Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO

23:13But he's not just like, hey, go ahead, guys, go buy my chocolate. He's like, I rebuilt Willy Wonka's chocolate factory for$3 million. And that's how I'm going to launch this thing. I'm going to make the product the content. The content is the product. There's no line between the two. And, you know, so, you know, those worked because the creators really were like actual entrepreneurs and partnered with world-class operators to pull them off, right? Like we talked about the guys behind Prime. Those guys are monsters, right? Those guys are in their 20s and mega billionaires for a reason, have built multiple beverage brands for a reason.

23:45The guy who built Conor McGregor's whiskey brand was also the guy who did like whatever two other alcohol brands that were multi billion dollar brands that they partnered with him to do proper 12. And same thing. Conor is like mega, mega famous and went all the way with the promotion versus other people may not. I think the Danny Austin story is good because it was like her real story was like postpartum. I was losing hair. I was ashamed of it. I bought wigs for the last year. I've been wearing wigs while I've been an influencer, but instead I really wanted to find a product that would work. And here's the product and here's my before and after.

24:18And it's like, that's like the perfect combination of things. You have high margin product, you have repeat purchase because people are going to have to keep applying the thing. You have a visual before and after, and you have a true story around the creators, like actual need versus just like a nice to have. And that's the Yahtzee of putting these together. Most people are not going to be able to do that. Yeah, but Austin, you could do it. You've got that operator gene. You could be one of these nerds. Well, the thing is, we're all doing it in the B2B space, right? So what we're doing is like, okay, we have one 100th the audience of a Mr.

24:55Beast or a Logan Paul. Cool. So we need to sell a product that's 100 times more expensive than a bottle of Prime, right? He sells his for four bucks or whatever. We're trying to sell products that cost$4 ,000 or$40 ,000 or$400 ,000 a year by doing B2B software, right? That's why HubSpot did it with us. And I think this is the other thing. Austin, you did a thread that was like, this is the new thing. But it's like, dude, people have been doing celebrity endorsements forever. The difference is that now the celebrities own equity. I'm like, oh yeah, people can do this. Wait a minute. We did it. That's us.

25:29That's good for their brand, right? To help them sell a product that's worth thousands of dollars, right? It would be smart of us to do that, not the MFM, whatever, like Target brand nail clippers. Lego set. Yeah, exactly. Adult Legos. Yeah. And Sam, I think really that is you and Hampton. You really are. I mean, it's a what? $8 ,000 product. I think that is the perfect example. You may not be Tony Robbins, right? You may not be Gary V, right? Maybe they're the equivalent of like the Logan Paul and B2B, but you found a great product and it makes a lot of sense for your brand and your audience.

26:04And so, yeah, I think it's a home run. Yeah, keep shilling. Speaking of Tony Robbins, Austin, you know this episode's going to come out right after the episode with Tony Robbins. Yeah, which is good for Austin, I think. That's good for you. No, I mean, maybe, but I meant to start with this actually. So maybe we'll cut this and put it at the beginning. But when you start, not to shill Hampton again, I hate to do this, but when you start a Hampton session with your group, you air grievances, right? Everyone can you be honest with everyone? Can you really have a good dialogue and discussion? Or is there anything you need to get out in the open?

26:38Well, clearly we could, cause I didn't say this, but, but I, I do need to tell everyone that Monday you and I were supposed to talk like one o 'clock. Sean's like, I'm going to, I'm going to call you all. So I'm going to give you a call. One o 'clock comes by no call two o 'clock. No call. So I text him like, Sean, what's going on? You're like, Oh, I'm prepping for the biggest. He texted me. Thanks for the call.

27:02And so I'm like, Sean, what the heck's going on? You're like, I'm prepping for the big guest. I'm like, oh, Sean's hyping me up. Like 10 minutes later, by the way, that was actually Tony Robbins, not you. Yeah, so basically like he reached out or someone on his team reached out. I had a thing planned. And also Sean is like the biggest fan. So Sean, it was awesome that you got to like just hang out with a guy you admired. How was it? It was intense is the way I would explain it. I mean, when I tell you I prepared for this, not only did I basically spend every waking moment for two days just like preparing for this thing, which I never do for podcasts.

