It's September 24th, 2026. I'm Jerry Banfield, and this is my daily vlog as a full-time YouTuber, content creator, and single dad who's using YouTube like a dating app. I'm also a content creator who just had over $20,000 stolen from me in crypto this week, as I talked about in yesterday's vlog. And I'm feeling triumphant today. You can't steal my joy. You can't stop me. With all these attacks and crazy stuff going on, somebody just won the eBay auction for the shirt I wore when I met the queen, at $10,000. Let's see if they're going to pay up or not.
I'm feeling so triumphant today after the last couple of days. A lot of people would have felt utterly defeated and finished, but I rose like the phoenix, and I'm excited about what I have to share with you today. What's the most interesting thing? Well, it depends on what you think is interesting, so there are several things we're going to talk about here.
First, yesterday I mentioned that I might have to move in with my mom. I had that conversation with her, and I'll tell you how that went. Second, I'm doing a live stream with Ashley Cummings about an hour from when I'm filming this, and we're going to talk about dating in 2026. I'm super excited for that show with her. We've done a couple of live streams already and got into it a little bit, and I'm doing this one on my Jerry Banfield Dating channel.
Third, as a result of the conversation with my mom, I'm challenging myself to make $100,000 in 100 days. I'm going to talk about the thinking behind that on my Jerry Banfield Money channel; that'll be the video there. Then I'll talk about the business aspects of it on my Jerry Banfield Creators channel. And on my Jerry Banfield Tech channel, I'll talk about how ICP is essential tech to power all of it.
It's amazing how I got wrecked in so many ways this week, getting hacked and losing all that money, and at the same time things are going awesome. I'm resilient, and I'm proud of that. I'm very grateful for everybody who loves me and supports me, like my kids and my mom and all of you online, like Ashley. And I'm really excited about having four fully monetized YouTube channels. So thank you so much for joining me today, and I'll see you in the conversation with Ashley.
Rewinding to the Hardest Couple of Days
I'm going to rewind a bit. Yesterday, when I filmed my video about how I got hacked for $20,000 and might have to move in with my mom, that came after a couple of challenging days. Before I lost the $20,000 in crypto, I was already aware I was getting hacked, and I was spending so much time on it. I love filming videos. What I'm not a big fan of is sitting there desperately trying to take full control of my life again: taking full control of my Google accounts and locking out the people trying to steal from me. That meant hours sitting at my computer doing two-factor, changing passwords, and going through to find every attack vector and secure myself instead of filming videos.
And then I show up for my kids. Last night I went to my son's baseball game, which was fun, and I'll talk about that in a minute. So it's been a couple of days of feeling like I wasn't getting to do what I do best. I'm glad I got time to do what I do best today, and I'm setting things up so I can do what I do better every day.
So let's rewind. Right after I filmed that video yesterday, I was very grateful to have had the chance. Just talking about something is super helpful, even if it's only on camera and I'm imagining that people will listen. And I'm grateful to see in my analytics today that it's the number one video, by more than double, out of any of the videos I've done lately. You all are really vibing with that.
I appreciate that so many people reached out and said, "I'm sorry about that. That sucks. Let me know how I can help." The MaxFi team was exceptional, and I'm going to keep collaborating with them indefinitely. When something difficult happens, you can really see who's there for you and who's not. I'm grateful to see who showed up and stayed consistent: of course my kids, but also my mom. My ex was empathetic too. I told her, "Look, I might need to move in with my mom, who's across the street from you," and I explained the whole situation to her.
So many people messaged me, and nobody has left me behind either. The MaxFi team rallied the whole Discord server to stop attacking me and stop thinking I stole my own coin, which would be insane and totally counterproductive. Ashley is continuing to show up and do more live streams with me.
And one woman emailed me. If you want to do the same, I made it easier: you can just email me an intro video saying, "Hi, Jerry, it's me, this is my name," so I know you're real. Most of the forms people submitted were trolls, so I just got rid of the forms. I only reached out to one woman, and she's a real woman, which is nice. She sent me a video, I'm texting her now, and I've really been enjoying that.
