Skip to content Prosperity & Liberty: How Russell Gray Is Rewriting American Capitalism Feb 4 · 42 min ...more
Prosperity & Liberty: How Russell Gray Is Rewriting American Capitalism
February 4, 2026 · 42 min
Russell Gray shares his journey as a Main Street capitalist, highlighting financial literacy, local investing, Main Street Media, and his mission to support purpose-driven Christian entrepreneurs.
Series Russell Gray Everywhere
The Christian Capitalist Show inspires and equips individuals to express their God-given purpose through enterprise and stewardship powered by faith, fellowship, and balance.
February 4, 2026 · 42 min · Russell Gray Everywhere
Russell Gray shares his journey as a Main Street capitalist, highlighting financial literacy, local investing, Main Street Media, and his mission to support purpose-driven Christian entrepreneurs. ...more Show the full description Show less Russell Gray shares his journey as a Main Street capitalist, highlighting financial literacy, local investing, Main Street Media, and his mission to support purpose-driven Christian entrepreneurs.
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In this video 0:00 Introduction to Main Street Capitalism and Financial Literacy for Families9:41 The Layers of Freedom: From Financial to Spiritual22:51 Building Main Street Media and Integrating Faith with Business
Introduction to Main Street Capitalism and Financial Literacy for Families 0:00 Hi. This is Robert Kiyosaki, and you're listening to Capital Hacking. This is the most important thing you can listen to today.0:09 It's the wall. I have a dream.0:11 With great power comes great responsibility.0:14 I could do this all day. Zit. Don't get scared now. Let me take our way, but they'll never take both freedom.0:22 Should you run a story out of nowhere?0:25 Did you know that the only thing we have to hear is hear itself?0:38 Welcome back to the big show. Josh McKellen here trying to keep up with the world famous John Edwin. How are you doing, John Edwin?0:44 I am doing fantastic, and I am absolutely blown away by that interview with Russell Gray. Josh, he talks all about different areas of freedom in our lives. And I was0:57 so, so grateful how he explains financial freedom actually as 1 of the lowest types of freedom.1:04 Yeah. Well, look. He he digs in. He says, hey. If you love America, he doesn't exactly say it this way. But if you love America, then we owe something to those founding fathers that remember, when they signed those1:15 documents like declaration of independence, he didn't go into any of this. But remember, they were literally willing to die. Because if you were to say, I'm gonna fight the government, then the government would know your
1:25 name, and they know where you live because you're the richest guy in Philadelphia, you're the richest guy in Virginia, you're George Washington. After we did 1 battle and lost, let's say, they would have just shown up at
1:36 the house and killed you. So those family fathers really believed what they were trying to say, it seems to me. And he's trying to say he believes what he's teaching, and that is capitalism is for good. That's my
1:48 simple definition of what he's trying to say. Capitalism is sometimes misinterpreted, misunderstood, but at the end of the day, it's a it's seeking good. And, man, that plus his teaching on freedom oh, and by the
2:00 way, how about his direct method
2:02 that he teaches about creating the Main Street Media Network? And have you heard the word Main Street more often in a podcast ever in your life?
2:11 It was a master class on Main Street and capitalism, and you do not wanna miss this.
2:17 Amen, brother. We'll talk to you guys soon.
2:19 Let's go.
2:20 I'm excited to have Russ Gray here. Probably his third, if not his fourth appearance as an alumnus. Right, John?
2:26 It's a total honor. Russell, can you give our listeners a little background on who you are?
2:30 Well, I'm an old man, so the background is long. But I've been a Main Street capitalist my whole life. I decided not to go to college. I was too impatient. I was fortunate enough to be mentored in outside
2:42 sales right out of the gate. Had a couple of older mentors then teach me how to start a business. And and once I had experienced that, I was the beneficiary of learning sales, the value of mentorship.
