How Twitch Streamers Are Making $18,000,000+/Year

Sam Parr

This one streamer who we're talking about what's his name

Shaan Puri

xqc in this case

Sam Parr

how much money does he make

Shaan Puri

He probably makes between, I want to say, $3 to $10 million a year. No way, really? Yeah, probably $5 to $10 million is an easy estimate. $10 million, man, that's not even the upper bound. These guys can make much more than that, maybe up to $20 or $25 million if they are maxing out their stuff. But they don't always want to do that. I thought, because I used to negotiate with these guys. So, you know, even before Twitch, when I was just trying to get them to promote our products, it's like, "Alright, I'm going to talk to the streamer." Like, "No, you don't get to talk to the streamer. You talk to the manager." Okay, fair, that's fine. They're stars, I get it. Alright, who's the manager? Is it like, you know, CAA or WME? And for 95% of them, it's like, "Oh..."

Sam Parr

it's like his little brother ray ray

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly. It was his girlfriend or, you know, exactly, it's Ray Ray or like, "Hey, Jenny." So, how long have you guys been working together? It's like, well, we moved in together when we were 16. Then, he didn't do anything for 5 years. He just played video games all the time. And now he's rich, so I quit my job to check his...

MFM Listener

email

Sam Parr

This is like the shirt. It's like the... it's like the Gen Y or Gen X, whatever the... what are the young people now called? What are the young... what are the...

Shaan Puri

what are the

Sam Parr

Young people called "Z"—it's like Gen Z. It's like the "behead Tommy Bahama" of Gen Z.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I was literally about to start with the shirt, so you're onto something. What kind of brand is that?

Sam Parr

scotch and soda

Shaan Puri

Yeah, dude, Scotch and Soda crushes it! They really crushed it. I went shopping this weekend at Union Square in San Francisco, and two guys walked into the elevator with their Scotch and Soda bags. They were so happy! It's like shopping makes people really happy. I think that's an underrated part of shopping—how happy it made them. It was two guys, and they were talking to each other about their shopping experience. I would say I've never experienced that: me and another dude, first of all, going shopping together, and secondly, after shopping, not just being like, "Alright, it's done, whatever," and not even talking about it anymore. One guy said, "Yeah, I'm really happy with the color," and the other guy replied, "Yeah, the color's sick." I was just in the elevator with them, and I was like, "Is that moss green?"

Sam Parr

that's hilarious dude skyjet sew is awesome you shop there

Shaan Puri

No, I didn't shop there. I was shopping for my wife, but it's in the same area or whatever.

Sam Parr

like wait you were shopping for her

Shaan Puri

Like with her, she wanted to go buy... I told you she was trying to buy a designer bag. Which, by the way, the whole experience is crazy. Have you ever done that? Have you ever gone to like... yeah?

Sam Parr

bullshit you gotta make an appointment

Shaan Puri

Yeah, well now they... it's like a restaurant basically. They... you go, you put your name down, they're like, "We'll text you to get in." Like, you can't just walk into the store. And we go in, and it's like... I've got two babies and a dog with me, so I'm already like... [implying: "You brought your...?"]

Sam Parr

dog to a louis vuitton store

Shaan Puri

yeah and it's a my stroller has 2 children and a dog

Sam Parr

they're probably like sir you can't come in here you have to leave the kids outside

Shaan Puri

They straight up... I don't even think they saw the dog because the dog's so small and so quiet compared to the kids. They're like, I think that just got lost in the shuffle. Otherwise, they for sure would have kicked me out. But we were like, "Hey, you know, we're here, we're here," and they were just like, "Okay, why are you so loud?" It's like, alright, let's do this. I was so excited just because I was like, "Alright, whatever, make this an experience." Then, like 5 minutes in, I became... I went in with the best intentions. I was like, "I'm gonna make this a great experience for my wife. She wants this. I'm gonna not just play along, I'm gonna be along. I'm gonna sing along with this." Then, like literally 5 to 15 minutes in, I was just like, "Alright, just pick one. It's a small one or the big one. I don't know which one you like, just pick the one you like." You're such...

Sam Parr

You're such a redneck! You're like, "We're here," and then like 5 minutes in, we were like, "Hey, do you guys sell me like a lemonade or a turkey?"

Shaan Puri

leg or anything

Sam Parr

I was like

MFM Listener

I was

Sam Parr

like oh

Shaan Puri

They used to offer snacks. Do you guys still do that? And they were like, "We've never done that, sir." I was like, "Alright, where's the shot?" Then, like, there were no Cheez-Its. There was a section for the purses that's like 5 stairs up, but I got a stroller too.

MFM Listener

children and a dog as you remember so I was like y'all got an elevator

Shaan Puri

and it's like all like y'all got an elevator it's like 3 stairs

MFM Listener

and they were like

Shaan Puri

they were like

MFM Listener

yeah there is like a wheelchair lift over here I'm not sure

Shaan Puri

If your wagon will fit, but... Then I got stuck in the wheelchair lift going up a 4-foot rise. I got stuck, and then I realized I'm not stuck. I just push the door and it opens. Nobody was on the other side to open the door; it wasn't automatic either.

Sam Parr

dude you're the indian curb your enthusiasm

Shaan Puri

Yeah, that's exactly how I felt. Oh dude, somebody said this the other day. They go, "I was in LA or whatever, near New York somewhere, and Larry David was there at a driving range playing golf." And they were like, "It was like some hole in the wall, not like a nice one."

