Brainstorming +$1M Weird Business Ideas With Morning Brew’s CEO Austin Rief (#543)

Shaan Puri

Dude, this is a great idea! This is why we started this podcast. For somebody to come on and say, "Yeah, I just built a $100,000,000 media company, but guys, smoking meats is where it's at!" What's up? We got the three amigos of newsletters. The short story of Austin is out of college. He created Morning Brew and sold it for, I think I've read, $75,000,000. So you'd have to correct me if I'm wrong, but $75,000,000! He still runs it with 100 employees. Amazing! You have a document here of a bunch of topics.

Austin Rief

Yeah, someone sent me this deck like last week. I was going to text Sam about this, but I thought, "You know what? Let me wait for the pod to talk to you guys about this." This feels like my first million special, so I've been super excited about a bunch of these post-COVID, get-out-of-your-house, do-exciting-things activities. Let's not just go to a bar and drink; I think that's pretty boring. There are a bunch of these in New York. I don't know if they have them where you guys live, but they have ping pong bars and pool bars, and they keep getting more and more creative. I was tweeting about this, and some guy sent me a deck. He goes, "I got something interesting for you." So, if you have your computer out, look up "Bingo Loco." This guy sent me this deck for Bingo, and I'm like, "What the hell is this?" Right? Bingo Loco is basically a club meets bingo. It's boozy bingo with performers, confetti showers, the whole thing.

Shaan Puri

this looks like a tiesto concert or something going on what is this

Austin Rief

I didn't know people played bingo on cruise ships. I thought bingo was either for old people or cruise ships. He sends me his deck. I don't want to disclose their numbers, but he goes, "Check out one of our competitors, Bongo Bingo USA."

Sam Parr

and I'm like there's no way I'm

Shaan Puri

like there's no way there's

Austin Rief

a whole industry for for bingo raves for bingo parties

Sam Parr

dude the websites are exactly the same did they they just copied each other

Austin Rief

It looks like those... I, again, he just sent me a deck. Apparently, people in the industry—so these Bongo Bingo guys—apparently pre-COVID were doing $20,000,000 a year in revenue.

Shaan Puri

No way! Explain this model. Do they own the place, or are they just going in like doing a pop-up bingo night at some place?

Austin Rief

No, I think they go all out. It's actually really smart, right? Because what they do is, I believe they go for pretty off nights for certain places. So, you know, nights where a club or whatever wouldn't be that popular, but they still bring that environment. They still use a lot of the infrastructure that these venues have, and they bring, it seems like, the whole show: the confetti showers, the performers, everything. What I think is interesting is they keep you there with the bingo. There's a shuffleboarding place in Brooklyn, right? They keep you there because you play shuffleboard for, you know, hours and hours, and you're just buying drinks. That's like the shtick, that's the hook to get you in. And this is the same thing with a game of bingo. I'm sure they have performers mid-game. They keep you there for seven hours, and you just buy a bunch of drinks. So, I thought this one was awesome.

Sam Parr

Tickets are $53 right now. Wow! And they sell these out.

Austin Rief

I guess they must be making money off the boots, right? I was trying to do more research, but there's not that much info. I never heard of it, but they must be making their money off of the boots.

Shaan Puri

Well, look at this ad! I went to their ad library. People of Minneapolis, a **Bingo Rave** is coming to the Granada Theater on **March 15th**, which is a couple of months out. It says, "After a string of sold-out shows across America, Big O Loco has Minneapolis in its sights." Then, it's got this TikTok video that literally looks like you're at a rave. You go there, and the ticket is **$30**. Basically, there's a host, music, confetti, dance-offs, lip sync battles, and drinks—basically, there's alcohol.

Sam Parr

this is like the sound it's like that on a website

Shaan Puri

yeah that's the business plan you open up a open up a deck and it just plays that sound

Sam Parr

I've got 4 words for you investors

Austin Rief

And I'm sure the margins on this are crazy. Their costs are some random performers. And, and, and... I played bingo one time on a cruise ship, and these guys are making what seems like $20,000,000 a year off bingo. I gotta... we gotta figure out what we can do next for this.

Sam Parr

Alright everyone, a quick break to tell you about HubSpot. This one's really easy for me to talk about because I'm going to show you a real-life example. So, I've got this company called Hampton (joinhampton.com). It's a community for founders doing between $2,000,000 all the way up to $250,000,000 a year in revenue. One of the ways that we've grown is by creating these cool surveys. We have a lot of founders who have high net worth, and we ask them all types of questions that people typically are embarrassed to ask but that provide a lot of value. For example, we ask questions like how much the founders pay themselves each month, how much money they're spending each month, what their payroll looks like, and if they're optimistic about the next year in their business. All these questions that people are afraid to ask, but we ask them anyway, and they tell us in this anonymous survey. What we do is create a landing page using HubSpot's landing page tool. It basically has a landing page that says, "Here are all the questions we asked. Give us your email if you want to access it." I shared this page on Twitter, and we were able to get thousands of people who gave us their email and told us they wanted this survey. I could see where they came from—social media, Twitter, LinkedIn, basically everywhere else that they could possibly come from. I'm able to track all of that. Then, I can see over the next handful of weeks how many of those people actually signed up and became members of Hampton. In other words, I can see how much revenue came from this survey and how much revenue came from each traffic source, things like that. But the best part is I can see how much revenue came from it. A lot of times, it takes a ton of work to make that happen, but HubSpot made that super, super easy. If you're interested in doing this, you could check it out at hubspot.com. The link's in the description, and I'll also put the link to the survey that I did so you can actually see the landing page and how it works and everything like that. I'm just going to do that call to action then, and it's free! Check it out in the description. Alright, now back to MFM. So, you make a lot of money at Morning Brew doing digital stuff, and you just hit send on a little email. It's easy... kind of easy. Why on earth do you care about physical stuff? It seems way more challenging.

Austin Rief

Yeah, I don't know if I've ever started something in this space, but it's just so fun to go see the way people... You know, I would never think this would work in a million years. I would never think "bingo on steroids," bingo performers would work, but I think it's so interesting. I love going to these things around the city to try to see how people get others hooked on these activities. It's so easy to hook people in a newsletter, right? It's content every day. It's very different for people to come back to play shuffleboard at your bingo. So, I love these events.

