Find Profitable Business Ideas By Studying Weird Trends

Shaan Puri

You're good at doing this, which is identifying lifestyle trends. You pick up pretty quickly on the fact that there's a group of people deciding to live under a different paradigm, motto, or creed. Actually, that's always one of the best ways to build a business around that lifestyle because you can speak to that audience and differentiate a product super easily for that crowd. Dude, have you ever been inside factories? You probably have, but I think most people haven't. Have you been inside any kind of factory?

Sam Parr

why do you think that I've been in a factory

Shaan Puri

You're gonna be like, "I don't know, like my fucking cousin Bubba has a bubblegum factory." You're gonna be like...

Sam Parr

I went fishing recently with my father-in-law. He's like, "Hey, so how do I set this hook up? What do I do?" I'm like, "Dude..."

Shaan Puri

I don't know

Sam Parr

I've never gone fishing he's like why why did you just assume that I know how to

Shaan Puri

do this you seem like a guy

Sam Parr

you just look like yeah

Shaan Puri

you seem for sure like a guy who just goes fishing

Sam Parr

I mean I've watched documentaries on it so I know that

Shaan Puri

do you or do you not have a favorite place to fish no

Sam Parr

Of course not. I don't have a fishing hole that I go to. But no, I don't think I've been to a factory. Not really. What type of factory?

Shaan Puri

It doesn't matter what factory you go into. It's mind-blowing how... even to go to a warehouse. Like, have you ever been inside an Amazon warehouse? Or like a... yeah.

Sam Parr

like a

Shaan Puri

Food warehouse... like how the food gets to restaurants. Yeah, it's insane. In the same way that going to a farm is slightly crazy, and you're like, "Whoa, I eat these animals." Like, oh wow, you know, that doesn't seem right. But basically, a factory... this is kind of stunning. If you take any object, like, okay, I am holding this microphone. This is sitting on my... this is the foam cover of a microphone.

Sam Parr

there's some like huge factory that like is churning them out

Shaan Puri

If you just go back to trace the process of how this got to my desk... So, okay, I just go on Amazon. I just find a microphone—I don't know, maybe this one. I click that, I buy it, right? So it goes from an Amazon warehouse onto a carrier. The carrier brings it to my house and puts the package on my doorstep. Okay, great. How did it get to the Amazon warehouse? Well, first, it was probably in another warehouse before it even got sent to Amazon. Before that warehouse, it was in a factory being made by human beings. Actually, before that, before it got to the warehouse, it was on a boat in a container, sailing from China. It was on a boat with human beings just living on the boat as it sails for months, you know, two months to the coast. Then it gets docked and separated out of a container ship. And like, human beings are there in the factory. There are human beings... I don't know how many small children died making this foam cover, but it's like the amount of work that goes into everything that's sitting in our house, just arriving there, is insane to me. Like, just the material... So where did the material for this foam come from? Right? There's like, you know, if you have cotton, that starts in a field somewhere. It's plucked, it gets processed, and it gets shipped. Then it gets manufactured, then it gets printed, then it gets manufactured again. It's like, that is insane.

Sam Parr

yeah where it comes from

Shaan Puri

And to the point where I'm kind of like, we're ruining the Earth and also people's lives. You know, like to get us all my T-shirt.

Sam Parr

Well, I canceled my Amazon Prime membership. I was like, "Man, I feel guilty." I order something, and so much energy behind the scenes went into shipping this. Of course, I only see they shipped a dongle for a computer—a small thing with bubble wrap in a huge box. I'm like, "Oh, this is horrible." Then I have to pay money to have a truck come pick it up because it's too much, you know? Ugh.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, then the truck, you know, burns gas and then takes it somewhere else and dumps it somewhere. Then it's someone else's problem, right? So, it's just kind of... on one hand, I'm amazed that the system even works. The fact that the package gets from the factory in Vietnam to the warehouse, and then you go to the warehouse and there's an unbelievable number of boxes. They get sorted, you know, picked and packed into the package, and that gets shipped. If you ever go to the post office, like, if you go to the post office, you should just ask them, "Hey, can I see what it's like behind the door there?" They'd be like, "What? Why?" And I'd be like, "I've just never seen a post office." They'll open the door, and it is like Santa's elves' factory, basically. It's like the most unbelievable number of packages, and you're like, "Where's the system? Conveyor belts?" And they're like, "No, we just got these trolleys, and then we just kind of keep them... like, you know, the ones going over there stay over in this area. Then we hope we don't lose them." It's like, wow, this is insane that this system even works.

