Holiday Special: Great Finds (Products, Apps, Media)

Shaan Puri

What is it about this writing style that's so slippery that I just can't get? It's like a TikTok feed; I can't get out of it, you know? I would say it's more like a door where you kind of have to knock and take a leap of faith that there is something on the other side of this. You can't see exactly what you're going to get until the door opens.

Sam Parr

alright we're live cool sweatshirt what's going on

Shaan Puri

Oh dude, I already told you I couldn't talk about it on air, but there are some days where there's a fire on the 3rd floor. You gotta grab the extinguisher and go put it out. That's what I've been doing today—putting out fires. I'm glad that I did this because we had a bunch of family coming into town for Thanksgiving. My wife was like, "Oh yeah, it's great! We got my sister coming, we got this person coming, and this person is coming from India." I was like, "Oh god, okay." She said, "You know, we should host Thanksgiving." I said, "You know, I love the giving spirit. I love the idea, but we're not hosting anything on Thanksgiving." Why? Because we have an e-commerce company, and Black Friday is the biggest sales day of the year. She said, "Well, what are we gonna do? It's just gonna sell online. We're not gonna go to the warehouse or something and go fulfill it." I said, "Sometimes you gotta create space because you just wanna be available. You wanna have buffer. You don't wanna be fully booked in case you need to do something. Maybe you have an idea that could drive sales, or in this case, what if shit absolutely hit the fan and you had to do something to recover?" Which is exactly what happened today. I created space. My COO was like, "Oh, I'm just gonna go pick this person up from the airport that day. It should be no problem." Guess what? She's in the car, and the shit's hitting the fan. She can't get to a computer, and she did not create enough space. So that was a great lesson for you.

Sam Parr

for you because you are not the man at creating space

Shaan Puri

Not a space creator, that's come with, you know, some gray hairs and wisdom. This idea, so I'm glad I did it because **shit’s hitting the fan today**. You know, I'm just hoping that... I told you before this, I'm hoping that my safety, my savings, my "under the mattress" savings of good luck needs to be cashed in today. I'm just reaching under the mattress, hoping it's still there. I feel like I put it there, and I'm hoping that good luck is still there. I need it today.

Sam Parr

Well, okay. So, I've got... what we're going to talk about are products and media that we like. I have a couple of things, but I got one thing in particular that's going to make a difference in your day today, actually.

Shaan Puri

okay

Sam Parr

And we can talk about it later, but today's episode is about products and media that we've consumed throughout the year that we think are cool. I like talking about gadgets, and so do you. The stuff that you talked about last episode was actually quite amazing, especially that article about data and how it's easy to redate it correctly.

Shaan Puri

kinda like a great find it's kinda is that the idea great finds

Sam Parr

these these are great

Shaan Puri

Finds we've had this year, whether it's a product or a piece of content, are great finds. I think that's in the Thanksgiving spirit. It's about being thankful for it, but also, people have time over the holidays. Hopefully, people are creating a little space to spend some family time. But I mean, people have time over the holidays, and there's a good chance to either buy this as a gift for yourself or somebody else, or to just check something out that you haven't tried before.

Sam Parr

alright well let's start do you you name 1 and I'll name 1 or I can name a couple what do you wanna do

Shaan Puri

Okay, let's do this. I think we both have an app that we really like. Alright, two different apps. So let's do the category of apps. What's a great find you had that's an app this year?

Sam Parr

Okay, unfortunately, a lot of things I might name are going to involve fitness. A lot of them are going to be about money.

Shaan Puri

related fitness influencer life bro yeah like it's a a lot of them

Sam Parr

Will be money-related though, actually, and relaxation and mindset. So the first one, it's called **Zero**. I believe Kevin Rose started it. Okay, so I never thought that I was intermittent fasting, but in order just not to overeat throughout the day, I just wouldn't eat breakfast. Turns out, that's called intermittent fasting. That's not why I did it. This app called **Zero** is free. They have a paid version, which honestly I don't think it does anything, but the free version allows you to say when you had your last meal, and it just tells you, "Don't eat until..." In my case, it's 16 hours. It's awesome! I love it. I can't believe how that one app actually makes me want to stick to it as opposed to when I'm on my own. So that app has made a meaningful change in my day.

Shaan Puri

are you fasting you're doing 16:8 are you doing more intense than that

Sam Parr

I do 16:8. So basically, I'll stop eating at 8 PM and I'll eat again at noon.

Shaan Puri

Right, so 6 means 16 hours not eating and 8 hours eating. When you eat in your 8 hours, are you eating kale salads or do you eat whatever you want in those 8 hours? What do you do?

Sam Parr

I don't eat whatever I want I usually eat meat and vegetables that's what I I work hard to eat meat

Shaan Puri

and vegetables size or no portion sizing within that 8 hours you're fine you just eat till you're full

Sam Parr

Yeah, I practice portion control. I definitely try to eat very consciously. For sure, I aim to eat around 2,500 calories.

Shaan Puri

oh good

Sam Parr

a day

Shaan Puri

good good alright so I have anything else on 0 I think that's a that's a good one I

Sam Parr

have I tried

Shaan Puri

The app as well, I like it. It's a super clean interface. I like apps that just do one thing really well, and that's what this app does. Okay, here's an app. I think I've talked about this, but I got big into breath work. There are two apps that, if you want to have a kind of happier life, can help. There are a lot of apps that will distract you, like Instagram, TikTok, and whatever. Then there are apps that will make you more productive, but they'll distract you from the real world, like email, Slack, and maybe Twitter. Then there are apps that actually center you and ground you. My phone had enough of the distraction apps. I had enough of the productivity apps. Where I was lacking was, "Hey, how can I use this magic wand?" That's how I think of my phone. It's a magic wand. I just install an app, and that's like a spell that can do some magic. I can get food to appear at my doorstep, or I can summon a car. I can do all kinds of different crazy stuff. I can put my mom, thousands of miles away, and her face can show up on my phone. Well, this one gets me grounded. So, there are two apps I want to call out. One, I think we've talked about before, is called the 5 Minute Journal. I ended up meeting the guy who made this app. I didn't know...

Sam Parr

that was an app I thought it was a notebook

Shaan Puri

there is a note notebook and then there's the app apps I think

Sam Parr

more popular

Shaan Puri

It's a paid app. I think it's $3 or $5 or something like that, which is so funny because when I saw that, I was like, "Yeah, I don't pay for apps." I was like, "Wow, my threshold for paying for stuff on a phone is so low compared to you."

Sam Parr

know a

Shaan Puri

Parking... it's a parking meter, but I get to use this app forever that some guy created and coded to make it do all these things. So, $5. What it does is you open it up, and it basically just has a quote while it loads. It's always a good quote; they have a good selection. Then it basically says, "What are 3 things you're grateful for today?" The act of writing those down is...

Sam Parr

great this looks great

Shaan Puri

You know, not to get super cheesy, but basically, the more grateful you are, the less stressed you are. You cannot be grateful and stressed at the same time. You cannot be grateful and afraid at the same time. You cannot be grateful and angry at the same time. So, if you just want to not be any of those bad things, just focus on being grateful rather than not being whatever. It's like when you tell somebody to relax when they're really pissed off. Guess what? They don't really relax very well. So, telling somebody to not be angry or not be stressed doesn't work. But getting somebody to shift their focus to being grateful works actually really well.

