The Secret to Turning Failure Into Success | Dhar Mann

26:33And so, right, it just depends on what your goal is. Do you want to be sort of this premier mom and pop steakhouse that is really well respected and you have a very comfortable living? Or do you want to be Morton's? Or do you want to be McDonald's, right? They all kind of sell a similar thing, but they have different kind of lifestyles and different kind of prestige associated with them. For me, it really came down to my goal was to make impact. I wanted people to watch my videos and say, wow, that helped me get to a better place in my life or not give up on my dreams or help resolve, help me get out of depression or anxiety.

27:14So for me, it was really important to reach the masses because it's a mission-driven company. And so when I was starting, I was doing one three-minute video a week. and I remember we were on a group call. We were a four-person team at that time and I said, guys, a day is going to come where we're doing two three-minute videos a week. And one of my producers was like, Dar, are you crazy? Two videos a week? Do you care about quantity or do you care about quality? And I was like, I don't see them as trade-offs. I think both are possible. And he ended up quitting because he thought that that whole idea was crazy by the, within the next like six months, I would say, we didn't just go from one three minute video to two.

28:00We went from one to five. And then that next year, we were creating videos for Facebook. That next year, we went from, we started focusing on YouTube. So we went from one 22 minute video to five. And then we started a whole division that creates original content for Samsung TVs. Then we went into vertical dramas where we're doing 40 films for Fox. And now we're going into a brand new division where we're gonna be on some of the traditional platforms that most people watch. And we have a whole short form department. We have a branded content department. And so really for me, it comes down to two piece, people and processes.

28:43Everything is scalable. Anytime I start to get into this limited belief mindset, I just remember, well, Walt Disney was just an individual who actually failed more times than probably anyone listening to this podcast. Literally went bankrupt a hundred different times. Had his early version of Mickey Mouse, like the rabbit that he invented before Mickey Mouse, was stolen from him. Like his own founding team members went to go work for his competition. like he had to borrow money from his brother and his spouse and so many other people. And now he Disney puts out, you know, some of the most iconic feature films has theme parks around the world.

29:27It has so many different divisions. And that's all because someone didn't have limited belief. So when I start to think of what's possible for us, I just think, well, look at what Disney's doing. Why can't we get there in order to solve that problem? We either need more people. We need different types of people or we need better processes. And I always try to start with processes because that's the easier fix. And so once you unlock that limited belief mindset, then really anything is possible. But I would say it all starts with what are your personal goals? Because I fall into the trap thinking that everybody has the same ambitions or mindset that I do.

30:10And so I would always try to, anytime I had someone that I was the manager of, I'd always try to motivate them in a way that got them to their highest potential. But then I realized that not everybody wants that. Some people are comfortable. They wanna be able to clock out at 4 p.m. and they wanna be able to have a nice dinner and watch the game and spend time with their spouse. And honestly, I kind of envy that. Like, that's nice. If that's what you're after, then yeah you don't need scale right but if you're like us yeah and you're just like oh my gosh like you have one life to live there's so much potential look at all these people that are doing these incredible things why not me then yeah then you got to go for it here's the thing about everything dar walked us through vision and grit will only get you to the starting line but dar didn't build his brand just by believing in it like you heard him he was executing relentlessly And that takes resources.

31:09You can have the idea, a plan, the audience. At some point, it's actually growing the thing. And that means putting fuel behind it. Capital, I think, is what lets you do that best. So let me tell you about a new business lending product from SoFi. SoFi small business loans are built for growth. With a quick digital application, you can check your eligibility in minutes, receive a decision quickly, and if approved, get funding in as little as 24 hours. Here's the part I really like. The pricing is super clear and upfront. So you'll see your business terms before you even accept it. No surprises, no penalties for paying your loan off early.

31:40And you could choose weekly or monthly repayments on a schedule that fits how your business actually runs. It's built for solopreneurs and small businesses. You can check your eligibility in minutes. If you're looking to get capital, head to SoFi.com slash Cody or click the link in the show notes. Your business moves fast. Your financing should too. SoFi small business loans are originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Subject to eligibility and approval. Terms and conditions apply. This is a paid SoFi partnership. What do you think is the most unhinged thing you do to create like 300 to 400 pieces of content per month was the number I saw?

