Growing a Top 25 Business Podcast with Sam Parr: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down growing a top 25 business podcast. And to drop these value bombs, I brought to Sam Parr and the EO Fire Studios. Sam is the founder of the HustleAndTrends.co, one of America's fastest growing media companies with a focus on millennials, tech, and culture. He's also the co-host of My First Million. And today we'll talk about how figuring out what people have done is helpful, but you've got to go and get after it and how it's easier to have money and throw money at problems.

0:40So we'll talk about that a little bit more. And oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Sam and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software, say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook. Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic, all in just 90 days.

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1:34Sam, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. I think that in order to create something that has like a meaningful impact on your life and your career, you probably should only do one thing. and say no to just about every project you have except for that one business. There's a lot of people that love just saying the word omnipresence. They just think it's a cool word. So like omnipresence, be everywhere. And my response is always, but do you want to be like kind of okay or crappy at everything? Or do you want to be absolutely amazing at one thing?

2:19So I love this whole concept of just focusing on one thing, following one course until success. that Fire Nation is what it's all about. And Sam, as I mentioned in the intro, we're talking about growing a top 25 business podcast, which is just incredible how you've done that. But I want to go back a little earlier first. Well, true. Thank you for that. But I'm just impressed. I'm impressed with how you've done it because you did go from selling hot dogs to selling the hustle. So I really want to get into that story. Break it down for us. I lived in Nashville, Tennessee, where I was going to college.

2:56And I met a guy who had a hot dog stand in storage. And I'd always started businesses. But I kind of wanted to do something like in person, like brick and mortar. And this guy had this hot dog cart. And I was like, Hey, can I rent this from you? But will you let me rent it now and pay rent at the end of the month? And he was cool about it. And he let me. And so I started a hot dog stand and then we eventually had a bunch of locations and I did that in college. Basically, I rigged it. So my college classes were like at 5 p.m. to like 930 p.m. And then I would work from like 11 a.m. in the morning to like three.

3:36And then from the late night when the when people were going to the bars and it was great, but it was like physically hard. It was very challenging. It was a lot of work. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I need to figure the internet out because I wish I could make money in my sleep because it's like 105 degrees in Nashville. And so I just kind of figured it out. I started an online store. That was cool. I sold a couple informational products. And then eventually I cold emailed this guy who started at the time was a company called Air Bed and Breakfast. And I kind of finagled my way into meeting him.

4:13and I went out to San Francisco to meet them. And I was like, San Francisco is the place to be. So I moved out there and that's when I started Internet Companies. Internet Companies, FTW, Fire Nation. And one thing that I can tell you from firsthand experience is that it's not easy to create a top 2 ,500 podcast. And Sam, you've actually grown My First Million into a top 25 podcast, which is just mind blowing. It's one of the reasons why you were acquired earlier by HubSpot. We can get into that a little bit later. But let's talk about how you turned My First Million into a top 25 business podcast.

4:54Let's talk about your secrets. So we have, you're more of an expert than I am. We have on any given month for the past, this month included, February, and for the past two or three months, like between 1.5 million and 200 million listens a month, which is on, I think we get like 1.3 on like just podcast apps and then like another 300 on or three to 500 on YouTube. So I don't know, would that be, that'd be top 20, right? In terms of listenership, probably top three, but we won't, we won't get into details. So because the charts are kind of nonsense. They are nonsense. The charts are nonsense. So people say like, we're ranked this and I'm like, that's cool.

5:32Um, I care about eyeballs or ears. So the, here's the bad answer about growing a podcast. It's incredibly hard. And frankly, I don't think I know how to do it. And so we grew to... We were acquired exactly one year ago, today's mid-February. And when we were acquired, we had 350 ,000 to 400 ,000 monthly listeners. We got there, we launched... So I owned the hustle. And at the time when we launched the podcast, we had a million subscribers there. So that's obviously a huge unfair advantage. But when we launched it, it kind of took off right away, like 30 to 40 ,000 listens an episode for the future, like 12 months, I think we only had 10 or 15 ,000 downloads an episode.

6:15So it like dropped significantly. And then we basically just focused on it. And so we just like showed up three to four times a week, made good content consistently. And it worked. And I know that sounds like hocus pocus, but it kind of worked. But then what we're doing now, and this is inspired by Jordan Harbinger, which I think you and I talked about. We did. Yeah. Now at HubSpot, we're actually buying ads on other people's podcasts. So like you and I, I think I did a read for you actually already. And like, we're gonna blast you guys on my first million. And I think, well, I'm on here now. So like, these partnerships are probably going to be the most helpful thing to get us to the hopefully two, three, four or five million range.

