From $0 to $5M Per Month: How Dhar Mann Broke YouTube

Dhar Mann 0:00 How am I ever gonna become a millionaire when I don't even have 1,000 bucks? I would say it's harder to make that first thousand than it is that million. As you start to become more successful, you start to identify the patterns that help make you more successful, and that's because success begets success.

Codie Sanchez 0:16 My guest is Dhar Mann, one of the most watched creators on the internet. Now, we're gonna break down how he makes more than $65 million a year, how to actually conquer your fear of failure, and how to turn probably the worst chapters of your story into the reason you win.

Dhar Mann 0:30 It took me 100 videos to go viral. What if I quit on number 99? I put all my money together that I possibly could through all my friends and family, bury myself deep in debt, put it in one video. That one video would've failed. Consistency matters more than anything.

Codie Sanchez 0:44 What advice do you have for somebody today who wants to be successful and win?

Dhar Mann 0:48 You have to do these three things. Number one is sto-

Codie Sanchez 0:55 Dhar.

Dhar Mann 0:56 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 0:56 You're the number two creator in the world according to Forbes. $65 million last year on YouTube and online in earnings. But that doesn't tell your full story. I think the most interesting part is that you also, not that many years ago, in 2013, you had lost almost everything. And so I guess my question for you is, for people listening, what is the number one piece of advice you have if you're struggling-

Dhar Mann 1:23 Mm-hmm

Codie Sanchez 1:23 ... so that they can reach the summit that you have?

Dhar Mann 1:26 You know, if I can go back and tell myself one thing when I was lost and struggling and thought that my life was honestly over, it would be that failure is a chapter of your story. It doesn't mean that it's the entire book. And so in order to get to that learning, I found myself at 30 years old entering a new decade, and that's a milestone birthday, you know? You wanna think of your 30s as a time that your life is coming together. Maybe you're in that steady relationship. Maybe you bought your first home. Maybe you're in a career that's thriving. For me, it was the total opposite. Everything in my life was falling apart. I was going through a really bad breakup. I was six-- I w- I was four weeks away from getting... I'm sorry. I was two weeks away from getting evicted from my apartment, and I was, you know, broke, depressed. I thought that honestly my life was over. And at that time, what I started to do was read inspirational stories.

Codie Sanchez 2:23 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 2:24 I realized that external success starts with internal success.

Codie Sanchez 2:27 Mm.

Dhar Mann 2:27 And so I wanted to sharpen my brain, and I started listening to stories about successful people out there that had encountered tremendous failure on their way to success.

Codie Sanchez 2:38 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 2:38 So I read stories about how, like, Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team, became one of the greatest athletes of all time. J.K. Rowling was denied by dozens of publishers before, you know, writing Harry Potter. And then, uh, even Walt Disney, he went bankrupt about 100 different times on his way to starting Disneyland. And what I realized was that failure was not the opposite of success for them. It was actually just a part of their success.

Codie Sanchez 3:05 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 3:05 It's realizing one more way that didn't work in order to get you to the actual way that worked. And so I would say start thinking about your relationship with failure in a completely different way. If your life has not worked out yet, maybe that's life just redirecting you to a way that is actually working. And the hard part is it's the psychological aspects of failure.

Codie Sanchez 3:29 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 3:30 For me, as this 30-year-old Indian man, I was looking at it as, like, "My family is ashamed of me. My culture I'm letting down."

Codie Sanchez 3:40 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 3:40 "I should have my life figured out according to all these standards and expectations of where society is." But if you strip all those things away, right? I'm alive. I'm breathing. I get to wake up again and try again, right? Uh, so I would say just that mindset is everything.

Codie Sanchez 3:59 What was, like, the moment that that changed for you? Was there a trigger that you were like, "Oh, wait a second, I saw this book and I saw this quote, and then I made the

Codie Sanchez 4:08 change"?

Dhar Mann 4:09 I would love to think of it as a moment. And sure, there was a lot of breakthroughs.

Codie Sanchez 4:13 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 4:13 But in reality, it's a process.

Codie Sanchez 4:15 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 4:15 I think everyone wants that, "What is that one pill I can take?" Right? Like, you can't go to the gym, do this one workout, and suddenly you're ripped.

Codie Sanchez 4:22 Yeah. True.

Dhar Mann 4:23 So, you know, there's something called a Stockdale principle where-

Codie Sanchez 4:26 Mm

Dhar Mann 4:26 ... the people that survive the longest in war or when they were actually prisoners of war are not the ones that said, "Oh, I'm gonna be released this Christmas," or this Easter, or this Thanksgiving. It's the ones that thought that, "Hey, you know what? As long as it takes-

Codie Sanchez 4:43 Hmm

Dhar Mann 4:43 ... I'm gonna still keep fighting. I'm still gonna keep pushing forward." Because if you set your mind to, "Oh, this Christmas I'm gonna have everything figured out," what happens when that Christmas comes and goes-

Codie Sanchez 4:53 Hmm

Dhar Mann 4:53 ... and your life isn't figured out? Suddenly you get demoralized. So the best thing is when you're at rock bottom, just accept that you're there, that you're gonna be there for as long as it takes for you to get out. Don't put a timeframe on it. Don't think that there's some sort of get, you know, rich quick scheme that is gonna pull you out of it, because I promise you that's only gonna get you into a lot more trouble.

