I Won A $10,000 Bet Against MrBeast... Then This Happened (#416)

Shaan Puri

I have to formally and humbly apologize to Mr. Beast. So, here's the situation. Alright, let's jump in. I have a bunch of topics here, but I gotta start with an apology. I have to formally and humbly apologize to Mr. Beast. So, here's the situation. We've talked about it a little bit before. Back when we did Camp MFM, we invited Mr. Beast. I should say "invited" meaning we invited ourselves to his house basically in order to do it. We were like, "Oh yeah, we're gonna do this." He's like, "Yeah, that'd be cool, but you know, my schedule's crazy. I'm interested, but you know, not in LA because I'm in North Carolina." We were like, "Oh, coincidence! What town do you live in?" That's where we're doing it. So, we went out there and had a good time. One of the things that happened was I made him... we were touring Duke's campus. We were on their basketball court, and I made him a bet that I could make a half-court shot before he did for $10,000.

Sam Parr

very stupid bet he he he stood to gain nothing and you stood to gain everything

Shaan Puri

oh he could get $10,000 also

Sam Parr

oh I didn't know that you had to pay him $10,000 alright

Shaan Puri

Yeah, yeah, because we were ready first. So put $10 up. He's... I had learned this over the course of a few days. He's like me, he's a bit of a degenerate gambler. I think his company, they have like a separate bank account where it's like, "Yeah, Beast, you could gamble this, but don't touch the main stuff." And that's all money he already won from gambling, so they're like, "Look, that's your house money to play with."

Sam Parr

petty cash

Shaan Puri

**Petty cash.** I think, although I believe the petty cash was like seven figures, if I'm correct. So anyways, I bet him this amount, hit the shot—glorious moment! Then it's like, we're so busy there, we just go back to doing the camp. It's like, "Yeah, cool, you know, I'll pay you." And I was like, "Great! Yo, baby, that's what he does." So he didn't pay right away, and everybody, all the other people on the trip were like, "Yo, that was an awesome moment! Did he pay you?" I had to just be like, "No, no, not yet, but he's good for it, for sure." That became the running joke: "No, no, you didn't pay yet, but he will." I brought it up on the podcast because I talked about this during our end-of-year awards as a highlight moment. I said, "Dude, I bet y'all I can make the shot from half court at Cameron Indoor Stadium, this hallowed college basketball stadium." Just having the guts to make that bet and then having the luck of hitting it was a high moment. The low moment was following up like three weeks later and being like, "Hey man, hey, hey, did you get that?" Yeah, no rush, but you got that money? This wasn't a fake bet; this was a real bet, bro. You know, I first said it in a joking way like, "Oh, better pay my money." Then three weeks later, I was like, "Hey, did you pay?" So then I was like, "Oh man, the low moment was having to follow up and basically beg for the cash."

Sam Parr

so did he pay

Shaan Puri

he was cool

Sam Parr

the whole time

Shaan Puri

He was just like, "Oh yeah, my bad. I'll have my assistant pay." I was like, "Yeah, no problem. Cool." So, I said that joke on the podcast, and then people have been referencing it later. I don't know why listeners reference it; they tweet about it every once in a while. I guess he saw this tweet recently, and this is now like many months later.

Sam Parr

6 months later yeah

Shaan Puri

And he was like, "Somebody tweeted out this whole story, this whole thread. They go, 'You know, I realized why the Mr. Beast not paying you stories didn't sit right with me. It's because you, Sean, also stood me up. You said you wanted to invest in my thing and that we should talk. Then I followed up three times over email asking, "Hey, you said you wanted to invest, and let's talk." You haven't replied to three of my emails, and you're ghosting me just like he's ghosted you. Not cool. If you want to make things right, you should take that call and you should invest in my company.'" So he kind of put this out there as a bit of a ballsy tweet thread. Mr. Beast saw it, and he DM'd me. He's like, "What are you talking about? I paid you a while back. What do you mean?" I was like, "What? Oh..." and I went...

Sam Parr

I checked dude you it's gone

Shaan Puri

So, I had given him a Bitcoin wallet because he said, "I'll pay you in Bitcoin." I was like, "Alright, no problem." I never checked this wallet because, you know, who checks a random Bitcoin wallet you created? He paid me back in November, and for months, I've been telling this joke about it. I said, "Hey, you know, I know you probably meant to do it, but you didn't do it yet. Just when you get a chance, no rush, when you get a chance, I would love..."

Sam Parr

you think he's pissed at you no I don't think I don't think he gives a shit

Shaan Puri

In the same way that I didn't actually give a shit, I just thought it was funny. Like, the other thing we learned at that camp from that guy, Hasan Minhaj, the comedian, is that "comedy is all about low status." I remember that, and I took it to heart. I was like, "Oh, my comedy is usually trying to be cocky funny." For example, when somebody says something, I might respond with, "Dude, I like... you don't know about pop culture?" And I would say, "Bro, I am pop culture!" It's more cocky. But actually, what I learned from Hasan was that low status is a funnier, more endearing way to win people over. So, telling this story about how I had to follow up, it turned from this cool moment to this incredibly lame moment. It was a low status comedy thing, but then I realized I had been wrong the whole time. He paid me in November, so... whoops.

