Episode 547: James Dumoulin: The Kid Who Built an 8-Figure Business By Asking Billionaires How Much They Make

21:49What if we launch a community where they can ask their questions to them. Boom. Launch that, turn that into a multimillion dollar business. And so that is honestly what I think is very like valuable right there is if you're a content creator, if you're making content, number one, why do you got to get to the root of why people follow you? See, the mistake content creators make though, is when they do want to launch a business is they're like, I want to launch a coffee company because it's cool. Or I want to watch, I want to launch a merch company. Talk to your customer. Like this is in any business that you're in, but especially as a content creator, like spend a couple of weeks, spend a month, spend more like pulling your audience exactly what they want.

22:22That's exactly what we did when we launched our subscription community was get to the exact route of why people follow us and what it is that they want if we were able to kind of put this community together. And so that's what we did, right? But you have to get savvy at least some degree to as with business as a content creator, or it's worthy to go and find partners or somebody that is very credible and knowledgeable in the space that can attach your attention to revenue. Because if not, if you're just banking on ad revenue, Like we said, it is very common that at some point you're going to get demonetized and you have to be ready for that.

22:53Well, also, it's not like ever guaranteed. Like also, like if you're what you were really good at. And I never really know. I think from my recollection is you didn't take easy money, though. Like I'm sure a lot of brands and companies like crypto and all these things probably threw a lot of shit at you. And you could have easily taken 100 ,000, 200 ,000 and kind of kind of like, I think major brand water down. You would have watered down School of Hard Knocks because you basically would be a walking billboard for other people. I never saw you do that. Was that intentional too? One million percent.

23:29The most important decision that we made in any business decision that we make to this day still is nothing can dilute the brand. Your brand equity is the most important thing as a content creator. And we see so often, you know, people will take that sponsorship. Like, I won't do a sponsorship. You know, what's funny is I ironically, you know, I think I did an integration one time with like prize picks for like a YouTube integration, right? Because everybody says gambling companies, they pay more than everybody else. And I remember doing, we did an integration with them. And I remember like just seeing some like the feedback and I was like, you know, we're never going to do that again because it's like we're a financial literacy channel.

24:07And it's like, it does not make any sense for us to work or promote with those types of businesses. And you have to understand that. And so the brand equity piece is extremely important. Like the fast, quick, temporary money, even though it may seem great, it's gonna dilute where you wanna go long-term. Like your long-term thinking, you have to prioritize long-term thinking over short-term profits. If you wanna build something great, if you're in it to get like a quick cash grab, then I still wouldn't recommend it, but it was a very important decision for us to always, with every decision that we make, to not attach ourselves to something that was going to like dilute our brand equity in any way.

24:46Do you promote any brands? Do you have any brand deals? Yeah, we do. We do. We will do a couple million bucks in brand sponsorships this year. So we've, you know, worked with an array of different companies in the business space. I don't think I've ever seen one. Yeah, like we've done like business formation, like entity structure companies. We've done, you know, various investment platforms. Just closed a big one with a really big company. I don't want to say it. Come on, tell me. I'll tell you off the record. I'll tell you off the record. Just because we just closed it and our first integration will be with them this month.

25:15But we have definitely done something. We've done like go high level. So we've done quite a few different integrations with different companies and stuff like that. I'm surprised like Chase or like Bank of America or, you know, I don't know, like one of those companies or Visa, MasterCard, American Express. Those are ones I would think would make a really, it would make a smart type of, are you laughing because it's one of those like the ones you're going to make it do a deal with? No, I mean, I would say the one that we are like just closed and we're going to probably start doing integrations with this month is like a very, very big company.

25:48But, you know, hey, there's an opportunity for them. Then if they want to, you know, kind of come partner with us. Those make sense. Like that to me makes sense. Would you do something like that? 100 percent. Absolutely. I'm sure it'll happen eventually as well. Just a matter of, you know, the right brand and right timing for them and also for us as well. Okay, so then dilution. So are you saying that as you're growing, you shouldn't be diluting your brand, but once you're established, it's okay to kind of collaborate and become brand partners with someone at a different level or depending what the deal structure is?

26:21I don't think that it's diluting your brand, even if you're bigger, if you're partnering up with companies and having them sponsor your content. Oh, no. That's what I'm saying. Powered by Chase today. Yeah, absolutely. That makes sense. A hundred percent. Yeah. If you know what it is, is if it is a brand that is obviously very credible and what they're ultimately, you know, solving, I would also think from a brand standpoint, why would they want to like kind of sponsor somebody that where there's not like a, like, like a good brand tie or like a, like a good fit for them. Right. Like they ultimately know the audiences that make the most sense for them and because of the type of content that you're integrating it in.

26:55So like, that's my number one rule is like, remember how I told you that, like even all the sponsorships that I've done in the last like one to two years, I've probably done, you know, 10 to 20 like short form integrations for like sponsored, like short form videos. They've all gotten at least a million views. So like, I still have to make sure that like when I integrate it, like it can do well. And like, I can just easily kind of like weave it into the content in a way where I'm communicating some of the talking points on behalf of the brand, but it also like, again, doesn't dilute the content.

27:22So it could be like a very smooth, I can ask a business question in relation to whatever that brand or company is. And I can, you know, have it fit in, in like a very efficient way. Yes, absolutely. So that's why probably I never noticed it because it was like subliminal and subtle. Very subliminal, yes. And I never even noticed that you did. That was very clever. Or you can also be putting it on your other channels, like the, is it the School of Mentors or the school, what you, what's the other one, School of Mentors? And what's the other one that you do now, you said? Yes, so School of Hard Knocks is the main channel.

27:50School of Mentors is like our subscription community where we host the calls with the millionaires and billionaires. School of Content is like one of our like consulting companies where we work with a lot of entrepreneurs. And so and we have Hard Knocks like agency or like our done for you sort of business. So, OK, where I think you're very clever and what I what I really appreciate is that most people are really good. Not most. Nobody's good at like a very few are really good at like this, the front facing. But what you've done really well, you and your partners, then you've created businesses and leverage what you're good at with the content.

28:25with the billionaires and millionaires, and utilize them to create money and monetize on that afterwards. So your execution is really, really strong on that. So two things. Once you're in there, is your job to be so likable and that you're going to go for the ask? Like, hey, I'm in this community. Will you lend your time? How did you get all these people to agree to be involved for free to like talk to your other company because you're making money off of it. They're not making money. Yeah, yeah. I mean, really like, again, we lead with a ton of value with the relationship. So like, I mean, all these people that are coming on calls, I've already posted them on our channel and gotten them millions of views.

29:07Right. So in that case, I feel like, well, number one, it's also important to, I feel like, note that, you know, some of the most successful, some of the wealthiest people in the world that I know, they're the most willing to help and give back. I totally agree with you. You know what I mean? Oh my God, I totally agree with you. Because we've interviewed a lot of the same people and I'm always blown away that the people who are the most successful are usually the, like the nicest, the most down to earth. Let me just tell you a quick story about Mark, cause I, Mark Cuban was your first big get.

29:35You told me Mark Cuban. And I tell this to everybody. First of all, he came to my interview to the podcast in like a beat up Lexus. He wasn't driving some fancy ass car, like all these other nobodies who think that who pretend to be big, who, you know, who show up here with like 97 people in their entourage. He came by himself in a beat up car. And I emailed him the, I guess a couple of nights prior I met him. I just, what you did. I went up to him at an event. I was like, Oh my God, blah, blah, blah. Come on my podcast. He said he was going to a month passes. Never happened. Two months passes never happened.