Codie Sanchez 5:15 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 5:15 Um, so, you know, first is sort of accepting where you are and realizing that it's going to take time. Um, and then yeah, you know, I like to say that

Dhar Mann 5:27 your struggle becomes your greatest superpower. Your greatest struggle becomes your greatest superpower. If I was to dig down deep into your story-

Codie Sanchez 5:37 Wow

Dhar Mann 5:37 ... I bet there's aspects that troubled you-

Codie Sanchez 5:41 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 5:41 ... either growing up as a kid or failures that you had, that ultimately somehow shaped you into the successful woman that you are today. And so if you look back and you realize, like, "Gosh, if that- R- breakup never happened, if I never got fired from that job, if I never hit rock bottom and promised myself that I would learn how to save money better or invest money, right, I never would've actually built the business that I am today.

Codie Sanchez 6:08 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 6:08 So think about really your failures as lessons. And if you think about it from that standpoint, you are so much stronger today. And so really you're not starting from zero, you're starting from experience.

Codie Sanchez 6:23 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 6:23 Right? You've learned all these things about yourself, um, that are now gonna help make you a better individual and more equipped to succeed. Um, and so for me, you know, it was realizing that I, because I failed, I could empathize with other people who were going through hard times-

Codie Sanchez 6:43 Hmm

Dhar Mann 6:43 ... in their life.

Codie Sanchez 6:44 Interesting.

Dhar Mann 6:44 Like, there's this quote by the Dalai Lama where he says, "The height of your- the depth of your suffering defines the height of your joy."

Codie Sanchez 6:54 Hmm.

Dhar Mann 6:54 And because I had gone through so much suffering and failure, when someone came to me and said, "Dhar, I'm going through a hard time," or, "I'm broke," or, "I'm broken," or whatever it is, I could relate to that person because I'd been through such hard times in my life. And ultimately, being able to connect with people became the inspiration for my content because I tell inspirational stories about underdogs who go through tough times, and they somehow come out on top. Uh, if anyone has ever seen a Dhar Mann story, that's typically how that formula goes. Uh, and the reason I'm able to tell those stories so authentically is because I am that underdog.

Codie Sanchez 7:34 Mm.

Dhar Mann 7:34 And had I never been, I would not be able to connect with people the same way possible. So whatever it is that you're going through, in some way or another, it's gonna later help you in life. It's just hard to see in that moment.

Codie Sanchez 7:47 Such a good reminder. The Stockdale Paradox is such an interesting one, because I remember the first time somebody asked me that question, like, "What do you think, uh, leads to more success for people who are prisoners of war?" Which really means people who are struggling. Is it the optimist, actually, or is it the pessimist? And I was like, "Oh, it's the optimist. Of course it is."

Dhar Mann 8:06 Right.

Codie Sanchez 8:06 That's what we all think.

Dhar Mann 8:07 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 8:08 But it turns out it was actually, they don't use the word pessimist. They say the word, like-

Dhar Mann 8:12 Really?

Codie Sanchez 8:12 ... rationalist.

Dhar Mann 8:13 Oh, rationalist. [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 8:13 Yeah, realist.

Dhar Mann 8:14 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 8:14 Yeah. And so the realist was actually the one that says, "No, it's unlikely I'm gonna get out of here-

Dhar Mann 8:19 Right

Codie Sanchez 8:19 ... but I'm gonna be okay with that."

Dhar Mann 8:20 I have this analogy that I use. So I have a podcast called What Happens Next? that just came out, and the whole,

Dhar Mann 8:25 uh, philosophy is based on the Japanese art form Kintsugi.

Codie Sanchez 8:28 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 8:29 So as individuals-

Codie Sanchez 8:30 Hmm

Dhar Mann 8:30 ... we like to think of ourselves, often, especially in this world of social media, that we wanna show the perfect version of ourselves, and we think that's what's gonna make us beautiful, right? Look how glamorous my life is. Look how I've got everything figured out, and Instagram has put that all on steroids. But the Japanese art form Kintsugi, the philosophy is you take a clay pot-

Codie Sanchez 8:51 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 8:52 ... you drop it, you break it, and then you put gold glitter in order to put it back together. So the whole philosophy is the imperfections are not meant to be hidden.

Codie Sanchez 9:04 Mm.

Dhar Mann 9:04 They're actually meant to be more beautiful, because that's what makes something unique. And so if you were to look at all these clay pots that all look somewhat similar, but one was broken and had this gold silver lining, it would just make you stop and think, like, "Wow, there's something special about that."

Codie Sanchez 9:23 Mm.

Dhar Mann 9:23 And humans are the same way.

Codie Sanchez 9:25 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 9:25 If I was to tell you that, "Hey, you know what? I never failed in life. Everything I did always worked out. I found the girl right outside of high school. I bought my dream home. I had kids. We never, you know, had any hardships," you'd be like, "That's boring."

Codie Sanchez 9:40 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 9:40 That's not relatable at all, right? So humans work the same way as broken clay pots that are put together.

Codie Sanchez 9:47 Mm.

Dhar Mann 9:47 When you actually look at the pieces that have been brought, it's what makes someone so special and what makes someone so unique.

Codie Sanchez 9:54 You actually have this business that is a new age, in many ways, version of a production company, and I think I saw that you have, like, 80 billion lifetime views of telling inspirational stories. And I was curious, one of the things you mentioned is that you understand this empathy and inspiration, and so you're able to connect with people and tell these stories. It gets millions of views every, every week. What do you think are the repeatable ways to catch people's attention and keep it in 2026?

Dhar Mann 10:27 Yeah, that's a great question. So first off, I'll just start with it's easy to look at somebody and say, "Oh, you have billions of views," or, "You have millions of dollars. Of course you have it all figured out." But one thing I will say is that it is much harder to make $100,000 than it is to make a million dollars.

