ruin-trailer-park-living-and-building-a-massive-youtube-communi (Authority Magazine, Pop Culture). Interviewee answers are first-person statements of the guest. Index of all pages: https://authoritymag.co/llms.txt