It took me hours yesterday to switch out all my stuff and make sure I had full control of my website. So I did that. Then I picked my son up from school and worked while he played video games. Then my daughter came home and we went to my son's baseball game.
The Baseball Game and Not Being on the Prowl
At my son's baseball game, I was still paying attention and being friendly, but it was nice not to go there on the prowl for single moms. At the same time, I still started conversations and I keep my eyes open. I'm just not looking to approach anybody locally anymore, because I'm tired of telling real people, ordinary people who don't watch me on YouTube, about what I do on YouTube and then getting ghosted or not feeling the chemistry after that.
What I do on YouTube is appreciated by a small percentage of women who are like, "Wow, this guy is truly amazing." For some reason, the majority don't seem that interested and are put off by it, which is okay. It means I don't have to go around trying to pick women up all the time, because the odds of them being down with my YouTube are probably pretty small at this point. So I don't even have to waste my time, which is nice.
So I went to the baseball game yesterday. I sat with my daughter while she was on her iPad, and I watched my son do batting practice and the whole thing. I had filmed yesterday's vlog while my son was sitting right next to me playing Roblox. Afterwards, since I literally hadn't said any of this to him, he said, "Dad, are we going to need to move in with Grandma?" I said, "I don't know, son, but it's time to ask her if that's okay." He told my daughter as soon as she got home, so they were both already asking me about it. I talked to my ex-wife too. And I was building up to having this conversation with my mom.
I'm thinking, oh boy, isn't it nice when your 42-year-old son says, "Mom, can I move in and have the kids here half the time?" I haven't lived with my mom since I was 17. That's, yeah, a long time. What I'm glad about is that I didn't get all sad about the story. It's not sad for a 42-year-old man to move in with his mom unless you have some idea of success and living properly that makes it sad. There's no objective reality in which that's sad. That's a story, and it's a story I'm not interested in telling, because there are lots of other stories you could tell.
So I'm at the baseball game. My son has rapidly improved at batting. He gets a nice hit and gets himself on first base. There's a mom next to me with no ring on, so I'm at least throwing out some probing conversation. We're not going with the direct approach anymore unless a woman stops, makes eye contact, and makes it super obvious. So I'm just throwing out little stuff. Then I see a picture on her phone of a guy she's snuggled up to, and I'm like, all right, probably not single with that picture.
I'm keeping my eyes open, but I'm not asking anybody else if they're single unless it's super obvious. By default, I'm not going to be approaching. I will be paying attention, throwing out conversation, and seeing what happens.
Opposite Bleachers
Then I see my ex. I'm sitting in the bleachers next to my daughter because she posted up in the closest ones, and apparently those are the other team's bleachers. But my daughter doesn't want to move, and I don't bother asking her to. My ex goes and sits in the other bleachers.
You could think that's sad: two people who were together 15 years, who have all these memories and are co-parenting, now sitting in opposite bleachers. I also could think it's simple, because I can just sit there and watch the game and I don't have to worry about talking to my ex about anything. At this point she's got a new boyfriend, she's all into him, and she just wants some space from me. So that's fine. That's easier. And my daughter doesn't care about sitting next to her mom either. So much of life is not painful as long as you don't make up some story about why it's wrong.
The Conversation With My Mom
So we're sitting there, and I'm building up this whole time to the conversation with my mom. I'm thinking, I can't believe I'll be asking my mom if I can move in. I threw the idea out a month or two ago, and she was pretty toxic about it.
I get the kids in the car, and since her house is on the way home from the game, I call my mom and say, "Hey, can we stop by?" She hasn't been coming over because her dog isn't feeling well. So she comes out, and it's like she can tell. My mom is very psychic, very perceptive. She can tell something's going on, which makes sense after I got all that money stolen yesterday. It's not surprising. She asks, "How are you doing today?"