Codie Sanchez 10:49 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 10:49 And in that same vein, it's much harder to make $10,000 than it is $100,000, or your first $100 versus your first $1,000, and that's because success begets success. As you start to become more successful, you start to identify the patterns that help make you more successful, and then you build the systems, and you have the teams, and then you also have the credibility. When Dhar Mann was starting out, like, in my small studio apartment, I couldn't go to the bank to get $100 from them [laughs] if I told them what my goal is. But now that we're established business, it's much easier for us to get access to capital and debt. And so for anyone that is ever discouraged, looking at, "Well, hey, how am I ever gonna become a millionaire when I don't even have 1,000 bucks?" I would say it's harder to make that first thousand than it is that million.

Codie Sanchez 11:38 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 11:38 So always focus on the milestone that's right in front of you.

Codie Sanchez 11:41 Mm.

Dhar Mann 11:42 Uh, but you know, in today's world, to answer your question, I would say more than ever, we're looking for ... relatability.

Codie Sanchez 11:49 Mm.

Dhar Mann 11:49 We're looking for emotional connection. And sure, like, you can have big dopamine spikes by showing spectacle constantly on camera, but storytelling, being able to s- have the audience actually see themselves in your content-

Codie Sanchez 12:04 Mm

Dhar Mann 12:04 ... makes for a much more memorable experience. So 75% of our audience says that they feel compelled to take some sort of positive action in their life after watching a Dhar Mann video.

Codie Sanchez 12:17 Mm.

Dhar Mann 12:17 That might mean calling their mom. That might mean going for a walk. That might be trying to squash whatever relationship issues that they're having with their spouse.

Codie Sanchez 12:24 Mm.

Dhar Mann 12:25 So our content creates real-world action. Even if we don't get maybe as many views as somebody else who is a spectacle-based creator, ours are more meaningful views, and I would say there's a difference there. And one of the things that is important, uh... I think of retention as emotion-

Codie Sanchez 12:45 Mm

Dhar Mann 12:45 ... right? That really the retention graph of a video is an emotional connection graph as to how invested you are into the actual story. And I like to use this example that if you think about Mission Impossible, have you seen it?

Codie Sanchez 12:59 Yep.

Dhar Mann 13:00 Tell me the plot line of the last video you saw.

Codie Sanchez 13:03 Oh, gosh. [laughs]

Dhar Mann 13:03 It's hard, right? Because it's all explosions and action, action, action.

Codie Sanchez 13:07 Airplane hanging.

Dhar Mann 13:08 And sure, a lot of people see it, but you didn't actually have a deep emotional resonance in your heart. But if I ask you about a video that you might not have seen for, like, 20 years, The Lion King.

Codie Sanchez 13:20 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 13:20 Have you seen it?

Codie Sanchez 13:20 Uh-huh.

Dhar Mann 13:21 When's the last time you saw it?

Codie Sanchez 13:22 Yeah, probably 20 years ago.

Dhar Mann 13:23 Do you remember the storyline?

Codie Sanchez 13:24 Yeah, of course.

Dhar Mann 13:24 Because you had a connection. You might have seen yourself as Simba-

Codie Sanchez 13:28 Mm

Dhar Mann 13:28 ... right? As somebody who was trying to figure out this world all on your own or whatever else, and you know the journey that that person went on.

Codie Sanchez 13:35 Mm.

Dhar Mann 13:35 So I would say for anyone that's looking to create content, forget about all the vanity metrics, which is, like, views and this and that. I would focus on creating an emotional connection with your audience.

Codie Sanchez 13:46 Mm.

Dhar Mann 13:47 And that one view might be worth more than somebody else's thousand views because that one view actually created some sort of impact in that viewer's life that they're always gonna remember you for. And by the way, as I talk to brands and they tell me about who some of their most successful sales affiliates are, it's not the people that get millions of views, right? Because those people are often an inch deep but a mile wide.

Codie Sanchez 14:11 Mm.

Dhar Mann 14:12 It's the people that might have a thousand views but have such an engaged audience where they're an inch wide and a mile deep.

Codie Sanchez 14:19 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 14:19 So I would say don't focus so much on the views, and focus on having that emotional connection with your audience, and the rest will come over time.

Codie Sanchez 14:26 That's

Codie Sanchez 14:27 such a good point because sales is really storytelling in any sense of the word, and you're selling somebody's time if you have a piece of content. You know, you're selling yourself if you want a date, you know, and you're selling the product if you wanna get a brand deal or if you wanna sell, you know, something in your business. So I guess, what if you had to turn it into a framework?

Dhar Mann 14:44 Mm-hmm.

Codie Sanchez 14:44 So let's say you had to say, "Okay, here's the framework for getting a million views on-

Dhar Mann 14:49 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 14:50 ... YouTube." Is there a s- a framework, a system, a calculation-

Dhar Mann 14:54 Sure

Codie Sanchez 14:54 ... that you use? And if so, what is it?