Shaan Puri

I have an idea for one. Can I pitch you guys one? Alright, so, as soon as you set this bingo thing, my brain starts... the wheels start turning. Sam, you appreciate this; you like the UFC. I don't know if you remember when Conor McGregor was on his come-up. He was knocking people out. He was the best. Everyone was like, "What can't this guy do?" Because everybody thought whoever the next guy was fighting would neutralize him with this, this, and this. But then he knocks them out. I remember watching one ex-UFC fighter doing an analysis. He said, "I'm watching Conor. He does all this spinning stuff, and he does this and this. I think it's all smoke and mirrors. I think everything is just a distraction because he's trying to land the left hand." He said, "All this stuff he's throwing, he doesn't care what happens with it. He's just trying to hit you with the left hand." To me, this is the same business model. Like the bingo... it's like, "Oh, do you hear about that bingo business?" No, no, no. You hear about that alcohol business that uses bingo to get you to the bar. So similarly, we gotta figure out what's gonna get people to the bar and get them drinking. Here's my idea: I've always wanted to enter one of those eating contests. I don't know if you guys have ever done one. I've never actually done it, but those places where it's like, "If you can eat this pizza, it's free." There's always this problem where you have to pay $75 to buy the huge pizza. It might be free, but you know... I would love if somebody turned this into... you know, if I was in college, I would've been all over this. If it was like, "The contest is who can eat the most hot dogs or the biggest pizza, who can finish it the fastest." You can go enter, and you have to bring friends to be your cheering section. They're all rowdy and drinking, cheering you on. It's free to play because the pizza's not that expensive, but you're gonna fill up the bar with, like, 100 people who are in the mood to binge and go extreme. Because that's kind of the theme of the night, in a way. It's like sports meets binge eating. Well, what's the best thing that goes with both those things? Binge drinking! Who's with me?

Austin Rief

the only thing you need

Shaan Puri

to add is a little

Austin Rief

A bit of gambling... You need to have people gamble. Oh, this is like gambling, right? It's like Vegas meets a party. So just ask, that's embedding.

Shaan Puri

Beautiful! Yes, and I don't know if you've been doing some improv, but that was a beautiful "yes, and." I really appreciate that one good riff.

Sam Parr

I follow this guy on YouTube. He's called **Beer Meets Food** and looks like he has **3,600,000** subscribers. Have you guys seen this guy? He just goes to small restaurants in England where they have challenges like, you know, "You get this free if you eat it." He eats roughly **10,000 calories** in each of the challenges and he nails all of them. One time, he ate, I think it was **£5** of chocolate. Have you seen this, Sean? This guy's channel is the craziest channel I've ever seen and I watch all of his videos. It's one of the few YouTube channels I subscribe to. This guy needs to launch your food challenge gambling business!

Shaan Puri

There are actually a bunch of these Instagrammers that you could do this with. So, you know, there's that guy who eats the raw meat. I think he's called the "Raw Meat Experiment."

Sam Parr

read his bio read his bio sean his bio is great

Shaan Puri

I have 142,000 followers. He goes around eating raw meat every day until he dies from bacteria. Then it says, "If I live for 5 days or 500 years." Literally, he'll just take a disgusting chunk of ground beef that just sits outside of Whole Foods. He buys the ground beef and eats it raw. Or he'll just get a chicken breast uncooked and chew it like it's a... you know, I don't know, like a Slim Jim or something like that. I feel like there are so many Instagram food mukbangs and different variations of this. There are a lot of YouTubers that do this where they order just an insane amount of food and say, "Watch me eat." It is entertaining to do. I could see them being guest hosts or promotional figures to do these pop-ups.

Sam Parr

I used to, when I worked in San Francisco, I didn't have a lot. I had a part-time job and worked for this guy, Joe Garvey. He had a company called CLASH, which stood for California League of Adventure Scavenger Hunt or something like that. It was called CLASH SF, and he was making seven figures a year. We would host these citywide scavenger hunts, and they were the best! It was so fun, and I got to see some of the economics of these in-person events. I was actually pretty shocked at how great some of these could be. It was a lot of work. Then we have another friend, Nick Gray. Did you know, Sean, that Nick Gray had a business called Museum Hack? He eventually sold it, and it was doing many millions in revenue. The way the business worked was that at first, it was just guerrilla marketing. He would go to the Met in New York, which is a free museum, and people would pay $50 for him to give them a tour. He would explain the art. Eventually, he hired lots of theater kids to lead these tours, and he set them up in a variety of museums throughout the country. Eventually, he had partnerships after they kicked him out a bunch of times, and he said that business was awesome.

Shaan Puri

Dude, I love the way he described it too. He uses the phrase **"renegade museum tours."** I just thought that was a great way to pitch it. He's like, "Yeah, my first business, I hosted renegade museum tours." It doesn't really explain what it is, but you try to put it all together. The word **"renegade"** I feel like is an underutilized, underhyped word. I think I'm going to try to bring that back into my everyday vocabulary.

Austin Rief

I think they made him, I think *Time* magazine made him the number one thing to do in New York. I think that's what blew him up, right? He blew up, and then, of course, he went B2B because that's where the money in all this stuff is, right? You sell to consumers for $50, but you sell to Morning Brew for $20, and our HR team just signs off and approves it.

Sam Parr

Austin, last time you were here, I think we talked about the creator economy. I'm almost certain all three of us were like, "This is gonna fizzle out." Has your opinion changed? I know some things have happened in the news or the media world that have got you excited. Tell me about that.

Austin Rief

Yeah, I think last time we spoke, I remember we were all talking and we were like, "What's the next Milk Road for... right, Milk Road for X?" We were all discussing that and we were like, "Oh, AI's popping off. Let's... so why don't you launch the Milk Road for AI?"

Sam Parr

Milk Road for X that just got Sean. He's all hot, man. You're speaking to him perfectly.

Shaan Puri

Austin got on the call, called me skinny, and now he said "Milk Road for Hex X" instead of "Morning Brew or Hustle for X." This guy's a charmer; I love it.

Austin Rief

Just trying to hype you up, Sean. I mean, look, there were 10,000 beehives growing off the backs of Milk Road for AI. I think the problem with these businesses is that their content's not very good. They've all grown with these crazy growth hacks, which is great for the newsletter ecosystem as a whole, but it's not sustainable. I think there's no more alpha in the newsletter game. Everyone talks about everything, and I think Beehive did for newsletters what Shopify did for e-commerce. E-commerce stores started, and people got super pumped. Investors invested in Away and all these businesses because they thought, "Oh, Shopify makes it so easy to start an e-commerce store," and that's awesome. The problem was they made it too easy to start an e-commerce store, where everyone started e-commerce stores. You have to be either the absolute best, or you just can't raise a bunch of money. You have to be okay with it being like a fine business, but everyone's just pouring in. Again, not a ton of money, but a ton of people just think, "Oh, if I can just create the Milk Road for marketing, the Milk Road for AI, I'm going to have a Milk Road-like exit." I just don't know what you guys think, but I just don't believe these newsletters have a ton of value.

Shaan Puri

Let me ask you a different question. You spent a bunch of time in media. Now, how long have you been doing this? Like 7 or 8 years?

Austin Rief

something like that code up on 10

Shaan Puri

Oh my God, wow! Incredible. A third of your life you've spent in the media business. I hope you don't spend the next two thirds of your life in the media business too. If you were going to do something different, where would you go? Let's say media was off the table. What would you do next?

Austin Rief

Yeah, so I think there are two types of businesses I love. I think one is, you know, B2B. We've all built businesses where the LTVs are like $15, and that's pretty tough. I love selling significant enterprise products. The other one is building into passion audiences. That's, I think, where I'd actually go. So, you know, we went to Camp My First Million last year, and we met that guy. I think his name was Al, who's building for quilters.

Sam Parr

aldone

Austin Rief

Yeah, I think he does $100 of $1,000,000 in revenue. So, I think I want to find a niche there and figure out, you know, what is a weird niche. The one I've been spending a lot of time researching—I almost did something here, but I ended up not doing it—is meat smoking. I am obsessed with my Traeger, right?