32:15What do you think? You're like, God, people would be shocked that we do this. I would love to say that there's a pill that you can take or some quick fix, right? But the reality is, is if you've ever trained for a race, okay, you're going to run a marathon. And I don't know what the average time is for somebody to run a marathon. What is that? Well, let's just say a mile. We'll keep this simpler. The math simpler. Let's say that you want to run a six-minute mile, okay? And the very first time you get on a treadmill, you barely break 15 minutes. You're like, man, that was impossible. 15 minutes, like, how am I going to get to six?

32:53There's just no way. But you keep doing that. You keep running 15-minute miles, right? And then two weeks later, something interesting happens. You actually, the part where you were running at the two-minute mark where you usually will start to hit the speed lower, so you start walking, you weren't as tired at that two-minute mark. You actually didn't get tired until the two-minute and 30 mark. So now your 15-minute mile became 13 minutes without even really realizing it. You can't say what that one breakthrough was. All you know is that you've been just running, right, for two weeks straight, and you didn't stop.

33:26And then two weeks later, something interesting happens. At the two and a half minute mark, you suddenly weren't breathing as heavy. You might have felt the impulse to hit the speed down, but you didn't, you almost forgot that you're even at the two and a half minute mark. You just kept running. And when he looked at the time, it was at three minutes. And now you happen to get to a 10 minute mile, right? And then as you kept going, you kept going, eventually got to nine minutes and eight minutes and seven minutes. And then one day before you know it, you didn't even set out to try to break the record that day.

33:54This was just another day on the treadmill. And you happen to look at the time at the six minute mark and you can't believe it. And you see how the distance you ran was 1.0. So what was that magical moment? It's really hard to say. So I would just say, if you're to try to create 200 pieces of content a month, don't think of how can I go to one to 200? Think of it as how can I go to one to two? And then once you figure that out, it becomes easier to go from two to four, four to eight, eight to 16. And you just start to realize that the teams you build are different. In the beginning, you're hiring a lot of generalists, right?

34:35It's more of a family environment. And so I started off with my wife was the one that was giving me ideas. And my brother-in-law was an actor, right? I was using my studio apartment. I was just using every resource I had. we were shooting on iPhones. I was teaching myself how to edit. I had a few hundred dollars in the bank and everybody was doing everything that was required. So naturally you can only do so much when you're a four person team, you're working in a limited space. But as we became successful, I started reinvesting. I hired more people. I got more space, got more equipment. Now all of a sudden we had two production teams and then four production teams and the type of people you hire different.

35:16You have a CEO. Could you imagine having a CEO five years ago or however? There's no way. I couldn't imagine having a CEO. What do you think about if you had to like say it tactically, like you started, when did you start Darman? Eight years ago. Eight years ago. So year one, how many employees did you have? One. Year two? Probably three. Year three? About like 25 or so. So big jump. Year four? Year four is when we got our studio. So we probably went to about 75. Five? Yeah. About 125. Six? Six. We started a, we capped out around like 200 or so. And then now we kind of try to stay there. So really every, so you almost have minimum, like doubling, doubling, doubling.

36:09And then once you get to, let's call it one 52 or whatever, you kind of try to stay. And at some point it's not just more people. It gets into more process. Outsource things. Right. Um, and you become more efficient at doing certain things. And so for instance, our vertical dramas with our deal with Fox, um, that we have a senior producer, a show runner. Um, we have a, uh, that's pretty much it. We have a two person team and the rest, we hire crews to come in and film that kind of content. Eventually, if that becomes successful enough, we might start to hire within. So that's also an interesting thing is like, when do you outsource versus when do you build something internally?

36:47And what I would say is when you know something is such an important part of your business, then don't outsource that thing. Do that internally. Like Hermes, I'm sure they can go say, hey, this factory, build us a bunch of Birkins. But they know that their whole brand exists because of the quality of their bags. And so they're never gonna outsource that. They're always gonna do that in-house. Caruso is a popular real estate developer in Los Angeles, Southern California. If you go to the Grove, have you been to the Grove? Okay. It's one of the malls that are like few malls, I would say in the country that are really thriving.

37:29Anytime you go, it's a magical experience. If you go during Christmas, there's Santa Claus. You go during Easter, there's the Easter Bunny. Do you know who runs that programming? Caruso. When you go in valet park, the person is so nice. They're just like, hey, they're greeting you. They're in a nice uniform. Do you know who runs a valet parking? Caruso. So Caruso has decided that every aspect of the customer experience, he wants to control because his brand is family. He wants to be able to deliver on those strong family values and that positive customer experience. And that's the reason that he's thriving.