2:54 I discovered equity. I realized that I could compete in the adult world even though I was a teenager. And so that kinda got me going. I had some success, but then I also had a lot of failures. Most
3:06 of them were moral failures. And so I had a kind of, come to Jesus moment literally in my early twenties, and that cleaned me up a little bit. Married a great woman. We were together for 41 years since she died in my arm
3:18 6 years ago last Saturday. And, you know, you learn a lot when you go through that, all that coulda, woulda, shoulda. God had to forgive me, or had to let me help me forgive myself for that. The good news
3:30 is I'm got a new lady in my life, and life is wonderful. Along the way, you know, raising children and grandchildren, just had my seventeenth grandchild on on, Thanksgiving Day,
3:42 actually. A lot to be thankful for. And so I think a lot more like a founding father today. And so I've always been a big believer that humanity is organized primarily around economics and that
3:54 policy is designed to regulate human economic activity. And a lot of times what happens is when you have people who are making policy, whether they're voters or politicians who don't have a strong economic
4:06 education. They mean well, but they create real problems. And so I'm a big proponent of financial education. I think I'm very bullish on Main Street right now. I've taught syndicators. That's a big part of what I've
4:18 done. I've been in the financial podcasting game for a very, very long time. I'm believer that right now we have an opportunity to take back the main street narrative and really help people take back main street fully.
4:30 I'm not a fan of Wall Street. I could go on a major rant about that, but I I I'm just a big believer in main street, investing in main street, main street, empowering main street. And I think that anybody that
4:42 is in that camp, I want to help. And so I left the real estate guys radio show after 20 years, about 20 months ago, Started a foundation called the Raising Capitalist Foundation, which is about bringing the gospel, if
4:53 you will, of main street capitalism to young people through their parents and helping them understand the value and opportunities they have in today's marketplace. And and then I've got a media network that
5:05 I just started, a couple new podcasts. I've launched podcasters that I'm helping mentor and a bunch of things I got going on. So I'm excited. I feel like a very young man in startup mode on multiple fronts and excited to
5:17 be with you guys today.
5:19 Well, that was a lot, Josh. And, there's so many strings we can pull. 1 of the things that and by the way, Russell, your excitement is is contagious. 1 of the things I would
5:31 ask for our listeners, because I think our our average listeners probably have young kids, is and you probably sum it up a lot in your podcast already, but what is something you would teach parents to teach
5:42 their kids about financial literacy?
5:45 Very good. Hey, everybody. It's Robert Helmsos of the Real Estate Guys radio program. And when you're not listening to our show, make sure you're tuned to Capital Hacking. You're gonna take
5:54 So the old adage money doesn't grow on trees. In other words, first of all, what money is and what money isn't. And I think that in and of itself is a difficult concept. It's not just a matter of gold and silver is money
6:06 and paper is not. It's deeper than that. It's money is the store of contribution. So if you get up and you do work and you actually create something, provide a service and you get compensated
6:18 for that, that compensation, whatever it's denominated in is something that was derived from an exchange of value. And so money comes into existence when
6:30 you're productive. It doesn't grow on trees. And so if you want to have money, you need to make money. And how do you make money? You create value. How do you create value by being of service to other
6:41 people? And so that basic premise of productivity, you look at scripture from the very beginning. God created man. The first thing he said was be fruitful and multiply. Right? That was the first thing. Like, be fruitful.
6:53 Be productive. I think we're called upon to be productive. We were created to be productive. And unfortunately, our educational system in many ways has hijacked
7:05 the the natural development of young people taken out of the homes and taken them out of the family businesses and really has conditioned them to believe that everything that they need to have in life
7:17 should be provided by somebody else. And that somehow they have a right to that. And it's a very subtle mind shift, but it results in ideas that everything that you need should be subsidized or provided by government.
7:29 When you start going down that extremely slippery slope
7:32 Yeah.
7:33 You end up in a in a totalitarian situation because the people who control the distribution of goods and services literally have control over life or death. And we're right now in society at a place where our young
7:44 people, they're high school freshmen right now, they're gonna be voting for your next president, your next congressman, your next senator, whether you have children or not. When you sail off into your golden years, these
7:54 kids are gonna be deciding what policies are gonna dictate how much of your wealth you get to keep, what different types of things and people you need to subsidize with the wealth that you earned.
8:06 And your voice is literally taken away from you, and it's very disempowering. It's it's antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for and created. And I think that our educational system is robbing children
8:18 of that. But they don't care about history. They don't care about philosophy. They don't care about morality. What kids wanna do is they just wanna have money. They just wanna make money. Meet them where they're at.
8:30 Teach them how they can get to the money that they want by allowing them to participate in the productive economy. Start a business and put your kids to work. The parents are the only ones that can do that.