Sam Parr

Damn, dude. That's a nice... that's a pretty big mess up. You're just disparaging this guy.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I was slandering the dude left and right, just saying, "You know, at least I pay my debts," right? Like, you know, I was joking around like that. But, but incorrect, he paid.

Sam Parr

we have an end

Shaan Puri

happy end happy end for all involved

Sam Parr

Yeah, I was shocked that you were saying that on air, by the way. I chose... damn, I didn't pay. I was like, "This is gonna make a claim to him."

Shaan Puri

I didn't just say it. Apparently, people ask, "Did you pay?" Then I'm like, "Oh, what am I gonna say? Yes? No?" If I didn't think you paid, I was gonna say no. I wasn't just proactively being like, "By the way, call out." You know, that's not how it was.

Sam Parr

I appreciate, you know, who I sometimes... It's just the people listening. It's just Sean and I, basically, in a Zoom right now. We're on a riverside, so it's just us talking. It's very easy to forget that there are other people who will hear this. I found myself saying stuff all...

Shaan Puri

the time I wrote comfortable

Sam Parr

You get very comfortable, and I admire Joe Rogan. I don't listen to a ton of Joe Rogan, but I do watch some of his clips. He does a really good job of rarely disrespecting people. He'll say, "Oh, they just have a difference of opinion. It's all good," or if someone breaks up, he'll say, "Hey, did you hear how this person was talking trash?" and he'll just respond, "Oh, you know, that's funny." He does a really good job of not picking fights. I saw on your list that you have this kind of fight that started, and it looks like I started it. I don't want it to come off that way, but basically, on this pod, I try never to pick fights. If I do pick a fight, it's like I'm actually going to go to battle with this. You have this... what's the guy's name? Steven Bartlett? Yeah, yeah, let's talk about it. Bring that up.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, by the way, I actually want to say this: you're right. When it's just me and you talking like this, and there's nobody else here, it's really easy to get comfortable. You forget, "Oh cool, 150,000 people are listening." If I was in front of an audience and I could see 150,000 people, there's no way I would feel as comfortable and as loose making jokes or saying something. I often do this, and it's actually gotten me in a lot of trouble.

Sam Parr

yeah you say shit it's bad

Shaan Puri

And I decided, as long as I'm saying something that I actually think, I'm going to carry on in that way. Because I don't usually think negative things about people.

Sam Parr

Well, the way that I do it nowadays—and the podcast actually taught me this—is if I'm going to talk negatively about someone behind their back, I better be ready to say it to their face. So, I work really hard to only say things privately that I'm okay saying to that person, or even publicly sometimes. That's the takeaway. I think it was... have you heard the story of Abe Lincoln? Basically, he talked trash about some guy, and that guy challenged him to a duel. He was like, "Shit, I don't want to go to a duel." So, he said, "Dude, I'm sorry. I'm afraid. I don't want to fight you." And then he decided, "That's it! I've never talked trash about people again." I remember reading that and thinking, "That's a good sign." Talking trash is easy; I do it every once in a while just because I'm human. But if you're going to do it, you have to be able to say it to their face. So, that's kind of my rule that I try to live by, but it's very hard to follow. Alright, well, do you want to talk about the Bartlett thing?

Shaan Puri

yeah yeah yeah okay so you tee it up because I think you you tweeted it out so what what's on your mind

Sam Parr

There's, well, nothing. I was just curious. But basically, there's a guy named **Steven Bartlett**. He's got a podcast that's quite good; it's mostly a YouTube thing, I think, but pretty good. He interviews interesting people. His background is that he had a company called **Social Chain**, which there's a long story about that we've talked about before. He basically owned, among other things, a bunch of Twitter handles, and he could help make a product popular or a TV show popular by sharing it among all the Twitter handles. Whatever, it's an agency. It was relatively successful; it was definitely successful. He was kind of a prodigy. It ends up getting acquired, and the company that acquired it did some type of reverse merger. It goes public at its peak for **$100 million**. An article came out on Thursday, and by the way, this guy Steven worked for **Sean** as an intern when he was 21 years old. We've shared fun stories about that. An article came out that said this thing was sold for **$8 million**. I shared it and said, "Well, this thing was only sold for **$8 million**? I thought this was like a publicly traded company for **$100 million**. I'm a little confused. What's the story here?" People got pissed—not at me, but at him—saying, "This guy's saying he's built up a **$300 million** company," and they listed tons of evidence saying otherwise. I didn't actually look into the evidence; I don't know the truth, but people were really angry at that, and it was pretty wild to see.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I think you framed it well. There are basically two things going on here. One, as somebody gets really famous, the target on their back gets bigger. So, he's become more and more famous. He has a very big kind of social media presence. I think he's got like a million followers on Instagram or Twitter or something like that. LinkedIn, he's big as well. He's on...

