Anton Daniels

Anton Daniels is a serial entrepreneur, real estate mogul, and media personality who has amassed nearly 500,000 subscribers on YouTube. 

Born and raised in Detroit, Daniels grew up in a city that had its problems and distractions, but none of what he experienced firsthand seemed overly problematic.  

“All we knew was what we knew,” Daniels says.

“I had a strong family, and that’s probably what saved me, because things in Detroit were a lot worse than perhaps I had realized.” 

Sensing his son needed further discipline and structure, Daniels’s father enrolled him in a private catholic school in seventh and eighth grade, which served as a springboard for Daniels then attending one of the best public schools in The Motor City. 

After graduating, Daniels spent one semester at the University of Detroit Mercer.

“I then dropped out immediately because I realized it was too expensive,” Daniels says. 

“I wasn’t willing to take on all those student loans, so I paid for my semester and got a job with my brother at a steel plant.”

Right away, Daniels’s decision proved profitable because while employed at the steel plant he was earning great money, but he was also clocking sixteen-hour days, seven days per week. 

“I was making a lot of money,” concedes Daniels, who at 22 got married and soon after started a family. 

Later, he took advantage of a tuition reimbursement program offered by his employer and studied to become a software engineer. 

“But I soon realized that I didn’t want to just be a software engineer. I also wanted to level up and rise through the ranks of corporate America,” Daniels says.

To stand out among his peers, Daniels started creating video content, long before being visible online was popular. 

“With my videos, I would authentically document my journey and creatively use it as a marketing tool to make myself more appealing to employers,” he mentions. 

This strategy proved effective, the multitude of eyeballs consuming his content resulting in a gradual ascension of Corporate America.

“The content creation ultimately served two purposes,” Daniels begins. 

“Of course, it allowed me to distinguish myself among my competition for jobs, but it also enabled me to tell a story that people could one day look back on, namely my children.”

Like many successful entrepreneurs, when Daniels wasn’t occupied by conventional employment, he was pursuing entrepreneurship, which included breaking into the restaurant industry and leveraging social media to bring attention to his ventures. 

These endeavors, while ultimately successful for Daniels, drew the ire of upper management, who believed Daniels’s outside interests affected his ability to adequately perform his 9-5 job. 

“The very same thing [content creation] that got me recruited was the same thing that gave me problems,” says Daniels, noting how live-streaming or posting about an entrepreneurial breakthrough sometimes cultivated animosity with his employer.

“So I had to choose,” he says, and unsurprisingly, he bet on himself and that he would achieve sustained success on his own.

At the same time, Daniels harbors no resentment toward Corporate America for their approach to what he did outside normal business hours.

In fact, Daniels actively encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to continue to remain gainfully employed until their individual pursuits pan out. 

“It’s important to have multiple irons in the fire, but you don’t want to be in a position where you’re reliant upon one single source of income,” Daniels warns. 

“I look at it like this: it’s a three-tiered system. There are things you have to do today in order to earn money and put food on your table. There are things that you’re working on that may or may not become profitable in the future, and then there is the ten-year perspective.”

Adds Daniels: 

“Content creation was my ten-year plan because I saw the runway, that there was potential for the content to explode.” 

Since its inception in 2011, Daniels’s YouTube channel has accumulated over 160 million views, and while the numbers speak volumes, more importantly, the reason his content performs so well is because it is centered around giving back and helping others achieve their own success. 

Considering that much of the YouTube landscape is comprised of charlatans and self-anointed experts whose focus is on making money versus bringing value, Daniels is a net positive, a welcome reprieve from the toxicity permeating the algorithm. 

When asked why he continually produces content aimed at helping and giving back, Daniels is not shy about voicing his displeasure with the current paradigm, both online and offline.   

“Honestly, I think our culture is trash,” he asserts.  

“American culture became too woke. Black culture became too victim-oriented, where problems were always being blamed on someone else.”

A voice of reason in a media world that far too often disregards necessary truth in favor of political agenda, Daniels has always been willing to stand by his convictions, only now his voice has been amplified.

More crucially, his message is resonating, despite the best efforts of the mainstream to discount his perspectives. 

“With the content, I wanted to reach that segment of the population who has similar values as me, and remind them that it’s okay to want more for yourself,” Daniels explains. 

”Whether people want to admit it or not, we live in a great country, and I truly believe that if you’re willing to put in the work and bring value to people, then you will be compensated, and that’s the message I’ve always wanted to convey.” 

Appearances on Fox News and Dr. Phil have made Daniels more recognizable and further cemented his status as a media personality.

Never one to become complacent, his appearances on mega platforms are not the culmination of a job well done. 

Rather, they will serve as a launching pad for the next phase in the evolution of his media expansion.  

“Many people want visibility and opportunities, but not that many people are intentional about providing value,” Daniels says. 

“Meaning, you can get on a major platform like Fox, but if your goal is simply to go viral, then you will very quickly fade away and no longer be culturally relevant, so I’ve made a very concerted effort to capitalize on my opportunities, and make sure that I am building off of them as well.”

Once simply a kid from Detroit, Daniels is now on the precipice of something grandiose. 

“I think my media company is going to rival some of the large networks because we will have the best equipment and the best people,” says Daniels, who is investing heavily into this next iteration.

In other words, he’s all in. 

”I’m going to continue to bet on myself. I’ve been doing that my entire life and it’s served me well,” he says. 

For context, this year, as it relates to politics, Daniels garnered more views than anyone in the state of Michigan. 

“We averaged over 26 million views per month,” he points out, and that’s because he’s leading with value and intentionality, addressing issues that the political machines tactfully ignore.

Which begs the question:

Could we one day see the name Anton Daniels on a ballot?

“When I’m done building this media empire, and I have nothing more to accomplish in the space, I may transition in that direction [politics],” he admits. 

“Running for office crosses my mind every single day, and it’s something that internally I fight with myself on.” QS

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