Sam Parr

what questions does it ask

Shaan Puri

It just says, "What 3 things happened today that you're grateful for?" And it's today. It's things that happened today, not like, "What are 3 things in your life that you're grateful for?" You just sort of monotonously say, "My health, my family, and my friends." It's like, no! What happened today that I'm grateful for? What's a moment of today? Then it forces you to slow down time because you're like, "Shit, what did I even eat for lunch today? What did I do today?" You think of one thing and you're like, "God, there must have been something more than that that I'm grateful for." You kind of suck at it the first day, you suck at it the second day, but by the third day, something happens during the day and you're like, "Ah, I'm gonna write this in the app tonight." That's the thing! It forces you during the day to actually take note of what you're grateful for, which makes you a more grateful person. Alright.

Sam Parr

So, that's what I'm... let me just tell you something really quick. Andrew Huberman, one of the things on my list, recently had a new video come out called "The Science of Gratitude and How to Build a Gratitude Practice." Andrew Huberman was on our podcast. He's got this amazing YouTube channel where he talks about the science behind different things and how you can use it to help you. His latest topic is on gratitude. He says that he's been practicing gratitude, and I don't want to get into the science, but basically, there's something about the prefrontal cortex and how gratitude actually releases dopamine. It's proven to make you more motivated and happy. He mentioned that a lot of people, including him, did exactly what you did. He goes, "I think that works," but we have loads of studies that show that the actually slightly more effective way is to do one of two things. I believe those are: the most effective thing is that you read something that someone has written to you, where someone is expressing gratitude to you. Of course, that's not entirely practical, right? So, there are a few things that you can do. The first thing is that you can think of a story when someone was helpful to you. If you focus hard enough, it actually feels real.

Shaan Puri

yep

Sam Parr

And the second thing that my wife and I do is, every couple of days, we have a set time to sit down and say, "Here's what I'm thankful for." I'm thankful that you did this. Then, the second thing you can do is actually think of a story in which we do that.

Shaan Puri

the opposite we just say everything we hate about each other every 2 days and and then that

Sam Parr

sounds good

Shaan Puri

Then we get to get it off our chest. She loves it. She's really good at the game, and I'm getting better. It's just a good thing.

Sam Parr

It's called **The Hateful Eight**. It's just 8 minutes of hating on each other. The second thing you could do is think of a story of someone being helpful to another person. They put these guys, I believe, in an MRI and they scanned their brain while they watched a movie or a story about Holocaust survivors being helped and surviving. It changed something in their brain, and it was proven to make them more motivated and happier.

Shaan Puri

Why is that the most convincing thing ever? Everything that they're like... they did an fMRI study. They scanned people while they watched this, and the brain lights up like a Christmas tree. It's like the most... I'm just going to make that up whenever I want to be more convincing with my thing. I'm like, "Yeah, people who buy my power writing course, we've done brain scans. It shows that actually there are... you know how there's a part of your brain you can't access? With this course, you actually access it. The scans speak for themselves."

Sam Parr

I did a transcendental meditation thing, and it's like a style of meditation. I went to the seminar, and they said it's proven with brain scans to be different from mindfulness. I was like, "Really?" I mean, they're both kind of the same thing. You're being quiet and just... I don't understand how. But anyway, that's what they said. So, go ahead with your second thing.

Shaan Puri

Well, one more on that. Can we fill this thing? There's one other technique that I'll mention. It's less convenient, but when you do it, it's awesome. It's called **flooding**. Have you ever heard of this? No? Alright, flooding is when you basically create a flood of memories of great moments in your life. The easiest way to do it is to open up a photo album and flip through it, or go through your camera roll. For example, my wife and I, when we get together, we'll have our camera roll open and we'll just be showing each other photos from, you know, three years ago. "Remember that trip? Remember that day? Remember this thing we did?" We laugh about it and talk about what happened that day. If you just do that for even 10 minutes, revisiting those photos, it’s incredible. I'm not a big photo guy; I actually hate taking photos in the moment. I find it to be incredibly off-putting. My wife's the opposite; she loves taking photos of everything. But I gotta admit, this flooding technique is amazing. It works! I literally love her more after we do it because I remember all these amazing times I've had with her. I don't have to try; I just look at the photo and it's there. It's better than my imagination.

Sam Parr

so that's what you're gonna have to do today in order to get over your heartache your money loss

Shaan Puri

I know I know we'll have to figure it out

Sam Parr

one more app

Shaan Puri

One more app. The other app is called **Othership**. This just came out, and I invested in this thing because I believe in it. I struggled with meditation; it was very hard for me. Even though I was friends with the founders of **Calm** and they gave me a free account, I never really used it. I couldn't get myself to enjoy doing it. I'm the type where if I don't enjoy it, it's just very hard for me to stick with anything. I don't have enough willpower; I don't want enough willpower. I don't know what it is, but I'm not great at it. So, I wanted the benefits of meditation, but I didn't enjoy doing it. **Breathwork** has become like a revelation to me. It's a form of meditation; it's very similar but focuses on breath and a guided breathwork session. I've tried **Wim Hof** and loved it. Wim Hof has a great app too; it's a free app. **Othership** is like a souped-up version of Wim Hof. This guy, **Robbie**, created it. He's amazing at it and guides a lot of meditations himself. He built his own home oasis. He was really early at **Ethereum**; he was the first marketing guy at the Ethereum Foundation when it was like, whatever, 60 cents or some shit. So, it's just...

Sam Parr

like mega rich

Shaan Puri

So, he got, you know, even with barely putting any money in, he got kind of loaded. Then he sold some of it and was like, "Okay, I'm gonna turn like half of my... I'm gonna make this huge, like, kind of cabin out of the garage type thing, like a mega garage." He turned it into like this 20-person sauna, a cold plunge, an amazing meditation room, a greenhouse, and all this other stuff. You went...

Sam Parr

to it

Shaan Puri

No, he's invited me. It's in Canada. I haven't gone yet, but it's amazing. He hosts a lot of people there. He invited us, actually, so you're welcome to go anytime. They do guided sessions, like microdosing LSD, if you want to do that or whatever.

Sam Parr

no

Shaan Puri

He could do anything in this place. Long story short, he got really into breath work along this journey. Now, this is what he does. He's like, "I created this app. I'm going to bring breath work to the masses." I do it every morning, and it's amazing. So, that's my other ship; it's the name of the app.

Sam Parr

Alright, I dig that. I'll tell you one. There's this subreddit that I go to and I love it. It's called **Fat FIRE**. The idea is people who want to retire relatively young with a lot of money so they can live a **fat life** without working. There's this guy, and basically, if you post on there a lot, the mods, the community leaders of the subreddit, will verify your net worth to make sure you're not full of shit.

Shaan Puri

By the way, did you have a goal like this? Like, "I want to retire by X age," or "I want to be this wealthy by this age." What was your goal? How did you phrase it?