Sam Parr

the shark tank of england

Shaan Puri

yeah he's on dragon's den which is like shark tank in in europe so he's like well known there he wrote a book he you know he's like doing things he goes on the he has this podcast he goes on these like tours basically where he like speaks in he's a guy platforms I call him the black gary v he's like very much like gary v in my opinion and in the same way that some people not gary v I'm like bro you didn't build your you know you didn't build a business your that was your dad's business that you were just the marketing guy for and he's like well actually like the business was really small and then I started wine library tv and it grew much bigger you know there's people who come out and say oh you're not as you represent yourself and so when you see this headline that oh his agency sold for $7,000,000 you're like bro what 7,000,000 like what why are you representing yourself as much bigger than you are and the explanation I think is kind of simple so here's the explanation his agency was called social chain when they got acquired they renamed the larger company which didn't have as much of a public facing brand social chain group and so social chain group was a bigger business that did many things had many agencies underneath had some you know had some other things that there's a ecommerce there's a big ecommerce business that was with it they sold there like a mattress company basically and most of the revenue like comes came from the ecommerce side and a smaller slice of the revenue came from the agency size and even a smaller size came from his specific agency called social chain I think when he sold when when social chain got acquired or whatever by the larger group I think they were at roughly 9,000,000 a year in revenue something like that and that was maybe 2 years in and it was like a great upstart story it's a it was like 20 employees all under the age of 25 doing this cool disruptive social media you know marketing at the time and this is you know 2014 2015 and then you know got acquired by this bigger thing those guys had an ecommerce business and so naturally they're like oh great this marketing agency is a good business to have it'll help our businesses + it brings in you know rev revenue alone from its service business and I think where he went so I think the the simple explanation is yeah his business got acquired the overall business did a bunch of revenue his agency did not but you know he was a key player in that overall group I think he was co ceo of the group of the group the group was you know one of 4 or 5 divisions so he was kind of like a division head at of a of a larger company okay great where I think he went wrong is there's like a clip of him on dragon's den and the other guy's like do you even know anything about business and he goes know anything about business I built a $300,000,000 company by the age of 28 and that's like the clip that the guy you know some people on twitter circulating me like okay

Sam Parr

I didn't see it

Shaan Puri

Full of shit, dude. You didn't build a $300,000,000 business. There was a $300,000,000 business that acquired your small agency. To that, I say they are correct. He did get... yeah, I mean, to me, that's like a very... maybe it's just relatable because I've been in those situations where I kind of feel insecure in a moment. I can imagine being a young guy on TV and then the other investor says, "What do you know about business?" I could see your insecurity flaring up in that moment there. You try to puff your chest out and say the biggest thing you can, even though it's not technically true. It'd be like when we got acquired by Twitch. It's like, you know, I... and then I ran a division at Twitch. It'd be like me saying I ran, you know, I built or ran a $5,000,000,000 company. Right? That would not be true. That would just be like, you know, puffing my chest out in a way that's misleading.

Sam Parr

So I think that's... I was a builder on a $3,000,000,000 company. You're a builder.

Shaan Puri

Right, I was a part of a company that I joined 13 years after it was founded. You know, I was early. But I've felt that, for example, I feel silly about this now. When we got acquired, the deal was set. The deal was a no—no PR, like no disclosure of the terms. But somehow, it got leaked to TechCrunch and I think a couple of others that we got acquired. They put a price in there of $25,000,000, and the price was not $25,000,000; it was less than that.

Sam Parr

but the answer's gotta be no comment

Shaan Puri

But I was like, I could have corrected it. I could have gone and said, "No, it wasn't that." I didn't even have to say what it was. In retrospect, I could've just said, "It's lower than that, but I can't disclose." Instead, I just said, "Hey, I can't say anything about it. I'm not allowed to say anything." Twitch also said that I'm not allowed to say anything. So I just sat out there, and a bunch of people were like, "Wow, great exit! $25,000,000!" I'm like, "Yeah, that would have been a great exit. It's still good, but less good than that." So that's not the accurate number, and that's still just what sits out there today: people think that that's what the number was. It kind of benefited me in some ways, and every time it benefited me, I felt guilty. It was also a weak move to take a representation that makes something you did seem greater than it actually was. I didn't like that, but I can relate to this moment where the ego part of you, or the insecure part of you, wants to feel like something is... wants to say, "No, I did a great thing." So, you know, I understand where he's coming from in that.

Shaan Puri

Of view, but I don't really see what the controversy is. Besides that, I think it's just like, is the dude more famous than what he did with his agency? Yeah, probably. But he's famous because he's amazing at creating content, and he's a great brand builder. He's built his own brand.

Sam Parr

how old is he he's only 28 maybe

Shaan Puri

yeah he's like in this yeah mid mid to late twenties something like that so

Sam Parr

I mean I'd say you're doing alright dude

Shaan Puri

yeah he's

Sam Parr

he's he's pulled it he's pulled it off I think

Shaan Puri

I think the haters have a point. Yeah, he did overrepresent. He did overrepresent in some ways; yes, that's true. Every time he says, "I built a company worth 100 million dollars," it's not really true, you know? And then he also probably knows that.

Sam Parr

He's a very hateable guy. Not because I dislike him; I actually like his content. But I think he's hateable because he's young, he's good-looking, he's successful, and he's pretty... I don't know, cocky, but like confident. I mean, you know, it's easy to hate people. So yeah, he's in some regards a very hateable guy.

Shaan Puri

yeah when you have everything that people want

Sam Parr

that's what I mean

Shaan Puri

Okay, you've got money, fame, looks, charisma, you know, whatever body... What else is there? I'm not sure. I'm not sure he's really missing anything. So, yeah, there's a natural visceral reaction some people have to that, which is like either: a) "It can't be all good. There's gotta be something wrong, and I'm gonna find it." Or b) "Fuck that guy! I'm tired of seeing him on my Instagram feed."

