A YouTube financial adviser with a net worth of $1.7 million, according to his bio, has added another million to the pile, compliments of Elon Musk.
Joshua Mayo, from North Carolina, was awarded an oversized check from the world’s richest man earlier this week. The Tesla founder and StarLink CEO is giving away $1 million daily to a swing state resident (Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin or North Carolina) who signs his America PAC petition supporting free speech and the right to bear firearms.
“I did everything Elon Musk asked. I signed the petition, I referred my friends and family, and because of that, I earned $1 million,” Mayo said in a video posted on the Musk-owned social media platform, X.
In his LinkedIn bio, Mayo, who dropped out of college in his senior year, credits his self-education through self-help literature.
“I read ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People,’ ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad,’ ‘As a Man Thinketh,’ he’s quoted in his LinkedIn bio. “I bought this box of little set of books – and one of the books inside the box was titled ‘The Way to Wealth’ by Benjamin Franklin.”
Mayo says he earned $40,000 as a web developer, bought a new house and cleared $10,000 off his credit card debt. He then started his YouTube channel, which now has 836,000 subscribers.
Personal finance videos can be lucrative, as advertisers tend to view their audience as more valuable than the typical YouTuber. Mayo made more than $55,000 monthly from Google advertising.
He was still emotional when discussing the million-dollar prize.
“I just never imagined in a million years that this would happen to me,” said Mayo, who has a wife and three kids. “This is going to help my family so much to fulfill our dreams.”
He said he signed the petition to ensure his children “grow up in an America where they don’t lose their basic rights, their basic freedoms. It’s an America that me and my wife and I grew up in.”
But more than the money, Mayo said he appreciated how Musk “is willing to put himself out there to risk everything he’s built over his entire career.”
“He’s willing to put all of that on the line to protect seemingly basic rights in America,” Mayo said. “And I say, thank you, Elon Musk.”
It all seems a little too perfect for skeptics on X.
“Him saying, ‘this is going to change my life’ and nearly in tears is weird considering he’s doing so well for himself. Something pretty strange going on here,” said one commenter.
Mayo is indeed a marketer’s dream: Early 30s, three kids, upper middle class, attractive, aspirational.
“Propaganda works for all..it’s welldone marketing,” said another.
Calling it an “illegal lottery,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner filed a lawsuit against Musk’s America PAC on Monday, Oct. 28.
Krasner accused Musk of interfering in the election by giving away $1 million a day.
Krasner asked a judge to immediately halt the giveaway on Monday. The case was moved to federal court at a hearing Thursday in Philadelphia.
Musk ignored the judge’s order to attend the hearing.
The million-dollar giveaway continues.
