$10M+ Business Ideas: Tractors, Toastmasters & Franchisees (#450)

Live Events, Niche Businesses, and the Search for Meaning - May 2, 2023 (almost 2 years ago) • 01:02:06

This My First Million episode features Shaan Puri and Sam Parr recounting their experiences at a recent live podcast event in Austin. They discuss the surprising diversity of attendees and their shared ambition. The conversation transitions into a broader reflection on success, fulfillment, and the pursuit of meaning.

  • Live Podcast Reflections: Sam and Shaan share anecdotes from their live podcast event in Austin, noting the diverse attendees and the surprising number of successful entrepreneurs who traveled to connect with like-minded individuals. They emphasize the importance of community and surrounding oneself with others who share similar ambitions.

  • Niche Businesses: Shaan and Sam highlight several interesting businesses they encountered, including a $57 million revenue business selling gear to fire departments and a marketplace for construction equipment called Boom and Bucket. They also discuss franchise marketing agencies like Scorpion and Ferocious Marketing.

  • Nick Gray and the Art of Gathering: Sam and Shaan discuss Nick Gray, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, and his expertise in hosting successful gatherings. They explore the potential for a franchise model similar to Toastmasters, focused on building community and social skills.

  • The Search for Meaning: Shaan observes that regardless of net worth, many people are searching for meaning and direction. He cautions against getting lost in this search and emphasizes the importance of setting constraints and timelines for exploration. Sam shares his strategies for “worry time” and “searching time,” allocating specific periods for reflection and exploration.

  • Security and Fulfillment: Shaan and Sam discuss the nature of security, arguing that true security comes not from financial wealth but from a sense of self-reliance and internal strength. They debate the tension between pursuing success and pursuing fulfillment, suggesting that it's possible to achieve both simultaneously.

  • Jerry Springer's Legacy: The episode concludes with a discussion of Jerry Springer's career, from politician to talk show host. Shaan and Sam analyze Springer's success, highlighting his ability to give people what they want, his pioneering format, and his impact on popular culture. They draw parallels between Springer's show and contemporary forms of entertainment like WorldstarHipHop and Reddit's r/PublicFreakout.

Transcript:

Start TimeSpeakerText
Shaan Puri
At the beginning of the show, we do this thing where we're like, "Put your hand up if you're an entrepreneur." Most of the hands go up. It's okay, keep your hand up if you've launched your business. Alright, like 15% of the hands go down. Okay, keep your...
Sam Parr
hands up if you have more than a $100,000 in revenue
Shaan Puri
Okay, so hands go down: $1,000,000 in revenue, $10,000,000 in revenue, $30,000,000 in revenue. We just keep going up to see kind of like who wins the "no small boy stuff" competition of that crowd. Because we're like, there are people who are there; they already kind of know our story and they know our bits. We don't know.
Sam Parr
them and so that might be actually more interesting and there
Shaan Puri
There was a guy who was one of the people who's at the kind of 30, 40, 50 million level. He's like, "Yeah, I sell gear to fire departments around the country." And he's like, "You know, like hoses, uniforms, nozzles, and just stuff for the fire department."
Sam Parr
did he say that he did 57,000,000 in revenue of that is that what he said that
Shaan Puri
I don't remember the exact number it was something like that
Sam Parr
alright we're live what's going on
Shaan Puri
I'm back home the live pod is over the show the show is over
Sam Parr
Let's talk about your time in Austin and the live pod. We should discuss that a little bit. Yeah, we might be airing that episode. We have to go back and listen to it to make sure there's nothing we need to bleep out. But what did you think about Austin? It seemed like you had a great time.
Shaan Puri
I had a great time, dude! I know more people in Austin than in San Francisco, somehow. I don't know if that's about Austin or if it's about me. I think it's more about me not leaving the house here in San Francisco. When I left my house and went to Austin, I saw tons of old friends. You and a bunch of the crew had a great time. We started off in a haunted hotel and then moved to a better hotel. Overall, it was a good time!
Sam Parr
You came in on something like a Wednesday. You left on a Sunday or a Thursday, Sunday, or something like that.
Shaan Puri
tuesday 5 days
Sam Parr
Tuesday to Sunday, you spoke at two conferences. You're on the Chris Williamson show, which that guy's interesting. What was cool about having you here was that I felt I missed our times in San Francisco from 2012 to 2018. It felt like all of us were doing the same stuff. Then, when you came into town, we had like three or four dinners with about eight friends. It felt like, "Oh wow, this is happening again." Actually, it feels like it's not happening to the extent of what we experienced then, but there are a lot of really special people here. It felt really cool to appreciate that.
Shaan Puri
Yeah, you're right. I think people should do whatever we did in our twenties, which was move to a city where there are a bunch of other people chasing the same dream as you. I think that's amazing. You could pick a city based on weather, location, or cost—those are some factors. But if you're in your twenties and you're the type of person who listens to this podcast, you're sort of entrepreneurial and ambitious. I think the move is to go to a city or even just a place—this could be a house in the town you're in—where you will be around other people who are chasing the same dream as you. It is massively underrated. You will not only get smarter faster, but you will also bond with people. Those bonds don't go away. You will always remember when you were all at the very upstart phase of what you were doing.
Sam Parr
And we did this live podcast at the convention. It was me, Sean, and Andrew. The content was fine enough, whatever, but we'll talk about that later or just air the episode. What was cool was that I met people. I think we had 550 or 600 people, and it sold out. Sean, Andrew, and I stayed afterwards and did a meet and greet with everyone. I’m always amazed that these people would fly in from all over the place. I met a guy from Malaysia and people from all over Mexico and North America who came. They were like, "I came here because in my town I'm a weirdo, and it feels nice to be around non-weirdos." I was like, "What do you mean?" I looked at Twitter afterwards and saw pictures of the event. Basically, we didn't let people into the venue until right before it started. In the line, I don't know if you saw this, but there were people interviewing each other for their own content channels. People were saying, "Oh, I met this person who's doing this," or "I met this lady." Did you meet the Mexican lady who moved from Mexico City to Ann Arbor? She flew down from Michigan with her 12-year-old daughter. Did you meet those people?
Shaan Puri
I did love that they were... She's like, "Hey, love the pod! This is my daughter; she listens as well. We listen together." I was like, "Oh, amazing!" You know, I asked the daughter, "What do you like about the show?" She was quite shy in the moment and she said, "I just... yeah, I like that it's fun. It just gets me laughing. And then, you know, I just learn different things and it makes me wanna go do stuff." I was like, "You know, that's the actual sales pitch, right? You'll laugh, you'll learn something, and it'll get you excited to go do stuff." The mom was like, "Thank you for the pod because it's the only podcast we can listen to together that we both enjoy. So it's like become a thing we do." You know, that's probably not that common, but that was one of my golden nugget kind of moments, takeaways from the whole thing.