8:41 Dang, dude. John, thank you for starting off in a way. That's the salient message that Russ, to be candid, you've dedicated the rest of your life to. You know? It it the way you've rebooted your life over the last few
8:53 years, you feel this is the calling you have on your heart. And I'll never forget the quote you said a few minute ago, and it's it's left an indelible mark on my mind. You believe you are sitting and feeling
9:05 what the founding fathers felt. So you're talking about the US government founding fathers when you say founding fathers. Right? You're saying I feel like what they felt, or do you mean some other thing?
9:13 I just wanna make sure I understood. Yeah. Hundred percent. I mean, I got the founding fathers behind me, the Statue of Liberty, the Bill of Rights. I got the Declaration of Independence right there. The constitution's
9:22 behind the plant. This is very, very important, and people don't understand. People have come to me for decades wanting to be free. But they don't know that. They come in and I wanna be rich. Well, my question is, what
9:33 do you wanna be rich for? Well, I wanna be able to come and go as I please. I wanna be able to do what I want. I want I I don't wanna have to have a boss. So, really, what you want is to be free. If you could be free
The Layers of Freedom: From Financial to Spiritual
9:44 without the money, would you take it? Of course. But in our society, we feel like if we have money, we have freedom. But financial freedom is the lowest level of freedoms. The next level up is political freedom because
9:55 if you have money but you don't have the freedom we experienced some of that in COVID. We had money, but we weren't allowed to travel. We weren't allowed to congregate. And then pretty soon, we found out we couldn't even
10:05 speak our own mind. If we disagreed with government policy, we were branded Amen. Some type of a heretic, and it was unfairly distributed. I mean, it's it's like conspiracy theory that big boxes in a parking lot were
10:16 allowed to keep their business open while a small mom and pop Main Street capitalist business next door, same exact business, was told it was unsafe for them to have their doors open. I mean, the double standard was so
10:27 blatant and egregious. I think it woke a lot of people up. So that's political freedom. But ultimately, John Adams, 1 of our founding fathers, wrote that our constitution was designed for a moral and religious
10:39 people and is wholly inadequate for anybody else. And so if you really look at the history of the United States of America and the system of government that we take for granted
10:50 Right.
10:50 The right to have property, the right to speak our mind, the right to contract and do what we please. Right? Come and go as we please. We take those rights for granted, like air and oxygen, you know, and and gravity. But
11:01 our founding fathers, if you really look back, it started with the pilgrims wanting to be spiritually free. That was the first freedom, the foundational freedom. And can you imagine
11:13 feeling so strongly about that? You're gonna take your wife and kids, Josh. You you and your 10 kids or however many kids you have. My 10
11:19 kids. I got 10 kids. Go on.
11:20 You're good. You're gonna you're gonna stick them in a rickety old wooden boat and sail off into this big puddle of water called the Atlantic Ocean. No idea what's on the other end of that because some dude named
11:31 Columbus said, yeah. I I did that, and I ran into a piece of dirt, and there's opportunity over there. Like, okay. You know what? I don't know what that is, but it's gotta be better than this. That's how desperate they
11:40 were. And And so they got in those they got in those boats, and they sailed over here. And then they they landed in extreme circumstances, the Jamestown settlement. If you read that Plentist Rock settlement, the diary of
11:51 William Bradford, the the governor of that settlement, they tried communism. They loaded everybody up. They said, okay. We're you know, everybody's gonna work and everybody's gonna eat. You know? So everybody's gonna do
12:02 what they can. Everybody's gonna take what they need. It didn't end well. And so what he said is, okay. New plan. Right? McAllen, that's your your property over there. Farm it or you starve. Right, Edwin? That's your
12:12 property over there. You're great. That's yours. And funny thing happened. Now everybody woke up. Just like the Bible says, the hunger drives a laborer on. Right? They got up and they worked. Well, they created more than
12:22 enough for their family. And so now with everybody creating more than enough for their family, they created abundance. That was the first really experiment in the in in the Americas, at least in, you know, the way we
12:33 look at the Americas, trying socialism and communism versus capitalism. Right? When everybody was responsible for their own outcome. And you can read his diary. The William Bradford settlement, read his diary. Right? So
12:44 so then when they got a chance, they got to be strong enough to attract the attention of the monarchy. The monarchy wanted to begin to harvest the the fruits of their labor. And they're like, hey. Hey. No. No. No. No.
