Mr Beast's Lunchly is a DISASTER - Entrepreneurs react

0:00Creators aren't just selling merch anymore, they're building empires. from burger change to energy drinks, influencers are taking basic products and creating whole new brands. So the question is, are we seeing the rise of a completely new business? So obviously what sparked this debate for us is we did the Mr. Beast episode. Yep. We did it just before we launched and we got lots of feedback from people who really enjoyed that, actually, which was quite nice for us because it was a bit of a test. We don't know what people want yet. And we had fun with it. And we had fun with it. And then lots of people have sent us the news in the last 24 hours that MrBeast has launched.

0:37He has another product. It's the same product, really, but he's teamed up with other YouTubers. So here's I and Logan Paul. Our original criticism of MrBeast, right, was, and this is someone who runs a consumer health company, consumer product company, and it happens to be in health. Should someone with MrBeast's audience and responsibility and audience size and positioning, it's his own choice to have that kind of brand positioning, be selling sugar? and marketing sugar to kids under health messages. And that was our big point of contention last time. Now the question is, should someone be doing that and teaming up with two more people who sell sugar in a bottle?

1:16And should the three of them be coming together to sell sugar in a bar, sugar in a bottle and saying, but it's less sugar and less chocolate and less whatever than the current worst thing on the market. Ours is the second worst thing in the market is another way of saying it. yeah it's to me it's ridiculous the funny thing that they said in that episode that they were so happy about is like children that weren't going to the chocolate aisle are now going to the chocolate aisle as if that was something to be proud of like that is not something to hang your hat on but i think in terms of today it's the most american thing i've ever heard it's great proud to send more people to the chocolate i know and there's there are multiple clips as in that's like a pr statement that they said but i think this brings into contention for us two people who I think are in the space ourselves, which is what do we think about creator-led businesses?

2:03Like as a completely new model that's probably been more pioneered by celebrities historically, but now you have people being able to build audiences and launch businesses. So I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a creator-led business. What do you think? So I've been invited to invest in a few of these and the only ones that I have invested in for what it's worth are the ones where the founder really is you know has an actual team themselves and is building this a perfect example is grace beverly i invested in tala because grace is she doesn't pretend to be the ceo like she has hired a very competent excellent ceo called morgan um and but grace is in that business and she is they are literally they make those products and they do do the things and so for me i'm like there's an authenticity level here the same way as if you know i'd been lucky enough if i was lucky enough to invest in gym shark you know ben francis was actually doing the thing he obviously became a creator from being an entrepreneur but you know same with stephen bartlett that like the people in flight studio they do make those products this is a thing i've also been invited to invest in tons of these businesses from companies like gen flow and whatever they basically are cookie cutter companies that create products that are exceptionally average but they can do the production at scale and they put an influencer's face on it and they go there's your distribution and it's kind of like a 50 50 deal i'm allergic to those deals because i feel like as an entrepreneur the single most important thing whether you are a creator or you make a consumer product or you do sass for care homes the most important thing is that you literally truly genuinely are all ultra passionate and care about your end consumer yeah you care about the product you're solving a problem that you really deeply care about.