Sam Parr

I I wanted to have $20,000,000 by age 30

Shaan Puri

gotcha alright

Sam Parr

That's what I wanted. That was my goal. I created that goal when I was around 19 or 20 years old.

Shaan Puri

I mean I can't confirm or deny but you know mission accomplished is what I would say

Sam Parr

I I sold my company I I achieved it at 31 I sold my company at 31

Shaan Puri

right

Sam Parr

And so, that was my goal. I asked a rich person I knew, "How much money do you spend a month?" They told me $60,000 a month. At the time, I was like, "I don't know, I can't imagine there's a world where..."

Shaan Puri

that's absurd yeah

Sam Parr

Yeah, I'm like, that just sounds crazy, but whatever. I asked like eight people, and this person had the highest number. I was like, okay, I'll just do that because I'll be conservative. Then, if you withdraw only 3% of your $20,000,000, that gives you like $600,000 a year to spend. That's that number.

Shaan Puri

so I just fire philosophy and fire stands for financially independent retire early so that's the

Sam Parr

So, you can spend a percentage of your liquid portfolio, and basically, it continues to grow.

Shaan Puri

Have enough money so that the earnings, the sort of compounding earnings on the money being invested in something safe, like the stock market (S&P 500 type of thing), can cover your burn rate. So, there are two things that matter: what is the amount that I have invested, and what is my life burn rate? That's why a lot of people who like FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) go move to, you know, the middle of nowhere. They’re like, "Oh yeah, I got rid of my car and it's great! Now I can... I got rid of everything I own, and my wife and I only eat apple cores, and now we are retired." It's like, but **fat FIRE** is different. Fat FIRE is like, "No, I kind of want to ball out. I'm not trying to skimp on my lifestyle." So, okay, what do I need to achieve, and what do I need to optimize while still not giving up what I find to be enjoyable in terms of lifestyle?

Sam Parr

Yeah, so that's how I made up that number. I don't even spend $15,000 a month, so I don't spend even close to that, by the way.

Shaan Puri

But I saw this thing yesterday where someone was saying, "My company, here's what my company's revenues were for..." His name, I think, is Chris Cantino. It was like, "Whoa!" The company's revenues for the first seven years were something like: $0, $20,000, $50,000, $150,000, $350,000, $7,000,000, and then $21,000,000 or something like that. I'm making it up, but it's some slow build, and then suddenly things really take off. I think they sold their company, which was a soap company, for $100,000,000. I think I have that right. Is that correct? Do you know this guy?

Sam Parr

no I know who you're talking about though he he tweets great stuff you said his name right

Shaan Puri

Yeah, so, okay. He tweeted that, and it got me thinking. I was like, it's true. A lot of success, I would say, the common... you know, when success comes through the front door, this is how it arrives: slowly and then suddenly. When it rains, it pours.

Sam Parr

for sure

Shaan Puri

And when it rains, it pours. I started thinking, "Okay, is that true in my life?" I began writing down how much money I made from the age of 20 to 31 because I also got wealthy basically at 31. It was like, you know, $0, then negative $30,000 with that first startup. Then I got a job, and the job paid me $120,000. I thought I was doing great. It was $120,000, $120,000, $120,000, and then it went to $160,000. It stayed there for a bit, and then I totaled it. I said, "Wow, at age 31, I made more than the previous 11 years before that combined." This was my advice to young people: If you're going to take a nontraditional path, like entrepreneurship or betting on yourself rather than a corporate career track, you should be increasing, you know, every two years by a certain fixed percentage. That's your lifestyle. If you take the nontraditional path, trying to be a content creator, entrepreneur, or something else, it's going to be this "slowly then suddenly" path. Don't, if you're 22, count your earnings at 22, 23, or 24. You're going to check the scoreboard at age 30. That was my motto, my advice.

Sam Parr

to be or or regardless of 30 or not after like 8 or 9 years

Shaan Puri

I could give it a decade. What you need to do is total it up in 10 years: how did I do versus counting every year? Because you're going to lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, and then win big. That's often the path. So I was curious for you, if you did that. Is your path similar, or have you charted it out from your twenties to thirties? I don't know if you want to share the exact details or whatever, but...

Sam Parr

Like, yeah, I can share some. I mean, when I sold, I had saved a like 7 figures. Of course, that includes my wife and I, and she also worked at Airbnb. Airbnb went public in December, and she had worked there for a long time. Airbnb went public on December 1st, and I sold my company on February 1st. So, those 2 or 3 months were like massive.

Shaan Puri

right

Sam Parr

and so but prior to

Shaan Puri

That... ignore that. Take her out because we don't want to put her business out there. So let's just talk about you. In your early twenties, what were you making?

Sam Parr

So, from age 22 to probably 26 or 27, I paid myself something like $2 a month. In the first year of business, I probably paid myself $20,000. For the next two years, I paid myself $40,000 each year, and then $70,000 in the last year.

Shaan Puri

that was 24 k a year and then 40 k a year and then you said 70 k roughly

Sam Parr

No, it was like 20, 40, 40, 70. Yeah, so that's 4 years in. Then the year we sold, I'd paid myself close to $300,000.

Shaan Puri

right

Sam Parr

And I had a few other investments, like some angel investments and some weird things that kind of paid off. But basically, for the longest time, I was living... the way I rigged it was in San Francisco. My rent was only $400 because I rented out this big place. I only had $25 to my name, and I spent all of it to rent out and furnish this place. Then, I rented it out to people who basically subsidized it for me. So, I was living like a poor person, and I was able to save a little bit of money.

Shaan Puri

Living like a wealthy person, really. You were living in a place that was only costing you $400 a month, which is a great example, by the way. There's a lot of people that will be like, "Why do we have to sell Cisco? I can't afford it." All you're saying to me is, "I lack creativity and resourcefulness." What you did is available to everybody. Go find a place that's at market or slightly below market price. What you did, I think, is you cut a deal with the landlord. You were like, "I'll never call you for anything."

Sam Parr

yeah I told you

Shaan Puri

You cut this deal and you're like, "Look, I basically became the landlord."

Sam Parr

Well, I showed up and I was 22. It was $4,500 a month for a 4-bedroom house. He goes, "Is it just you?" I said, "Look, it's just me right now, but I'm going to get some friends to move in. I'll sign a lease, a sublease with them, and I can have you approve it, right?" But basically, I'm going to pay you on time all the time. My preferred relationship you and I have is that I never see you again. Are you okay with that?

Shaan Puri

with that

Sam Parr

And he goes, "Yeah, don't be late." I go, "Okay, deal." And we are never late. I never, one time, I’m an idiot, shot a BB gun in the toilet and it broke the toilet. So, we just went to Home Depot and bought a toilet and replaced it, you know what I mean? So, we would do stuff like that all the time.

Shaan Puri

If somebody said, "Hey, which of your friends shot a BB gun into the toilet?" I feel like I would say, "Oh, you know, Sam. Sam's a great guy."