I say, "Well, see, Mom, I was thinking. Look at my $90,000 in credit card debt and my $2,000 a month in minimum payments on all my debts combined. Then factor in that I need to make $5,000 a month just to pay for this house before taxes." The house itself is $2,700 a month. The electric bill is $300 a month because the air just flows out of this place, and I let this 800-watt computer run all the time during the day.
So the power just drains out of this house. Then you throw in utilities and other stuff, and it gets close to $3,500 a month. Taxes knock out at least $1,500 or so on top of that if I actually make a profit. So in my situation, I easily need to make $5,000 a month just to pay for this house by itself, and I could eliminate the need to make that money if I moved in with my mother.
So I asked my mother. I proposed all of this to her, and she's actually not that opposed. She's doubtful that I can live with her rules and be tolerant of her. I said, "Mom, for $5,000 a month, I'll live with your rules. It's your house. You own it. I will live with your rules and be tolerant of you for $5,000 a month in money I don't have to make. I will deal with your house for $5,000 a month, and I'll happily do it. I'll think of you as my one client who pays me $5,000 a month, and I'll do my part to earn that and tolerate you. Don't worry about that."
My mom actually seemed not that opposed to it, and open. I was like, great. At some point I cried a little bit talking to her. I cried with my kids going home too. They said, "We love Grandma, and we certainly would live at Grandma's house. But Dad, we love this house, and we'd prefer to stay here." And I said, "Me too. I love this house, and I would prefer to stay here also."
Then I had a great night with my kids at the house. I made them kale chips. They showered. They played video games. And I thought, I love having my own house. I love this neighborhood. I love where I'm at now, and I want to stay here. I'll do what it takes to stay here. So come on, mind. Figure out what you need to do to stay here. I put that in my head going to sleep.
From Backup Plan to a Bigger Goal
I woke up this morning thinking, well, what if I could make it work? I had told my mom, "If I could make $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 in the next two months or so, I wouldn't need to move in with you." I'm looking into the future. Right now is the time to make sure I have a backup plan, somewhere I could live if I need to, and it looks like I could live with my mom if I needed to. But I still have at least two months, because I have to stay here until the end of December for my lease, and then it's month to month after that.
I have enough cash on hand, at least $20,000, to pay the rent and keep paying everything without having to borrow much, if any, more. So I certainly could make $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 in the next couple of months, and that would be enough to put off moving in with my mom. Moving in with my mom would be a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of effort, and then I couldn't put that energy into making money.
And that shirt on eBay: somebody bid $10,000 for it, and it just sold. Let's see if they pay. I do recognize the name of the person who bought it, so it could be a legitimate offer. So literally, my eBay sales could possibly make that much money by themselves just from selling two shirts. If the person doesn't pay, I still could bring in some income. But I started thinking, you need a better plan than trying to sell the shirt you met the queen in, the outfit you went to the club in, and the shirt you wore on one of these podcasts. I think I need a better business plan than this.
So I started thinking, what if I could make $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 in 100 days? If I can make $10,000 or $20,000 at least, and ideally $30,000, in the next 100 days, I could easily stay in the house I'm in and pay all my bills. Basically, if I can make $10,000 a month, I can easily cover all my debt payments, my rent, and the rest of my expenses.
That's especially true for me this year, because I've spent so much more money in my business than I made, so in my own situation I don't expect to owe much tax. Some of the money I borrowed is because I spent it in my business, so I've got tens of thousands I can make before I even have to pay tax. That's just my own circumstances, not tax advice for anyone else. So if I can make $30,000 by the end of the year, I'll be good. I don't have to move, and I can put off moving. I figure it's always better to put off moving into my mom's house until later if possible.