3:47And you could never convince me that someone who has hired a company to mass produce a thing and stick an influencer's face on it is anything other than a marketing scheme. And all of this is to say, I don't know about Feastables, but I do know about Prime. That is exactly what Prime is, because I was invited to invest in that company that ended up making Prime. And I obviously missed out on a really big opportunity because that was actually incredible yeah it would have been incredible however the reason i didn't do it is because i was just like this is garbage guys like you're not trying to create an amazing product you're just finding a distribution channel which is really smart how high quality can that product genuinely be and the answer is not they don't care it's just a brand some liquid in a bottle and a face and i really oppose that stuff i think it's like a an interesting one because if you're a startup owner and like startups historically have been you know the stupid phrase from mark zuckerberg which is like move fast and break things became like a mantra for so many people it was actually the mantra of elizabeth holmes from theranos she always quoted it but i think that like as startups you have a bit of a leeway on the quality of your product and it's known you know if you want to buy a good quality product don't i wouldn't say necessarily startups are the place to do it because they're experimenting they're shipping fast they're changing totally and so you have that already with the startup business and you then have the idea of a creator launching it and often creators I think like you say are either one of two things as someone that's authentically building a product because they love it I would say for example you and heights like you are a creator you have a product the thing you care about most is the quality of the product you could grow that business faster but you don't and so you then have the other side which is like you say I have a product I'm now going to team up with loads of influencers and just punt it as far as physically possible for the money and so I think if you combine the idea that startups are a bit shaky sometimes to buy from combine that with influencers putting their faces to products which is very similar to what prime is I then go do I really want to be buying that product for my children to eat and to drink and that for me I'm like okay fine that's two things that I'm already against.

6:05And then when we layer on top of that, these specific influencers we're talking about, you know, Logan Paul has the, you know, the scandal with the NFT thing that he did, which is a massive thing where effectively, like he released a product that wasn't ready. And he didn't care about it. You know, he's come out, you know, it's come out scandalous because he just didn't really care the impact it was having on his own audience. Didn't address it, didn't deal with it properly, didn't refund people properly. And the only reason that he might end up doing it, I think probably is going to be the public pressure.

6:35And so that's the same person we're talking about. And then we did an episode of Mr. Beast recently where we talked about, yeah, they're super impressive people. And I'm not saying I condemn them forever, but there are things they do in their businesses that are a bit shady. You combine all of that with the idea of selling food and drink to kids every day. I'm like, I don't know, I don't buy it. I think it gets worse. Yeah. All of that is true. And all of that to me is a red flag. But the biggest red flag to me is, you know gandhi says something along the lines of you know enlightenment is quoting gandhi here we go david gandhi though no i'm joking you know when what you what you think what you say and what you do are all in alignment you will feel happy enlightened you know present all of the things logan paul just look at logan paul's body and ksi's body they're ripped these two guys are the peak physical condition any man would ever wish to ever in their life get to you know they perfect 10 out of 10 physiques you only get to a perfect 10 out of 10 physique by being perfect by having an exceptional diet by not pumping it full of sugar there is no feastable or prime that has ever touched their lips frankly looking at them right like they have like a zero percent body fat thing going on yeah they're not eating this stuff they look incredible full credit to them like they do the work like that is a perfect example of a great mindset a great attitude and they deserve their success and their channels they are obviously highly disciplined and disciplined people do not have that kind of food this is the last thing on their diet and then mr beast has gone from fat to thin as an inspiring health journey of i was really unhealthy i let it all get away from me i'm gonna take it back and i'm gonna go on a health journey i'm gonna become thin again again don't become thin by eating chocolate bars and energy drinks and so the biggest issue for me on all of it is just this concept of what they create and what they promote is the antithesis of what they themselves would consume and it doesn't represent any part of their lifestyle at all.

8:33And that to me is just super cynical marketing. Like how could it look like anything other than a cash grab? There's nothing natural about why they would create those products. I was talking to someone before the show and they were saying that kids are now looking at prime bottles as almost like trophies or status symbols. and I think that does make you really like viscerally disconnect with what you just said which is like these people are pumping a product making a huge amount of money from selling something that they themselves will not drink yeah and then kids are holding up as a status symbol which is simply like sugar water and there's so much negativity around what these products actually are and so I feel I feel in a sense like we're kind of talking about a change from like traditional marketing and brand towards creator marketing and i don't know if the onus is as strong on the creator to be as decent towards the customer you know and i was going to say i wonder if there's a uk us thing and obviously remember that ksi's uh like a north londoner so actually there's clearly not who i like me too i really like but i think this is completely yeah okay um but i was just going to compare it to let's go back to grace beverly right she makes Tala she literally is a fitness influencer she goes to gym every day she has an incredible physique she works really hard at it and that's consistent over years her other products fitness planners journals um Shreddy which is like nutritional supplements as well these are all completely in alignment you look at Grace and you go hey what are the things that Grace should create she creates fitness products and business products yeah no one is calling Grace out because she's authentically creating products that totally fit her personality and brand yeah and Stephen Bartlett what are the products that Stephen Bartlett created?