Sam Parr

dude how do you use a traeger you live in an apartment in new york like on your balcony

Austin Rief

yeah on the I I live in the 1st floor so I I I have access to the common space

Shaan Puri

so I don't I don't meat smoke what what even is meat smoking can you just give me that first

Sam Parr

dude it's such a pain in the ass it is such a pain in the ass

Shaan Puri

grilling or it's different than grilling

Austin Rief

you cook you cook meat at like 200 degrees for like 10 12 hours

Sam Parr

It's like barbecuing, but for 10 hours with no fire. They use smoke. All of my Jewish friends are into this because you guys grew up eating brisket.

Shaan Puri

you gotta wait 10 hours to eat

Sam Parr

And you've gotta buy special wood chips for it. It's a pain in the ass. I've got friends that will wake up at 4 in the morning to get their brisket started.

Shaan Puri

okay but I'm a believer anything that's a huge pain in the ass that people do there's like a shit ton of money there

Austin Rief

Exactly right. So, there are a couple of big brands in smoking. There's Traeger, right? Traeger's the one I have. The thing is, with Traeger, you don't just turn it on like electricity and it goes. You have to use wood pellets. You literally smoke with wood pellets. Traeger gets you to buy the $1,500 smoker, but then you're also spending $50 every time you smoke meats because you're burning these pellets. There are a lot of meat smoker influencers out there, like these guys in Nashville and Texas. They literally have videos on "How to smoke a ribeye" or "How to smoke a brisket," and they have tens of millions of views. They're all kind of sophisticated, using these rubs that you put on your meats. But none of them are taking big swings. None of them are building a Traeger competitor. I want to build a Traeger or Green Egg competitor. Sell the $1,500 product, sell the $50 a month or $100 a month pellets, and build the next Traeger, which I think could be a multi-billion dollar brand.

Shaan Puri

Dude, I'm fired up! I'm smoked up right now. That was a good pitch. You seem pretty lit up about that. Why did you not do this? This sounds awesome!

Austin Rief

I've been talking to some meat smoking influencers. I'm working on that.

Shaan Puri

on it

Sam Parr

the the the the meat smoking boys that's what we'll call them

Austin Rief

What I like about these guys is that they're just so much more down to earth than these New York City influencers. You know, it's not like the TikTok 22-year-olds. These are people who just love life. They just want to smoke meats, and if they can sell a grill, even better. There's this guy—have you heard of this guy, Jonathan Moses Katz?

Sam Parr

no who's that

Austin Rief

So, he's a woodworking creator, right? He's done kind of what I'm saying but in the woodworking niche. What this guy has done is that he was a big woodworking creator, and he built some tools for his audience. It's cool because, obviously, he's a woodworker, so he can build them himself for his audience.

Sam Parr

his site his site gets so much traffic this guy kills it I bet

Austin Rief

He crushes it, right? So, I spoke with this guy one time. I don't have any insider information, but he crushed it. What he started to do is partner with every other woodworking creator. He said, "Hey, look, I'm crushing it for myself, selling a bunch of whatever widgets to my audience. Let me make you your own custom little thing in your woodworking niche, and I'm going to help you all sell them as well." Then we can build a collective store of all our products. And, Sean, if you sell one on behalf of Sam, you'll kick him an affiliate. This is a big business.

Sam Parr

I bet you he does $50,000,000 a year on something called KAM Tools, I think, right? Yeah, KAM Tools. I bet you this does in the $50,000,000 range.

Austin Rief

yeah I I wouldn't be surprised if there's more

Shaan Puri

Dude, this is a great idea! This is why we started this podcast. For somebody to come on and say, "Yeah, I just built a $100,000,000 media company, but guys, smoking meats is where it's at." This is a niche you're never really thinking about. There's an opportunity here. Here's the distribution model we're going to use: I'm going to partner with these influencers and then do this kind of affiliate network to build this competitor. This is awesome!

Sam Parr

We're going to call it **the Meat Smoking Jerky Boys**. This allows us a little bit of a lateral expansion into the beef jerky space. So, we're going to call it **the Meat Smoking Jerky Boys**.

Shaan Puri

No, dude. You know that cigarette brand that we love, the branding and the packaging of? Oklahoma Smokes. Yeah, I feel like you kinda gotta do an Oklahoma Smokes or like a Nashville Smokes Club or something like that, brought to you by the Jerky Boys. I think it all needs to come together into one mega brand.

Austin Rief

I have not seen this branding. This is awesome! Oklahoma Smokes, we're stealing this. We're buying the company just to steal the branding. Dude, they're so good!

Sam Parr

Google some of the most popular towns in Louisiana. Just pick one name that stands out, you know, like Tupelo or something.

Austin Rief

I'm just hoping a big meat smoking influencer or creator listens to this podcast and DMs me on Twitter, saying, "I'm ready to ride."

Shaan Puri

The Baton Rouge Smoke Company... God, there's just so many possibilities here, Austin. I know when we started this conversation, I didn't even know what smoking meats was, but I'm in! Hold a little check space for me on this company because I love to be a part of this. You know, I'm the opposite of an expert advisor here. I'm actually going to be your in-house beginner, and that's how I'm going to add some value to you.

Sam Parr

Dude, even Zuck's into it. Remember the whole Zuck meme about smoking meats?

Shaan Puri

ray or whatever

Sam Parr

Yeah, he loves smoking meats. And you're into this, I know that for a minute. Austin, you were talking about how you want to partner with creators because, like, once you can attach with some of these folks, you just kill it. Is that what you would do?

Austin Rief

I mean, for this, yeah, I think that is still it. It's very popular these days to partner with creators. I still think that's the future. I still think we're scratching the surface. The others, Feast of Bulls and Prime, and everyone talks about those. It has definitely been played out in terms of discussion, but I still think ultimately you're going to walk into a liquor store or Target, and every brand is going to have a face and association. Because why wouldn't it, right? If there's a brand that could have nobody attached to it or a brand that could have someone attached to it, why wouldn't that brand have the built-in distribution of you guys or someone more widely known? I just don't see how that doesn't play out. So, you know, it's been done with the biggest creators. I think the real opportunity is in the niches.

Sam Parr

Sean, how big do you think... First of all, we don't really have that many cool interests that you could have an MFM product in Target. Like, what are we gonna fucking sell? Red Solo cups? I don't even know. What is that? Tupperware? I don't know what we could possibly sell.

Shaan Puri

the dumbest thing that would be associated with yeah

Sam Parr

like like a notebook I don't I have no idea

Shaan Puri

but and if I'm slinkies baby let's go

Sam Parr

How popular is it? Like, what's the deal? So, Barstool has the Barstool Razor. They're in stores, and they're a way bigger brand than the bar.

Shaan Puri

frozen pizza they have like other things

Sam Parr

How famous do we have to be, do you think, in order to make a dent in getting sales at Target?

Austin Rief

So, I don't think that [being] famous is necessary if you pick the right product. I actually think we're past the [idea of needing fame].