MFM Listener

they're

Shaan Puri

Like, why does Larry David go there? He's like, "Oh, it's near where he lives or something," so he just popped over. It's like 2 PM on a Tuesday; he just wanted to hit some balls. I overheard him, and nobody even pays any attention. You know, it just looks like an old guy; nobody knows who he is. He's talking to the lady who sells the balls. The balls are $11, and he's like, "Why does this have to be $11?" They're like, he was negotiating the price or complaining about it. He's like a super rich guy. It's not the price; $11. Now I gotta have a 10, but a 10 is not enough. If you made a 10 one bill, we're done. Now I gotta give you a 20. Now what are you gonna give me? Five and then four ones? What am I gonna do with these ones? It's like an actual "Curb Your Enthusiasm" skit.

Sam Parr

I would definitely like that in real life, for sure. Alright, since we're talking about entertainment and content, I have to tell you about two different things. So we're gonna call this segment "I'm Happy Freaks Exist." Here's the craziest content that I've consumed this weekend: Have you heard of the show? No? Yeah, no... definitely not. Have you seen the show called "Naked and Afraid"?

Shaan Puri

I've heard of it, but I have not watched it. It's like, it's the craziest thing, right? Or you're naked and...

MFM Listener

not on

Sam Parr

The island is worse than that. So, what they do is take two strangers and drop them off in the jungle, in South Africa or Asia. I don't even know where the exact locations are; it's all over the world, but in remote, remote locations. Oftentimes, these places are like 110 degrees during the day and 50 degrees at night, so you're freezing. They take two strangers and put them in this area. They give them nothing. Sometimes, if the water's really bad, they'll give them just an empty pot and a machete. That's basically it. They make the two strangers meet and work together to survive for 21 days, and they're completely butt naked. They're not wearing anything; they're entirely naked. They've got to spoon at night to stay warm, otherwise they're going to shiver.

Shaan Puri

it usually not like 2 dudes 2 women mixed what are we doing

Sam Parr

Usually, it's like a man and a woman, but then they throw in curveballs. For example, they had this guy who I think was from Australia, and they played him out like he's this redneck hick guy from Australia. Then, the woman is a transgender person, and they set it up to ask, "How is this conservative guy going to feel about this?" He was totally accepting. The whole show was about how, you know, it's okay; everyone is unique. He was totally kind, and it was like, "Oh man, he's breaking the stereotypes." They hugged it out and said, "We'll protect one another; we're a team." That's just one of the many ways the show is amazing. They're doing this together, and it's ridiculous. It's the hardest thing I've ever seen, and I don't think they get paid a cent. You have to watch this show; it's ridiculous!

Shaan Puri

and so they have to survive for how long

Sam Parr

21 days

Shaan Puri

21 days and so what are they doing they're going and hunting or they're just like eating

Sam Parr

Like, they're usually like, "We have to make shelter." They're like, "We have to go figure out how to make a fire." Sometimes it's in a rainforest and it's raining, and they're like, "I don't know how we're gonna stay warm. We're not gonna eat." So sometimes they won't eat for days. In one episode, a guy made a bow and arrow and shot a bird, and it was awesome. In another episode, a guy tried to go and wrestle a crocodile to bring back and eat. Oftentimes, I've noticed another trait: usually the women are way tougher and way calmer—significantly. The men come out all aggressive, like, "This is gonna be awesome," and they're trying to cheer the women on, like, "Let's do this." Then they get worn out after seven days and they bail, while the woman just stays by herself and does it. So usually, it seems the women are mentally stronger. It's amazing. It's a wild show. I cannot believe that people do this.

Shaan Puri

Okay, that's amazing. What does that have to do with the... you put a tweet in here also next to it? That's completely unrelated, but I guess it's under the theme of "I'm glad that freaks exist."

Sam Parr

the second thing there's this guy what's his name is his name felix

Shaan Puri

felix

Sam Parr

what's the url of his website do you know is it like felix dot today

Shaan Puri

how is felix dot today

Sam Parr

So, this freaking guy, for 8 years, tracked 100 different parts of his life. I have a list up. He tracked the easy ones like weight, steps, and diet. But then he tracked his mood, his stress, and he used an app called RescueTime. This app tracks which programs he was using on his computer, how much time he spent on his cell phone, his mood, his energy, his sleep, how many texts he sent that day, how often he talked to friends, if he was more productive in the evening or during the day, if he took any drugs, what city he was in, what the weather was, how hungry he felt, if he felt lethargic, and if he felt stressed. What else did he track? It was just so much stuff! He had 30, 40, or even 50,000 data points. It was all done in an engineer-like way where he could say, "Well, I was 46% more likely to say I felt sad if I didn't see a friend in the trailing 3 days." Can you read out some of the findings he mentioned?

Shaan Puri

So, like, for example, how does longer sleep duration affect my day? It's like if I have, let's see, more than 8 and a half hours of sleep. Okay, I think he means less here, but he's 65% more likely to have cold symptoms, 60% more likely to have a headache, and he uses social media 40% more when he's sleep deprived. It's also 30% more likely to be a rainy day. That's interesting... yeah, crazy stuff! Additionally, he's 20% less likely to hit the gym. Actually, no, regarding longer sleep duration, this is so... I didn't read it wrong. He's saying if I sleep more than 8 and a half hours, all those things are true, which is great.

Sam Parr

Read... read another one. Read some of the other ones. It's pretty amazing what you found, but then... air.

Shaan Puri

Air quality in various rooms... I'm not even going to read what goes beyond that, but just measuring the air quality is crazy. Wow, this is wild! I've been scrolling for like the entire time you were talking, and I'm halfway through this guy's findings.

Sam Parr

this guy's a

Shaan Puri

knight is he okay

Sam Parr

he's at knight this guy's a freak

Shaan Puri

The funny thing is, he tracked everything. I'm like, "Is this guy okay?" I don't think he's okay. I need an answer. It just starts at the top: Is he okay? And actually, it says Felix feels alright and updated 1 hour ago.

Sam Parr

and it says what city he's in it's amazing

Shaan Puri

This first little table is nice: weight, height, sleep. Then it goes to "last meditated 41 days ago," "inbox 20 emails," and "personal to-do lists 179 tasks." Wow!