Sam Parr

what what's this financial freedom thing that you wanted to talk about

Shaan Puri

Let me do... let me do two, okay? So, I want to tell you about this story regarding a woman I met who I think has a really cool business. A couple of podcast episodes ago, I mentioned that I had this idea for a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business. I believe it would be best run by a woman because it's a product for women. It uses my joke, which is that I don't know how to pitch it exactly. It's like a normal thing, but beautifully done. Just imagine, you know, pens, but just beautifully done, right? And it's true; that's part of the shtick of this product. It's well packaged and well made—beautifully done. So, anyway, I got a bunch of inbound responses. I joked about it, saying, "Oh, to our four female listeners, if you're out there, this could be an idea for you." A bunch of people replied—maybe 20, 30, or 40 people said, "Hey, what's the idea? I want to hear about it. Here's my background." One woman had a really interesting background. Her name, I think, is Sarah Michelle—something like that. She started this business... I'll pull up her name. Yeah, Sarah Michelle. She built this business called NP Reviews. I'm guessing you've never heard of this, but here's why it's interesting: she basically built a course prep business and sold it for more than $10 million in two years. I just think that's kind of a badass move to pull off. You don't hear of a lot of course-based businesses that sell at all, let alone sell for eight figures in two years. What she did was basically build something like Kaplan, the test prep company, but for nurse practitioners. So, it's called NP Reviews, as in Nurse Practitioner Reviews.

Sam Parr

Pass your nurse practitioner exam the first time. Stop stressing and start studying smarter with our proven exam review courses.

Shaan Puri

Exactly. So, she basically says, "Yo, you're in school to become a nurse practitioner. You have a big test coming up. It's like your version of the MCATs or LSATs if you're a lawyer. The nurse practitioners have that same thing." And it's like, "Great! Work with us and you'll pass." They have a 99% pass rate among their students. So they're like, "Don't worry. I was in your shoes. Wow, this is awesome! I was stressed about this and I passed. If I could pass, you could pass. I've helped so many people pass since then." What she does is basically a funnel. She's got ads about this content regarding the exam or becoming a nurse practitioner, which leads you to a landing page that says, "Don't stress, we got you! 99% pass rate. We help you pass your upcoming exam." Then, she funnels you into a Facebook group. So basically, it's like, "Join the group of 25,000 other people who have passed this exam." You join the Facebook group and you buy one of the courses. You can buy this $300 a month course, a $130 a month course, or a $100 a month course—whichever one fits the test you're planning to take. She built this thing up and sold it to a company called Blueprint that is basically rolling up these test prep companies. I just thought that's an amazing exit, and I'm super impressed.

Sam Parr

And here's why it's awesome. If you go to the bottom right, it says "Powered by Kajabi." That's a $100 a month software that anyone can get.

Shaan Puri

they have a 30 the president of kajabi listens he messaged me

Sam Parr

Yeah, he DM'd me as well. So, it's a **$100** a month software, and they have like a **30-day trial**. You could even not pay and just get your courses spinning up and then making some money. The website, it's fine looking, but it's not like you could make this without a designer. The copy is pretty solid; very clear. The problem copy is very good.

Shaan Puri

copy is very good like yeah

Sam Parr

I haven't I haven't read it all but it looks decent

Shaan Puri

Look at the headline. Just a quick copy thing. So, put this up on the screen on YouTube. Go to fpreviews.com. The headline says, "Pass your Nurse Practitioner's exam the first time." So, what is it? You know, leading with the outcome or the benefit you want versus talking about yourself. She could have said, "We are a test prep program, a 6-week test prep program with live online classes and a community," blah blah blah. That's how most people pitch their products; they talk about themselves. She talked about the outcome. Then the second thing: "Stop stressing and start studying smarter with our proven AA, ANCC, and AANP exam review courses." Okay, great! "Stop stressing" hits the emotional state you're in and tells you about the better emotional state you're going to be in. After that, she basically says, "I did it; you can do it. I've helped these 500 people do it." Here are some testimonials from them, along with pictures of their faces holding up their certificates that say, "I passed," and they're like, "Thank you, Sarah! You helped me pass my exam." Then she includes a founder letter: "Psst! I've been in your shoes, feeling anxiety as you prepare for your Nurse Practitioner boards. You're not alone. The stakes are high, and these tests aren't easy. You need a review course to help you master this. I get it because I've been there. I remember how I felt studying for this. That's why, after passing both of my exams, I decided to create a review course to help others too. Since this launch, I've helped thousands of people with a 98% pass rate." Here's how it works, blah blah blah. "Join our Facebook group and check it out." Just a really well done, really simple product, really simple idea.

Sam Parr

and I think this by

Shaan Puri

The way this idea could be done with any trade that has certifications. For example, personal trainers get certified for their health-related knowledge. They take these programs to obtain certifications. Whether you're a dental hygienist or a speech therapist, there's ongoing education required.

Sam Parr

it could be anything

Shaan Puri

Ongoing professional education and anything that there's a finishing school for, like med school, nursing school, cosmetology, whatever it is... being the test prep for that. Obviously, she's not the biggest one - like Kaplan makes a few billion dollars. They offer prep for the MCAT and offer prep for nursing school, but you just carve out your niche. You're the more trusted face, you're the more human brand, and it's beautifully done.