Sam Parr

Become more famous do you get more famous because your shit's in target you're like oh my god they're actually in target

Austin Rief

I think we're past the point where just fame is going to drive success. I think that works for a few people, but you actually need to have a great product. I think you had them on the podcast, you know, Danny Austin and her husband, Jordan.

Sam Parr

yeah

Austin Rief

Dani's big, but she's not as big as some of these other creators. However, her brand is worth way more than almost every brand out there because it's actually a product that has a need. It's not, "Hey, we're gonna rip off one of the biggest brands on the planet." It was truly a great product.

Shaan Puri

oh sam we could've done himss

Sam Parr

more like more like

Shaan Puri

the trt subscriptions or something

Sam Parr

we should've done himss

Shaan Puri

that would've been our move

Sam Parr

have you ever taken it

Shaan Puri

no is it good

Sam Parr

I've never taken it either I I've never tried it austin have you you're younger than we are have you done it

Austin Rief

no I have not

Shaan Puri

Alright, guys. We know what we're doing next time we hang out. Yeah, I am doing a podcast.

Sam Parr

we're gonna be playing swords

Shaan Puri

so I think this is gonna be like the new newsletter thing I think that people looked at feasibles they looked at prime and they looked at skims and they're like creator brand and every creator's like I need to do a creator brand and every like former dropshippers like I just need a creator and then we win and they're all gonna go do this and then they're all gonna wash out there's obviously gonna be a few winners because the difference right like what logan paul did with prime is so different than what most creators do with their product like that guy a had like actually like a humongous audience took it everywhere built the brand sort of like brick by brick oh he's at wrestlemania guess what he's gonna fucking hit the guy over the head with a giant bottle of prime or like you know there's one and it was him and ksi right so they got 2 huge creators 2 big markets to pair together to go into this industry you know mr beast is like I'm gonna do feastables but he's not just like hey go ahead guys go buy my chocolate he's like I rebuilt willy wonka's chocolate factory for $3,000,000 and that's how I'm gonna launch this thing I'm gonna make the product the content the content is the product there's no line between the 2 and you know so the you know he those worked because the creators really were like actual entrepreneurs and partnered with world class operators to pull them off right like we talked about the guys behind prime those guys are monsters right those guys are in their twenties and mega billionaires for a reason have built multiple beverage brands for a reason the guy who built conor mcgregor's whiskey brand was also the guy who did like whatever 2 other alcohol brands that were multibillion dollar dollar brands that they they partnered with him to do proper 12 and same thing conor is like mega mega famous and went all the way with the promotion versus other people may not I think the dani austin story is good because it was like her real story was like postpartum I was losing hair I was ashamed of it I bought wigs for the last year I've been wearing wigs while I've been an influencer but instead I really wanted to find a product that would work and here's the product here's my before and after and it's like that's like the perfect combination of things you have high margin product you have repeat purchase because people are gonna have they have to keep applying the thing you have a visual before and after and you have a true story around the creator's like actual need versus just like a a nice to have and you know that is like the you know that's the the yahtzee of of putting these these together most people are not gonna be able to do that

Sam Parr

yeah but austin you could do it you you you've got that operator gene you could be one of these nerds

Shaan Puri

Well, the thing is, we're all doing it in the B2B space, right? So what we're doing is not... it's like, okay, we have one one-hundredth the audience of a Mr. Beast or a Logan Paul. Cool. So we need to sell a product that's 100 times more expensive than a bottle of Prime. Right? He sells his for $4 or whatever. We're trying to sell products that cost $4,000, $40,000, or $400,000 a year by doing B2B software. That's why HubSpot did it with us. And I think this is the other thing: Austin, you did a thread that was like, "This is the new thing." But it's like, dude, people have been doing celebrity endorsements forever. The difference is that now the celebrities own equity.

Sam Parr

I'm like oh yeah people can do this wait a minute we did it that's us

Shaan Puri

Yes, exactly. That's good for their brand, right? Like, to help them sell a product that's worth $1,000. It would be smart of us to do that, not the MFM whatever, like target brand nail clippers. Like that, yeah. Like, yeah, exactly. Adult Legos. Legos, yeah.

Austin Rief

And Sam, I think really that is you in Hampton. Like, you really are. I mean, it's a what, $8,000 product? I think that is the perfect example. You may not be Tony Robbins, right? You may not be Gary V, right? Maybe they're the equivalent of like the Logan Paul in B2B, but you found a great product, and it makes a lot of sense for your brand and your audience. So, yeah, I think it's a home run.

Sam Parr

yeah keep showing

Shaan Puri

Speaking of Tony Robbins, Austin, you know this episode's going to come out right after the episode with Tony Robbins. So, yeah.

Sam Parr

which is good for austin I think that's good for austin you

Austin Rief

No, I mean maybe, but I meant to start with this actually. So maybe we'll cut this and put it at the beginning. You know, when you start a... not to shill Hampton again, I hate to do this, but when you start a Hampton session with your group, you air grievances, right? Everyone says, "Can you be honest with everyone? Can you really have a good dialogue and discussion? Or is there anything you need to get out in the open?" Well, clearly we could because I didn't say this, but I do need to tell everyone that on Monday, you and I were supposed to talk at 1 o'clock. Sean's like, "I'm gonna call you, Austin." 1 o'clock comes by, no call. 2 o'clock comes by, no call. So I text you, "Sean, what's going on?" You're like, "Oh, I'm prepping for the big guest."

Shaan Puri

she texted me thanks for the call that would just sound better

Austin Rief

And so I'm like, "Sean, what the heck's going on?" I'm prepping for the big guest. I'm like, "Oh, Sean's hyping me up." Then, like 10 minutes later, by the way, that was actually Tony Robbins, not you.

Sam Parr

Yeah, so basically, he reached out, or someone on his team reached out. I had a thing planned, and also, Sean is like the biggest fan. So, Sean, it was awesome that you got to just hang out with a guy you admired. How was it?

Shaan Puri

It was intense, is the way I would explain it. I mean, when I tell you I prepared for this, not only did I basically spend every waking moment for two days just like pre-preparing for this thing, which I never do for podcasts, I've also kind of been preparing for ten years because I follow the guy and I'm a big fan of what he's doing. I've been to three of his seminars. I know a lot, and there's kind of a curse of knowing too much going in.

Sam Parr

like meet your heroes type of thing

Shaan Puri

Yeah, it's like you want it to go well so bad. It's almost like you squeeze the... like, "Don't squeeze the bar of soap too hard; it just squirts out." If you want it to go so well, it's gonna pick up. I'll tell you guys the funny part.

