Taylor Conroy Went Bankrupt and Wore a Blanket for a Coat. Now He Helps Speakers Land TEDx Talks

About a decade ago, Taylor Conroy says, he was eating rice and beans and wearing a blanket as a jacket because he could not afford a coat. He had come out of bankruptcy with $1.12 in his Chase account and still owed about $150,000 that the bankruptcy did not wipe out.

Today he posts as @taylormoney.co on TikTok, where he says he lives in Hawaii and runs a business that has a bad month if it does not do $2 million. Those are his numbers. But the more interesting part of his story is what came before the money: a firefighter who talked his way onto stages at Harvard and the United Nations, built a giving movement across 80 countries, went bankrupt, and now teaches other people how to get their message onto a stage.

Key takeaways

• Taylor Conroy was a professional firefighter with only a high school education when he decided at 23 to become a millionaire.
• He says he moved into commission sales and earned $500,000 in one year at 24 by trading value, not time, for money.
• His first social enterprise, Change Heroes, says it mobilized people in 80 countries to fund about 400 schools, water projects and other work for 200,000 people.
• He says he later went bankrupt, rebuilt, and now runs Leadr, a speaker training company that says it has helped clients book more than 1,000 stages.
• His core money habits: pay yourself first, give 10% before you are rich, and put your best hours into the work that makes the most money.

Who is Taylor Conroy?

Taylor Conroy is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker and speaker coach. On his speaker website he describes himself as “a meditating surfer obsessed with building businesses that make change.” On social media he goes by Taylor Money, posting short videos about wealth, mindset and the books that shaped him on @taylormoney.co on TikTok and @taylormoney.co on Instagram.

His résumé is unusual. He has been a professional firefighter, a real estate entrepreneur and a bodybuilder. His site says he has studied with Zen monks in Japan, surfed in Peru and filmed short documentaries in Cambodia, Ecuador and Uganda on sex trafficking, microfinance and human rights. It also says he has lectured on social enterprise at Harvard, Princeton, NYU, Cornell and the United Nations, and spoken to corporate audiences at companies like Disney, Pfizer, Lululemon, KPMG and Morgan Stanley.

How did a firefighter make $500,000 at 24?

Conroy says he decided he wanted to be a millionaire at 23, while he was working as a firefighter. “Being that my only education was high school, the only person more surprised than my teachers that I passed was me,” he jokes in one video. He did the math on hourly work and saw it would take him 20 years to get where he wanted to go. He wanted to do it in about three.

So, he says, he stopped exchanging time for money and started exchanging value for money. He took a commission-based sales job so he would be paid for performance, not hours, and the better he got at selling, the more he earned. His second rule is what he calls “all-consuming obsession.” He calls the idea of perfect work-life balance at every stage of life a fantasy, and says the mission has to come first for a season. At 24, he says, he made $500,000 in a single year.

Taylor Conroy on making $500,000 at 24

What is Change Heroes?

Change Heroes was Conroy’s first social enterprise. According to his speaker website, it mobilized people in 80 countries to fund and build about 400 schools, water projects, libraries, girls’ scholarships and anti-sex-trafficking programs, reaching 200,000 people around the world. His site says he has also spoken at social-good events with audiences of 10,000 or more.

Event organizers quoted on his site praise his storytelling. A TEDxPrincetonU organizer wrote that he “commanded the students’ attention,” and a TEDxRoyalRoadsU executive director called him “gripping.” Conroy later co-founded Journey, an impact travel company that his site says takes groups of 30 to 70 people abroad to build homes, renovate schools and support refugees.

How did Taylor Conroy come back from bankruptcy?

The stages did not protect him from going broke. Conroy says that coming out of bankruptcy he had $1.12 in the bank, a credit score “through the floor” and roughly $150,000 in debt that remained. He describes worrying at the grocery store about whether his card would clear, ordering the cheap chicken salad instead of the filet mignon he wanted, and suggesting ice cream instead of dinner on dates.

His turning point, he says, was not a new tactic. It was a vision for his life so exciting it would get him out of bed in the morning. He argues that the car, the house and even the jet are “like sugar,” motivating only for a moment, and that what lasts is a bigger reason. Today he says he is fully cash-flow positive with a net worth of around $10 million. Those figures are his own, and Booked Impact has not verified them.

Taylor Conroy: I went bankrupt 10 years ago

What does Taylor Conroy do at Leadr?

Conroy now runs Leadr, a public speaking training company. Its 5 Money Books page introduces him as a “4x TEDx Speaker & Founder @ Leadr,” and his link page says he has helped 700 people land TEDx talks. Leadr says it has helped clients book more than 1,000 stages, and it hires current and former international keynote speakers as coaches. It offers speaker coaching, certifications and a virtual Talk Practice Club built around crafting a signature talk. Leadr notes on its site that it is not affiliated with or endorsed by TED or TEDx.

That focus fits his own path. He says he got his start by learning to sell, and then built a movement by learning to tell a story on stage. For readers working on their own talks, our guides on how one signature talk can carry a speaking career and landing a first paid speaking gig cover the same ground from the speaker’s side.

What money habits does Taylor Conroy teach?

Most of his videos come back to a few habits he says changed his life:

• Pay yourself first. Drawing on The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason, he says 10% of every dollar should go to investments and 10% to 20% to paying off debt before you spend anything else.
• Give before you are rich. He says he has given away 10% of his net income every month since he was 22 and a firefighter making about $3,000 a month. He cites Tony Robbins and Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money, which compares money to water that has to keep flowing.
• Raise the quality of your income, not just the amount. A mentor taught him to move from earning $10,000 a month, to keeping $10,000 a month after tax, to earning $10,000 a month from a team or business that runs without him.
• Guard your best hours. He says he does his highest-value work first thing, roughly 7 to 10 a.m., and saves scrolling and meetings for later.
• Program your mind. His most-watched video, with more than 450,000 views, recommends The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles and You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero, which he says he has listened to on repeat.

Taylor Conroy’s number one book to read

He shares the full list on his 5 Money Books page. Booked Impact has profiled other founders who rebuilt their finances on their own terms, including Danielle Lynch and Olivia Gong.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Taylor Conroy?

Taylor Conroy, known as @taylormoney.co on TikTok and Instagram, is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker and the founder of Leadr, a public speaking training company. He is a former firefighter and the founder of the social enterprise Change Heroes.

Is Taylor Conroy a TEDx speaker?

Yes. Leadr describes him as a four-time TEDx speaker, and organizers from TEDxPrincetonU and TEDxRoyalRoadsU are quoted on his website.

Did Taylor Conroy go bankrupt?

He says he did. He describes coming out of bankruptcy with $1.12 in his bank account and about $150,000 in remaining debt, and says he has since rebuilt to a net worth of around $10 million. Those are his figures.

What is Change Heroes?

Change Heroes is Taylor Conroy’s first social enterprise. His website says it mobilized people in 80 countries to fund about 400 schools, water projects, libraries, scholarships and anti-trafficking programs for 200,000 people.

What is Leadr?

Leadr is Taylor Conroy’s public speaking training company. It offers speaker coaching, certifications and a talk practice club, and says it has helped clients book more than 1,000 stages. It is not affiliated with TED or TEDx.

What books does Taylor Conroy recommend?

He often recommends The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero, The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason and The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist.

Where can I follow Taylor Conroy?

He posts as @taylormoney.co on TikTok and Instagram.

This profile is based on Taylor Conroy’s public TikTok videos, his link page, tayloraconroy.com and leadr.co. Income, net worth and impact figures are his own or his companies’. Booked Impact did not interview him.