Sam Parr

it's pretty wild

Shaan Puri

is is a sleeping heart rate 4:59 beats per minute

Sam Parr

So if you scroll all the way to the bottom, he's got one sentence that kind of summarizes this. He says (do like a Control... my computer's not working) but if you do like a Control+F for "build" or something like that, you might find it where he says: > Basically, building this and having all this information... I'm happy I did it because it's just like a fun way for me to nerd out, but it was not beneficial and it doesn't make sense for anyone else to do this.

Shaan Puri

So, you were saying the main conclusion is that it is not worth building your own solution and investing this much time. That's regarding building your own solution. I'm very happy that I built this project in the first place. It gave me a much better awareness of everything going on in my life. I'm excited to have built this website to wrap up this project and showcase some outcomes. So, he's done this for 8 years, you said? Yeah, wow.

Sam Parr

amazing right

Shaan Puri

Yeah, truly amazing! How'd you find this guy on Twitter? How is Felix Dott today? If you want to go check it out.

Sam Parr

it's nice it's amazing

Shaan Puri

he's actually pretty nice I'm not gonna lie

Sam Parr

it's awesome it's totally unnecessary and absolutely amazing

Shaan Puri

I would like to have this if I could just do no work or, you know, touch a button once every 5 hours. I'm down to do that, but I don't want to remember to log all this stuff.

Sam Parr

His story is incredibly interesting. I researched a lot about him because I thought he was amazing. He said he moved... where does it say where he's from? Is he from Vienna or somewhere like that? Yeah, he moved to San Francisco in 2015 to work at Twitter. After a year, he was like, "You know, I don't really like having an apartment. I'm only going to live in an Airbnb in San Francisco." Then he decided, "I'm just going to leave San Francisco." So for the past seven years, he has only owned a suitcase, I think, and that's how he's been living.

Shaan Puri

Good for him! I like it. I like the segment too. I'm glad that freaks exist. Can I tell you about another freak?

Sam Parr

yeah

Shaan Puri

Alright, Elon Musk. So, this is not actually about Elon; this is about his wife. Have you ever stumbled down the rabbit hole that is Justine Musk on Quora?

Sam Parr

She talks a lot of crap. She airs out a lot of their issues. It sounds like Elon didn't treat her wonderfully, and she lets the world know. She airs out their laundry.

Shaan Puri

Well, I don't know. I don't know about all that. What did she do that aired out his laundry? I'm not sure that that's true.

Sam Parr

She said that he was driven and everything, but she also mentioned, "I don't want to exactly paraphrase; I don't remember entirely." I remember she gave a TED Talk and on Quora, she said, "Yeah, it's just like living with him was horrible because he wasn't there. We were all like second and third place to his work."

Shaan Puri

yeah yeah but I

Sam Parr

so she says things that you would

Shaan Puri

That's not Aaron out of "Tears of Laundry." I don't know, it just comes... that's common sense almost. He's had like three wives; I'm pretty sure something's not great about the experience. Otherwise, you know, it may have lasted longer. But dude, I find her Quora to be fascinating. She has... that's awesome! And it's not all just, "Oh, let me tell you about Elon Musk." It's like, you know, she answers questions about a bunch of stuff. She's done it for... I don't know how long.

Sam Parr

think she's an author

Shaan Puri

7 years yes so she's an author she's very smart

Sam Parr

smart novelist

Shaan Puri

And so, she answers some questions. I will give you a couple of the answers that she provided. Somebody asked, "How can I be as great as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or Richard Branson?" Let me find her answer.

Sam Parr

have you been watching the johnny depp trial

Shaan Puri

a little bit dude it's wild

Sam Parr

so good it's so good it's so exciting

Shaan Puri

Why are people so fascinated by this? Okay, you want to know another "freaks exist" moment? Go to this Instagram account. Before I even go back to this Justine Musk thing, this is crazy and also kind of interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that this is a thing, but go to the Instagram account that's called... what is it called? "House in Habit" or something like that. It's called "House in Habit." So this person, Jessica Reid Kraus—wow, what are the odds? Both of them, Felix Krauss and Jessica Krauss, maybe they're married? These two freaks! So, she lives in Southern California and she calls herself the "Queen of the Carpool," the "Hollywood Philosopher," with stereotypical Scorpio tendencies. Then she puts her Venmo on here just to give you a quick sense of what we're dealing with, okay?

Sam Parr

so what's a scorpio I don't understand what that reference

Shaan Puri

Just out of all the LA things, it's like, you know, "Here's my favorite crystal, here's my horoscope, here's my Venmo, and here's my casting tape." So, alright, she basically covers the trial, like Hollywood gossip, but in the craziest amount of detail you'll ever see. Look at her follower count; she's got **850,000 followers** as just an independent person. She's been posting every day about the trial. If you go click her story, there are like 50, maybe more—oh my god, 80 story frames, right? She edits it like crazy; it's insane. Today is not a good one because there wasn't a trial thing, but if you click like 10 in, it'll be like she'll cut a little clip of Johnny walking in, and then there's music she overlays. Then there's a little thing that she cuts in from this news clip from Fox, and she adds on top of that. Then she transcribes a whole bunch of stuff and puts the transcript there. Then she does the background research. I know several people who are following the whole trial. They don't watch a single minute of the trial; they don't read the news. They just follow it through her story because it is so crazy in-depth and somewhat addictive and entertaining. At first, when the first person told me, I was like, "Okay, that's weird, whatever. You got into something weird." Then I heard it again, and I was like, "You also follow that random person?" And they're like, "Yeah, it's great." Then I looked them up, and she has **850,000 followers**. I was like, "Holy shit, this is crazy!" This is like one of those niches that you wouldn't even really know exists, but of course, it exists, and of course, it's a big deal. It basically takes the tabloid and repackages it. From a tabloid into like any individual person's Instagram can become the juiciest tabloid in the world if you just put in the effort, and she puts in mad effort.

