I Lost $65 Million In One Day… And It Changed Everything- Dan Fleyshman

33:14And so it's hard for me to watch on the sports betting side because you're thinking about 18-year-old kids that are just like watching their friends bet. And they're like, I won a three parlay and a five thing parlay. That is a once-in-a-while situation. And you can win anything once in a while. But over the course of time, you literally cannot win at sports betting. You have no chance at blackjack. You have no chance at craps. This isn't an emotional thing. It's just math. Let's just all grab a thousand quarters and play. If you have 550 quarters and I have 450 quarters, how can I beat you over the course of time?

33:48It's not possible. That's the reason why they want to keep you there longer. Yes. Yeah. So as you're watching this table turn, is there an emotional reaction from you? Sure. Is it like middle finger to these people? I can't, like, what's that time like for you? Well, we're seeing it happen across the board. Again, I grew up with Ricky Williams living with me and I'm watching him lose his whole career. I grew up with Daryl Russell who passed away The people that had drug situations back then lost their careers over it Ricky Williams lived with you? Yeah In Vegas? In San Diego Oh Yeah, we went to Patrick Henry High School together Okay Why did he live with you?

34:24We lived on the same street And then when I was 18, I got an apartment right by the stadium And so him and Daryl Russell were both staying with me for months at a time And I remember he left the Ferrari Medina Spider in the year 2000 Which was like an impossible car He left it in my garage for like five months and I couldn't get out and uh, he At that time That was like around the same time he was signing with master p and he was doing these different deals He liked to smoke a lot and he ended up losing 8.8 million dollars He had to pay back to the miami dolphins like I so for me when I Watch what happens with cannabis or I watch what's happened with sports betting and now Everything is flipped.

35:02I do have an emotional reaction to it because I watched it ruin Darryl Russell who was my roommate passed away you know he's number two guy on the Raiders and now he's gone I watched Ricky Williams who would have broke every NFL record possible the way he broke every college record he doesn't have the same career that he would have had simply over cannabis and now look how big it is and so I'm seeing that happen in sports betting where people are gonna lose everything they cannot win at sports betting it is a mathematical impossibility I don't care how smart you are I don't care how sharp you are you cannot win over the course of time because you're paying 5 to 10 percent so even if you're really good you still have to pay the house draft kings and calci and all these different polymarket etc they take a percentage of every single bet as they should it's a huge operation for them they spend tens of millions of dollars in regulation they need to make a ton of money but the 18 year olds and the 26 year olds and the 70 year olds that think that they can win at betting it's not physically possible it's not mathematically possible it is not possible over the course of time anybody can win one or two or three bets.

36:04Last night in the Jake Paul, Anthony Joshua fight, you could bet on, are they going to mention Logan Paul, the commentators? You could bet on, are they going to mention the word YouTube or YouTuber? You could bet on Jake Paul by knockout, Jake Paul by decision. Over a hundred million dollars would bet on just one platform on Jake Paul. He can't beat Anthony Joshua outside of a lucky punch. Think about the massive amount of people that bet last night. Their hundred is never coming back. And the people that won, it's even worse. The people that won think that they know how to bet now. And they're going to go do it again and again.

36:41It's just like when you see slot machines. Someone wins a slot machine, they win a$600 jackpot, they end up losing thousands of dollars. Because they remember the time that they won. They can't wait for the college football today. It's confirmation bias, right? You talked about, like, at a certain point, you shouldn't use your own money anymore. Yes. And you should be raising capital or getting leverage or loans explain that because that capital is something that you know a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with and it bankrupts a lot of businesses because they don't know how to go about raising yes capital they don't know what the different tools that's available to them so talk about that so far and away hands down the number one reason that companies fail is they run out of money point blank end of story there's a lot of great entrepreneurs, a lot of great ideas, a lot of great passion, but most restaurants that fail run out of money.

37:34They might have two or three bad months. They don't have two or three months saved up. They're running a clothing brand. They crush it. They actually get a bunch of sales. They can't afford to factor. They can't afford to wait. I'll give you a real life example. With the energy drink, I got an order from Costco and the opening order was$1.8 million. Sounds great. I need around 900K to manufacture it. So let's say that the order purchase order came in January 1st. That means you don't ship until March 1st or April 1st. That's when they're ordering for us three to four months out. Once they get the product, they pay you on net 30 or net 60.

38:10So let's say they pay net 30. That means by May 1st, if I'm lucky and everything goes perfect, I get paid. But I put up the 900 grand January 1st. Let's say May 1st comes around, but my drinks did well. I actually sold. Let's say we did it, which is actually what happened. they made a new order for 5.5 million dollars i didn't get paid on the first order i needed to try to figure out how do i get 2.7 million to fund the next order i haven't been paid yet at the same time i had ralph's albertson's save on cvs walgreens tens of thousands of liquor stores that were slow paying me think about how much capital i needed even though i looked successful i needed capital at all times this happens in clothing happens in shoes.

38:55It happens in almost any physical product business. You need so much capital to be successful. That's why you see so many of these food and beverage brands and clothing brands, etc. raise capital all the time. It's literally waiting for money. The cash flow part of it. Nowadays, there's a lot of options. You get an order from Costco, you can factor it. Factoring will pay. It's very expensive. They can charge you one to two percent per month, but they know they're getting paid because they're buying the papers, what they call it. They're buying the invoice from Costco or Walmart or Target. It helps you with your cash flow.