Sam Parr

so like interesting analogy interesting analogy

Shaan Puri

It's not the bar of soap analogy you thought I was going to do. No, that's... yeah, I took the road less traveled there. So, we're getting rid of the pod. It's me and Ari, and we're sitting there. His team's like... you know, his team's swarming the computer setup. They're like, "Tony will be here shortly. Everything's okay." I'm like, "Alright, sweet! I never get here early." You know, I'm chronically late, but for this one, I was 20 minutes early. So, I'm sitting there for like 10 minutes, and I could just feel myself getting cold. I'm like, "Oh no, I can't just sit here." I was like, "I gotta use the stuff Tony teaches you. You gotta be in state. You want to have peak performance; you gotta be in a peak state, of course." Right? Athletes do that. Well, guess what? What's one step down from an athlete? A musician. What's 25 steps down from that? A podcaster. So, I got up and I started doing my Tony Robbins power move. I'm basically doing this really dorky mid-back stretch to, you know, unlock my chakras or something like that, trying to get some energy flowing. Then I just hear, "Hello," and it's Tony Robbins! I rushed back to my desk and I'm like, "Oh hey, yeah, sorry! You were just staring at my chair there while I was doing, you know, Tony Robbins stretches in the corner trying to get hype for this."

Sam Parr

He just hears, like, off-screen Sean saying, "I'm the man! Who's the man? I'm the man! I'm the man!"

Shaan Puri

Even better! I'm visualizing. Thanks, Tony. I had a good time too. You want my number? Let me get it for you. I'm working backwards from the desired end state, just like you did. Just me, but here's it off camera, and it went well. I mean, I'm not going to give away too much, but let me just say this: tears were shed, and they weren't mine. If there's one mark of a successful Tony-like life accomplishment, I wouldn't say he cried, but he teared up. So, you know, I thought that was a good thing. But it's really hard to interview somebody who is a stage performer like Sam. You must feel like this sometimes when I'm just monologuing... monologuing... monologuing, like right now. He's on a next level at that, and it's all good stuff. But it's like, you know, you poke the thing, and an avalanche comes out.

Sam Parr

Were you ever like, "Alright, Tony, shut the fuck up. Let me ask my next question"? So this guy's like Alvin Lovett.

Shaan Puri

45 minutes. They were like, "You got 45 minutes with Tony." I was like, "45 minutes? Jeez! This guy does 9-hour-a-day seminars for 4 days straight. What am I gonna do in 45 minutes?" Then I thought, "Hey, you know, actually it might be better if we do this in person. I will fly to you tomorrow, and I'll be there." His team was like, "No thanks, we'll do you stay over there. We'll do it this way instead." But it was good. I enjoyed it. I do think I'm gonna just make a prediction, Austin. Sorry to big doggy with the Tony Robbins thing, but I'll give you this compliment: I think people are gonna like this episode more because the rapport and also just the style of stuff we talk about is so, like, you know, on point for what this podcast is. Can I ask you a different story though about a big name?

Austin Rief

yeah go ahead

Shaan Puri

A couple of years ago, you texted us that you were going to dinner with SPF. At the time, SPF was the next Mark Zuckerberg. SPF was a multi-billionaire and the fastest-growing private startup boy genius from MIT who wore cargo jorts. We were like, "Dude, tell us more!" And you were like, "I can't. Gotta put away my phone right now. You know, see you later, suckers! I'm gonna go have dinner with SPF." Can you now, two years later, tell us the story? What was it like going to dinner with SPF?

Sam Parr

yeah he's not gonna do anything now right

Austin Rief

He's in jail for a long time, I think. So maybe one day I'll get out and listen to this episode. I don't think I've told this story publicly, so I'll tell it. I have a friend, an investor at a big VC, who invested in FTX. This is probably, I don't know, 2021. So SBF was SBF, right? This is pre him obviously getting caught and being a fraud, but he was at the height of his power. He was whatever the stat was, the richest person under 35 in the world.

Sam Parr

Oh, the one-liner for anyone who doesn't know who SBF is: Sam Bankman-Fried. He was like the Bernie Madoff of crypto. A 31-year-old worth $20,000,000,000, and it all came crashing down. Now he's in prison for fraud. Okay, go ahead.

Austin Rief

Thanks for the background; it's going to make it look really good. I didn't know that much about him, though. I didn't do any research. I'd heard him talk a couple of times, but I didn't know any of the stories. So my friend's like, "Free trip to the Bahamas." I'm like, "I'm in!" It's for his birthday. We show up, and I've been to nice places, right? I've stayed at the Ritz Carlton and all these nice places, so I thought I knew where the rich and famous live. I was wrong. This place, it's called the Albany in the Bahamas. This is where the rich and famous live. There are 250-foot yachts everywhere. I mean, I think Tiger Woods owns a place there. Justin Bieber, who I actually met the next day, lives there. Will Smith lives there. This is where the rich and famous live; it was nuts! So I get there, and I'm like, "Oh shit, yeah, we're in for it." We actually stayed at someone else's house—FTX's house.

Shaan Puri

they put you in the guest boat yeah

Austin Rief

which which was a pretty pretty nice guest house though no it was not

Sam Parr

a boat but it was

Austin Rief

A house. So we show up and we get there. Here's the first thing I observe, right? It's like the penthouse corner $25,000,000 apartment. I had no idea I was walking into this. I walk in and there are 50 pairs of shoes lying everywhere, like crappy Nikes. I'm like, "This dude's worth $30,000,000,000 and there are all these weird Nikes laying around." My friend's like, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, the entire exec team lives together in this one apartment." I'm like, "Oh boy, what is going on?" So obviously, now we know in hindsight, like, you know, there are articles—who knows if it's true?—they were having orgies and all types of weird stuff. I knew some weird stuff was going on because... 50 pairs of shoes.

Sam Parr

people get the orgy vibe did you get like did could you smell it

Shaan Puri

smell yeah

Austin Rief

There was a weird alpha attitude that people had towards Sam. He was clearly the alpha in the room, even though he was super nerdy and techie. He just had this strange presence where anyone who said anything looked to Sam to make sure they had his approval. It was clear he was in charge; he was the man. So, the first thing: shoes. The second thing, you look to the left, and Sam is in the kitchen cooking food. I thought, "Oh, well, probably the chef is cooking us dinner." But no, Sam is there cooking for us. He does not turn his back to us; his face is to us, and he starts having a full conversation without ever making eye contact. He has no eye contact, and the first thing he ever says to me and my friend is, "So, what do you think about Indian crypto exchanges?"

Sam Parr

what

Austin Rief

and I'm like what is going on

Shaan Puri

he hasn't turned around yet he doesn't realize you're a white guy

Austin Rief

I don't know so so when my friend goes

Sam Parr

did you have an answer to that

Austin Rief

I probably said four words the entire dinner. They were speaking a different language, you know, all crypto stuff. So, I show up in the kitchen and Sam's cooking us dinner. I put "dinner" in quotes because everyone got one Beyond sausage and two Brussels sprouts. That was the meal for everyone. I think the vegan stuff's true because he cooked us all Beyond sausage, right? So that was pretty weird. We sit down. Again, it's a $20,000,000 apartment, but there's hardware everywhere, cables everywhere. It was like post-apocalyptic. It was super, super weird being in this $20,000,000 apartment, but there were like PS3s and Xboxes everywhere—a complete mess of an apartment. The craziest thing about the dinner was that Sam was a genius when it came to the things he had to know for FTX and crypto. For example, Tom Brady was sponsored by FTX, right? Sam could have told you every single thing about Tom Brady; he could have told you his stat line, everything about him. But I don't think Sam knew what a first down was. I don't think he knew a single thing about football. However, if it benefited crypto, he was the smartest person on the planet. The same thing with politicians. He could name every single senator, every Supreme Court justice, and tell you their exact stance on crypto. I don't think he could tell you a single other thing about them. It was incredible.