10:11A diary, conversation cards like they're literal thoughtful products that fit entirely around his purpose of having meaningful conversations with people no one's calling, you know, they might call him out for fuel ads and things like that, sure but Stephen's products that him and his team create completely in alignment with what the point of Stephen exists as a brand to other people and how they perceive it Spencer Matthews, right was an alcoholic, went on a health journey to become sober and go from like fat lazy slob to like incredible Guinness world record marathon runner etc what's his company just shout out to him that what he did is unbelievable unbelievable yeah absolutely like how does he even it's ridiculous he's genetically must be a freak as well obviously he is taking heights but the other side of this is what's his product it's clean clean co which is the largest and fastest growing uh clean spirit in the world is that right yeah and so he's absolutely nailed the position name because he's basically you know i don't drink alcohol and that was part of my journey and so i'm sober and so i've created the alcohol alternative and a beautiful brand and stuff again we should get him on yeah we definitely should actually but on that note you know no one's looking at spencer i'm going why are you making that no it perfectly fits with the story it's why i make highs why and i had insomnia again how can mr beast yeah and logan paul and ksi go oh well you know i was training for this uh you know really complicated losing half my body weight scenario and uh someone told me the only way to get there was chocolate and sugar i don't think so jimmy that's probably not the story what do you think the major corporation like because obviously a lot of their marketing is like slagging off hershey's it's slagging off like gatorade it's it's basically saying that they're the disruptors and i think what's really happening is they have conquered mastering attention delivering a subpar product against a decent incumbent product and they're just making young people view it as status and this it's like psychological trick that's going on whereas the existing product is probably better well what makes me sad is they're following the challenger brand playbook yeah i know it's so painful heights and other companies like light heights as well also follow the challenger brand playbook but the point with that playbook is you pick a category the product's better yeah the category needs shaking up and it ideally delivers a better promise and a better life to the person like on a very simple basis the thing that people like me don't have and most people who i know who have consumer brands is an audience so 10 15 years ago the right way to build an unbelievable company to look at innocent was you make an amazing product you disrupt an industry you make an amazing product you put an incredible tone of voice out there you garner attention by being an amazing personality and your brand execution is phenomenal and you absolutely nail it you become one of the biggest brands in the world then you can pay for whatever celebrities you want to promote it and it all just fits and aligns and and all that stuff nowadays the playbook is different nowadays the playbook is it's very hard to get attention so you have a massive strategic advantage if you have an audience already because you already mastered how to share a message and how to build an audience and how to engage and communicate with that community and so why not create a product that you can sell and monetize to them there's nothing overly cynical about that because it's also the same thing that entrepreneurs do they just don't have the audience so like go create great good for you but at least follow the other parts of the the challenger brand playbook which is essentially disrupt an industry with genuinely poor incumbents genuinely make a better product and improve people's lives by doing it i don't think they tick any of those boxes all they have is an enormous audience this is actually why a lot of my content these days is is trying to push established entrepreneurs and businesses to create audiences because i feel like i know so many incredible founders and incredible entrepreneurs who make incredible products and yet they never perform particularly well because they don't have a great audience and so i'm always pushing people towards that but i suppose the future of creative businesses, I think it's going to rise and rise again.

