How We Went From a Beat-Up Van to 200+ Franchises w/ Nick Friedman & Vince Ricci 📈 EP113

23:02Oh, interesting. 2006, I won something called the CEO Poker Championship. And the guy that got second place was the head of Outback Steakhouse. Oh, wow. I haven't heard the name in so long, but it was funny because just seven years before that, I was applying to work at Outback Steakhouse. I was working at Ruby's diner and I was hoping to get the job at Outback Steakhouse. That's awesome. I was 17 years old and I ended up starting my clothing company. Then you beat them in the World Series of Poker. Okay, on the investing side. So you're building your business. It's 2008-9. You go to the franchise model.

23:35Now you got 30, 40, 50 franchises. Now you start making some serious revenue, some serious money. When you decide, okay, I'm going to invest into these other, you mentioned three or four brands you've invested into or maybe advising for. When you decide, okay, I've invested a lot of capital into my core business, I can take some money and throw in 25K, 100K, a million, whatever the number is, into something else. Yeah. So early on when we were in the business, of course, I started reading different books. Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrants was one that I read where he talks about elevating from employee to self-employed to business owner to investor.

24:05And so in my mind, I was always kind of like, that's the gradual elevation and transition that I want to get to. So once we had enough capital, once I wasn't as active in the day-to-day business, I started thinking myself as an investor, my very first successful investments was real estate. And I'm still a big believer in that as an asset class. You know, one of the quotes I've heard and used regularly is don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait. And, you know, obviously, you know, if you look at it year by year, it may fluctuate. But at the end of the day, it's an asset. You can rent it out.

24:36You can fix it up. You could sell it. You could live in it if you need to. And so we did that early on. We own probably 20, 30 million dollars worth of real estate at this time, maybe more at this point, but, you know, our commercial properties and our, you know, few residential rentals and so forth. I'll say when I started investing in businesses, I had some skin knee decisions. And I'll say the reason is because, you know, to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To an entrepreneur, everything looks like an amazing opportunity. Like we're very, I would say, optimistic by nature because, and that's what helps us be successful when we pursue our own vision because we believe it's going to work even though others may not, or even though it may be against all odds.

25:12Now, when you're investing in other people, you have to realize you're not just investing in the idea, but you're investing in the person too. And actually, I don't think I mentioned this earlier. We were on the very first episode of the very first season of Shark Tank. Awesome experience, kind of maybe my first experience pitching to investors. We didn't end up taking a deal, by the way. And quick side note, we were pitching a sister company. We were going to call it College Fox's Packing Boxes. Yeah, the Sharks didn't think that was a great idea either, but that's another story. But nevertheless, I think what I did learn from that experience and what I've learned in talking to some of the sharks from the show since then is a majority of the deals they do on television don't actually take place after they stop videotaping.

25:55And the ones that do take place after they stop videotaping, less than 20 % of those actually have been successful or moneymakers. I thought it was really fascinating. And so So, you know, recognizing that early stage investing, small business or venture is very risky and you've got to be willing to spread ships out across a lot of different, you know, ventures. And also, I think it's important to invest in stuff that, you know, stuff that you can influence or have a pattern recognition of. Like I said, I'm invested in some franchise concepts. I understand youth sports. I understand the franchise model.

26:27I have become versed in real estate. So I think those sorts of things have allowed me to have successful investments. If I'm just sort of writing a check on a tip, whether it be publicly traded or some private business that somebody told me about might do well, it's like going to Vegas and rolling the dice. You really don't have much influence on it. So there's a famous theory that 90 % of startups fail, which is true. The reason for it is they have lack of capital, lack of experience, lack of knowledge. And so what I do is I focus on companies that are doing at least$2 million in revenue up to$20 million.

27:04The reason I like that$2 million and$20 million is they got past the hardest part. Going from$0 to$1 million, super hard. Major failure rate. Most people don't want to do it. $1 million and$2 million is where you're like, okay, getting some operations. I'm finally making some hires. I'm getting a better lawyer and a better accountant and a better executive. That$1 million and$2 million is where you start to really kind of like, you can hear the, like you're figuring it out. we start to get to 3 million, 5 million, 7 million. Okay, now we're getting a swing of things here. And so I raised 56 million the last three years, all three to six million bucks at a time in a company that's doing two to 20 million.

27:40So Elevator Syndicate, our concept is find businesses that are already doing 5 million, 12 million, 8 million, 15 million, that range, and we pour gasoline on the fire. There's amazing startups that are out there, even with amazing founders, and we don't do it for a couple of reasons. One is it typically takes five to seven years on average to have an exit or liquidity event. And so if I come in on year two, three or four, I've shortened my time span as an investor. The first couple of years, I can help too much from like scaling. But at the first couple of years, I can't help too much because you're just getting their systems and operations and making your first relationships at conventions and trade shows.

28:16Like you're still figuring things out. I'm going to help you way more if you're doing six million revenue to get to six million going to 13 million. Not hard at all. Yeah. Zero to 1 million, super hard. And so Elevator Syndicate, our concept is get guys like us, right? I've got 960 investors. So guys like Nick, hey, you throw in 25K, 100K, 500K, whatever the number is. We'll all pitch in together. But this company is already doing 9 million revenue. How can Nick help? How can Dan help? How can the other 32 investors? How can we all pitch in and help this business? You might find investments that you can do with some friends, co-investors.

28:50That's why people ask, who are the other investors? because if Nick was already an investor in a company, I'm more inclined to want to invest, right? Because him and his circle have experience. They built a huge business. So when people pitch you, because they're going to pitch you, people pitch you, ask them some key questions. Where are their revenue at? What's their actual experience? Who else is involved? Who's on the advisory board? Who's an actual investor? There's a big difference between advisory board and investor. Someone that cuts a check versus just puts their name on it. There's a lot of differences.