30:10So finally, like month three, I emailed him and I said, Hey, you know, you, you said you're going to come on my podcast. when is this happening? And he wrote me back in like three seconds. And he says, I'll be there tomorrow. You know, what time? And he actually showed up the next day and did my podcast. What city was it in? It was here. He was sitting where you're sitting right now. And I met him in like, I don't know where somewhere, I don't remember where. And he was, he lives in Dallas. So he was in Dallas. He flew in and he came on the show. But my point is there There was no like nine layers to get to.

30:46It was like I had to go through 77 publicists and four gatekeepers. And it was like, let's do it in like 2028. By the way, that's the worst scene in the world right there. Once that happens, I'm out. I don't care. I don't want them anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is a valuable lesson as well. You have to cut the middleman. You have to go. If you can go to the decision maker, go to the decision maker at all costs. At all costs. Once I see more than one person on that email, i'm like okay i'm out i'm not doing this because it's going to be it's more headache than it's worth usually you know the juice it's not worth the squeeze the juice is not worth the squeeze i mean that's why i find it so interesting when i when i saw that he was your first get because yeah i cold approached him just went up to him exactly and and like that's the whole thing as well it's like like this whole concept of like don't get me wrong like if i have the opportunity to interview like a Tom Cruise or Will Smith or like a big person.

31:41I will, but like I will say there's nothing better than people just doing it. And you don't have to go through, like you said, the 15 people. That's not talked about enough, but it's very true. It's the worst thing in the world. It's the worst because people only see what you put in front of them. They don't know what happens behind the scenes. And like some of these things are like, like you were saying, and I always say there's no such thing as like an overnight anything, right? Everything, even to get to that point, to even have that good experience, you had to put in a lot of hours and work in the, in the backend.

32:11But like, you know, the fact that I even heard with Tom Cruise that he came to you, you didn't even go to him. So what was that process? Like, how did that happen? Yeah. We got reached out to, uh, by Paramount pretty much. And they were just like, Hey, you know, Tom Cruise has a movie coming out and he's doing a couple interviews. They had him doing People Magazine, Jimmy Fallon. I think he did Pat McAfee and School of Hard Knocks. So it's pretty damn cool because, you know, you don't really ever see him in a setting like that. Like he doesn't do a lot of like interviews. And so when it came time to do the interview, you know, we were meeting some of the Paramount executives or some of the people that were kind of working on behalf of the interview, setting it up and corresponding with, I just kind of asked him out of curiosity.

32:52How did you guys find out about us? Like anytime, like we're reached out to you by like a pretty well-known figure. I was like to kind of like know how they found out about us and maybe like why they wanted to do it. And they said, well, it was actually Tom's idea. So I guess Tom had seen quite a bit of our content for quite some time. I think he maybe had a nephew or something like that that had showed him the channel. I mean, this is what I had heard from them and they reached out and wanted to do it. So it's, that's a great reminder also to people that to never be afraid to post your content because you never know who's watching.

33:22Never. You never know who's watching. I mean, it's the amount of people that I've met that are several billionaires that I had no idea that are just watching our content and told me that like, hey, they like this clip or whatnot. They like my approach here. It's really cool to see that. That's why you can't be afraid to post your content. Absolutely. So was there a lot of hoopla around the Tom Cruise one, like to get it organized and all the things? Man, I don't, you know, it was definitely, I'm sure that, so I'll never forget this. they asked me to like kind of submit some questions in advance.

33:55And I submitted, you know, 10 questions and they told me that I could only ask them three. And then when it came time to the day of the interview, they came and said, Hey, by the way, we only want you to ask him two questions. We want you to ask him these two. And I'm thinking to myself, because don't get me wrong, like this is an incredible opportunity, but you and I both know two questions is not a damn interview. Okay. And like, don't get me wrong. Like as much as I understand, like, yes, this is Tom Cruise, we also have a standard of content to uphold as well. And I'm like, two questions isn't really going to be a great thing for our channel.

34:28Like we need to be able to find a way to make this thing longer. So it's kind of funny. I told my partners or, you know, my, you know, business partners who I was there with down in San Antonio, because that's where we did Tom Cruise. I was like, guys, I'm going to just keep firing questions. I need you to like distract the team and like, just kind of have a conversation to them off to the side. Cause I was like, man, I'm going to just keep firing questions and I hope he just keeps on answering, which is exactly what it was. We only initially had like a couple of minutes and I think it ended up being like an eight or eight or like a 10 minute interview, which is cool.

34:58Like that's all I need for my format. Right. Yeah. So I ended up making it work, but kind of one of those things where it's, it's, what's that saying? Sarah Blakely, she told me that is, uh, don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. Exactly. So when I saw them starting to go, we need to wrap it up, I'm just, I'm just like, man, I'm going to just keep on going. And it's like the end of the day, it's for their benefit. Like, like I'm going to make the best piece of content with what you let me do. So it's kind of just one of those things where you, sometimes you just got to just do those little things.

35:25Listen, the ask for forgiveness is my, I live by that motto, by the way. And the other thing though, was, was he a cool guy? He was really cool. Yeah. He's got great aura. Like I like to say, or because like, there are some people where you see them walk in a room and they just like command like that kind of attention and whatnot. And so he definitely was a super nice guy, really, really cool guy. And then also another one that really stood out to me was, so we did Tom Cruise in San Antonio. The next day, literally a day later, we hopped on like a 5 a.m. flight from San Antonio to Los Angeles.

35:54We interviewed Will Smith. So we did them back-to-back days. And Will Smith was, I mean, I can't say enough, but just great things about him. He was so nice to our team, had the best energy and gave an incredible interview as well. And that was a completely different dynamic. Like I was doing - Wait, was it after the Chris Rock thing? It was after the Chris Rock. Right. So he has a reputation now to kind of fix. Sure, sure. Sure, definitely. I mean, I'm sure. Did they reach out to you also? How did that one come about? I have a great friend out here who is very close with some of the people that are with Will Smith's media company, Westbrook.

36:27Westbrook. Yeah, I know them. So that's kind of how I had got connected to them and they loved the idea of it. And I'm sure that was part of it for sure. Of course. But I mean, nonetheless, I can't like he gave a great interview and was incredible to my entire team when we went out there to go and meet him. You know what's funny about him just to kind of stay with him for a second? That's why the whole thing with Chris Rock was so shocking because everyone's experience with him from everything I've heard has been really positive. People really like him. He's been he's such a nice guy. Like that's it's shock.

36:57I'm not surprised to hear that that you just said that that it was like a good interview. How long was the interview? About 20 minutes. So is that typically how long it actually is with these interviews with people? 20 minutes? I would say, yeah, are like the short form street interviews that people see on the Instagram, the TikTok, they're typically anywhere from five to 45 minutes. Oh, 45 minutes. I typically won't stop the interview until I know that I have a usable piece of like short form content. And we also have a big presence on YouTube as well. Yeah. We post longer iterations of our interviews on YouTube.

37:30So I think that I would say it's anywhere from about five to 45 minutes. On average, I would say 15 to 20 minutes typically is how long most of them go, the ones that are set up. Really? Yeah. What's the percentage of videos that are set up versus organic? I would say it's about 50-50. I would say it's 50-50. Some months it could be 60-40. 60 could be set up. 40 could be not set up. But I would say about 50-50. And I like it that way, honestly, because I, you know, yes, we're at the point now with 22 million followers where we're able to set up interviews with incredible billionaires and people that have built amazing companies.

38:03I also do love the idea of that. You're never going to beat that raw on the street content where you're cold approaching people. And I like sometimes a little bit of a challenge of them trying to kind of be like, I don't want to do it. Cause people like when you're able to objection handle, I feel like that's been one of my superpowers is being able to like get people that don't want to talk to talk, you know? Can I tell you the truth? That's the part I love the most. Cause like when you, I can tell, I'm sure when it's like super organic when people are like not interested in they really are walking away from you and you have to like kind of you got to like conjure them into coming versus when it's more like they're they oh yes uh uh no i'm busy but they're obviously not like i find that are those the ones have you noticed the organic ones just do better in general yes yeah 100 yeah they're always going to right yeah anytime that there's a little bit of like hesitancy you know we talked about kind of like with content, whenever there's some sort of like tension, it's almost like you have to like create a challenge for the viewer a little bit.