Sam Parr

I bought, or rather, we bought an airsoft gun or something. We were like, "Let's see how strong this is," and we weren't going to shoot it in the house because it went through the couch. Anyway, it was a slow build. It took like 5, 6, or 7 years. But then what's crazy is I'm 32 now. I started hustling at age 20, probably around 20, making real money on my own—like livable money. At age 32, I'll make more this year from a couple of side investments, like a real estate deal that I did. I'll make more this year than collectively all of my salaries combined while working at the hustle.

Shaan Puri

Exactly, and that's the exact same case for me. I think that's actually really common. The reason I bring that up is because, a) it's interesting to me, and b) I think that's really comforting to people. When you're in it and you're not making any money, and it looks like other people are all making hella money, it can feel very bad. You might question if you're on the right path or not. This doesn't mean you're definitely on the right path, but it means that when this path of entrepreneurship works, that's commonly what it looks like. So, don't be surprised. Alright, so let's get back to...

Sam Parr

You know, by the way, when I was getting going, I was always so envious of other people like my friends. I'm like, "Fuck, you got a job at Google! You make $150,000 a year and you have all these benefits. I haven't been to the doctor forever." This is awesome. I'm so jealous.

Shaan Puri

So you'd come to my office and you'd be like, "Dude, this is your office?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah." And then you would be eating something, you'd be like, "Is this cheese just always available? Whose cheese is this? They just bring this cheese?" I...

Sam Parr

felt like I would bring

Shaan Puri

It up, you'd be like, "Look, this cheese is from Whole Foods. This is expensive cheese!" I'm like, "Bro, stop talking about the cheese right now." But it was like... I remember you were noticing all those things in a funny way.

Sam Parr

I was like you guys have an espresso machine

Shaan Puri

yeah he's got a woman's bathroom what the hell is it an espresso machine yeah

Sam Parr

I remember I was freaking out that you had an espresso machine. I was like, "What the hell is this?" I also remember that I used to take food to go. Anyway, it accumulated quickly. I think for most people, it's like you're poor, you're poor, you're poor, and then suddenly it's like, "Oh, holy crap, I'm not anymore." You know, you have that moment. There's this subreddit called **Fat FIRE**, and they talk a lot about that. There's this guy who has a series of threads called **Confessions of a Hectomillionaire**. He's doing like 8 parts, and I linked to it in there.

Shaan Puri

I see part 5 here yeah

Sam Parr

And the mods have basically approved it. So, the mods have this guy who DM'd him, DM'd his accountants or account information or something. They verified that he's as wealthy as he is. But basically, in the beginning thread, he says, "You know, I'm worth north of $100,000,000. I got wealthy originally because I was an employee at a tech company that made me $30,000,000, and that was like 15 years ago. Then I invested in this, and then I did this, and then I did this." I'm going to answer a lot of the questions that I think a lot of people ask here. The mods have approved that I am who I am, and I'm going to tell you all about work and purpose, my time and routine, why I keep a low profile, how relationships are complicated, what I spend on a monthly basis, and what my investment and portfolio management is. It's incredibly fascinating. I love this stuff where you get behind the scenes of people who you normally never have access to. So, it's a great series. It's a great thread. It's awesome.

Shaan Puri

Awesome! I love it. Great find! Okay, let's do some more. So, what do I want to do? Okay, let me do...

Sam Parr

you want me to do you want me to do a quick one while you're thinking

Shaan Puri

do a do a quick one

Sam Parr

Okay, and I can keep right on, so you just let me know. Alright, this is a little black hat here, but I'm going to tell you. There's this company, I think it's made by the same company, called Web Archive. It's the greatest thing ever! I love Web Archive. They have this side project called Archive Today. So, Archive.today, have you ever seen this?

Shaan Puri

yes I have seen this

Sam Parr

It is awesome! So, if you ever want to read, there are a bunch of products out there on how to access articles that are paywalled or behind some type of restriction that you can't see. There's Outline.com, which is kind of cool. There's this other one called **12 Foot Ladder**. So, it basically says, "Show me a 10-foot paywall, and I'll show you a 12-foot ladder." Brilliant, right? Genius! However, it doesn't work all the time.

Shaan Puri

the time but very well that's the problem with 12 foot yes new is online yeah

Sam Parr

Archive Today works. I've never used it and had it not work. So if you ever want to read something and you don't feel like... like you just want to read an article and not pay for it, Archive Today is the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, and the Internet Archive is just like a treasure, right? It's a nonprofit organization, and it's a great way to look up what the original version of the Airbnb website looked like. You can go to the Wayback Machine, which is something they've created, and you can type in airbnb.com. You can go back and see, "Oh wow, it used to be called Airbed and Breakfast," and it was catered toward conferences because that's how they initially got their start and blah blah blah. So, you know, the Internet Archive, which is the nonprofit behind it, is amazing. They actually bought our friend's company; they bought Xavier's book company as well because they're going to scan all the books and make them available for people and things like that. So they just...

Sam Parr

it's it's amazing you know they're based in inner sunset right where my office was

Shaan Puri

That's right, that's right. Okay, let's do some more. So I basically made a pretty big... and I think at the risk of us sounding kind of like overly obsessed with fitness, which is ironic because at least you're ripped. So I think you could get away with being obsessed with fitness. I'm not ripped yet, so it's a little bit weird when I talk too much about it.

Sam Parr

investment in

Shaan Puri

this because and your and your improvement has been

Sam Parr

massive I basically when I was on my phone weigh when we first started filming do you know I have no idea but

Shaan Puri

I basically gained like 40 or £50

Sam Parr

over the course of like my last start

Shaan Puri

up and like never lost it

Sam Parr

so you think you weighed I used to be like 250

Shaan Puri

Not 250. I think the most I ever weighed was 225, and I don't even weigh much less than that now, but it's...

Sam Parr

a different weight though

Shaan Puri

It's, yeah, it's like muscle versus fat. It's about converting, right? So, I basically ballooned up. I used to be, whatever, 175 pounds, and then all of a sudden, I'm 225 pounds. I felt really bad. You know, it's not healthy, and it doesn't look good. All this stuff. When I would see a photo of myself, I'd think, "That's a bad photo of myself." After three years, I'm like, "Hey, how come all the photos are just bad photos of me?" Oh wait, maybe I'm actually just massively out of shape here. So, I invested in basically three or four things now that have paid off. I'll tell you one that I don't think paid off. I think fitness takes a couple of things, at least for me, and that's time. I was like, "Okay, what are some things that I can do if going to the gym is taking too much time? What's a way that I can hack that?" So, first of all, I built a home gym. There's no going anywhere. But even with that, you could put a Peloton right next to me; that doesn't mean I'm going to ride it. You could put my foot in the straps; that doesn't mean I'm going to push. There were many reasons for many years that I didn't exercise regularly. One was just bringing the gym home. Then I got a trainer because I said, "Well, if some dude shows up, I'm not just going to ignore him. I'm clearly going to do the workout."

Sam Parr

I think that's the biggest thing that made a difference. I have a friend who is a wealthy guy, and he was like, "Hey, can you tell me what to do?" And I'm like, "No, man. Get a coach for like $250 a month and they'll tell you what to do. You don't think, you just do what they say." He was like, "That's really expensive." I'm like, "Dog, you live in a $4,000,000 house. Why do you... your body's your house, and you're not gonna spend $300 or something to fix it?"