29:18Just ask a lot of these questions before you make your investment because when you get it right, you can have a 6x, 12x, 20x. When you get it wrong, which is going to happen, you're only having a 1x loss. That's why Nick mentioned you've got to have multiple investments when you're taking an angel investment risk. You can't just do one angel investment. You've got to do 3, 4, 10, 20. I've done 43. 43 sounds like a lot, but it's been a decade. It's really only 4 or 5 a year if you think about it because I'm seeing 200 deals and I'm picking 4 or 5. All right, Nick. So you're investing a lot back into the business.

29:51right a lot of people don't realize someone goes and does 10 million in revenue they're probably broke right they're in debt sounds good revenue vanity revenue is vanity yes profit is sanity cash flow is king and that's something i learned after a few years like we used to tout our our revenue numbers and yeah even at the beginning of this talking about what we're doing in top line it's you know it's exciting it sounds like a big impact but to your point especially in the early days you're plowing that money back in of course and you're making small bets and sometimes big bets along the way not all of them pay off so in this scenario there's very very very very very very very few companies that go off to do 300 million dollars revenue at what point do you think about should i exit the business should i go acquire a bunch of other companies that are in the moving space should i do other ancillary companies should i become like a trucking company here or should i do it you know there's should i be a box manufacturer because you probably go through millions of boxes like yeah what are the things should we do like the wrapping tape should you have a wrapping tape company like i could sit here and rattle off and i'm sure you guys have thought about all of them over 20 years like sometimes when you have a core business like what they're doing for the moving space sometimes you think about what are the vendors we use what do we spend money on yeah if you're spending money going buying tape and you go through freaking i can't even imagine how much tape you go through to tape up the boxes maybe we should do that yeah When you go through literally millions of boxes, maybe we should have our own boxes and sell the boxes to our customers or to our franchisees.

31:18Talk us through that concept. Yeah. So the short answer is yes to all of the above. All of those thoughts that you just rattled off is the stuff that wakes me up in the middle of the night and I got the hamster wheel running. It's like, oh, we could do this. We could do that. We should do this. We should do that. There's a Jim Collins quote, I think, where he said once companies hit levels of success, they don't die of starvation. They die of indigestion, trying to do too much. And so I think the idea is, you know, identifying that list and we charted out on how much money can you make on one axis and how much heavy lifting money, resources, time, distraction is going to be on the X axis.

31:56And if something is really high earning potential, doesn't take a lot of effort, that's a no brainer. And I'll give you an example of something we did was or we're doing now long distance moving. You know, we just we've got the trucks, we've got the labor, we've got the network now with 200 locations. We can start offering that and leveraging our network. Or we started an accounting service, bookkeeping service for our franchise owners that works so well. We're going to offer it to other franchise systems as well because we already got that set up. We were doing something we were doing internally as an internal service.

32:26It's a no brainer for us to use AI and offshore VAs to be able to offer it to franchise systems to have clear, transparent books and accounting. But then there's stuff that, you know, might be a little bit more far reaching truck manufacturing or truck sales. Like, I don't know the first thing about truck sales aside from when we buy them and trying to negotiate a good rate, a good rebate. So to your point, having a quarterback, if we were to go down that route, we'd have to find somebody who understands truck fleet management. That could be our quarterback or CEO of our trucking division that could help us source inventory, floor plan and sell and or lease them to our franchisees.

33:03So that's something that we've thought about, talked about. It's on the vision roadmap, but we haven't pursued it yet just because we've got kind of the lower hanging fruit in front of us. So I think that's the way to approach, you know, when you've got these different opportunities that present themselves, make some small bets. And then if it's something that's going to take a heavy lift, you've got to have somebody that's going to do it or it's going to distract you or your team from your core that's already working. So as you go from 300 million to 340 to 400 to 500, is there a number in your head that you're like, OK, this is my goal number or does the goalpost always move?

33:36Also, yes, the goalpost always moves. But I will say we took some chips off the table. We did a minority private equity transaction shortly after COVID. And the reason for that was, you know, COVID was such a wake up call for me. I had ninety nine percent of my net worth in one asset, which is our main business. and I was like, man, if something, a black swan event like this happens again, it could wipe out everything I've worked for. So let me de-risk, take some money out of the business, bring in an institutional partner that can help give us some infrastructure to help prepare us for the future exit.

34:05And just quick side note, the guys that invested with us is these three self-made billionaires that are actually the largest shareholders of TikTok here in the U.S. These three dudes up in Philadelphia. I think their net worth went from$5 billion to$50 billion as a result of their TikTok investment. But anyway, so whatever they're invested in, College Hunks is a rounding error for them. So they're not too worried about how quickly we exit, which is a nice partner to have from a minority standpoint, because they're not pushing us for an exit anytime. It's our timeline, not theirs. But I do think at some point we'll look to recapitalize the business as I approach.

34:41I'm in my early 40s now. If I could get to 50 and have another meaningful transaction to be able to be more of an investor and facilitator for other businesses, I think that would be exciting. also. And so I think that's, that's all part of the journey, but you know, this brand still remains kind of a part of my identity. And I think a lot of times, you know, as, as entrepreneurs, especially in the early days, for me, I was approaching business from a point of scarcity. Like if I could just get to a million in revenue, if I could just get to 10 million in revenue, I could just get to a hundred million in revenue.

35:10If I could just get to a million in profit, you know, we'd be good. And every time we hit those milestones, it's like you said, the goalpost moves. And, and I feel like I'm just chasing this, something that's always out of reach. So I've had to reframe and realign my mind from a paradigm standpoint, because as you get more successful, you get surrounded by more successful people and everybody's got a bigger boat. Somebody's always got a bigger plane and it always makes you feel like you've got to get to that person's level. And I think unless you're Bezos or Elon, you know, it's going to be hard to not be always looking up at who's ahead of you.

