“Dont Buy Bitcoin!” Why ‘The Rich’ Are Buying Gold, Diamonds, and Jewelry | TraxNYC

21:42Do you think you have more street smarts than the average person? At this point, I have. Yeah, for sure. You know what I'm saying? Whatever that even means. Street smarts or whatever it might be. Sure. Do you think the jewelry industry attracts just greedy people? Does it attract just greedy people? Not necessarily It attracts all sorts of people And there's great people doing business over there Some of them are more disgusting than others But there's great people doing business there But yeah, by nature You have to be competitive and vicious The product is in the hand It's a different environment There's no Scannable barcode There's no warehouse You're not selling paper towels.

22:29Some people can make things disappear. It costs you money. They could take your client. They could cut your throat. They could do a bunch of stuff. So it's a very competitive, vicious business. But the people that are in it, been in it for generations, they know the rules. And that's that. The person that's coming in there and thinking that they're going to make something happen is a different type of moron. And there's a lot of those. But yeah, you know, a sales guy, you know what I'm saying? Somebody in sales and they see the money and nobody's out there. no matter, the more you pay them, the more they think they're going to be richer on their own.

23:01So if you pay them nothing, you know, they're going to be sitting there scheming. And if you pay them a lot, they're going to be scheming even more, man. It's not comfortable. You have to judge character, character. You have to judge character and build a relationship with someone that's fair. How often do people fake wealth? All the time. What do you mean? Like, what are the ways that you can spot real versus fake wealth? Can you immediately tell if someone's actually wealthy?

23:24Graham Stephan:Absolutely. But are there tells when someone walks in, talks to you, that you could tell this guy's full of shit? Yeah. And what are those tells? I don't even listen to the words, man. I listen to the energy. As soon as I hear speech that's like, you know what I'm saying? Somebody come in. Oh, yeah, man. Oh, I like this. And I'm just like, just shut the fuck up, bro. Get the fuck out of here. You know what I'm saying? I walked into your home, man. Comment your art. Wait till you see the hallway. it's an informational exchange you know i'm saying the information resonates all right it resonates the the vibrations go into the eardrum and into the brain and and it's like oh okay this makes sense you know i'm saying and oh this is what you're doing this is the book i read this is the book you know your goosebumps collection or whatever this is your favorite this there's a back and forth exchange that's building a relationship that's building uh positive positivity.

24:22If I came in there and said, yeah, I have a better one. What would you think, bro?

24:27Graham Stephan:I'd want to see a photo of it. Yeah. Or you'd want to see a photo or you would this and that. But still, even if I did have a better one, why wouldn't I say something positive? You know what I'm saying? Why play some stupid game? You know? So this is kind of my experience of it as people come up to me all the time. I got a jewelry store. You know what I'm saying there's no gate to get through. They walk inside and they say, I have this. And I might be wrong. I might be judging people incorrectly, but they might say, I have this idea or this, or I want that, or I want this. And I'm just listening to them like, yeah, go speak to over there.

25:04But if it resonates and someone is saying something that inside my mind isn't annoying me, then I'm starting paying attention. And you know, some people lift you up and inspire you. And some people put you down and I'm sensitive to the feeling. I'm not even focusing on the words. I'm sensitive to the feeling. Pros trust the Home Depot for heavy duty storage solutions for any job site or garage. Right now, get up to 15 % off select storage and organization. Impact and water resistant totes and shelving built to hold up to 2 ,500 pounds. Storage systems have space for all your tools and protect them in the garage, on the job site, and everywhere in between.

25:40Save time and maximize efficiency with adjustable shelving customized to your business's needs. Shop and safe on pro-grade storage at the home depot how pros get more done healing that's what it is to me what about clothing and flexing and watches and stuff like that can you because i've heard that if you eclipse like a real crazy level of wealth you start wearing like kind of dragged old clothing like sure like adam sandler and a lot of like shia you stop having to prove anything well you don't have to prove anything when you've been in a million movies okay sure well what about other people do you notice like a correlation at all with like the actual physical appearance like very wealthy people versus not not often this one guy that i know he's got a collection of ferraris and um uh but he likes to dress with the nice shit and he's wearing richard meals and he's doing his thing you know i'm saying and he um uh was the ceo of a sharpie you know the marker or brought that to market you know made serious money you're talking about half a billion dollars altogether or something like that.

26:43The guy shows money, but he wants to be fit, wants to look good. Take a look at Jeff Bezos. He was doing Amazon, you know, let's get that picture of him in his purple eggplant Halloween costume. But as soon as he made that money, he said, what the am I going to do at Amazon all day long? And, you know, tinkering with this shopping cart button, got himself a yacht, got jacked, got himself a side chick and whatever. Whatever. What about Elon, though? Because he still has the tiny home. He doesn't have any fancy cars. He, like, what do you think about the difference of someone maybe, like? Sure. I mean, a star is a star.

27:19The man is, you know, the man is a star. So it doesn't really matter. If the women looked at him like he was a loser, she would put something on, bro. But the man knows he's got all the money in the world. And she's googly-eyed smiling. Okay? That's how women are. All right? So that is the name of the game. And if you get the impression of cross, it's way more helpful. Sure, you could be humble like John the Baptist, you know, eating locusts and dry honey, you know, in the desert. But that's a different dimension.

27:56Graham Stephan:So it's interesting. When I was working as a real estate agent, I'd host open houses every single Sunday at Beverly Hills. And I can't tell you the amount of fake people who came in every single Sunday. And you could point them out because they ended up getting really dressed up to go and see an open house. And they always had a story, like you mentioned. They would always start talking about themselves. Oh, I sold this business and now I'm looking for this. My price range is$7 million. But they start explaining too much. And the real people walked in, I noticed, really understated. Would never want to talk to you.

28:32Graham Stephan:When you ask their information, they'd say, oh, you know, I'll sign it. And that's it. They really just didn't want to be Bob. But they'd more walk in and out with a bit of confidence to him. And I also noticed that sometimes the poorest dressed people were the richest. Right. The dude who's walking in with flip flops, kind of a dirty white t-shirt and sweatpants. He's the one with like$200 million. Correct. In some cases. But, you know, he's flashing money in other places. You know, he's going over there. Everybody got a plan. That person that was muttering nonsense when they walked through there, they thought they're going to wake up.

29:05and they're going to come up and they're going to tell a story about how they're this and how they're that. And you see that, you know, and it doesn't resonate. You're an open house. You get to the point. It is what it is. You don't know me. I don't know you. I might have a million dollars or trillion dollars or what have you. I don't know. You know, but this is the house you're buying it or you're not. It makes sense. You shit that makes sense, makes sense. That doesn't, doesn't. And people with, but you know, professional scam artists after they, some people like, Oh, I'm embarrassed. I got caught being a fraud and they leave.

29:35some people like oh i know why i got caught let me adjust my strategy i'm gonna come in there on some i know that he's thinking that in his head that i'll come in there with the flip-flops and and i'll even have my friend come up to you and say you drop this and it's some expensive whatever a scam they'll fool you there's lots of crazy scams out there man there's a lots of people that if they invest their energy into fraud they will um uh go past these filters that you're noting

30:04Graham Stephan:Yeah. It's interesting too. People would even tie up properties in escrow. I've noticed they would, they would claim they sent a wire transfer, but then one of the digits was like mixed by mistake. And it's like, Oh, well, I sent this deposit for the, for the down payment on the house. We already have a signed deal. Now I got to wait to get that back. And then a week goes by. I'm still waiting to get it back. They send it again. Something went wrong. wrong. What's the advantage of doing all this bullshit? I've never figured it out. Right. I think it's the feeling of importance or they think maybe I'm going to hustle this deal over here and like get the money for it or maybe I can have a friend come.

30:39Graham Stephan:I don't know. Make the seller more distressed or something. But it's happened multiple times. There's a reason for it. And I don't know. Different people, there's never been a scam. It's mostly the people I think wanting attention. Right. They want attention, yeah. I mean in Beverly Hills in LA they want to be a part of that life and a part of that top But they're not. What about different levels of wealth and how they purchase items from you? For example, if you have someone maybe worth like 200 million, are they buying crazy iced out watches versus someone that's maybe worth like 5 million? Are they buying different sorts of jewelry?

31:10Yeah. Is there like a difference in terms of jewelry preferences that you notice? Yeah. I mean, listen, of course, there's a difference in preferences. But for you, you know, you're distinctly asking a person with a couple of million what their taste is versus a person with vast amounts of money. Yeah. Like for example, vast amounts of money. Maybe they're doing something because they're actually passionate rather than like getting a crazy iced out. Yeah. There's not much of a passion. You know what I'm saying? You got more money. You want to show it off. You want, you know, you want to be at the casino and you want to do this and you want to do that.