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. Dude, this is why I hate that question. When people ask me, "If you could start over again with nothing, what would you do?" I say I would do the same thing, and they go, "Does that still work?" I would always say, "Of course it does." Now we have an example: Milk Road did the exact same thing within the last 12 months. I have another friend named Ben Tassel. Do you know Ben? He has a comedy called Road Now. Yeah, he had a... oh, that's what we're doing! We're calling it Milk Road now. It's the Milk Road of the hustle.

Shaan Puri

sort of like the milk road for general business it just happened to

Sam Parr

Precede it by 5 years. Yeah, yeah, Andre the Giant was just the same part of wrestling. Yeah, that's what we're going to do now. I like that he's a big buff guy. He's pretty much the same part of wrestling.

Shaan Puri

triggered

Sam Parr

Yeah, well anyway, like I say, I would do the exact same thing. And now you're an example. You did the exact same thing, and then now there's Ben. Ben goes, "Well, I'm just following. I heard in the pod that Sean said he just copied you, so I'm gonna copy Sean copying you." And you know what? It's working. It's where he's at, this AI newsletter, and it's working. There are a handful of businesses—there's a bunch of businesses—where it's basically the same thing all the time, but a little bit different. And maybe not even better, just a little bit different or in a particular niche. This course business is another one of those where it's just the same thing. Her website is, I think, only like 8 or 9 or 10 pages. She's got the webinar, she's got the different offerings, the Facebook group. It's the same thing that you can do in any case. In some cases, this could be a home run. I bet, you know, like I sold a little bit early, but Morning Brew is doing, I think they said, $70 million in revenue. Industry Dive sold for $500,000. Those are all home runs, same with the course business. I think there's a world where you could do the exact same thing; it could be quite huge. Although $10 million is awesome. So that's why I think that whenever people ask that question, it's stupid or I hate it because you're just looking for an easy answer. You're looking for permission to not do something because you want me to say it's outdated or doesn't work anymore. My answer to that is, "No, no, no, it works. It works. Don't ask permission, just do."

Shaan Puri

It right? Yeah, there's a better version of that question. That question is sort of like the one when somebody asked Elon Musk, "Elon, you're a great inspiration to many entrepreneurs out there. What words of advice do you have to encourage someone to start a business?" He goes, "If you need words of encouragement to start a business, don't do it." That's how I feel about it. If you're really clueless about what ideas to pursue, first of all, this whole podcast has hundreds of ideas and examples of things you could do. Don't overthink it; you could just do any of those. Secondly, you should have a running list of irritations and problems that you experience in your professional and personal life. Think about it: "God, if somebody made a way that made this better, or made this easier, or made this faster, or made this cheaper, I would buy it." That's a great source of startup inspiration. If you're just like, "I don't know, maybe Sam will tell me how to be a successful person," that's not what successful people do. Now, having said all that, I'm doing it again. I have a little example of this. Okay, so I've talked on here about my personal trainer. My personal trainer is my buddy, Ja. You've met him before. Awesome guy! He has become a great friend and has delivered a ton of value in my life. As you know, I basically was not working out and was on this steady climb of like, "Yo, I'm gonna gain 15 pounds a year for the last..."

Sam Parr

what was your what was your peak weight 250 220

Shaan Puri

Not 2, probably like 230 was my peak weight. And not like, "Oh, I'm bulking."

Sam Parr

it wasn't muscle mass let's put

Shaan Puri

It that way. So, anyways, I get in touch with Jay and I'm like, "Hey, I want to make a change." He's like, "Awesome! How often are you working out right now?" I said, "0 times a month." He's like, "Cool, okay, let's start there." So, he came over and took me from 0 to now working out 5 days a week, eating better, and seeing a bunch of great gains and results. I'm getting stronger, fitter, healthier, and more mobile. I'm playing basketball again, and my life has gotten a lot better. I'm like, "Dude, you helped me with this one area I really wanted help in my life. How can I return the favor?" Okay, I know I'm paying you, but how can I help you even beyond that? So, he's basically always wanted to have his own successful business. He's like, "I see what you do. I think that's awesome. I want kind of the same. I'm thinking about e-commerce or this or that."

Sam Parr

he goes I want that I want that

Shaan Puri

And I go, "Alright dude, I got it for you. I have an idea that I think will work and that I think will be successful." Which is great because that's what we want; we don't want to fail. The second thing is, it will lead to a lifestyle that I think you would enjoy. It doesn't take a ton of upfront work and it doesn't require a lot of capital. So, check this out: I'm helping him create a "milk road" for personal trainers. Basically, it's going to be a newsletter that goes out every morning to other trainers. It could also target fitness enthusiasts, but I think the starting market is just other trainers. "Train the trainers" is the phrase I keep saying. I'm like, "Dude, you are awesome with workouts. You're great with mindset stuff. You find all these interesting links to cool information, like, 'Oh, Andrew Huberman said this thing about the supplement. Check this out!'" I was like, "Dude, I feel like if you just published your daily updates—what's going on in your day-to-day as a trainer—that would just be an awesome email to receive if I were another trainer." So, we created this format and developed this brand, and what I'm going to do is help you...