Sam Parr
Yeah, she was my favorite person I met. But anyway, it was cool that, like, what you were saying is we saw a very micro version of that with 500 people. It was like, "Go to the place where there are other weirdos like you, and cool stuff happens." That's always really fun. I met a lady who was like, "Yeah, you talked about me in the pod, and I recently sold that thing for $30,000,000." She was waiting in line for like 30 minutes to talk to me, and I was like, "What can I wait in your line? I want to learn about you too."
Shaan Puri
In your line, exactly. Let me... yeah, let's talk about some of the interesting people that we met. So, there was a guy at the beginning of the show. We do this thing where we ask, "Put your hand up if you're an entrepreneur." Most of the hands go up. I said, "Okay, keep your hand up if you've launched your business." Alright, like 15% of the hands go down.
Sam Parr
keep your hands up if you have more than a $100,000 in revenue
Shaan Puri
Okay, so hands go down. $1,000,000 in revenue, $10,000,000 in revenue, $30,000,000 in revenue... We just keep going up to see kind of like who is who, who wins the "no small boy stuff" competition of the crowd. Because we're like, there's the people who are there, they already kind of know our story and they know our bits. We don't know.
Sam Parr
them and so that might be actually more interesting
Shaan Puri
And there was a guy who was one of the people who's at the kind of $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 level. He's like, "Yeah, I sell gear to fire departments around the country." And he's like, "You know, like hoses, uniforms, nozzles, and just stuff for the fire department."
Sam Parr
did he say that he did 57,000,000 in revenue of that is that what he said
Shaan Puri
That I don't remember the exact number. It was something like... it was either 30 or 50 million, something somewhere there. He said he had an exclusive right to sell in nine states. So, like, you know, beautiful business, right? Because he's got basically a monopoly on selling in these certain states. He's won the contract or whatever, and it's a really profitable business. Who even thinks about who's the B2B e-commerce for fire departments? It just gets you thinking, "Wow, how many niche businesses are there?" Because you just kept meeting one after another. Do you have any others that stood out? I got a couple more.
Sam Parr
We went to dinner the night before. One business that I really like and I'm eager to see if it's going to work out or not is called **Boom and Bucket**. What Boom and Bucket does is... I don't know if it's for rental or if it's for selling equipment, but I think it's for selling. So basically, if you own or if you need to buy a tractor or like one of those Caterpillar machines, such as dump trucks, I guess Boom and Bucket deals with whatever has a bucket and carries.
Shaan Puri
a big plate
Sam Parr
There's a marketplace. Yeah, it's a really good name: **Boom and Bucket**. It's a really cool website. I think the founder, his name's Adam Lawrence, previously was the COO of **Bolt**. Bolt was like this high-flying startup, a one-click checkout startup. It's still to be determined if it's going to work out, but they raised something like $100 million at a multiple billions valuation. He left there after being there for a while, then he went and started **Boom and Bucket**. He's telling me all about it. I think it's only a year old or 2 years old—still new. So they're still figuring out if it's going to take off or not. I think it's a really cool business that I actually believe will work once they can kind of get to, you know, what marketplaces need. Supply and demand is really challenging, but if you could...
Shaan Puri
On their site right now, so "Boom and Bucket," which also sounds like an amazing name for a bar in Austin. You know, a bar with like, you know, dollar shots and the axe throwing in the back. I feel like that's actually in Austin; people just have that in their backyard. The axe throwing thing, that's like what it seemed like.
Sam Parr
No, bro. We all have cold plunges and saunas. That's the thing in Austin. Throwing a...
Shaan Puri
So, the first thing on here is a 2012 Caterpillar 420F. For somebody out there, they're like, "Oh, my favorite model! I've been dreaming about that one." Yeah, it's $77,000 and ships nationwide. You click it, and it's basically like, "Here's the thing. It was primarily used in construction for concrete. Here are the specs. We inspected it, and here's what we found that was great about it. Here's what needs work." It's got a residual oil buildup on the engine valve cover, but no active leaks seen. So, they're adding value by doing inspections and providing close-up detailed photos of the equipment. Then they say, "Great! You can buy through us. We will finance it for you, and we will take care of the shipping to get this to you." This seems like a great idea. I don't know anything about this niche, so you know, take that with a grain of salt. But I love the name, I love the idea, and I love that this guy went from the most Silicon Valley VC thing you can do—like a network effects VC-funded multibillion-dollar unicorn that's either going to become a $100 billion company or go to zero—and he's like, "I'm going to move to Austin, grow a mustache, and start selling tractors online."
Sam Parr
Dude, he had a thick, beautiful mustache and he was wearing cowboy boots. I mean, he looked exactly like you want him to look.
Shaan Puri
He looked like he was in disguise. Yeah, like he was trying to blend in in Austin.
Sam Parr
So, this guy's awesome. His name's Adam Lawrence. I love Adam! I've gotten to know him over the past year, so he was cool. Who else was interested?
Shaan Puri
another one that I thought was cool these guys were in
Sam Parr
the meet and greet line they come up
Shaan Puri
And they're like, "Hey, love the pod, blah blah blah. No questions, just want a picture." Actually, they have one question. They were like, "You know, we do franchise marketing." I was like, "Franchise marketing? What? Say more." They were like, "Basically, 5% of McDonald's stores use us as their digital marketing agency and social media marketing agency." I was like, "5% of McDonald's franchises? That seems really significant." They're like, "Yeah, it's going great." This is actually the second time I heard about it, and this is kind of my rule of two. If I hear about the same thing from two completely separate people, it's like, "Well, roll up the sleeves, time to go down a rabbit hole. You know, plug the nose and take the plunge."
Sam Parr
heard someone talk about the same business or the say like literally the or the same style
Shaan Puri
Businesses or the same style business. So, our buddy Ceva had told me about these businesses. There's two businesses: one is called **Scorpion Marketing** and the other is called **Ferocious Marketing**.
Sam Parr
okay I see a trend
Shaan Puri
normally it seems like a little bit of an overcompensation but they actually sound like badass businesses
Sam Parr
Yeah, I need like a... I need like a rabies LLC, you know what I mean? So it's like typhoid fever marketing or something. I need something like that. I love that.
Shaan Puri
hey we're from dengue yeah we're the boys over at dengue fever
Sam Parr
We're happy to help. We make it hot, you know what I mean? Genghis Khan Incorporated. I love it.