31:41It's mostly for women. Okay. And signaling wealth or whatever. And it's also for a good look or whatever it might be. But, you know, that depends on the individual, but they're looking for the status. So whether they have the 1 million to 2, if it's their first watch, they might get an iced out this or a big bezel that. But if it's their, if they've been buying for a long time, they're going to get that rare piece that says, I know what I'm doing, the Patek Philippe, whatever, with the moon phase.

32:11Graham Stephan:How often do people come to you and not able to afford the jewelry or they're on a payment plan and they just charge you to a credit card and you know they can't afford this thing? Yeah, the average person, it happens enough. It's not that they can't afford it. You know, they're buying something for$1 ,500 or$2 ,500. So how can they not afford it? They have a steady job and can make a payment. Relatively, they can afford it. And what they're buying, they're buying. If they're buying the right piece of jewelry, they're doing the right thing. You know, if you bought a piece of jewelry that was heavy in gold in the year 2004, when I started, even if you paid over price, you know, the gold price was$350 an ounce.

32:49Now it's$3 ,500 more or less. So you 10X your money. and if you overpay double, you 5X it or whatever. So you can't lose on that. So some people are buying shit and getting played, man. And some people are not. Some people are over, you know, the question and the nature of the question. Of course, some people are over committing themselves on shit they can't do. Some people are on drugs they can't quit. You know, some people are buying shit to look like this. Some people are buying shit to look like that. And there is some millionaires that scrounge every dollar or millionaires or whatever and look like bums, but I never really noticed them.

33:25And those are people with psychotic issues, really. But still, they spend their money somewhere. I saw this one video a long time ago of Michael Jackson walking through an antique shop, I think it was. I saw that video. And he's like, and I'll take this. I'll take that. I just remember watching this video and he just seemed to not care whatsoever about the price. Do you have buyers like that? What is your favorite type of buyer? Oh, that's the favorite type of buyer right there. And people do that. They walk into the shop and they're just like, oh yeah, 10 grand, whatever.

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34:35Graham Stephan:So whether your company is running millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. And speaking of opportunity, right now you can download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash iced. Again, that guide is free for you at netsuite.com slash iced. Again, netsuite.com slash iced with the link down below in the description. Thank you so much, NetSuite, for sponsoring this episode. And now let's get back to the podcast. People do that. They walk into the shop and they're just like, oh, yeah, 10 grand.

35:06I had a guy that came in. Okay. This guy, his father was selling military equipment to Iraq with government contracts from the U.S. so he was manufacturing in ukraine before long in a long long ago and that's his father and um uh he was shipping it uh over there and just just milking money whatever and his father put him on a big allowance okay because something in the family not gonna get into it put him on a big allowance guy came in bought three rolexes for me gifted me one and the other one to one other member of my staff and the other member of my staff. And then he started giving out gold bars to the other members of my staff.

35:51So this is a customer that came in, bought three watches from me and gifted them to me. Okay. That's my favorite customer, bro. Where is he now? He's chilling. He's chilling somewhere. He hit me up the other day. I mean, his allowance went down or whatever, you know what I'm saying? He's more normal, more focused, but he was burning through. He was burning through a quarter of a million, half a million dollars a month, just having a good time. Shorties in every state or in every city, you know, buying jewelry for them, going over there, seeing them and just burning through money and just going full tilt.

36:27Do you think he was happier back then or happier now? I don't know. I mean, it wasn't particularly happiness. It was just, you know, like the Emperor Nero would be doing or something like that. He was just pushing it to the limit. How often do people - I don't know how happy that makes you, man. Walk into the shop and not even ask the price of things. And they're just like, yeah, that, I like that a lot. I'll buy that. Sometimes, sometimes. You know, but I didn't build my business. I'm sorry. I didn't build my business around luxury clients. I always, you know, again, and I'm an immigrant from Azerbaijan, you know?

36:59I didn't have to grow up around money. I didn't even know people had money. So I had a mentality of value. I had a mentality of, you know, I want to sell this. And that was not good to build a jewelry business around. Now I'm going to build a mentality, a jewelry brand around other things. And then I'm going to be able to charge and push and attract the type of client. In order to do that, I need inventory. I need to be able to capitalize, right? You know, I got like$7 million,$8 million worth of inventory. I need to get to$20 million,$25 million, deploy that properly. And then I'll have the inventory to attract the clients that's going to just buy, buy, buy.

37:35Doesn't happen all the time. I have normal clients that buy great jewelry that has a good value with a fair markup because that's what I adjusted my business to. The sucking for money is not my style. I'm not going to be he's got the money. He's got the watch. He's got this. He's got that. Built a jewelry business. And you know what it is out there. The more I act the way I'm acting now, the better that business goes. That's why it encourages this type of behavior. But I don't like to worship money, man. I don't like it. And even though I chose this business as a young person, the snobs that come in there or the snobbery like I never attract that type of customer that they want to be like, I got this or, you know, the guy that Chrome Hearts, he's got, you know, yeah, sure.

38:22There's some kid comes in that's spending his parents' money from Beijing. You know what I'm saying? And he's wearing the latest Chrome Hearts shirt and the latest Chrome Hearts this. And he wants to get the thing that this and that. He's just trying to look for some status. And he's playing that game. The game of I'm rich and I'm, uh, get the out of here is my take. Go deal with my sales guy and let him blow smoke up your. That's the answer. Is there anyone you won't sell to? No, I'll sell to anybody who's, you know, respectful and who is thoughtful.

38:59Graham Stephan:Have you noticed any difference in cultures that some negotiate harder than others or some are better negotiators than others? Some people who never negotiate anything. Listen, I'm half Jewish. If I was full Jewish, I would have been way richer. You know what I'm saying? I'll tell you that much, bro. I got just enough half to get me, you know, to where I need to be. And if I had a little bit more, I would have had a different character. sure but i had more money how uh do you notice the variance of negotiation strategies amongst different cultures yeah well listen the negotiation strategies are going back to ancient babylon all right you go to the diamond district and you're going over there it's the same lines they used from long long ago you know it's the same game over and over but um you know negotiation and strategies is based upon options, right?

39:53And some negotiator might be able to talk somebody in and get a better deal. But, you know, for me, I'll get an offer over here, get an offer over there and an offer over there. And then you're shopping around. Now, there's some people that are strategic and they could squeeze you without getting that offer. And they have that skill. That's not my particular skill. You know, I want to do business simply and plainly in long term. I don't want to sit here and bargain with you back and forth. I really don't. I feel like it's a waste of my time. So what are the best ways to negotiate a good deal? What's the best way to negotiate a good deal is say, this is all I have.

40:31That's what I do. And say somebody, like I was buying a gem at the gem show, you know, it's a Emerald. The Emeralds guy says 9 ,000. I look in my pocket I got 6 ,500 You want it? He's like no it's too low I'm like my bad I walk around I go to the next guy I look at the emerald over there I walk around and he's like Come come let's start something You know emerald costs 6 ,000 he don't want to make just 500 That's not worth it So he's like on some no no but then he's like I'll take the 500 and I'll get to know this business and I'll start something. So to walk away or to say, this is all I have.

41:15If you come in there, like you got all the money and you got this, then people are going to go whatever. But that works in that particular instance for me. You know, it's like a little mind game. Well, listen, man, I got 6 ,500 for you. Ah, man, my bad, bro. You know, and then you walk and you shop and you do and you this and you that. They'll take it. They'll take it and they'll make a little bit off of you if they like you. okay because they're like i'll give this guy you can't run a business with a with a 10 markup you know what i'm saying your job is to get a hundred percent markup the other guy's job is to get a 10 markup you meet each other 50 50 whatever but they'll take the 10 because 10 is better than nothing but you have to prove it in their mind that there's that 10 is better than nothing and they don't feel like they're giving you something that you got away with some what What are some of the biggest negotiating mistakes that people make?

42:08What would be, well, the biggest mistake I would make is I don't have the knowledge of the price. If you don't have a framework of the price, then you're just spewing numbers out back and forth. You know what I'm saying? But if you know the price and you know, what is a negotiation, man? This ring I'm selling for 6 ,500. It costs me$4 ,000 to make. Will I take 6 ,000? Sure. You know what I'm saying? Will I take 5 ,000? Sure. You know, if my cost is$4 ,000, why not? $1 ,000 in my pocket. But can I run a business by doing that? Not really. So, you know, now you have to buy this ring. What are you going to tell me?