Sam Parr

What she just covered... I was looking at her stories. There was a guy a couple of days ago who looked like he was dressed to be a waiter at a restaurant. He couldn't be at the trial, so he was on Zoom, sitting in his car. He had his camera on him and he starts vaping during the call. You see him take a hit of the vape and exhale all this smoke while he's sitting in his car, waiting for the judge to ask a question. Then it's clear that he has to go, so he starts driving out of the parking lot while vaping and answering the call. He's like, "Alright, you guys good? Did I answer everything? Alright, I gotta go." He's just vaping while driving away during this trial. But alright, what about Justine?

Shaan Puri

Okay, so Justine Musk... somebody asked, "Will I become a billionaire if I'm determined to be one and I put in the necessary work?" Her first answer was, "No." One of the qualities of a self-made billionaire is their ability to ask the right questions. That is not the right question. It's not to say it's a bad question; it just won't get you to the part of your mind that's working to help you and mulling things over while you're doing other things and sending up flares of insight. You're determined, so what? You haven't been racing naked through shark-infested waters yet. Will you be determined when you wash up on some deserted island, disoriented, bloody, ragged, beaten, staring off into the horizon with no sign of rescue? She goes through and says, "The world doesn't throw a billion dollars at a person because they want it or because they work so hard and feel they deserve it. The world does not know or care what you want or deserve. The world gives you something in exchange for what it perceives to be of equal or greater value." Anyway, the long story short was, no, a billionaire doesn't come on Quora and ask these types of questions. If you just go through and deep dive into her responses on Quora, it's a fun 20-minute read. I think you get little snapshots into somebody who knows Elon Musk really well and has been around someone like him—kind of like the greatest entrepreneur and inventor of our lifetime. This person knows him from a different angle, but they're also smart and objective. They're not a fanboy nor a hater. It's someone I actually kind of respect and believe their opinion on these things. Obviously, everybody's got their bias, but with Elon Musk, it’s normally 100% fanboy or 100% hater or just completely uninformed. This is none of the above; this is something else—this is informed.

Sam Parr

are there any other good ones

Shaan Puri

That she's written up, yeah. There's a bunch that are just on... So I started with the Elon ones, and then it'll be like, you know... "Should I... how should I break up with my girlfriend?" It's like, let's see what she has to say about that. You just read, you know, her kind of take on philosophy. I don't know, she's a fascinating character. The other one is Grimes just did a podcast with Lex Fridman. I don't know if you saw that.

Sam Parr

I heard about it

Shaan Puri

So, Elon's current... I don't know if they're married, girlfriend, or something like that. Baby mama? I think they've had two babies together, but they're not married or something like that. They're not together anymore. She did a podcast, and you could definitely see how these people would get along. She even talks like Elon in this kind of slow, measured, weird, like finality type of way of speaking. But she was talking about, you know, how to raise kids or, you know, those... like, what do you think about free speech on Twitter or something like that? Lex tried to ask her, and she's like, "I do not think I should have an opinion on this." And he's like, "Oh my god!" which is such an Elad thing to say. She's like, "I feel, you know, I'm too close to the situation. I actually should not have an opinion on this. I shouldn't have an opinion on..."

Sam Parr

my god it it it

Shaan Puri

would not be it it would not not be productive to this future of humanity

Sam Parr

does she come off that weird

Shaan Puri

Kind of, yeah. It's not like I thought... I don't know, I knew nothing about her. So, you know, from afar, it's like, "Oh, I think he married a musician or something like that." Okay, she's probably like, you know, just some beautiful, happy, bubbly pop star. But it's like, no, it's not that at all. Okay, she's kind of like alternative. Alright, I get it. But still, you know, like, I don't know, charismatic... charismatic and into like, just kind of like an extrovert, people person. Instead, it was like, you know, they were like, "How's it been? You know, tell me about, like, you just had a baby. What's motherhood been like for you?" And she's like, "It reminds me of my favorite graphic novel, a sci-fi graphic novel." Then she named some Japanese graphic novel that, you know, like, no one's heard of. She's like, "Have you read it?" He's like, "No." And then she's like, "It's called *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream*." And that's what having this baby feels like because they're helpless, right? They can't even control their muscles. They can't say what they want. They can't express what they need, but they need something. They're trying to scream, but it's as if they have no mouth. I was like, "Whoa!" Like, pretty dark take on motherhood, but like, I don't know, also interesting and insightful at the same time. But yeah, that's been kind of my... that's my contribution to the conversation. I'm happy that those kinds of people exist because, like, yeah, I'm happy that there are people who are so different and so interesting. They live life in a way that's interesting but uncomfortable, and I get to be comfortable and just watch them do interesting things. Well, you know that.

Sam Parr

dude I love it

Shaan Puri

That Teddy Roosevelt quote that every entrepreneur loves to put on Instagram, like the...

Sam Parr

the the man in the arena or something

Shaan Puri

It is not the critic who counts. It's the man in the arena who's bloody and beaten and whatever. You know what? It's also tight to not be bloody and beaten. It's tight to be just a casual fan in the arena, eating popcorn, watching other people get beaten up, and then going back to your daily life. Like, that's actually a pretty tight position that most people should go into. You don't need to be the gladiator dying in the arena or the critic hater. You don't need to be either one.

Hubspot

Our software is the worst. Have you heard of HubSpot? See, most CRMs are a cobbled together mess, but HubSpot is easy to adopt and actually looks gorgeous. I think I love our new CRM. Our software is the best. **HubSpot: Grow Better.**

Sam Parr

Dude, do you realize that to some people, I think you and I are that entertainment? Where like... I'll have some people reach out to me, and I think it happens to you too, it's like, "Oh, you should do [blank]." It's like, you really just want me to dance for you?