Shaan Puri

Yeah, that's wild. But my dad does that. My dad's like, "Oh, you spend on this personal trainer 5 days a week? That's crazy! I have this trainer I found in India. He just does it on Zoom and he's only $4 an hour." I was like, "$4 an hour?" He's like, "Yeah, he wanted $6, but I got him down to $4." He was so proud. And I was like, "Oh, that's... I mean, that's amazing. Okay, is it good?"

Sam Parr

such an indian thing

Shaan Puri

To do... yeah, he's really good. He's really fit. No, no, I was like, "No, he's good for you." He's like, "Oh, well, I don't really do it. Like, you know, it's only $4, so I don't even mind if I skip it." I was like, "Exactly! You literally don't do it. It's not working for you. You're not exercising regularly, you're not getting in better shape, so how is it really that good?" So anyways, I invested in a bunch of stuff and I took an approach which was like the "burn the boat" strategy. First, I talked about it publicly. I talked about it publicly because if I talk about it publicly, I'm going to be humiliated. I'd feel embarrassed if I talk about this and I don't do it; I don't back it up.

Sam Parr

same I I I think that I I vouch for that

Shaan Puri

I made it super convenient. I set up a home gym and had a trainer come to my house. I paid extra to make sure that happened. Okay, so now I'm doing the workouts. Now, how do I do it where I actually enjoy it? Well, I invested in making the space nice. I went to your gym and I was like, "Wow, this feels great! I need to get a floor like this." So, I bought these rubber tiles and did a bunch of things to make the gym feel better. I also got a sound system. I made the environment one where I would not dread going there; I would enjoy it. I wanted to go there, and those were all great investments. I felt like they were great finds for me. It was like these little rubber tiles, and it took time and energy to research them. I didn't outsource this; I was like, "No, I need to find the best one because I want this to feel a certain way." I crafted that kind of vision for myself. The same thing happened when I just got a sauna. I set it up yesterday and did the first sauna session in it. I'm like, "This is amazing!"

Sam Parr

that's sick right

Shaan Puri

Already, this is one of my great purchases of the year, and I've just had it for one day. I got this Clearlight sauna, an infrared sauna. I know that some people are like, "Don't do infrared," and some people are like, "Buy this other brand instead," or whatever.

Sam Parr

no clearlight's good

Shaan Puri

Clearlight's a great brand, you know? But some people are like, "You should do the dry sauna, not the infrared." From what I could tell, it's totally fine. Importantly, it fit into my life, whereas the other one would have required a whole bunch of waiting for a bigger space, electrical work, and all these changes to be made in order to work.

Sam Parr

as long as as it can get hot enough it's good

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly. So those have been, for me, the best ones. Now, here's the worst: the worst buys, the worst things I did. Anything that I attached to my wrist has just failed. I bought an Apple Watch and lost it. Same with the Fitbit; it got stolen or lost—I don't know what happened. It was at the office and then it was gone. The second one, I bought a Fitbit and lost it. I have a Whoop band, but the battery's dead. I don't charge it regularly enough for it to be useful. So everything I've tried that's like a fitness tracker or a wearable device doesn't work for me because I'm too disorganized. I lose things and don't keep them charged and ready for the morning. Then, I had an Oura ring, and I lost that too. I have failed on like five wearables this year, so I gotta count myself out on that. Do you?

Sam Parr

wear a wedding ring

Shaan Puri

lost my wedding ring as well so that's same you know for bonus points

Sam Parr

dude I that's why I wear these like $20 rubber ones

Shaan Puri

Yeah, mine was only a $60 wedding ring anyway, so I didn't feel... I mean, the sentimental loss, yeah, but you know, I kind of knew that, "Hey, I don't know if I'm a ring guy." I never wore a ring in my life.

Sam Parr

yeah

Shaan Puri

and sure enough just taking it on and off ended up

Sam Parr

I lost mine the 1st week yeah

Shaan Puri

I lost mine on my honeymoon. The world's best husband! Alright, okay, let me give you a different one. We're going to shift to media—great podcasts, articles, YouTube channels, whatever that we really like. I have a whole category called "canceled comedians," which is like, there are a whole bunch of people whose content I love. They're canceled by, you know, society, but I still think they're just as funny as they were before everybody found out that they, you know, like to have sex with 18...

Sam Parr

year old girls

Shaan Puri

Or whatever... Like, there's this guy Chris D'Elia who got canceled, I don't know, a year ago. I found him really funny before, I find him really funny now, and he also has these little... almost like inspirational moments in between the comedy that I love. There's this video he has called "Life Rips." Have you heard this video?

Sam Parr

no but I love him

Shaan Puri

All he's saying is, like, you know, "This shit was happening in my day" or whatever. He has this phrase, **"Life rips,"** which means life is awesome. He reminds us, "Just remember, life rips." Then he tells a story—he's a great storyteller, an amazing storyteller. He shares a story about **"life rips."** It's a feel-good moment and a reminder that, actually, yeah, you're right. Instead of focusing on my problems all day, let me just focus on the fact that life actually really freaking rips. He brings this idea back as a callback in a bunch of other podcasts he does, where he'll tell a little story and say, "You know, this is a life rips moment." That philosophy has made me really happy. He also does this thing where, while recording an episode, you'll relate to this. He's kind of like a lot of great entrepreneurs and artists—sort of perfectionists in a way. They want things to go well and to create well-made stuff. So, let's say there's a technical problem. He might say, "Let's pull up that clip," and then the computer crashes, or somebody walks by and unplugs his microphone midway through, or kicks out the power cord to the lamp. Instead of getting mad in that moment, he replaces it with this thing where he just goes, **"Yes, the cord ripped out of the wall."** He'll say something like, **"Yes, we can't find the file,"** or **"Yes, dude, yes, we absolutely can't show the thing that I'm talking about."** He acknowledges the situation instead of saying, **"Oh no, this sucks,"** which is such a pattern we can fall into. I kind of stole it for my daily life. My wife hates it; she thinks it's very annoying that I do this. She doesn't understand what I'm doing; she doesn't know the reference.

Sam Parr

now she will

Shaan Puri

But, oh, she doesn't listen to the podcast either, so she probably won't. But it's such a hack, dude. It's such a hack to just, instead of letting this little inconvenience, this little thing that went wrong, mess up your mood, just rewire the response to something that's almost sarcastic. But it actually becomes real by the time you do it. Jocko, who's this guy who goes on Joe Rogan, does the same thing. He's just like a crazy, I don't know, maybe a SEAL type dude, super hardcore. His whole thing is around like, you know, pain is good. So, like, he'll be like, "Oh, you got shin splints? Good! Just run more! I love that. Just run more!"

Sam Parr

it gets me fired up

Shaan Puri

And just, he'll be like, "Oh, you know, your Uber ride didn't show up? Good time to have a hike." It's like, you know, he replaces that with "that sucks."