Sam Parr

have the url

Shaan Puri

yeah so the url there's no sign up yet but I just got the domain it's it's so the the email's called the daily pump and so my daily pump dot com is gonna be the email so go go register for this because I want feedback on it but I'm gonna build this whole thing in public so milk road I didn't build in public I was like oh this is a good idea I'm gonna sprint on this and basically 1 year built the thing up into the largest crypto newsletter in the world and sold it and so you know had a had an awesome outcome there and now that I did that I know how I would do this in like 10 other spaces I don't really wanna go do that because it feels like I'd be just doing I'd be on the hamster wheel just playing the same level of the video game even though it's probably smart I have the the knowledge now of how to do it it'd be too boring I don't wanna do it but this has a different like meaning right if I could help him build up this business I think that will be you know like just helping my friend out with something that I know would really be helpful to be impactful to them and so so that's what I wanna do and I'm gonna share how we build this thing up you know sort of step by step and my it's been a really interesting process because he's not from the startup or business world and so a lot of times at at the beginning I was like oh yeah we should do this and he's like yeah yeah dope and then he wouldn't do it and I'm like I got frustrated and I I this happens to me with a bunch of people who I'm like dude I meet somebody they're like oh I wanna improve my situation I'm like oh yeah you just gotta do this or I'd I'd back you if you could find something I'll bring in the capital you do the work and they're like yeah yeah yeah and then 3 weeks later I don't hear from them and I used to think oh it's because they're lazy and I actually realized it's not because they're lazy they're not lazy people in fact usually the person I'm trying to help they're working 10 times harder than me at their day job right one guy was a plumber and you know it's like okay this guy's doing much harder work it's not that he's lazy it's that they're afraid and they're confused so they're afraid to fail and they're afraid to look dumb if they do the wrong thing or saying the wrong thing to me and they're also just confused they don't know where to start they just never started something like this from scratch and for me and you we've spent now 15 years doing this it's very easy to think oh dude I just spin up a landing page I would set this up on beehive and then I would go over here and I would do this and then I would I would not focus on that other stuff and I wouldn't care about advertisers till I get to 20,000 subscribers and like I would scrape this email list I would do this ad and I would and they're like

Sam Parr

dude I don't

Shaan Puri

I've never run a facebook ad I've never done a landing page I've never done any of this stuff

Sam Parr

I don't want to talk about that stuff publicly. I kind of regret it a little bit because, like, you had this at Milk Road. I didn't. I had it a little bit as well, where people in South America or other countries were just like...

Shaan Puri

copy it

Sam Parr

They would like to translate it and then just send the email like 30 minutes later. In one regard, it's flattering, but in another, I'm like... sometimes it's harmful, but other times it just pisses me off. Most of the time, it just pisses me off. It's not harmful, but I've changed. Once we got audiences, I was like, "I don't want to talk about this stuff," and so I get nervous about that now. I don't think you have... whether this thing succeeds or not, it doesn't impact you other than you want to help your friend. So, I don't understand why you...

Shaan Puri

I think if I talk about it publicly, it's going to keep me invested in it. It's going to keep me engaged because I'm going to have to keep reporting the story. I also think it's easier for me to justify the time because this takes time for me to help. I already had a pretty busy plate, but if I could say, "Well, you know what..."

Sam Parr

I'm getting paid

Shaan Puri

Use this for stories as content so that I don't have to separately make other content. That's my selfish justification. I also think if somebody was going to copy this blueprint, I wouldn't do it in personal training. That's only because he is a personal trainer. There are 30 other niches where this would work better than for personal trainers. I think that because it's specific to him, it actually fits his style; it's authentic and aligns with where he is a master. In the same way, I'm like, "Dude, I don't get it. Why don't you just blah blah blah?" What I realized was he probably looks at me and says the same thing. He's like, "Dude, I told you to increase your protein intake and just eat these macros. You'll get the body you want in 6 months." But here I am at your house, and there's a Chick-fil-A wrapper. What's going on here, right? That's the equivalent. He'd be like, "Oh, you should wake up and do this morning cardio thing. Fasted cardio, it'll only take you 10 minutes." Sounds so easy. Sure enough, he shows up, and I have some excuse as to why I didn't do it. I'm like, "Oh, I just forgot." A beginner is always going to go through these stages, and I just have to stay patient with him the way he's been patient with me. Now I do those things when he says them much better than I did at the beginning.

Sam Parr

you gotta get this page up though you gotta get this page up by tomorrow or I'm

Shaan Puri

Gonna get it before this thing is done. But the cool thing that I've been doing, by the way, is I've been posting. I've been texting him one thing every day. I'm like, "Yo, you gotta just do..." I'm like, the way you give me a workout of the day, it's like, "Sit down for... go to the gym for an hour and you're gonna do this workout." I just gotta listen to you, follow your blueprint, and it's gonna get the result I want because you've done this. You've mastered this. You're a black belt in this. I was...

Sam Parr

like I'm gonna do the

Shaan Puri

Same thing on the business side. I'm not going to hope you figure it out. I'm not going to leave it to you to figure it out. I'm going to give you one thing a day to do. It'll probably take you about an hour. I'm going to give you your daily workout each day. So that's how I've been doing it: one day, one little text message at a time. I'm like his business trainer the way he's my personal trainer. It's been kind of interesting to see how that's worked, and that's been pretty effective, to be honest.