Shaan Puri

yeah that's really what yeah

Sam Parr

Just tell me to dance. That'd be a lot easier. That'll only take a few minutes. You want me to dedicate three years of my life to starting blank?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you guys should talk about... Oh, you want me to go get a PhD in something I don't know about for your benefit? Okay, cool. That's not how the podcast works. But here's how the podcast *does* work: 1. I'm weird and don't realize it 2. Then I come talk to Sam 3. He's weird and doesn't realize it 4. Then we kind of figure out what's weird about each other 5. Then we go away and... like, you guys think we're both weird

Sam Parr

Yeah, I mean, we are that to some people where they just want us to dance. But dude, that's why I love the YouTubers. There's this guy I've been following; I think it's called "Whistlin' Diesel." There are all these YouTubers where they get... what does that mean, Whistlin'? I think it's Whistlin' Diesel. So he has all this acreage out in Indiana, I think, and he just builds cool trucks and cars and basically wrecks them. You know, he'll build like... remember as a kid, I think it was called the Power Wheel? It's like the little toy trucks for kids where you sit in it. He'll take one of those—it's not really one of those, but he builds a version of that that has a massive gas engine in it. It goes like 120 miles an hour, but it looks like a Power Wheel. So he's just doing things that you think you would want to do in the country, like breaking stuff and blowing things up. What's crazy is these guys do it, and then they start making money from it. They're like, "Alright, now we have more money to spend on..."

Shaan Puri

stuff up bigger stuff

Sam Parr

To blow stuff up and to build stuff... There's all these guys on YouTube who will get like a 50 caliber rifle, so like this gun that's huge and scary, and they're like, "You think it can shoot through that car? Let's just try it! Let's see if it'll go straight through the car." Or, "What would happen if we just shot this at a huge block of metal? How deep will it go?" Just all these stupid experiments that you would only do when you're high or you would just dream of, but you're afraid of losing all this money. They do it, and I get to live through them, and I love that.

Shaan Puri

Wow, that's cool! They're actually kind of related. So, Mr. Beast basically does this, but he's like... exactly! You know, he has almost 100 million subscribers on YouTube. Did you see this thing that was going on last night? I doubt you did because it's like, you know... mhmm, you said you're Gen Y; this is like Gen Z stuff. But basically, there was a celebrity poker game last night. It had, like, I don't know how many—50,000 or more people watching it live streamed on Twitch and YouTube. It featured Mr. Beast, who's the number one YouTuber, or one of the biggest YouTubers; Ninja, who was the biggest streamer for a long time; and xQc, who's one of the biggest Twitch streamers. There were basically like 4 or 5 huge content creators, along with Phil Hellmuth, who's this famous pro poker player that's on TV all the time, and Tom Dwan, who's one of the greatest poker players ever. So, it was a mix of a couple of pros and a couple of content creators. They came in for a $50,000 buy-in game, but they could rebuy, so it was called the $1,000,000 game. This was being live streamed last night, and none of them were playing seriously because, A, they were all rich, and B, they were trying to create good content. They were playing this game, and it was very entertaining. It was probably one of the most entertaining online or TV poker games that I've seen in a long time. I just thought it was a great idea!

Sam Parr

that's a that's a pretty short list I would imagine though

Shaan Puri

No, I've been watching for a long time. I actually care about online poker and have watched a bunch of the World Series of Poker.

Sam Parr

so what happened

Shaan Puri

So basically, shout out to our girl, Alexandra Botez. Do you know her? She's the chess girl. Okay, I did a podcast.

Sam Parr

we've talked about her

Shaan Puri

I did a podcast yeah so she's a streamer content creator who's like her and her sister I don't think they're twins but I think they're they're sisters they they're like chess like I don't know if they're grand master or they're master players or whatever but they're like they're like great at chess but also great at content so they have like a big following or whatever and so she just cleaned up in this game and she's not like a great poker player it just like they would they were all kind of playing very loose and she won like a half a $1,000,000 pot like you know just kind of like with ace 9 there's like kinda like a lucky hand or whatever and the pros were sitting there like just kinda waiting for good car like waiting for good to play good cards or just playing smart whereas mister beast was like just playing kinda like any hand he could get into and then he'd be like he's just he's like I just want one clip to go viral like that's what I'm here for is for one clip to go viral because they're like like in poker you could do this thing where once both people go all in you could say alright normally you would just there's only one card left and they're like one of us will win one of us will lose but you can do something called running it twice which kind of like smoothens out the like the variability like it's like running multiple times in a simulation so you'll get like more possible outcomes so you can run it once run it twice run it 3 times run it 4 times and he's like no we're gonna run it once he's like we need this clip to go viral it needs to be the highest stakes with the biggest heartbreak and like the easiest to understand and you can see the poker pros were like oh okay like I guess so I guess that makes makes sense it's like to me it was so funny just to see these guys playing with totally different like agendas and styles and also they were mic'd up the whole time and there was no edits because it was live and so you could just hear them like bullshitting about whatever to each other and like you know people from different worlds kind of just like so you do so so the guy was like so like you know how how much how often do you play he's like oh I've been I I don't play like this is the first day off I've taken in 4 years he's like what do you mean like how often do you stream because I stream every day for 10 hours a day he's like what and he's like yeah and he's like this is one of the few like one of the rare who this guy and they're and they're like how long have you been doing that for he's like 7 years

Sam Parr

I don't understand

Shaan Puri

The poker player looked at the streamer like, "You degenerate," which is hilarious because the poker player is normally like the biggest degenerate who sits at a table playing, you know, this... stupid card game for 5 hours straight, losing money.