38:08So you figure out what is sort of the core product that you're developing and never outsource that thing. If there's things that you're testing, especially as you get more resources, you're interested in this may be an opportunity or not, don't spend the time hiring a team because that's going to take you six months. Instead, if you can just get another team, like, you know, outsource it, get it fired up and get it going so you can learn as quickly as possible, see if it's even viable, then you can decide, does it make sense for me to continue outsourcing that because it's not that meaningful, but I want to keep it going?

38:44Or is this something that didn't work, so I'm just going to scrap it? Or, oh man, that hit, and now this has so much potential that I'm going to bring it in-house. You know, it's funny. So we model one of our businesses off of this company called Vista Equity. And one of our friends was one of the co-founders of it, and it's a really big private equity company but based around technology. And they run everything on what's called the Vista Playbook. And so if you come into their world, not unlike Disney, Disney was obsessed with every single segment of this park, right? Vista is sort of the exact same way.

39:14You run the playbook the same way every time. Well, what is interesting is he taught me – his name is Brian and then a few of his employees that we've hired over the years – taught me that they have something called value engines. And sometimes they call them value engines. Sometimes they call them revenue engines. But if I was to ask you right now, what is McKinsey's real business? Like what you talked about, the core part of the business of what McKinsey sells. What would you say? McKinsey, the consulting company? Expertise? Yeah. That's what comes to mind. So I said their core value engine is probably making their customers more money.

39:52Like if they can drive revenue to their customers. That makes sense. McKinsey would win. I thought so. He's like, absolutely not. I'm like, really? What is it? And he said, McKinsey is a partner factory. They know that if they can take a college kid from college over eight years and they're high performing and turn them into a partner, then that partner will, over the course of 20 years, drive so much revenue to the firm that they just keep creating partners again and again. And so everything else is ancillary actually to their recruiting, onboarding, training, retention. And I thought that was fascinating because it's not dissimilar to like McDonald's, which people would say it's the cheeseburger, but in a lot of ways, it's the real estate.

40:33And if they're in the right location, then those golden arches will beckon. And so it's a really great point about how do you make magic in a business? If Caruso's magic or value creation portion is this family component, knowing that and executing on it. That's a great point. So Jim Collins, one of my favorite authors, we were asking earlier, has written many incredible books, but Good to Great is one of those. So he talks about how the greatest businesses, their product is not the thing that they sell, but it is their actual team. And it gives the example. So when Boeing started, do you know Boeing makes the greatest aircrafts and rockets?

41:15And do you know what their original business was? Selling lawn furniture. And so let's say that their business was, I'm going to sell lawn furniture. And they saw that as their product. When that product failed, if the business is the product, what happens? The business goes away. But instead, if you see the product as your team, right? My product is the team of engineers or consultants or creatives that I've hired. And I'm always trying to make that product better, then regardless of whatever the output is, that can continue to change. The economy can change. The consumer interest can change, whatever it is.

41:57But you have this incredible team that is going to keep up with putting out new, amazing outputs that is always going to evolve and make you better, then that's how you succeed in the long run. Yeah, that's a really good point. So where do you think you failed early on in business? that if you were standing in front of young Dar, you'd say, please, dear God, don't do this. Ray Dalio in his book Principles, he describes failure as you're in this video game and you're collecting gems, right? It's kind of going back to that Popeye spinach example. And every time you collect a gem, it makes you somewhat stronger because again, you've learned one more thing that doesn't work.

42:38And so it's natural to say, oh, I really regret that relationship. I really regret that co-founder. I should have never partnered with that person. I should have never went into that industry. And I should have never rented that office or storefront or started that product. But in reality, you had to do that, as painful as it is. And I'm sorry. I know that some people might be listening to this to say, Dar, I am backed up in credit card debt because of that decision. How are you going to say, don't regret that? Well, the thing is, you can't make excuses to success. You can fail your way to success, but no excuse will take you to success.

43:20And the problem with excuses is if you don't see yourself as the problem, then you will never see yourself as the solution. So whatever bad has happened to you, the faster you can take ownership of it, learn from it, the faster that you're actually going to grow. The best leaders in the world, when something wrong happens, they don't look out the window. They look in the mirror because that's where all the personal growth happens. Yeah, it's a good reminder. Yeah, I heard the other day that your excuse is somebody else's reason why. And I was like, you need to remember that, you know, because half the time it is very easy to get stuck in your own little world and say, here's all the reasons why I can't, as opposed to these are all the reasons why I have to.