12:56 No. You know, taxation without representation, that's tyranny. So they fought a war to get political freedom. So it went from spiritual freedom, which brought them here to political freedom. And when they set up the our
13:07 our constitution, they created a decentralized government. Decentralization is a major megatrend that's driving Bitcoin. It's driving 9 digit barrage. It's driving
13:19 the rise of gold and people pushing back all across the globe with the bricks and dedollarization. It's it's driving Donald Trump. Right? What's going on this rise of populism to
13:30 a large degree, sadly, even the rise of socialism is really driven by this desire for people to get the tyrants off their neck. And and what's happened is Main Street's become
13:42 divided, and so we think it's blue versus red or conservative versus liberal or Democrat versus Republican. It's not that. It's Main Street versus the monopolies. That's what it is. And so the answer
13:54 for all of us
13:55 John Manning. It's that's the
13:56 truth.
13:56 Yeah, ma'am. The answer for all of us is to become purpose driven Main Street capitalist to teach our children how to become productive human beings and where money comes from. And then understanding
14:09 that proper commerce, moral commerce, godly commerce is an expression of loving your neighbor. Because when I get up and produce just like in that Plymouth Rock experiment,
14:21 and now I have excess, I have, I have the ability to trade with someone for the fruit of their labor. That that's what commerce is. That's what capitalism is. The word has become perverted. The concept has become
14:33 broken. We think inflation is growth. It's not. It's poverty disguised as prosperity. But the thing is it's like a wolf in sheep's clothing. And if you let it go on too long, 1 day you wake
14:44 up and you literally fall off a cliff. Anybody that loses a job and lives on their credit card lives great right until they hit the credit limit, and then all of a sudden, they're homeless. Right? That's the path we're
14:56 on. And you we're not gonna fix it by paying off the debt because the whole system is debt, And we're not gonna fix it by letting the debt and deficits grow because the debt will consume us like a cancer.
15:08 So there is no way to fix it based on our current system. We have to overhaul the system. I believe that we are making an attempt for the first time in my lifetime, and I'm 65 years
15:20 old, that we're actually taking a legitimate shot at remodeling our financial system. And I think that's where we're in the middle of. And I think people who are screaming, be, oh my God, we're destroying this and
15:32 that. And the other thing we are, because you know, the first thing you do in a remodel is demo, but when you rebuild it, if you rebuild it on a solid foundation, you're gonna have a better product. And I
15:44 think that's, you know, the effort we're making. Now will we succeed? I don't know. I hope so. But I think right now, government can only do so much. If we sit there and expect the government to solve the problem, then
15:55 we are the problem. Right? We have to get up and become more productive on Main Street. I believe we're about to be given that opportunity on steroids. And so I am preaching the gospel of Main Street
16:07 capitalism with everything that's in me to get people, parents, children, everybody engaged, and and to get American investors, Main Street investors to quit sending their money to Wall
16:19 Street where these guys gamble with it and put the losses to main street either directly or through the government, we have to stop doing that. Main street should invest directly in main street. The things that you
16:31 guys do, the things that we train people to do, that's the answer. They can only create an environment where we have the opportunities like linemen. They can open a hole, but if the running back doesn't put his head down
16:40 in sprint, there's no touchdown. And that's where we're at.
16:43 Russ, I I gotta I gotta stop you just for a second because what you're saying is amazing. And Josh and I and you, we know about alternative investing. There's a lot of people out there that earn a great w 2
16:55 that put their money in a 4 0 1 k, and it gets matched and all this stuff. But you're talking about Main Street investing. And when you say that, can you give our listeners some context on what that actually
17:07 means?