Shaan Puri
killed competition so he had told me that one of those 2 I don't remember if it was scorpion or ferocious does over a $100,000,000 as just a kinda like Google pay per click + you know basically Google ad agency + maybe maybe facebook ads as well for franchises like they go to every you know goodyear tires in america and they're like yo you need to have a good presence online this is what we do we help goodyear tires franchisees make more money in your location you pay us whatever $10 a month and we take care of your website your marketing we'll make sure you're visible on yelp and on Google when people are searching for tires blah blah blah and that's what they do and then they go do the same thing they did in tires and then they'll do it in jamba juice and then they'll do it in you know one franchise after another and so I kind of love this model I think that this like this idea of general like generic agency meh but agency that is tailored towards franchisees I think is great why franchisees all are gonna have the same problem set you're gonna have a cookie cutter customer I love that typically if something is a franchise it's got scale already so you know that niche is sort of validated 3rd it's the easiest marketing pitch in the world once you get started which is that yeah we do you know over you know if 5% of mcdonald's franchisees use us or we're the largest agency for mcdonald's franchisees we are the number 1 we serve over a 150 store franchisees guess what the 151st is way easier to sell to once you got to the 150 right it's like it it becomes a snowball in terms of your marketing your operations can get streamlined because they all again cookie cutter customer they all need the same thing and then lastly that type of customer a franchisee they've basically put like their net worth on the line to own these franchises they typically are not like these brick and mortar franchisees they're doing that because they're not super tech savvy or online savvy and so I think it's the perfect kind of customer and you could just provide clear roi from month 1 and I think you could do this in a lot of niches like I think you could do this in like senior living like my father-in-law has a senior living facility and he is like he basically like the entire business is just how's our occupancy you know if occupancy's at 55% versus 65% versus 75% versus 85% that's like the that's a swing of like $10,000,000 just in that that question right there oh wow and so I'm like great hey dad what are we doing for well how are we filling that occupancy right like you know what are we doing and he's like well I don't really know how to do online marketing because most people who own cj living facilities are not the most tech savvy he's like
Sam Parr
so we need like a like a come die with us marketing
Shaan Puri
He's like, "We host a coffee and donuts brunch for the local hospital nurses because that's like their number one source of deal flow right now." Then there are these search engines, like PlaceForMom.com or something like that. You know, you try to tell them, "Hey, I'll pay you for leads," but they just don't bring you that many leads. So, somebody who can basically solve the search query for something like "senior living Austin" or "memory care Austin," or whatever, the person who can rank you at the top for that search is going to be the difference between 55% occupancy and 75% occupancy, I think. So, I think if you found a niche or a franchise like that, doing the sort of digital marketing for it becomes very appealing.
Sam Parr
Yeah, you just have to run it, which can be challenging. Running those companies is very hard, but getting customers, I think, is actually easier than...
Shaan Puri
But what's the one thing that makes running a company easier? If you have a good way to get new customers, it is like the number one, you know, "Advil for all aches and pains" when it comes to running a business. It's well, at least we're getting a bunch of customers easily. We have a reliable way to do that. Every other complaint from there is just a little bump and bruise.
Sam Parr
Another interesting person who you met for the first time was Nick Gray. We asked him to MC our event, and then he ended up just attending every other dinner that we had. He really MCed it hardcore. What's interesting about Nick Gray is that you guys should look him up. In real time, you can watch him become an authority on this very strange topic of hosting small gatherings. He might be able to turn this into something substantial. Just to give you an example of what happened: we had this fancy restaurant booked for one dinner, but it got rained out because the table was partially outdoors. So, we went to this kind of crappy bar, and then we moved to another bar next door that was also somewhat outdoors but had a roof. Andrew, one of our guests, was like, "Oh man, is it gonna be cold?" Nick was like, "Yeah, it might be cold. Hold on." He ran to a shopping mall across the street and bought a $100 long sleeve t-shirt, saying, "I got you." How impressive is that?
Shaan Puri
He was the ultimate party host, which is no surprise because that's what he does. I don't know him very well; I just met him. I'm just getting my first dose of Nic Raye, and I can't wait for my second dose. So basically, it sounds like he ran a company called Museum Hack, which was a kind of night adventure company. You would go to a museum, and the tour would be hosted by a local stand-up comedian, magician, or somebody with showmanship. He paired showmanship with something that needed showmanship: museum tours. It was a good company; I think it was making a couple million dollars a year in profit—maybe $1 to $2 million. He sells the business, takes the proceeds, and invests it into, I think, did you say all of it into Tesla or just a lot of it?
Sam Parr
So, previously, he had made money because he and his family started an aviation parts business. They made the screens that go in private jets, like the navigation screens. With the earnings that he had from that business, he invested it all in Tesla. There are these funny pictures of him during the New York Marathon years ago, where he would hold up signs that said, "Buy Tesla," because he was trying to...
Shaan Puri
would just show up everywhere and just tesla bomb
Sam Parr
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he killed it on that. Then he started this museum company with his proceeds. He put it into Cloudflare, which has not done well. But you'll see him all the time. It's really funny. You'll see him like someone will be like, "What's the best service for this?" and he'll just reply on Twitter, "I hear Cloudflare is really good. You should check out Cloudflare." He's like promoting it. With his book, he does the same thing. He's got this book called *2 Hour Cocktail Party*. If you go on Google Photos and look at the reviews of any bar in Austin, he's been there and he's reviewed it. When he reviews it, he takes a picture of his book in front of the sign or the food of that restaurant as like guerrilla marketing. That's all he does. He does little things with that.
Shaan Puri
Kind of, you had told me about this guy. He's this super social guy that's in Austin, and he's now doing this thing called a "2-Hour Cocktail Party." He sold, like, I don't know, over 10,000 units of that book. At first, I couldn't tell if he was an idiot or a genius. I think this is a common game I play where I meet somebody and I'm playing the "idiot or genius" game. The case for idiot was like, "Wait, so he sold his company and went all in on this, just perfecting this little sub-brand, this content brand around hosting a 2-Hour Cocktail Party?" I can't tell you the last cocktail party I hosted. So, I was like, he spent...
Sam Parr
3 years writing
Shaan Puri
That book... he was all in. Then, all the things you told me about the way he was promoting the book and books in general are not a great business model. So I was like, "What is this guy getting at?" At first, I thought, "Is he an idiot?" But very quickly, I've shifted to, "No, this guy's a genius," and here's why. First of all, it's a real problem hosting a party. Hosting any kind of party—forget specifically a two-hour cocktail party—but hosting a dinner party is something that is valuable. If you do it, it's kind of stressful. There's a difference between bad, good, and great, and that comes down to a bunch of details. The details are things like when you invite people, how do you prep them for it? What is the email you send beforehand that reminds people this is happening, what it's going to be about, and how they should show up? And when they show up, how do people have to introduce themselves? Oh, he's a bigger... yeah, gotta have name tags. Name tags help because whether you...