44:15I actually got my brother motivated to start going to the gym because he's like, Dar, I have three kids. I don't have time to go to the gym. And I'm like, they're the reason you need to go to the gym because you want to be there for all their important milestones later on in life. So, yeah, I love that analogy. Actually, it's interesting because your channel is all about these inspirational stories. And I saw this one. I wonder if it'd make a good – maybe you could tell me if this would make a good story or not. Let's hear the pitch. Okay, here's the pitch. Well, first, what's the packaging? Oh, shit.

44:44I don't know. Okay. Okay, I'm going to work on the pitch and totally mess up your four Ps. Right now, get up to 15 % off Select Storage Solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear base and sides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find select shelving and tote storage up to 15 % off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic. Visit homedepot.com, how doers get more done. He's a really jacked dad, basically. And, you know, he looks good.

45:25He's dressed well. and then there's like words on the screen and the screen basically says like, you know, you care too much about what you look like. Like, why are you spending all this time working out? Something to that effect, probably a little pithier. And then it flashes to his daughter who is in a wheelchair. And he's like, this is the exact reason why I have the muscles that I do. And then he tells a beautiful story about how he carries her up the stairs every night. And when she first got in the accident, you know, he wasn't in shape, actually. He couldn't carry her up the stairs. And so he's like, you know, until my dying day, my gym time is one of the most important things I do because I will always carry that little girl up the stairs.

46:08And I remember watching it and being like, you know, I need to go to the gym, which is sometimes how I feel when I watch your things. So I guess my question there for you would be... Would I greenlight your story? Yeah, exactly. How much? Do we sell it to Fox? But like for that, maybe the question actually is, How do you know with all these stories out there in the world that one is going to be an incredible story? So A, I'm obsessed with the story, right? It's amazing. It's got a great pitch. It really does. A muscular dad gets judged for being fit. Turns out that, like for neglecting his kids because he cares so much about his fitness, turns out the reason he's fit is to actually care for his children.

46:49That, in 10 seconds, explains the story. But that's not the first step, right? That's actually the third step. The step before that is what is the packaging? Okay, well, a muscular dad. That's interesting, right? What is the title of that? It's going to be very hard to describe the title in a few words. Muscular dad judged for his physical appearance or strong dad judged for his muscles. that doesn't really create immediate intrigue. Weak men are bad fathers. And it sucks because there's so many times that I'll hear an amazing story idea. But if you can't figure out a way to make it an interesting thumbnail from anyone that's interested in creating content, a lot of times you'll have to kill the idea.

47:45And somebody will say like, well, what if it's a great story? And I'll say, well, if it's not great packaging, then by default, it can't be a great story. So that's gonna suffer from not having the best packaging. But in terms of story structure, you have an interesting character, right? And this is for anyone that's interested in like storytelling or scripted content, which I know is not for everyone, but it could work for podcasting. It could work for all kinds of different content. And I guess just packaging for goods as well. You have a muscular middle-aged person, which you don't see too often.

48:19and that could be somewhat appealing for a certain level of audience as well. It creates intrigue for some and it could be appealing, right? And then you've got the relatable, right? He's a dad. You've got the conflict of somebody saying, and I would imagine someone like who's not fit kind of giving him a hard time. Yeah, I would be in the gym too all the time if I didn't care about my family, right? That's immediate intrigue right there. And then you've got the emotional backstory, right? You've got the part where it's actually like, well, the reason I have to train is because I have to carry my daughter up the stairs every single night and I want to be there.

48:57Or because I want to make sure that I'm around for a long time to help support her. So that's the part that's going to make you want to cry. And there's a clear lesson there, which is don't judge a book by its cover. Or you really never know what someone is going through. So don't make assumptions. So it has all the necessary elements of an amazing story. The packaging is where it's going to suffer. And then I would say also, you really have to know who your audience is. So this would pertain more towards a middle-aged audience. So for us, YouTube, our YouTube audience skews a lot younger. So it probably wouldn't be as relatable for a 10-year-old boy.

49:35And then for Facebook, that audience skews older. So I would say this would be a great video for Facebook. and so we have different types of content for different audiences. So you also wanna think about where this could live. But if you wanna test your first story, scripted story, and I'm happy to do this in collaboration with you because now that we've told our audience, it might be interesting to see it come to life. I would love to do this story with you. How fun. What a masterclass. And you could be that rip mom. What a masterclass. But oh God, well now I'm just, I identify as a frog lately.