42:46Graham Stephan:What are you going to do? How come the price of jewelry is so up in the air between pieces? Like that could be six. Another piece could be eight. Visually, they look pretty similar. Yeah. Same with gold chains or pendants. I feel like I see prices range. The price depends upon materials, gold, diamonds, and then labor. Okay. So it's labor, materials, and that's pretty much it. You know, the design work, the 3D modeling is as well. Now this ring might be prettier than the other ring, so you could get that one for the same materials, but it'll just be. And this one is this, but it's the romance of the business.

43:27You know what I'm saying? Nobody needs any jewelry. You know, you get it because you want to adorn your body before it turns to dust. So you and that's a game you want to play. You know what I'm saying? What do you think of gold as an investment? I think it's a good store of value. It's never really an investment, but it is an investment when they're printing as much money as they are. You know what I'm saying? Because you have to account, you know, it's denominated in dollars and dollars are being printed on a scale of a trillion extra per year or whatever. Right. The interest is a trillion. or what have you.

44:00So then it becomes an investment to some degree, especially when you have these nefarious activities going on between China and this. Now, Trump's got the balls to be able to, you know, steady the ship, so to speak, which I'm very impressed through the tariffs, through everything else. When you get an idiot like Joe Biden or whoever, Ocasio-Cortez in there, you can't give head to lower the deficit. You know what I'm saying? You're going to have to do serious shit. And they don't even have the comprehension to find out what's going on. And that will mean that the gold price will go up and then gold will be an investment.

44:33It'll be the only way you could get some penicillin if the hole collapses and you have to rummage through the wreckage. You never know what can happen. Or you could just be better off buying the S &P 500. But the good thing about gold is you get to hold it in your hand. Yes, sir. Have you made a lot of money from appreciation of your inventory? Yes. It saved the day. What do you mean it saved the day? I mean, I've had pieces that I've made that cost, you know, I manufactured$300 ,000 worth of shit. And to scrap it, certainly after you manufacture it, it'd be$250 ,000, but the gold price went up from$2 ,000 to$3 ,500.

45:13So now I could scrap it for$300 ,000 plus$1 ,000. dollars. So the shit that didn't sell, I scrap and melt and get my money back, which is amazing. You know, man, the people, gold did 10X in the last 20 years. Okay. So if you're running a jewelry store with gold chains, it was the most profitable business you could have had. Because your inventory, you bought$1 million worth of gold chains. If you didn't sell a single gold chain in your store, you had$10 million worth of gold chains. If you did sell them, you took the profit and reinvested, you had more. Not a lot of businesses where you open up a business filled with inventory and you didn't sell a single piece and 20 years later, you're up 10X.

45:59You know, so that is, but it's, it's not a business people think about because they're not expecting, uh, you know, um, uh, people to rob trillions of dollars on Afghanistan war or whatever. They're not on the stand. They don't comprehend how these evil forces that are really actually there, the stealing of it and whatever else is actually out there, man.

46:23Graham Stephan:Why do you think that people on the street are so clueless about the price of gold? Those are my favorite videos when you go up on the street and you ask people how much something is worth. Yeah. And people are clueless. They have no idea what the value of gold is. That's not their everyday lives, man. But should people know at least what the price of gold is per ounce? A rough estimate because it's money. People should be like angels, but forget about what they should be doing. It's, you know, what they're knowing. And, you know, money is a game and everybody's responsible for playing it smart.

46:53You know what you're doing with money. Everything you're doing is thought out and thoughtful. And I watch your videos and you know about this, about that. And I love it. So, and you play the money game and you give out the advice to the money game as well. And if you listen to yourself, well, why don't they watch the iced coffee hour? Why don't they listen to Graham? Why not? Why are they sitting there watching to a Cardi B shaker? Why are you sitting here and, you know, going to the strip club and twirling on a pole? Why aren't you studying? I mean, I'll tell you why, because something's wrong.

47:28That's why. I feel like it should be taught in schools. Listen, man, a lot of things should be done, man. It should be definitely taught in schools, and we should track down the trillions of dollars that was stolen, and we should do this and we should do that, but we're not in the world of what should be. You know, we're responsible for our own lives and the lives of our family and the lives of our loved ones. The people, and that's that. You know, we don't really quite have a real society. This is not 1954. You know what I'm saying? This is a society where more or less every man for themselves, The government barely functions to me and the less of it, the better.

48:04And, you know, in some community, you know, Elon Musk has a school for his kids and, you know, his neighbor's kids. That's probably exactly what you imagine it to be. Why are we using chalkboards? Why can't there be just a touchscreen where the teacher has, you know, lesson plans that are already the best of the best to engage the children? Why are they sitting at desks that the same ones that were, you know, from 1933? Why aren't their desks have little basic touchscreens where they could just write notes and they could register their shit? You know, why not? Because the people that are running the Board of Education are, um, uh, that's why.

48:41If they weren't, they wouldn't be there.

48:42Graham Stephan:There should be classes about how to use ChatGPT, classes on how to negotiate, and you have the students negotiate against each other. Here's what it should be. Graham should go, run for office, and implement what he's thinking. Is that what's going to happen? No, no, because I just tell people to watch it on YouTube. Realistically, YouTube is better. Yeah, that's right. It's a better resource. So you may as well learn on your own. And the real secret is, is that you're responsible for your own. And it's an arcane system. Everything you're talking about is just an arcane system. And anybody who believes that they're going to go to school and go to college, and that might work for them.

49:18I don't really know. But whether you're going to school or not, if you're not being responsible and learning on your own, you are playing yourself. You know what I'm saying? And you're giving your advantage away. And that's that. And you know, like if I had the tools, YouTube was barely out when I was a kid. I was just the internet and I did what I could with it. I started a business. But if I had the chat GPT and I had that and I had the energy I had back then, I would have really loved it because it was really the source of information. Like this ChatGPT is, it's got millions of dollars in value for anybody, for any given moment, for any given person.

49:59I'm extracting that money right now. I had a thing where I was using, I put Grok on one phone, ChatGPT on the other, and I made Grok have ChatGPT generate image after image after image. I put them in a shoebox together and I come back. I'm about to drop that video when I edit it it's just been lazy I come back and it'll have 30 new pieces of jewelry for me or what have you you know what I'm saying and there's two AIs talking to each other forcing one and the other AI to generate images so there's value there and you know and listen we're all talking about the education systems it's because people are retarded Graham and that's going to change in five years in six years you know and as all these AI guys say, just anybody watching this, if they want to better their lives, which is the only thing that we could offer you as three people sitting here, they would have to get an advantage on AI for the future because shit's going to change, right?

51:02Any advice? For me, in the jewelry business, you're a smart guy. Let's see how good you are at giving advice on your own iced coffee hour.

51:11Graham Stephan:I would say for the jewelry business, your social media is fantastic. Right. I'd say that you could probably teach other people how to do that. I think you could expand your own business quite a bit because of that. I don't know if you want to get in the retail business. To me, that doesn't sound as exciting of dealing with so many employees and people. I like the customization aspect of it because you could charge a premium. But I also acknowledge that you don't want to spend your time designing one thing for one person. I would almost argue, man, that there's a benefit to like, I'm seeing less people my own age and younger get into jewelry and watches to some degree.

51:53Graham Stephan:Yes. And they're more into like digital assets like Bitcoin and crypto. Interesting. So I would argue that maybe Bitcoin over the next 20 to 30 years is going to take some market share away from the people who buy gold as a store of value. Sure. There's always going to be some of it. But I would almost argue like, hey, maybe take like 10 % of your business and just Bitcoin it. Right. You love that Bitcoin, huh? I do. But you know what? If it goes to zero, 10 % of your business, it's like someone's stealing from you. Yeah. Fine. But like if it hits, I think there's such a lopsided opportunity. It's like.

52:29It's$100 ,000. Yeah. Okay. It's a trillion dollar market capitalization. How much more can it hit? You're going to put in another. Yeah, but gold's 20 trillion. Yeah. You don't think it can hit? I'm not thinking it. It's not there to hit. It's not there to hit. If everything collapses or there's serious problems with the dollar, it's there for that to spring you to the next move. It's there to keep you safe. That's it. It's not there to hit. It's just there that, you know what I'm saying, you had your money, you saved it, and now 10 years have passed by and you could buy something. You didn't depreciate your capital, and that's that.

53:07But it's a go-between-between moves. It's perfect for me because I could stock gold chains. If I don't sell them, I win. But for you to have a kilo in the safe, sitting there doing nothing, is not the best thing in the world. You're much better off buying Taiwan Semiconductor over the course of the next 10 years or something like that, something that manufactures something. But as far as Bitcoin is concerned, you know, it's not like we're arguing I'm saying gold is better. I couldn't give a f*** less about gold or any of this s***. You know, for me, it's just a game to get where I want. You know, what do we want?