39:29Back then, that didn't happen. So you can factor the paper. If you have sales, the second you have any good sales, you should be getting different credit cards and any type of loan from a bank. Not necessarily you have to draw down on that line of credit, not necessarily you have to use those credit cards, but when you've got sales, when you've got revenue, is when everyone wants to give you money. When you need money and you don't have money and you're waiting around and your bank account has$600 in it, even though you got 200 grand orders, what banks are going to give you money? They're not.

39:56And so what I tell the entrepreneurs or what I tell the companies I invest into, when you can raise capital, when you can get debt, when you can get a line of credit, when you can get credit cards, please, by all means, get it. You don't have to use it, but get it. If you try to go raise capital when you've got the 600 bucks in your bank, do you want to invest in my friend's company that has$600 in the bank? Probably not. If I told you that they've got 250 grand in the bank, a million dollars in orders, I could text you guys about investing You wouldn't be that excited if I told you Well, they got 600 bucks, they actually can't make payroll On Friday, but they got a million dollars in orders That's a gamble, right?

40:31That feels a bit sketchy And so when you have capital is when you should try to get capital Now, clear that slate If you're just starting up The only true options are Go get sales Leverage yourself, which is A big gamble and most people don't want to do it Or friends, family, and fools The Friends, Family, and Fools are the only ones that are going to give you money in the beginning. You're not cutting a check for$100K into some guy's brand new clothing brand or brand new selling palm trees. Their new thing, we're not cutting the first check because we're not in the Friends, Family, and Fools category.

41:05They have to go get money from the Friends, Family, and Fools. When I first started the clothing brand, I was getting$25K checks and$50K checks. A new year doesn't mean erasing who you were. It means honoring what you've survived and choosing how you want to grow. It means giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help. I'm Mike Dallarocha, host of Sacred Lessons. This podcast is a space for men to talk openly about mental health, grief, relationships, and the patterns we inherit, but don't have to repeat. Here, we slow down. We listen. We learn how vulnerability becomes strength and how healing happens in community.

41:47not in isolation. If you're ready to let go of what no longer serves you and step into the year with clarity, compassion, and purpose, Sacred Lessons is your companion on your healing journey. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today. New year, new goals, and in this economy, a better money plan is more necessary than ever. I am Matt. And I'm Joel. We are from the How to Money podcast. And every week we help you to spend smarter, save more, and make sense of what's going on out there.

42:25If you want 2026 to be the year you finally feel in control of your money, we're here to give you the tools and advice to help you make it happen. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up, y 'all? This is Questlove. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with A$AP Rocky ahead of his album release, Don't Be Dumb. He reflects on his journey from his Harlem roots to global icon status, discovering the hip-hop origin of his name. The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the bucket hat Kangol during it. Pops was like, that's Rakim.

43:00That's who you named after. I just was like, damn, that f***er got swag. Rocky offers a window into not only a boundary-breaking artist, but as a man committed to fusing creative ideas, community, and remaining unapologetically himself. Have you ever gotten roasted for any of your outfits? For sure. Some people don't be getting the vision. Look, they can roast me, they can cook me, they can deep fry me, they can saute whatever they want. It's nobody who can f*** with my fashion sense and my taste is impeccable. I'm just like, I impress myself a lot. It's an amazing conversation. One you definitely don't want to miss.

43:38So listen to the Questlove show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

43:47What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. NLP, a.k.a. Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

44:24It's about engineering consciousness. Mind Games is the story of NLP, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all? NLP might actually work. This is wild. Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My mom was making$2 ,200 a month for a family of four. So for her to give me, the money she gave me was three grand. And I still hear about it today. She still talks about it 26 years later, right? That was such a big deal for her.

45:03And it changed my life because that three grand helped get me that my first convention before magic. Like the only way at the very beginning is to friends, family and fools, credit cards, go get sales because sales cures all. If you go get sales, you can get investors. You go get sales, you can get loans. You will get sales. People will flock to you, whether it's staff, executives, partnerships, deals. And so I focus my life in every business that we can talk about. I focus on getting sales if I can make it famous if I can get retailers to buy into me People will then give me money Other retailers want to buy from me and it goes across every category and too often people just have an idea or a business plan And they don't go try to sell it first If someone pitched us on a clothing brand that they had on a business plan, we're unlikely to invest But that same guy came to us and said hey I went and met with 40 stores last week 26 of them said yes Six of them actually wrote me an order.

46:01I got 80 grand in sales I'm down. I'll invest and maybe you guys will too. The difference is someone else just brings a business plan. We don't know that they're actually going to go try to sell it. And so there's a lot of ways to get capital now. And on top of that, more than ever, is grants. The grant industry is wild because so many of these major corporations, funds, cities, etc., they have to deploy the capital. And so you see a lot of people that are doing grant writing as a whole business now because these grants are real. Like they are very, very real. And a lot of them are in Marcus's group and Hymn 500's group because I've met some of them.

46:40And they're crushing it, helping teach people how to go out there and get these grants. Grants are literally free money. And it is prolific now because of how much capital has to be given away to certain categories, whether you're a woman, different culture, different age group. there's so many different categories that you can go apply for different sections different businesses what county you live in etc go applying for these grants is literally free money you should have someone dedicating an hour a day just applying for grants if it shows up great if it doesn't you have no risk involved besides the time okay and and um okay now let's talk about social media yeah Let's navigate to that.

47:20How'd you get involved in that? And let's start there, because I have a multi-level conversation with social media. How'd you get involved in social media? When I first started, it was MySpace, right? And then Twitter. And I was just posting on social media, watching people post. And I was trying to get my brands out there because it was free. the difference was after the Black Friday which shut down online poker I started angel investing in some companies and I wanted to help them get more famous and so we went and paid different influencers to post but the word influencer didn't exist in 2011 I would pay celebrities to post or I would drive like that refrigerator you have in the corner I remember driving to Britney Spears' house to bring my energy drink refrigerator I used to drive to Omarion's house and bring the refrigerator there and I would go replenish it with drinks and I would drop off clothing.