Sam Parr
name tag nick
Shaan Puri
name tag nick
Sam Parr
call me back
Shaan Puri
You gotta have name tags. Okay, what else do you have to have? He's like, "Well, you kinda want the event to flow versus just having it be like, well, whatever happens." If we break out into random cliques of people that already know each other, or into a giant group where it's kind of awkward, you know what's gonna happen. So he's like, he has his little system. He's like, "I'm gonna have some unstructured time and some structured conversations, and then back to unstructured after the structured." Because the structure gives us all something to talk about in the unstructured time. It goes into little things like, "Hey, you know, if you host something at your house, like, people don't know where the trash is." So they're opening all your cupboards trying to find stuff. Now they're just going through all your things, and then they leave it on the counter. Now your house, the party's looking like a college wrap party. Just put a label where the trash is! Let's just do that, and you've got all the little reminders and tips and tricks for a host. Okay, so it solves a real problem that's kinda stressful and kinda valuable if you do it right. Like, we've both been to parties where the magic happens. The conversation just gets really interesting. You meet three or four people that you become really good friends with. You did this actually; this is how we met. You hosted a dinner party at my office. So, you know, the right dinner party can lead to some really great things, and the wrong one is just forgettable. Okay, so now, why do I think it's actually genius? I think he's got a win-win scenario. What I mean by a win-win scenario is that whether this becomes a big deal or not, he wins. The first part is by doing this, he is building the ultimate friend group network.
Sam Parr
I think Andrew called him. Andrew Wilkinson referred to him as a "friend billionaire." He goes, "Nick's a friend billionaire," and Nick won't brag about it. But I'll be like, "What did you do this weekend?" and he's like, "Oh, I was at a friend's house." I'm like, "Who?" and he says, "Oh, Matt Mullenweg, the guy who started WordPress." Yeah, we were just at his house all weekend. I'm like, "What? How do you know Matt?" He's like, "Oh, I met him at dinner," or this and that. He has so many stories like that.
Shaan Puri
And when you are a friend billionaire, what does that mean? That means you know a lot of cool people. You're constantly inspired by the people you're around. You have a lot of people who have your back and who love you. You have a bunch of real connections and a real social life. I think this is kind of one of these silent epidemics that's going on right now. Most people I know have a really weak and feeble friend group. Maybe I'm just in that world; I don't know. But a lot of people have this feeling of, "Great, I work from home, I live at home, I eat at home, I order food on DoorDash," and I don't see another human being for, like, you know, I can go seven days without seeing another person with a pulse. Even if you are seeing people, it's all transitional and transactional. It's like, "Great, I live in San Francisco or LA, and I go to Barry's Bootcamp, and everybody rushes in, does their thing, and then rushes out." Where am I supposed to make new friends? That's not really easy for most people. So anyway, I think that what Nick has is actually quite rare. Whether all this is, is he makes a bunch of friends, has a bunch of fun experiences. He was showing me this video on his phone. He said, "Check this out. Last night after we hung out, I was on my way back, and my friend texted me and said, 'You gotta check this out. It's flooding in my area, but it's created this almost fake surfing thing.' It was flooding on some street, and the water was running really fast, but there was a lip in the road. So you could go on a boogie board and basically feel like you're surfing." They just did that for hours, and he had these fun videos. I was like, "Cool." I was just on my phone scrolling. I thought you were doing that, right? Like, this guy's not only...
Sam Parr
a I was watching
Shaan Puri
A video... he's going to have. He's like an experienced billionaire, so I think that's the bottom line. If nothing else, he gets that. But at the top, I'm like, "Dude, I kind of think this should be a local franchise." I think he should basically turn this into like the modern-day Toastmasters. If he wanted to, this could be an enormous business and it could help a lot of people. He could say, "Look, join and open up a local chapter like Toastmasters. It's just dedicated to hosting awesome get-togethers of amazing people. I'll train you how to host them right. You fly out to me, attend one of these as part of your training, and then go wherever you live and start hosting these things. You know, pay your membership dues to be a part of this." Let's create an international wave of people who want to get better at hosting things and having an awesome social life. I think he could create the next Toastmasters. What do you think?
Sam Parr
So, Toastmasters. For those who don't know, Toastmasters is a public speaking club. I don't know entirely how they describe themselves, but I knew it as a place where you spend $50 or $100 a year, something like that, and you get to go to a local chapter where everyone practices public speaking. I think they weave in some type of leadership component where you can learn how to lead, but it's all related to public speaking. They are a nonprofit organization, so you can look them up. Toastmasters has $63,000,000 in assets, of which it looks like about $35,000,000 of that is just cash. Last year, they generated something like $18,000,000 to $19,000,000 in membership dues—sorry, I meant $25,000,000 in membership dues—and about $30,000,000 in aggregate total revenue. So, that's not a nice sum; that's very nice. It definitely worked.
Shaan Puri
Yeah, exactly. I think that, like, you know, there are a lot more people who want to be able to host a party and build an awesome kind of social life for themselves than there are people who want to get better at public speaking. So, I think this actually has a lot more legs. It reminds me of the book "The Game." I haven't read it, but Neil Strauss wrote it and was like, "Hey, do you want to get better at, you know, meeting women? If so, this is a book that's going to tell you a bunch of awesome stories and techniques that can help you do that." I think this reminds me a little bit of "The Game." It's got the benefits of the book without the sleaze factor. For that reason, I'm in. I just gave him the thought leader triangle with my hands. For those who are listening, it's where you start with the pyramid of hands going upwards and then on the inflection...
Shaan Puri
Of the sentence you gotta flip it down
Hubspot
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Sam Parr
Did you meet anyone else that was interesting? Or do you have any other thoughts about the people you met or the experiences you had?
Shaan Puri
I got a couple of high-level thoughts. The most... so we did the meet and greet for, like, I don't know, it was almost like 2 hours or something after the show. Just, like, people.
Sam Parr
are you tired after that
Shaan Puri
I have this thing where relief gives me a lot of energy. I was so relieved that the show was over. I felt like people had a good time and that I didn't... like my trip was over. I was going to go home and get to just be in my bed and not have to be... I was traveling with my two little kids, which has its own challenges.
Sam Parr
I had no less than 10 people reference the size of the cotton candy that your children had. They were like...
Shaan Puri
My wife wanted to see the show, so she brought my kids, who are 23 years old, to the show. That's like, you know, opening up a lighter inside of a natural gas factory. You kind of know this thing could combust at any second. She just had a backpack of bribes, which I think actually should be its own product for traveling moms. It's just a premade backpack full of little dollar store toys that you can give out every 15 minutes to be like, "Alright, be occupied. Don't scream and cry. Think about anything." And just unbelievable amounts of crazy candy that they never get to eat.
Sam Parr
like a bathtub size container of cotton candy
Shaan Puri
7 layer lollipop it looked like you know those like dude
Sam Parr
Someone told me, "We saw Sean's kids eating a kebab or like a hot dog or something."
Shaan Puri
it was like of lollipops
Sam Parr
sour patch kids
Shaan Puri
It was like, you know, when the Sheikh builds a 95-story apartment for himself in Dubai. It was the Sheikh Dubai Tower of Lollipops. It was incredible.
