Brad Kelly's Cigarette Empire
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A story about Brad Kelly, a reclusive Kentucky businessman who built a billion-dollar empire starting with warehouses and cigarettes.
"This guy Brad Kelly, he's in his sixties and known as 'the man with a million acres.' He was born in Kentucky, went to college there, but dropped out at age 19 because he started buying warehouses. He made enough money leasing them out that he decided he didn't need school anymore.
He started renting these warehouses to people building stuff, creating miniature factories. Eventually, he noticed people were using them to store tobacco. When one tenant moved out, they left behind a cigarette rolling machine. He thought 'well I got this machine, let's try it' and started making cheap cigarettes. He created Commonwealth Brands, and after 10 years, sold the cigarette company for $1 billion.
With that money, he bought Lonely Planet for $70 million. He put a 24-year-old kid in charge as CEO with just a handshake agreement - no contract. That didn't work out great - they ended up selling it for $50 million later. But what he really did with his money was buy ranches and lease them back to owners. He now owns over a million acres in America, making him the 4th largest landowner in America as of 2012. He's incredibly reclusive - never does interviews. The only reason people really know about him is because he sold one of his ranches for $400 million.
He's an interesting character - they say he goes to his ranches and likes to drink bourbon and wear a kilt. He also owns Kentucky Downs, the horse track. He's just a guy who quietly built an empire and put all his money into real estate."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.