Sam Parr

Dude, Sean, you and I... I don't want to say their name because I don't want this to be an insult, but you and I hung out with someone who was the best in the whole world at what they do. Well, fuck it, I'll say it. It was Mr. Beast. He was the best at whatever. This is not an insult; I guess it was Mr. Beast. You know he's the best in the world. I remember, I think it was either you or me, or me and someone else, and we were just shooting the shit about a TV show that I thought everyone knew about. He had no idea. I was just curious about this, so I asked him more pop culture stuff. He didn't know anything about like this normal stuff. He's like, "Sorry, I just pay attention to YouTube. That's all I do." He had the exact same thing where he didn't know anything about anything outside of his expertise.

Shaan Puri

There's a funny interview with Conor McGregor on BBC. It's like, you know, usually UFC gets covered by these small niche outlets. But one time, he got on the main BBC. They were shooting the breeze before the interview, and they were like, "Oh, how about the game?" You know, some famous soccer game. And he's like, he just laughs and says, "Yeah."

Sam Parr

it was great

Shaan Puri

And he goes, "Yeah, it was great." They ask, "You don't watch soccer, do you?" He replies, "No, I have no idea what you're talking about." He continues, "I don't know what's happening in the news. I don't know what's happening in the world. I've lost my mind to the game, and I only know about my stuff. I don't give a damn about anything else." I think that's actually kind of common for people who get to the top 0.1% of what they're trying to become.

Sam Parr

It's like when they asked Trump what his favorite verse in the Bible was. He goes, "You know what? I love all of them. I love all of them. Yeah, it's too hard to pick. I love them all." That's why Conor McGregor was like, "I love all the sports."

Austin Rief

Well, if you've seen the video of LeBron, he's on Instagram Live and people are like, "Oh, who are your favorite soccer players?" And LeBron's like, "I love soccer."

Shaan Puri

Bruno asked him about the team he owns. They were like, "Who are your favorite PSG players?" or whatever. And he's like, "I own the team," and he names one. He's like, "You know, such and such... I mean, you know, so and so forth. There are so many." It's like, "Oh, wait."

Sam Parr

etcetera etcetera such as yeah

Shaan Puri

you you only use the the the middle words of a sentence you didn't say the subject

Sam Parr

did you get fraud vibes when you were there or were you also tricked

Austin Rief

I mean, I was totally enamored. Because the perception at the Albany was that there was a buzz. We took a cab to Albany, and the guy's like, "Oh, you're going to, you know, like the Albany? That's where FTX is headquartered." I was like, "Oh yeah, we're gonna see Sam." And everyone's like, "Oh my God!" Everyone looked like, "Yo!" One of the security guards said, "You know, you think the celebrities are famous? The famous people, they wanna meet Sam. Sam doesn't wanna meet the people; they wanna go meet Sam." This guy just had this aura around him. Everyone wanted to meet him. Now, in hindsight, I feel like a complete moron because there were so many red flags. You know, the whole effective altruism thing he powered... Do you guys know about that?

Shaan Puri

yeah make as much money as you can to give it away

Austin Rief

Yes, so I heard about this and everyone's like, "Yeah, you know, Sam lives a really low-key lifestyle." I'm like, guys, he lives in a $20 million apartment. It's the nicest apartment I've ever been in. And they're all like, "No, but he only lives there because it's the most convenient to FTX."

Sam Parr

yeah yeah he lives in an orgy compound and he's and he lives a low key life

Austin Rief

We just drove by the FTX office. We were 75 neighborhoods in between here and the office. That doesn't add up. What is going on?

Shaan Puri

Because these videos came out that were like, "Sam still drives his '93 Corolla," and he just shrugs like, "Why do I need to get a better car?" It's like, "Oh damn, this guy is full of shit." You know, like, wow.

Austin Rief

He's got like a full Olympic-sized swimming pool on his balcony, but he's in EA. He's not spending his money.

Sam Parr

There was a rumor that he was high on some type of, like, Adderall-type medicine that was like a patch. Did you see any of that stuff laying around?

Austin Rief

No, I wish... again, like they say, hindsight is 20/20. I wish I was looking for this stuff because I was just so enamored by this guy and how well he knew crypto. But I just wish I had started digging and looking through more information. I'm sure there was crazy stuff everywhere.

Sam Parr

Dude, you also... I don't know if you probably can't say this, but you went and hung out with Kid Rock as well, which is like a crazy story. You've hung out with some cool people. You've had some diverse experiences.

Austin Rief

Yeah, the Kid Rock thing... I think I might have spoken about that last time. The Kid Rock thing was awesome. He is obviously super interesting. He told us he is the only person to play at both President Obama and President Trump's inaugurations, and he knows both of them.

Shaan Puri

he's the only one that can heal this country he's the only one that could bring us together

Austin Rief

He lives in this... he actually owns his compound, which is a compound. He has like a full bar, and I don't mean like the physical bar; I mean like a whole pub on his compound. He also lives in a house that is a replica of the White House. I'll show you guys pictures. He modeled it after the White House, and so you walk up and you're like, "Oh my God, it actually looks exactly like the White House!" It's nuts.

Sam Parr

Alright everyone, really quick, this is Sam. I'm going to do a "thrill of the shill." So basically, I've got an ask for everyone out there. I just launched this new podcast called **Moneywise**. It's a personal finance podcast for high net worth individuals. You can find it by looking up **Moneywise** on Spotify, iTunes, or wherever else you get your podcasts. But here's the deal: this podcast is a ton of work, and I'm only hosting the first handful of episodes. I need someone to be the host of this podcast. I have a feeling it's going to be pretty big, and it's going to be great for whoever hosts it. But I need help hosting it; I don't want to do all the work. Our first episode is available on all those platforms. It's pretty great! I think it's with the guy who sold his company for **$200,000,000**. We get to hear how he breaks down his net worth, how much he spends each month, and all this transparent money stuff that's pretty interesting. So, if you want to host it, I'm actually not going to give out my contact information. You've got to figure out how to contact me because that's what you're going to have to do: find guests. So contact me and let me know if you want to be the host of this, and send me something impressive that shows you have what it takes. Alright, back to the show.

Shaan Puri

Awesome! Did you ever hear the story Cody Co told on our podcast about when he went to Elon Musk's house for a party? No? It's so funny! It's a very short story, but I find it hilarious, even though it's not meant to be a funny story. He's just telling what happened, but the whole idea is so funny to me. So, he goes, and he's like, "Yeah, I was hanging out with..." So, Cody's like, you know, a LA YouTuber, cool guy, also makes some music. I think they were hanging out with Post Malone. So, he's at a thing with Post Malone, and he's like, "Oh, Elon asked us to come over for a party." He shows him his phone and says, "You wanna go?" and he's like, "Of course! Okay, let's go." So, they go to Elon Musk's house. I was like, "What's it like?" He's like, "First thing, no furniture in the entire place. An empty house." He was like, "Does everybody live here? What is this?" And he's like, "No, Elon's house is across the street. This is like his party. He hosts people here; he lives over there." I was like, "Oh, naturally. Okay, this is a stupid question by me. Dumb. Alright, I won't ask you a question." He's like, "So, we're just sitting there, and it's like a fire, and they're just kind of eating, you know, like eating marshmallows or whatever the heck." And he's like, "You know, it got kinda late. People are doing nothing, and I'm just gonna go. I'm just gonna kinda dip out of here. This is like, you know, it's late. This was weird." And he's like, "So, he's trying to leave. He doesn't know his way out of the house, so he's trying to get out. He turns the corner, and it's just Elon making out with Grimes." So, he just turns and opens his door, and he's like, "Dude, I thought I was gonna open this door, and there's just a rocket, and they're like, 'Get in! There's no time!'" He's like, "I just wanted to leave so bad."