Dhar Mann 14:56 Well, first, on a philosophical level, I like to use the word, acronym HEART. So H is Honor your audience. You always have to create content that resonates with your audience first, once you figure out who that is, and that's fine for you to test a lot of different content formats to see which one actually resonates. E is Earn their trust. Once you actually have your audience, don't do things that are gonna make you sell out or seem authentic to that. If I started as a purpose-driven filmmaker and then suddenly started doing things just because it got more views or because a brand deal was paying me to do so, suddenly I've alienated myself from the audience. So you always have to stay true to that. A is Architect a system, which we'll talk more about during this podcast. No content creator is successful simply because they stumbled upon virality. They might have a v- video or two like that, but anyone who's very successful, they actually have a system. We have a system for testing content before it ever goes live. If you were to come on my podcast, we probably would have done 100 different tests to see what we should actually title the video that you're gonna be in-

Codie Sanchez 16:14 Mm

Dhar Mann 16:14 ... which we know ahead of time, and then I've formulated my questions based on what audiences wanna perceive.

Codie Sanchez 16:20 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 16:20 And you can create these tests actually very inexpensively, which we'll get to soon. But architect a system where you're not just creating content, but you're actually creating a company. And then R is Reach hearts, and that's when you go back to emotional connection. If you can move people emotionally, that's what gets them to actually hit the share button. The number one comment that I get in my videos is that, that I love, is, "This video made me cry."

Codie Sanchez 16:51 Mm.

Dhar Mann 16:51 Because I know if I move someone, then I'm much more likely to become memorable for them and for them to associate our brand with some sort of positive emotional resonance.

Codie Sanchez 17:01 Mm.

Dhar Mann 17:01 And then T is just Turn views into impact.

Codie Sanchez 17:05 Mm.

Dhar Mann 17:05 As you become more successful, you gotta think about how can you make the world a better place than when you started. And so I don't just create views for views.

Codie Sanchez 17:13 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 17:13 I really care about the impact that we're making. So that's the philosophical framework that can actually not just work for creating content, but for any product that you wanna go into. Then there's the more tactical one.

Dhar Mann 17:27 In order to succeed as a content creator, you have to think about four Ps, and it used to be three, but I added one. So the three Ps used to be Packaging, Pitch-

Codie Sanchez 17:41 Mm

Dhar Mann 17:41 ... and Post-Production.

Codie Sanchez 17:42 Mm.

Dhar Mann 17:43 But then as I really thought about what our system is and how it's evolved, I added to the first step Is pre-testing

Codie Sanchez 17:51 Mm.

Dhar Mann 17:52 So pre-testing. It goes back to if I was to do a podcast with you, instead of just kind of having you in the room and saying, "Hey, let's see where this conversation goes," the first thing I'm gonna do is, "Who's Codie's audience?" Okay. Well, you know, you described it to me a little bit earlier, but based on my own research I'm somewhat familiar, that you said it's people in their late 20s, early 30s that might be looking for some sort of career pivot. Okay. Well, if that's the audience, then I can actually take different packaging concepts, right? I might come up with some different titles for what the podcast can be.

Codie Sanchez 18:29 Mm.

Dhar Mann 18:29 Turn Your Life Around in Three Steps. You know, um, Take Your Life to the Next Level in Your 30s. Um, Here's the One Thing that You Need to Know that Can Take You From Failure to Success. I might have all these different titles that I think that that person in your audience is interested in. I will design a thumbnail based on that hypothesis and what I know about your audience. I will actually publish these titles, these, these different thumbnails on Facebook as images,

Dhar Mann 19:01 and I will run a paid test. And by the way, it might sound intimidating, but it's actually very simple to do, and you only need about $10 or so to get accurate information on the test. And what I'm looking for is: What is the click rate? How many people are actually gonna click that photo? How many people are gonna like it? How many people are gonna comment in it? And especially once I start to build that relationship with my audience where they know that I'm testing different concepts, they'll say, "I actually really like this one more than the other one." So I'll do about 100 different title tests to see what my audience is interested in learning from you, and what overlaps with your audience, and I can create look... I can create tests for my audience, or I can create lookalike audience tests, which means I take who your audience is and Facebook will actually serve my ad to similar [laughs] audiences to see how they interact. And based on that result, I will then decide what my title for the podcast episode is gonna be, so when you come on my show, I'm gonna angle everything based on that. Then you go into actual packaging. So if I know my packaging is gonna be, "Here's the one thing that you need to do to go from failure to success," in a show that you come on, you know, my podcast to do, what's the first question I'm gonna ask you?

Codie Sanchez 20:21 That question. [laughs]

Dhar Mann 20:22 That question. Because people's attention spans are so quick.

Codie Sanchez 20:25 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 20:25 So whatever... When it, when you've figured out your packaging, the next thing you need to do... So you've pre-tested, you've determined your packaging. Deliver on that premise right away. And so right at the opening, the audience should be like, "Oh, I'm here to get whatever I clicked for." Because if I was to start that podcast when someone clicks and says, "Hey, what is the one thing you need to do to go from failure to success?" And I was just like, "Hey, Codie, tell me about your pregnancy journey," or, "Tell me about how living in Austin is," it's like, wait a second. I clicked under this premise. And so YouTube or whatever the platform is, what do they care about? They care about returning viewers and new viewers.

Codie Sanchez 21:07 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 21:07 Your returning viewers are your core audience. That's who, "If Codie's name is on it, I'm gonna watch it no matter what. I just, I'm so in love with Codie. I know it's great." So you always wanna cater to your returning viewers, but if you're not appealing to new viewers, you're not gonna-- Your content is not gonna be pushed out into the algorithm. Because YouTube or whoever the platform's gonna see that, hey, you know what? As soon as we go outside of Codie's core, we've noticed that a viewer will come, they'll click, they'll listen for the first, like, 10 seconds, and they immediately click off-

Codie Sanchez 21:42 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 21:42 ... because the opening did not deliver on whatever that packaging premise was. They're gonna stop serving your content in the algorithm. And so as you look at your graphs, you'll wonder, "Why is my audience not growing?"