48:14I would drive to music studios all over LA and put it in there. I would just implement. Why? Because the social media was free and I just wanted to be around. I wanted them to wear my clothes, have my drinks. I would just implement it into them. So when I started paying people to post on things, I noticed how much for like a thousand bucks, five grand, 10 grand, they could get millions and millions or tens of millions of views because it was the wild, wild west back then. And so I started a social media agency called One Penny Ad Agency. The concept was every penny was worth 100 views back then.

48:50Now it's obviously tiny based on the algorithms. There was no real algorithm back then. And so for like 10 grand, 25 grand, I could give people millions of views. And so I started the agency and I was driving around Fashion Nova dresses to Kylie's house and Kim's house. I was dropping off Fit Tea and having Kim post about Fit Tea for like 25 grand, 10 grand. Now it's half a million or a million dollars. And so I was just embedding myself and go to Tyga and Blac Chyna and literally just drop off products. Hey, will you post about Fashion Nova? Hey, will you post about Fit Tea? Hey, Amber Rose, here's 10 grand.

49:25I have so many stories in my mind of making her a rose full of cash to do her posts for fashion brands and then bring her products to post about supplement companies, tea products, fashion brands, etc. And so I just was embedded into the space because 2011, 12, 13, 14, who was my competitor? No one. And so I was just making up prices and driving around brands, making my own random products. I was selling like curve control bras for girls. I was doing eight grand a day in sales selling bras. I don't know anything about bras. I just knew that if I post about bras on social media, we were averaging$8 ,000 a day in sales, spending$1 ,000.

50:04Spend$1 ,000, do$8 ,000 in sales. Our cost basis was$4 ,000. We're netting$3 ,000 a day. That's a good business. Do more of that. Are you multitasking, diversifying the products? Because it's the drink, but then it's the merch. And as you're seeing more things work, you're like, wait, we need more products? Yes. And so because I got experience. As an agency owner, you get experience because you're spending other people's money. If I'm spending money for Fashion Nova, I'm spending money for Fit Tea, or I'm spending money for Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo and Nasty Gal, all these brands, if they gave me money, Siroc Vodka, if I got money from Siroc Vodka, I learned what would work.

50:39I learned what the engagement would be like. I learned what the captions should look like. So for the first nine years, I would write all the captions. For the first nine years, I would drop off the products to the people's houses. I was going to be out in front of Tiger's house and make sure he got paid. I signed the contract. I gave him the product. I would sit at Blac Chyna's house and Amber Rose's house. I was going to sit with them and make sure the post, I would take the picture if I had to back then because who was going to do it? There was no videographers or photographers back then. That wasn't a career back then.

51:08It wasn't a thing. And so that's why I got into it. I was living it. I was just there spending the money for these brands, and I started to make my own products along the way. And then that evolved into you doing it for yourself. Yes. And you becoming an influencer. Talk about it. So where did you see the pivot from actually just doing it for other people or doing it for yourself? and then doing it for yourself because even that as far as business that's something that came later on as far as like a business influencer courses click funnels that did that wasn't always part of the online thing either yep and i still regret there's a lot of time i just didn't do it for myself i'd be in a lot of rooms a lot of situations a lot of celebrities and i didn't take the picture i didn't do the video i didn't post about it i was doing it for everyone else and there was times where I was spending millions of dollars a month for brands, like Bilzerian's Ignite brand.

52:01That campaign was$650 ,000 a month to pay influencers to post about it. The Fit Tea and Happy Tea and those brands, those were$300K,$500K a month. At the same time, there was business guys that wanted to get famous. Tai Lopez, Grant Cardone, a lot of those type of characters were spending six figures a month to get famous on social. Why? Because then they could leverage it to sell courses, products, books, raise capital. A lot of things would happen because they were able to get fame and personal brand. I started running contests. I started doing all these different things to help people build their personal brands.

52:36We did follower contests. Jake Paul is going to post a giveaway. Kim Kardashian posts a giveaway, giving away purses or giving away prizes. All you have to do is go follow Ian, go follow Troy, go follow Rashad, go follow, earn your leisure. If you go follow that, you have a chance to win these purses. You have a chance to win these cash prizes or a car. And so I was running it with Jake. I was running it with Kim. I was running it with these follower campaigns. And I was watching what would happen when these guys got famous. Well, we've seen what happens. They become huge brands now. So the turning point for me was 2019.

53:08I finally hired a CEO. That was eight years or nine years of running around with the social media agency. It was called One Painting Agency. I changed to Elevator Studio around 2015. this ceo had 30 years in the tv game and so i didn't know that i could afford him i didn't know i could bring him on i was doing 18 million in the influencer space with elevator studio he's mid six figures plus equity and i never gave up any equity in elevator studio i never raised any money because i was just doing influencer campaigns that was the biggest turning point this guy was the ceo for beuna murray so the first eight years he created real world, simple life, road rules, all those shows.

53:49He was the CEO for eight years. Bringing that CEO on changed everything. We went from 18 million to 60 million in one year. It allowed me to start my mastermind group. It allowed me to start my personal brand. I started speaking at events. I started throwing events. Everything started when I brought on that CEO because I became unshackled from the office. I could finally leave the office, go out there and be on stages, network, bring in clients, and everything changed from that moment. That's when I really started the personal brand. I had my social media out there the whole time since 2011, 12, whatever.