Sam Parr
yeah I had a bunch of people tell me about that but anyway what were you saying
Shaan Puri
So, I would say in the meet and greet line, the most common questions I received were quite similar. I don't know what you experienced because you had your own line and I had my own line, so maybe yours was different. I got a lot of people saying, "Hey, I love the show! Can you take a selfie?" Then they would ask, "I have one question for you." I thought, "Oh, this is going to be a doozy, right? They want to use their one shot on this question." However, the most common questions had the most obvious answers. They would say things like, "I'm trying to decide between this or that. What do you think I should do?" I would respond, "Well, what do you want to do?" They might say, "I really want to do this." I'd reply, "Alright, well then you should probably do that one." Or they would say, "I don't know." I'd ask, "Well, do you like one more than the other? If you did know what you wanted, what would you say?" They would respond, "B." And I'd say, "Cool, do B then." It was often that straightforward.
Sam Parr
And I hate giving that answer because it's like, you know, not that we're someone's hero, but "don't meet your heroes." Because, like, yeah, we just give you the most obvious answer. The second one is like, "I'm doing this, this, and this," and I go, "Oh cool, what are the results?" They'll tell me, and I'm like, "What were the results last year?" Okay, well, just keep going. Sounds like it's working.
Shaan Puri
Exactly. Either it's working—don't mess it up—or it sounds like it's not working. Do you want to ask me for investment? Actually, you should be asking for advice, right? Because it's not working. You know, the same thing happened when I was talking to someone who said, "I got these two ideas. I have one company where I do this and another company where I do that." They mentioned it was really hard because... blah blah blah. Cool, sounds like you're doing two companies. Do you think the optimal strategy is going to be to run two startups at once or just one? They said, "Yeah, probably one." Great! So, which is the better business? Which one do you want to pursue? Which one is working better? Then they said, "Well, no, but see, this one kind of feeds into this one." I'm like, "No, it actually eats away at all of your time and mindshare. It doesn't feed into anything." And then I said, "You know, Elon Musk can run two companies at once. He might even be able to run three. But unless you have... you know, unless your brain is like a physics textbook, it's probably not the optimal strategy for you." If you're in this meet-and-greet line, I'm just going to tell you right now: you probably don't want to be the CEO of three startups at once. So, the obvious answer for most of them is: what if you just focused on the one that you like more or that is working better? I think that would probably work better than trying to make both of these fledgling things work. I felt almost silly that that was the case.
Sam Parr
And what were you saying here about everyone searching? We met a bunch of successful people. For example, probably one of the more successful people we met was this guy named AJ Patel, who is like 32 or 35 or something like that. He started a dog supplement company, which whenever I hear about that, I'm like, "That's the greatest thing ever!" Because who knows if the product would work? He originally sold a portion of the company at a $200,000,000 valuation and then a few years later sold it for $650,000,000 in valuation. He seemed pretty zen-like; he kind of had his act together. But still, there were some things where he was trying to figure out what to do next. He had normal questions that everyone else had. And here you had everyone searching.
Shaan Puri
yeah actually I wanna say one last thing about that previous thing about most common most of the common questions have the simplest answer that's not a knock on those people what I meant is dude this game is not as complicated as we make it I have the same I do make those same mistakes and and all it takes is just a third party with a fresh set of eyes to be like well sounds like you just picked the one you want to do right or like instead of doing 3 things try focusing on the one and it'll probably work better or like you know whatever and so I think that it's useful to almost have that be your own coach in that way and save yourself a lot of heartache because that it wasn't a knock on those individuals it's that is the common problem is that we we we don't have complex problems we have simple problems and a simple problem doesn't need a complex answer it needs a simple answer so that was my. There alright to the second thing yeah everyone is searching it didn't matter who we were hanging out with net worth 0 net worth 100 k net worth 1,000,000 10,000,000 a 100,000,000 and the and the billionaire we had dinner with everybody was searching searching for meaning searching for what's next searching for what they should be doing with them their time searching for a better challenge searching for a way to to solve their problem it just felt like everyone's searching and specifically a lot of people were searching for like direction and it really made me like it really highlights me the value of when you know you when you have a clear direction the value of that to like to be grateful for that and find people who are good at figuring that out because I think if you stay in that searching state for too long that shit's dangerous it's like an inception it's like we can only be in the dream for an hour before we forget that it's a dream you know we gotta do that thing where we fucking cold plunge ourselves to get back out of it and wake back up it's like there is it's okay to be in a wandering mode or a searching mode or kind of a thinking mode like what do I want to do but after 6 months after 12 months after 18 months like that shit becomes you get lost in the sauce and I felt like there were kind of a lot of people that were lost lost in the sauce that that that their their search was sort of like almost indefinite and I think that's that's dangerous
Sam Parr
That's interesting, and that's actually really scary. It's one of those things where if it goes on for too long, it gets even worse. Then, you know, you're like, "ass deep in it," and you're like, "oh no."
Shaan Puri
Yeah, you forget how to even start the engine. It's like this car hasn't been on for a long time. Does the engine start? I think you're good at this. I think you're really good at this. The way you are very structured helps you because I think you're very regimented. You're like, "For the next three months, I'm gonna only talk to people and figure out what I want. After three months, I'm gonna have a conversation with myself and shift into the next gear." This is my read of it at least. I don't know what goes on in your head, but my read of it is...
Sam Parr
no that's that's exactly how it is
Shaan Puri
Timeboxing... and you know, there's an argument to be had for just wandering around and letting things happen. You can't control everything. But I think having these creative constraints, these timebox constraints, helps keep you honest. Like, am I really learning from my wandering? Or have I just forgotten my head for my feet? Do I even remember what the hell I'm supposed to be doing right now? So I think, you know, you had a post-hustle and pre-Hampton phase that was like your searching. But it was like, I think you knew you were going to search. You knew you were going to wander and explore, which meant don't jump into something really fast. But also, don't let that last forever. Is that right?
Sam Parr
Yeah, well, I'm obsessed with time. Even when I was 20 years old, I had this document. I think if you Google my name and then "CEO doc," you'll be able to find the spreadsheet. I would map out, I think I had thousands of them, all these biographies of people I read. I would type in when they started their apprenticeship, when they got successful, and the time it took to do that. I was obsessed with time. The reason time's important is that I think the constraint is incredibly necessary. I read this book by Robert Greene, and he talked about urgency. That was the first time that I learned about the importance of urgency, and so that's why I'm obsessed with time. Usually, what I do is I have this thing called "worry time," which is very similar to "searching time." But worry time is like, "Here are the things that I can worry about." So, like, it could be, you know, I'm not sure about this. Here, I'll make a list of all the things going on in my life that I'm not sure about. It could be like this podcast, it could be my relationship, it could be anything. It's like, "Alright, on Sunday from 3 to 8, I'm gonna worry about it."
Shaan Puri
right
Sam Parr
and I'm not and then I'll like set time aside to worry about it and then I'll set it aside and my gut
Shaan Puri
Feed into every moment of every day and be this underlying worry or anxiety that just sort of plagues you.
Sam Parr
Yeah, so it's just like, you know, have you ever used Headspace, the meditation app? There's this calm guy, myself.