50:05Like last night I was thinking about, I just have my little belly. I put my hands on it. I just lay around. But masterclass and taking an idea right there real time and breaking it down segment wise. You can see that you've done your 10 ,000 hours really intensely. One of the things I was curious about here is you are basically greenlining hundreds and well, thousands, I guess, of stories a year. How many – what is the ratio? How many ideas do you guys typically have to picking one story? This is actually a great question. We're right in the thick of this right now where we've actually developed a green lighting percentage ratio for every step in the process.

50:48And so before, if I had an amazing story, just like what you said right now, I would just go and develop it right away, right? I would say, oh, this is moving forward. And then I'd wait to see what the actual results are. And then if it didn't meet my expectations, I would be disappointed or come up for some reason that didn't work. Now it's a little bit more of a methodology where we have a certain percentage of ideas that start in packaging, right? So let's say that we have 10 ideas in packaging where that is just a title is what we begin with. If it passes the title stage, then it goes into the actual thumbnail design.

51:28So you can do this very cost effectively. You can do this through AI. So we'll start with the title. then we just imagine if that title gets approved, then we imagine what it's going to look like visually. If the title isn't approved, then it dies. So let's say out of 10 ideas, nine of them, uh, past the title stage, then we'll actually visualize it. And we'll look at the thumb and say, ah, you know, this isn't interesting enough to warrant someone clicking on it. If it isn't, then it's scrapped. If it is interesting enough, then it goes past the illustration phase into the actual design phase.

52:06You want me to break this down sort of more? So good. Okay. So once it gets past the illustration, right now we are adding a layer where now we will survey our audience. So every single week we have a new Google form where our audience can go on and they can actually green light the next ideas that we're going to produce. And so every step of this process, we'll ask them, which of these titles do you find interesting? Which of these illustrations do you find interesting? The next step is we will actually take a real design. We'll think of casting and then we'll create a real thumbnail and see what that looks like.

52:44Sometimes things work in illustration, but they don't work in practicality. And so once we actually see, all right, well, here's what an official final thumbnail would be, then it moves forward to the actual pitch stage. So from there, now we're thinking about, hey, how do we explain this in 30 seconds? It has to be a page or less, and it has to have all the most important parts of the story. We've got a muscular dad. We've got somebody. So he's the protagonist who's the antagonist. It's somebody who's judgmental. Their backstory is maybe they haven't gotten into the best of shape. They use their children as an excuse.

53:20They're kind of unhappy with how their life is. Now, what is the interesting environment? Maybe someone is leaving a gym while the other person is leaving a restaurant. They happen to cross over, right? And I don't know, maybe this guy, the overweight guy, drops something heavy, is struggling to pick something up, and then the muscular guy comes in and says, oh, I can carry that for you. And now the not fit guy feels a little bit embarrassed because there has to be some sort of inciting incident. Why is this guy upset? It just can't happen for no reason. The simplest thing is you're gonna have them bump into each other, right?

53:54So you have an inciting incident. Now, where is the conflict coming from? Now we're hearing this overweight guy shaming the muscular guy for being a bad parent because he's neglecting his kids because he's in the gym. What is the irony in that story? The irony is he's actually fit because he really cares about his children because he's taking care of his daughter that's in a wheelchair. And then what is the resolution? the resolution is now the overweight person sees that he shouldn't be judgmental. They should, you know, think twice before they assume. So that's the moral lesson that can be shareable.

54:31So we know what the pitch is. All of that has to be contained in that one pager. So this idea would pass the pitch phase, but let's just say, you know, you've got out of 10 titles, nine move forward to illustration, eight move forward to actually pitcher. And I would say maybe five move forward to the actual pitch. Once the pitch is greenlit, and that could be by the audience, that could be by the showrunner, that could be based on your own gut instant. Now you go into the actual scripting. And the scripting is when you develop a full, however long the script is going to be. And by the way, every creator does this, regardless if you're a scripted creator, if you are creating spectacle-based IRL videos.

55:13Even podcasters generally have an outline as to where this interview is going to go. So that's what I consider the scripting phase. Out of that, maybe out of the five, I would say three to four move forward. And then out of those remaining, usually one will get scrapped in post-production. Wow. After you've done everything. after we've shot everything and then we take a look at it or we decide it's meant for a different platform or we have different channels like some for our highest bar content and then some for lower but you know our content is produced much less expensively than um how traditional is so we have the ability to do that because we never want to alienate the audience experience by delivering something that we don't fully believe in so i would say out of those 10 ideas ultimately when you break it all down, you have about one that finally makes it to the YouTube page.