54:21But it really didn't get big until 2019. That's when the turning point happened because throwing events, making content for myself, speaking at other people's events, that's when it all changed. The powerful thing in that has kind of been the theme throughout your story thus far is that these relationships that you have are fostering new opportunities to you. number one from a working standpoint, working capital, but also from the standpoint of brand ambassadors, right? And opportunities to invest. I know you said you invested in over 43 companies. Are you finding them at this time? Then saying, hey, this is a cool product.

54:56Not only do I want to be part of this campaign, how do I get equity? How do I get ownership? Are you doing that at this time as well? Yeah. So some of the clients I've tried to invest into are trade for equity. I was throwing an event called Elevator Night for free, which I still throw to this day 58 times. free event, 300 to 1 ,000 guests, come there and pitch kind of like a shark tank for five minutes each. If you raise any capital here, I take nothing from it. So it's free to attend, free to present. I just wanted my excuse to get my investors to come there, get speakers to come there. So I've had Russell Simmons and Jake Paul and all these guys speak at the event for free because it was a free event and it was just good for the community.

55:36I would throw those events and I was cherry picking. I would find a food and beverage brand. I would find a clothing brand. I would find this new snack company. I would find a shoe brand, etc. From during these events. So the events would bring people to me. Everyone's posting about me and the company's there. They post about the Elevator Night brand. Elevator Studios, my agency. Now they post about Elevator Night. And so the free events was what brought everyone to me. And then I would find these deals. There was a one called Dollar Beard Club, monthly box for beards. they obviously got sued by Dollar Shave Club later but we had 77 ,000 subscribers along the way paying 20 bucks a month so it was a good business I found that from an elevator night I found a snack company which I later put in 4 million into that brand because it started to crush it I found them when they were this big from throwing the events and so I like now only focus the last 3 years on companies doing 2 to 20 million revenue the reason is 0 to 1 million is super hard 1 million and 2 million are the same thing but 1 million and 2 million is when I know that they have some processes 2 million to 20 million is when they're starting to get it together starting to find the right flow the failure rate is much less when someone's doing 9 million than doing less than a million so I don't invest in startups anymore I just find companies that are doing 4 million, 8 million, 15 million, that range I raise them 3 to 6 million dollars for the company and I've raised 56 million the last 2 and a half years on this exact model.

57:07Finding companies doing that$2 to$20 million is my sweet spot. It's not that I wouldn't gamble on a startup company. It's that I wouldn't feel comfortable asking you guys to invest with me. And so I'm only finding companies that are doing over$2 million so that I can get smart friends, strategic investors to invest in the companies with me. If Dan wants to gamble, throw in$100K onto a deal, I'm gambling, but I've never texted you guys like, hey, invest in the startup ever. Because if it doesn't work out, it's on me, right if it coming to 7 million and goes bankrupt it's less likely you'll be mad at me because they had a real shot at it they're a real business they really went for it if i brought you into a deal because my boy's starting a company i try to avoid those situations because i had those situations in the past when you said when you got the ceo i went from 18 million to 60 million yeah what what was the biggest difference for that jump in that year one i was running the entire business myself.

58:00I literally wrote every caption. I literally did every contract. I literally drove the products to these celebrities and influencers' houses. I shipped the product. I did everything. And so the biggest difference was I wasn't doing the little stuff anymore. I wasn't running the day-to-day operation. I was now being at events. And because I'm at events, I'm meeting clients. Because I'm speaking on stage, people are asking if they can do social media through me. when they ask about doing social media through me I can pass them on to the CEO now and so me being out and being the brand ambassador for Elevator Studio allowed me to bring in more clients and more deals we ended up doing partnership deals with other agencies so we started doing influencer marketing video content for BET Television 2019 that came from me speaking at an event another big agency was doing other work for them for BET and boom, Oracle.

58:57Same agency was running Oracle, running one division of it, but they didn't do influencer marketing or video content. I got the Oracle exclusive for the last half a decade because I was speaking at events. Those guys were there. We ended up doing a deal together. They still did what they did. We did influencer video and all of a sudden, we're getting all this work because I'm out there in the streets. I'm out there in the field. I'm out there on stages. Me being the social butterfly out there allowed to bring in more clients while having a CEO run the operation. And so a lot of times people worry about doing partnership deals or having a partner.

59:33Your partner should be very different than you. If you have two partners that are the same, that are either both introverts or both extroverts or both love accounting or both love to be in sales, you need to have that counterbalance. And so I had a CEO that just loves running the business. He doesn't want to be on stage. he doesn't I didn't notice I didn't even mention his name here he doesn't want to be known in that like he wants to be the guy running the show running the operation I want the name for the not for the ego part of it the function part of it I want to be famous for function the same way Damon John needs to be famous for function the more famous Damon John gets the more famous I get the more deals come in the more partnerships come in the more brands come in the more clients come in the more stages the more speaking events everything happens from fame from personal brand problem.

1:00:18It's a lot. I'm sitting here and I'm thinking number one Dan must have a photographic memory because he hasn't missed the details since 99 but i also wonder how financially disciplined or how did you get so financially disciplined because we're not talking about small sums of money 65 million dollars deal going in 2009 you're talking about hey we went from 18 million obviously the company did to 60 million how are you managing money or have you always been strategically disciplined when it came to it so i'm disciplined in the sense that i i have a intense value of money but i'm also a gambler i'm willing to take risk and i know that if something doesn't work out i'm going to figure out how to make my comeback i've had it what happened with online poker losing 65 million overnight didn't mean i had another 65 million it mean i had nothing and i started the agency and the the deals and consulting like built myself back up.