14:14I just, I feel like we've barely touched the surface on this whole, you know, I suppose, democratization of audience building. You know, it's no longer TV that controls how products are sold. It's the fact that I can put a message out to hundreds of thousands of people at a click of a button. And I think that's just going to increase with, you know, younger people seeing that it's possible, seeing all of these examples. Do I think that's a bad thing? do you think that's a bad thing i don't know i think also there's an aspect of um you know there's only so much choice people have there's only so many times people want to change products and i feel like this stuff is actually going to get very saturated um so i think it's it's it's still on the rise i think it will hit a plateau relatively soon actually um i'm not sure people genuinely care enough like we just people care about the environment and they care about sustainability as well there are other things people care about basically beyond just who the influencer they trust is and at some point people say i don't need more products like this one does does exactly the same as that one does so i don't need it so there is an angle i think where consumers are just going to have enough of this um and i don't know i feel like this is kind of if this was crypto i'd be calling the top yeah i mean this feels like the top to me this is this is toppy i feel we're yet to begin really i feel like the wave is coming and i think that no longer do you have to like spend money on advertising you can you can run the audience yourself and i think it's amazing and i think it's dangerous at the same time um i feel that i was a i did the keynote talk at the creator space the other night and so there's like hundreds of creators there and one of the things i noticed is that like the way i treat my business is i run it like a business you know i have multiple team members who know all of their jobs and The idea is that the lowest lift from me gets content out.

16:06And so it's not, I never find it burns me out because I've run businesses before. So I process and systemize everything. What I've noticed from creators is that they don't think like business people. And so I met three or four incredible people that night. Julius Dean was one of them who hopefully will get on at some point, who is like the biggest, most followed magician online. He gets hundreds of millions of views and yet he's exhausted of making content and i was talking to so many other people who've completely burnt out on content creation because it is exhausting of course it's a flywheel it's a flywheel and and kind of once you make it you've got to keep making it and i think that that means that i reckon in this space of you know like creator brands versus brands i think you will have creator brands doing this the whole time whereas like i think brands will continue to do what they've done forever and you will have incredible challenger brands that don't necessarily have an entrepreneur you know pumping them so i think as a creator and a product maker i would say if you're a creator just be super conscious that when you're creating a brand you need to create something that is genuinely better than the incumbents not just marketing spiel you can stand behind that you are absolutely genuinely disrupting an industry that deserves to and needs to be disrupting an industry and you are making the planet or lives for people better if you can do those three things, you're probably onto something.

17:27And then if you're a product maker and you don't have an audience yet, the answer is pretty simple. Like actually start to think about how are you going to build out your distribution channels? What's going to give you an unfair advantage? And can you build an audience or a community of people that are really going to get behind you? Because if you can't do those three things, you're also not going to succeed. So you can see a world where like these three things, like, you know, they, they, they interconnect and where you can essentially nail this as a creator creating consumer brands is is being conscious that those things have to go inside yeah and the thing like the takeaway for all entrepreneurs should be whenever you study big businesses you realize that and you know just successful small businesses you realize that the success of the business is based on existing customers either telling new customers or writing content that can be viewed by new customers it is basically word of mouth around the quality of the product and a great example is like I did something recently I built a community recently for entrepreneurs and I remember thinking to myself when when it sold out I remember thinking wow is that not the easiest way ever to sort of create income and then I suddenly was like well it will all depend on the outcome for the people like they must have the best experience in the world and so I went super deep on it and I spent forever with the community and the transformation that we did was amazing and what i noticed is their feedback was all the other communities in the world and all the other things we've been on the person who runs it isn't involved and suddenly you think okay it's because they don't care about the quality and this comes back to your point and my earlier point so he who cares wins totally like put time into the product you know and you can you can really get pretty far just by caring the most and there's no way that you can pretend to me for a moment that other than the payday KSI, Logan Paul or Mr B's care truly about the outcome the better lives of their end customers by creating those products?

19:18So I suppose our takeaway is audience is powerful audience is a new currency you know engagement and attention is a new currency but I suppose the fundamentals of the quality of the product and the quality of the brand and treating your customer with you know complete focus is the way that you still build a brand in the future and he who cares wins this is Secret Leaders I'm Chris and I'm Dan thank you for listening and don't forget to hit subscribe basically subscribe or die thank you