Sam Parr

with yeah

Shaan Puri

"Good time to get tough" or "Good, gotta go earn more money. I lost all mine." You know, whatever. It's almost comedic how extreme he is in it, but not gonna lie, this shit actually works. So that's my content recommendation.

Sam Parr

Do you have any type of cardio machine at your house? I've got a bunch, but do you?

Shaan Puri

treadmill yeah

Sam Parr

and a rower alright yeah you do have a rower

Shaan Puri

I have like a light. You have like a rower that makes you feel like you're on the Swiss Canal or whatever. I have like a rinky-dink, you know, $120 Costco rower.

Sam Parr

Alright, I don't think you're going to want to do this then. But I was going to say tomorrow, so I've been doing... I'll

Shaan Puri

do it on my shitty rower

Sam Parr

I've been doing these things where I'm like, "Alright everyone, this Sunday, 60-minute row. Post your results!"

Shaan Puri

such a in such a fitness influencer move motivating others

Ben Wilson

do you

Sam Parr

well do do you have a bike you don't have a bike

Shaan Puri

do you

Sam Parr

have a bike

Shaan Puri

I have a bicycle not like a not a spin bike I have like a

Sam Parr

It might be easier if you're doing the bike. So I'm gonna get up early tomorrow, like 7:30 or maybe 7, and I'll get this thing done. You just post your results and be like, "I just..." And so I tweeted out, I go: "Tomorrow is a 90-minute day. We gotta..." Because... and people are like, "Isn't that boring?" And I'm like, "Yes, that is the point." We should go through pain tomorrow before we get thankful.

Shaan Puri

right

Sam Parr

So, if you want to do it with me, do a 90-minute steady cardio session. 90 minutes is good.

Shaan Puri

I don't think you there to watch my kids

Sam Parr

yeah well I don't think

Shaan Puri

you excuse me 90 minute bike ride with sam

Sam Parr

Well, that's why you gotta get up really early to do it. You gotta go through some hardship. I don't think you're going to be able to run for 90 minutes, but even a brisk walk, honestly, for 90 could work. As long as your heart rate's around 140, it's fine. Alright, let me tell you about 4 or 5 bits of media quickly. The first one happened earlier this year. There's this amazing video of Rose Namajunas, this awesome UFC fighter. The reason she's interesting is that she's really quiet and introspective, and she seems like a sweetheart—not like a fighter. In this amazing video, she's about to fight this badass woman from China who just looks like the Terminator. She's repeating to herself, "I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best." When I first saw that, I teared up. It's the greatest! It pumps me up; it's amazing. The second thing is Primitive Technology, by the way.

Shaan Puri

Can I just give a recommendation there for people who don't follow the UFC? They're gonna watch this and they're gonna be like, "Whatever." You know, even if they wouldn't watch it, it wouldn't have the same emotional resonance. It resonated for you because you know how much of a terminator that other girl is. You know Rose's backstory and her struggles with anxiety. She's not a bravado type of person, so for her to say "I'm the best," it's not bravado and trash talk. It's literally self-talk so she can perform.

Sam Parr

believe it

Shaan Puri

Her best and not let anxiety get the best of her. So, you know the backstory, but I think everybody should have these go-to's... these stashes of inspiring moments that you were there for. You know the context, you know the backstory, and then you could just put it... it's like that flooding thing I was talking about earlier. You can just go back to it, and you can instantly get that feeling. You should just have a well of these [inspiring moments].

Sam Parr

Which I like. I think that people should know that, I mean, like successful people. I don't know if people consider me successful or not, but I know that way more successful people than I do this. I rely on... like I'll read a book about someone who I admire and I'm like, "How would this person react to this situation?" Totally, I do that all the time. Or sometimes I'll even do it with UFC fighters. I'm like, "This guy just got punched in the face and he got up. I can do it!" So I like that Rose Namajunas thing. The second thing is primitive technology. Have you heard of primitive technology?

Shaan Puri

no what's that

Sam Parr

Click the link, it's in there. So this guy has 10,000,000 subscribers on YouTube. In his videos, of which there are... how many are there? Maybe 50?

Shaan Puri

you've talked about this guy he's like a caveman yes

Sam Parr

So there's maybe only 20 videos, and his very first video has 31,000,000 views. It was 6 years ago, and it's him not talking, not saying a word. He's in the woods, and he's building a hut. Eventually, it works out to build like a proper house, and he does it without saying a word. He does it using only things that he finds in the woods - no power tools, no nothing. He builds a kiln, he builds a tiled roof.

Shaan Puri

So, I'm on that video. It starts as she's just panning... the camera is just panning at this spot on the ground in the middle of the forest. It's clear, like there's nothing here. [She's saying] "I'm gonna build a little hut here."

Sam Parr

Not click. Not click. Click to the end. Click to the end. He's with the end.

Shaan Puri

like a clay hut

Sam Parr

with a fireplace in there

Shaan Puri

with a fireplace and a chimney

Sam Parr

yes and the whole video he doesn't say a single word

Shaan Puri

all you do is he literally has bare hands

Sam Parr

Yes, just building it. Then he'll make a hammer out of rope, a stick, and a rock.

Shaan Puri

Do you know this guy's backstory? This guy looks just like everybody I went to Duke with. Who is this guy and why does he do this?

Sam Parr

It's in Australia, I believe, and he owns this land. If you go to his "About" page, it just says, "Where is this?" and he goes, "Queensland, Australia." Do you live in the wild? I don't live in the wild, but I love going out into the land to do these projects. Yeah, and he doesn't talk much. He doesn't do anything. His channel has gotten 1,000,000,000 views, and all he's doing is building like...

Shaan Puri

dude why

Sam Parr

is it another one

Shaan Puri

I'm watching him make fire. He's just rubbing his hands together like this, with a stick in between, and he just made a fire while you were talking.

Sam Parr

it's so relaxing it's so awesome I love it so do you I love it

Shaan Puri

Honestly, do you actually want... Because I see this and I'm like, "This is so cool," and I'll click through one, and then I'll be like, "Oh, this is just something I'm gonna go tell other people about." I don't... I would never actually sit here and watch this for 30 minutes a month.

Sam Parr

I've watched all of them do you have apple do you have apple tv

Shaan Puri

no I don't but you do

Sam Parr

It's in the background, so my version of TV is YouTube. First thing when I sit down on the couch, I go straight to YouTube and I'll just watch like a 30-minute video. This is like that TV show... How stuff's built. Do you remember that?

Shaan Puri

yeah but you do it in the background or you actually just watch pay attention to them

Sam Parr

Yeah, maybe I'll like be talking to Sarah or cooking... I'm like, "Oh my God, wait! Watch this! Look what he's doing!" Yeah, maybe it's in the background. I mean, do you...? I don't actually sit down and really watch TV unless it's a movie.