27:41I've also kind of been preparing for 10 years because I follow the guy and I'm a big fan of what he's been to three of his seminars. Like, I know a lot. And there's kind of a curse of knowing too much going in. And so. Like meeting your heroes type of thing. Yeah, it's like you want it to go well so bad. It's almost like you squeeze this. Like, don't squeeze the bar of soap too hard. It just squirts out. Like if you want it to go so well, it's going to fight up. I'll tell you guys the funny part. Interesting analogy. Interesting analogy. It's not the bar of soap analogy you thought I was going to do.

28:11I took the road less traveled there. So we're getting ready for the pod. It's me and Ari. We're sitting there and his team's like, you know, his team's like swarming the computer setup. They're like, Tony will be here shortly. You know, just everything's okay. And I'm like, all right, sweet. I never get here early. You know, I'm like chronically late. But for this one, 20 minutes early. So I'm sitting there for like 10 minutes and I could just feel myself getting cold. I'm like, oh no, I can't just sit here. And I was like, I got to use the shit Tony teaches you. You got to be in state. You want to have a peak performance?

28:38You got to be in a peak state. Of course, right? Athletes do that. Well, guess what? What's one step down from an athlete? A musician. What's 25 steps down from that? A podcaster. And so I got up and I start doing my like Tony Robbins power move where I'm like, I'm basically doing this like really dorky like mid back stretch to like you know unlock my fucking chakras or something like that try to get some energy flowing and then i just hear hello and it's tony robbins i'm like rushed back to my desk like oh hey um yeah sorry you're just staring at my chair there as i was doing like you know tony robbins stretches in the corner trying to get hyped for this he just hears like off screen sean saying like i'm the man who's the man i'm the man I'm the man even better I'm visualizing thanks Tony I had a good time too you want my number let me get it for you I'm working backwards from the desired end state just like you did just me but here's it off camera and it went well I mean I'm not going to give away too much but let me just say this tears were shed and they weren't mine and if there's one mark of a successful Tony like life accomplishment I wouldn't say he cried wouldn't say but he you know teared up and so you know i thought that that was a you know a good thing but it's really hard to interview somebody who is a stage performer like sam you must feel like this sometimes when i'm just monologuing monologuing monologuing like right now he's on he's like a next level of that and it's all good stuff but it's like you know it's like you poke the thing and an avalanche comes out were you ever like uh all right toady shut the fuck up let me ask my next question so uh

30:23this guy's like alfum a little bit 45 minutes they were like um like you got 45 minutes with tony and i was like 45 minutes geez this guy does nine hour a day seminars for four days straight like what am i gonna do in 45 minutes and then and i'm like hey uh you know actually it might be better if we do this in person i'm i will fly to you tomorrow and i'll be there and his team was like, no, thanks. We'll do it. You stay over there. We'll do it this way instead. But it was good. I enjoyed it. I do think I'm going to just make a prediction. Austin, sorry to big dog you with the Tony Robbins thing, but I'll give you this compliment.

31:00I think people are going to like this episode more because the rapport and also just like the style of stuff we talk about is so like, you know, on point for what this podcast is. Can I ask you a different story, though, about a big name? Yeah, go ahead. A couple years ago, you texted us that you were going to dinner with SBF. And at the time, SBF was the next Mark Zuckerberg. SBF was multi-billionaire of the fastest growing private startup, boy genius from MIT who wore cargo jorts. And we were like, dude, tell us more. And you were like, I can't. I've got to put away my phone right now. See you later, suckers.

31:37I'm going to go have dinner with SBF. Can you now, two years later, can you tell us the story? What was it like going to dinner with SBF? Yeah, he's not going to do anything now, right? He's in jail for a long time, I think. So maybe one day I'll get out and listen to this episode. I don't think I've told this story publicly. So I'll tell it. But I have a friend, investor at a big VC, invested in FTX. And this is probably out of 2021. So SBF was SBF, right? This is pre him obviously getting caught as being a fraud, but he's at the height of his power. He was, whatever the stat was, the top richest, you know, the richest person under 35 in the world.