$100,000 in 100 Days
But then I started thinking, well, if I can make $30,000 in 100 days, why don't I set the goal to make $100,000 in 100 days? So that's my new goal. I want to see if I can make $100,000 in the next 100 days, and I'm open to however that could come, as long as it's joyful. I don't want to get hit by a car and get a lawsuit or anything like that. I'm not interested in any more hurricanes and flood insurance and all that stuff. Not interested in any of that. I don't want anybody to get hurt.
I want to make $100,000 in my business in the next 100 days in a way that's ultra sustainable, where in theory I could make $300,000 in 2027 doing the exact same things. What's been really cool about setting this goal is that my mind has started running the calculations it needs to. I figure if I aim for $100,000 in 100 days and miss by 70%, there's a very good chance I still make $30,000 in 100 days.
So instead of making this an ultra-long vlog that goes into all of that, I'm going to stop the 100-day part here, because I've covered it, and I'll mention one more thing in this vlog. On my Jerry Banfield Money channel, which is combined money and tech on X but on YouTube is Jerry Banfield Money, I'm going to go into the details of $100K in 100 days: the money thinking and the money calculations behind it. Then on my Jerry Banfield for Creators channel on YouTube, I'm going to break down the exact business details of it for content creators. So if you want to hear all of this thinking, there will be two more videos on my other channels you can watch.
And on my Jerry Banfield Tech channel, I'll break down why it's necessary to have ICP involved in this entire process. ICP will be the foundation of the infrastructure I can use to print this and make it sustainable.
Back to Yoga
The last thing I'll mention for the vlog this morning: I was thinking about what I was going to do for exercise. My lower back had been getting stiff. I used to have a lot of back pain, and over the last six years, yoga and massage have been huge for me in eliminating the back pain I used to experience. I'd done one yoga class this week, and I thought, there's another yoga class at a great time, I'm going to jump in. It's like twenty-some dollars to drop in, and I thought, why don't I just get a membership at another yoga studio?
There's another yoga studio I like, which I'm damn sure not going to mention publicly, and thankfully there are a bunch of yoga studios all over St. Petersburg, Florida. So I have another yoga studio I like, and I got a membership there. At the same time, I was going to yoga at the last two studios too much. I only need maybe one to three or four yoga classes a week. I don't need to go to yoga seven days a week, and I don't need to go there trying to pick up and approach a woman. It's nice to go to yoga and just think, I need the exercise, I need the stretch. While I can do some stretches at home, I don't do a full hour-long flow to really get everything done there. And there's something magical about doing it in person with other people.
So I had a really nice yoga class this morning, and I'm grateful I got another yoga studio. At the same time, running at least three miles once or twice a week is something I'm going to keep doing too. But I figured that doing tennis yesterday, running today, and tennis again tomorrow would set me up for more low back pain. Whereas if I do tennis yesterday, yoga today, and tennis tomorrow, the odds of my lower back feeling better are much higher. Sure enough, all that yoga today was very helpful for my lower back in my experience. I got a good sweat in too, and it helps the energy flow really well through my body. Combined with massage and all the other stuff I do, it really helps me.
Ashley Cummings is big into yoga. She's owned yoga studios, she's a yoga instructor, and she teaches others how to be yoga instructors. She talked a lot with me about yoga, so she's been a big part of getting me back into it. She sent me all these yoga videos she's done, and I thought, all right, it's a sign, a very clear sign from the universe: don't give up on your yoga practice just because things didn't go well at one yoga studio.
Building Everything on My Own Website
I'm going to build all of this up using AI into the best business system: a complete social network. All the products and everything you could want from me will be directly on my website, without having to go to eBay or Skool or all these other third-party platforms. I'm going to build everything directly on my website, and that's going to help me print a lot of money, give a lot more value, and be a better business system. If you want to keep following along with how this 100-day challenge unfolds day by day, it'll all be in my Daily Vlogs playlist.
I'm going to record the $100K in 100 days video next. And if you missed the dating live stream with Ashley, I invite you to go back to Jerry Banfield Dating and watch that live stream. I think it's going to be fantastic.