35:41So we think of things from a point of abundance and say, OK, look how far we've come to where we are. That doesn't mean we're going to stop and get off the ride. We want to keep pushing and growing. And I think what excites me and gets me excited and passionate as opposed to feeling like I'm missing out on something is this notion of potential maximization or optimization. Like how could I maximize my potential as a leader, as an entrepreneur, as a father, husband, business owner, all of those categories that I'm, you know, I guess you could label me as, but also how can I maximize the potential of this brand, this platform, what it can do in the communities that it services, what it can do for the franchise owners who invest in it, how much it can allow them to provide for their families, how much it can employ into our overall employee community as well.

36:23And so that's the stuff that keeps me excited and going, no matter how far reaching the goalpost keeps extending from a number standpoint. Because once we hit a billion in revenue, I'm going to want to hit two billion or three billion. And so that never stops. But taking it from a point of abundance and not feeling like I'm missing out or lacking, that makes the journey that much more exciting, I think. so let's picture this it's your 50th birthday one billion dollars gets wired in for the big acquisition for 80 of your company you get to keep 20 because they want to do what's called golden handcuffs they want to keep you on they need you for the next couple years what do you do the next day after one billion dollars shows up on the monday morning what do you do on tuesday oh man um i you know i guess i would pinch myself first.

37:09Then I'd probably look at my bank account about 25 times just to make sure it was real. And, uh, uh, I think shut my phone off and just take a moment to like breathe and soak it in and spend time with the family, the wife, the kids, uh, fire up the jet and go around the world for a couple of months. And I think that'll be, allow me to just sort of reflect, have that little mini sabbatical moment. And I think I would get bored out of that very quickly and say, well, What am I coming back to do and how can I be more impactful on this next go round? I've never met an entrepreneur who has officially retired.

37:42They may not be grinding it out day to day like they did at the beginning, but they're still involved in something because, you know, the moment you start, you stop growing, you're dying in all effects. And so, you know, I've met 80, 90 year old guys that are still grinding. I met a guy, one of my neighbors, he's got a big horse farm now. And I was like, oh, that's an interesting hobby. He got very mad at me. I said, that's an interesting hobby. He goes, no, it's a business. It's not a hobby. And I was like, oh, got you. My apologies, because I'm thinking this guy's in his, you know, almost 90 years old.

38:08And he's got all these horses that he's breeding and selling. But he's running it just like a business. And he's, you know, just as fired up about it as he was the publicly traded company that he grew as well. Yeah. My ranch is not a business. That's right. 140 ,000 a month of feeding animals. They're very hungry. That's right. Well, there's not profit benefits as well out there that, you know, you can get involved in, too. And no margin, no mission. So if you didn't have a successful business, you couldn't do things like that. they weren't businesses that were, you know, nonprofit or community driven initiatives as well.

38:37All right. Last two questions on the charity side. So make money, invest money, give away to charity. Why do you think corporations, when you start to get hundreds of employees or thousands of employees, et cetera, why should they have some type of philanthropic component to them? Not just the money part, but why should they have some type of philanthropic initiative within the company? Well, you know, there's a quote we always say, you know, don't chase the money, chase the dream or the purpose or the impact. Chase something that's broader than just making money because money is a powerful tool.

39:06It's a facilitator. It can create your lifestyle, but it can also create impact for the people that you care about, whether it's a community, your family or your employees. And so having some sort of purpose-driven impact is critical, but without margin, there's no mission, like I just said. So you've got to have a profitable business. You don't want to donate yourself out of business. I tell our early franchisees that a lot. Don't just start giving free moving or free junk removal because people are asking you because you've got trucks, like you've got to build a business first and then you can create a give back program.

39:33And the reason is that to answer your question, because people are passionate about making an impact. People care that they mattered and that they made a difference. And if you're getting up every day and your pure motivation is making money, you may be disappointed several days out of the year because not every day is easy. Not every day did you make the money you hope to make personally or professionally. And so for us, we have a two for one giving campaign. We obviously borrowed it from the Tom's Shoes concept. We said, well, instead of one for one, let's give two for one. We donate two meals for every completed job that we've completed.

40:04And we started that a few years ago. We've donated over 5 million meals to US hunger. We also, during COVID, saw all the reports of the domestic violence that was happening and people being stuck with their sort of abusers. And we offered free moves for survivors of domestic violence. We've done over 150 free moves for survivors of domestic violence. And it doesn't have to be something financial or pro bono like that. Through our junk removal, we've formed partnerships with nonprofits where we donate over 70 % of the items we haul to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat, just to be able to try to keep the stuff out of the landfill and give it into a, you know, a reuse cycle as well.

40:38So it motivates, inspires your employees. You're going to want, they're going to want to be something, part of something bigger than themselves, bigger than the business. And I think that's why, you know, social initiatives and giving is that much more critical. So the last question is one question that I ask on most every single episode, and I've never gotten the same answer once. All right. So let's go to the 50th birthday concept. You get the$1 billion, but you got 20%. So then later you get another couple of billion dollars. And all of a sudden, many, many years from now, you finally pass away and you've got billions of dollars you've accumulated over this long career.

41:13What percentage do you leave to those children when you pass away? Ooh, great question. Well, hopefully my parents, or hopefully my children are adults by the time I pass away. And so I've been able to at least steward and observe their ability to be high-functioning members of society, not degenerates or whatever other bad paths that in some cases you fear your kids could go down. Given that they're, assuming that they're high-impact, high-performing members of society, I don't think I would be afraid to bestow them my estate to invest and to impact and to give how they would see fit. 100%. Let them run it.