32:15Oh, the one liner for anyone who doesn't know who SBF is, Sam Bankman Freed. He was like the Bernie Madoff of crypto, 31 year old worth$20 billion and it all came crashing down. Now he's in prison for fraud. OK, go ahead. Great. Thanks for the background. It's gonna make it look really good. So I didn't know that much about him, though. Like I didn't do any research. I'd heard him talk a couple of times, but I know any of the stories. And so my friend's like, break trip to the Bahamas. I'm like, I'm in it's for his birthday. So we show up and I've been to nice places, right? I've stayed at the Ritz Carlton.

32:51I've stayed all these nice places. And so I thought I knew where the rich and famous live. I was wrong. This place, it's called the Albany in the Bahamas. This is where the rich and famous live. Like this place was, there are 250 foot yachts everywhere. I mean, this is, I think Tiger Woods owns it. Justin Bieber, who I actually met the next day, lives there. Will Smith lives there. This is where the rich and famous live. It was nuts. And so I get there. I'm like, oh, shit. Yeah, we're in for it. So we show up. We actually stayed at someone else at FTX's house. They put you in the guest boat, which was a pretty nice guest house, though.

33:30No, it was not a boat, but it was a house. And so we show up and we get there. Here's the first thing I observe, right? It's like the penthouse,$125 million apartment. I had no idea what I was walking into. I walk in and there are 50 pairs of shoes laying everywhere, like crappy Nikes. I'm like, this dude's worth 30 billion and there are all these weird Nikes laying around. And my friend's like, oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, like the entire exec team lives together in this one apartment. And I'm like, oh boy, what are we, what is going on? And so obviously now Now we know in hindsight, like, you know, there are articles who knows if it's true.

34:04They were having orgies and all type of weird shit. So we I knew all this. Like I knew some weird stuff was going on because if you get the orgy vibe, did you get like could you smell it? Yeah, no. But there was a weird alpha attitude that people had towards Sam. Like he was clearly the alpha in the room, even though he's super nerdy, super techie. But he just had this weird thing where people, anyone who said anything, look to Sam to make sure they approve. Like it was clear he was in charge. He was the man. And so, again, first thing, shoes. Second thing, you look to the left and Sam is in the kitchen cooking food, which I was like, oh, well, probably the chef cook us dinner.

34:44No, Sam is there cooking us food. He does not turn his back as his face to us. His back is to us. And he starts having a full conversation with us without ever making eye contact. He goes, the first thing he ever says to me and my friend is, so what do you think about Indian crypto exchanges? What? And I'm like, what is going on? You think you're Indian because he hasn't turned around yet? He doesn't realize you're a white guy? I don't know. So my friend who knows - Did you have an answer to that? I probably said four words the entire dinner. They were speaking a different language, you know, all crypto stuff.

35:22So I show up in the kitchen and Sam's cooking us dinner. I put dinner in quotes. Everyone got one beyond sausage and two Russell sprouts. That was the meal for everyone. So I think the vegan stuff's true because he cooked us all beyond sausage, right? So that was pretty weird. We sit down. So again,$20 million apartment, but there's hardware everywhere, cables everywhere. It was like post-apocalyptic, right? It was super, super weird being in this$20 million apartment, but there's like PS3s and Xboxes, like everywhere, a complete mess of an apartment. And so we sit down and I think the craziest thing about the dinner was Sam was a genius when it came to the things he had to know for FTX and crypto.

36:07So for example, Tom Brady was a like sponsored by FTX, right? Sam could have told you every single thing about Tom Brady. Could have told you his stat line, everything about him. But I don't think Sam knew what a first down was. I don't think he knew a single thing about football. But if it benefited crypto, he was the smartest person on the planet. Same thing with politicians. He could go every single senator, every Supreme Court justice. He could tell you their exact stance on crypto. I don't think he could tell you a single other thing about them. It was incredible. Dude, Sean, you and I, I don't want to I don't want to say their name because I don't want this to be an insult.