39:02Yeah. That, especially like we'll shift slightly to talk about like YouTube long form content. Like we just hit 2 million followers or 2 million subscribers a couple of days ago. And the number one thing I learned about YouTube was that you have to create a challenge. Like why is Mr. Beast so successful? It creates a very interesting viewer experience. You take them on a journey, right? So what we started to do with our interviews was showing a ton of rejections whenever we would go to a city. And what you're doing is like you're making the view be like, wait a minute, this is like way harder than it looks.

39:30Is he going to get one out here? And then you reward them with showing them that you got the interview. So anytime that you can create some sort of like challenge or tension in your content, it's always going to perform a lot better on average. And so you're saying that you still do it organically. What do you mean? You stand in the middle of a neighborhood and just wait for people to walk by? Proximity is power. If I'm going to a city, so what I'll typically do is I'll set up one huge interview or two huge interviews in a city, right? I was just in London for about a week. Literally within the last 10 days, I was in London for a week.

39:59I set up maybe one or two interviews out there. With who? One with a guy named Richard Harpin. He sold a company called HomeServe for 4.1 billion pounds. And then another guy named Simon Squibb. I don't know if you're familiar with him. Yeah, how do I know him? He's the guy. He does interviews. He does What's Your Dream. It's kind of like his main thing. He's a great creator. He's also had a lot of success in business. He's exited several businesses. And so I had two interviews set up out there. But beyond that, I spent hours every day just going to Mount, which going to Mayfair, which is like the wealthiest area of London.

40:27It's like the Beverly Hills of London. So what I'll do is I'll set up one or two big interviews in a city and then I'll spend the rest of the time like just going around Beverly Hills. Or if I'm in Miami, I'll go to Palm Beach and I'll just put myself in the areas where there's like a high concentration, a high volume of wealthy people. And I'll just go up to people. And a lot of the people I go up to, I probably, I may not use, but maybe it's like two out of every 10 interviews that I do, I post two of those and like, that's worth it to me. Give me an example of, give me something that's happened like that recently, where you just have like stood at Mayfair or Beverly Hills, like you're in LA right now.

40:59Yeah. Where are you going to go today? After this, I'm going to go out and Rodeo Drive and just camp out there with him for a couple hours. Like where, at a coffee shop? Coffee shop, the stores. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Just try and find some of like the wealthy locals, the people that, you know, live there and just organically go up to them. Will you just go up to everybody who looks rich and be like, hey, okay, tell me somebody that that's happened with recently where you just kind of like stood around where they didn't know who you were and you just kind of bombarded them with questions? 100%. I'm trying to think about a really good one.

41:30Organic. Yeah. I mean, we were just in Miami for doing an interview with Jordan Belfort out there down in Miami. And I was... He's good though. I had a great interview with him. Yeah, he's a cool guy. He's fun. He's fun. Yeah. So it's just like one came to the top of my mind. I was my last day of filming at Miami. It was actually after the Belfort interview. I just went to the Miami Design District, which is like where all like the shops are kind of like very similar to like a Rodeo Drive feel. And I just went up to this guy in a group of three people. He was in a sharp suit and started peppering him with questions.

42:00And then as I uncovered, I forgot what company it was that he sold, but he sold like one of the very original, like big, like tech internet companies for several billion dollars. And he also owns the Plaza Hotel in New York City. So it was kind of just cool just how randomly organically just going up and meeting people like that because you just really never know sometimes. But I've had that happen so many times where like I'll be in Highland Park in Dallas and I'm interviewing people and, you know, I'm like, are you a business owner? No, I'm the CEO of Frito-Lay. Like just that's happened so many times, man.

42:29We've done that with a lot of different people who I didn't even really know that I was interviewing, but come to find out like, you know, I was in, this is a good one, Houston, River Oaks is like the really wealthy area in Houston. And I saw this gentleman coming out of a G-Wagon and I go up to him and I go, excuse me, sir, is this your G-Wagon? And he goes, yeah. And I go, I go, you know, what do you do for living out here in Houston at Fort G-Wagon? And he goes, work hard. And I go, what lot of business are you in? And he goes, football. And I go, what do you do? He goes, I own a football team.

42:54And I go, what team? Houston Texans. I go, you own the Texans? He goes, H-Town, baby. So it was kind of funny. Like we've had some, and I had no idea who he was because he's not like, his name's Cal McNair. it's worth probably 10, 15 billion dollars. But I didn't know who he was by his face. It's funny, like all the comments are like, how do you not know who that is? And I'm like, I'm not from Houston. You know what I'm saying? Like, I know Jerry Jones, but like he's not like a known person. So that's happened a lot. You know, I could name countless cities where we've gone up to people and just finding out like these people are worth billions of dollars, you know?

43:22So it's pretty crazy. Who's the one person you have not done that you would really love to interview? Yeah, there's definitely a list of some people that I'd love to do. President Trump, I think, would be dope. Like Elon Musk would be cool. Kim Kardashian, Conor McGregor, Kanye West. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. So Kim Kardashian would seem like a no brainer. You can probably just contact them at this point and she'd probably show up with like - I hope to do her as soon for sure. Yeah, I think she would be, I think she'd be a fun one. I also like, I love the fact that she's like, like literally one of the things that I preach to people is like mastering attention.

43:55Like there's not really many better examples than the entire Kardashian family of like how well they've turned attention into revenue. They've built great businesses. Talk to her mom. Her mom has done a fantastic job. 100%. Have you not done Kris Jenner? I haven't, no. So these are like, to me, I'm surprised. These are low-hanging fruit people that I thought, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, they talk to everybody. Yeah, yeah. Why have you not, have you reached out to them? The middleman. Come on, it's the middleman. But you know what it is? This right here is like we've done Dana White, we've done before.

44:23He's the UFC president. Of course. That would probably be my best way to go about going to get Trump because I've tried through several times to kind of go, It's the middlemen are just tough, you know? To get to Donald Trump? Yeah. Are you joking me? What? I thought that would be like a no-brainer for you. I mean - Think about it. When he wanted to run for president, he went on the Full Send podcast, which is Guys Your Age, the bros. But think about his intros though. He's going straight through Dana White. He's going through Dana White for that. He's like a close friend. Or his son, who loves all the - I bet you his son watches you.

44:53He's probably seen it for sure. Have you ever tried to DM his son? I don't think he's on Instagram. He's not on - He doesn't have a personal page. I've looked. He doesn't have - But like you would think, because Donald Trump loves attention in media. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. Have you held that on Mar-a-Lago? Nah, it's definitely a goal for sure. Cool. You could get that tomorrow. What are you talking about? We got to try for sure. I would think that would be like a no brainer. Come on, James. You're supposed to be like, you know, super aggressive. What's going on? Definitely. You and I have to have a conversation after this.

45:24Yeah, for sure. Okay. So, and then Kanye West, I mean, that would be interesting for sure. Yeah. I just, I just respect. He was supposed to be on this podcast. Really? Yeah. And he canceled, like literally it was scheduled all the things. Was it recently or? It was after his whole, you know. Okay. It was probably 11 months ago, a year ago. And then he just didn't show up. Okay. That's shocking. I know. It's very shocking to see he just didn't show up. I mean, look, like the thing that I really love and respect about Ye is that I just think that, number one, And you got to have some level of respect for the people that, you know, I mean, granted, I know that he maybe has said some pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty crazy things.