Sam Parr

it is pretty crazy

Shaan Puri

it's like an incredible achievement

Sam Parr

It's crazy! You can mail something from California to New York for like **45¢**, and it gets there in like **4 days**.

Shaan Puri

That's what I'm saying, and pretty reliably so. I'm like, it is, on one hand, amazing, and on the other hand, it's horrifying. The amount of... like, forget the environmental side, right? I'm not even that environmentally conscious. It's not like something that I think about all the time or feel super guilty about. I actually feel more like the human energy and labor, and just the amount of effort and resources it took to get this thing to me. It makes me think, like, you know, we had the guy David Freiberg come on the pod. You weren't there for that one, but the thing he's doing, which is basically like, hey, he's doing the same thing in the drink industry. Instead of, you know, putting 20 liters of water to grow grapes, then crush the grapes, turn it into wine, add sugar, add alcohol, pack it up, send it to a bottling factory, then send it to a warehouse, then put it on a shelf in a store, then drive it home, and then put it on a shelf in your home... he's like, "Why don't you just manufacture it in your home using this little printer that'll print a drink for you?" And it's like, oh yeah, that cuts out like 90% of the energy, resources, and time and effort that goes into bringing this drink to my... you know, to be able to drink this drink. So I just feel like, more than ever, that was the big wake-up call. That was my "going into space" moment—realizing for every single product, every shirt, every pair of boxers, every sock that I own, how much goddamn effort, labor, travel, and resources goes into it. And realizing that that's not gonna be the way forever. This kind of 3D printing, you know, like sort of basically manufacturing just in time at the endpoint and cutting out a whole bunch of these factories and warehouses and all that other stuff that needs to happen was my big wake-up call.

Sam Parr

I want to ask you about what else you can do that for. But before that, have you ever gotten into the "Buy It For Life" movement? Have I told you about that?

Shaan Puri

no but I think I understand it from that what is it it's like an eco friendly way of like buying

Sam Parr

For my own objects, it doesn't have to be rooted in eco-friendliness; it's not for me, but it's a perk. There's a subreddit that I subscribe to called "Buy It For Life." The idea is to consume less stuff and buy the best of something that hopefully can last forever. So, an example: do you remember as a kid, did your mom ever have a KitchenAid mixer? Yes? Okay, so a KitchenAid mixer—KitchenAid's a brand—and the mixer is the thing with the bowl underneath it and the arm that goes above it and spins. Those are like $600; they're really expensive, but they're famous for lasting a lifetime. You can use an antique one, and it works just as good. Another example is if you're going to buy a coat. You might consider buying a really fancy leather coat and be willing to spend $2,000, as opposed to buying a $300 one, because it could last forever as long as you fit in it. Patagonia actually does that too; they'll fix your stuff forever. There are also a bunch of furniture options and different types of shoes you can buy. Instead of throwing them away when they wear down, you can just get them fixed. So, it's the idea of how do you buy one thing forever, and it hopefully can last forever, or buy one thing one time that will last forever.

Shaan Puri

I feel like you do stuff like this, Ben. Do you have objects that you buy that are meant to last? I don't know why, but my hunch just tells me you do.

Ben Wilson

The funny thing is, my dad does this, but not out of like environmental justice ideas. He just does it because he's crazy that way. He drove the same car for 22 years and just couldn't bring himself to buy a new one. He always shines his shoes because he's owned the same pair for like 40 years. So that kind of got ingrained in me as a good way to live, and I do this a little bit.

Sam Parr

It's awesome! It's fun, and also, like some of your stuff, as you wear it, it patinas. It actually looks cooler.