56:08I think it's nice to see, like what I'm taking away from this is like one, it does take a lot of quantity in many ways to get to the thing that you want at life. Like you have so many reps that by now you are able to manufacture millions. But sometimes I think it's nice to see that and go, oh, it's not just that Dar's a genius, although he is, it's that, you You know, Dar has muscle memory of this for over eight years, running this playbook again and again until he gets to speak a language and seem almost fluent in it because, you know, you've done it so long. And so, you know, I think I got numbers for you and I don't know if these are right.

56:45So tell me, but that on average, it might take you 21 days to do from script all the way to even filming something or pre-production for one video or post-production. From script to screen. script to screen 21 days which is actually in many ways it's crazy compared to hollywood they might take years right but then compared to somebody who's just starting it's like okay that's a lot of work too yeah and so you can see sort of the progression of where you've been i guess maybe a question there is like did you ever have one that you put a ton of money a ton of time into you put it out total flop happens all the time and there's ones that like we put the least effort into thought it would flop and ends up doing the best.

57:29Right. But that's why it's such an important numbers game, right? Consistency matters more than anything. Like imagine it took me a hundred videos to go viral. And you know what keeps me up at night sometimes? What if I quit on number 99? You never know how close you are to success unless you keep going. You could be one phone call, one door, one piece of viral content away from your whole life being completely different. So no matter what, the most important thing you can do is not give up on yourself. And so, yeah, I would say, you know, as time goes on, all that changes is that you become more methodical and then you become a little bit better at having instincts as to what's going to work or not.

58:12Right. My 99 videos were a flop. But once I figured out that 100 successful one, my batting average was no longer one in a hundred. Right. It might've been like one in five. And then after that, it was one in four, one in three. You just get better and better, right? So even you as an entrepreneur, you have multiple businesses. I bet before having multiple businesses, you failed a lot. I'm guessing. I don't even know if this is your story or not. Is that true? Oh, of course. Yeah. You had lots of ideas that never really worked. But now you're a lot smarter. You're a lot more experienced. You have a better team around you.

58:45You have systems in place. You get better opportunities vetted to you because you've built a name for yourself, right? So what is your chance? What is your hit right now? It's a lot higher. And guess what? Banks are also gonna loan you. And so even if you fail, they can give you a lifeline for you to keep going to give you more time to figure it out. So it's consistency that ultimately enables that success. So you can't quit on those first 99 videos or even however long it takes. But the key is to make it so fast and inexpensive that it allows you the runway to succeed. So when I started, I had$600 as my bank account.

59:25Even if I went and I took every credit card that was available to me, every friends and family loan that was available to me and said, I really want to make a film and I looked it up online and to make a film, it costs about a million bucks, which in reality costs far more than that, right? I put all my money together that I possibly could through all my friends and family, buried myself deep in debt, put it in one video. that one video would have failed. If I took half the money and made two, both of them would have failed. The only reason it worked was because my wife was a creative. My brother-in-law was the actor.

59:59I was filming everything on iPhones. My studio apartment was our set. So you have to do things as scrappy as you possibly can, which gave me the runway to fail 99 times until I finally got to that hundredth time. We used to have it where the two actors that we'd have in our videos would show up and we'd all kind of sit around and on a piece of paper I would write, on a napkin, I would write, all right, well, wouldn't it be interesting if this happened? Or here's what happened to me last night while I was leaving the parking lot and someone judged me because of the broken down car that I had. Maybe there's an interesting storyline there because, right?

1:00:39Or, hey, I helped someone with jumper cables and then I had positive karma later. Or what if we did a video on like how karma can travel in some sort of positive change? We'd come up with a concept right there. We'd shoot it. And within like two hours, it would go live. So 21 days is now we've gotten to a point where as in the beginning, everyone is, again, a family environment, right? The first five, 10 people you have, they're passionate. They're answering your calls at midnight. They're burning the midnight oil with you. Everyone is doing everything. But as you start to scale, then that's not sustainable.

1:01:16You really have to create work-life balance. You have to provide certain types of benefits. At Dharman Studios, now we're releasing like an equity program where our actors, some of our longtime actors and employees actually have equity in the company. We have better 401k program rolling out than most traditional studios even do. So now we're really able to invest back in the team to provide them a more stable environment to really grow and build a career on, kind of going back to McKinsey is like, how do you get people to their partner level status? Our product is our team. We invest in that team.