46:04Yeah. And I'm Jewish. Yeah. So, but I wanted to hear from the horse's mouth, like, because to me, he's like mentally like not well. And, but yet he's very, he's obviously very smart. Yeah. And I think I couldn't tell if it was done more for publicity or just he was off his meds or what was going on. I was very curious. That's why I was interested. I think he just, I think he's got a fascinating mind. like he thinks just in a very different way. And also like, I mean, he's had so much success in music and then also business. I mean, like what he did with Yeezy and Adidas, like I think - It's pretty amazing actually.

46:35It is pretty amazing, yeah. So I think he's definitely somebody that would be, and I love his music too, you know? So I think it'd be a great conversation for sure. So those are the, anybody else that you haven't done? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I talked about Musk, you know, he's in Austin. So I gotta get to Musk, gotta get to Bezos. I don't understand. Like you would think these people have not reached out to you? Maybe they don't like it. Or you have not reached out. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, again, it's just a matter of time. That's the way I look at it. It's like even like Tom Brady, for example, who we've done, like I was trying to get him a year before and we weren't able to get through to the gatekeepers.

47:07But then finally, I had somebody on his team that I knew and was able to put that together. Michael Rubin, same thing. Alex, who did you go through for Tom? Well, I just ironically, just somebody that does the merch for one of his companies. Oh. So it's just like you never know. Like sometimes you just need like one person who's like a close degree to that person to make it make sense. It's like, bro, here's this person. They've done this person to get this many views. Like it makes it makes sense. Do you know how many people that like all like a lot of the really great people that I've got or people are like, how did you get this person?

47:39How did you? Usually it was like random. It was someone who was actually friends with them or like work. Well, I have a funny story about that. I was literally, I was just walking around Beverly Hills like a couple of weeks ago, or probably like one or two months ago. And this lady had stopped me. And she goes, hey, you interview all these people, right? She's like, you should do something with my brother. And I was like, I was like, who's your brother? And she's like, oh, he built this company called Speechify. It's a$3 billion company. And so they connected me over text. I hopped on FaceTime literally minutes after being connected with her brother.

48:07And her brother goes, hey, how long are you in LA for? And I was like, oh, you know, I actually leave like tomorrow, actually. And he was like, well, would you want to do Scooter Braun? and so sure enough he connected me to scooter brawn and we did it just through that just from a girl a lady just stopping me on the street to connecting with her brother to then you know him connecting with scooter brawn like just like that you know and like these aren't necessarily super easy people to like just get access to like that so just i know the the unconventional ways of going about getting certain people it's like like really really fun you know honestly is if you have that's what we said earlier if you have to go conventional you've already lost yes i really feel that way because also the dynamic is different.

48:44Like I find like, then they bring people and then like they give you these questions. Like what are you going to ask? What are you not going to ask? And they sit there and stare at you while you do the interview and all the other things. Like it was like, hey, you know what, by the way, this would be a great person for you. Or hey, I'm friends with so-and-so and a text in the intro and it's done. That happened to me yesterday, actually. Actually, like for example, like I did all the sharks and I really like Rob Hershevich. I love him. He's the best. He's so great. By the way, Rob, hi. I really love him.

49:13He's Canadian. He's one of my favorite interviews ever. Yeah. Because he's a real person and he's kind and he's nice. And like, I really like him. And I literally was like, hey, by the way, you know who I have an interview with? Kevin O 'Leary. I'm like, hey, do you know someone I can like reach out to? He's like, oh, I'll just, I'll just introduce you right now. And he just like connected me to Kevin in like two seconds. And Kevin responded in three seconds. And now Kevin's coming on, you know, but that's the thing. Like, again, back to the original point is like some of these people who made it really big.

49:41They're just, it's not them who are affected. It's the people sometimes that like are representing them that kind of causes the biggest problem. Yeah. A hundred percent. You know? Absolutely. So who are some other of your favorite people that you've done? I love Mike Vipoli. Mike Vipoli, he's the founder of Body Armor and Smart Water. And he did a total of 12 billion in exits to Coca-Cola. He was an incredible interview. That's a guy that just does not stop just scheming and thinking. And that's just like a common thread in these people is they are just obsessed with what they do. And I remember like we had the interview scheduled at like 10 a.m.

50:14at his house down in Florida and we got there at 10. The interview didn't start for like four hours. We were just talking about business and he was just nonstop, just like question after question and question. That's such a fascinating thing about a lot of these billionaires. You know, a lot of people would think and assume that, you know, they have all the answers, they have everything figured out, but they are really lifelong learners. Like they are so inquisitive and they really want to like know like, hey, what do you, what did you do to kind of get here. And so like, it's really cool to like see that thread.

50:40Cause it's like, typically it's like, you know, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm a small fish and the scheme of things right to them, right. I'm 23, you know, we've got a cool business now, but like compared to what they've done, it's like, I need to learn from this guy, but it's like, they want to learn from you. And so I think that's like, that was like a really something that really surprised me, honestly, with spending a lot of time with them, but Mike Ropoli, I love. I like that clip by the way. I remember it. Yeah. Big takeaway from him was just this idea that I remember it always repeats in the back come to my mind.

51:06He says, when the big guy, when the big entrepreneur on top, the minute he gets comfortable, the starving entrepreneur is going to come up and eat their lunch. And so I think that that's something that like I still kind of have to me to this day. It's like, hey, we've got 22 million followers. We're just talking in the car with, I think, him or somebody else. I was having a conversation about how it's like now that there's like a whole bunch of people trying to do the exact same thing that we do. And it's like, to me, I'm like, man, I just have to keep on pouring gas down their throat. So that's why I like, you cannot just like, you just can't stop.

51:34You cannot, You cannot get comfortable and complacent. That is 100 % true because there's always someone behind you ready to take your spot. Absolutely. I mean, I was actually going to ask you that part. One of my questions is I've noticed in the last year, a lot of people are doing your style. In fact, I saw you stop on the street with somebody who did the same thing that you do. I don't know. He does like a confidence channel or maybe is it or like. I've done a couple of them. Yeah. Yeah. They're not like you. I have to say. They also don't show themselves on camera, I don't think. Some of them do.

52:07Some of them do. Oh, really? Not the ones I, what I, so do you see them as like, so you do see them as competition. Like, what do you think of all these new up and comers? Like you're 23 for God's sake. It's like to me, you know, but when you're seeing other people now emulate you, how does that, what does that, what does that make you feel? I just want to crush them. Yeah. You just want to crush them. So you don't lose that competitive edge. Yeah, no, definitely not. And I don't mean it in a way in terms of like, you know, wishing ill will on anybody, like definitely not. But just from a business standpoint, like, you know what it is too?

52:40It's not the format. I don't have an issue with the format because I will say this too. I did not invent street interviews. I didn't. Every major cable legacy media news channel has been doing street interviews ever since they started. I did not invent street interviews and I'm inviting everybody. Like it's a great format of content. I mean, it works well. Like Damon John, the shark says, pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper. Like if it's a winning type of content, like use it. But like when you are taking the exact same question I used at the beginning and like the exact same questions throughout that are like specific unique questions that like I've come up with, then I'm just like, then I just like literally it's like, cause I don't like that.

53:22Like I know that people will say like, oh, imitation is like the greatest form of flattery. I disagree with that. because it's an art. Like if you have your own art, if you have your own craft and people are just kind of like ripping it per se, like I have no desire to support that and whatnot. So that's kind of how I feel about that ultimately. Again, like the confidence person, like I know what creator you're talking about, he does his own thing. Cool. I have nothing, there's nothing wrong with that at all. He's not, he's not, you know, doing exactly what I'm doing. So I have no problem with that.

