I Thought I Needed More Streams of Income, I Actually Needed This
Most people think diversification is about stacking income streams and building a business empire. But I’ve learned firsthand—it’s not. It’s about security. It’s about protection. It’s about giving yourself multiple layers of safety when one part of your life breaks down, slows down, or falls apart completely.
This isn’t just a financial concept. It’s a life concept.
What happens when your job ends unexpectedly? What happens when your creative energy hits a wall? What happens when you face a mental health crisis and your usual coping strategy no longer works? What happens when the referrals stop coming, or the algorithm stops pushing your content, or your business just doesn’t perform like you planned?
Diversification isn’t just about thriving—it’s about surviving. And for me, it’s been the difference between growth and collapse, between movement and stagnation, between hope and burnout.
In this article, I’m pulling back the curtain on how I’ve applied diversification across every area of my life—from business and client acquisition, to content creation and mental health treatment. Whether you’re a creative, an entrepreneur, a working professional, or someone just trying to navigate life with a little more freedom and a little less chaos—this is for you.
I’m not just giving you strategies. I’m giving you the reality behind them. The stories, the failures, the breakdowns, and the breakthroughs.
Let’s talk about real layers of security. The kind that keep you standing when everything else gets shaky.
When people talk about having multiple streams of income, it often sounds like some trendy financial tip — like it’s just something entrepreneurs say to sound impressive. But I’ve got a completely different take on it, and I’ve learned this not from theory, but from lived experience.
Most people don’t actually care about having multiple streams of income.
But what everyone does care about — what everyone should care about — is security.
Security is what we’re really after. That’s the entire reason you diversify. Not because you want to chase ten businesses, or hustle from sunup to sundown, or juggle ten different paychecks. The reason you diversify is because life is unpredictable, and if everything you rely on collapses, you better have something else that’s still standing.
What Most People Get Wrong
People get this whole concept wrong because they think diversification only applies to income. But diversification is really about creating layers of protection around your livelihood, your mission, your well-being, and your future. It's about insulation, not hustle.
Entrepreneurship isn’t for everybody. Business ownership isn’t for everybody. And multiple income streams aren’t even desirable for everybody.
But multiple layers of security? That’s something everyone should want — and it’s something everyone can build, if they understand what it actually looks like.
So let me break it down.
Diversification Isn't Just Financial — It’s Structural
When I think about diversification, I don’t just think about income. I think about career structure, energy, mental bandwidth, how I acquire clients, how I create content, even how I approach my own mental health. There are so many areas of your life that require diversified infrastructure if you want real protection.
Here are a few categories I’ve learned to diversify — and how each of them adds a different layer of security to my life and business:
1. Diversifying Your Career
Almost 10 years ago, I started YouTube. At first, that was my only focus. I uploaded content, and that was it. I had no business infrastructure behind it. No community, no blog, no other monetization strategies. And at the time, I was still in the Marine Corps — so I thought I had career diversification.
But I didn’t. In fact, the military showed me how fragile career security really is.
I had one certification in the Marine Corps that made me incredibly valuable — I had leverage because I was the only one who could operate certain machinery. But because of that, I was locked into that one role. I didn’t get additional certifications. I didn’t diversify my skillset. And when my military contract ended early due to mental health reasons, I realized just how vulnerable I actually was.
Same thing happened again when I got a W2 job after the military. I climbed to the top of that company. I was excellent at my role. But I treated that job at face value — I didn’t use it to build partnerships, launch parallel businesses, or secure additional streams of growth. So when I outgrew that role, I had no other scaffolding beneath me.
It wasn’t until I started diversifying everything that real security came. Now, my finance agency isn’t just one business — it’s a full system.
I have agents and leaders building their own businesses under my umbrella.
I have partnerships across the finance world — estate planning attorneys, real estate professionals, insurance experts.
I have training systems, automated technology, and duplicatable processes that strengthen the entire ecosystem.
Same goes for my YouTube platform:
I have multiple channels, blogs, articles, content series.
I’ve built a full gaming and creative ecosystem.
I launched my Skool community for creators, artists, gamers, and entrepreneurs.
All of this adds layers of security that reinforce and strengthen the platform.
That’s career diversification. That’s what keeps things stable, even when one part is fluctuating.
2. Diversifying Your Hobbies — A Surprisingly Critical Layer of Security
Now, this might sound like a weird one to some people, but diversifying your hobbies is probably one of the most important and overlooked forms of security—especially when it comes to your creative identity. Most people don’t even think about hobbies that way. But I do.
Your creative identity is like a motor. It’s got to keep running. It needs rest sometimes, sure, but if you don’t keep it active—if you let it sit idle—it gets rusty, and eventually, it’ll burn out. And if you’ve got all your creativity tied to just one thing—one hobby, one outlet—what happens when you burn out there? You’ve got nowhere else to go. And that’s when you lose yourself.