Codie Sanchez 21:55 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 21:56 And that's because your content is not keeping them at a high retention level. So pre-test everything to figure out what your best packaging is. When you figure out your packaging, deliver on that premise right away. And then I would say pitch. Pitch is something that I work on quite consistently. Like, you would think that more time is spent in the actual production aspect-

Codie Sanchez 22:20 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 22:20 ... of a creator, or more time is spent in, you know, if you're a scripted content creator, like writing out the actual script. No, I would say the pitch. How can you describe this in 30 seconds?

Codie Sanchez 22:31 Mm.

Dhar Mann 22:32 Right? It's just like the, the elevator pitch that any sor- any person that's, like, coming up with-- that has a startup idea is told to really perfect. The whole concept being if you're, if you're a creator and you are being... You are in an elevator trying to get a viewer interested in watching your video. If you can't in 30 seconds clearly explain to them why they should watch your video, whatever that pitch is, you've lost their interest.

Codie Sanchez 22:58 Mm.

Dhar Mann 22:59 And a lot of people I ask that are creators, they can't even explain it to themselves or their own team. So really figure out what that pitch is to make that content interesting.

Codie Sanchez 23:09 Mm.

Dhar Mann 23:10 And then the last piece being

Dhar Mann 23:12 post-production. A lot of people think that the magic is in actual production. But it's really in post. We were talking about this right before the show. All the best creators that I know spend about three times more amount of effort in post than they actually do in production, and that's because that's where-

Codie Sanchez 23:32 Explain post really quick for somebody that doesn't know

Dhar Mann 23:33 ... Yeah, so post is, like, basically editing your video, right? So again, if you're a short form, maybe you don't have to spend as much time on this, but believe it or not, even the short form creators I know could spend, like, a whole day on editing, and they're just trying to perfect every second. You have to think about every second of your video as you're constantly, you know, trying to get your viewers' attention-

Codie Sanchez 23:56 Mm

Dhar Mann 23:56 ... especially if it's shorter form content, especially if you don't have a strong relationship with your audience. And so we analyze every word to make sure, like, "Hey, could this sentence be cut out? Does it work without this? Should we add music here to make it more interesting? Should we add some sort of graphic to visually capture somebody's interest? Um, how can we, you know, just cut a little bit faster, or how could we build emotion, build a little bit of suspense because we know that something is gonna get to this climax moment?" Um, so yeah, those are the four things I would say really pay attention to. Pre-test as much as you can to help you identify your packaging, uh, and then really refine that pitch so you can explain it in 30 seconds as to what that value proposition is. And then after you actually, you know, make the video, spend a lot of time in post-production editing it to make it as interesting as possible because ultimately that's what's gonna determine the retention of the video.

Codie Sanchez 24:53 Interesting. Now, you know what also is fascinating to me about you is you put out a ton of content. So I would be curious on something. You know, there's that kind of famous saying, um, that quantity always beats quality, that you should just do more, and maybe you don't have the life that you want because you're not doing as much as it takes to get there.

Dhar Mann 25:16 Mm.

Codie Sanchez 25:16 What do you believe? Should someone, if they wanna achieve greatness,

Codie Sanchez 25:20 is the answer that you just need to do more, or is it you have to do more better things?

Dhar Mann 25:25 It just depends on what your personal goal is, right? So take the Birkin, right? Hermes, they sell a fraction of the amount of handbags that Chanel does or Louis Vuitton or Gucci, but their valuation is just as strong, and Birkins consistently grow up g- go up in price every year. And their whole philosophy is, sure, they could mass produce the Birkin bag if they wanted to, but instead they hire hand tailors that specialize in this craft and take so much time on each handbag that they care more about the quality.

Codie Sanchez 26:03 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 26:04 And so, right, it just depends on what your goal is. Do you wanna be sort of this premier mom-and-pop steakhouse that is really well respected and you have a very comfortable living, or do you wanna be Morton's, or do you wanna be McDonald's?

Codie Sanchez 26:19 Mm.

Dhar Mann 26:19 Right? They all kinda sell a similar thing, but they have different kind of lifestyles and different kind of prestige associated with them. For me, it really came down to my goal was to make impact. I wanted people to watch my videos and say, "Wow, that helped me get to a better place in my life, or not give up on my dreams, or help resolve, help me get out of depression or anxiety," right? Like, um, so for me, it was really important to reach the masses-

Codie Sanchez 26:48 Mm

Dhar Mann 26:48 ... because it's a mission-driven company.

Codie Sanchez 26:50 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 26:50 And so when I was starting, I was doing one three-minute video a week, and I remember we were on a group call. We were a four-person team at that time, and I said, "Guys, a day is gonna come where we're doing two three-minute videos a week." And one of my producers was like, "Dhar, are you crazy? Two videos a week? Like, do you care about quantity, or do you care about quality?" And I was like, "I don't see them as trade-offs."

Codie Sanchez 27:16 Mm.

Dhar Mann 27:16 "Like, I think both are possible." And, uh, he ended up quitting because he thought that that whole idea was crazy. By the... Within the next, like, six months, I would say, we didn't just go from one three-minute video to two, we went from one to five, and then that next year... We were creating videos for Facebook. That next year, we went from... We started focusing on YouTube, so we went from one 22-minute video to five, and then we started a whole division that creates original content for, uh, for Samsung TVs. Then we went into vertical dramas where we're doing 40 films for Fox, and now, you know, we're going into, um, a brand-new division where we're gonna be on, you know, some of the traditional platforms that most people watch, and we have a whole short-form department. We have a branded content department. And so really for me, it comes down to two Ps: people and processes.