53:48But it's the people that, who I've seen kind of like take the exact same questions that I use and don't even try and get innovative in any type of way. Like that's, that's kind of like what I have an issue with. But guess what? They're going to hit a ceiling. 100%. I'm going to keep innovating. 100%. That's the way I look at it. If they can't think of a unique spin or something that they can call their own, then they're only going to go so far. And so I wouldn't even be concerned about that, but I totally understand what you mean. Definitely not. But you have to keep that competitive edge for sure.

54:21Okay, so first of all, you have those two questions you always ask people. But what's the last question you always ask? If you were to die tomorrow? If me and you died tomorrow and you had one more message to live with the younger generation, what would that be? Okay, answer your own question. Oh, my one question. You know, I'll give you two answers. I'll say, number one, like probably one of my favorite pieces of advice that I ever received was from a guy named Billy Ray Taylor. You know, it's funny. I went to this business conference in Houston where they had all these great speakers. Damon Jalm is one of them, Kendra Scott, Marcus Limonis, like all these big heavy hitters.

54:56And I interviewed all of them, like all the speakers. But my favorite interview I did that entire day was with just a guy that was in attendance. His name was Billy Ray Taylor. He was an executive at a company, Goodyear Tires, like a$10 billion company. And I'll never forget the advice that his mom gave to him that like I'll kind of share for this one. He said that if a bird lands on a branch, does the bird trust the branch or does it trust its wings? And the clue, I've seen many birds land on branches, but what I've never seen is the branch break and the bird fall and die. So you trust your wings.

55:26Like that's one that I love that has really always like stuck with me ever since hearing that kind of saying right there, like you have to trust your wings, you know? Like Will Smith talked about in the interview that we did together, it's just never taking advice from people that you wouldn't trade places with. Like taking advice from people that have not done the thing that you want to do is insanity. So those are two that I really like. I also love, I interviewed, this was an organic one. He's a filmmaker, his name's Six King. he's uh been you know done some great stuff in the music and film industry over the years and i remember him saying that when you're born you look like your parents but when you die you look like your decisions so i think that one was uh one that i also loved right it's just the end of the day like when you go to the grave it's like you can't put the blame on anybody else it's literally like the decisions that you decided to make right you can't be a victim you know you have to get out there and get after it for yourself nobody's gonna come do it for you So I like those ones a lot.

56:21And then another one, because I could talk all day about these. I love the soundbites. Yeah, I love the soundbites too. One that I also live by and there's probably been one of my favorite ones in growing our channel is Credibility Kills All Bad Attitudes. Credibility Kills All Bad Attitudes. You know, I talked about some of the people that we've interviewed recently that a year ago was either a rejection or we weren't able to get in contact with them or it was a no or just people that were not happening. But then when you get like a big interview, like a Tom Cruise per se, and you start to build that credibility and you start to get those wins, then it's fun.

56:54It's funny to see how people kind of like will change and then now all of a sudden they want to do it. But it's the result of like building credibility. So like this idea of just not taking no for an answer, like even when I do my interviews, like I'm so intentional, I'm going to get that interview. I'm going to get that interview by any means necessary. And if I don't get it yet, it's like, okay, well try harder. Like there's going to be a way in for sure. So credibility kills all bad attitude is one that I really like. I really love that. I heard you say that before in someone else's, I think, show.

57:22And I was like, I actually wrote it down because you're really good at that. Okay, I am going to look at my question because I don't want to leave this and be like, oh, shoot, I should have asked him that. And I didn't. But you also said like people will take you places money won't. Was that? Yeah. People will take you places that money can't. So that's also the proximity thing. You're putting yourself in places where opportunity can happen. Very true. You know what I mean? And I think that's really - Yeah, another one, like get the fuck out of your hometown. Like I love preaching that message because like, again, I grew up in the DC area.

57:55Best decision I ever made was moving to Austin, Texas, without a doubt. Right. It was so, so important to us to do that at the time, because when you're around like-minded people, people who are authentic, people who are wanting to build, people that want more for themselves, it's just going to naturally have an effect on you. So like that idea of, again, that proximity and like being around like the right people, it will do so much for you. Also, your your audience is like all over the place. You have like young people, you have old people. How about men and women? Do you have 50-50? Is it like?

58:26I think it's probably like 65-35, 65 men, 35 women. Really? And what's like what's the breakdown in terms of young, old, medium, whatever? The core demographic is 25 to 35. Like that's probably 40 % is within 25 to 35. And then the rest of it is kind of like all the way down to like, you know, teens up to, you know, 60, 70 years old. So can I also want this is what I really think is an interesting because you have like we talked about very briefly, two different partners, your brother. Yeah. And another friend of yours. Josh. Josh. Yep. My brother, Jack Dumoulin, partner Joshua Smith. We met Josh and Boy Scouts together.

59:04All became Eagle Scouts. So yeah, those are my two partners. And so are you guys all equal partners? Yeah, we're all equal partners. So like, how do you break it down? Because the one thing I think is really important is you can't be good at everything. Obviously, you're really good at content. We got that done. You know, like your brother, who's the one that does like the back end? Like, this is where people get stuck. I know this is how I've got stuck. I get stuck is I'm like you in a lot of ways. I'm like, I'm very relentless. I have no fear. I'll rejection is always better than regret. In my opinion, I live by that motto.

59:40And so I'll just go because no, it doesn't matter. But then like, it doesn't mean I'm good with administrative work. It doesn't mean I'm good with like executing on operations. And so if you're not good at all these other things, you kind of like your stop is in your start, right? You've been really good because you're good at something. Do you, your brother and your partner, are they really good at then taking that extra thing and like kind of creating these business ventures and verticals. Like how do you guys divide and conquer? Yeah, great question. And like you said, you have to find your weakness in business, right?

1:00:13No one's good at everything. Definitely not, definitely not. And like, there's a lot of stuff with like the product in the back end that I don't even understand, you know? And that's why I do what I do. And you know what? But the thing is, it's like, you shouldn't even want to, like, you don't need to learn how to do all that stuff. Right, but you need to find people who are good at balancing you out. Like continue to become like so great at that one thing that you're phenomenal at. And like dominate. That's what's taken us so far is like my brother, he's incredible at like the product. So like building out like the product and the infrastructure for like the different businesses that we have.

1:00:43So for the community, for our like, you know, agency, like all that, he's great at the product. Partner Josh, in terms of like brands, in terms of our newsletter, a lot of the stuff on like the backend marketing for some of the different businesses. So everybody kind of has the like different kind of strengths and whatnot that they focus on throughout them. and everybody pulls their weight for sure. Are you, do you edit your videos? Do you? This is the one thing that people, they like, they find it so funny to believe. I edit every short form video. You do, I knew it. I knew it. It takes hours, so much time.

1:01:12Because that's what you're really good at. So why would you give away the one thing that made you successful? And I think Dan Martell talks about it in Buy Back Your Time. Like I've had this conversation with my brother about it that it's like, you know, I like to call them like MWA activities, which are minimum wage activities. Yeah. You know, editing is definitely an MWA activity. 100 % is. But the return that we get on editing a video for a couple hours that could potentially get 10, 20 million views, it's like, you know, it's kind of worth it. And I'm such like a psychopath with like editing that like, I feel like if I were to give it to somebody else, I would want to do 30 rounds of revisions.

1:01:47I'm like, no, no, no. You missed this part. You missed this, what he said here. It doesn't look clean. I'm like, I might as well just do that shit myself. Like, it'll take forever if I try to put that through somebody else. And also there's a lot of nuance in that, right? Because you are tapping into something that you know is going to work. How do you teach that quality to someone else? And why would you rely on that? Why would you give away that job to somebody when that's what your superpower is? And that's what made you guys who you are, right? In a lot of ways. Because if these clips are not going viral, then you have nothing really.