Shaan Puri

Right now, you're good at doing this, which is identifying these lifestyle trends. It's like, do you know there are some people that are, you know, not eating food anymore? They're just drinking whatever, Soylent, or you know, there are people that just microdose LSD every day. These are kind of famous examples now, but I feel like you've told me about like 30 of these in the time that we've been friends. They're like, "Dude, have you seen this subreddit called, you know, Fat Fire?" or whatever. It's like you always have these... you pick up pretty quickly on like there's this group of people that are deciding to live under a different sort of paradigm or different motto or creed. Actually, I think you just like it because it's interesting, but that also is like one of the best ways to build a business around that lifestyle. You can speak to that audience, and you could differentiate a product super easily to that crowd.

Sam Parr

And I seek those things out. There are a bunch of things that I don't agree with or I don't want to live my life that way, but I love just seeing it. I like seeing how... basically, I love freaks. I like weirdos. I consider myself a weirdo, and I love a good freak show. I remember the first time, like three years ago, I went to my friend's house and he didn't have a microwave. I'm like, "What? You don't have a microwave?" He's like, "Well, it's bad for these reasons." And I was like, "You're a freak! We all have microwaves. Well, you're the weirdo." Then I started thinking about it.

Shaan Puri

I'm like

Sam Parr

Well, okay, tell me why you think you might be right. I'm like, okay, maybe there's a... there. A lot of my friends now refuse to use plastic Tupperware or plastic anything that you eat with. I'm like, well, why? I just put my thing in the microwave, who cares? So, like, there's a bunch of little things like that that I love learning about.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I remember when Justin Mears came on. You were like, "Let me guess, you don't have a microwave in your house?" He's like, "Yep." And I was like, "That's a weird question to ask somebody that I don't think you knew the answer to ahead of time." Then that got me thinking about this exact lifestyle you're talking about. In fact, Moyes started Native Deodorant, which was around one of these trends. People wanted an all-natural, paraben-free, aluminum-free deodorant. He saw that on Etsy; it was a really high-selling item, but it was in the Etsy kind of handmade, artisan goods bubble. His bet was that once you speak to that value system of not having certain ingredients, people might be willing to pay more and switch deodorant brands if you built a brand around it. He recently tweeted something like, "A $1,000,000,000 idea: water that has not touched plastic." So, it's a water brand that has only been in glass containers or, you know, basically from the mountain, and it hasn't touched plastic until it reaches your lips. I thought that was funny. This plastic issue is real; a lot of people are anti-plastic. So, that means for every product where plastic is core, there's going to be an alternative product where plastic is not used. Whether it's Tupperware or, for me, I drink water out of those big 5-gallon jugs that are delivered to the house. It's in a plastic container the whole time until I drink it, right? So, it's just a giant water bottle. There are trends where you can look at, okay, if there's an anti-plastic trend, where is there plastic, and can I create an alternative? If there's a plant-based vegan trend, how do I make alt milks, alt meat, alt whatever? That becomes a blueprint for building a great business.

Sam Parr

So, there are a few companies out right now; you might know their names. I'm going to try and look them up. Basically, there's this trend among products that you use daily and run out of, like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and Advil bottles. The bottle is just a way to get it to you, but it's kind of ridiculous that you have to throw it away. So, they're making all these products where they send you one package, and then they send you, whenever you need it, just something to refill it. Like, literally something you pour into it. Do you know what they're called? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Shaan Puri

But I've seen this for toothpaste, and I think it's a great idea. I think this is a great business idea.

Sam Parr

At first, I thought it was small. I think Moyes was the one who told me. I'm pretty sure he said, "It's like killing it." You don't know what I'm talking about? I forget what it is.

Shaan Puri

no I don't have a name

Sam Parr

I'm talking about look up one of those but it it they're crushing it

Shaan Puri

I know there's, like, for cleaners, I think there's one called **Blueland**. I think **Blueland** does this, is it **Blueland**? Yeah.

Sam Parr

I know what you're talking about. Yeah, and it's like chemical-free containers. Then they send you one container, and then you order something. I don't know exactly how they send it to you, but you just pour it into the thing.