I’ve seen it in myself, and I’ve seen it in other people too. When your creativity gets boxed in, you lose your spark. I start feeling like I can’t even pick up the camera. I don’t want to sing. I don’t want to write. I just shut down. And when that happens, it doesn’t just affect your hobbies—it affects your mental health. You start to feel depressed. You feel stuck. You start to believe that you’ve lost your passion entirely. But the truth is, you just haven’t given yourself other spaces to breathe creatively.
I see this happen to people who work too much and don’t make space for hobbies. They go to work, come home, sleep, and repeat. They live in this cycle where work becomes their entire identity. And they convince themselves that they love it. But if your job doesn’t allow you the space to love yourself—to have time to explore who you are—then you don’t actually love your job. You’re just tricking yourself into believing that the job is enough, when deep down, you’ve just forgotten what else you love.
That’s why I’m grateful to have built a career that allows me to explore the hobbies that matter to me. Because through that, I’ve rediscovered parts of myself I thought were long gone. I used to write a lot when I was a kid. I wrote novels, short stories—I always wanted to be an author. But once I started working, life got busy. I didn’t write anymore. That part of me faded out. Now, I’ve made it a priority again. Writing is one of the biggest hobbies that helps pull me out of a creative slump. It’s helped me reconnect to myself in a powerful way.
Same thing with singing. Same thing with reading the Bible—studying it, dissecting it, sitting with it. I didn’t know how much I loved those things until I gave myself space to actually explore them again. And that’s what keeps me grounded when things get tough.
That’s why, in my Gamer’s Freedom Formula Community and Academy, I talk about this all the time with creators, entrepreneurs, gamers, and professionals. I ask them to actually walk through a creative hobby exploration process:
Write down a list of ten hobbies. Not things you already do—but things you’ve always wanted to do. Stuff you used to enjoy. Stuff you think you’d love to try one day.
Pick one. Just one. Don’t overthink it. Don’t start disqualifying yourself from enjoying it. Just pick something.
Make a plan. Over the next few days, plan out how you’re going to actually try it. Whether it’s free or costs money, it doesn’t matter.
Go do it. Not later—now. Don’t wait for permission. Just go do it.
Reflect. How did it feel? Did it energize you? Did you learn something new about yourself? Did it make you feel more alive?
That’s what this is all about—building a life you actually enjoy living. Hobbies should be part of your identity. When you don’t have that, life gets flat. And you never know—one of those hobbies might become a new passion, a new career path, or a new stream of income. But even if it doesn’t, it’s still a layer of creative security. And that’s priceless.
3. Diversifying Your Client Acquisition — Building Consistent Security
When it comes to client acquisition for my finance business, most of my clients actually come through referrals—which is awesome. Referrals are some of the warmest markets and some of the best clients to close on. But the truth is, sometimes you might run dry on referrals, or it might just be a slow referral season. And that’s exactly why you need diversified client acquisition.
Now, this applies to any business. Most businesses usually have one really clear method to acquire clients:
Leads
Subscribers and hoping the algorithm catches them
Community-building
Paid ads
But if you’re relying solely on that one method, you’re exposed to risk.
When I first started, I only had that one path—referrals. But it was tough to build momentum when I didn’t have any referrals coming in. So I had to start learning other ways to build a client base:
Networking: This became one of my biggest strengths. When you network well, you find people who align with your values and goals, and they want to refer you to others. It’s relationship-building at its best.
Prospecting: I started reaching out and connecting with people directly, not waiting for them to come to me.
Cross-platform integration: I connected my YouTube channel to my finance agency. People who found me through my content would often become clients. Likewise, finance clients would discover my gaming or personal development content and feel more connected to me as a person.
Content marketing: Blogs, short-form videos, and my Skool community became additional pathways for people to find me, connect with my message, and enter my ecosystem.
Public speaking: I speak to audiences from totally different industries, and many times, they either become clients themselves or refer others.
Workshops & Strategy Sessions: These have been incredible ways to build trust and position myself as a resource. It naturally leads people to want to work with me.
By building and diversifying how I attract clients, I’ve eliminated the strategies I don’t enjoy:
No cold calls
No door knocking
No buying leads
I’ve built a system where I only engage in the types of client acquisition that I actually enjoy and that align with my identity.
That’s what diversifying your client acquisition is really about—creating consistent security and building a system that works for you, not against you.
4. Diversifying Your Content Creation — Strategic, Not Scattered
When it comes to diversifying your content creation, I want to start by saying this: It’s not about doing everything, it’s about doing things strategically. That’s the difference between scattered energy and structured growth.