Austin Rief

you guys read the the elon book

Shaan Puri

I didn't read it I I'm kinda over elon

Sam Parr

Sean and I are both over him hardcore, but I don't want to read that book because it sounds so stressful.

Austin Rief

Yeah, I just finished it. I read it over the holidays, and it definitely gives you a different lens into Elon Musk. You really see the full spectrum of who he is as a person. I think people try to draw inspiration from Elon, and I think you can in little bits and pieces. But to me, my big takeaway from the whole book was that Elon is **hardcore**. That is the one word he uses, and like that is who he is. He's hardcore; he's extreme. I don't think you can be like 70% Elon and be successful. He just has no regard for any person he works with. He's basically fired everyone he works with, right? He treats his family poorly; he scars from issues with his dad. My big takeaway was that Elon is this unique one in a billion, one in ten billion people. All these people who are inspired—that's great—but don't try to copy him because this guy is to the extreme. I don't think almost anyone can be as extreme in every facet of life. He doesn't sleep; he doesn't vacation; he has crazy relationships. I mean, obviously, that's all public with all... you know, he has so many kids. But everything is extreme. Every single thing he does is as extreme as you can possibly do it. It's incredible. You should read the book.

Sam Parr

Dude, I just don't want my blood pressure to rise reading that. Like, just hearing you talk about this, because on one hand, I'm like, when I hear about him, I'm like, "Oh, I'm soft. I should step it up." Then on the other hand, I'm like, "His life sucks. I do not want that." So there is that whole idea that you can't be like him if he said and be 70%.

Shaan Puri

Have I told you about my David Goggins perspective? I think that's what applies here. You only want to be David Goggins for one hour a day. That's the whole trick with David Goggins. You can't be out on all of David Goggins because he's inspiring, he's so tough, and he's so mentally strong. There's something to learn there. However, you also don't want to subscribe to the David Goggins lifestyle or even try to emulate, you know, half of what he's doing. You just want, for one hour a day when you're working out, to shift into David Goggins gear for that hour and then never touch it again. I don't know if you saw this post, but David Goggins is engaged, and his fiancée...

Sam Parr

fucking insane it sounds like an onion article

Shaan Puri

I was gonna say, there's this video of her. I didn't even know he's engaged. I don't know how he's in a relationship, first of all. But here's what I actually saw. We put this on YouTube. We just like... gets YouTube may delete our account.

Sam Parr

are they like he just got home from dinner or something

Shaan Puri

First, there's a picture of his toes, which is just... I don't know if you've ever seen an ex-athlete's toes, but they're like all nasty as hell. This guy, I don't even know what's going on. He's literally just ripping off his big toenail because he's like, "Don't need this shit anymore." Then Kelsey’s like, "No, David, please don't!" And he's like, "Why are his feet so jacked up?" Because he's running 100 miles at a time. So she posts this thing, she's like, "Yeah, a lot of people think that David only turns it on for the camera. I just want to show you this." He's two weeks... no, two months out of surgery for his leg, where they broke his leg and fixed it for whatever reason. He just came home and was like, "I want to run 100 miles tonight." So she's following him in the car. She's been with him in the car for like 8 hours, falling behind at like 5 miles an hour or whatever, and he's just running. He's on, you know...

Sam Parr

like 3 am

Shaan Puri

7 yeah hour 7 it's like you know 3 am and he's almost done with a 100 miles

Sam Parr

I think it said, like, "Should we go?" I got home from dinner, and David just looks at me and goes, "I've gotta go run 100 miles now."

Shaan Puri

I'm sorry, but it seems there was an error in my response. Here is the cleaned transcription: Uh... or like, I gotta run a truck. What's... what are they called? Trucks or something like that? I gotta go for a ruck tonight. I forgot what they're called, but like a ruck. So, I'm going for a ruck tonight and I mean, I'm out of shape. I don't even know what a ruck is, let alone have...

Sam Parr

a ruck running with a it's running or walking with a backpack on that has weight in it

Shaan Puri

Okay, so he's doing a 100-mile weighted run. And you know, then you see that and you're like, "Well, this is fucking stupid. This is not the way to lose."

Sam Parr

yeah right

Shaan Puri

That's like the only intelligent response to that. So, the trick with David Goggins is you gotta be David Goggins for one hour a day. The trick with Elon Musk is you only want to be Elon Musk about 15% of the time in your company. When you're establishing the vision and thinking big about what you're doing, he's amazing. You want to channel your inner Elon when you are telling a story about your product. The way he demos, you know, Tesla every time and sells hundreds or thousands of cars before they're even ready. People pay money just to pre-order and wait for the car, right? That's when you want to reserve your energy. Or like when he came into Twitter, it was like, "I'm gonna do this really hard thing. Hardcore. I'm gonna do a sprint. I'm gonna sleep in the office, and I'm gonna make sure everybody knows if you're in this, you're in this in a hardcore way." Versus like, "Dude, Austin, I don't know how you run your company, but I was always on eggshells with my employees. Like, 'Hey, we gotta do this tomorrow, but if that's too much, Tuesday's okay,' right?"

Sam Parr

is that okay with you

Shaan Puri

I don't... I just don't know what the boundaries are versus like Mr. Beast, or David Goggins, or Elon. These guys have like kind of no sense of boundaries. They just... they're on their mission, and you're either all in or you're out. I think that's pretty cool, and that's the part to steal.

Austin Rief

Yeah, I think so. I think the thing to steal in particular is that vision. Right? Elon starts with the vision and then builds the business, builds the business model. That's really impressive. I think the way he treats people, the way he... you know, some of the things he says, that could be in the 85% of stuff you leave out.