1:01:20So I've disciplined in the sense that I'm obsessed with investing. I have this one thing that I talk about at every event and every speech and podcast is called 40-40-20. I invest 40 % low risk, 40 % medium risk, 20 % high risk. I've talked about the same strategy my whole life because that's my only thing that keeps me balanced. If it wasn't for 40-40-20, I would be so all in on the high risk because I don't care about being broke I don't care about making a comeback I have no emotion or ego about failures I'm going to have failures because I take a lot of shots and so because of that I would be so heavy investing in just high risk because I have such high risk tolerance I've been through the hardest things in the world I've lost millions, I've had people die I've had all the situations that can come from it so I have no emotion to losing it all so the 40-40-20 thing is I want 40 % low risk that does like 5 % to 9 % for the year.

1:02:16I want those things to be boring. I don't touch it. That's my discipline part. The medium risk is what most people like, 10 % to 30 % for the year. Real estate, stock market, cash flowing businesses. That's what I enjoy. That's what most people enjoy. That's investing in things like that. Real estate, stock market, cash flowing businesses. The 20%, the reason it has to be 20 % or lower is this is high risk. This is cryptocurrency. this is angel investing i have passions for these things but i would be very heavy into those if it wasn't for me having discipline over here very strategic um okay social media back to social media a lot of people may have followings everybody wants to be an influencer these days but very few people really have figured out how to really really make money online a lot of people have followers or they are influencers and they they have podcasts and they um they don't they haven't figured it out right they're waiting for ad deals that's then that's their way or they're trying to find how to get brand partnerships to do commercials if you are advising somebody somebody has a following somebody's an influencer break down you know a business model for them in 2026.

1:03:29You said the perfect few words. They're waiting for ad deals. It's not just going to show up in their bank account. They're not just going to knock on the door from Coca-Cola or Gatorade or Fiji Water. It doesn't just happen like that unless you're a big, big, big name. To stand out as a social media influencer, a podcaster, anyone that makes money from brands, you have to actively reach out to them. It is free to do. you have access to them through social media linkedin twitter email carrier pigeon i don't care how you get a hold of them you actively reaching out as an influencer you will make some money you actively reach out because you want a podcast deal or you want people to endorse your podcast you can get people to do that i'm not saying you're going to go get millions of dollars but can you ask for 500 bucks an episode when you first start out yes and you might get three or four people do that well if you put out four podcasts a month two grand episode and you're making eight grand a month, that's a hundred grand a year.

1:04:27And you're outpacing most people in our society to do a podcast an hour a week. People don't reach out. In the influencer game, I've been preaching this for the last 15 years. If you want to get with a clothing brand, DM them, message them, tag them. If you want to get with a beverage brand, message them, DM them, tag them. It's easy to find the executives of every brand in the world. If you go through LinkedIn, in, go through Twitter, search online. You can get a hold of anybody you want. You can get a hold of any buyer, any brand, etc. Most people do exactly what you said. They're just waiting.

1:05:02They're waiting and expecting it to work out. It literally doesn't work like that. The influencers that go out and make money are the ones that just go after it. They want to get a fashion deal, they go message 40 different fashion brands and four of them respond. How much does it cost you? Nothing. You just copy and paste it. If you want to go out there, I will also say this very practically. Make a one-page PDF about you. Here's your Instagram, your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your Twitter, your Snapchat, your TikTok, your YouTube. You put all your major platforms on one page. I've got 12 ,000 followers here, 100 ,000 followers here, 3 ,000 followers here.

1:05:41You put all your platforms there. one paragraph about your story, your phone number, your email, how to get a hold of you, and what your three rates are. One post, one month, one year. If you send out to brands and you send out to 50 brands, some of them will respond. If they don't, it costs you nothing. But what if they do? And I've watched it work so many times. And if you just send those out on a daily basis, so the brands that you want, and the next thing I'll say is, also practicality, think of yourself of what you eat what you drink and what you wear what you use on your phone those are the brands you should reach out to you like certain brand of shoes go get a hold of them you like certain types of pants there's eight brands that you like message those eight brands repeatedly I'm not saying to annoy them every single day but every single week or month keep messaging those brands and look at yourself as what you eat drink and wear and use that should be your categories Try to get a hold of Cash App, Wells Fargo, or Stripe.

1:06:43Try to get a hold of Gatorade, Fiji Water, etc. Try to get a hold of this brand, that brand, or that brand. Try to get a hold of the brands of every category for sunglasses or earrings or hats or shoes or socks. You like to wear socks a lot? Everybody wears socks. Is there certain brands you like? Go get a hold of Bombas from Damon John. Go get a hold of Nike because you like Nike. Look at yourself at every category and try to get someone to sponsor your food, your beverage, your protein, your credit cards, whatever the things you use. You like Robinhood? Get a hold of Robinhood. You don't like Robinhood?

1:07:14You like Polymarket? Go message and tweet at Polymarket. The downside is zero. But what if two of those brands hit you up and say yes, and they pay you two grand or five grand a month? Too often, people are just waiting and hoping that it's going to come to them. Waiting and hoping is not a strategy. It's not work. You talked about, I mean, that's interesting, right? You talk about alignment, that's what I'm hearing. you talk about consistency and being optimistic right having that idea like yo this could work waiting game obviously is something that's not going to work what are some other things that the people who are doing the influencer marketing what are they doing right that the others are doing wrong right so like if i'm not getting this right right now what are the things i should look inside myself self-reflect and say oh i gotta change that yes most people's social me to post about themselves, not about their fans, not about their audience.