53:39What you're doing, a beautiful home, a beautiful life and stability. That's all you really should be shooting for. And you could do that a thousand different ways. Now, granted, it's much better to win. But Bitcoin's got a trillion dollar market capitalization,$100 ,000. That means you need a whole another trillion dollars to make it 150, right?

53:59Graham Stephan:Not necessarily. It's whatever the tradable value is right now. So you could inject$100 million into Bitcoin and have that spike the price if people are not selling. And fewer people are selling. So you don't need actually a trillion dollars to go into Bitcoin. If you had another trillion invested in Bitcoin, that could shoot up the price 10x. Right. So my thought is that there's an asymmetric reward with Bitcoin that let's say you buy$100 ,000. It could go to zero. There's a chance it goes to nothing and you lose$100 ,000. I'd say there's a higher chance or even an equal chance. let's just say, of going to a million.

54:34Graham Stephan:Why? So you have a 50-50. Let's say hypothetically, you have a 50-50 going to zero as you do a million dollars. So to me, I'd take that bet with a small amount that I'm prepared to lose. Because if it's a 50-50, I'm cool losing it. But yeah, well, listen, the way you explain it, sure, you can do that. I'm not into losing, personally. I don't want to even take a small bet, you know, on that end. I don't want to take a 10 % or 5 % chance on any of that. I prefer to buy something like a Warren Buffett style where it's actually producing something that's in demand and a profitable business. You know, if I'm going to buy a vending machine for a thousand dollars and people, you know, buy a hundred bucks worth of soda per day and to restock, it costs this much and the soda costs that much.

55:26and you're making$25 a day, then I know that that vending machine is going to make me back the money and be profitable after I pay off the$1 ,000 with the$25 profit per day after X amount of days or whatever. That's how I look at it. I'm looking at, if I want to make money right now and I want to be good and I want a 10X, I'm looking at the next NVIDIA semiconductor. It could be AMD, they're doing something. You could ask your Chad GPT and your research, Taiwan Semiconductor, they're going over here. Trade war's cooling off. China's backing away in a little bit. That means that, you know, they're not going to do all that Taiwan and this and that.

56:01Now, you could 10x your money nice and safe there. And that's the way I would go about it if I didn't have a jewelry business to buy a bunch of gold chains with. And the way I explain to people is, you know, buy your Bitcoin. And then when you're done in cyberspace, you know, rubbing pixie dust, you know what I'm saying? And you want to actually own something, then you buy yourself a watch with your Bitcoin and you buy yourself a gold chain around your neck. because your neck is real and the chain is real. The Bitcoin is just out there. It gets you the dollars. You get the Bitcoin to get the dollars so you could buy the shit or you could spend the Bitcoin on it, whatever.

56:36You want the actual shit that exists. You don't want a computer chugging away somewhere, processing.

56:44Graham Stephan:But what I do like, it's a global store of value. Where around the world, people attribute$100 ,000 to this Bitcoin. Yes. And so you could take it with you anywhere. You could transfer it anywhere. And the more people buy into it, obviously, the higher the price. You could say that with gold, too. You could say that with stocks. Yeah. I could just see a scenario where Bitcoin captures 25 percent of the gold market. Yeah. Or companies take 10 percent of their extra cash and just buy Bitcoin with it. Right. Instead of holding it in dollars. And I think that's enough to boost the price. Right. But it could also go to zero.

57:18Yeah. 100 percent. That could happen. I don't think so. But that can happen. Listen, if gold goes to zero, I'll buy all of it, bro. You know what I'm saying? It's not even a problem. You know, I'll have a gold castle and you can visit it and pay a ticket in Bitcoin to come see it. You lose 20 grand every time you polish it. We don't know what's going to happen with this Bitcoin and AI. And that's that. You are a proponent of it. You love it. Why is Bitcoin any better than all the other? Why is Bitcoin any better than Hawk Tour coin? will we see listen the real question is will we ever see a day when everyone's rushing for pros trust the home depot for heavy duty storage solutions for any job site or garage right now get up to 15 off select storage and organization impact and water resistant totes and shelving built to hold up to 2500 pounds storage systems have space for all your tools and protect them in the garage on the job site and everywhere in between save time and maximize efficiency with adjustable shelving customized to your business's needs.

58:16Shop and save on pro-grade storage at The Home Depot. How pros get more done. The door. We might not. We might. Because when people are rushing for the door, let's say people are dumping Amazon. If Amazon is a trillion dollar market cap, you dump Amazon, I'll jump in there. I'll melt. I'll sell my whole business and buy Amazon because I know Amazon is Amazon. But if people start rushing for the door of Bitcoin, it might also have that effect. It might be somebody says, I'll buy all of it. And it seems like that because I could have never expected it to be solid at 100K, solid at 100K. So God bless all those people and whatever they're doing and how they're doing it.

59:01Now, my estimate is that a new technology is going to come around. This is not 2011. New technology is going to come around and really give Bitcoin a run for its money. and then people might lose out. And if it's me and you and it's 10 % to some shit and we don't get the next Lambo or whatever, it's not a big deal. But if it's somebody with their life's earnings, they're gonna be devastated. So you have to play it way smarter. I would suggest a semiconductor stock or even the Teslas. Whoever's making robots, whoever's making semiconductors, that's the one who's gonna 10X or 50X over the next 10, 15 years.

59:42That's my idea. Where do you get your gold from? I get my gold from the casting company. When I cast it, I just pay the bill. So they make me the casting. Or I get it from booyantradingllc.com is a friend of mine. It's Kahan. Or Isaac is his name. Isaac Kahan. I don't know what his last... I think his last name is Kahan. His pops was in the business for a long time. He's down in the basement. And he's down at the basement. You know why? Because he can't keep all that metal upstairs. Go right through the floor. Oh, no way. Is that heavy? Mad silver, mad gold in a safe. Go down there and he knows what it is.

1:00:21You know what I'm saying? Again, he knows who's playing around, who's not. You know, I pick up my kilos and I cast them and I do my thing. What's the cheapest way to buy gold? Like, is it people that bring it into your shop and then you're able to melt it down and you're able to buy it like even under market price for gold? Because you isolate the actual gold from like a 14 karat composite. Absolutely. you buy 10 % under. What about those commercials that you see? Like we buy gold. That was a great business. Those people are on an island right now. So I've wanted to buy like a gold chain for a long time.

1:00:54Not like anything fancy, but just something like a gold chain. I think I'm more of a gold guy than a silver guy. And I think it'd be fun. The problem is I'll go to a jewelry store and I was just in Japan and I was looking at gold necklaces in Japan and I can't really tell the difference between you know a necklace here and a necklace there right and i don't know like how much of a premium i should be paying like what would be the best way to just buy like a cheap standard gold neck let's break down the secret for the educated crowd watching this okay gold is how much per ounce 35 or how much is how many how many grams in a in an ounce 30 something 31 yeah okay So let's divide.

1:01:32So let's make it easy. Let's pretend gold is 3 ,100 and the gold and 31 grams per in and out. It's$100 per gram. Now, 14 karat gold is diluted to what? 60? 58%. So what's 58 out of 100? It's$58. So that's the cost of the metal. $58 per gram. Okay. So if someone, you put it on a scale and if they're charging you 75, you say, Kind of get his labor. The guy's got to make money. Okay. So if it, you know, if it weighs a certain amount and he's charging you 75 per gram, you say, listen, I want to pay 73. I want to pay 70. He would say, you know, I'll go, what's the, you know, 50, I'll give you$68 a gram and this and that.

1:02:19Or you guys might say, I don't sell per gram. You, you know, but you'll know the value of it because per ounce per gram, then diluted, to the carrot, which is 14K was most likely be the case. That will leave you to a certain grand price. And then there's the factory that made it has to charge labor to the vendor. And the vendor has to make a markup, pay the rent, pay the employees, and buy wifey and whatever, a gift that she might want. So he needs money. And if it's a light chain, it might be$150 a gram. If it's a heavy chain, it might be$59 a gram. And that's it. You put it on a scale and you do the math.

1:03:07Graham Stephan:How do you tell if it's real? Like, let's just say it's tungsten that's coated in gold. Right. Like, how often does that come around? Not often, man. I mean, that's some bum. You know what I'm saying? If someone plays with you on that, it's jewelry business reputation. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's why I do all the shit that I do. I have to raise these kids that are watching my videos on a reputation that when they think, you know, right? When you think electronic toy, you might think Mark Rober or something like that. Or you think chocolate. Who do you think of? Beast. You got to think gold.