6:52But to get us to like, the first like initial traction. I don't know why it worked. And that's like a really bad answer. But that's the truth. I mean, when people ask you how to grow a podcast, what do you say? I don't know. Well, I can tell you exactly why it worked for you. And you've already touched upon it a little bit, but the reality is multifold here. Number one, the thing that's really, really clear is you did have an amazing advantage with a million subscribers. So you could get off to the races. You could say, Hey, everybody who listens to the hustle and you like our content here, we're doing a show that's going to be really powerful and impressive along these same topics.

7:33click here to subscribe and you're able to then you know get this kind of mover's advantage where once you get that traction and momentum it just builds upon itself because now you're a new and noteworthy podcast now you're top ranked and that people are going to be going to the rankings and seeing your show and listening and you're going to be able to send one email and get 100 reviews and most shows only have between 10 to 15 reviews and so there's a lot of things that you could do to establish yourself very early but where you really nailed it and this is the the big takeaway way that I think a lot of people miss out on is your branding.

8:02You nailed it in your branding. I always tell people, if you can be the number one solution to a person's real problem, you will win because people want the best solution to their real problems. And we need to be honest. You know this, Sam. I know this, but most people won't be honest about it. Most people's problem is the fact that they don't have enough money to do what they want to do. And so they're scrambling to get more money. What is your show? What is the whole concept about it? My first million. Who in their right minds that doesn't already have a million dollars doesn't want to listen to a show about how to get to my first million, how to get to your first million, how to acquire their first million.

8:41So you nailed the branding. You nailed the name. People are scrolling through. I'm looking right now, by the way, I pulled this up specifically for this conversation, the top 200 business podcast. I'm looking at token CEO. I'm looking at need it, lead to win, chat with traders. I'm looking at all these random, random like names that are here that like, they're not going to draw people in. And then you scroll down and you see my first million. Wait a second. I would love to get my first million in the next six, 12, 18 months. Who's not going to want to listen to that content? So, brother, you've really, whether you're aware of it, which I think you are or not, you've just nailed branding over the years.

9:28What do you think about that? Yeah, I think that I've done okay. But, like, a lot of my stuff has horrible names. So, like, the hustle. Give me some bad names. Like, the hustle. That's a bad name. The name of my conference was HustleCon. Like, hustle, negative, con, negative. Like, I'm adding two, like, pretty bad things together. One time I owned a conference for content creation and it did okay. It made like hundreds of thousands of dollars and I called it Con Con, like content conference. And so my names are all really bad. My First Million, I didn't come up with that name, Sean did, but like pretty bad because it makes us sound like Get Rich Quickie, which is like, that's not even what we talk about.

10:08Sometimes we do. I disagree with you. I really think My First Million is a fantastic name, a fantastic brand. It doesn't say to me, get rich quick. It's not saying my first million tomorrow. It's saying my first million, like how do we get there? And you can approach that in any way, shape or form you want. And what I think is really a huge takeaway for our listeners right here though, is like, listen, Sam didn't have it figured out day one. He didn't know what he was doing. He made a lot of mistakes. I didn't have it figured out day one, but guess what? We're just a couple of guys that woke up every day and we did something.

10:38We produced something, we created something and we haven't stopped. And we're still haven't stopped today, even though Sam and I are both, you know, well wealthier enough than we ever need to retire himself into the sunset, but we love doing what we're doing. We're having great times, great businesses, great partnerships, great fun. Him and I were both on stage at the last podcast movement, having a great fireside chat. I mean, that is what it's all about. And you did come up with some business ideas from the creation of My My First Million, whether you were hearing about them from your guests or you were having these light bulb moments yourself with having these conversations.

11:14What were some of those business ideas that came from My First Million? I actually deleted something from one of our recent podcasts that I liked so much. And I'm like, oh, I got to run with this. And I'm not going to give away too much, but it's a new content series that I'm playing with called Billionaires Anonymous. That's a good name, right? That's a good name. um so i'm interested in that i recently um bought a farm and i'm turning it into a fitness retreat and we because we have some people on the podcast and we kind of like researched um a lot of these airbnbs and like there's these new brands of airbnbs one's called wander uh another one is getaway have you heard of getaway yeah i have and so we like broke down those businesses and we found out that they're like shockingly interesting and um pretty great companies and so i bought a farm to turn into a fitness Airbnb that I'm calling Marathon Ranch.

12:04Dude, when that's ready, and I'm not just saying that, but like when that's ready, like let me know. Like that's the kind of thing that I'm looking for. Like that's where I'm kind of at these days where, you know, I'm putting in like five, six days a month on the podcast and I'm going in like health and wellness because I want to live till I'm 120. I want to live till I'm 140. And like this is - Yeah, and it looks like you're doing a good job. I've seen you. So I was heavily inspired by that, by like, we talked about that on a podcast. And I think that's one of the better ideas as we had. Another thing is we've had a bunch of D2C people on.