Shaan Puri
go ahead
Sam Parr
Yeah, I like calm too. But Andy, the guy who would narrate it, would be like, "Alright, today we're gonna do the meditation." "Now the cloud is above you. Let's put all of our thoughts, feelings, and worries in that cloud above us. Now let's just walk a few feet away. Now we're away from the cloud. We can acknowledge that our worries are up in that cloud, but we're no longer under it. We can go back under it when we're ready and worry about it." So that's kind of where I came up with "worry time." I have worry time, and I also do the same with "searching time." It's like, "Alright, I'm gonna search for this, and then in three months, I'm gonna say, 'Did I find it or not?' No? Okay, fine, we'll give it another three months." Then once I find it, searching is done. We are no longer searching. So I actually turned off, like, this is just a very small example, I turned off the Twitter DMs of my Twitter handle because I would get all these interesting opportunities. But I said, "Nope, we are done with opportunities. I have the opportunity; we are going to pursue that." Then at a later date, we'll open back up to pursue new opportunities, maybe. But right now, there's nothing new.
Shaan Puri
right
Sam Parr
And I, like, my wife and I were joking, but it's not really joking. It's like my rule right now is **no new friends**. I don't need new friends; I have the friends that I want, and that is perfect. I'm not going to go out and hang out with new people. **No new friends** because, you know, the searching time is done for now. We'll open it up at a later date. Auditions will come at a later date for new ideas and new friends.
Shaan Puri
dude that's great I love the way you said that I do a similar thing but without I I I hate the word time I'm the opposite of you I I wanna get off the concept of time altogether but my but in reality the result is actually very very similar what I do which is I I focus on the word constraint so how can I use a constraint to my advantage I love this because naturally I'm always constrained right like I don't always have every resource at my disposal to do what I wanna do right let's say I'm traveling and I don't maybe have the time or the equipment to get to the gym to do the same workout that I was doing before then how do I get excited about the constraint okay I got this wall I have the floor I've got my suitcase interesting I can air squat the suitcase and then I can you know do these like I could do a push up challenge or I'm gonna do a 100 push ups in the next 5 minutes and I'm gonna see you know if I how far under that time I can get and you know you do that and you've used a constraint to your advantage to have a better experience so I I always have the same which is I'm not going hour to hour I think that's a really I think time creates a lot of stress in people's lives so I wanna use constraints without the stress of time so what I say is like alright I'm trying to have an experience right now what kind of experience do I want I want a sweaty workout experience okay how can I now use an ex use a constraint to ratchet that up and make it even better right like and that's how I wanna do things so I'll do the same thing where I'll constrain myself all right I'm gonna turn off dms or I'm going to do no do a no new friend season and I'll I'll use these words like season just to sort of time box them but without the sort of urgency or stress of like the thing you did where you're like how successful were these guys by 30 dude that would have just made me feel miserable so I had to like tweak that a little bit for myself where I didn't wanna always feel perpetually behind in life and so my way of doing that was focus on alright I'm about to walk into this room what kind of experience do I wanna have and get good at choosing that and then be like how can I use a constraint to to like level that up to enhance that rather than feeling constrained by lacking some resources that I otherwise would want to make this happen
Sam Parr
I think the time thing is important because you do compare yourself to others. Everyone says comparing yourself to others is bad, but I actually think in some ways it's really great because you see what's possible. Just like if you're an athlete, where you're like, "I want to be like this athlete. I want to be strong, but I want to be stronger than them or faster," or whatever. But whenever we do these events and I meet all these amazing people, like AJ, like Sully, like Andrew Wilkinson, and I hang out with them, I think I'm behind. I'm way behind.
Shaan Puri
and that's the
Sam Parr
and that's dangerous that's that's dangerous
Shaan Puri
The thing I referenced the other day when I said there's the science of success and there's the art of fulfillment. Comparing yourself will help you in the science of success. It will motivate you, put a chip on your shoulder, and light a fire under your ass. But it's not going to help on the art of fulfillment side. What some people try to do in life is say, "Let me solve the success thing first, and then I'll do the happy thing after that." What you'll find, if you remember my "Everyone is Searching" concept, is that people solve the success thing. They try to throw a bunch of money at the happy thing. It works to an extent, but not all the way. They become disillusioned and just sort of fall back on, "Well, let me just go do more success stuff." At least back then, when I was only focused on success, it felt better.
Sam Parr
I felt better and I know how to
Shaan Puri
do that but more than I know how to be happy and and so
Sam Parr
Or, it's like I thought this number would give me the answer. Turns out I was just one hundred and fifty-five times that. Yeah, it's actually not 50; it's actually 150. Somebody said this is wrong.
Shaan Puri
They said it's always three times more than what you got. People always think, "Three times more, then I'll chill out after that." I'll really move on to that next phase. I think, while I don't think that's a bad path and I don't think you end up in a bad spot, I do think there's probably a better version of it. Which is, can I be happy and successful at the same time? Is that possible?
Sam Parr
We were talking, and I'm going to add them here, but it's nothing crazy. We had dinner with Andrew. You know, his company, as of Friday, was worth $850,000,000 Canadian. We were discussing what's next and also talking about personal motivating factors. He mentioned, "Oh, I was motivated because I wanted to feel secure financially. For some reason, I always felt insecure as a kid." I asked him, "Do you feel secure now?" He replied, "You know what? Not really." I was surprised. I thought, "Wow, you don't feel secure even at that number?" It seems you always need more. I couldn't decide if I felt negative or positive about that feeling, but I realized that might be the lesson: many people don't feel secure, regardless of what they have or don't have. It's the same feeling of "it's not enough" and the fear that it can all be taken away.
Shaan Puri
I view it a little differently. It's more like the security doesn't come from the money. That feeling you want... is it going to change when the money changes in that way? Right? Like, I feel secure now and I have one billionth of whatever he's got. Why? Because I just view it differently. I have different insecurities than he's got. On the financial one, I'm like, as long as I still have my wits about me and my two hands, I'm always going to be fine. If I have my brains and my hands, I'll always be fine. So what do I care? I could lose all my money in crypto. I could lose all my money in this business. This business could tank. I could say the wrong joke and get canceled on the podcast tomorrow. Still, I've got my hands and my brain. Alright? I'll be alright. And so, it's like fitness, right? If I put you in any fitness test, I think you would feel pretty secure. Right? Like, I don't think I could be like, "Sam, we're going to do a workout." I think if you invited me over and said, "Let's do a hard workout," you know, I'm not eating that morning. I don't know. I gotta be light on my feet. I gotta do like, "Hey, was creatine working?" One day, let me take some of that. You know, I'd be stressing out because I don't have the fitness security. Whereas I think if I invited you over for a hard workout, you'd be like, "We'll see." Right? Or even if David Goggins invited you for a hard workout, maybe at that stage you would feel a little bit of the lack of security. But I think for most people, in most situations, you would feel pretty secure. So, I think everybody's chasing a feeling. They think the feeling comes from a thing. The feeling doesn't come from the thing; the feeling comes from you. It comes from practicing having that feeling. I think until people grok that, they're just not going to have the type of feelings they want—of happiness and all this other stuff.