Shaan Puri

Right, right. And actually, SPF is kind of the same way. The SPF book highlighted a bunch of things that happened. My friend read the SPF book and he was like, "I think I'm supposed to hate SPF," you know, because of everything that happened. But reading this book made me like him more. It wasn't because of the spin. He's like, "Actually, I found a few things I really respect about what he did." Let's take away the fact that he was taking customer funds to do these things. But let's just say he was using the company's money or his own money or whatever, right? Which he was also doing. He just overextended and used customer funds too. But they were like, the fact that he was like, "Okay, if I have $100,000,000," he didn't feel any fear towards losing it, nor did he feel any attachment to it. He's like, "Great, let's use the $100,000,000 to pay off Steph Curry, you know, Tom Brady, and whoever, because we're going to build the brand that way." And he's like, he could go and cut absurd deals in order to pull these things off. Or like, there's that email that leaked of him and the guy in LA where the guy was like, "I went to this dinner with this guy in LA. He's the most connected person I've ever seen. At this dinner was whoever, like, you know, Nancy Pelosi, Leonardo DiCaprio, and like whatever, 12 other people." He's like, "We need to give this guy $200,000,000 to invest in his fund, and I think he'll open all the doors for us after that. Wire him the money now, please." And like, just the ability to throw your weight around is actually pretty badass. If you take away the fraud stuff, I know other successful people in our life that do this. Andrew Wilkinson does this; he throws his weight around when he wants something. Or he sets his target on someone, a relationship, or a business he wants to buy or whatever. He really throws his weight around in a way that I definitely don't. Right? Like Sam, when he wanted to buy The Hustle, dude, he's...

Sam Parr

flew me private up to his house

Shaan Puri

Like, "Oh, you..." He's like, "I wanna buy this company. Let's talk." And you're like, "Cool, we can talk on the phone." He's like, "No, let's meet in person." You're like, "I don't like to fly, and Canada’s far away." He's like, "My jet will be there tomorrow. Let's go." He throws his weight around in a way that I think I am often either too cheap, too afraid, or just don't even think about those options. I'm learning to steal that part of my game. Have you guys thought about that? Or do you guys think about how you're going to use that?

Sam Parr

I'm the same way as you. I appreciate it, and I'm fearful of it. It's a very scary thing. But when I see it, I get inspired.

Austin Rief

Yeah, I think it's a conviction play for me. I'm more inspired by, like, I read the Warren Buffett book, for example. He's more cerebral in the way he does it, but it's the same thing. It's like he sees an opportunity and he's not dipping his toe in the water. He's not a diversification guy. It's like, "Oh, Bank of America is going under. I'm gonna buy a ton of preferred debt. This is a can't lose bet." And by the way, I'm sitting on however many billions of dollars on my balance sheet, so I'm gonna own whatever 10% of Bank of America. I love when people have conviction and they just say, "You know what? This is it. I'm taking all the chips, all the social capital, everything I've made, and I'm doubling down on this."

Sam Parr

Dude, your "chips on the table" moment right now is just praying Bill Ackman doesn't crush your company because Morning Brew is...

Shaan Puri

All alive, chips, and running away, hiding under the table. Actually, speaking of throwing your weight around, right? That's what he's doing right now. He's trying to throw his weight around in a way I think... the morning brew.

Sam Parr

**Business Insider** is owned by **Axel Springer**, and **Bill Ackman** is at war with **Business Insider** and **Axel Springer**.

Shaan Puri

austin I'd like to hear your response to this

Sam Parr

Yeah, what's their official response? You just gotta message Bill Ackman and be like, "Bill, same team, same team." Like, I'm alright.

Austin Rief

yeah I'll I'll save my response for the private group chat

Shaan Puri

I think that you don't want to be too excited to just plow chips into something. You're naturally going to make an impulsive wrong decision. But I do think there's a good question: "Am I throwing my weight around?" Right? Like, how much gas versus how much brake am I applying to the things that I want in my life? That's one of my themes, I think, for this year that I'm going to focus on.

Sam Parr

Ramit Sethi has this good concept where he talks about spending. He'll message me privately and ask, "What interests you?" I respond, "Well, I've got this cleaning lady that comes every two weeks. I wish they would come every day, almost." He's like, "I'm going to challenge you to figure out what makes you happy, and I want you to spend ten times the amount that you're spending now." For him, it's travel. He says, "When I travel, I will spend $50,000 on a trip." That's a ton of money, but he knows that's what makes him happy. He’s going to spend ten times what he used to spend because that's what he loves. He was saying the same thing to me about services like cleaning ladies and things like that. He goes, "I challenge you to spend ten times more," and that's like a miniature version of what you're talking about.

Shaan Puri

Also, what about you? You've made a bunch of money selling Morning Brew. Do you use it in any way that is interesting and improves the quality of your life meaningfully?

Austin Rief

Yeah, the big thing for me is I love traveling. I love staying in nice hotels on vacation. So, when I travel, that is my money dial: travel. I think Ramit's is two, actually.

Shaan Puri

you were texting us about this aman hotel what's what's the deal do I need to know about this what what is it

Sam Parr

have you heard of it it's just like supposed to be the fanciest hotel ever

Shaan Puri

I've heard about it like two times this year, and I don't know if I just started hanging out with different people or if it's new. I'm guessing this has been around for a while.

Austin Rief

We're growing a lot, but essentially, Aman, I think, is the standard for customer service for any business, right? You know, we're talking about the "milk road" for X. I think a good way to think about a business is, "What's the Aman for X?" So, Aman is just the absolute top in customer service. I mean, I think the cheapest amount, there's maybe 60 or 70 of them. The cheapest one is maybe $1,500 a night. I think they're regularly $2,500 to $10,000. There's one out west somewhere, I think it's Amangiri, Arizona.

Sam Parr

yeah that's what people love

Austin Rief

it's like $6 a night and people go there and they're like it was worth it

Shaan Puri

what do they do why is how would that be worth it

Sam Parr

Well, it's beautiful for one. But it's sort of like, remember Sean, the bear? That episode, like, it's in season 2.

Shaan Puri

body for $6 a

Sam Parr

Night... but yeah, we remember. Like, I remember there's a season 2, episode 6 or something. It's where the guy goes and learns how to wash the silverware perfectly. It's like that, and I think that type of excellence helped make it popular. People are like, "Oh, I respect this craftsmanship." But have you been to Austin? I've never been.

Austin Rief

So, I've never stayed at one. I'm planning my honeymoon now, and that's our goal: to stay at a bunch of Amans. I've been to a bunch when I travel. I always try to get a drink or go to them. They're also interesting because they're typically not in the heart of a city; they are usually on the outskirts a little bit. I think this is really cool. They intentionally make you travel there a little bit, right? It's not accessible, and that's part of the allure. It's like a destination you have to really want to go to an Aman to be at the Aman. Now they've grown, and they have one in New York City, so maybe that's not quite as true. But they really want you to be in the Aman essence when you're there. It's just, again, the pinnacle of customer service.

Shaan Puri

give me an example what what are they doing that's such good customer service

Sam Parr

yeah like I went to a motel 8 with a slip and slide do they have that

Austin Rief

I mean, the highest quality food, the best quality bedding, the mattress... every little thing, right? When we get the toilet paper, it's folded the right direction. Every detail is perfect. And if nice hotels are not your money dial, you're going to be like, "I just wasted $5 a night." But if luxury and having everything you need catered to is something that you get joy out of, you're going to go, and you're going to love it.

Sam Parr

I get why you like it

Shaan Puri

oh no slip it's like yeah

Sam Parr

Is there a mini fridge though or not? I just need like a Kit Kat and animal crackers at midnight, and I'm gravy. Just give me that and a little Keurig machine. Austin, thanks for coming on, man. This is good.

Austin Rief

yeah this is fine

Shaan Puri

alright that's the pod