Shaan Puri

or the challenge

Sam Parr

or the challenge

Shaan Puri

okay so so this is amazing okay primitive technology I love it

Sam Parr

Let me keep going. I'm gonna roll... Okay, the third one: "**How to Be Great: Just Be Good Repeatedly**." This is an article by Steph Smith, who works for me. There are two reasons why I love this article: 1. It has one of the best headlines I've ever read. [The speaker continues to list reasons, but the transcript ends here]

Shaan Puri

yes it

Sam Parr

Is a wonderful headline. She writes this article about how great things rarely are. You're like trying to be great; it's more so just about being kind of good but doing it consistently. In my life, I have found that with this podcast and a bunch of other stuff, I'm like, "I don't want to do this today." It's like, "Alright, fine, I'm gonna do it anyway." Even though I know today I'm not going to do a good job of it, I'm just going to get it done. She does a really good job of articulating why that works, so I love that article. Alright, I'm going to keep going. The next one, there's this guy who's got a YouTube channel called "More Plates More Dates."

Shaan Puri

yeah I watch this guy

Sam Parr

He is amazing. He looks at pro athletes and actors, and he's a... I guess he's a... I think he's a doctor. I don't know what his background is. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and he tells you what steroids he thinks different people are on.

Shaan Puri

I watch these and every time I do, I regret it so much. I'm like, "What a waste of my life I just did." But he comes up on my feed and I'm like, "Oh, I know that person." Yeah, are they on steroids? And then like 30 minutes later, I'm like, "I cannot believe I've let this be in my brain for the last 30 minutes. What a waste of my brain."

Sam Parr

It's interesting though, because he'll explain the science behind it. He's like, "A lot of people think that this athlete is doing EPO. You wouldn't do EPO because the way that your body works is this, this, this, and this." And he... so it's kind of interesting. He goes, "But you would do HGH because the way HGH works is..." It's proven to do... so it's like a science. It's interesting. Alright, and then they'll...

Shaan Puri

gossip but yeah there's a little bit of science

Sam Parr

It's gossip from a person who I believe is reputable—not in having firsthand knowledge of the people, but in having firsthand knowledge in doping. The final thing I found is this book. It has only two reviews on Amazon; it's amazing! Apparently, in the foreword, they say it's one of the most popular books in Russia, but I didn't know that. They translated it into English. So, these two journalists from the USSR in 1933 made a deal with the U.S. government that they would let them come in and spend three months doing a road trip. They saved up a little bit of money, came here, bought a camper van, and spent three months traveling America, talking to people. They had nothing to do really; they just wanted to learn about America. From an outside perspective, they show what makes America special, and it's incredibly fascinating because we take a lot of things for granted. They criticize America, and this is in the 1930s, so this is particularly true. They criticize our race relations and things like that, saying, "This is crazy how people treat each other." But there is a lot of good. They say there's something about Americans that they've never seen before, which is that they always think they are going to overcome any adversity. They are always optimistic about situations. Also, oddly, they are friends with their bosses. They work together to achieve things, and you can be friends with your boss; you don't have to hate them or want to rob from them. It's a wonderful book, written in the 1930s. It's awesome! The book is called *Little Gold in America*.

Shaan Puri

nice that's great you've read you've read the whole thing

Sam Parr

I've, yeah, I'm finishing it up now. I actually posted a link on my Twitter where it's free, like a PDF.

Shaan Puri

Okay, cool. I like that. I have a couple of quick ones. So, a Chrome extension that I'm liking a lot is called **Everyday**. It's basically a habit tracker. If you go to the website, I think it's called **everyday.app**. Let me just find it... Basically, you just say what you want to do. For me, for example, I have a morning routine, I have "clean lunch," "clean dinner," I have a workout, and I have my gratitude thing.

Sam Parr

I have cool

Shaan Puri

That's it. So, basically, what it does is it lets you create a streak. You just say, "Yes, I did it this day," or "I intentionally skipped it," or "I missed." It keeps track of your streaks and creates this awesome green grid. As you do your habits, you get this really satisfying completion of your grid being green. It just shows, "I'm doing the things I said I wanted to do," which for me, and most people, is the challenge. All of the challenge is not, "Oh, I don't know what to do." It's, "I'm not doing the stuff I know I should do." This is just a great tool. I think it's great because it's a Chrome extension, so it's in your face. You don't have to remember to check it. Every time you open a new tab in your browser, it's going to remind you, "Oh yeah, I could knock that out right now." You know, "Yeah, I could actually just do that right now and get it done." I actually have my own Chrome extension, and I've replaced it with this one. That's how good it is. So, you know, this is one of my favorite tools.

Sam Parr

downloading it now

Shaan Puri

Okay, let me give you a couple other things that I think are really cool. You showed me this Camo - it's an app for your iPhone. Now, we spent a lot of money and time... you may not be able to tell right now because we're both not in our main studio, or I'm not in my main studio. You're in a different spot.

Sam Parr

I look good

Shaan Puri

I don't you're traveling

Sam Parr

no I'm not traveling look

Shaan Puri

I'm sorry you've been traveling, so we... you know, on different videos we have different levels of quality or whatever. But we did the... we both tried on our own, and then we hired people to like, "Hey, how do we go get that fancy-ass blur and like super HD video?"

Sam Parr

it's so hard

Shaan Puri

And they're like, "Oh, you gotta buy this Canon." Which one? 50D? 40D? 60D? 7D? Which "D" do I buy? Okay, I'll get this one. Oh, then I need some kind of cord or like a capture card. How am I gonna do that?

Sam Parr

it's it's just so much try paying the

Shaan Puri

Paid a butt for batteries. Oh, but the battery's going to die during the episode, so you have to actually get a double battery or a dummy battery. It's a pain in the ass. The camera itself was like $1,500 or something like that, so it's really expensive. And you were like, "Oh dude, I'm just using this iPhone app called Camo." You just download the app, and then it uses the native iPhone portrait mode to make your camera look good. You were like, "Look, I'm just using my phone. I look just as good as you." This is just baked in. Actually, I think they... I don't think you even need this anymore, but for now, if I'm wrong about that, iOS...

Sam Parr

mean it's coming out soon

Shaan Puri

In the new iOS, it's going to be part of the native camera, so you don't need an app to do this, I think.

Sam Parr

you mean but one coming out soon or one out now

Shaan Puri

I don't know how soon something like that will happen, but in the meantime, this app, Camo, is kind of amazing. It's a great business by whoever is doing this and has amazing timing because the whole world went remote and everybody wants to look good. So that's definitely one of the best products.

Sam Parr

The analogy we made, or someone made, is having camo... It's like in the '70s, '80s, '90s when it mattered that you wore a suit. Having a camo is like showing up in a meeting in a nice suit.

Shaan Puri

Exactly, exactly. So, I think that's a great product. Okay, I'm going to give you a YouTube channel. So, you did "More Plates More Dates." The binge I've been on is kind of embarrassing; it's these old school direct sales seminars. I'm like, okay, how do I... I don't know why I like this. I'm not even doing anything that has direct sales. There's not a product I sell that's direct sales. I'm not a salesman; I've never been one. But I'm just fascinated with the art of persuasion and sales.