I’ve seen so many people get pulled into the idea of “being everywhere.” But the truth is, you don’t need to post everywhere—you need to post with intention. Every platform serves a different purpose, just like every financial vehicle does. A 401k has its purpose. A Roth IRA has its purpose. A brokerage account, an annuity, an IUL—they all serve different roles in building wealth and security. Content creation is the exact same. Every platform has its own role in your long-term strategy.
You need to understand where your energy is most valuable. That’s determined by two things—what you’ve already mastered and what you still need to master.
So here’s how I approach it:
Start with a massive vision. Your social media presence should be guided by your long-term goals.
Create a plan of mastery. That doesn’t mean you master every platform at once. It means you pick one platform and go all in until you’ve truly understood it and built momentum there.
Focus 90% of your energy on mastering one platform. Yes, you can have other platforms slowly growing, but don’t try to grow five things at once. Master one first.
Momentum builds faster with people. The more people you gain, the more the algorithm pushes you. So it’s not linear. Master one platform and the others become easier.
Success compounds. If the first platform takes a year to master, the second might take nine months, the third six months, the next three months—and so on. You build faster because you’ve already built the systems, identity, and skills.
That’s what happened to me. I started with YouTube because it was the most familiar. I built it to monetization, and then I started expanding to shorts, blogs, articles, my Skool community, LinkedIn, podcasts, and even newsletters. But it didn’t all happen at once. I mastered one, then built from there.
What I see in people who try to do too much, too early, is this: they never build a clear identity. They burn out. They never really learn their audience. They post everywhere without learning the language of each platform. And without knowing your audience or your platform intimately, you’ll never scale properly.
It’s like money—if you invest everywhere without knowing the strategy behind each vehicle, you won’t see great returns. But if you master one vehicle, then expand with knowledge and intent, your growth will compound.
So here’s what content diversification looks like in my world:
I don’t just make YouTube videos anymore. I create articles that go on Reddit and blogs to support my videos.
I turn blog articles into multiple short-form videos and carousels.
I run podcast seasons that feed into my community and coaching content.
I repurpose training from my finance agency into content for blogs and shorts.
I turn modules from my Skool academies into TikToks and gaming content.
Sometimes, my starting point is a single long-form YouTube video. Sometimes it’s a blog post. Sometimes it’s a coaching session. But I’ve built an ecosystem where everything connects—and that’s what allows me to stay consistent without burning out.
And I’ve built a hub for it all—Reforge HQ. That’s the headquarters for everything: gaming, content, coaching, finance. So no matter where someone finds me, they can discover everything I do from one central place.
You also need to understand the difference between platform types. All content platforms fall into two categories: audience-based or community-based.
Audience platforms are one-directional. You post, people react. Think TikTok or Instagram.
Community platforms are interactive. You post, people engage, connect with each other, grow a shared space. Think LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Skool platforms, even Reddit when used correctly.
Some sit in both categories. YouTube, for example, can be both audience and community-based, depending on how you use it. Podcasts are usually more audience-based, but you can build community around them if you’re strategic.
So don’t just try to post on everything. Learn the role each platform plays in your vision. Learn who your audience avatar is. If you don’t know how to find your avatar, message me—I’ve got resources I’m happy to share.
Figure out where your audience is and start there. That’s your first domino. Master it. Build from it. Grow from there. That’s how content diversification actually works. Not by being scattered, but by being strategic.
5. Diversifying Mental Health Treatment — Building Inner Security
I think one of the biggest realizations I had about mental health was that, for the longest time, I was extremely hesitant about diversifying how I approached treatment.
I used to have a major issue with the idea of taking medication. I only wanted to go to therapy with a counselor—nothing else. Therapy is powerful. Having someone to meet with weekly or bi-weekly who can help coach you through challenges and offer tools is extremely valuable. But I learned the hard way—that’s not enough.
Because what about the moments when you’re not in that therapy session? When the tools your therapist gave you don’t work for a specific situation? When you can’t even get out of bed to make it to therapy? When you don’t have access to them and you’re stuck spiraling?
That’s where diversification in treatment became critical for me.
Initially, I was terrified. Terrified of taking medication. Terrified of trying things like acupuncture. Terrified of opening up to group therapy. I was even hesitant about using something as simple as the gym as part of my mental health strategy. I didn’t want accountability partners or support systems. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it. I just wanted to handle it on my own through therapy and keep everything else blocked out. But that mindset almost broke me.
Truthfully, I didn’t start diversifying my treatment by choice. It got to a point where I couldn’t function. My mental health completely collapsed.
Just like how people who don’t diversify their income or investments can lose everything in one moment, I lost everything internally—because I had no backup, no additional tools or layers of support to catch me when I fell. That led to hospitalization. That was my wake-up call.
And in the hospital, that’s where things changed:
I was put on medication.
I had to participate in group therapy and individual therapy.