41:57Yeah, I mean, obviously, maybe not 100%. I would allocate a significant amount to charitable causes that I'm passionate about or charitable trusts that would have a trustee to help disseminate over time. Um, but, uh, but yeah, I think, um, I, I think the, uh, you know, the ability for, for your kids to, to carry things forward is important. The Mike Tyson quote recently, I loved it. He was getting interviewed by like a 13 year old girl and he just goes off the rails. He goes, uh, legacy is another word for ego. And I thought that was interesting because, you know, a lot of people talk about wanting to make, you know, leave a legacy.

42:29And, you know, when he said that it actually made me think a little bit like, you know, is it really, am I trying to leave a legacy that just so people remember me or am I trying to leave a legacy of actually, you know, making an impact and helping empowering others. So as I think about what that future looks like, stuff that I'm passionate about, entrepreneurship, building leaders, lifting up empowering communities that maybe don't have the opportunities that we all had, whether it's through mentorship or, you know, investment, then I think those would be the channels that I would deploy money to.

42:58And then, you know, hopefully my kids are good stewards and would want to start businesses or make a difference as well with whatever there is left for them. And of course, there's the Bill Perkins concept, spend it all before you die. And I don't know if I subscribe to that totally, but I get the point of you're not gonna be here and you don't want people to mismanage it while you're gone. So why not be the steward of it while you're here? Yeah, well, what you framed it as is basically if your kids are high impact and they know what they're doing, then you let them run the world. That's right.

43:27Compared to, I'm just gonna leave my kid$30 million or$100 million or$200 million and they don't have the experience or the know-how, that could put them actually in a predicament. A lot of people think that when they hear somebody very wealthy not leaving a lot of money to their kids or a small amount of money to their kids, they think that it's rude or why would you do that? But we've had answers from 0 % to 100%. Yeah. And they have very passionate reasons why. I'll say my answer today will be 50%. I'll split the difference on that one. I like that. It's a good number. All right, guys. If you can, if you could tell everyone where can they find you on social, where can they find College Hunks on social?

44:03If they're considering a franchise, how can they research things like that? Yeah, so my personal social is Nick Friedman, the number one. And so Nick Friedman one. And our business social is at College Hunks. You can visit collegehunks.com. You can visit nickfriedman.com. Both of those sites have information on franchising, on moving or hauling services, on connecting with me just for business advice or otherwise. And I'm here for it. All right, guys, you're listening to the Money Mondays. It's mission critical to have conversations with your friends. family and followers about money we grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money i think that's ridiculous we have to have discussions about accounting and finances and taxes and what do you do if someone borrows money from you how do i sign a contract should i get a loan should i refinance should i lease a car or buy a car there's so many questions that we have and we think that it's rude to talk about it it's crazy not to talk about it you have to have discussions because that will lead to so many things in your life where you don't pay the dummy tax or you have a very big problem later because you didn't do your taxes or you didn't save up money for your thing or you didn't understand that this lease is very very expensive or this contract is done this way because you didn't ask your family your friends about it have discussions do your research check us out on the money mondays.com and we'll see you guys next monday

45:23ladies and gentlemen welcome to the money mondays as you guys know this podcast takes place inside of an rv motorhome but we're in miami and since i have someone from los angeles in miami i want to do a special edition episode we're just throwing six events over the last three days the whirlwind is complete and so i wanted to grab vince richie before he flies back i want to knock out a podcast with him and so vince has created hubble studio he's done over 5 000 photo shoots there it's nearly 60 000 square feet with multiple buildings he created balance a brand that we're talking about shortly.

45:56Just created a whole partnership with The Wind, doing branding and marketing with them. And he's the founder of Trina's Kids Foundation. I've been helping him along this journey for the last 11 years. We've raised hundreds and hundreds of thousands of toys, almost 200 ,000 toys, just last year in December, doing 11 cities in 17 days, like psychopaths, flying around the country together to go make sure we give the toys out in person all over the country. And now I'm addicted to it, so I'm going to be flying around to toy drives, I don't know for how many more years, but it feels like we're going to be doing it for decades.

46:24So without further ado, I'm going to have Vince Ritchie give a quick two-minute bio so we can get straight to the money. So my name is Vince Ritchie. I'm from the Bronx, New York. I'm an Italian-American, and I always like to preface that with kind of really diving deep into my culture, and that's what gives me a lot of integrity why I work so hard, my legacy in my family, why I care to do what we do. We created Hubble Studios over a decade ago. Kind of took off super fast with the level of people we were working with because we were dead smack in the middle of Los Angeles. Vogue, Disney, all these other commercials, Apple started coming to us and then we decided to make Couple Agency, which was then the full-time production company that stepped in to produce whatever they needed from A to Z.

47:05We could either do just A or we could do all the way A to Z. Then under that, we became kind of a venture studio that started to find deals that we liked and invested into the deals or provided the service in exchange for equity. and we all know a lot of those deals, they're really, you're going for a grand slam. You're really hoping, just like any other venture. Now, our entire business is a mix of all of them, but our main business is producing content, is producing high-end valued content. We are a branding company. We help make sure that this brand is congruent, this content, the assets that we're building are congruent, and you believe what we make is real.

47:42And that's ultimately what we do. So you have everything from can be a kid's clothing brands to cannabis brands, casinos that you're working with, throwing events, toy drives. There's a lot of moving parts. How do you manage this whole whirlwind of things that you guys are up to? I think a good work-life balance. You know, Jack Walsh talks about there's no work-life balance. There's work-life decisions. You know, and because so much of my business is loosely coupled in the creative agency side, where we're making decisions, we're being creative, we're letting it speak to me, like, you know, paying attention to what billboards draw your attention to, what other assets draw your attention to, what's trending right now, that has to fill my creative void.