1:01:51And so, yeah, what works now isn't what worked in the beginning. And so you have to be able to be scrappy, to evolve fast, to put in those reps. And then once you finally get there, then you can build more sustainable systems. It's so good. What advice do you have for somebody today who wants to be successful and win? So if you want to be the first millionaire in your family, you have to do these three things. Number one is start saving money consistently. And it doesn't have to be a lot. You don't have to listen to these online gurus who say you have to start with$10 ,000 or$25 ,000 or$100 ,000.

1:02:29I'm talking about$100 out of your paycheck, 50 bucks, 20 bucks, whatever it is, just save up consistently. And you'll be shocked as to how that money starts to compound over time. The second thing is, instead of asking whenever you receive a little bit of money, what can I buy? Ask yourself, what can I invest in? And the third thing I will say is the most important. And that's to cut out three time wasters in your life. And we all know what those are because your girlfriend has probably told you, your spouse or your mother or that little internal voice inside of your head. replace those with learning two new skills.

1:03:08And you'll be shocked six months from now as to how those new skills you've developed have turned into new income streams. So now that you have those three steps, if you follow them, you'll be amazed as to where your life can be a year from now. You're doing$65 million in revenue now. You have 200 employees,$150 ,000 or 150 ,000 square foot studio, but that's not where you started. How did you get started? I don't think people realize how much better their life could be if they just start doing the things that they're already thinking about doing. I know it's scary. I know it's terrifying, but do you know what the only thing more scary is than doing that thing?

1:03:50Is the thought of looking back at your life 10 years from now, wondering what your life could have been if you just decided to take action. We're also burdened by all the things that we heard growing up, these limited beliefs that were placed on us. What if you fail? You're thinking too big. What will people think? But none of that actually matters. Just start taking action now and you'll be shocked as to how far your life can come if you just get started today. The Nike campaign, just do it. I still like it to this day. What do you think is the best piece of advice you've been given when it comes to making money?

1:04:29Stop trying to look rich before you actually are rich. We spend so much of our time trying to impress people that are not even paying attention. So we spend all of our money on that nice watch or that pair of shoes or that handbag or that designer outfit, which actually takes us further away from our goals. Instead, real wealth is built quietly. And if you focus on taking all the necessary steps versus showing it, you'll actually get to a true place of building wealth. And the ironic part is when you actually have real success, you'll not want to show it because you just become a bigger target in everyone's eyes anyway.

1:05:10So I would say build wealth quietly and put in the hard work in silence. I like it. Neither of us have fancy watches on today. No, I don't have one. I got my Oura ring. It's not real gold. I don't know. What do you think has been the biggest sacrifice you've ever had to make in your business? The biggest sacrifice I've ever had to make in my business was the toll it took on my relationship when I was just starting out. I just thought that because I was trying to improve the life of my wife and my kids, that that made every decision okay. So I skipped out on the date nights. I skipped out on the dinners.

1:05:47I skipped out on the school plays. And then I came to realize that what is success if I can't even spend time with my own family? And so even though I may not take 100 % of the opportunities that I get today, even if I can go for 80 % of them or 70%, but still have a life and show up for my wife and kids, to me, that's worthwhile. And I'll tell you a quick story as to what helped me realize that. there was a day I was working in my office and my five-year-old daughter came in and said, Daddy, play with me. And I said, Daddy's busy working right now. And so my daughter left. She went into the kitchen.

1:06:25I could just tell from the look on her face that she was really disappointed. So that guilt was eating at me. Eventually I get up, I go to the kitchen and I say, sweetheart, you see this big house that we live in? And she says, yeah. I said, well, that's why daddy has to work so hard. Okay. She nodded her head. I could tell she wasn't really happy with that answer. So I go back to my office. I start working again. And a couple minutes later, my daughter comes in, knocks on the door and she goes, daddy. I said, yeah. She said, I don't want to have a big house anymore. It's like the thing that I valued that I thought that I was delivering on as a dad to help make everyone else's lives better or dreams come true was actually not even the thing that they really wanted.

1:07:10They really just wanted me to be there. That mattered more than anything. So I'd say trying to find that balance between presence and presence. You're gonna make me cry on this one. It's the pregnancy arm. Yeah, actually, that's very true. I could cry at anything. It's not really you. So let's say somebody here is young and starting out in their business. What do you wish you had known as a 20-year-old business owner that you now know? Like, what did you think was true back then that now you realize that is not true at all? People's opinions don't matter. We get so hung up on, what if I put out this video?