36:46But you and I hung out with someone who was the best in the whole world at what they do. And fuck it, I'll say it. It was Mr. Beast. He was the best at whatever. This is not an insult, I guess. It was Mr. Beast. He's the best in the world. And I remember, I think it was either you or me or me and someone else. And we were just shooting the shit about a TV show that I thought everyone knew about. And he had no idea. And I was just curious about this. So I asked him more pop culture stuff. Didn't know anything about this normal stuff. He's like, sorry, I just paid attention to YouTube. That's all I do.

37:21He had the exact same thing where he didn't know anything about anything outside of his expertise. there's a funny uh interview with conor mcgregor on bbc it's like uh you know usually ufc gets covered by these small niche outlets but one time like he got on the main bbc they were like they were shooting the shit before the interview they were like oh how about the game you know whoever like some soccer game like some famous soccer game he's like he just laughs he's like he's like haha yeah it was great he goes yeah he goes yeah it's great and they go you don't watch soccer do you he goes no i have no idea what you're talking about and he goes he goes um i don't know what's happening in the news i don't know what's happening in the world uh he goes i've lost my mind to the game and i only know about my shit i don't give a damn about anything else and i think that's like actually kind of common for people who get like top 0.0111 percent of like what they're trying to trying to become it's like when they asked trump what his favorite like verse in the bible was and he goes you know what i love all of them i love all of them yeah too hard to pick i love them all that's what conor mcgregor was like i love all this sports well you've seen the video of lebron he's on instagram live and people are like oh who are your favorite soccer players and lebron's like he's like i love soccer no no they asked him about the team he owns they were like who are your favorite psg players or whatever and he's like he owns the team and he's like he names one and he's like you know such as such as i mean you know so and so forth there are so many it's like etc etc such as you only use the middle words of a sentence you didn't say the subject did you get fraud vibes when you were there or were you also tricked i mean i was totally enamored because the perception at the Albany, like there was a buzz.

39:14We took a cab to Albany and the guy's like, oh, you're going to, you know, like the Albany, that's where, that's where FTX is headquartered. Like, oh yeah. We're like, we're going to see Sam. And everyone's like, oh my God. Everyone's like, yo, one of the security guards said, you know, here, you know, you think the celebrities are famous, the famous people, they want to meet Sam. Sam doesn't want to meet the people, they want to go meet Sam. Like this guy, he just had this aura around him. Everyone wanted to meet him. Now, in hindsight, I feel like a complete moron because there were so many red flags.

39:47The whole effective altruism thing, do you guys know about that? Yeah. Make as much money as you can to give it away. Yeah. So I heard about this and everyone's like, yeah, Sam lives a really low key lifestyle. I'm like, guys, he lives in a 25 or$20 million apartment. It's a nice apartment I've ever been in and they're all like no he only lives there because the most convenient to the ftx yeah yeah yeah he lives in an orgy compound and he still he lives a low-key life we just drove by the ftx office there were 75 you know neighborhoods in between here and the office like that doesn't add up what is going on because these videos came out that was like sam still drives his 93 corolla and he's just like shrugs like why do i need to get a better car and it's like oh damn this guy's full of shit you know like wow he's got like a full olympic sized swimming pool on his on his balcony but he's an ea he's not spending his money there was a there was a rumor that he was uh that they were high on some type of like uh you know adderall type of medicine that was like a patch did you see any of that shit laying around no i wish again like hindsight's 2020 i wish i was looking for this stuff because i was just so enamored by this guy and how well he knew crypto.

41:01But I just wish I started like digging and looking through more stuff. I'm sure there was crazy shit everywhere. Dude, you also I don't know if you probably can't say this, but you went and hung out with Kid Rock as well, which is like a crazy story. You've hung out with some cool people. You've had some diverse experiences. Yeah, the Kid Rock thing. I think I might spoke about that last time. The Kid Rock thing was awesome. He is he's obviously super interesting. He told us he is the only person to play at both President Obama and President Trump's inaugurations. And he knows both of them. He's the only one that can heal this country.

41:35He's the only one that could bring us together. He he lives in this this car. He actually on his compound, which is a compound. He has like a full bar. And I don't mean like the physical bar. I mean, like a whole hub at on its compound. He also lives and I it was being constructed, but he lives in a house that is a replica of the White House. I'll show you guys pictures. He modeled it after the White House. You walk up, you're like, oh my God, it actually looks exactly like the White House looks like. It's nuts. Hey, quick message here, because you know that feeling when you send a wire and it actually works?