17:08 100 percent. I mean, dude, the syndications. I I've been teaching syndication for a dozen years. As soon as I saw the Jobs Act come out, Josh, I think you were hanging around with us back in that time. Yet I wrote a re I
17:19 wrote a report called new law breaks Main Street monopoly Wall Street monopoly. And my prediction was now that Main Street, people like you had the ability to advertise and promote to non to accredited investors. You
17:30 didn't have to have that preexisting relationship. It was no longer a good old boys club that allowed Main Street to invest directly in Main Street. Also, now you can invest in that apartment building. You can invest in
17:40 that shopping center. You can invest in that small business down the street. Right? They don't need to go to the banks because what do the banks do? The banks take Main Street savings and then aggregate it and lend it
17:51 back to a Main Street business and just siphon off for being a market maker. You know what? Maybe there was a role for that at 1 point in time, but we don't need it anymore, especially because they took that banking
18:01 responsibility, that stewardship, and they perverted it with fractional reserve banking and now printing money out of thin air. You know, going back to the start of this conversation, teaching children money doesn't come
18:11 out of thin air, right? Just because the federal reserve prints currency, they haven't created value. In fact, what they've done is they've stolen value, and that's where inflation comes from. Every time you feed that
18:23 machinery, you're feeding the beast. And so we don't need them anymore. You know? People I I get it. There's gonna be a very small percentage of people out there that are gonna wanna go find, you know, an
18:35 apartment deal or a mobile home park or a self storage center or residential assisted living facility or whatever it is. Right? There's a very small percentage of people out there that are gonna wanna be in the business
18:45 of doing those investments. But those of us that are doing whatever we do to live, thrive, and survive, if we take our savings and we begin to invest it in those people, we're actually have a
18:57 flatter model where more of the money gets to work directly in major. I'll give you an example. I just read this article in 0 hedge the other day. So the Chinese have a a property problem out there.
19:09 It's been publicized that these they they overbuilt. There's all these properties that they constructed that exist. The properties are there, but they're not productive assets. And so they can't debt service the debt
19:20 that created them. What where did that debt came from? Well, that debt came from bonds that were purchased by the West. So you've got you've got PIMCO and BlackRock who both bought bonds that
19:32 funded mortgages that funded real estate development in China. Right? What moron thought it would be a good idea to hold collateral, physical collateral that cannot
19:44 be repossessed in a communist country. And so where did BlackRock and Vanguard? I mean, PIMCO get the money? Main Street. So Main Street people put their money into the stewardship of BlackRock and PIMCO. These
19:56 guys go buy bonds and issue mortgages against real estate that they cannot repossess, cannot foreclose on. There's no recourse. Basically, no recourse loans, And they collected their fees along the way. Good for them.
20:07 But who gets stuck with the losses? Right? And so this is the kind of thing that that Main Street, like, should not tolerate, but they don't understand. So part of our mission is to educate people. Guys, it's not that
20:18 complicated. Find people that are doing deals in your community and invest in them. Right? You got make sure they know what they're doing. Make sure you know how to vet it and all that. Right? There's a lot of work to be
20:28 done in the Main Street syndication space to make it better for Main Street investors, and it's still the Wild West. I get it. It used to be the Wild Wild West. Now it's just the Wild West. There's some work to do, but I
20:39 still think that we are better off with Main Street investing in Main Street than Main Street investing in Wall Street, especially if we can get back to sound money. And then all this inflation that everybody counts on,
20:50 this debt and deficit fueled asset price growth. If that stops, the only thing that's gonna matter is cash flow.
20:56 Yeah. No. I mean, Russ, if you don't mind, I got so much I wanna just ask, because 1, you kinda gave a swath of why you care so much and create. And you did have a mission years ago
21:08 when I met you maybe 9 years ago, 8 years ago. You were talking about letting Main Street invest in Main Street, which was what you said the the tax and job act of whatever year it was allowed that to be more
21:20 legal. Right? Because before that, it was artificially ill for a reason. It was relatively illegal to talk about investing privately with friends or businesses because they didn't want you to. As a matter of fact, the
21:32 whole IRA universe looks like you're supposed to put it in mutual funds. Of course, you and I know half a dozen great, what do you call, self directed IRA custodians that all they do is preach. You're allowed to use
21:44 your IRAs and your, okay, conversions into real estate or private business. You have been on this mission for a while, so I just wanna give you credit. Now you have also been on the idea of decentralized
21:55 currency and decentralized money. You've also been on the idea that money is not the same thing as currency and even teaching these things forever in a great way. You've brought on the type disciples like
22:07 me. And, John, I know is this disciple now as he's growing in his love. Let's jump into the practical things you're doing today because you're not just a professor. Even though you're you're not even a professor, but
22:19 you're talking like you could be a professor, but yet you're the epitome of not a professor. Because instead of just writing another book or instead of just being a lecturer and in an academic setting, you
22:31 are building Main Street Media Network. So let's use this as a a transition. You're trying to create value and bring it directly into the marketplace. What will Main Street Media Network look like in the
22:43 next 5 years? It's starting today. What will it look like, and how will you help turn that into something good for society?Show more
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