Sam Parr

which ones

Shaan Puri

and so so there's a couple that are really good last night like for example I fell asleep last night while listening to it if you just search tony robbins sales rare and it's like there's 2 there's one where he explains how he sold how he got his career started he doesn't talk about this much he got his career started selling audio cassettes like music music tapes to people you know to to people and he would do these like you know he'd go and and he's like yeah like the way we would do it is a woman would reach out to the potential customer and they would say we'd love to have we'd love to give you a free gift and we'd love to tell you a little bit about our company and then it'd be like free gift he said yeah it's a free gift it's usually worth about $100 and we'd love to give it to you and you know if you'll if you'd meet with our our person and then tony was that person and he would be like he would walk through the step by step thing and he'd be like I would say this and why am I saying that I'm saying that because blah blah blah here's the thing about how people buy he's like and he's got his whole philosophy and he even says in this thing he's like you know would I do this now no because I feel like it's a little too pushy but I'm always the type where I wanna know what's the real potent shit that works I wanna know the borderline illegal version of sailing and persuasion and then it's up to me to decide am I gonna keep the knob on level 12 or do I wanna turn it down to 9 but I don't wanna looking at this I don't wanna be at level 6 because I was too afraid to ever find out what is what is maximum persuasion look like you know what is what's the channel called I I just look at the individual videos there's not any channel so like I'll look up gary halpert rare or gary halpert 19 eighties or gary halpert original seminar tony robbins young tony robbins rare tony robbins original seminar tony robbins direct sales tony robbins infomercial and I'll go either I'll just find their material and I'll deconstruct it myself like what's working like we had craig clemens on and craig clemens comes on the podcast and he's a friend of ours and he's doesn't he he's a great person on the pod but he doesn't go first he doesn't talk a lot about his company so he's got golden hippo they've sold like over you know I think he sold over a $1,000,000,000 worth of product in his lifetime and golden hippo will do you know over a $100,000,000 in sales but it's like hey what golden hippo's a holding company what are the companies underneath he doesn't really like go list list out the 13 companies or whatever however many there are underneath it and nobody really pushes him for that and he's kind of like at the made it stage now but his he got a start early on doing sales for a guy who's like a dating coach and it was like

Sam Parr

I bought that done on the

Shaan Puri

Dating and, like, how to... basically, it's all different titles that all mean how to get laid. If it was a wife, it was like "how to get the man of your dreams," "how to get a husband," or whatever. I find these old interviews or seminars he did with that guy, Eben Pagan, and I'll go watch those. I'll see, "Oh, interesting," he's talking about this headline he wrote and why this headline is amazing, and why he thinks it worked. Then there's this other one and why it totally didn't work and what he learned from that. I just find these to be like... it's like puppy chow to me. I just can't stop consuming it, even though I really have no direct use for it. I just love it.

Sam Parr

So, I'll tell you guys listening... Gary Halbert. Gary Halbert's this guy who died somewhat recently from just like a heart attack or something. He was an amazing copywriter, and he might have died in prison or soon after. He was in prison for a handful of years because he sold something [illegal or fraudulent].

Shaan Puri

ironically that's the guy I wanna learn from

Sam Parr

yes and the world famous guy took

Shaan Puri

It’s too far. Like, he pulled the ball straight. I’ll go learn from him. I’m not going to take it as far, but I want to learn from that person.

Sam Parr

I think he went to prison for mail fraud or something like that. Basically, people bought stuff, and he just didn't fulfill it. He was just like, "I sold it, and I just lied." That's obviously wrong, but you can learn a lot from him. He's got these amazing things called the "Boron Letters." Sorry, they're the Boron Letters, and they're all free. If you Google "Gary Halbert Boron Letters," you can find them for free. It's a series of letters that he wrote to his son Bond from prison, and he teaches him everything he knows about life and selling. Yes, and they're amazing! So, you can go read it.

Shaan Puri

... to them all by hand because I was just so... And you're gonna read it and you're gonna be like, "Why would you... Why is this so good?" It's so good. If you know why it's so good, it's almost like that. It's like... it's not... no...

Sam Parr

it's clearly good like you start you fall down like his slippery slope you're like why is this so interesting

Shaan Puri

well you're

Sam Parr

why do I wanna keep reading this

Shaan Puri

Exactly. You don't know. It's not like... it's not a window; it's what I'll call a door, not a window. A window of opportunity is one where you look right in and you can see what's in it for you. You're like, "Oh, okay." For example, let's say you wanted to get better at copywriting. The thing is not called "How to Get Better at Copywriting," and then he doesn't say, "Here's 5 copywriting techniques." No, he actually writes these as letters to his son. He shows you great copywriting and then sprinkles in lessons as he goes. But it doesn't come until like letter 5 or whatever. It takes you... you're just interested, you're hooked, and you don't know why. That's the technique. Then you gotta figure out, "Why is this so damn good? What is it about this writing style that's so slippery that I just can't get out of it?" You know, it's like a TikTok feed; I can't get out of it. So I would say it's more like a door where you kinda gotta go knock and take a leap of faith that there is something on the other side of this. You can't see exactly what you're gonna get until the door opens.

Sam Parr

Yeah, this is a winner. Alright, well, I think we just laid out a ton of interesting stuff. Ben, are you there?

Shaan Puri

And by the way, we should put links to as much of these as we can in the show notes. I'm also going to send out a newsletter just summarizing these on my weekly newsletter at champpery.com. Because I think these are actually really good, but for most people listening to this, it's probably really hard to be like, "What am I supposed to do? Write these down and then go Google all these different things these guys are talking about?"

Sam Parr

yeah well good

Shaan Puri

you need the links

Sam Parr

what do you think ben

Ben Wilson

Yeah, it's going to be great! At the bottom of the show notes, we'll just put a long list of all the links so people can find everything. This is awesome!

Sam Parr

we're just spewing cool products that we consume

Shaan Puri

By the way, I... there's... I have half... You told me about this 2 minutes ago, or you told me before but I was busy. I learned about this premise 2 minutes before the show, and I actually still have like 5 things that we didn't even get to. I know you have like 10 things we didn't even get to, so we may want to do... if people like this, we may want to do one more of these.

Sam Parr

I like it and the.

Ben Wilson

Oh, this is supposed to be a Thanksgiving special, right? So you guys are just... if you're full of turkey, you're sitting on your couch, you've got some time on your hands. You can just start clicking through all these links, check out all this stuff, buy some stuff, watch some things, have a good time.

Sam Parr

I think it's mostly free stuff by the way that we mentioned

Shaan Puri

Yeah, a lot of it is free or very cheap. Ben, I love that sales pitch! That was great. Who... have you been watching these videos too? Are we sharing YouTube accounts? What's going on?

Ben Wilson

yeah I just had to step up my game after you're talking about all this copywriting and sales stuff

Shaan Puri

that's the mormon in you you guys are natural salespeople you guys are the the world's greatest salespeople

Sam Parr

I get will mormon jokes ever get old

Shaan Puri

no probably not

Ben Wilson

Some stereotypes are... We have so few stereotypes we're allowed to access these days that when there is one that feels like it's okay, you just gotta hit it over and over again.

Sam Parr

good I'm down well thank you alright I'm out I gotta go meet my family see you happy thanksgiving

Shaan Puri

yeah you too