42:14No friction? Well, I've used Mercury for years now, and let me tell you, it just works. And that's why I use it for not one, not two, but eight of my companies. From credit cards to invoices, I have everything in one place. There's no janky dashboard. I'm never told, please visit a local bank branch. None of that tomfoolery. And a few months ago, I landed a big client. And the first thing I did, I sent them a clean, branded invoice. Boom, deal closed, cash in the door. That's the kind of banking experience I want. And that's why I use Mercury. So if you're running a startup and you want banking that feels like it's built in this century, well, go to mercury.com and get started in minutes.

42:47Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Bank services are provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N8, and Evolve Bank & Trust members FDIC. All right, everyone. Really quick, this is Sam. I'm going to do a thrill of the shill. So basically, I've got an ask for everyone out there. I just launched this new podcast. It's called Money Wise. It's a personal finance podcast for high net worth people. You can find it by looking up Money Wise on Spotify and iTunes or wherever else you get your podcasts. But here's the deal. This podcast is a ton of work and I'm only hosting the first handful of episodes.

43:17I need someone to be the host of this podcast. I have a feeling it's going to be pretty big and it's going to be great for whoever hosts it. But I need help posting it. I don't want to do all the work. Our first episode, you can find it on whatever, all those platforms. It's pretty great, I think. It's with the guy who sold his company for$200 million. And we get to hear how he breaks down his net worth, how much he spends each month, all this transparent money stuff. That's pretty interesting. And so if you want to host it, I'm actually not going to give out my contact information. You've got to figure out how to contact me because that's what you're going to have to do.

43:43You're going to have to find guests. So contact me and let me know if you want to be the host of this and send me something that is impressive that shows that you have what it takes. All right, back to the show. awesome did you ever hear the story cody co told on our pod about when he went to elon musk's house for a party no it's so funny it's a very short story but i find it hilarious even though it's not meant to be a funny story he's just telling what happened but the whole idea is so funny to me so he goes he's like yeah i was hanging out with uh so cody's like you know la youtuber cool guy also makes some music so i think they were hanging out with um post malone so he's He's at a thing with Post Malone.

44:21He's like, oh, Elon asked us to come over for a party. He shows him his phone. He's like, you want to go? And he's like, of course. Okay, let's go. So they go to Elon Musk's house. I was like, what's it like? He's like, first thing, no furniture in the entire place. An empty house. And he was like, does anybody live here? Like, what is this? And he's like, no, Elon's house is across the street. This is like his party. He hosts people here. He lives over there. I was like, oh, naturally. Okay. That's a stupid question by me. Dumb. All right. I won't ask him questions. He's like, so we're just sitting there and he's like, it's like a fire.

44:53And they're just kind of like eating, you know, like eating marshmallows or whatever the fuck. And he's like, he's like, you know, got kind of late. People are doing the own thing. And he's like, you know, all right, I'm just going to go. I'm just going to kind of dip out of here. This is like, you know, it's it's late. This was weird. And he's like, so he's trying to leave. He doesn't know his way out of the house. So he's like trying to get out. He turns the corner and it's just Elon making out with Grimes. And so he just turns and he opens this door and he's like, he's like, dude, I thought I was going to open this door and there's just a rocket.

45:24And they're like, get in. There's no time. He's like, I just wanted to leave so bad. You guys read the Elon book? I didn't read it. I'm kind of over Elon. Sean and I are both over him hardcore, but I don't want to read that book because it sounds so stressful. Yeah, I just finished it. I read it over the holidays. And it definitely gives you a different lens into Elon Musk. You really see the full spectrum of who he is as a person. And I think people try to draw inspiration from Elon. And I think you can in little bits and pieces. But to me, my big takeaway from the whole book was like, Elon is hardcore.