1:08:09They're focused on their ego. They're posting the perfect, look at me, I was working out. Not, hey, I lost 18 pounds because I took first form supplements. I did 75 hard. I drank water every single morning. I did this to sleep. Not teaching them anything. They just showed them that I'm buff. Girl posted a hot girl bikini picture. Doesn't say, oh, this is how I lost 11 pounds. This is how I keep my bikini body like this. This is the supplements I take. This is what I do. That post will do really, really well because you're making it for your audience. If you make it for yourself, we're not going to keep engaging.

1:08:44There's only so many times we're going to put the fire, fire, fire emoji. There's only so many times we're going to tell you how good you look or how hot you are. You've got to teach us. You've got to make us laugh. You've got to show something interesting as your followers. Most people's content is for themselves, not for their audience. and they wonder why it goes down and down and down in engagement because what are we supposed to say on your seventh selfie? What about your 70th selfie because we're following you for a year or two? What about your 700th selfie? What do you want me to say? I'm not going to keep doing that over and over and over.

1:09:14Tell me where you bought that shirt from. Tell me why you did this. Tell me why you're going to this movie theater. Tell me why this funny thing is happening. Tell me why you thought Anthony Joshua was going to win. Tell me why you thought this happened in politics or government. Talk to us. Most people do it for themselves. Most people do it for their own ego. The other problem is their captions are way off. Captions are based on human psychology. If we cannot read the sentence or the paragraph, we're not going to read it at all. And so when people are tagging, here's the photographer, here's the makeup artist, here's this, here's that.

1:09:50I don't know to go follow Fashion Nova or Pretty Little Thing. I don't know to go buy from this product or brand because you tagged five other things. if you're trying to get us to buy from you like buy your course or buy your product or buy your personal training program if you tag for the things I'm not going to see that if you give us too many options we choose none and so people's comments and captions section it's just bad because it's unreadable they're putting in inside jokes or they're tagging multiple people in it we are not going to read it if we're not going to read it we're not going to take an action Instagram stories If you wouldn't want to see it, don't post it.

1:10:27If you don't want to see someone's salad, don't post your salad. If you don't want to see someone posting the floor for six seconds before they pan up, don't post the floor for six seconds and then pan up because the human that's scrolling through makes a decision within three seconds if they're going to watch. So in the first three seconds, we're going to make a decision. Why are you starting off with showing the floor before you show us the nightclub you're at or before you show us the office you're at or before you show us New York City or Paris? make your content about things you want to see make your content of what you want your audience to learn from you make it valuable and people will follow you so as far as um monetization you talked about like from an influencer standpoint reaching out to brands in our world as far as like people that have businesses or like online business people right talk about that as far as it's become very popular over the last six years click funnels and events and courses and ebooks what is your advice to people to galvanize a community and actually have some level of monetary compensation for value add so you have to do what's called setup shop you have to choose a platform like click funnels or go high level i use go high level now you have to find a platform to be your back end like fan basis or one of those brands set up shop so that you can accept money easily set up every single social media platform because you have to build what's called omnipresence you know if people if you love Twitter if you love Facebook and I like Instagram that means that he needs to be on all those platforms because you don't know where your audience enjoys to take your content in and I might follow you on multiple platforms but not see you on every platform because of the way the algorithm works so you have to be on all six major platforms you have to have your own website so it's easy if I want to go down the rabbit hole because I'm like oh man man, I really like your content.

1:12:19I really want to buy from EYL University. I need to be able to go to that website, that landing page, and make a decision. Your purchase order, the way to buy your add to cart, has to be what's called above the fold. Meaning, if I go to EYL University, for example, on the top of the website, if I'm on my phone, it should be on the very first page. It's called above the fold. If I have to scroll even a little bit, your engagement's way down, your conversion rate's way down. even to scroll which takes me no effort besides doing this above the fold so if you guys are building it you need to have your website your social media your bio your photo everything seamless because we as a community have add and it's getting worse the reason that vine and tiktok and short form video youtube shorts it's called youtube shorts for reason because we have a short attention span.

1:13:12Because of that, you've got to make it very simple. When someone sees your social media on every platform, they see your website or they see your checkout page, it has to be easy to buy from you. You can't have just one option. You need to have Apple Pay or Bitcoin or Cash App. Any way that they can pay you, you should be able to accept money. Too often, people have one way to check out. You've got to have multiple options for the payment processing. That part is super, super important if you have a high ticket like you're selling a course thousand dollars or more you need to have something that allows you like a fan basis type company that allows you to do payments that allows you to for people to pay you 100 bucks a month instead of a thousand bucks up front for example you need these things to happen because you need to act as if they're going to buy from you and we know if there's any friction it's unlikely we're going to buy what do you do when you go and you add the cart and there's some pop up and this happened that happens you exit you leave.

1:14:08You have to have no friction for someone to purchase from you. And so this is super important. So when someone first sees you, it's easy to understand who you are. When they first see you, something's appealing about it. So your bio should have some highlights in it, what you've done or what you care about. When they actually take the step to go to your website or click your link or click on your stories and go to want to make a purchase decision, they have to make a decision right away. If someone has come to your website to make a purchasing decision. You've got to offer it right at the very beginning above the fold.