Codie Sanchez 28:13 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 28:13 Everything is scalable. Anytime I start to

Dhar Mann 28:16 get into this limited belief mindset, I just remember, well, Walt Disney was just an individual who actually failed more times than probably anyone listening to this podcast. Literally went bankrupt 100 different times. Had his early version of Mickey Mouse, like the, the, uh, rabbit that he invented before Mickey Mouse, was stolen from him.

Codie Sanchez 28:40 Mm.

Dhar Mann 28:40 Like, his own, like, founding team members went to go work for his competition. Like, he had to borrow money from his brother and his spouse and so many other people, and now he-- Disney puts out, you know, some of the most iconic feature films, has theme parks around the world. It has so many different divisions, and that's all because someone didn't have limited belief.

Codie Sanchez 29:02 Mm.

Dhar Mann 29:02 So when I start to think of what's possible for us, I just think, "Well, look at what Disney's doing."

Codie Sanchez 29:08 Mm.

Dhar Mann 29:08 "Why can't we get there?" In order to solve that problem, we either need more people, we need- ... different types of people, or we need better processes.

Codie Sanchez 29:18 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 29:18 And I always try to start with processes because that's the easier fix.

Codie Sanchez 29:22 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 29:22 And so once you unlock that limited belief mindset, then really anything is possible. But I would say it all starts with what are your personal goals?

Codie Sanchez 29:32 Mm.

Dhar Mann 29:32 Because I, I fall into the trap thinking that everybody w- has the same ambitions or mindset that I do. And so I would always try to, anyone, anytime I had, like, someone that I was the manager of, I'd always try to motivate them in a way that got them to their highest potential.

Codie Sanchez 29:51 Mm.

Dhar Mann 29:51 But then I realized that not everybody wants that. Some people are comfortable, you know, they wanna be able to clock out at 4:00 PM, and they wanna be able to have a nice dinner and watch the game and spend time with their spouse, and honestly, I kinda envy that. Like, that's nice. If that's what you're after, then yeah, you don't need scale, right? But if you're like us, [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 30:14 Unhinged

Dhar Mann 30:14 ... and, yeah, and you're just like, "Oh my gosh," like, "You have one life to live. There's so much potential. Look at all these people that are doing these incredible things. Why not me?"

Codie Sanchez 30:26 100%.

Dhar Mann 30:26 Then yeah, then you gotta go for it.

Codie Sanchez 30:28 Here's the thing about everything Dhar walked us through. Vision and grit will only get you to the starting line, but Dhar didn't build his brand just by believing in it. Like you heard him, he was executing relentlessly, and that takes resources. You can have the idea, a plan, the audience. At some point it's actually growing the thing, and that means putting fuel behind it. Capital, I think, is what lets you do that best. So let me tell you about a new business lending product from SoFi. SoFi small business loans are built for growth. With a quick digital application, you can check your eligibility in minutes, receive a decision quickly, and if approved, get funding in as little as 24 hours. Here's the part I really like. The pricing is super clear and upfront, so you'll see your business terms before you even accept it. No surprises, no penalties for paying your loan off early, and you could choose weekly or monthly repayments on a schedule that fits how your business actually runs. It's built for solopreneurs and small businesses. You can check your eligibility in minutes. If you're looking to get capital, head to sofi.com/codie, or click the link in the show notes. Your business moves fast. Your financing should too. SoFi small business loans are originated by SoFi Bank NA, subject to eligibility and approval. Terms and conditions apply. This is a paid SoFi partnership.

Codie Sanchez 31:36 What do you think is the most unhinged thing you do to create like 300 to 400 pieces of content per month, was the number I saw? What do you think you're like, "God, people would be shocked that we do this"?

Dhar Mann 31:49 I would love to say that there's a pill that you can take or some quick fix, right? But the reality is, is if you've ever trained for a race, okay, you're gonna run a marathon. And, um, I don't know what the average time is for somebody to run a marathon. What is that? Um-

Codie Sanchez 32:07 I have no idea

Dhar Mann 32:07 ... well, let, let's just say a mile. We'll keep this simpler, the math simpler. Uh, let's say that you wanna run a six-minute mile, okay? And the very first time you get on a treadmill, you barely break 15 minutes. You're like, "Man, that was imp- 15 minutes, like how am I gonna get to six? There's just no way." But you keep doing that and keep running 15-minute miles, right? And then two weeks later something interesting happens. You actually ... The part where you were running at the two-minute mark where you usually will start to hit the speed lower, so you start walking, you weren't as tired at that two-minute mark. You actually didn't get tired until the two-minute and 30 mark.

Codie Sanchez 32:43 Mm.

Dhar Mann 32:43 So now your 15-minute mile became 13 minutes without even really realizing it. You can't say what that one breakthrough was.

Codie Sanchez 32:52 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 32:52 All you know is that you've been just running, right-

Codie Sanchez 32:54 Yeah

Dhar Mann 32:54 ... for two weeks straight, and you didn't stop. And then two weeks later something interesting happens. At the two and a half minute mark you suddenly weren't breathing as heavy. You, you might have felt the impulse to hit the speed down, but you didn't. You almost forgot that you're even at the two and a half minute mark, and you just kept running. And when you looked at the time it was at three minutes. And now you happen to get to a 10-minute mile, right? And then as you kept going, you kept going. Eventually you got to nine minutes and eight minutes and seven minutes. And then one day, before you know it, you, you were... You didn't even set out to try to break the record that day. This was just another day on the treadmill, and you happen to look at the time at the six-minute mark, and you can't believe it, and you see how the distance you ran was 1.0. So what was that magical moment?