48:25And then when the cannabis side or just the operation side of business is very tightly coupled, it's centralized to me as a CEO. I get to make very strategic decisions. Those decisions happen between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Then I take like a little in between where I'm working on both. And then anything after 3 p.m. is a super creative decisions. It's where I'm around from the day and able to deal with it. I go home. I see my daughter, my two daughters, and it gets me creative. and then by the time 7 p.m rolls around they go to sleep then i can really open up my creative juices so it's able to really use the whole day because i'm using different parts of my brain so on balance side there's thousands and thousands of cannabis and cbd related companies out there yours is ultra premium high quality look and feel how do you stand out from this ocean this big sea of different brands uh really maintaining quality going after a boutique customer we have this certain niche because balance we were kind of ahead of the game in 2018 when we created our logos our branding it was very cartoony and compliance stopped people from being able to brand like that because it felt like it was going after kids we were super premium super makeup looking because i came from the beauty industry of shooting so much beauty content then i knew that our product really had to back that up so i really dove back deep into operations the last few years of maintaining one going after really high-end botanists and high-end plant health specialist people then letting them know this is how we structure our company this is organizational chart this is how we work and we're chasing one thing to be the yankees we're chasing one thing to be the best of the best we're not growing just to grow mass market to hit a smaller mid-section price point we want to have the best of the best now are the people better of course there's a bunch of small grows at a super boutique that are selling, you know, it's like selling$30 ,000 handbags.

50:18These other companies doing it, not just Birkin, Noel Hermes. And we'll kind of find that niche of being like, not the top, top, top, top guy, because they just like such a small market, but right there where we're like A plus in quality and you really can't tell the difference. You know what I mean? But it's the top, top, top. So on the creative agency side, you have someone like the wind casino this is the literally the most premium brand in the casino space in history and you have such a long legacy there it looks great it feels great it smells great everything about the wind is already a high level brand why does something that has such a high level brand then spend the money and choose you guys to go out there and make them even better i think because we were already working with them in the beginning shooting a ton of stuff for marshmallows shooting some stuff for their artists and then they got exposed to us as a company and then they got exposed to a little bit of the legacy brand of Hubble.

51:12You know Hubble started making clothes in 2015 just to distinguish who we were as staff. One day somebody on set asked to borrow a shirt. We gave them a shirt. They wore another photo shoot somewhere else. This one wore it, that one wore it. You know I don't know. Celebrity wore it. Every single every single high-end celebrity you could imagine of the top top tier was wearing it almost to where I couldn't believe it. It was happening and then they were like oh now we have to make clothing brand I said let's keep it small because it still keeps the culture of the studio of what we create here and the clothing was a reflection of our perception of what was hot at the time we were behind the scenes on every Apple commercial Nike commercial a ton of other every Vogue shoot you know some of the highest-end Vogue shoots that are like the most controversial ones in the last 10 years were shot at Hubble studio and we were behind the scenes on how it happened how how we made that production.

52:06So then when we made things, it was just super in line with what was trending. So then people seen that in the WIN, there's some people on the creative team at the WIN that knew about it, and then they came to us and said, hey, we wanna create the same thing for the WIN. WIN has a legacy brand, it's amazing. They have all these celebrities that stay there, all these people, but nobody knows about it. Nobody's dying to wear this exclusive WIN hat. Now imagine there was only certain hats that were from the WIN that you could only get a certain way if you were gifted and you wanted people would be they'd be craving it they'd be dying over it and that's what we're trying to create but also in fashion you have a kids line with cambia kids why do you create a kids line when you've got high-end fashion cannabis hubble studio you've got all these things why now have a kids division so the truth be told uh when me my wife got together she came over to hubble growing the ranks now she's the director of hubble studio she runs the agency she had created the kids line when she was in college at f.i.t interesting she cut and made the patterns on my floor in my apartment new york city we first started dating made a mess everywhere literally and she's seamstress she made all patterns herself did it she understands the brand top to bottom exactly what blends are in there i learned it because you know when we first started dating i was going with her to all these places and it just it just worked it was the best it was a bamboo blend it was just the best quality like i only want to put my kids in our stuff, not because it's ours, because it really feels the best and looks the best.

53:33It looks so swaggy. Then with Hubble, she was able to work with Kardashians, this one, that one. It'd have all these people in this stuff. There was a quarterback that won the Super Bowl. He had his kids on the field with him. I'm not going to say who it is. And he was holding his kid and they were in a can be a set at the Super Bowl. And it's like, it's the way that culture just touches so many different people on such a high level. So in between all these things, you also 11 years ago, create Trina's Kids Foundation. Can you walk us through when you're already so busy with all these different businesses, why create this foundation?

54:08Why not just donate to other people's charities? So I wanted to create a foundation that we were making a direct impact from the Bronx, New York. I came from a very low income area. I was affected by alcoholism, drug abuse. Not myself. I was never or anything, but the impact it makes on you for being surrounded by you. And all these kids in these areas, whether it's East LA, certain areas in San Diego, certain areas obviously in Miami, everywhere, every single city deals with the same thing, are impacted by drug abuse, whether they know it or don't know it. So I wanted to affect those kids. I wanted to show them that people care, especially you bring in so many different groups of people, different minorities, different races together, and you bring all these high-end people that work with the studio, and then you bring the whole inner city youth to come in.