1:03:43Got to come up. That's my job. I got to raise these kids to reputation so they don't have to worry about tungsten when they come into my shop. Because why go to a shop over there when you're going to have to worry about tungsten over here? You give away a lot of gold on your channel. Yeah, I gave away. I'm going to give away more. How do the taxes work with something like that? Don't ask me. You don't hand out 1099s afterwards? No, I don't. Give them the gold, man. I mean, listen, you want to arrest me in Guantanamo Bay because I gave somebody a gold bar? Go ahead. At this point.

1:04:15Graham Stephan:You don't think the IRS is going to see write-offs, though, and is going to say, okay, who received this? Right. And you say, well, I don't have to. I don't even, you know, maybe I write it off or it's a marketing expense or something like that. You know what I'm saying? It is what it is, man. Yo, this country's got trillions of dollars leaking out of its house. Let me, once you handle that, come after me in the gold bar I gave on 42nd Street. What's the most expensive thing you give in a way? Finding the right person to hire can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. You will scroll through endless resumes and still always come up short on the right fit.

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1:06:45The most expensive thing I've given away It's just the individual ounces Would probably be the most ones that I remember Or like a gold chain I might have gave away I still gotta do a Rolex giveaway The thing is, that's a game And I wanna make my business about something And do the give back And be a human being You know, going back to the original point Money, money, money I've got more, I've got more, I've got more That's not why we're here On planet Earth That's not why we're living our lives That's how we're being tested for who we really are. You know, is it you were going to take those 30 pieces of silver.

1:07:21And say, you know, you know, betray somebody with a kiss or not. You know what I'm saying? Does a strong gold market help your business to hire the prices? I think it might change the business and it might help the business. Well, it proves me right. I have said all this shit about gold because I wanted people to buy in, buy in, buy in. Now I'm going to tell them, well, listen, you could have bought Bitcoin at a cent. You could have bought this. But just buying a gold chain and wearing it and increasing your money is an amazing thing. You bought it and now you melt it and you get your money back.

1:07:57So I did that to establish myself as a person who told you the future in the past. And that's that. Now that the gold price is what it is, and if it goes any higher, then gold is going to be an extremely luxury product. It used to be$14 a gram. Now it's$140. That's two different numbers, my friend. You know what I'm saying? It's like a Ferrari is$150 ,000. Now it's$1.5 million. You bought a Ferrari in 2004, and now that same Ferrari is$1.4 million rather than$140 ,000. It's two different price ranges. It went from supercar to hypercar. And that's what gold is doing. And then it could be, you know, like I tell people and I tell a lot of people that.

1:08:44How was gold working back in the day? You remember Cortez, you know, he came over across one of the first few people to come over from Spain across the Atlantic lands. A whole new civilization is there. Different people, whole alien language, alien people, never heard from, never seen, the most exotic you've ever seen. And what the f*** does he say? He gets Montezuma and he's like, fill the room with gold and I'll let you go. I don't give a s*** about the civilization. Imagine you go to an alien planet right now that you've never seen. It's the equivalent. A whole new civilization and you're coming over there and you're asking, where's the gold?

1:09:24It's kind of crazy. But he didn't give a s*** about the alien civilization and their culture and their technology and nothing. He just wanted to go back to France, get the gold for the people that financed the shit, buy his villa and sit back and relax. And that's how gold used to be. It used to be everything. But it's not anymore. And will it be again is the only question that we have to answer in our lives. You know what I'm saying? As far as gold is concerned. It's going to be a decoration and it's going to go up in price and I'll sell you some more of it. That's great. It's a beautiful yellow, shiny metal.

1:09:58Fantastic. You know what I'm saying? and you can hold it in your hands, and you can scrap it, and you can do this, that's all great. But will it be the accounting system for the world of who has and who does not have is a very interesting question because this gold is about trust. Okay? Can you trust the federal government? Can't. No, they're in charge of the money. And this is the story of our lives. But the story of the late, the gold reserve went off, Goldback dollar went away 1971 1971, whatever 1971, 1970s The story of The late 20th century And the early 21st century is Can you trust Them not to print And steal

1:10:47Graham Stephan:So what do you think this is going to be doing to the price of gold Over the next 5 to 10 years Do you see gold eventually hitting 5 ,000 and now it's 10 ,000 Eventually yeah, you know what I'm saying, I hope not man I mean, probably it's going to sit, it might dip back down to 2 ,800 now the war's over, you know? But it's probably going to sit in that range for another 5, 10 years, maybe. That all depends, man. If they drop the bomb tomorrow, bro, it's going to be 5 ,000 tomorrow. If you watch the gold price, it's always about what's actually happening. Because you don't want no gold in the safe that you got to travel and you want to wire some money.

1:11:25But when the system is in jeopardy, and it might be, that's when you need the gold. You know what I'm saying? I'm not telling you to get gold like some gold jerk. Ah, get gold. I'm the gold guy. He's the Bitcoin guy. He's the real estate guy. We got to buy what I say. Get the out of here, man. You buy yourself a gold chain is going to pay for itself in time. That's cool. So that's all gold is doing for you. And that's great. However, if the wars break out and they steal too greedily and the shit comes down, that's when it comes into play. Because then you're going to need a currency system that's backed by something and measured by something.

1:12:01And the question then becomes is not how many dollars you have, is how many grams you have. How much gold should the average person get? How much gold should the average person get? I mean, at least an ounce. You could afford an ounce. but buying it now at 3 ,000 is not really going to do much for you. You know what I'm saying? I was saying this for a long, long time because I knew it was going to come to this. And why didn't more people listen to you? Because I say it in a way that it's not a popular thing. And I say it in a way that I'm not asking you to go buy gold and get it. I'm telling you that when it goes up you realize what I was saying was right.

1:12:42That's why I'm doing it. I'm not giving people gold in the street because, you know, I'm saying, I'm like, you don't know how to value what the f*** is in front of you. That's the video I'm making. Here, take this gold ounce. Nah, I'd rather go work for f***ing, like a slave somewhere. I'm like, alright. It shows, it's so, wake people up.

1:13:01Graham Stephan:What does that teach you about people? When you see them walk away like that, you're giving them an ounce of gold. I don't blame them, but it's hard for them to think that a person would be walking to them and giving them something for nothing. Do they think it's a scam? Yes. they think it's a scam and they think i'm going to give it to them and ask for something or play with them or this or that and i understand that but you're judging incorrectly in that circumstance so that's kind of a psychological game i like to play with people oh you didn't buy a gold chain that paid for itself well too late now you can wait another 10 20 years sorry i don't give a you know i'm saying jewelry luxury company is not supposed to be built around value a luxury company is not supposed to be built around anything, but you can't have it.

1:13:46So I'm switching my from, I told you to get it, to take care of you. Cause I did have a heart and I did care about the people and I did want you to do well, but you didn't listen. Now you can't have it. Sorry. I, I gave you love. You threw it away. Now this is what you got. And now it's a luxury company, real deal. But I'm going to make manufactured jewelry, engagement rings and so on and so forth, make my money and do what I got to do. And I got to switch my style up on that end. And I got to, you know, flow through it as people get to know me, because my thing is, I don't want to hurt you. I want to wake your mind up.

1:14:22That's it. You know, everybody could be aware and awake. I don't know how it happened for you or your parents raised you a certain way or something. You know what I'm saying? But you're making moves. I'm making moves. You know, whatever. Whatever. Speaking of scams, what is your worst story with fake jewelry? I don't really even have that many stories of fake jewelry, Ben. You know what I'm saying? I don't really have ever been involved in it. No one's ever given it to me. I've never given it to anybody. I've had bank fraud and crazy go down. You know, somebody took their church's bank account and wired me money and I sent them jewelry.

1:14:58Then they froze my and they did this and they did that. And I've been through that. And I must've lost a half a million to a million in fraud, probably a million or more actually now that I think about it you know let's see I've been in business for 21 years my friend and my annual sales are 40 million dollars plus you're talking about you know uh 20 times 40 is 800 and you know in the earlier years it was less you average it out three to 400 million in sales so I should have had a profit of a gross profit of you know 50 million, 60 million. And I only got a seven. So where'd the rest of it go, bro?

1:15:35Graham Stephan:Now, switching from that, why have watches gained a lot of popularity over the last few years? And what do you think the best watches for someone to buy? They're looking at them. That's why. You know what I'm saying? Women are looking at the watch and they're judging you for it. They're glancing at it 100%. I've asked them, they say it. So it's a status symbol and women are attracted to wealth and they're attracted to status. It's just the the way they are. And for a man, this is the whole, this is nature's little game. You know, nature gets you to, you know, you, you play super Mario and what's at the end at the dungeon after you beat the Bowser.