1:02:20Yeah, no, no. What I'll say is that it is extremely important as a person in any business to delegate those tasks that like are genuinely like, again, the minimum wage activities, because otherwise like like you don't want to be the employee entrepreneur that is like bogged down by, you know, just these countless tasks that don't have a crazy high return on your investment. So like, that's why like with, with my partners is like, we've been great about like hiring like really good people. Like we have 70 employees now across all of the different 70. Yes. And what do they all do? Are they not, obviously they're not editing or maybe they're editing some things.

1:02:54So, so just across the different verticals, right? Like we've got, you know, managers in our community, we've got editors for our agency, we've got editors for, you know, we've got account managers for our agency. So we have like all these different people that are kind of in place, you know, videographers. So across the different businesses that are able to alleviate a lot of the time and task, you know, there's just like a ton of different things, right? Like people that are writing copy for our email list, for our newsletter, people that are writing copy for promotional posts for our events.

1:03:22And like, because if you, you know, are going to assign yourself 20 different things to do, it just becomes hard, especially like, you know, with different things coming down the pipeline and just trying to focus on those like higher leverage like activities. Absolutely. I mean, yes, that is 100 % true. But I can see why it would be very difficult to kind of give the reins to like those videos. By the way, I forgot about this line that you said that I love. It's addicted to people are addicted to education, but allergic to execution. Very true. So true. Yeah. I like to say also another one, too, is that information can change situations, but only through implementation.

1:04:00Yes. It goes right in line with that, that most people are addicted to education. They're allergic to execution. The reason why our businesses, like our companies do over$1.5 million a month, like we're now an eight figure company is because we took the lessons. We took all the knowledge that we learned from the conversations we had and we applied it to the businesses that we were building and creating. And what so many people do is like they hear something, they feel good for a little bit, but then they don't then they don't do anything about it. Right. So it's very important to like take massive action to like actually bring ideas to life.

1:04:30How do you like do that, though? Like I find, can I be honest with you? A lot of people your age, your generation, they want balance. They want this all about like feeling your feelings and not working that like, you know, environments and kind of triggers and safe spaces. They're not out there. You're calling us soft is what you're saying. Yes. You're calling us soft. Not calling you soft. I don't think you're soft. But I think a lot of people in your generation are fragile. Absolutely. Can I say that? Yeah, well, that's why, again, a person, I'll mention him again, Dana White talks about there's tremendous opportunity for people in our generation to stand out.

1:05:08And it is by not being one of those people, right? So I definitely do agree with that. Unfortunately, I feel like our generation, there is a big degree and level of entitlement that people have that they feel like they're owed something. And the sooner that people can realize that you are not owed anything, like stop choosing to be a victim. It's crazy. hundred percent it's like insanity and i just will not don't you see that all the time absolutely but you know again i choose to like i'm a huge advocate and like again this idea aside from god like nobody's coming to save you like when it comes to you wanting to build a business when it comes to you you know actually like wanting to do something you know for yourself i guess also thinking about and you know what yeah you know what if you want to live that comfortable life and have the balance, like, great.

1:05:56Like, then that's great. But just don't expect to be able to create your own schedule. Don't expect to have freedom and expect to work hours for somebody else. And there's nothing wrong with that either. Like some people genuinely do want that life and they shouldn't be like, I'm saying that because it's like, hey, like, if that's what you want, that's fine. I just, again, if you have that seed in you where you genuinely want more for yourself, where you don't ever have to worry about money, where you want to be able to help take care of your family, like you are going to have to sacrifice. there's not going to be a lot of work-life balance.

1:06:26Like I was on 150 flights last year. Like it's ridiculous. And granted, like I won't probably be able to go at that pace forever. And I probably would want to go at that pace forever. But because I love so much what I do and it's brought me so much success from not just a media standpoint, but also from a business standpoint as well. It's like, I'm willing to just keep on going for as long as I am feeling so good and like want to continue to do it. Like I don't have an issue with it at all. I don't plan on stopping. No, 100%. I agree. I have another one for you. Don't be upset by the results you get by the work you didn't do.

1:06:56Yes. Hey, most people are rewarded in public for what they practice in private. 100%, right? Very true. So then tell me then now about these other businesses. Because let's say, for example, walk me through. You still haven't really walked me through it. So let's say you meet with whoever, Tom Brady. Sure. And then you have a great interview and blah, blah, blah. and then you say, hey, I'm doing this subscription model company where I want to have someone like yourself on every week, whatever, bi-weekly. Will you be okay by it? What are you asking? What's the ask to these people? Is it like 10 minutes on a call?

1:07:33What does someone get? If I was someone who was going to subscribe, what do I get them from a Tom Brady or from, is Tom Brady one of the people that said yes? We haven't had Tom Brady on, not to like discredit Tom Brady at all but no no i would say um the primary people that we have on the call are people i'm just making up yeah absolutely i mean hey if tom wants to do a call i'd love to have mine you know but there you go yeah but but uh but it's again it's people that have built eight nine type bigger companies like okay the guy from uh body armor whoever it is okay i'm just i'm just yeah making up whoever so if if people if members in our audience people that like the content if they want to join pretty much they get access how much is it let's say i'm a person who wants to join 50 bucks a month 50 bucks yeah 49 bucks a month and what do i get you get access to a call every single week with an eight nine or ten figure entrepreneur where you can ask your questions directly to them and once a month we host events where we host three calls on a day so it's more like probably four to like seven or eight calls a month um where we bring in just entrepreneurs that have built incredible businesses and you get access to be able to ask your questions directly to them now think about it this way this is the way i look at it if you typically if you want to get around people like that if you want time from people that have been able to exit a company for nine or ten figures typically you either better find that person in a coffee shop and go ask them a question or you have to pay thousands of dollars to be part of like a mastermind or something like that whereas we're giving people access to that for the price of a couple sub sandwiches a month you know what i mean so to me it's it's like a win-win so let's say you have how many members you have subscribed uh close like six thousand or so so does this person have to sit on the phone and hear 6 ,000 questions?

1:09:11No, I mean, I would say that we don't have 6 ,000 people that show up to every single call. How many people show up? Anywhere from maybe 300 to 1 ,000. Just kind of depends. And like not everybody necessarily is going to get to ask a question on a call, but just to kind of, again, like be in the room and be able to like ask their questions and stuff like that. Like a lot of people - It's kind of like a mastermind. 100%. What do you think of these masterminds that are charging$100 ,000 a year for people to be involved with to do these things? Like what's your take on this whole thing? It's interesting.

1:09:40I would just say vet the people that are a part of that mastermind and the stuff that they're teaching and what they've done for themselves. I think that that's the whole problem with the whole wisdom economy, the people that are selling information, that are selling masterminds. There are a lot of people that are involved that have actually done it for themselves and they've built great businesses. But anytime somebody is selling some sort of information or a course per se, it's like, make sure that they've actually done the thing that it is that they want to do. So the reason why I'm not afraid to say that, hey, we have a content consulting company, that we have a content agency, is because I've done 5 billion views for myself.

1:10:15I know this stuff at the back of my head. Whereas a lot of people that are pushing a certain product or service, they've never done it before. It's like, why would you want to learn from that person? So I think that that's why a lot of people, they just need to be vetted. I don't have an issue with that because I know so many people that have been a part of masterminds and their businesses have genuinely grown exponentially from being able to like even just fix one or two things or get like a couple of lessons. Like if they go to like a paid event and listen to a couple of speakers or they go meet people on a mastermind or something like that.