1:14:39Below that, you're then justifying who you are, why they should buy from you. Buy my fitness course, buy my stock trading course, buy my credit repair course, whatever that thing is. You've got to explain all that below the option because a lot of people are going there ready to make a purchase. So the long-winded answer is setting up shop, making it very easy to find you. Once they found you make it easy to make a decision once they made a decision make it really easy to pay you this is a tricky part because before that it's like you have to build a relationship you have to build a community but you don't want to always sound like it's transactional no so like how to does one balance that yep so the famous gary v line the jab jab jab right hook that book that concept is very good the jab jab jab right hook concept is monday you're posting fitness Tuesday, you're posting with your dogs.

1:15:33Wednesday, you're posting fitness and with your kids. Thursday, by the way, I have this program. I can help you lose 15 pounds in six months by my course. Friday, you're posting with your friends, going out to the club. Saturday, you're posting hiking and yoga. Sunday, by the way, guys, guess what? I have a 50 % off by my course. Posting from church at 1 p.m. Have your Sunday night, blah, blah, blah. Monday, you're posting the jab, jab, jab is you're posting your content, teaching them, making them laugh, showing your lifestyle, making them buy into you because there's hundreds of thousands of people selling the same exact type of fitness course.

1:16:07Hundreds of thousands of people can offer how to lose 15 pounds in six months. Lots of options for that. They are buying into you. And the way to build you is to make people want to listen to you. They want to watch you. The reason we buy from certain characters and the reason we buy certain products or programs is we like that person, that storyline. We have this in our minds, something about their story. Us, as humans, remember stories. We all know 50 Cent got shot nine times. Why? We all know Lil Wayne's the greatest rapper alive. They tell us it in the songs, on social. That's burned into our minds.

1:16:41There's a storyline to them. And because of that, we want to buy their products. And the product is fungible. It could be anything. Whether they're selling vitamin water, whether they're selling products, whether they're selling movies and TV shows like Power. We think of 50 Cent for different parts of his brand, but we all remember this famous thing from 25 years ago about him getting shot nine times that is a story that we are bought into and so when you think about certain characters you have to build that brand up the way that you build community is that you are teaching them making them laugh showing them something interesting or showing them something timely it's four things funny interesting something timely or something also in their in their space meaning can it be something that's going to help them in their life.

1:17:25If it's not, they might refer you to someone they're never going to buy from you. If you teach them something, they'll afford it to their friends, they'll repost you, they will buy into you. If you make things about yourself, they will not think about you in the community because they think of you as selfish. If you are teaching people and making them laugh, you guys obviously are teaching people in VestFest, University, etc. Because of that, you have very passionate people that will buy from you. Very passionate. Because day after day, you're teaching them about stock market, how to invest, how to trade, you're showing them other characters through your podcast.

1:18:00You guys are the perfect example. That's why I'm always so passionate about your brand over these years. I've been obsessed with what you guys are doing. You're throwing these live events, you're teaching people, and the butterfly effect is far greater than you'll ever know. When you teach people and they go out there and make their own money, or they build their own business, and they open up their four restaurants in their community, that creates jobs, that creates things in their community, in their city. to me it's almost like a form of charity what you guys are doing almost has a form of charity to it because you're creating people to make their own money far greater than you'll ever know 25 ,000 people go to invest fest 600 of them go out and create businesses make partnerships and deals 200 of them start dating and creating babies and get married there the butterfly effect of live events and teaching is why you have such a strong passionate community that's also why i've been one of your biggest fans watching you guys because of the butterfly effect of what it does everything i just said, think about the emotion of how I said it.

1:18:52It's because I am a follower of you guys. I've been learning from you guys. I have watched what you guys do. And so I'm the perfect example of I would buy from you because I've watched what you do for other people and I've watched what you taught me. Anyone that's listening can create that same thing only if they're actually really good at it. You have to be really good at real estate to teach real estate. You have to be really good at fitness and helping someone lose 15 pounds because you actually know how to do it. But competence leads to confidence. If you get really smart and really granular and get really good at a topic, whether it's stock trading, credit repair, fitness, health, et cetera, people will believe you and people will buy from you.

1:19:29But you have to get really good at it. You cannot fake it until you make it. You have to actually get good at it. Before we leave, talk about events. Talk about your events. I don't know. You do events. Yeah. You recently just did an event, right? Oh, yeah. So talk about that as far as how you got into the event space, how you've scaled that and your thought process around doing events So I throw 42 events a year and I call it free Cheap affordable. Holy shit So free is elevator night totally free throwing it 58 times 300 to a thousand guests. It's a pop-up event. So we don't tell anybody until a few days before it goes because it's free Cheap is Aspire tours like 100 bucks to 500 bucks.

1:20:10Those events are 12 times around the country I have what's called the man in the arena tour. It's an all-men's event We get a couple thousand men in there one day intense experience We bring in david goggins and bring in very intense to help men get better and stronger for their households and communities 100 bucks to 500 bucks. So that's the cheap affordable type Affordable on the mastermind side is we do like 2k to 5k boot camps we do a 20k mastermind like things that are affordable to help people really grow their business that are already doing a million two million five million holy shit is i have one called the 100 million mastermind experience it's a hundred thousand dollars per person it's a hundred people that do 10 million or more in revenue though that's my seventh year coming up in january is my seventh year of throwing that event that also started back in that story of the hiring the ceo i started it right after i hired the ceo hundred thousand dollars per person i sold 100 spots in two months.