1:16:11It's the princess. You know what I'm saying? If it was another Nintendo game, you probably, it was a Pokemon card. You know what I'm saying? You wouldn't be jumping through all those platforms, dodging the fireballs, bro. You're doing it for a reason for that peach. You know what I'm saying? So this is a, this is the game and it is a status symbol, uh, that men can use. And, um, now with social media, it's really amplified because you had a Patek Philippe before and some bimbo ain't going to know that's a Patek. She don't know. So she don't look as, she needs to see an iced out watch for, for, for sure.

1:16:53Before she's sitting there thinking, you, you're the man. But, um, uh, now, which watch is which and what's worth money and this and that, and it turned into a way sexier thing to have. So what's the best watch for someone to buy? Patek Philippe. Patek is an amazing state. It's Audemars, Patek. Rolex is new money. You first got money and you're buying yourself a Rolex. But Audemars and Patek is the one that they're going to know.

1:17:20Graham Stephan:What if you're on a budget? Let's go with different tiers. You have$5 ,000,$10 ,000, 20 ,000, 50 ,000, 100 ,000. Each price point, your number one watch. 5 ,000? 5 ,000, 5 ,000. That's a tough one, man, because there's not a lot of... $5 ,000 watch is basically you saying all I got is 5 ,000 bucks. I'd say a two-tone Datejust. Yeah, a used one. Yes. An old one. Yeah, I'm talking just that's your budget. You could buy anything you want. Yeah, that would be good. A two-tone Datejust, a used two-tone Datejust, but you're talking about something from the 90s. Yes. And And that's a decent watch. There's better watches.

1:17:58This is a question for Roman Scharf. You know who Roman Scharf is? Luxury watchers are. He knows watches like crazy. And he knows how to get something dope. But if you're getting a status, you're going to have to get a Rolex for the 5 and a Rolex for the 10. What Rolex do you buy for 10? It's a newer Datejust. Or, you know, like if you want, once you get out of the 10s and you 10 to 15 and stuff like that, you're going to get the Hulk, right? you know the exclusive one that's when you're actually a watch connoisseur because when you're watching a whole when you're wearing a hulk or a pepsi or a batman you don't know if that's your sunday watch or your only watch you know i'm saying so now you're sitting there because those are like you know i'm wearing my hulk today and my um yacht master when i go out and when i'm wearing a suit i'm wearing my steel patek whatever 5980 whatever it might be um so that's the way that kind of game works.

1:18:55So those are the watches that are the best status symbols that are really classy. And what about$25 ,000 now? $25 ,000 now. Let's think about that. $25 ,000. That would probably be, you know, something along the lines of a Yachtmaster two-tone. That's a big boy watch. okay you're dropping 25 ,000 that means your car is at least 100 ,000 and your crib is whatever you know I'm saying that's a big boy watch yeah 50 ,000 you're an Audemars a steel Audemars blue face type deal or you know a gold one two tones deal those are yeah you're a bigger boy 100 % that's what it says yeah even me a customer walks through the door and they got the right watch on I'm like yes sir how can I help you you know and what about a hundred thousand dollars that would be a gold ottomar gold patek you know saying the best that the sickest watch and another one of my boys a shout out he's a youtuber um uh rissa and kwan a kwan you know i'm saying he knows how to this is their couple they they're youtubing um they got a couple of million subs and they have kids and they're you know a couple and they're a couple youtubing whatever you know they go to the best hotel they do this and they stay there and they make a video about that.

1:20:11And he likes the best. So he'll get the two-tone Maybach. His crib will be something really status-like. It's done correct. It's there. You can see the mind that he put into it. And that's what you want for a watch. When you walk through the door and you met me, I'm like, oh, there's Graham. And you walk into his crib and you're like, oh, there's Graham. And that's the experience that you want to communicate. And the skeleton face AP Rose Gold is what Quan bought. It was$150. Hmm. Okay. But that skeleton face is exclusive, discontinued, limited, did his research type. Yeah. What do you think is the worst watch for someone to buy?

1:20:52Um, you know, that's a great question because, you know, I'd say kind of like that two tone old Rolex is unless you're in a strip club, you know, in Connecticut, that watch ain't gonna impress nobody, man. so you might as well get yourself some Gucci and put some diamonds in it or you know Apple watch or some or you could customize some other I really wouldn't want to buy that

1:21:14Graham Stephan:how often do you see people flexing with fake watches not that often but not that few times either people who have status they might be I'm not going to name their names but they have a high status but they can't get the high status watch so they might wear a fake one how would you tell because some of the fakes I've seen are so accurate. They're so good. And I love watching those YouTube videos where they break down the real versus fakes. Yeah, well, that's how you do it. They're almost indistinguishable, though. You have to get behind it with like a... Yes, yeah, that happens, right? That happens, and how do I tell?

1:21:51I don't, but my friend knows because they know what the fakes are doing because they know the fake market. They know that the dial color is off. It's really the colors, you know what I'm saying? Like the color is not really there or something is not really there. But how do you know? You have experience with it every single day. What do you think are some of those overpriced luxury brands, stuff that people continue to buy, but you don't think it's worth it at all? I mean, all of them are overpriced per se, but that's the whole point of the brand is that it's overpriced. You know, I could tell you Chrome Hearts, you know, you bought a hoodie for$1 ,000, but that's what you shopped there for.

1:22:25You're saying that if you're wearing a Chrome Hearts hoodie, you're saying to the chick, I could take you on vacation. We could go get on a plane and I'll take it to Mykonos or whatever. That's what you're saying. So it's overpriced. It's the whole point is it's overpriced. You know what I'm saying? That's the whole point is to say I have money to burn. So the more overpriced it is, but it's the game. You don't want to be overpriced. Again, thinking from a value perspective on luxury is a mistake. It really is.

1:22:55Graham Stephan:And what about lab grown versus real diamonds? How do you even tell the difference? For most people, is it never just worth it to get real diamonds? Just go lab-grown? No, I mean, lab-grown, again, is going to be, listen, these are all lab. But in natural, this ring would be about$25 ,000. In lab, it's about$6 ,000. Okay, because I don't want to sit here and buy Asher cuts and set them upside down for this ring. You know what I'm saying? I really don't. I'll just buy it in lab, and it'll really do the business, and it's really, really nice. and then I'll move on to the next ring. Because in natural, do you really want to buy this exact ring for$25 ,000?

1:23:37Not really. $6 ,000,$7 ,000, it's a pretty beautiful piece of jewelry. Okay? If you have, you know, you're not going to walk out of here and then another guy has got this ring on. Not going to happen. Okay? It's just nobody makes it. Nobody sets stones like this upside down. It's a unique item. And if you want that uniqueness and you've had it all, you get it. But in natural, if you want it natural, sure, I'll make it for you in natural. What's the advantage to going with a natural diamond? I mean, the advantage is that it's still a rare gem. They're both diamonds, but one is a gem, one is not.

1:24:12One is made in a lab and could be an infinite quantity, and the other is made in the ground, right? Let's say the year is 2045, and 3D printers have gotten so advanced that you could get yourself a classic Ferrari, you know, like the old ones. Amazing. there's the one that's in jay leno's garage or he doesn't have ferraris but whatever you get the idea there's the one that's in jay leno's garage that was manufactured in 1972 and there's the one that's 3d printed yesterday they're both exactly the same on a molecular level pros trust the home depot for heavy duty storage solutions for any job site or garage right now get up to 15 off select storage and organization.

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1:25:28Graham Stephan:Yeah, but let's say you don't have any of the documents that go along with it. How do you tell if you have two diamonds side by side? One's real, one's lab grown. It's becoming harder to tell, but natural diamonds have a little nitrogen inside of them and other elements that are not present in the lab diamonds. So there's gases trapped in the natural process versus... So there will be always a difference between what the hell is happening in the Earth's mantle to what the hell is happening in a laboratory. But the future of diamonds will always end up being industrial. If you had a diamond engine, you can run it to 10 million miles because the frictionless, it doesn't corrode.

1:26:11So if someone's getting engaged, do you recommend lab ground? I recommend a gemstone. That's if you have money. If you have a good girl and she wants to have a big rock and look good, you get yourself a lab ring and you do it like I did it with this ring. You make something beautiful and unique that you can't make any which way. And she'll blow everybody away with that. Or you could go get her. If you have the budget, you get her a natural gemstone, a natural diamond that's GIA certified or what have you. But if you spend$35 ,000 on a ring and then her girl walks in with the$3 ,500 ring that looks even bigger and better, it's going to have a problem.