Codie Sanchez 33:39 Mm.

Dhar Mann 33:40 It's really hard to say. So I would just say if you're to try to create 200 pieces of content a month, don't think of how can I go to one to 200. Think of it as how can I go to one to two.

Codie Sanchez 33:51 Mm.

Dhar Mann 33:52 And then once you figure that out it becomes easier to go from two to four, four to eight, eight to 16, and you just start to realize that the teams you build are different. In the beginning you're hiring a lot of generalists, right?

Codie Sanchez 34:04 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 34:04 It's more of a family environment. And so, you know, I started off with my wife was the one that was giving me ideas, and, uh, my brother-in-law was an actor, right? I was using my studio apartment. I was just using every resource I had. We were shooting on iPhones. I was teaching myself how to edit. You know, I had a few hundred dollars in the bank.

Codie Sanchez 34:27 [laughs]

Dhar Mann 34:27 And everybody was doing everything that was required. So naturally you can only do so much when you're a four-person team, you're working in a limited space. But as we became successful I started reinvesting. I hired more people. I got more space, got more equipment. Now all of a sudden we had two production teams and then four production teams, and the type of people you hire are different. You have a CEO.

Codie Sanchez 34:47 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 34:48 Could you imagine having a CEO

Dhar Mann 34:50 five years ago or however-

Codie Sanchez 34:51 Course not. No

Dhar Mann 34:52 ... There, there's no way. I couldn't imagine having a CEO.

Codie Sanchez 34:54 What do you think about-

Dhar Mann 34:55 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 34:55 ... if you had to like say it tactically, like you started ... When did you start Dhar Mann?

Dhar Mann 34:59 Eight years ago.

Codie Sanchez 35:00 Eight years ago. So year one, how many employees did you have?

Dhar Mann 35:04 One. [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 35:05 [laughs] Year two.

Dhar Mann 35:07 Probably three.

Codie Sanchez 35:09 Year three.

Dhar Mann 35:11 About like 25 or so.

Codie Sanchez 35:12 Ooh, so big jump.

Dhar Mann 35:13 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 35:13 Year four.

Dhar Mann 35:14 Year four is when we got our studio, so we probably went to about 75.

Codie Sanchez 35:18 Five?

Dhar Mann 35:19 Yeah. Um, about 125.

Codie Sanchez 35:22 Six?

Dhar Mann 35:23 Um, six. We started, uh... We capped out around, like, 200 or so.

Codie Sanchez 35:30 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 35:30 And then now we kinda try to stay there. Um-

Codie Sanchez 35:33 So really, every... So you almost have minim- like doubling, doubling, doubling, and then once you get to, let's call it 150, 2 or whatever, you kinda try to stay, and at some point it's not just more people.

Dhar Mann 35:45 Well, then you can start-

Codie Sanchez 35:45 It gets into more process

Dhar Mann 35:46 ... to outsource things.

Codie Sanchez 35:47 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 35:47 Right? Um, and you become more efficient at-

Codie Sanchez 35:50 Yeah

Dhar Mann 35:50 ... doing certain things. And so, for instance, our vertical dramas with our deal with Fox.

Codie Sanchez 35:55 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 35:56 Um, that we have a senior producer-

Codie Sanchez 35:59 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 35:59 ... a showrunner. Um, we have a, uh... It, it... That's pretty much it. We have a two-person team, and the rest we hire crews to come in-

Codie Sanchez 36:07 Yeah

Dhar Mann 36:07 ... and film that kinda content. Eventually, if that becomes successful enough, we might start to hire within. So that's also an interesting thing, is like when do you outsource versus when do you build something

Dhar Mann 36:17 internally? And what I would say is when you know something is such an important part of your business-

Codie Sanchez 36:25 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 36:25 ... then don't outsource that thing.

Codie Sanchez 36:28 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 36:29 Do that internally. Like Hermes, I'm sure they can go say, "Hey, this factory, build us a bunch of Birkins." But they know that their whole brand exists because of the quality of their bags, and so they're never gonna outsource that. They're always gonna do that in-house. Um, Caruso is a popular real estate developer in Los Angeles, Southern California. If you go to The Grove... Have you been to The Grove?

Codie Sanchez 36:53 Yeah, mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 36:54 Okay. It's one of the malls that are, like, few malls I would say in the country that are really thriving.

Codie Sanchez 36:59 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 36:59 Any time you go, it's a magical experience. If you go during Christmas, there's Santa Claus. You go during Easter, there's the Easter Bunny. Do you know who runs that programming?

Codie Sanchez 37:08 Mm-mm.

Dhar Mann 37:08 Caruso.

Codie Sanchez 37:09 Mm.

Dhar Mann 37:09 When you go and valet park, the person is so nice. They're just like, "Hey," they're greeting you. They're in a nice uniform. Do you know who runs the valet parking? Caruso.

Codie Sanchez 37:20 Mm.

Dhar Mann 37:20 So Caruso's decided that every aspect of the customer-

Codie Sanchez 37:24 Mm

Dhar Mann 37:24 ... experience he wants to control, because his brand is family. He wants to be able to deliver on those strong family values and that positive customer experience, and that's the reason that he's thriving.

Codie Sanchez 37:38 Mm.

