- Over the weekend, YouTuber Jake Paul launched an online platform designed to teach "young adults" practical skills outside of a typical education and how to monetize their creative pursuits.
- The launch event for the $20-a-month platform, called the Financial Freedom Movement, featured cannons shooting $1 dollar bills into the crowd and a meet-and-greet with Paul, who was reportedly "casually double-fisting different flavors of White Claw."
- However, the new platform draws similarities to a project Paul attempted two years ago, Edfluence, which has since went defunct.
- Edfluence was a series of educational courses designed to teach people how to become social media famous. It cost users $64 to take advantage of all its perks, and teased a chance to become a part of "Team 1000," an offshoot of Paul's Team 10 creator squad.
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Controversial creator Jake Paul is turning to his young fanbase to help launch an online course on how to be social media famous for the second time in two years.
Paul, 23, has launched the Financial Freedom Movement, an online platform offering an education from Paul and other influencers on how to monetize their creative interests. For $20 a month, Paul tells young adults they can be "financially free from the 'societal cookie cutter life' 9-5 jobs we are all told to have."
With more than 20 million YouTube subscribers, Paul has garnered millions of fans and attracted notorious fame over his eight-year online career. Paul's "Financial Freedom Movement" is undeniably targeted at his younger fanbase, and its website even includes a template for a letter for parents whose kids want funds to "invest" in Paul's course.
The launch of Paul's new platform was celebrated with a wild event over the weekend hosted at a California outdoor paintball arena, Variety reports. The event included Paul and his friends reportedly shooting $1 dollar bills out of money guns into the crowd of teens, as well as the YouTuber double-fisting White Claw hard seltzers. Attendees at the event were invited to create picket signs and "rally" alongside Paul against college debt.
"I'm sick of our education system and how it's teaching kids 0 real life skills for them to secure there (sic) on future," Paul wrote on Twitter the day of the launch. "I'm creating a movement for everyone who wants to take life into their own hands and learn real life skills from actual professionals."
It's unclear how extensive the series of education videos are, although the website teases videos from influencers and "top millionaire instructors," many who appear on YouTube doing entrepreneurship seminars and motivational speeches. The website also says users get "weekly coaching calls" with Paul, and teases a "top prize" of flying out to film a vlog with Paul and his creator squad.
Paul never completed high school; he dropped out before his senior year to move out to Los Angeles with his older brother, Logan Paul, to pursue a career that was just taking off on now-defunct app Vine. However, this isn't the first time that the younger Paul brother has tried to capitalize on his stunted education to sell instructional courses to fans.
It's only been two years since Paul launched Edfluence, a series of videos teaching fans "how to be social media famous." Paul promised to teach users "things that have taken me years to master" for just $7 — then an additional $57 to actually unlock all 74 videos in the course. The $64 fee also gave users entry into "Team 1000," seemingly an offshoot of Paul's collab group of creators called Team 10.
It's unclear whether Paul's "Financial Freedom Movement" will garner any more success than Edfluence, whose website no longer exists.
Just two months into 2020, Paul has already had an eventful year. Following in the highly publicized steps of his older brother Logan, Paul took on YouTube gamer AnEnsonGib in a boxing match in January and was handed the victory midway through the first round. Days before the new year, Paul and YouTuber Tana Mongeau announced they were "taking a break" after a nine-month whirlwind relationship and a $500,000 Las Vegas wedding.
Paul is also no stranger to controversy. He's been accused of turning his Los Angeles neighborhood into a "living hell", and he was fired from a leading role in a Disney channel show. The collective of creators he runs, Team 10, is a constant source of drama from former members who leave with stories to tell.
"The Paul family is sort of notorious," Paul told Business Insider earlier this year. "Everyone wants to see the big bad wolves fall."
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