1:26:47on the market and the experience. So the society is figuring that out right now. Speaking of women. Yes. What have you noticed to be the most effective ways of like getting her attention, like the right kinds of women? Do you think, like you were saying earlier, how you first kind of courted that one girl. She went into the store and you were treating her as though she was like a normal person rather than through like this lens of her being a beautiful girl where everyone white glove services her. what are the actual best ways that you can try to to get that attention well it came to that girl she's been everywhere and done everything so she's not impressed by money at all you know so she was did you know that going into it was a strategy no i didn't know i didn't have no strategy i just she started talking and i just you know i was like i'm not letting you sit here and is a woman might try to dominate a man in the initial conversation like hold this for me out of here you can't you know she's trying to see if you're submissive or dominant so as soon does she even test you, you got to be like, you know, she's waiting for you to, to go like this.

1:27:50So that was, that worked in that particular instance. And that will always be the case for me. I don't let any woman dominate me because they try, you know, they want to see. What are other ways they test that? Like, hold this for me. If a woman asked me, Hey, hold my purse. I'd be like, yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, listen, you could do that. And she might be a good girl and she might not be trying to dominate nothing, but she usually, I mean, like, you know, she's doing it for a reason. You know, ignoring her or whatever might be a big deal. Then I had a chick the other day. She's like, we took a picture together.

1:28:19Then she's like swiping through my phone and she sees me. You know, I just met her. I took her out of date. She's swiping through my phone while I'm driving and she sees me with another girl. And that turns her on. It makes her want to compete because there's a paradox. Okay. A woman is testing you for your manhood. Okay. Okay. That's what she is. That's what the whole point of a woman is. It's like, you're coming too close. I'm going to start, you know, or you're standing too far. I'm going to do this. She's testing you for balance. And that's how their sensory apparatus kind of works. And from my experience.

1:28:55so um when it comes to it's a game you know what I'm saying like you do this too much she's gonna be like oh this guy is doing that you do that too little all this guy is doing this you have to find the balance of being uh not holding her but then opening up the door for her but then doing this but not doing that but then that not doing this and eventually she gets swooned and with enough time and then she's like you know that's that's the courting um uh um um You know, process. Sounds like a lot of work. Like a lot of thoughts. You can't just... Because a woman doesn't going to want to go, oh, yeah, you got this.

1:29:32Well, here you go. You know what I'm saying? She don't want to do that. Then you... You know, and then the baby comes out and there's a problem and you're like, oh, I don't know what to do. You know what I'm saying? It's genetic. The ones that... If you're the women that chose the wrong guy, their line was done. They want the guy that's not too aggressive, but not too this, not too that, but not too this. And you have to... As a young man, I didn't know this. You know, if you're a practical thinker, you're going to have a problem because it's not a practical thing. It's a completely different style of thinking.

1:30:03Take a look at Jeff Bezos. You know what I'm saying? This guy's got the richest in the world. And he's got this chick there that's for faces like this. You know what I'm saying? And you could do better than that, Jeff. But you're a logical thinker. That's the problem. You know what I'm saying? You're thinking logically and you're dealing with a woman who's playing a different game.

1:30:23Graham Stephan:So you're saying if he did not think logically, he would get someone who's more attractive? If you turn, you have to turn your brain off and you have to go into a different dimension to to use a woman because, you know, to be able to get there because it's a different type of courtship. Yeah. You know that, you know, Jeff Bezos like, well, what's the way the best way to start a company? Well, I'll start with books because their titles are easy to search. You can buy them for cheap. They're easy to store. They're stolen less frequently and you could ship them easy. So that's a great way to start a business.

1:30:56Well, one's not thinking like that. You know, woman's thinking in a more emotional sense or in a more of this and more of that. So he's super active in a one sense and deficient in another. That's why he's got this chick. You know what I'm saying? Where he could have a way better bitch, you know, or 10 of them, 100 of them. But if you're going to bring them on a yacht and you're going to talk to them directly and look them in their eyes and answer their questions, they're going to think you're a sucker. You have to make them compete. Give this one a little bit of tension. And then as soon as she gets comfortable, give that one a little bit of tension.

1:31:30And then so you're a smarter girl than that. Oh yeah. And that's what drives them crazy because it's a different dynamic. And if you study it from a logical perspective, you will be able to have the same advantage as you would in Amazon. But if you study it, if I like you and I'd like you to be my girlfriend, forget it. I think that's a way to court a girl that's not looking for a life partner. Correct. I think if it's a girl that is like, she's long-term oriented and she's logic brained and she's like, I need to find someone right now and I want to settle down with them. That's a wonderful girl you're describing.

1:32:00Okay, so you're saying, but like maybe the more Miami type, maybe some New York type, maybe some California, like LA type. That's kind of, you need to be a little more strategic. Play the culture of like the, you know, of the dating market in that area. If you want a bad and you want to sit here and live the Mac life where you grab her and you have money and you take her on a trip and you're having your sex, let's call it what it is, sexual fantasies that you've been dreaming of, you're gonna have to play a different game. If you want a life partner, then that's a whole different game and it should be straightforward.

1:32:32But even that girl, if you say the wrong things to her, she's gonna get turned off or whatever. A woman is a measurement of manhood, right? A woman doesn't wanna be a man's mommy, okay? man is looking for mom and a woman is looking for dad. She wants somebody who's going to control her, tell her what to do. And she's confident in that and protect her and give her that. And she's measuring you for it. And if you're going to come at her as a young man, and you're going to be looking for your emotional support that makes you feel good that, you know, if you hit your head and you go to your girl and you're going to, you know, you feel better.

1:33:11She don't want to provide that. She don't want to be a provider of that. She would love to play that role, but she don't want to provide that man she doesn't want to be some shoulder for you to cry on because the world is hard bro she wants you to be like oh this guy handled the world and now you know i'm i'm safe but you have what you want she has what yeah you know she wants her and you got to find a compromise and a happy medium but on the emotional sense you have to know how to be able to project uh what she wants to get her to even get the chance to get her to know who you are

1:33:44Graham Stephan:As an immigrant, how do you feel when people say that it's hard in America? It is hard in America in a sense because it's not hard anywhere and it's not easy anywhere because it's all relative to what you experience in the world, you know. But it's obviously not particularly hard in America. But just coming out of that is much it's just more advantageous. So immigrants come here and they're used to a certain level of stress and strain. and that same stress and strain that they're accustomed to is way more productive in this society. So that works out real well if you're an immigrant coming from there.

1:34:20If you're amazing at catching food in the Serengeti where it's a difficult environment and you're living in that, then when you go to an easy environment, it's gonna be more advantageous. But if the people that are used to it, yeah.

1:34:37Graham Stephan:But does that bother you When you see people who've grown up in America and they're just like, you know what? It's too hard out there. I can't get ahead. It doesn't bother me because I'm competing against those people and I'm just going to run ahead of them and be better off. That's on them. You know what I'm saying? And it doesn't happen. Didn't happen to you. And it didn't happen to you or whatever it might be. You guys are on track to some. So that's on them. You know, in some cases they might be right. It might not be worth breaking your back and sweating for all this. Just sit back and relax.

1:35:07You know, pop a pill. So I think also you were early.

1:35:12Graham Stephan:You were early when it came to eBay. You saw the vision of that. I would say you were early in the jewelry industry overall to go through social media. What do you think is next? AI, man. You know that is. I'm already pulling$100 ,000,$200 ,000 worth of value out of here. And I'll show you right now. Because I know my competitors ain't going to be watching this podcast, these idiots. You know what I'm saying? But I'll show you something really cool. And you see this? All right. So maybe the camera could see it a little bit. These are all AI generated pieces. I'll be sitting at home. I'll be smoking my vape.

1:35:46And I will be sitting there and I'll be saying, make another, make another, make another, make another. I'll just have hundreds of designs if you prompt it properly. So the amount of design work I was able to pull out of the phone was 10 years ago or five years ago to cost$200 ,000,$300 ,000,$400 ,000,$500 ,000. and now the AI is going to make the 3D model. So if I'm the first one to implement the AI for my business, I'm where I should be. I could have been a hundred million dollar man right now, if I didn't up the eBay from the beginning, I could have did that correct. And I did, but I didn't.

1:36:24And I had to backtrack. And then I used the social media to get me back in line. And now the AI to get me where I should have been all along.

