We were lucky to catch up with Dustin & Denzel Mooney recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dustin & Denzel, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Developing our confidence and self esteem actually began in our childhood. Growing up we would get teased for being African. Both of our parents are from Liberia, which is in West Africa. Kids can be really brutal and being teased can shape the way your life goes, but it all depends on how you handle it. Those situations made us love ourselves more! We started to think of ourselves as more than what meets the eye. That directly helped when we began creating content online. We aren’t afraid of the negativity that comes with doing things that we love doing. People are apprehensive when it comes to putting themselves out there, but not us. We look at it from a perspective like “what’s the worst thing that can happen?” Oh, people may not like us? Okay, so? People may think we’re not funny? Ok? There are people that love us, people that hate us and people that like us. We learned at an early age that we can’t please everyone and that the best thing we could do is be our best selves. That mentality reduced stress and boosted our confidence and self esteem.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
We go by Dustin & Denzel or The Mooney Bros. You may have seen our videos across the internet with our infamous Try Not To Laugh Challenge videos. We have grossed over 1.8 million followers across all social media platforms. We have fans all over the world and it just puts a smile on our faces to see that our content can transition to so many people. We love getting messages and comments of people saying we make their days and that they love us. We would say that is the most exciting feeling as Influencers. Some of our other biggest accomplishments include being featured in UGG’s 2022 collection, Worst Cooks in America: Love at First Bite and Hot Ones: The Game Show. Also, we just released our first line of Merch as well, which you can check out at themooneybros.com. With big plans of expanding into other artistic lanes such as fashion and music, we are very grateful for our journey thus far.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three things that has been most impactful in our journey are our brotherly bond, not being afraid to try, and our consistency. Our brotherly bond plays a huge part because we have chemistry on and off camera. We hold each other accountable and don’t let egos become a thing. We’re both co-pilots on this journey and nothing will ever change that. Whether together or individually, we are each other’s biggest fans, which also helps boosting our confidence to do what we want to do. Not being afraid to try is probably the most important of the bunch because we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for believing in ourselves and putting out content to see what would happen. When it comes to being consistent, you have to be willing to stay disciplined. We made a pact that we would post a video every week on YouTube, which worked for us very well. For anyone out there that is early in their journey, DO NOT GIVE UP! If you’re getting a small amount of views, it’s okay. If you’re getting a few amount of likes, it’s fine. If you see other creators as successful, don’t let it get to you. Be consistent in what you’re doing and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Not every video you make will hit, but the views and likes will accumulate. There’s a guy named Paul Brunson, who began creating content and was only getting 11 or 12 views. He actually went on to landing a job with Oprah from his content because she was one of his 11 viewers! Moral of the story is you never know who’s watching, so keep creating!
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most impactful thing our parents have done for us was believe in us. Although being Influencers, was unusual to them, they still began to believe in us when they saw how serious things were getting. Hearing that they are proud of us is one of the best feelings in the world. Knowing that, we’re constantly motivated because we know we have a great support system.
Contact Info:
- Website: themooneybros.com
- Email: info@themooneybros.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/themooneybros
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/themooneybros
Image Credits
Arturo Holmes Marcus Stukes