Sam Parr

that real will someone will someone really stream for 7 years every single day for 10 hours

Shaan Puri

Yeah, that happens. Not usually those exact numbers, but people have streamed every day for 10 years. They'll stream like 5-hour streams or something like that as their normal stream, and some guys do 10-hour streams. They'll usually take one day off a week, maybe. I don't know xQc's specifics, but... yeah, he's a nut.

Sam Parr

and when he's streaming what's he doing he's playing video games any game

Shaan Puri

So he was big in Overwatch, but then Overwatch stopped getting popular. I mean, he got more popular because his personality is pretty big. He just kind of gets wild on the stream, and so now he'll do whatever. He'll play, you know, Virtual Farm Simulator, he'll play a shooting game, he'll play whatever the game is. He calls himself a "variety streamer," which is basically like... at that point, they've stopped coming for the game, and they're coming for you.

Sam Parr

is he funny like what what what what's great about him

Shaan Puri

He's funny, and he gets enraged pretty quickly, which is a big thing on Twitch. It's like you gotta show emotion. You see this in basketball, or golf is the ultimate example of this. This is where I think traditional sports can learn a lot from online content. Traditional sports teach you that if you ever watch a basketball press conference, they're the most boring in the world. It's like, "Yeah, we're just gonna take it one game at a time. You know, they're a great team. I have respect for them. We just gotta put one foot in front of the other." It's like, oh great, you know, super boring. Whereas you and I love UFC because that one guy would be like, "He ain't shit! I'm gonna kick his ass and his whole team's ass!" You know, they just talk trash to each other. That adds a level of drama and excitement. Streaming is like that, but 24/7, where they're just constantly talking trash to their teammates, about themselves, about the game, about the characters, about the strategy, about whatever. So they show a ton of emotion. If he loses, he'll throw the mouse, he'll break the keyboard, he'll spit and scream, and you know, he'll get angry.

Sam Parr

how does he have enough energy to do that every single day

Shaan Puri

it's just what he does man it's like that's and you

Sam Parr

just sit and he's sitting in a chair for he's sitting in a chair for 10 hours a day built different

Shaan Puri

yeah yeah he's sitting

Sam Parr

In a chair built, you may not like this, but it is peak physical performance.

Shaan Puri

Exactly! Somebody said this thing; there was this hilarious line during the event. So, she—Alexandra—won the $500,000 pot, and then she won another pot. She was up $600. She came in with $50,000 and had like a $650,000 chip stack. She ran so many chips that she couldn't even stack them in time. The next hand needed to be dealt, but her giant chip stack was blocking half the table. She said, "I need help stacking the chips," and they were like, "Fuck you! We're not going to help you stack your chips; you just took from us." Then the pit boss comes over and they start helping. Then Mr. Pease goes, "She's single-handedly going to close the wage gap." I thought it was hilarious.

Sam Parr

just trolls

Shaan Puri

Yeah, they're just trolls and it's just amazing. It was amazing, and I just thought that was a great idea, by the way. Like a high-stakes poker game amongst personalities in any niche... I actually think that's a good marketing idea.

Sam Parr

this one streamer who we're talking about what's his name

Shaan Puri

xqc in this case

Sam Parr

how much money does he make

Shaan Puri

He probably makes between $3 million to $10 million a year.

Sam Parr

no way really

Shaan Puri

Yeah, probably 5 to 10 is the easy estimate. 10, man, 10 is not even the upper bound. These guys can make much more than that—maybe up to $20,000,000 or $25,000,000 if they are maxing out their stuff. But they don't always want to do that. I thought this because I used to negotiate with these guys. So, you know, even before Twitch, when I was just trying to get them to promote our products, I would say, "Alright, I want to talk to the streamer." But they would say, "No, you don't get to talk to the streamer; you talk to the manager." Okay, fair, that's fine. They're stars; I get it. Alright, who's the manager? Is it like, you know, CAA or WME? And for 95% of them, it's like...

Sam Parr

oh it's like his little brother ray ray

Shaan Puri

Yes, I know it's his girlfriend or, like, you know, exactly, it's Ray Ray or, like, "Hey, Jenny." So, how long have you guys been working together? It's like, "Well, we've moved in together when we were 16." And then, like, he didn't do anything for 5 years; he just played video games all the time. And now he's rich, so I quit my job to check his email. Because they'll be like, "Yeah, we do brand deals." I'm like, "Cool, so do you have, like, a deck you guys can share about, like, you know, his stats?" They're like, "No, you could just go on and see how many people watch him." It's like, "A lot." And then it's like, "So, what would you have this deal with, like, Red Bull or Logitech? Surely you have a brand that..." And, like, you know, when you pitch them, they're like, "We don't pitch anybody." Like, basically. And then, you know, as I got to know people, it's like they just get inbound into their email, and then they just decide to ignore 95% of it, even though it's people literally throwing them... like, people can get paid. Like, the small... even, like, less high profile, like Ninja is a different tier, right? Ninja does have a proper manager, and, like, actually, his girlfriend, I think, is his manager now, his wife. But, like, he had a proper agency behind him, and they pitched Red Bull and all this stuff. But, like, most streamers, if somebody will approach and be like, "Hey, I'll pay you $2,000 an hour to play my game today," they're like, "No, that game looks boring. I'm not gonna do it," right? Because, like, they don't want to lose their audience or, like, piss off their audience too much or be seen as selling out. And so they turned down so many opportunities that they could have because they don't want to be seen as a sellout, nor do they want to, like, bother with anything. It's like, dude, by the time I'm done streaming for 10 hours... imagine doing this podcast 10 hours a day or 8 hours a day. You have zero energy left to, like, do anything else, and so you just, like, you don't even want to think about it.

Sam Parr

So, do a lot of them have any expenses? Are they just paying taxes and rent, and they're just stacking cash?