12:34And I typically don't like that business because I think it's needlessly hard. But I've been very fascinated with, we talked about this one guy named Mark. What was his last name? I forget. But he started a company called Primal Kitchen. Have you heard of Primal Kitchen? Yes. Wasn't that Mark Sisson? Sisson. Yeah. I was going to call him Suster, but that's a different guy. Mark Sisson. And this was a really cool business where he had a blog and it wasn't, we talked about this with Nathan Berry. He had this blog that wasn't even that popular. Mark's Daily Apple back then. And it was like, okay.

13:06I mean, it was great. But in terms of like the numbers, it wasn't like particularly huge. Like if anyone dedicates three years, I bet they can get 250 ,000 uniques to their website in two or three years through blogging. And he launched this thing called Primal Kitchen, which was a bunch of sugar-free sauces. And the biggest thing was a sugar-free ketchup. That's really good. I love it. And he sold that company for like 300 or $200 million a couple years after starting it. And it all was off his audience. And so I love this idea of making normal, common food that we often have forgotten about, like condiments, and just making it a little bit healthier and launching it to a relatively small audience.

13:48I think that's far more straightforward than people think and can be quite large. So that's something that I'm interested in at the moment as well. That's fantastic. I actually had an experience where this is just a couple months before you and I were hanging out for in Nashville, actually, I had just gone back from a fasting retreat. And the whole thing at this fasting retreat, they love the premise of no salt, no oils, no sugars. Now you can't find dressings that have no salt, no oils, no sugars, even the really healthy ones have at least one of those three, if not two and all three of them on some degree, except this one company, Well Your World, I'll give them a shout out, came up with amazing dressings of all kinds that have no salts, no oils, no sugars, but they're so tasty.

14:33And there's one that I'm obsessed with called Sweet Heat. So if you want to try Fire Nation, Sweet Heat is where I recommend you starting. And they're also doing the same thing with like spices too. And it's no salts, no oils, no sugars. And it's this D2C stuff. And that's direct to consumer Fire Nation that Sam's talking about, where you take stuff that you think the big players would have cornered the market and everything, but there's a lot of opportunities around if you find that niche. Here's another one. Have you heard of this just recently launched? So it's actually, this guy is my next door neighbor.

15:05So his name's Anthony. He started this company called Perfect Keto, which maybe you've seen. But he started this new business called Zero Acres. And it's really cool. So basically, seed oils are in everything. Basically, palm oil is in lots of - vegetable oils. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not like a health expert, but I understand high level stuff that basically those things are horrible for you. Terrible. Terrible. And they're horrible for the environment. So if you go to the store tonight and when you look at peanut butter, it'll say like peanuts, which is fine, a little bit of salt, and it'll say palm oil.

15:38And you want to buy the peanut butter that does not have that, even though it does make it kind of taste good and the consistency, it's horrible for you. Now listen, Costco has peanuts and salt, and that's this Costco brand peanut butter. That's the only two ingredients. And it's amazing. And so there's this guy named Anthony who started this company called Zero Acres. And I don't want to act like I'm a scientist and understand this, but basically there's a way that you can ferment certain types of leaves in order to get oil. And so this is not the best analogy because Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat or whatever that's called, that stuff is actually highly processed and not that good for you.

16:13But what they did to beef Zero Acres is doing to palm oil. So So they're creating this new type of palm oil from fermented plants. Sorry, new type of oil, cooking oil from fermented plants that hopefully Popeyes can use instead of using vegetable oil. So that's another company that I think is incredibly fascinating. So I'm really fascinated by these businesses that are taking things that are like these forgotten foods and making them healthier. Oh, that could be another name of a business, by the way. Forgotten foods. That's a good one, right? Am I deleting this part of the episode? No, we're good.

16:47I'm not going to go in this business anytime soon, but forgotten food, man, that's good. I like it. You just look at your pantry. It's like, what are the things that I take for granted? But when you actually realize it, like, oh, they're kind of shit for you. Right. Love this. And Fire Nation, we have so much more great content coming when we get back from taking our sponsors. Okay. Let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business. And they are also our featured partner, high level. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, HighLevel is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack.

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19:09Now I see how much smoother things can be with a partner who helps me think ahead, get a personalized consultation, and 10 % off your first year when you mention Entrepreneurs on Fire. Visit joingelt.com slash E-O-F. That's www.joingelt.com slash E-O-F. Sam, you're a pretty fit guy, And you're even looking to go more in that direction with Marathon Ranch and everything you're doing there, which is fantastic. I want to stay in touch with you about that for sure. But why do you believe that getting fits actually helps in business? How are they one and the same? Look at it the other way, which is like, what's the point of succeeding or even having, whether it's a small amount of success or a big amount of success, if you feel like crap.