46:06Like that is the one word he uses. And like that is who he is. He's hardcore. He's extreme. I don't think you can be like 70 % Elon and be successful. Like he just has no regard for any person he works with. He's basically fired everyone he works with, right? He, you know, he treats his family like shit. He's scarred from issues with his dad. And my big takeaway was like, Elon's this unique one, you know, one in a billion, one in 10 billion people. And all these people who are inspired, that's great, but don't try to copy him because this guy is to the extreme. And I don't think almost anyone can be as extreme in every facet of life.

46:44He doesn't sleep. He doesn't vacation. He has crazy relationships. I mean, obviously, that's all public with with all you know, he has so many kids, but it's all everything's extreme. Every single thing he does is to the as extreme as you can possibly do it. It's incredible. You should read the book. Dude, I just don't want my blood pressure to rise reading that, like just hearing you talk about this, because on one hand, I'm like, when I hear about him, I'm like, oh, I'm soft. I should step it up. And then on the other hand, I'm like, his life sucks. I do not want that. And so there is that whole, you can't be, you can't be like him and be 70%.

47:18Have I told you my David Goggins point? I think that's what applies here. Which is what? You only want to be David Goggins for one hour a day. And that's the whole trick with David Goggins. You, you, you can't be, you don't want to be out on all of David Goggins because he's inspiring and he's so tough and he's so like mentally strong that there's something to learn there. You also don't want to subscribe to the David Goggins lifestyle or even like try to emulate, you know, half of what he's doing. You would just want for one hour a day when you're working out to just shift into David Goggins gear for that one hour and then never touch it again.

47:53Like, I don't know if you saw this post that was David Goggins is engaged. Yes. Fucking insane. It sounds like an Onion article. I was going to say there's this video of her. I didn't even know he's engaged. I don't know how he's in a relationship, first of all, but here's what I actually saw. We put this on the YouTube of just like gets YouTube may delete our account. Are they like we just got home from dinner or something? First, there's a picture of his toes, which is just like, I don't know if you've ever seen an ex-athlete's toes, but they're like all nasty as hell. This guy, I don't even know what's going on.

48:24He's literally just ripping off his big toenail because he's like, ah, don't need this shit anymore. And then he's like, no, David, please don't. And like, whatever. And he's like, why are his feet so jacked up? Because he's running 100 miles at a time. And so she posts this thing. She's like, yeah, a lot of people think that David only turns it on for the camera. I just want to show you this. He's two weeks off of surgery for his leg where they broke his leg and fixed it for whatever reason. He just came home and was like, I want to run 100 miles tonight. She's following him in the car. She's been with him in the car for eight hours.

48:58She's following behind at five miles an hour or whatever. He's just running. He's on 3 a.m. Yeah, hour 7. It's like 3 a.m. and he's almost done with 100 miles. I think it said like we got home from dinner and David just looks at me and goes I've got to go run 100 miles now or like I got to run a truck what are they called trucks or something like that I got to go do a truck tonight I forget what they're called but like a ruck so we're going for a ruck tonight and I don't I'm this out of shape I don't even know what a ruck is let alone run a ruck it's running or walking with a backpack on that has weight in it okay so he's doing 100 mile weighted run and you know then you see that you're like well this is fucking stupid this is not the way to lose the only intelligent response to that is that and so the trick with David Goggins you want to be David Goggins for one hour a day the trick with Elon Musk is you only want to be Elon Musk like 15 % of the time in your company right when you're establishing the vision of like thinking big about what you're doing he's amazing you want to channel your inner Elon when you are you know telling a story about your product the way he demos you know Tesla every time and sells hundreds of thousands of cars before they're even ready people pay money just to wait for the car.

50:08That's when you want to reserve your thing. Or when he came into Twitter, he was like, I'm going to do this really hard thing, hardcore, I'm going to do a sprint, I'm going to sleep in the office, and I'm going to make sure everybody knows if you're in this, you're in this in a hardcore way versus like, dude, Austin, I don't know how you run your company, but I was always on eggshells with my employees. Like, hey, we got to do this tomorrow. But if that's too much, Tuesday's okay, right? Yeah, is that okay with you? I just don't know what the boundaries are. versus like Mr. Beast or David Goggins or Elon.