Sam Parr
Speaking of which, we have a very sturdy audience. I was putting my hand around people's backs to take a picture.
Shaan Puri
had a bunch
Sam Parr
of my guys yeah we had a whole bunch of broad backs
Shaan Puri
dead lifters what's going on
Sam Parr
There is a bunch of sturdy people... maybe it's a Texas thing, but there is a bunch of big old boys that we're talking about. And women too. Like, there are so many strong people. I probably said that at least 20 times. You know, it's like... you're awkward. The meet-and-greets are weird. I don't know what to say to people, so it's usually like, "Oh, I like your shirt" or "You look huge, you're yoked!" But I said that so many times.
Shaan Puri
Yeah, we have an interesting demographic. There are people that look like you, people that look like me, and then there are people that look like neither of us. It's kind of amazing how well distributed it is. It's like a bunch of Indian dudes, a bunch of really strong white guys, and then the other group, which is a blend of normal people.
Sam Parr
We had so many Indians and so many Indians with really thick accents. So I guess they just moved here. Do you think that we are popular in India because of the topic or because of you?
Shaan Puri
Well, I mean, there are a lot of business topics out there. They don't all have that, I think, you know?
Sam Parr
like anything is where's chamath from what's he he's in is he indonesia
Shaan Puri
he's from sri lanka
Sam Parr
sri lanka I mean I don't know do they they probably love him too but like sri lanka like like the
Shaan Puri
6,000,000 people underwater or something like that. He's like very... I don't know how many of them even have access to, you know, know about him. But yeah, if he goes to India or something like that, it's a cult phenomenon. Him, Naval Ravikant, like they really, really look up to those people. And they'll... like if you go to China, the most popular person was Kobe Bryant. It's like Kobe Bryant was the star of stars because of some combination of like he's got the thing that they want: crazy athleticism. Plus, they piped those Laker games into China and like only Laker games for a period of time. And so he was...
Sam Parr
just and everyone in china which was there a black man
Shaan Puri
Yeah, exactly. He just looked like a god compared to them, right? It's like, I think you like people who are like you, and so you feel like you could be them. Then there are people who are so unlike you that you're like, "You are so different. I just... I am in awe of what you are."
Sam Parr
It's like the Björk effect. So, Björk, you know, is from Iceland, which only has about 5,000,000 people. And like, Björk's music sucks, but every once in a while, she would be number one on the charts. It's because everyone in Iceland would cheer for her since she was doing something interesting in America. Or take Bruno Mars. If you go to YouTube and look up Bruno Mars' videos, they have like 345,000,000 views. That's because everyone in the Philippines, since he's Filipino, is like, "That's our guy!" You know what I mean? So, I guess that's why we have a really nice Indian contingency because you're their guy. Whereas with me, it's just a bunch of guys from Ohio. But whatever.
Shaan Puri
Dude, can I tell you, speaking of Ohio, can I do a little bit here on Jerry Springer?
Sam Parr
what about him rip
Shaan Puri
died 2 days ago I think
Sam Parr
yeah
Shaan Puri
his story is kinda crazy do you know much about jerry's backstory
Sam Parr
wasn't he the mayor of of someone in somewhere in ohio dayton ohio
Shaan Puri
or something cincinnati since but
Sam Parr
he was really the mayor of was he was the mayor first and then talk to him
Shaan Puri
Yes, so basically, his career is like this: at 25, he's the adviser to Robert Kennedy during his presidential campaign, who I think died or got assassinated or something. Then he's like, "Okay," and goes on to do local city politics. He ends up becoming the mayor of Cincinnati for a brief period of time but gets fired because he solicited a prostitute and got busted for it. He’s like, "Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have paid for an escort or something." So now he's out of the political game and, you know, in his thirties, I guess. He's thinking, "What do I want to do next?" He gets cast onto local TV to do a political show. It's like, "Oh, you could be our political talk show type of guy." He does that for a little bit, and then he gets his own show. I don't remember what year this is—like, I don't know, '91 or something like that. He’s doing his own political talk show. Three years go by, kind of unspectacular, and then the moment happens. A new producer comes in and is like, "Hey, look, it's a political show; it's going nowhere. Let's switch it up." And the Jerry Springer Show is born. The producer comes in and says, "Look, we're going to shift it towards controversy, dirty laundry, and basically, we'll captivate audiences by putting scandal on air."
Sam Parr
was it fake though
Shaan Puri
So, there are different opinions on this. I read a bunch of Reddit posts from people who are producers on the show or Goodwin on the show. Here’s where I think it netted out: they would cast for scandal. People would say, "Yeah, that happened to me." The producers would intentionally not fact-check anything. So, it could have either been real for you, or you could have just thought, "If I do this, I get to get on TV. I get a flight to New York. I get to go, basically, me and my [whatever person] get to go on vacation in New York, all expenses paid. We get to be on TV, and you know, that'll be that." For some, I think it was truly real. For a lot, they would kind of make it up or embellish. So, it would be like, "Yeah, I cheated," but actually, they weren't best friends. I didn't like—we knew each other first and blah, blah, blah. He actually knew about it already; he's not finding out on air. But like, whatever, we'll kind of recreate that.
Sam Parr
and was it daily or weekly
Shaan Puri
So, it was like a daily show at its peak. Wow, it's higher rated than Oprah! He becomes the number one daily show, and for the first time in people's lives... Here are some of the amazing things: it goes 18 years on TV. Jerry knows it's stupid, but he's like, "This is what people want, and I'm gonna give them what they want." I had a few takeaways from this whole thing. First of all, Jerry, Jerry, Jerry... that's iconic! It's just so iconic, and I love it.
Sam Parr
yeah that was it was it was the pre world star
Shaan Puri
Yeah, dude. World Star lives in the shadows of Jerry. So, here are a couple of things that stood out to me: **Number 1:** He gave people what they wanted, not what he thought they should want. In fact, he started with what he thought they should want, like, "Here's the latest on the local political issues and where we stand," and blah, blah, blah. Then he pivoted, and he pivoted the right way. I think as entrepreneurs, there's a great quote by Gary Halbert where he says, "Never has more money been lost than trying to market to somebody what they should do versus what they want to do." As a marketer, you’ve got to internalize that. Now, there are some people who are not in my camp that hate that phrase. They think it's terrible and that the world is terrible because of that. They say, "No, shouldn't we strive to be better? Shouldn't we strive to help the world be a better place?" Not that like these sugar-filled cereals and these dopamine-driven social networks are good. Some people hate that it's true and they're fighting against it. As an entrepreneur, I'm in the camp that you are here to serve customers. You're here to give them what they want. If you want to win, you give them what they want. If you want to win really big, you give them what they want in a way that no one else is giving it to them, or maybe even in a way that they didn't even realize they wanted. People didn't know they wanted this, and you're the first to provide it. But that's the game of business. So, anyways, I think he's a great example of giving people what they want. **Number 2:** He pioneered a new format. His whole format of putting this dirty laundry on air, the fights, the bouncers, the pregnancy tests, the DNA test reveals—this guy's a goddamn innovator. **Number 3:** He became number one. He's bigger than Oprah in her prime. Lastly, what I love was he...