Shaan Puri

yeah that's exactly it

Sam Parr

Like, some of these streamers, I mean, they could be worth $30 or $40 million liquid. Yeah, that's crazy, isn't it?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, like Ninja got paid, you know? I can't say the number, but it was **stupid money** to go stream on Mixer, like a competitor to Twitch.

Sam Parr

I think it got leaked I think the number got leaked because something happened

Shaan Puri

yeah maybe

Sam Parr

I'm not sure. I think Twitch got hacked and all the spreadsheets got out. Remember? You know what I'm talking about?

Shaan Puri

Well, that's pretty visible. Anyway, that's just what they earn directly. Basically, fans subscribe for $5 a month or $6 a month to the channel in order to show their support and get special emojis that they can use. Sometimes, the streamer can turn on subscriber-only chat, but for the most part, they receive donations that most people can't see. They also get subscribers directly, which is a monthly recurring subscription. Then there are brand deals and sponsors that don't show up in the Twitch thing because that goes direct. They just pay the streamer directly; it's not part of Twitch. There are other ways too. Games come to them and say, "Hey, we're doing a brand launch. We want all 10 of the big streamers playing Valorant today." They'll drop $5,000,000 on that campaign because they know that if they do that, they become the "it" game. Millions of people will get to see their favorite streamer playing the game and saying how awesome it is or whatever, showing it off. It's worth it to them because they're going to make way more than that.

Sam Parr

have you seen intro.com have you ever been to intro.com

Shaan Puri

yeah I looked at investing in it but I decided not to

Sam Parr

So, I talked to the guy who started it. I went to a car racing class, and a friend of a friend brought him along. I had to hang out with him. He's a cool guy. He was like, "Hey, just sign up for Intro.com." Basically, what you do is put that you're available for a certain number of hours a week, and someone will pay you like $2,000 an hour in 15-minute increments to talk to you. I was like, "I don't know, man. I feel kind of sleazy doing that." He was like, "Well, just try it." I was like, "Okay, well, you seem nice or whatever. I'll kind of do it just to geek out and try this new product." I signed up for it, and I've been getting bookings like crazy. I'm at the phase now where, you know, it's coming up on this July, and it will be a year and a half since the acquisition. It's like, who's counting? Yeah, yeah, they said...

Shaan Puri

that's fucked up how many years you've been married I have no idea yeah

Sam Parr

how many great years

Shaan Puri

you've been in hellspot year and a half 16 months

Sam Parr

60... one month. He's like, "Well, wait, which time zone are we thinking here?" Because I could tell you. So it's coming up to that time, and I'm like, "Alright, do I start a new company? What am I going to do? What should I be doing?" I signed up for Intro, and we're doing this. I got that little copy thing, and I got an Airbnb. I'm like, "Well, besides the fact that I could live off interest from my nut, that's kind of cool." There's all this income coming in. There's so much. I'm not trying to brag, but I'm saying for a creator with a mildly big audience, there are so many ways to make money. It's pretty astounding. And we're not even that popular; I mean, we're just semi-popular in a relatively small niche. Let alone if you're one of those Twitch guys and you're actually really popular. But it's pretty astounding how many revenue streams are available to us just because of all these weird creator-type tools.

Shaan Puri

Totally! I saw some guy tweet today, "Bro, @ElonMusk, give me my blue check back." It had like 80,000 likes. I was like, who is this guy? He's a soccer player at Manchester City or something like that, and he's got millions of followers. I was like, wow! You know, there are so many levels of fame. That guy is not famous at all compared to, you know, Justin Bieber or whatever. And Justin Bieber is not famous compared to whoever. But if you go 20 rungs down the ladder, it's like we're moderately known in a tiny niche. Then I sent you that link of those guys who discuss... I don't know, they're like bodybuilders or something like that. They're discussing working out or something like that, and they have like a sick...

Sam Parr

Oh yeah, I was on their podcast. They're awesome! What, Bob? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was on their podcast a couple of years ago, the MindBody podcast.

MFM Listener

wow

Sam Parr

is is it mindbody pump or just mindbody

MFM Listener

dude that

Shaan Puri

that's the ultimate resume for your for your fitness influencer career

Sam Parr

I did it with

Shaan Puri

YouTube... yeah, they're like, I think that video had like, I don't know, I want to say 80,000 views or 150,000 views, something like that. Well, just not like you hear of bigger numbers, but that's big. That's like, we get less than that on our YouTube, and I feel like we're big. Now, they're big, and they're in just like another niche. But their niche lets them do a lot more because it's more broad appeal. Like, there's a bunch of dudes out there who want to be more muscular. People want to lose weight, and so, you know, they can flip on one white-labeled supplement or course or whatever the heck they want. And, you know, that type of following can print, I don't know, again, $5 to $10 million a year.

Sam Parr

for sure

Shaan Puri

Profitably, you know, without the stress of being an entrepreneur trying to invent a new product and enter a new niche. However, it also has a bunch of downsides. For instance, the guys streaming 10 hours a day for 7 years straight. The biggest problem with content is that you're usually on a treadmill. You feel like you can't get off. Twitch streamers experience this all the time; they feel burnt out because they think if they stop, they'll lose everything. And it's true. If they stop, they actually do lose quite a bit of sway, not only with their subscribers but also with the algorithm and things like that. So, I think that's the downside of these models.

Sam Parr

You have to build a business that's beyond that. So those guys, what's it called? I listen to it all the time, I'm totally blanking. Mind Pump, is that what it's called? With Sal and Adam? They're based out of Sacramento. So they just bought a bunch of Airbnb properties and they're turning them into fitness Airbnbs. That's like a good example that will extend beyond them. But yeah, I mean, like what do you do? Have there been any examples? I think you know who Jenna Marbles is. Yeah, so she got popular in my mind when she was on Barstool, and then she bailed and went to YouTube. She became like one of the biggest YouTubers of all time. I'm pretty sure that she got her cash and got her money, and I don't even think she posts anymore, even though she has many, many tens of millions of subscribers. How many? My internet's slow, so I can't even pull it up. How many subscribers does she have?