1:36:31Graham Stephan:One thing I want to point out, um, when I I was doing research for this. You were on the people's court. Yes. How did that come to be? Well, you know, I had a graphic designer that was doing really good. He was very talented. But his life was troubled. And one time, you know, I came to his house or where he was living in Harlem or whatever. And he's renting this room. And I walk inside this place. Decrepit. it's a python shedding its skin inside a dusty crusty aquarium type deal the opposite of what happened when i went to your crib is essentially what i was you know we don't have python exactly you have a fish tank that's why it's the opposite you know what i'm saying but it's crusty and and he's got this one bedroom and his roommate he tells me is on xanax sleepwalking into his room at night and just like bothered him like oh this guy needs some peace and quiet and he's got the talent let me see what would happen i had an extra room you know i had a nice apartment or whatever let me see what happened if i just said this guy you know let's take the summer three months get some peace rent free just do some design work and come over and live and you know I like this character Remember he came He closed the door He smoked about a million Backwoods in there You know what I'm saying And um And accomplished nothing Over the course of that summer And then I'm like Yeah man I gotta throw this guy Out of here He's a nice guy You know what I'm saying But I'm like This is horrible Man I gotta This guy living in my house I give you three months Until December It's a human experiment That was running So he's like I'll make an app Or whatever But it ended poorly And you know It was like a$5 ,000 balance On some app Or some shit And I'm like You know, whatever, bro.

1:38:23You stayed in my house for free for six months, bro. I gave you 10 grand. I'm not giving you another five or I'm not giving you another whatever. And then he sued me, small claims. And then he wanted to pick it up at people's court. You know, because it was a dispute over like, you know, like, you know, man, I did so much for you, bro. And you wasted all that time. Like when I opened up that door after he left, it was like a layer of this thick of dirt on the floor. and it stunk like font, Fanta or, uh, uh, what are the, Fanta is the leaf, the tobacco cousin of the tobacco leaf that has no nicotine.

1:38:56You know what I'm saying, bro? It was what it was. So I went in there and I'm like, yo man, this is disgusting. And then, um, and then we went on people's court and they're like, yo, they'll cover the cost if you lose. And, um, he did have kind of like a little contract or whatever. And the judge, you know, they made the, the thing, the, the race game, you know, like, ah, he's going to win because he's that, that, that, whatever. And I'm, uh, you know, I rocked with it. And that's what it was. Why do you even get yourself into something like this? Like you, you're living such a good life that just like lock in and focus on what you're good at rather than being like, yeah, come live with me.

1:39:28I want the parameters. I want to understand that if a human being is in trouble, yeah, I could take care of myself. I'm going to go make money. I'm going to focus on my, I'll brand my business, whatever. But if a person is in trouble that has talent, what does it take for them to have stability and be able to bring themselves to their to realize their own potential i want to know i want to know what kind of impact can i have on a person's life i want to know and if it's six months out of my life to try that out and a little people's court story it works out perfectly well okay what we're gonna do is we're gonna do quick questions and answers.

1:40:04Okay. Um, real or fake? Most people wearing diamonds in New York city. Uh, most people wearing diamonds in New York city are real, real or fake rapper chains and music videos real. Who's the broke rich person you've ever met? Brokest rich person I ever met. I will not disclose the man's name. What's the worst. Well, like how did you, you don't have to say his name, but like, what was the context of this? The context of this was that, um, I mean, you know, he's a successful person. He has assets, but he didn't manage his money well. And, um, uh, you know, he's behind on his bills and people probably stealing from him too.

1:40:44Has a celebrity ever tried to scam you? Yeah. Which influencer is definitely wearing fake jewelry? I'm not sure, man. I haven't really seen him because you get caught instantly if you're wearing that on social media today. Have you ever been robbed? Yes. How much was it? It was like a hundred grand. Do you have insurance? Yeah. Are Rolexes overrated? No. Is buying jewelry ever a smart investment? Yes. And then this is one word answers. Jewelry or watches? Jewelry for me. Cash or gold? Gold. Hustle or talent? Talent. What drives people more, fear or greed? I don't know. I'd say fear, but I don't know.

1:41:23I'm curious, how much do you think your social media presence has pushed your business? Um, 90%. So it's just completely exploded it? Yeah, it's turned me into a brand. As long as I got the right product and the right marketing and this and that, I'll be able to secure a brand that'll outlive me after I'm dead. And what are the main ways right now that you're trying to catapult your success? Like the main levers you're trying to pull? AI. And that would be with like video? I'm going to design vast amounts of jewelry that would otherwise cost me$500 ,000 in designing. I'm going to do it for free.

1:42:00I think what would be good is if you had like signature items that you did limited drops. Yes. Like we're doing, for example, my whole idea with the chain. I was about to say that. My idea with the chain of like, I don't know how much I'm paying. The chains are different here. The chains are different here. I can't guarantee quality if I'm buying something in Japan. I just have no idea, but I want one. And it would be cool, especially as a store of value in terms of gold. If you did something like, hey, guys, these chains, I promise you my cost is this. Right. I am only taking 15 % profit. Right.

1:42:30And I'm doing a release of 100 chains. These are signature tracks, NYC chains. Yes. You guys can buy them and then sell those out. Those would sell out like this. Yes. And then it could be kind of like a staple. Like you have one of those signature like tracks, NYC, some sort of label for those. Consider it done. And you do those. Consider it done. That's what I'm doing. And if you're transparent about your numbers, like that would open up doors for people that didn't even know they wanted jewelry just because the obstacle of thinking you're getting scammed is too big to hurdle. Yeah.

1:42:59Graham Stephan:But the flip side to that is you see some people that see the amount of money and don't quantify the overhead. So let's just say there's like 3 ,000 profit margin. They'll say, well, you're making three grand. But they're not counting in the rent and the this and the that. You got to count it all in. The stuff you got to pay for and your time. And then they're going to be like, well, why can't you just make 1 ,000 on this? Right. I don't know. I think there's a percentage of people out there who would love that. I love transparent pricing. The idea is limited drops. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, limited drops regardless.

1:43:28The economics of it have to be worked out. You know what I'm saying? Don't lose money on a limited drop. Just do the math. You know, this costs that, that costs this. You're not charging just for the materials. It's the whole thing. I just think that would be good for branding. Like to be the guy that like is doing the high level limited drops. It would differentiate you from other people.

1:43:48Graham Stephan:Yeah. I'm with it, man. I'm with it. Yeah. In a way, it's cool because it's like your merch. Like people have hats that they wear. Like a shirt. But like that's your merch. Yeah. The jewelry industry has so many parameters to it, right? Once you go down this rabbit hole, it'll take your whole life, all right? Because you could do this and you could do that and you could save on materials or you could scrap this and you could buy scrap or you could do this. There's so many different ways. That's what made it a very interesting game. It sucks you in and you have a million ideas. Some of the businesses that were in the podcast, podcast, buy my t-shirt, buy my hat.

1:44:22Mark Rober does some where he makes these little toys and that's genius. Right? You know what I'm saying? The jewelry business has so many different elements of humanity in it that it makes it a very interesting game to play to win. And I'm going to win that with this idea, that idea, a poofier haircut, a double hot dog, everything. And a little Bitcoin. Guys, I've never explained this. He keeps talking about double hot dog. It's my phone wallpaper. I've had it since I was 18. Two hot dogs in one bun. I don't know, bro. Look, all I'm saying is. What does it mean? Do you see anything wrong with that?

1:44:59Um, it just brings up sexual. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. Do you, do you ever see, do you ever get served a really nice dish and you're like, I want to take a picture of that? It's rare. But that happens. It happens. It happens. And so this hot dog, it's Hebrew national. It was by accident? You would like this. Hebrew national dogs. Hebrew national. And it was in a hoagie bun. Right. And so I was like, this looks really good. And I was really excited. I took it over a fire. You took a bite of it. I took a bite out of it. Right. And I took a picture. It was that important that you want to see that shit every day?

1:45:29I've had it. I've had it. I took this picture of the cherry blossoms, bro. You want to know about branding? I got cherry blossoms over here, bro. What do you got, man? I'm just saying. I'm not talking about the cherry blossoms. What's your phone cover, bro? It's a jellyfish. Oh, let's see it, man. All right. That makes sense. I like the jellyfish. It's a little bland. It's branding. People talk about it. You see the double hot dog. It was intriguing. It just scared me a bit, bro. That's all. It just took me aback. You know what I'm saying? What kind of... Where am I going? Am I going to get double hot dog right now?

1:45:55And part two of the iced coffee hour, you guys know, we'll be behind the paywall. We need you for another hour or so. Send them in. But yeah. All right. Oh, God. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you. Thank you. It was an amazing time, boys. This has been a blast. Thank you all for watching so, so very much. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without you guys. Honest thank you.

1:46:24Thank you.