50:38These guys have like kind of no sense of boundaries. They just, they're on their mission and you're either all in or you're out. And I think that's pretty cool. And that's the part to steal. Yeah, I think so. I think the thing to steal in particular is that vision, right? Elon starts with the vision and then builds the business, builds the business model. That's really impressive. I think the way he treats people, the way he, some of the things he says, that could be in the 85 % of stuff you leave out. right right and actually SPF is kind of the same way the SPF book kind of highlighted a bunch of things uh that happened my friend read the SPF book and he was like I think I'm supposed to hate SPF uh you know because of everything that happened but reading this book made me like him more and it wasn't because of the spin he's like actually I found a few things I really respect about what he did he's like let's take away the fact that he was taking customer funds to do these things but like let's just say he was using the company's money or his own money or whatever, right?

51:33Which he was also doing. He just overextended and used the customer funds too. But they were like, the fact that he was like, okay, if I have$100 million, he didn't feel any fear towards losing it, nor did he feel any attachment to it. He's like, great. Let's use the$100 million to pay off Steph Curry, Tom Brady and whoever, because we're going to build the brand that way. Go and cut absurd deals in order to pull these things off. There's that email that leaked of him and the guy in LA where the guy, he's like, I went to this dinner with this guy in LA. He's the most connected person I've ever seen.

52:05At this dinner was whoever. Nancy Pelosi, Leonardo DiCaprio, and whatever, 12 other people. He's like, we need to give this guy$200 million to invest in his fund. And I think he'll open all the doors for us after that. Wire him the money now, please. And just the ability to throw your weight around is actually pretty badass. And if you take away the fraud stuff, I know other successful people in our life that do this. Andrew Wilkinson does this. He throws his weight around. when he wants something or he like sets his target on someone a relationship or a business he wants to buy or whatever he really throws his weight around in a way that i definitely don't uh right like sam when he wanted to buy the hustle dude he flew me private up to his house oh you he's like i want to buy this company let's talk and you're like cool we can talk on the phone he's like no let's meet in person you're like i don't like to fly and canada's far away he's like my jet will be there tomorrow.

52:57Let's go. And you know, he throws his weight around in a way that I think I am like often either too cheap or too afraid or just don't even think about those options. And I'm learning to steal that part of my game. Have you guys thought about that or do you guys think about how you're going to use that? I'm the same way as you. I appreciate it and I'm fearful of it. It's a very scary thing. But when I see it, I get inspired. Yeah, I think it's a, for me it's a conviction play. I'm more inspired by, like I read the the Warren Buffett book, for example. Right. And he's more cerebral in the way he does it.

53:31But it's the same thing. It's like he sees an opportunity and he's not dipping his toe in the water. He's not a diversification guy like, oh, Bank of America is going under. I'm going to buy a ton of preferred debt. This is a can't lose bet. And by the way, I'm sitting on however many billions of dollars on my balance sheet. So I'm going to own whatever, 10 percent of Bank of America. And so I love when people have conviction and they say, you know what, this is it. I'm taking all the chips, all the social capital, everything I've made, and I'm doubling down on this. Dude, your chips on the table moment right now is just praying Bill Ackman doesn't crush your company because Morning Brew is owned by...

54:07Taking your chips and running away, hiding under the table, actually. Speaking of throwing your weight around, right? That's what he's doing right now. He's trying to throw his weight around in a way. I think... Well, Morning Brew is owned by Business Insider, which is owned by Axel Springer, and Bill Ackman is at war with B.I. and Axel Springer. Awesome. I'd like to hear your response to this. Yeah, what's your official response? You just got to message Bill Ackman to be like, Bill, same team, same team. I'm all right. Yeah, I'll save my response for the private group chats. I think you don't want to be excited to just plow chips into something because you're naturally going to just make an impulsive wrong decision.

54:47But I do think there's a good question, which is, am I throwing my weight around? right like am i um you know how hard how much gas versus how much breaks am i applying to the things that i want in my life that's one of my themes i think for this year that i'm gonna i'm gonna focus on ramit saithi has this good thing where he talks about spending and he was like and he'll message me privately he's like what interests you and i'm like well i've got this cleaning lady that comes every two weeks i wish they would come every day almost and he's like i'm gonna challenge you to figure out what makes you happy and i want you to spend 10 times the amount that you're spending now.