54:54Everybody, you know, they deal with each other. They talk and it's the little piece of your heart when you're extending yourself to them. Ultimately, I really did build it because of our first meeting, me and you. And I didn't believe that it could ever be as big as it was until I met you. And then you came in and helped me do the whole thing. So why are you crazy enough to go to 10, 11 cities now for the toy game? Because I have a crazy partner, Dan, that then does it and convinces me, even though I'm in the back end, yelling at Roger like this is never going to work it's not going to work the production's not going to work you're the one who you're the real you know it's almost like the American dream sometimes I say this guy Dan he's either naive and doesn't know what's really going to happen or he really does believe it and somehow we pull it off we filled stadiums we filled arenas we filled thousands of toys tractor trails going all over and I'm dying in the background because I'm an operations guy and I'm like it's never going to work it's like don't worry about it You're like, the event's tomorrow.

55:49It's an arena. It's at the Miami Heat Arena. We don't even have a random show yet. Yeah, nothing. You're like, what time has everybody showed up? You're like, oh, who knows? I'm like, oh, my God. But then 1 ,000 kids showed up. Yeah, literally. We had way more volunteers that we even needed. Thousands of kids showed up. It was amazing. It was great. It was a great experience because you're so ambitious. And then couple that together with some ability to do operations very fast on the spot and it works. So besides the toy drives, which we've done for 11 years now, people, you can check it out at Trina's Kids Foundation, trinaskids.org.

56:27The toy drives, you have that part, but also inside of your own building at Hubble Studio, you've got report card day, back to school day, Thanksgiving food drive, like walkthrough, having inviting over 400 to 1 ,000 families multiple times a year, literally inside of your place of work. You know, we, I come from an events background also. I worked at a catering hall when I was younger. It's just thrown like any other event. You know, you have to be extremely hospitable if everybody comes in the door. I care about every single person that walks through the door. They get the same exact experience.

57:00They get greeted with a smile. They get greeted with a love. Whatever they need, we handle. And because these people know that I'm welcoming them in and now it's been so long, they kind of already know they're not skeptical of us. They come with such a warm heart. So it's gotten a lot easier as the time has went on. and it brings a community together. When I invite our clients down, I invite other producers, other celebrities, other people down, and then I see them walk through the door and they listen to me and you get on stage and speak, what we're about to do, we're about extending your heart, and then they do it and they give back, it really brings that community together.

57:33And now that this client is not just a client, they're a friend. They believe in what we're doing, and that builds the culture of what we do. So how do you get the streets involved? You're getting the people to come show up, Getting the word out. The police are there to help protect it. They're also there to help donate and, you know, literally serving food. The local vendors are coming. There's a lot of moving parts. How do you get so many different people involved to support you and your mission? I'm going to say a line and tell me what movie it's from. Get on the phone and start dialing. Yeah.

58:04Get on the phone and start dialing. I'm calling, I'm calling, I'm calling. Constantly calling. The local police department, I just funded their race to Vegas literally two days ago. I'm just constantly involved in the community. because I care about the community because I'm a part of this community. They've embraced me and I've came and built my business there. So I just, I call them. I constantly call everybody. Hey, you're coming, you're coming, you're coming, you're coming. Let's have it coming. Oh, bring more people. Oh, can I bring this person? Yeah, of course. Oh, you got more kids, 50 more kids?

58:31Okay, of course. All right, 60 over the limit? Sure, why not? Bring them. Oh, we got no more toys? All right, we'll find more toys. We'll figure it out because I love the growth. I love the game. And me and you do such a great job of doing that together. We just kind of want to build, build, build and make more of an impact. All right. We'll take off our charity hats and put on the Hubble Studio. Why build 10 ,000 square feet, then 20 ,000 square feet, then 30 ,000 square feet, then a fourth building, 50 ,000 or 60 ,000 square feet? I can't even count anymore. There's so many buildings across the street and over here and over there.

59:02Why keep building and expanding Hubble Studio? Because I felt like, well, one, we're in downtown Austin District, right next to the right next to the warehouse area, it's growing. It's multiplying exponentially. Every single big clothing brand is down there. Everybody's located down there. I move and shake with all the best people down there. Have we had time to take over new buildings? I had to take it. Because if I didn't take the opportunity, I would have missed the opportunity. And the building, the business was growing because we only could have so many stages. If you fill three stages tomorrow and Nike calls you up and says, oh, I need 10 days, but I'm literally packed in the middle.

59:42I just can't do the job. But as we grew more stages, we had more opportunity to help more people. And it's, when you're producing on one stage, one thing, three times a week, it's cool. When you're producing on four stages, five stages, digital room, this, every single day, it's so much more fun. For somebody who's creative, like me and my team, we get to execute so many different things every day. It's like you get home and you don't have this buildup anxiety because you've fully let off all your creative juices. And I work with my wife. So it's not like a normal relationship where you go home and you say, oh, what'd you do today?

1:00:21If my wife had dared ask me what I did today, I'd be like, you knew what I did. I was with you all day. We spoke all day. But I love that. If I come home and we have this transparent relationship and that's the way our entire team works. We have radical transparency at work. So what's the goal for Hubble Studio? Is this a business that you build up to exit one day or this is a business that you just keep integrating adding becoming a venture studio and keep doing all your own divisions i think that um we had an opportunity a few years ago with somebody big to acquire a portion of the company i decided not to do it uh we spoke about that why i decided not to do it was because i still feel like i have so much control over the company and how we could pivot we're very agile and we can go into what we want and I didn't want any other business's reputation to affect the culture of what we do.

1:01:08Now, if Nike bought us, for instance, as a creative agency, Adidas will never shoot with us again. Adidas shoots with us. None of these other shoe brands will shoot with us. Represent probably won't shoot with us and Represent is a huge emerging company that is killing the fitness space with their live activations and their content. They're great. Nothing bad to say about them. But they'll never shoot with me if Nike bought us. You know, so we really have to be open to everybody. And I love being that person for this community. I'm such a fan of the arts. I'm such a fan of fashion that being who we are for them, I couldn't ask for a better job.