Shaan Puri

right they send you a plastic pouch that you throw away yeah

Sam Parr

yeah I think it's like less

Shaan Puri

Less bad. By the way, speaking of these kind of niche, crazy people, I got two for you. So one is, we talked, I think, about the r/AntiWork. Did we talk about that on the podcast? I don't know.

Sam Parr

I don't think we talked about it but it pisses me off

Shaan Puri

So, there's r/antiwork, which you should explain. Then, I have another one that's the counter to it. So first, explain r/antiwork.

Sam Parr

I don't even entirely know how to explain it, but I'll tell you the background. If I remember correctly, it started 8 years ago, but in the last 3 years, since the pandemic, is when it really got popular. It was made up of a lot of people who were waiters and waitresses, and they were pissed off at how they were being treated. It started out as a labor movement thing, like "we need higher wages." Now, it has about 8 million to 10 million subscribers on the subreddit. It's people complaining about things like, "My manager said they fired me because I told them I was busy when I needed to come in." They just basically criticize anything that is demanding of workers.

Shaan Puri

And so, I think... here’s their stated thing. Ben, you tell me if I'm being too harsh on it or if you find a more generous explanation. But here's what it says: It is a subreddit for those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, and want to get the most out of a work-free life. The subreddit had over 1,400,000 members by the end of 2019, which has got to be a lot more than that by now.

Sam Parr

it's 8,000,000 now

Shaan Puri

and it went it went I'm sorry 1,000,000 oh my god

Sam Parr

I'm sorry I think 1.8

Shaan Puri

Viral after a warehouse worker posted a screenshot of a text that they sent to their boss. That basically made other workers see it and get inspired to do the same. It was part of this, you know, the Great Resignation that people were talking about. There was this funny clip where they took a mod from r/antiwork and they went on Fox News. I don't know if you've seen this clip.

Sam Parr

and this the person got destroyed it was embarrassing

Shaan Puri

yeah it's like anti work person gets destroyed by you know fox anchors like the video

Sam Parr

I didn't like it. I mean, I hate when they do that. This person clearly is not that smart, I think. It's very easy to set them up to look silly in those cases.

Shaan Puri

The subreddit also didn't like it because they were like, "Dude, horrible representation of us on TV. You did not articulate our points." And you know, "Why did you go on there? This movement is not about you getting your personal fame." I think they had some rules around like, "We're not going to do appearances or speak to the media unless we kind of agree on what the message is." So this person went rogue, I guess, and did that. But they basically embarrassed themselves. So they were like, "Yeah, basically it was kind of like the end?" That they were kind of making. But anyway, so there's anti-work, which went viral. Then there's, have you seen r/overworked?

Sam Parr

no what's that

Shaan Puri

It's the exact opposite. It's people who are using the pandemic and the kind of remote work lifestyle to have multiple jobs at once. Their lingo is like, "Oh yeah, my J1," which is like my job one. J1 has great benefits, so I'm just picking up my J2. With J2, I'm just going to do 10 hours a week with this, this, and this, and I'm going to use that to invest in these things. So, it's people scheming together about how to work multiple jobs at once as remote workers. Oftentimes, it seems like they are doing this without the employers knowing that they have other jobs. They're being simultaneously employed without being super overt about it. I think that's the message. I could be wrong on that. It's people who are trying to get to financial freedom faster by saying, "Yeah, actually, I have the capacity to do multiple jobs." Instead of spending 40 hours a week on one job, it's like, "I can actually do a good job in 20 hours a week on two jobs and get paid double."

Sam Parr

That’s the optimistic way to look at it. The probably realistic way... like I’m looking at the top title and it says, “My J3 job forgot about me today.” They say I started my J3 yesterday, and by started, I mean I was giving an orientation on Zoom and no one showed up. So now I’m just sitting here on the payroll.

Shaan Puri

Right, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of people who are like, "Yeah, let's beat the system." So, there's basically a counter movement, but that kind of always happens. There's the movement, and then there's the counter movement that comes shortly after. It kind of polarizes, and then there's mainstream, which just does things the way they've been doing them. They don't really pay too much attention to this stuff. You know, that's kind of common for many, many, many of these movements. I think subreddits are a great place to look for that.