Sam Parr
dude he did 5,000 episodes
Shaan Puri
Jerry got his friends to win too. His security guy, Steve, who became like a character on the show - they're best friends - Steve says the most wonderful things about Jerry. Steve even gets his own spin-off show later after the Jerry Springer Show. I love that Jerry kind of brought friends along the way, and that when he eats, they all eat. There were a few good examples of that. The other funny thing about this...
Sam Parr
and people people liked working for jerry
Shaan Puri
People, from what I can tell, yeah, it was like the opposite of Ellen. Ellen is seen as this, you know, America's sweetheart, and then behind the scenes, she was like, you know, a menace. Apparently, Jerry was the opposite. He was seen as a menace to society, but actually, he was kind of a sweetheart, from what people said. Now, maybe it was just that the guy dies and no one wants to trash him, but that's what I found. The last thing, though, that I thought was interesting was that in a weird way, because this show was really popular in the early nineties, his show was actually the first to expose people to, like, people being gay or trans or all kinds of stuff that's totally LGBTQ+. For a lot of people in America, they had never met or heard of anybody who was in any of those categories. So he kind of was like the band-aid rip-off moment for a lot of America on these things, which I think is also kind of amazing. The real world was kind of like...
Sam Parr
That too. I went to an all-boys high school, and I remember being around 14 or 15. For some reason, the culture of the school was such that young men felt fine coming out and saying they were gay. I remember meeting these kids, and it was the first time I had ever done that—met someone who admitted to being gay. At first, I was like, you know, back then you would make fun of people. Then you realize, oh, that's horrible. Obviously, we shouldn't do that. They're my buddies, and then it goes back to, "Therefore, because I love you, I'm going to make fun of you just like I make fun of all my other friends."
Shaan Puri
of the fool that's like yeah
Sam Parr
Yeah, and because I love you, I'm not going to treat you differently. We're all boys, and we're just going to tease each other. If someone has braces, or someone likes men, whatever, it doesn't matter. We're going to make fun of ourselves, and that's just the way that young boys show that we accept each other.
Shaan Puri
that's how we show love
Sam Parr
It was just a mini... it was a mini Jerry, you know? Jerry was first. You know, like, "Well, we're not *not* gonna make fun of this person because of this and that. We're actually going to do it because it shows that we're gonna... it's normal. We're gonna normalize it." So who knew Jerry was so progressive, you know what I mean?
Shaan Puri
The guy was Robbie. We got Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and we got Jerry Springer. These are just a few in a lineage of pioneers breaking down social media.
Sam Parr
He died, dude. He always seemed really likable. I remember watching him... Did you watch it when your grandmom babysat you or something? That's what I remember doing.
Shaan Puri
I was just home after school by myself
Sam Parr
Yeah, like, it was around 4 o'clock when you got home from school. You would watch Jerry Springer and Oprah. I remember watching all of that. Or when you stayed home from school, you would watch Maury.
Shaan Puri
yeah stay home for sake watch price is right and shit
Sam Parr
Yeah, I loved Maury. Maury was the best too. He's going to die soon, I just looked him up while we were talking. He's 85, I think. So, the legends... it's a passing generation. Salt of the earth type of people.
Shaan Puri
Who's doing this now? Is there like a thing now? Where does this happen? Does this happen on TikTok, or like Twitch, or YouTube or something? I... I don't see.
Sam Parr
that's a good question
Shaan Puri
Content, even though it's a good one, you know? Another great one like this... My sister still listens to this every day when she drives her kids to school: "Cheaters" on radio. This is the show where they really bust cheaters, like...
Sam Parr
that's still a thing
Shaan Puri
It's a big thing in the FM morning radio space, which is a very small thing in the world now.
Sam Parr
I think that is actually it was joey greco you remember joey greco the host
Shaan Puri
is it just one I was I feel like every city just borrowed this format
Sam Parr
Joey Greco was like the more famous host, and at one point, he got stabbed. You don't remember that episode where he gets stabbed? Dude, he like gets stabbed. The thing about that era, like the 2000s and 90s, was that the reason it was cool was we didn't know if it was fake. There was no one tweeting about it, you know what I mean? You think it's fake, but no one had a platform to expose that they went on the show. That's kind of why it's hard to recreate some of these things. It's like we didn't know. I wasn't sure wrestling was fake or not until, you know, five years ago. Who knew, you know what I mean?
Shaan Puri
Held out hope. It's like, "Yo, yeah, tooth fairy and Vince McMahon. Maybe there's a way."
Sam Parr
Yeah, no one knew. No one knew. But no, that's a good question. I'm looking it up now. "Cheaters"—yeah, so he was the host, Joey Greco, the TV show version. And then the later host was Peter Gunz.
Shaan Puri
Right, the radio version is basically: The wife calls in and says, "I think my husband might be cheating." So then they call the husband as a woman. I... I don't know how... I don't know actually how they pull this off. I gotta ask my sister what the actual format is, because I don't know how, dude.
Sam Parr
it's all fake
Shaan Puri
How to trick them that easily? Because, like, I mean, you'd have to get a cold call from somebody and be like, "Yeah, up, down." I'm not sure exactly what they do, or maybe they call. Oh, I think what it is, is they're like, "He might be cheating with my friend Rebecca," and they fake call as Rebecca to try to catch her in the act. Then they just hit the button and three-way call, merging in the wife, and she just goes off on him on air. It's incredible content! I mean, like, anybody who's a content creator out there, if you're not studying cheaters, you're not even trying.
Sam Parr
if there's a subreddit called public freak out do you ever go to public freak out
Shaan Puri
I've seen I've seen public freak out on a that's my favorite subreddit
Sam Parr
That's my version of *Jerry Springer*—public freak out and popping, where they just pop like zits and stuff. I love that! I'm a big fan of that one. I was on the front page of popping one time; I had a picture get 60,000 views. So, it's just whatever.
Shaan Puri
can I endorse you from on linkedin how do I
Sam Parr
Dude, I swear to God, I had to get a cyst removed from my head. Right before I went under surgery, I was like, "Hey, Doctor Brian, can you do me a favor? Here's my cell phone number. Can you take some pics while we're in surgery?" He said yes. I wanted to post them on the subreddit, and he did! I got 60,000 views. I have a folder right here on my Safari or Chrome called "Brain," and it's like before, during, and after photos. I was number one! I'm popping, so no big deal.
Shaan Puri
I think it's literally no big deal actually that's the cool part about it
Sam Parr
I guess that's the episode we did a recap on, and we talked about Jerry Springer. Alright, that's the episode.