1:07:50What is that person going to think of me? What if I try and this doesn't work out and I fail? How is my family going to judge that? People are going to judge regardless. And the people that are judging are the ones that were too afraid to go after their own dreams in the first place. I promise you that if you just get started, the people that are questioning why you're doing something are the same ones that are going to ask you how you did it. And remember, because the people that were with you during your struggle, they're the ones that deserve to be with you during your success. Do you think that most people quit too early in business?

1:08:28I think there's two ways to look at that. The obvious answer is yes, but it really depends on your purpose alignment. If you know that this is the one thing that you were meant to do, it keeps you up at night because God has put these big dreams in your head and you know that your life will never feel complete. If you are not this thing, then I would say try as long as you possibly can. Like if your dream is to be a pro athlete and you're 45 years old and you've not made it, then I would say move on, right? But if you still have the ability to achieve that dream and that's the thing that really fills your soul, then no matter what it takes, keep going after that thing.

1:09:11but on the converse, even if you are successful at something, even if you are making a lot of money, but it no longer aligns with your purpose, then I would say at some point you are going to start to feel really empty and create a void that no amount of money can ever fill. So it might be time to try something else. Last question. Have you ever had a dark night of the soul in business where you thought this isn't going to work out, I'm not going to cut it and I'm not going to make it? If so, it happens. Always listen to your gut. God has put in some sort of ability for us to know whether something is for us or not for us.

1:09:51And every time we turn off that compass, that saying like, I feel it in my skin, I get goosebumps when I talk about it. Something's not right about this, but you know what? Maybe I'm being irrational and reasonable. I'm just going to move forward. those always end up being terrible decisions. So whether it's some opportunity, whether it's a person, whatever it is, if something doesn't feel right instinctively inside of your gut, listen to that. And you know what? Even if it seems like it was a bad decision at first, like, oh my gosh, look at that person is succeeding. A day will come where you'll realize my instinct was right.

1:10:30I'm glad I didn't listen to that. That's so true. We've had that. Dharman, this was amazing. Thanks, Cody. This was amazing. Okay, so new podcast is called? What Happens Next. What Happens Next. Dharman on all the YouTubes, socials, Instagram. If they had to start with one place with you, where would you tell somebody to go and follow you today or go and watch? The Cone Sanchez podcast. I would say, you know, to learn more about me is definitely my podcast. but if you're interested in inspirational stories that truly will help move your life forward in a positive way, there are scripted content on YouTube or Samsung, Facebook or on all the different platforms.

1:11:14It's a great place to get some inspiration and kind of get you out of a rut. I love it. Well, I found this podcast so helpful. I'm literally, you know, you know too probably from doing these podcasts, there are some that I go back and listen to a lot and there are some that are like, okay, that was amazing. It wasn't for me. It was for this person that was listening. Who are the ones that you felt that you're not going to go back to? I can't tell that one. I can't because then I'd be a jerk. But this one I'm going to go back to and I'm going to have the team listen to too. I think the parts on failure, the parts on how to build a business tactically, it's kind of rare that you can listen to something where you can walk away with here is a 15 step process.

1:11:51Here is a four step process. And simultaneously, I feel fired up. You know, David Goggins is just like, go fucking run. But you're like, how? He's like, shut up. run, you know, and this is a unique mix of both. And so thank you for sharing it with us today. Yeah, thanks. Oh, it's such an honor. I really appreciate it. Just me being the creator and thinking about retention, you might want to cut some of that out as sweet as it is. And, uh, and I'll just share a story that if you want to place earlier in the podcast, feel free. But when I actually met Cody, uh, I was a fan of your content first and we were at the Rosewood hotel.

1:12:22And I think I approached you as probably like some crazy fan coming up to you at like nine o 'clock in the morning or whenever it was. And I was like, Hey, we have mutual friends. And I'm to launch a podcast and this and that. So it's just so cool to see things come full circle probably a year later or so. And what an honor to be on your podcast. Well, thanks. I can't wait to come see your studio, get on the podcast. And if you have questions for Dart, hit me in the YouTube comments and I will actually bring them direct to you next time. And the muscular dad story. If you want to see that happen.

1:12:50I don't even know how to script something like that. That's why I'm here. Let's do it. I know I got to see you do it in 30 seconds. That was insanity.

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