55:21And so like for him, it's like travel. And he goes, when I travel, I will spend$50 ,000 on a trip. And that's a ton of money. But I know that's what makes me happy. And I'm going to 10 times spend what I used to spend because that's what I love. And that's what he was saying to me about services, like cleaning ladies, things like that. He goes, I challenge you to spend 10 times more. And that's like a miniature version of what you're talking about. Also, what about you? You made a bunch of money selling Morning Brew. Did you use it in any way that was interesting or like improve the quality of your life meaningfully?

55:48Yeah. The big thing for me is I love traveling. I love staying in nice hotels on vacation. And so I when I when I travel that that is my money dial is traveling. I think Ramit's is two actually. You were texting us about this Amman Hotel. What's the deal? Do I need to know about this? What is it? Have you heard of it? It's just like supposed to be the fanciest hotel ever. I've heard about it like two times this year. And I don't know if I just started hanging out with different people or it's new. Is this I'm guessing this has been around for like for like a while. We're growing a lot. But essentially, Amon, I think, is the standard for customer service for any business, right?

56:21You know, we're talking about the Milk Road for X. I think a good way to think about a business is what's the Amon for X? So Amon is just the absolute top customer service. I mean, I think the cheapest Amon, there's maybe 60 or 70 of them. The cheapest one is maybe$1 ,500 a night. I think they're regularly$2 ,500. There's one out west somewhere. I think it's Amon, Gary. In Arizona. Yeah. That's what people love. it's like six grand a night and people go there and they're like it was worth it what do they do how would that be worth it well it's beautiful for one but it's sort of like remember Sean the bear that episode I'm gonna be touching my body for six grand a night but you remember like I remember there's like season two episode six or something where the guy goes and learns how to like wash the silverware perfectly it's like that and I think that that type of excellence helped make it popular where people are like oh I respect this craftsmanship But have you been, Austin?

57:14I've never been. So I've never stayed at one. I'm planning my honeymoon now. And that's our goal is stay at a bunch of Ammons. But I've been to a bunch when I travel. So when I travel, I always try to get like a drink or go to them. They're also interesting because they're typically not in the heart of a city. They typically are on the outskirts a little bit. They actually, and I think this is really cool. I think they just intentionally, they make you travel there a little bit, right? It's not accessible. And that's part of the allure is it's like a destination. You have to really want to go to an Amman to be at the Amman.

57:45Now they've grown and they have one in New York City. So maybe that's not quite as true, but they really want you to be in the Amman essence when they're there. And it's just, again, it's the pinnacle of customer service. Give me an example. What are they doing that's such good customer service? Yeah, like I went to a Motel 8 with a slip inside. Do they have that? I mean, the highest quality food, the best quality bed, bedding, the mattress, every little thing right when the toilet paper is folded the right direction every detail is perfect and if if if nice hotels is not your money dial you're gonna be like i just wasted five grand a night but if if luxury and having everything you need cater towards if that's something that you get joy out of you're gonna go and you're gonna love it yeah i get why you like it no slip yeah is there a mini fridge though or not i just need like kitkat and animal crackers at midnight and i'm gravy like life's cream cheese just give me that and we good austin thanks for coming on man this is good yeah this is fun all right that's the pod i feel like i can rule the world i know i could be what i want to i put my all in it like no days off on the road let's travel never looking back

59:08Hey, let's take a quick break because there's a quote that I love I want to read you. It's that we shape our tools and thereafter they shape us. And as an entrepreneur, if you're using a bank that was built in the 90s, you're operating like you're in the 90s. And trust me, I've been there. Clunky portals, random holds on your money,$50 wire fees, and then being told, please visit your local branch. Well, that's why I switched to a different type of banking solution, Mercury. It turns your financial chores into a smooth workflow. You can do wires, invoices, cards, reimbursements, two clicks, and I'm done.

59:38If you're already using Mercury, respect. If you're still using one of the old big banks, I got questions for you. So go visit Mercury.com and give it a test drive. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group, Call O'Man A, and Evolve Bank & Trust members FDIC.