1:21:03That's$10 million in revenue. So I thought it was too expensive to hire that CEO, but it changed my life because I created this mastermind from finally having more time. The live events to me is something I'll be doing for many, many years. And live events will be more important than ever. You heard recently the owner of Endeavor and Gary Vee keep talking about it and Elon Musk. Live events will be the only true commodity soon because if people don't have to work as much or people their jobs give them more time they're going to go to live events more than ever if they're scrolling through and dealing with ai and social media too much in person becomes the true commodity people are going to go to events more than ever so i've quadrupled down on events i partnered with events.com it's a huge company in san diego i'm throwing these 42 events a year as often as i can because i truly believe that people need this they need to come together they need to come to invest fest they need to come to these events and so i'm going to keep doing these events for the rest of my life incredible you talked about before the who's your daddy thing yeah so as a yankee guy we we know 2003 pedro says that just for shit to get how did that how did that come it was interesting scenario because i loved it right it was on the cover of every newspaper magazine television it was like chanting who's your daddy like it was great and um but i do own the trademarks and i do own the clothing the brands I own it for barbecue sets and physical products, greeting cards, paper, everything.

1:22:3216 different classes, 300 products. And so I went to the MLB. I'm like, I want you to do this. This is great. But I'm at your stadium and you're selling the shirts. You can't do that, right? Unless you give me a percentage. And they basically told me to buzz off like I'm just a little kid. I came back. I'm like, no, no, really. Like we're doing tens of millions of dollars in sales. I wasn't public yet. It was a couple of years before I went public. You were actually impacting our business. You're actually hurting us. You can't do that. And so they ended up settling. So it worked out okay. But I basically said, whatever you're selling, we want 6 % of gross sales.

1:23:08They're already such an expensive product that we kind of fit into their model. They changed their shirts from like, back then it was$26. They changed it to$29 to basically afford us. And that's all that ended up happening. They were basically saying they were going to sue us. It would take two or three years and they're going to crush us. I said I don't mind spending millions of dollars to fight you because I know how important this is and I don't know if this is going to be a brand for years I knew my brand was around for many years. I didn't know if they were going to keep doing this And if I didn't stop them, they could just keep selling year after year, which could have truly hurt the business And so luckily they ended up settling and it worked out.

1:23:42Okay, and then we lost to the red socks in 2004 Yeah, we weren't their daddies anymore What about the philanthropy part? That's my true obsession so I throw the world's largest toy drive that's happening right this second this is our 12th year I self-fund the whole thing because it's my passion I do one-on-one coaching people wired to charity instead of wired to me so I can get even more capital to put into the toy drives this year we're doing almost a quarter of a million toys we're at 210 ,000 right now three cities to go I fly around like a psychopath to 10 cities in 17 days and I try to find partners or big venues to host these toy drives.

1:24:24And so we got Allen Iverson in Virginia. We did Raider Stadium, Miami Heat Arena. We're getting these big venues to do these toy drives. And my goal is to get other people to host their own toy drives. I don't really post like donate to us or rent. Go buy your own toys. Go give out toys in your own community. You can replicate the same way we're doing it. When I first started, 12 years ago, there were just eight of us on the floor wrapping toys. now we get a thousand two thousand three thousand families per city to come pick up toys and then we donate to the boys and girls club or the city of watts um black sam just did the event we just donated a couple thousand toys to him like i give it to the communities to other people's toy drives so someone's doing it in their community so we'll donate to five or ten toy drives um we're doing for tony tungis the coaches um his charity he's throwing a big toy drive i just find people that They're throwing their own toy drives, and then we'll give it to them to go give out.

1:25:20So boys and girls clubs, churches, other toy drives, or people can come to us in person. I keep doing 10 Cities because I'm obsessed with it. When you see the reaction from these children and also the relief on the parents to get toys that they don't have to buy now, that's why I'm putting in three weeks of my life every year to go out and physically go in person to do these. Love it. I appreciate you. I appreciate you taking your time. a lot of gems, a lot of information. Definitely any last words or your social and any thing that you want to leave the audience with? I mean, the main thing I would say is just get started.

1:25:57You have access to the world now from your cell phone. The platforms are all free and cheap. Social media is free to do. You've got the power of the world on your phone. Creating content is very real. I've watched it change lives. And when you're listening and learning from guys like you, it's just you're getting the fast forward button to success. not just of what to do, but of what not to do. And the things that you can help people avoid, and that's why, again, so passionate about you guys and your brand, is like you're literally changing lives and you don't even realize the mass effect. You might know the stories that are in your head, and you're like, damn, no, I know.

1:26:30You don't realize how big it actually is. Because when you change a household, you change a community. You help someone go make$100 ,000,$200 ,000 a year, it literally changes that ecosystem. It changes whether kids are going to college or not. It changes how they live, how they eat, how they breathe. Do their kids go to school? like the things that happen in those communities. And so to me, investing in knowledge and teaching, like those things that I do and the things that you guys do on a grand scale, that's my passion. Like listening to this will change people's lives. Appreciate it. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

1:27:00We'll see you guys next week. Peace. Ernest, what's up? You ever walk into a small business and everything just works? Like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square. We love supporting businesses that run on Square because it just feels seamless, whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor at a pop-up market, or even one of our merch partners. Square makes it easy for them to take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from one simple system. One of the things we love most is seeing neighborhood businesses level up.

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1:28:52Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A new year doesn't ask us to become someone new. It invites us back home to ourselves. I'm Mike Della Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons, a space for men to pause, reflect, and heal. This year, we're talking honestly about mental health, relationships, and the patterns we're ready to release.

1:29:37If you're looking for clarity, connection, and healthier ways to show up in your life, Sacred Lessons is here for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Delaroach on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom Podcast. Each January, men promise to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the valley of despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward.

1:30:14Our two-part conversation is available now. Listen to The Mailroom on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Hey, it's Joel. And Matt. From HowToMoney. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right. Yeah, each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence.

1:30:47Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.