1:01:45And I love it. I have no plan on exiting anytime soon. So if someone has a brand, a product, a service, and they're thinking about booking a studio for a photo shoot, but they don't really understand why they're able to charge$400 for the hour,$1 ,000 for the hour,$10 ,000 or$20 ,000 for the day, Can you explain the behind the scenes, how there's lighting, equipment, staff, experienced people that are actually running the show, why it's so expensive sometimes? So when you're creating these high-end assets as opposed to just user-generated assets or just something simple, you've got to keep every single detail in mind.

1:02:15One, it has to be formatted to every single aspect that you're going to be able to market it. You know what I mean? Whether it's phone, digital, whatever way. You've got lighting crews, digital crews, post-production crews, in-house crews. Then you got 60 people on set. You have to feed all these people. You have to handle that. Then you have to create this environment that everybody feels super creative. That's a whole different experience. And when you're creating like that and your photographer alone is a celebrity within themselves because they should be, you're housing this magical moment that will create this thing that will live in time.

1:02:50When Billie Eilish shot in lingerie, she literally has only shot like that one time. That was there. it was a whole moment it was weeks in advance of planning to make her comfortable to make the team comfortable make everything happen it had the highest end production possible but it was a moment that will live in history we were a part of that so to create that moment costs money it's a luxury tax and you're guaranteed to get exactly what you want you get married at the Beverly Hills Hotel because you get exactly what you want you're going to pay but they're going to do everything for you and you're going to get exactly what you want.

1:03:28That's what it's like coming to Hubble Studios. We give you exactly what you want. So if someone is trying to figure out, I want to hire an agency, how do they decide between this agency, that agency, versus like a premium one like yours? You know, it's really, there's a lot of great people out there doing great stuff. I don't knock any of these other agencies. You go with someone who understands branding. You know, I wouldn't say that we should digitally market your stuff. I would push them towards you or a handful of other people that were on the panel yesterday, we build brands because I understand what's real because I'm paying attention to what's real.

1:04:03At any given time, I know what companies are doing well, what companies aren't doing well, what's hot, why someone's wearing the Miri shirt or Rivington shirt. I think that Miri's great. He was one of our first clients 10 years ago. I think we did our first few photo shoots with him for free because I believed in him. Now we do everything for him. And he's got more global sales than St. Laurent. It's because we're paying attention to who's good so I'm able to put you in line with what's going to work. And I'm going to give you advice as a company and say, I truly believe this is going to work.

1:04:32You may like that. You may like that canary yellow shirt, but not many other people are going to like it. So let's not make your packaging that color. You know what I mean? And making it congruent with what's happening and picking us as a company and believing in us as a team. That's why you're going to go with us. So the packaging design for Cambia Kids, Hubbo Studio, your agency, all the things, balance, all the things, the different products you have, is very, very, very high quality. Why do you think it's important for someone to consider to go with an expert to actually make their brand rather than just do it on AI or ChattieBT or hire someone off of a Fiverr for a hundred bucks?

1:05:11Why should someone consider going with the high-end version of their brand, product, or logo? I'll give you a perfect instance. Ask me what the best coffee is in New York City what's the best coffee 9th Street coffee you want to know why because I bought a t-shirt from them 10 years ago and I liked the quality so much that I've worn that t-shirt the Craig's out for dinner multiple times I've wore it out and it just says 9th Street coffee on it but the placement the logo everything was great and then I was watching billions and they talked about 9th Street coffee then I was reading unreasonable hospitality he talked about one of the best espresso pulls in New York City it was 9th Street coffee if I never bought that shirt when I watched on the TV show I've read in the book, it would have been irrelevant to me.

1:05:51I wouldn't have remembered. But because I had something that I picked up every day and wore it, it makes it more sticky. It makes it where now I believe in this brand. I've reached for that. I've worn it. I've bought into the culture. It's part of who I am now. It's weaving into the fabric of me right now in my life and what I like to wear. That's branding, how you make somebody feel. When you're making things for someone to wear, especially, or packaging for them to pick up, Like nothing feels good as opening that brand new iPhone box. When you peel the little thing and then you pull it off, you know you have a brand new phone.

1:06:24But the packaging is the experience. You're selling someone on that experience and they feel better about themselves and happier because they got it. That's why you pay for that. That's why you pick high end for that. So you read a lot of books on business. A lot of times people think that they're either too good for books or too good for masterminds are too good for events or too good for courses or too good to keep learning. Why is it important for you to keep learning and why should people consider spending more time investing into their minds? Because it's like if I'm going to scale the Alps, there's so many people who have done it before me.

1:06:59They know the exact routes to take. Let me go through it. It's always going to be different. There's going to be different weather. You may not be able to take that route. It's always going to be a little different, but they've made their way through. They can give you advice. That's why I talk about loosely coupled or tightly coupled businesses is because I read it. Because I read a lot of these management ideology books, a lot of these CEO books, and they've built behemoths of companies. And they've went through a lot of the same problems that me and you both go through in building these companies.

1:07:28And it gives us the confidence to know that someone else has did it and they're paving the way for us. I have more mentors that I've never even met that don't even know that I look up to. You know, Michael Ovitz talked about when he built his agency, he was so behind the scenes of the movie industry that he's seen what was coming out before it did. And it made me even more convinced that I had to build a public agency because I was on set every day for the best of the best stuff. I was behind the scenes. If I never read Michael Ovid's book, I would never know. I would never have seen that vision.

1:07:59You know what I mean? And you read all these books and do these things. If you don't think that you need to and your arrogance or your hubris is gonna just say that you just know exactly how to do it, good luck. You may be the exception that gets through, but most likely the person who studied and learned is going to do better than you. I'm going to give you guys a real-life example. Let's say I want to start a clothing line, and Vince wants to start a clothing line. But Vince hires Damon John. Damon John has done almost$4 billion in clothing sales. Vince has experience with clothing. I don't.