They helped me face my eating disorder and body dysmorphia by making sure I was eating regularly.
We went outside for walks and time in nature. I didn’t know at the time, but those grounding activities were part of healing too.
They gave us support people—people we could lean on and connect with consistently.
I had a full team around me—my individual therapist, my counselor, my psychiatrist, my psychologist, and my support person.
They gave us structure: wake-up time, meal time, downtime, bedtime.
That structure became a major part of my healing.
When I got out of the hospital, I kept some of those things going. I added the gym into my routine. I tried to keep my eating habits somewhat consistent. I had a relapse after leaving, so it wasn’t a perfect journey. But all those things—those different treatments, people, tools, methods—became my safety net.
I wasn’t just relying on one tool anymore. I had a system, a structure, a diversified plan that I could lean on when one thing wasn’t enough.
Whether it was medication, therapy, accountability, journaling, support systems, grounding exercises, or physical activity—it was all part of the healing.
That’s what diversifying mental health treatment means to me. It’s about building inner security—not just reacting to crisis, but proactively creating a network of support and self-regulation strategies that protect your well-being long term.
It All Starts With Vision and Mastery
If you want to build these layers, here’s what I’ve learned from experience:
Start with a massive vision. Don’t think small. Aim beyond what feels realistic. That vision will be your compass.
Create a plan of mastery. Whatever your field or business is, build a roadmap to become exceptional in it.
Enact the plan. Work the plan with consistency and diligence.
Build strategic layers around it. Add new tools, relationships, revenue streams, content strategies — all connected to your core vision.
Connect everything back to your main mission. Don’t get scattered. Everything you diversify should build toward your central ecosystem.
That’s how I’ve done it. That’s how I’ve protected what I’ve built. That’s how I’ve grown — not just in income, but in identity, impact, and fulfillment.
And yeah — the multiple income streams are great too. But they’re just a byproduct of multiple layers of security.
Not the other way around.
Why Even Everyday W2 Workers Need to Diversify in Some Small Way
Now look — I know not everyone reading this is a business owner or entrepreneur. Some of you are full-time W2 workers with no interest in launching a business or building a brand, and I respect that. But I’ll say this plainly: even if you’re a full-time employee, you still need to be thinking about diversification — because your job is not a guarantee, no matter how secure it feels.
You don’t have to start a business tomorrow. You don’t need five side hustles. But you do need a layer of protection beyond your paycheck.
I’ve seen it over and over again — layoffs, department cuts, companies shutting down, contracts ending early. I lived through it in the military. I lived through it in my W2 job. And most people don’t realize how fragile it really is until it happens to them.
You need some kind of leverage outside of your employer. Something that helps you sleep at night knowing you’ve got something else working for you — whether it’s a skill you’re building, a side project you’re developing, a freelance service you can offer, or even just a small investment you’re learning to manage.
I’m not saying go build a business. I’m saying create a security net.
Maybe it’s renting out a room in your house for passive income.
Maybe it’s building a skill that gives you freelance income on the side.
Maybe it’s investing in something small that grows slowly over time.
Maybe it’s learning how to write, speak, teach, or build digital assets.
Start somewhere. Start small. But start.
Because if your entire livelihood is in one employer’s hands, you don’t own your time — and you don’t own your security.
And honestly, you don’t even have to do it for the money. You do it for the peace of mind.
Conclusion: Layers of Security, Not Just Streams of Income
By now, you’ve probably realized this wasn’t just another blog about money or business. This was about identity. It was about ownership. It was about power—the kind that comes from intentionally designing your life to be secure in every direction, not just financially.
What I’ve shared with you are the layers I’ve built over time. Not just because I wanted more income, but because I needed more stability. More grounding. More space to grow. I’ve had to learn through experience that if one area of my life breaks down, it shouldn’t take everything else with it. Whether that’s a business, a creative outlet, a job, a relationship, or even my own mental health.
And the truth is—most people never connect these dots. They never think about how their hobbies, their audience strategies, their mental health practices, their career diversification, or even their creative energy… all of it can either be a risk or a layer of security, depending on how you build it.
But if you’ve read this far, you’re not most people.
You’re someone who’s ready to think differently. Someone who’s willing to reframe the way you approach your growth—not just in your finances, but in your life.
So take a moment and really ask yourself: Where do I need more layers of security? What areas of my life am I still treating as single points of failure? Where have I been operating out of habit instead of intentional design?
I would genuinely love to hear what this brought up for you. Share your thoughts below. Which part hit hardest? Which perspective challenged you most? And what are you now thinking about differently because of this?
Because the real work begins when we start seeing our life not as separate pieces—but as an integrated, intentional system we’re building.
And if this blog helped you see things even one layer deeper—I’m grateful you’re here.
Let’s keep building.
End of Blog