19:55So like, I'm not, I don't want to like, there's no point in having money or no point in like working hard. you know, I only live once, so I got to feel good. And also when I feel good and when I look good, I am way more confident. And that totally carries over to business. I like working out. So I every quarter I set athletic goals that I want to achieve. So it could be like I want to have my first boxing match. It could be I want to increase my vertical to whatever. It could be I want to squat, whatever. And I love doing that because I think it's really a good habit to create a plan and to have a goal and to get into the momentum and the habit of hitting your goals and hitting your targets and seeing progress.

20:40I think that's really just beneficial to life. And it makes me feel like I can overcome so many things. But the confidence is really the big thing. Sam, you have money. You have a lot of money. Does money buy happiness? Kind of. Yeah, like a little bit. You know that study about like$70 ,000? Yeah. That's wrong. I cannot agree with you more. I hate when people quote that. There's a number. There is a number, but that's wrong for two reasons. The biggest reason why it's wrong is if you go and look at that study, it doesn't say you're not happy after$70 ,000. It says that your happiness goes down.

21:14Like it doesn't increase a significant amount after that, but it still goes up. so i so and the second thing is wrong is like seventy thousand dollars that's ridiculous it all depends on where you live um and so i do think that like there is a number i i if i had to say what that number is i would say maybe five hundred thousand dollars to a million dollars a year if you are living in a high cost city where it's like it is easier to have money and to throw money at problems and that does make you happier because you can focus on things that make you happy for example, I hate doing my laundry. Like it just, it stresses me out because I want my clothes to be folded right after I clean them because I don't want them to be wrinkled.

21:56They're ruined, but I just can't stand it. And so like just being able to pay someone$200 to do that for me, it definitely makes me happier for sure. Let's do the math real quick on$70 ,000. $70 ,000 after taxes, you literally are making$807 a week,$807 a week. That's before anything, Sam. That's before I didn't, I'm not taking out rent or cars or mortgages or your kids,$807. Like, let's just be real. That studies pure BS. It's total BS. And people need to know that. And I don't like that BS because it just rubs people. It teaches people bad. It does to believe silly things. It really does. And whenever people ask me, they're like, John, like you've been making six figures a month for over a hundred months in a row now.

22:45Like one is enough enough. Like, is this money really making you happier or happy? And I'm like, well, guess what? Not making this money would make me less happy for sure. Because I love the freedom. I love the ability to, which I did yesterday, by the way, not yesterday, two days ago. I woke up Saturday morning and I said, wow, Providence College, my school is number eight in the country. Number 10 Villanova's coming into town. That's a massive basketball game. I flew to Providence, Rhode Island. I went and I blew it out. But guess what I also did? I met with the school admissions and I sat down with them and I gifted a six figure entrepreneurs on fire torch award while I was there that I'm now sponsoring a Puerto Rican student every year going forward to go to Providence College from my island here of Puerto Rico.

23:35And it feels good, right? You probably felt amazing doing that. And dude, like people are like, when's enough enough? I'm like, well, when I'm giving amazing amounts of money away to help amazing people with amazing opportunities, like, is it ever enough? Of course not. Like, I know you've done great philanthropic things. I've built countless schools in Guatemala, Lagos, like all over the world. Like, it's unbelievable what you can do when, A, you're having fun. B, you have the mindset of like, let's just blow this out. And you go from making my first million to millions. And then you start seeing the power.

24:09I would argue that like, I do think there is like, so if we had to get specific, like that study said 70 ,000, I said probably half a million to a million. I also think that there's like a liquid net worth where once you cross it, it's like, I can still screw this up. But if I just chill, I likely won't screw it up. And so I think that number is probably in the 10 to 15 million range. Mine's 50. And then the next one after that is probably 100, where like, if you're 100 liquid, you could probably spend$3 million a year every single year or the equivalent with inflation and be totally fine. And that's a pretty lavish lifestyle.

24:44But here's the problem. Here's the problem is when you get to your level of wealth and my level of wealth, something unlocks. And I'm wondering if it unlocked for you. I have to imagine it has because you're so active on these things. But when you start seeing how your money now is making money, before it was Sam making money, Sam selling hot dogs, Sam's hustling, he's doing the thing. But when you start seeing your pile of money that you've acquired over the years, when that starts making money and exponentially, it's unfair. It's unfair. It's the power of compounding. I was like doing the math and I was like, so like passive income being defined as like maybe like collecting rent or just like the stock market.