Sam Parr

I'm eager to see if you regret this or not. He'll pull it off. It's going to be at least mildly successful because he's got a massive head start. We're going to be talking about it.

Shaan Puri

But I told him, I was like, "Dude, I'm not gonna give up on you." I was like, "If I was like you, you could've given up on me and been like, 'Dude, this guy's not...'"

Sam Parr

paid him still

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I pay him, but there's obviously a little difference there. There's a difference between showing up and doing the job or going the extra mile. He goes way the extra mile with me. For example, when my kids are raging out, he'll be holding one of my kids so I can get my workout in while he's training me. Or, he'll come in on an off day and just make the gym better. He'll surprise me and say, "Look, I want your environment to be dope because you're going to get that extra 5 to 10% juice enjoying your environment." You know, a trainer doesn't have to do all that. They don't have to come and rearrange your gym, help you with your kids, or stay for two extra hours just because. That sort of stuff really makes a difference.

Sam Parr

so I've got this friend named nick gray do you know who nick gray is

Shaan Puri

he's the party guy

Sam Parr

So, Nick Gray is my good friend. He started a thing called Museum Hack, where he took his previous company that made parts for private planes and sold it. Then, he began Museum Hack, which offered private tours in museums. He sold that, and now he has a new project called *The 2-Hour Cocktail Party*. It's a book on cocktail parties and how to host the perfect one. It's honestly quite good; I use his techniques. He's doing this new thing that he just showed me. Whenever he goes to a bar, restaurant, museum, or anything, he takes a picture of the food or the front of the building and reviews it. Can you see the link to the IMDb link I have in there? Look at what he does. He posts a review of the place, but he includes his book in the picture. He’s been testing this, and over the past couple of months, his photos have received 2,000,000 views. This guy, Nick, is crazy. He just tweeted out that he’s going to host a conference for all his ex-girlfriends. He has a lot of ex-girlfriends because he dates a lot, and he's very charming, so girls love him. But he's really nice, and he stays friends with his ex-girlfriends. One time, for his 40th birthday party, he rented out a water park, and there were about 30 of us. I swear to God, I'm not exaggerating—four of the guests were his ex-girlfriends, and they were all hanging out together. So, this guy's crazy, but look at this; you can just see the link to his Google reviews.

Shaan Puri

this is the funniest growth hack I've seen in a long time

Sam Parr

so he has a blog

Shaan Puri

post effective I would never do something like this

Sam Parr

He's got this blog post coming out tomorrow or the next day. I think if you just Google "Nick Gray" (G-R-A-Y), you'll see the blog post. I don't know the name of his website; it's probably just nickgray.com. He's going to reveal the results, but he was showing me this. I was like, "Nick, why?" I was just out to eat with him the other day, and he had his book with him. He pulled it out of his bag and was taking a picture. I asked, "What are you doing?" He goes, "Check this out." He showed me his Google reviews and said they have analytics on this. My video and photos in the last couple of months have gotten 1,800,000 views... 1,900,000 views! Is this hilarious or what?

Shaan Puri

That's so funny! This is such a funny story, and it reminds me of something. The story is better than the actual growth hack. Somebody said this about Pinterest too. They said, "Yeah, Pinterest, man, they were such grinders. I remember they used to go into the Apple stores and change all the default homepages to Pinterest.com on the Macs that are sitting on the table."

Sam Parr

yeah and who knows if that works

Shaan Puri

I'm like, "Dude, this guy's spending hours driving to Apple stores to try to get like 5 impressions."

Sam Parr

on his website and think that somebody's gonna be

Shaan Puri

Like, you know, I went there for an iPhone. But you know what I really want to do? What was that website I saw on the demo computer? I'm going to go sign up, make an account, and become a daily active user. That, like, doesn't happen. But the hustle story makes it worth it. I've done several of those where the hustle story...

Sam Parr

got ripped

Shaan Puri

makes it sound like you were going to the nth degree even though it made zero sense to do so

Sam Parr

He has reviews of everything. There's one for Panda Express, Lululemon, Charley Subs, Vans, and any store that he goes to. He takes this really good picture of the front. Like, there's a Great American Cookies; it looks like it's just an Auntie Anne's in the mall. He takes a picture of the front and just has his book in his hand. There's this guy on Yelp that Sarah and I follow because he tests all the good food places in New York and San Francisco. He had a newborn when he started doing it, and all the pictures were of his newborn eating the food. Then, you see the baby get like 1 year old, 2 years old, 3 years old, and I start getting to know this kid. We're always like, "Look, that guy's been there." It's actually an interesting hack that I think... I don't know if this one will work, but there are these weird personalities that I've seen on Yelp and on Google reviews where I start to get to know them, and I trust the reviews. It's actually a really fascinating platform to hack, and I wanted to bring that up because I've never really seen insights like this. I think it's incredibly fascinating.