1:08:30If they go out and decide which manufacturer to use, Vince and Damon are going to be texting manufacturer, hey, Robert, can you do this clothing for me? Hey, tech pack designer, can you design this tech pack for me? What I'm going to be doing? What is a manufacturer in Los Angeles? Sorry, sorry. Who is a manufacturer in Los Angeles? Wait, what is a tech pack designer? Oh, here's a bunch of websites. Hello, tech pack designer. I'm going to be paying the dummy tax because when I call them or I email them, they're going to charge me full price or more. When Vince and Damon John call them, they're going to get discounts and things for free and friendships and favors because Damon's been doing it for decades.

1:09:11Vince has been doing it for decades. They have the experience. And so while I'm trying to figure out how to start a clothing line, and I'm like, should I order small, medium, large, XL, double XL, triple XL, quadruple XL? How many should I order? Should I order 3 ,000 samples or 1 ,000 samples? Wait, I only need 40 samples? I'm going to be paying the dummy tax. You know how I know? When I was 18 years old, I paid the dummy tax. I paid$36 ,000 for 12 sweaters. When I was 18 years old, I paid$36 ,000 for 12 sweaters. And a leather jacket manufacturer charged me$21 ,000 for 12 jackets. why? I was 18 years old.

1:09:44So they saw me coming from all the way. I had just done a million in sales. I was about to, I was on pace to do 9 million sales. And so we had some money and I was a kid and I went to these manufacturers, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and they just overcharged me and I paid the dummy tax. And then later it led me to my real manufacturer, Christopher Wicks. I'm still friends with today. And he was the guiding light to help me with every little detail to save me 10 cents on things. Every little reason why the plastic should be this way, Why the box is this way? Why is the hanger this way? Literally, by the way, quick side note, if you sell to Walmart and your hanger is facing left instead of right, they'll charge you 25 cents per unit.

1:10:19So if you ship them 120 ,000 units, they just send you an actual bill to pay them back 30 grand because your hanger is the wrong way. So every little detail you learn in this example where Damon and Vince, for example, are having the experience is why books are important. It's why masterminds are important. It's why video courses and YouTube, there's so much information for free that you can consume to help you not pay the dummy tax. All right, Vince, go ahead. Well, also real quick, if you're utilizing your time, if you're an entrepreneur, what's the best use of my time, right? Are you either going to drive and listen to music or are you going to drive and listen to an audio book?

1:10:52Or are you going to drive and listen to a mastermind that you're watching or something like that? Your entertainment, your new entertainment should be watching masterminds and learning. Why not? It's the best. I drive 35 minutes to work and 35 minutes back I listen to audio books. I don't listen to music anymore. I only listen to music if I want to go out. I want to get into a good mood. If I'm going to work, I want to get thrilled about being at work. I want to be inspired, excited. Oh, that's a good idea. I'm going to apply that today. This is great. Use your time wisely because we only have a few years doing this.

1:11:20Ultimately, we're a 40-year run within just doing business. How can I use every single day? The last question is related to charity. Why do you think it's important for people to have a charity, philanthropic part of their company, their brand, or with their employees? Why is it important for the culture to have some type of charity component? Because you got to feel like you're giving back because it's the right thing to do. I don't care what Bible you read. You know, if it's the Torah, the Koran, or the Bible, it all talks about giving back. You have to give back. It's part of your soul. You know, it just makes you feel more fulfilled.

1:11:53We are so stressed out the month of December, right? Yeah. It's literally going nuts. We had a three-hour meeting arguing in Vegas about the Miami Heat Arena. What's going to happen? it's so stressful the morning of the day if we don't have enough toys this happens but the minute it ends and we walked out and we went sat down in Carbone so many smiling faces so many kids so many things and everybody came together for one cause if you build that that's building a culture and that's what changes people's lives and when you do that together with your team they want to be a part of it they feel good my holidays you know I've buried both my parents there is no going home to the Bronx that part of my life is gone.

1:12:34But the new part of my life is me and you and my kids and your daughter and our wives going out and doing these together. And our kids are going to grow up knowing the holidays are not about what we get. It's about what we give back and how we give back. And there's smiles that we share with everybody and we share that with our employees and our business. It breathes life into it. And it makes it fun. It really does. So where can people find you? This is going to be a lot of different companies. Where can they find you, your companies, the charity? Just give us the quick breakdown. my Instagram is at Vince Ritchie, R-I-C-C-I, my last name.

1:13:08Trina's Kids is at Trina's Kids. Hubble Studio is at Hubble Studio. And Balance is at Balance Los Angeles. You can pretty much navigate from one to the other from there. Super easy. All right, guys. Really, really important to have discussions with your friends, family, and followers about money. We all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. I think that's ridiculous. You have to have discussions about accounting, taxes, loans, What happens if I don't pay this? What happens if I borrow money from my friend and I don't get a contract? Should I split the rents? Should I split the bills?

1:13:40It's real life. Bills are your real life. Medical bills, insurance, these are all part of your daily life. So you have to have discussions with people around you from your past, present, and your future about money things so that you can be ahead of the curve and you don't pay those dummy taxes. Every single year, you've seen us for the last two years now, not having sponsors, not having logos, not reading you long commercials. because I want to give you direct information. We have a 93 % listen-through rate. And right now, this week alone, we are rated the number one entrepreneur podcast and we are trending as number one.

1:14:10So we need your help. Like, comment, subscribe, share. Check out Vince Richie across social media and we'll see you guys next Monday on themoneymondays.com.