1:10:44I do think that there's a lot of value in that education. Again, it's just a matter of like actually taking action on the things that you learn and making sure that the people that are involved, that are teaching, that you're learning from. It's like a YPO in a way. Absolutely. movie. 100%. But they're much more expensive. And I think that they're not as vetted. That's the problem. And the problem is you have a lot of charlatans. With social media comes a lot of charlatans and everyone's a coach and everyone can say that. It's true though. I mean, honestly, if you go, if I go through my algorithm, nine out of 10 people I see are charlatans who are coaches who are telling you to do something that they've never done themselves.

1:11:18We're saying, if you want to be a millionaire or this, this, this, do this and this, meanwhile, they're living in a studio apartment. Like to me, that's what's really happening. And you've got to be extremely discerning because you're taking advice most of the time from a bunch of yahoos. That literally is the truth. You can, you know, there's always exceptions to every rule. And that's why even like when people, I'm sure you get tons of pitches, if you do homework, you'll find that most of these people, some of them, not most, some of them are not who they're, you know, pretending like Chris Rock did this really funny thing where he says that like when you date somebody, it's your sales rep who's going out there and talking.

1:11:55It's not really the person. That's really the truth. What's happening with social media, right? So like, I think what I love about what you do, especially is you're giving people legit people that maybe are not known, but they've actually built true businesses. A lot of the times, like they may not be fancy businesses or things that you know of, but they are actually like they're alert that you're, you're getting a lot of great nuggets from their real experience. Very true. I mean, that's my favorite part about the channel, honestly, is number one, what we're showing people is there are so many different ways to get rich in today's world.

1:12:34I mean, a lot of people, especially with social media, they think that they have to go out and build the next Google. And they have to go build this super sexy company. But I mean, some of the richest people in the world that I've met have built the most boring businesses and things that you would have no idea. Like we just interviewed a guy in Las Vegas that has a construction equipment business that's sold for$2 billion. I mean, look at Todd Graves. He's worth$20 billion off selling chicken fingers. I know. You know, to read Jimmy John's stuff. It's like, just, it's crazy. I love, by the way, those chicken fingers are really good.

1:13:01But yes. Damn good, man. They're damn good. He's good though. It's really 20 billion, like he's like worth the$20 billion. No one would ever think that. You know what I mean? No, definitely not. Okay, then tell me what, a little bit and then I'll wrap it up about your content business. Because you're now helping businesses or entrepreneurs basically become content creators or create a personal brand? Just helping them build their personal brand. I mean - Let me ask you a question. If someone has a billion dollars, why do they care about having a personal brand? Didn't they just, like, if you made, once you have$2 billion, are you still gonna want to have a personal brand?

1:13:32A hundred percent. Really? Okay, tell me why. Because to me, having the personal brand, it's legacy. Like, why would a billionaire do an interview? It's legacy. They're able to give back. They're able to, you know, I mean, I look at, we're gonna see a big trend of this happening as well. I mean, PayPal is currently hiring. Maybe they fill the position. They're currently hiring somebody to be the head of content for the PayPal CEO. And I think we're going to see, I think we're going to see that trend happening with all these big companies as well. I mean, but also think about it this way. Like how many airlines are there?

1:14:02A lot. There's a lot. Yeah. I only know one airline CEO. Who do you know? Virgin. Virgin? Richard Branson. He's the only billionaire. So it's like, it's because he has that personal brand. But that's different. I'm talking about like, so you're saying, I think it's really important for a brand to have the head of the brand or the head of the company to become a thought leader because it just enhances and helps the brand. What you're saying is the person who's already a billionaire, why do they need to go and do it? They've actually had like three billion. And why I'm asking this question is I see a lot of these people who are then coming on social media and they're buying a million followers and they're buying a half.

1:14:37I don't get it. That's terrible. That's terrible. I haven't, although at least from my honest perspective, I haven't seen the credible people that are like legitimate billionaires do that. I've seen a lot of the scammy kind of people where like they're, you know, the internet marketer, digital entrepreneur that has the hundreds. And you can tell easily if somebody has fake followers or not. Why they're buying their shares, their likes, their following. It's crazy. I don't understand. It's sad, honestly. But why are they doing it? It's perception. It's perception because you and I know as somebody, as people who create content and have actually done well and have actually gone viral.

1:15:13But to the masses of people, they're like, oh my gosh, this person has 500 ,000 followers without going to look and see that their views, they're getting like 3000 views and, you know, or they're getting botted views and likes in the comments are all like AI robots, just kind of like, you know, saying a bunch of BS in the comments. No matter how much money you make, it can still be insecure, basically. It is. And just to kind of go back to kind of what you're saying about like, why would a billionaire want to have like a big following and people know who they are? You're right. Like, I mean, there's definitely a subset.

1:15:39Like there's certain billionaires like I would love to do and that I've met. And I would know that I would never be able to get them to agree to do an interview. And they just that's how they want to live their life and be private. And there's nothing wrong with that. I know a lot of them that want to do it for the purposes of giving back and care about their legacy. And it's like, hey, they know what they want when they leave, people will be able to know their story. They'll be able to know about their insights. And to that degree, it's like I think a lot of people would ultimately want to do it for.

1:16:01and also it's like a billionaire has a lot of money, but like what are the two of the biggest currencies in today's world? It's your money, but then also attention. And so a lot of people do want attention. Like a lot of billionaires do want to be famous. A lot of multimillionaires, they do want to be famous. And so it comes down to the personal ultimately. It's like, again, I understand completely if people have made a lot of money, you got to be careful. There's a lot of crazy people in the world. And if people know that you are somebody who's high profile and have a lot of money, like you got to be careful.

1:16:27You have to make sure that you're, you know, somebody that's not going to get taken out, you know, for whatever reason it may be. So I also do understand both sides of wanting to protect yourself and not have like a crazy like digital footprint and wanting a bunch of people to know who you are. At the same time, you know, I also, you know, will enjoy any kind of experience and chance that I get to meet up with people that have, you know, built great brands or companies and done great things in the business world and for themselves. Yeah. And a lot of the people I know who are legit like billionaires, they're not interested in social media.

1:16:57They're not interested in like building up a brand, you know, they actually, it's the opposite. They want to make, they're like, don't post me. Don't put me on the, on the video. Don't put me on this thing because they're scared for their kids also a lot of times. Right. I've had that happen before. You have a lot. I've had to take videos down to people actually. Me too. Yeah. That's happened to me like four or five times. And so I find it. So where's your sweet spot? Like who is your, like if you're talking to a bunch of entrepreneurs, like who is that person that you're looking to really help build their brand?

1:17:26Someone who's like, like who is up and coming, who is a CEO of a company that's really trying to like make, become a thought leader so they can help their company elevate. Like who is your ideal person? Anybody. I mean, I mean, obviously I mean like just because of like how great the product and services like. You're probably being like amazing at it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, we've gone viral in our agency. We've gone viral with healthcare CEOs. Right. We've gone viral with tanning salon owners. We've gone viral with finance guys. I mean, any industry, software companies. How expensive is it?

1:18:02How cheap is it or how cost effective? What's the price? Well, we have two different businesses. We have a done-for-you content agency that does the content from start to finish, meaning where we come up with all the ideas, all the strategy, all the hooks for them. We do all the filming, all the editing, all the posting. So done for you is that business. Okay. And then we also have like a consulting business where I assembled a team of some of the top content creators, short form and long form to pretty much do calls weekly, bi-weekly inside of this kind of, I guess you could call it like a community per se.

1:18:39It's called the school of content where pretty much people will get access to, you know, the top minds of content creation. Like I mentor people in there on how to pretty much crush their brands and stuff like that with content as well. So the first one that you said, how much would that cost someone to do? I know a lot of people who would do that. Yeah, we'd charge like$10 ,000 a month for the content agency. For all of that? Yeah, for that. Okay, that's not terrible. No, it's not. It's not bad at all. How many pieces of content do you get a week? Well, you do a piece of content every single day.

