AI Summary
5 min readFrom Rock Bottom to a Self-Love Empire
Diego Perez, writing under the pen name Yung Pueblo, built a multi-platform personal development business that now includes three published books (with a fourth on the way), a 3.5 million-person audience across social networks, and a $10 million venture capital fund called Wisdom Ventures. But the foundation of everything he does is not marketing strategy or audience growth—it is two hours of daily meditation, a practice he credits with transforming his life after hitting rock bottom in 2015.
The Origin Story: Meditation as the Operating System
Perez describes his pre-2015 self as "quite a big mess"—partying constantly, pushing his body to the edge until he almost lost his life. When he hit that wall, he began changing his habits: how he ate, how he interacted with people, and eventually he started meditating. The meditation practice, specifically Vipassana in the S.N. Goenka tradition, became the foundation for everything that followed. He now meditates two hours daily (one hour morning, one hour evening) and attends retreats several times a year, including one that lasts 30 to 45 days.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction and Diego's Origin Story** - Diego (Yung Pueblo) shares his journey from a chaotic, self-destructive lifestyle to discovering meditation and self-love, which sparked his creativity and led to the Yung Pueblo brand.
- 2 (02:01) **Building Wisdom Ventures: Compassionate Venture Capital** - Diego explains his venture capital firm, Wisdom Ventures, which invests in companies that prioritize user well-being.
- 3 (05:57) **The Business Empire: Books, Audience, and Venture Capital** - Diego breaks down how his three business pillars (books, social audience, and venture capital) work together.
- 4 (09:19) **Platform Strategy: Instagram vs. Newsletter** - Diego discusses the trade-offs of building on third-party platforms versus owning the relationship via a newsletter.
- 5 (11:02) **The Lean Team: Just Diego and His Wife** - Diego describes the small, intentional team behind Yung Pueblo.
- 6 (14:19) **Content Strategy: Virality vs. Authenticity** - Diego discusses the trade-off between spending money to go viral and staying genuine for long-term success.
- 7 (16:03) **Influences and the Book-as-Product Model** - Diego looks up to James Clear and Mark Manson for their newsletter focus and high-quality products.
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Show Notes
Today Greg is joined by New York Times Best-Selling Author, and Instagram Celebrity Yung Pueblo, whose real name is Diego Perez. In this episode, Greg and Diego talk about building an audience through meaningful writing, turning it into books, and using that influence to build companies that expand the vision expressed in writing that got it all started.
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https://latecheckout.substack.com
FIND ME ON SOCIAL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
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LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE
Production Team:
https://podflow.com
Diego Perez / Yung Pueblo:
https://yungpueblo.com
http://instagram.com/yung_pueblo
SHOW NOTES
02:45 - What compassionate venture means.
06:01 - How he thinks of each of his businesses - books, social media and venture capital
09:19 - How he thinks about building on other social platforms versus email?
12:45 - Comparing his business's structure to other writers' structures.
16:00 - Social media entrepreneurs he looks up to.
18:47 - Should I write a book?
21:54 - A comparison of getting published and self-publishing.
25:04 - The importance of the pen name Young Pueblo.
40:00 - How to learn meditation.
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