Shaan Puri

she's got a ton on youtube I I

Sam Parr

think she got popular 50 or 60,000,000

Shaan Puri

She was one of the first people to get popular. I feel like she got popular, like, I want to even say before YouTube. She has 19,000,000 subscribers and she's been on for 10 years.

Sam Parr

when was the last video

Shaan Puri

I have no idea

MFM Listener

I don't know

Sam Parr

is she still posting regularly

Shaan Puri

No, I don't think she posts regularly. But she has a brand of dog toys called Kermi and Worm and Mr. Marbles.

Sam Parr

So, she was one of... she's had $20,000,000 or $18,000,000. She's had that forever, and I'm pretty sure she's just made her money and bailed. She just left.

Shaan Puri

yeah like her last video was 1 year ago

Sam Parr

It was Casey Neistat who did that too, right? Because he was vlogging every day, and then he got paid. He just said, "I'm out." Yeah.

Shaan Puri

it's the way to go

Sam Parr

so

Shaan Puri

I think if you're on that intense of a treadmill, it's pretty tough if you can't, like, you know, get out of it. By the way, there's a guy who tweeted at us. He's like, "I think he listens to the podcast." I'm going to find his exact details later because it's hard to, you know, Twitter DM search is like impossible. But basically, there's a guy who's just buying up YouTube channels that are non-faced. Non-faced YouTube channels are branded as something else, so there's no Jenna Marbles, there's no personality to it. He buys these up for, you know, he basically looks at their YouTube revenues or whatever and he's like, "Cool, I'll make you this offer so I can buy this thing out for this much," or whatever. It's interesting. I hadn't really heard of somebody rolling up YouTube channels like that, but I think that's a pretty cool niche.

Sam Parr

I think that would be a good idea. I think if you did it with a face, it would be a horrible idea. Because I imagine that if you could make a list of people who you'd like to have work for you, a YouTuber would be incredibly low on that list.

Shaan Puri

Well, yeah, right. It's hard to buy them out because they, you know, they no longer have the motivation to create content. And then you're stuck because you can't just be like, "Hey, it's me now! I'm here!" Yeah, it's... I'm leaving the...

Sam Parr

top high

Shaan Puri

I'm here

Sam Parr

alright what else do we wanna do

Shaan Puri

Let's do one other random one, dude. So, have you ever filed for a trademark yourself?

Sam Parr

It's kind of a pain in the butt, ain't it? I think I had a lawyer do it. Yeah, but I originally tried bootstrapping it and just doing it on my own. I didn't know how.

Shaan Puri

To do it, so I get this... I get this letter. So this letter comes in the mail 6 months after we file. It's from this company called, I don't know if you've seen this, WTP. I'm like, "Oh, maybe it's about..."

Sam Parr

our it's about

Shaan Puri

"Oh yeah, sounds legit." It says at the top "Trademark Publications" and it's got our company name, our address, and it says: - Reference number: [blah blah blah] - Application date: [blah blah blah] - Classes: [blah blah blah] And then it has a giant thing of our trademark and it says: > Here's your fee for $1,420. Please pay the amount on acceptance within 10 days by check. Don't forget to quote your reference number. Make it payable...

Sam Parr

to scam

Shaan Puri

"WTP? Like, oh cool..." But I thought I'm pretty sure I already paid for the trademark. So who is this? What's this for? And then here's what it says in the... like, look at this fine print here in the bottom. Yeah, in the bottom box here. So like, you see this like size 3 print? So here's what this says: > Dear Madam or Sir... Oh, now you're sounding like my uncle in India writing an email to me!

Sam Parr

Dude, anytime I get a "Dear Sir," I know it's not good. Yeah, a "Dear Sir," and I hate buying "Dear Sucker."

Shaan Puri

Alright, so it says, "The publication of your public registration is the basis of our offer." What does that mean? All they're going to do is just publicize that we have made a trademark. That's what they're charging me $1,400 for. Do they work for the trademark office? No, it says so here. Here's what it says: "This is an offer for free entry into our database www.wptwtp-register.com. This is not an invoice. You are not required to pay the above amount unless you accept this offer. All of the details are in our general terms and conditions." Right? It's like, what a scam! All they do is monitor every trademark filing, which has got to be, you know, whatever, tens of thousands a year. Then they just send this letter out, and they're just fishing for a sucker. They're fishing for one dude.

Sam Parr

it's just like a

Shaan Puri

sir out there

Sam Parr

The car, the one "sir"? Yeah, "sir" is short for sucker. They're just looking for... Have you seen the car warranty or home warranty shit?

Shaan Puri

no is it the same

Sam Parr

it's the same thing have you ever met anyone who runs one of these scams

Shaan Puri

no if I did I'd give them a strong talking to

Sam Parr

It would be really fun to, like, have you seen on *The Office*? Michael Scott has to ask a question, but he can't sound mean. Instead of saying, "How do you sleep at night?" he just says, "How do you sleep at night?" That's just like... and that's what I like. It's like when the bosses are around, but Toby's leaving, and then he has to change his question to, "Where do you get off? Who do you think you are?" That's the type of questions I want to ask these people. What do you... how do you go to bed at night knowing that you're just...

Shaan Puri

How do you sleep at night? Yeah, that's what we want to know here at my first event.

Sam Parr

sleep at night

Shaan Puri

that's amazing alright we can wrap it up there

MFM Listener

I had

Shaan Puri

a bunch of ideas we didn't talk about any of them but that's okay we'll do it next month