1:19:07So it's like five, seven pieces. Exactly. You do, wow. So you're doing seven, you're doing 28, you're doing like at least 28 to 30 pieces of content a day. 30 plus, yeah, for sure. For 10 grand? Yeah. Okay. Yep. Do you have a lot of people who are paying that? A lot of people. Yep. Okay. So there you go. You have it. Okay. So what else? Okay. Before I let you off here, because I'm not, I want to make sure. Did I forget anything? No. I mean, if you tell me, like, I. I want to make sure that before I let you go. Okay. Wait. What is the most common theme or thread that you've heard with all the different people that you've interviewed?

1:19:46Yeah. I like to say billionaires think in decades, not days. So, I mean, every single one of them just has such a long-term vision. Like I just interviewed Arthur Blank in Atlanta, who's the owner of the Falcons, co-founder of Home Depot, which is now a$350 billion company. Oh, yeah. And he was, I remember like, you know, he got fired at 36 years old from his job. It was like a hardware store he was like an executive at, and he started Home Depot. And at the beginning, everybody told him that he was crazy, that Home Depot was going to fail because the margins were so insanely small. But again, it goes back to that concept with brand equity that you prioritize long-term thinking over short-term profits.

1:20:21He understood that if he could scale Home Depot out to a certain point, that even though they had raised within margins, if they could get to a scale, they were doing such consistent volume that they would make a ton of money. So again, that idea that billionaires think in decades, not days. I remember interviewing the founder of LinkedIn, and I asked him that if he had to start from zero and he had one year to make a billion dollars and his life depended on it, what would you do? And he stopped me. He goes, I never play a one-year game. It's at least a 10-year game. And just all these guys, like Todd Graves, like same thing with him.

1:20:50Like he talked about it in our interview. He thinks in generations, like it is not like an overnight thing. And it goes in line with probably one of my favorite concepts ever. Like I love vertical integration, but from like a tactical mindset standpoint, this idea of macro patience and micro urgency. Macro patience, but micro urgency. So macro meaning understanding that yes, to build any great business, it is gonna take a long time. There's no great business that was built overnight. So you have to have patience. If you have instant gratification, I need it now, I need the car tomorrow, I need this tomorrow.

1:21:25It's like, you have to have the patience and understanding to be able to reinvest back in your company for a couple of years, right? Stay small enough, long enough, and you'll be big enough soon enough. It's one of my favorite sayings ever. If you can just a couple of years of reinvesting back and growing the business, becoming profitable, like that's great. but micro urgency meaning every single day just taking like a ton of action responding quick to people that's another common thing as well it's like these billionaires like the wealthiest people like they respond instantly you know what i mean it's it's it's crazy like people think that like oh my god like oh my goodness that person is is so he's he's he's so rich he's so busy but it's like no like they're quick like if you're if they if they are intentional and like have something that they they care about you they want to do something with you like they will respond like that.

1:22:11Mark Cuban responded in four and a half seconds. Minutes. It was like four and a half seconds. I didn't even press send and he was at my house already. I mean, this is what, I totally agree. And then the people who lag takes four and a half years to hear from them. They're like, I'm so busy. You're not busy at all. Yeah, and being busy is not a flex either. Exactly. It's not a flex. Exactly. Yeah, being busy is not a flex. So yeah, macro patients, micro urgency is one that I really like a lot. But yeah, I mean, and I mean, just again, it goes back to like, they're a little bit delusional. Like every single one of them.

1:22:38Like, you know, again, I've talked about the LinkedIn founder, like two thirds of his smart friends told him LinkedIn was going to be a failure. And he was part of the PayPal mafia. So if he had people that were that were part of, you know, guys like people like Elon Musk that are in there, Peter Thiel, you know, all those people that were, you know, part of that organization that were like telling him pretty much like, dude, you're going to fail with LinkedIn. But and he did it. So you have to kind of have some sort of like delusional, like self-belief to like understand that despite what anybody else is saying, it has to work or it has to work.

1:23:07There's no other option. A hundred percent. Okay. Last question, because I don't even know how to ask this. It's going to sound kind of wacky, but so people who are like my, in my age, like middle, like midlife, right? Like when you guys are young twenties, whatever, it's super easy to be quick with like digital and like, you'll know all the stuff that TikTok and all the tools and everything's moving fast. If someone's starting over again in their forties or fifties and they want to start a business, like, and they're not very, uh, they're not fluid in digital yet. What do you, what kind of, what kind of advice can you give somebody?

1:23:40Besides hiring a 20-year-old, what's a really good jumping off point to get somebody to start their business? Well, I mean, look, I'm a big advocate of like, again, partnering up with people that are like masterminds or like super skilled in that sense. So like, if it isn't just kind of like hiring a random agency that you want to kind of have do that, then I would say it's like, hey, partner up. Exactly. Partner up, hire up, give some equity to somebody that can, you know, ultimately help out, you know significantly with whatever it is that they're ultimately trying to do if if the customer and the avatar for whatever it is that they're trying to build is out there in the masses like on social media and it would make sense for them to ultimately do that that's what i would say if you want to learn it yourself i mean there's definitely tons of you know resources and knowledge out there for sure i mean it may take a while to learn especially like if somebody's not super like technology you know uh advanced per se but if not then i would say definitely you're And when I ended up like partnering up with somebody who does have that skill set and knowledge of how everything works and can ultimately do that way more efficient and easier than you can.

1:24:41What's the next business, the next vertical, the next business that you're going to be launching? Yeah, well, it's more so right now. I'm very focused on distribution. So I want to build like one of the biggest media companies in the world. We just launched Hard Knocks Women. I don't know if you've seen that yet. No. Oh, you got to look at it. Look it up. We just launched. I did see it on YouTube that you had like a bunch of women. That was where I saw Anastasia. No, no, no, no, no. I'll show you. we launched a new channel, Hard Knocks Women. We have a woman host in Los Angeles. She already grew the channel to 15 ,000 followers in the first month.

1:25:09So we launched a channel called Hard Knocks Women, Hard Knocks Business. We have two new hosts for those channels. So like I'm, I'm, my big focus right now is trying to like just grow more channels under the Hard Knocks umbrella, just trying to continue to create like such like a big like media, you know, kind of empire, what you were talking about earlier in the episode. So, you know, we've got 22 million followers now, but I want to get to 30. I want to get to 40. I want to get to 50. And like, like I can get there by myself. It may take a little bit of time, but the way you get there faster is like by getting other channels and, you know, probably start to acquire some channels and like just kind of playing, playing the media game long-term for sure.

1:25:43How did I miss that? Okay. I got to go look at that. Check it out. All right. Uh, James, you've been amazing. Thank you. This has been like, I'm telling you, this is such a treat to have you here. Can't even believe you have Hard Ox Women. I have no, I had no idea. And you ask great questions as well. Like I always, you know, I've done a lot of like podcasts And like, I mean, I don't want to say I've done any like bad interviews, but like it was like really, really good questions for sure. Very tactical questions. And I always like to like compliment like other interviewers on that. Thank you.

1:26:09Because I mean, there's a lot that just kind of are very broad and whatnot. But like the way that you went very tactical, especially on the social media stuff was like top level. So seriously. Thank you. That's a huge compliment coming from you. Definitely. I'm going to clip that even though you won't collaborate with me. No worries. Thank you. And hopefully I'll see you. I'm going to ask you some more questions if you don't mind. But next time you're in L.A., I would love to see you again. A hundred percent. If that's possible. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And if you guys are living under a rock and don't know who he is, you should follow him at the School of Hard Knocks.

1:26:39He just basically said YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, on the moon, everywhere. You can find this guy and all of his verticals. I cannot believe you have Hard Knocks. You didn't even call me to be your host. I'm very offended. But we'll talk about that after. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Bye.