Shaan Puri

yeah that's super cool

Sam Parr

do you know what I'm doing right after the top of the hour

Shaan Puri

yeah you have can you talk you wanna announce it what what you're doing

Sam Parr

yeah yeah yeah so how did

Shaan Puri

you do this by the way how'd you pull this off

Sam Parr

Alright, so we have this guy named Michael Harris, nicknamed Harry O. I don't know much about him yet, but I'm going to interview him and find out his story. I don't want to reveal his whole story because I don't know the entire thing, but basically, he's one of the co-founders of Death Row Records. Sometimes, my wife Sarah and I volunteer in prisons, and we work with this program called The Last Mile. I've told you about The Last Mile; my friend Chris, who's a tech guy, started it. It basically helps teach inmates how to do tech-related work so they can hopefully get a job once they're released. Well, a lot of those people are convicted murderers. It's wild. Through that program, I met Michael. He went to prison for 30 years, starting in his twenties. Before that, he made up to $1,000,000 a day selling crack and cocaine. He also helped discover Denzel Washington and sponsored or funded Broadway plays and things like that. He parlayed all of that into music and thus created Death Row Records with Suge Knight. He has all these stories about Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tupac, and more. So, we're going to talk to him and figure out his story.

Shaan Puri

are you a little bit intimidated to have this conversation

Sam Parr

Incredibly, because I don't know you, you're not like the big pop culture guy. But basically, like, there's... you know, he's a girl, me.

Shaan Puri

he's I'm in pop culture

Sam Parr

Dude, you didn't know who Dolly Parton was? But basically, I read a book about Eazy-E, and Eazy-E and Dre had a beef with Death Row. I don't know where that stands, and I'm not sure if I can say who I'm a fan of and who I'm not a fan of. So I'm a little nervous because this guy... it's not like our friends or our enemies on Twitter where we're just going to argue. Of course, this guy will never do anything bad, but you know, it's a little bit more real.

Shaan Puri

He's more capable, for sure. Don't make the mistake of referencing somebody by their first name if you don't know them. They'll be like, "Yeah, I was reading about Eze," and you say, "Eze?" Yeah, Eze. But I don't know, I'm just trying to seem cool here. It's like when people say they're coming to visit the Bay Area. They go, "Hey, I'm gonna be in San Fran this week." I just have to tell them, "Hey man, listen, just as a friend, nobody says San Fran here." So you're just outing yourself as a tourist as soon as you say that.

Sam Parr

As you say that, that's how I feel. I want to be respectful, but I also want to let them know that I've listened to all this music and read a lot of books about it, but purely from an academic standpoint, you know what I'm saying?

Shaan Puri

brothers from 2 way different mothers yeah yeah mothers yeah

Sam Parr

Yeah, so like, that's... it feels a little funky. But I was talking to him the other day because the reason I got in touch with him is that he wants to launch a podcast. He's brainstorming and he asked to talk to me, and I said yes. He starts talking, and I'm like, "Hey, you realize that when you're talking to me about this drug trade and things like that, you talk about delegation and empowering your coworkers and things like that, right? This is business stuff." So, do you want to come on the pod? I thought it'd be cool.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, we've had people who've made... you know, originally this podcast was called "My First Million" because it was about interviewing people who've made $1,000,000 in many different ways. So, I interviewed a business person, then a poker player, and then somebody who made it through selling weighted blankets online. There was also someone who made it selling deodorant, and another who made it with 1-800-GOT-JUNK. It was a whole bunch of different things. But now we have somebody who did it in some new ways—selling crack cocaine, running a record label, and who knows what else. I think it's going to be amazing! I'm joking around just because I know if I was in your position, I would feel a little squirmy going into it. It's like, how do I not say something stupid? I know this could be great. When things are tough, that's when you know it could be great, but you also know it could easily go not great if you don't build rapport or if you don't really know how to guide the conversation properly. Because it's not your standard interview, right? If we brought someone on who built a SaaS company to $20,000,000, we'd be like, "Cool, I know the same 20 questions to ask you that are all safe." You're going to give me 20 answers that are all safe, and I know exactly how the conversation is going to go. It really can't go anywhere that's out of my comfort zone in terms of a question or a topic to talk about. Whereas this one's going to be... you know, the zip code is out of your comfort zone. So, you're not going to... I know how I would feel going into that interview. That's why I...

Sam Parr

I wanted you to come because I thought it'd be fun. Since you are even a few more zip codes away than I am, are you sure you can't make it? You should!

Shaan Puri

Yeah, yeah, exactly. **Death Row Records**—the name's a bit crude, don't you think? Do you ever think of something softer, like **Milk Road**, for example? No? Yeah, unfortunately, I got another thing scheduled at that time, but...

Sam Parr

Alright, there's the pod. By the way, the gentleman's agreement is working. I went to a party with a bunch of 23-year-olds. It sounds a lot worse than it is. A friend turned 23 and he asked me to go. A friend went too.

Shaan Puri

jeffree's party on an island somewhere

Sam Parr

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was at the Lolita taco plate. I had so many people come up to me and say, "Hey, by the way, I honored the gentleman's agreement." That's because the show has this thing called the gentleman's agreement. We make this content for free, but it's not actually free to listen. In exchange, you gotta go subscribe to our YouTube. And it's working! We're getting like 800 to 1,000 new YouTube subscribers a day.

Shaan Puri

yeah this basically is 3 x to the number of daily subscribers we were getting on our youtube channel who would

Sam Parr

have thought

Shaan Puri

that that's their

Sam Parr

everyone told us to do this the whole time and we're like you're an idiot they'll no one follows that

Shaan Puri

Yeah, we also... we kind of, yeah, we say it a lot now. But for like two years, we never told anybody to do anything. So we're just kind of... we're due.

Sam Parr

yeah we're due