Dhar Mann 37:38 So you figure out what is sort of the core product-

Codie Sanchez 37:41 Mm

Dhar Mann 37:41 ... that you're developing and never outsource that thing. If there's things that you're testing, especially as you get more resources, you're interested in this may be a opportunity or not, don't spend the time hiring a team, 'cause that's gonna take you six months. Instead, if you can just get another team, like, you know, outsource it, get it fired up, and get it going so you can learn as quickly as possible, see if it's even viable, then you can decide, "Does it make sense for me to continue outsourcing that because it's not that meaningful, but I wanna keep it going?" Or, "Is this something that didn't work, so I'm just gonna scrap it?" Or, "Oh, man, that hit, and now this has so much potential that I'm gonna bring it in-house."

Codie Sanchez 38:22 You know, it's funny. So in, uh, we model one of our businesses off of this company called Vista Equity, and one of our friends was one of the co-founders of it, and it's a really big private equity company, but based around technology. And they run everything on what's called the Vista Playbook. And so if you come into their world, not unlike Disney, Disney was obsessed with every single segment of its park-

Dhar Mann 38:42 Right

Codie Sanchez 38:42 ... right? Vista's sort of the exact same way. You run the playbook the same way every time. Well, what is interesting is th- you know, he taught me, uh, his name is, is Brian, and then a few of his employees that we've hired over the years taught me that they, they have something called value engines, and, uh, sometimes they call them value engines, sometimes they call them revenue engines. But if I was to ask you right now what is McKinsey's real business-

Dhar Mann 39:05 Mm

Codie Sanchez 39:05 ... like what you talked about, the core part of the business of what McKinsey sells, what would you say?

Dhar Mann 39:09 McKinsey, the consulting company?

Codie Sanchez 39:11 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 39:12 Um, expertise.

Codie Sanchez 39:14 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 39:15 That's what comes to mind.

Codie Sanchez 39:16 So I, I said-

Dhar Mann 39:18 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 39:18 ... their core value engine is probably making their customers more money.

Dhar Mann 39:22 Mm.

Codie Sanchez 39:22 Like, if they can-

Dhar Mann 39:23 Right

Codie Sanchez 39:23 ... drive revenue to their customers-

Dhar Mann 39:25 Yeah, that makes sense

Codie Sanchez 39:25 ... McKinsey would win.

Dhar Mann 39:26 Right.

Codie Sanchez 39:26 I thought so. He's like, "Absolutely not." I'm like, "Really? What is it?" And he said, "McKinsey is a partner factory."

Dhar Mann 39:34 Oh, right.

Codie Sanchez 39:34 They know that if they can take a college kid from college over eight years, and they're high-performing, and turn them into a partner, then that partner will over the course of 20 years drive so much revenue to the firm-

Dhar Mann 39:46 Mm

Codie Sanchez 39:46 ... that, uh, they just keep creating partners again and again. And so everything else is ancillary actually to their recruiting, onboarding, training, retention. And I thought that was fascinating, because it's not dissimilar to, like, McDonald's, which people would say it's the cheeseburger, but in a lot of ways it's the real estate. And if they're in the right location, then those golden archin- arches will beckon. And so it's a really great point about, you know, how do you make magic in a business if you're... You know, if Caruso's magic or value creation portion is this family component, knowing that and

Codie Sanchez 40:19 executing on it.

Dhar Mann 40:20 That's a great point. So, uh, Jim Collins, you know, one of my favorite authors, you were asking earlier, he's written many incredible books, uh, but Good to Great is one of those. Uh, so he talks about how the greatest businesses, their product is not the thing that they sell, but it is their actual team. And it gives the example, so when Boeing started, do you know... Boeing, the-

Codie Sanchez 40:42 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 40:43 ... makes the greatest aircrafts and rockets and... Do you know what their original business was?

Codie Sanchez 40:48 Ooh, no.

Dhar Mann 40:49 Selling lawn furniture. And so let's say that their business was, "I'm gonna sell lawn furniture"-

Codie Sanchez 40:56 Mm

Dhar Mann 40:56 ... and they saw that as their product. When that product failed, if the business is the product, what happens? The business goes away. But instead, if you see the product as your team-

Codie Sanchez 41:10 Mm

Dhar Mann 41:10 ... right? My, my product is the team of engineers or consultants or creatives that I've hired, and I'm always trying to make that product better-

Codie Sanchez 41:19 Mm

Dhar Mann 41:19 ... then regardless of whatever the output is, that can continue to change. The economy can change. The consumer interest can change.

Codie Sanchez 41:26 Mm.

Dhar Mann 41:26 Whatever it is, but you have this incredible team that is gonna keep up with putting out new, amazing outputs that is always gonna evolve and make you better, then that's how you succeed in the long run.

Codie Sanchez 41:39 Yeah, that's a really good point. So where do you think you failed early on in business, that if you were standing in front of young Dhar you'd say, "Please, dear God, don't do this"?

Dhar Mann 41:50 Ray Dalio in his book Principles, he describes failure as you're in this video game and you're collecting gems, right? It's kinda going back to that Popeye spinach example, and every time you collect a gem, it makes you somewhat stronger-

Codie Sanchez 42:05 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 42:05 ... because again, you've learned one more thing that doesn't work. And so it's natural to say, "Oh, I really regret that relationship. I really regret that co-founder. Shoulda never partnered with that person. I shoulda never went i- into that industry, and I shoulda never rented that office or storefront or started that product." But in reality, you had to do that, as painful as it is. And I'm sorry, I know that some people might be listening to this to say, "Dhar, like, I am backed up in credit card debt because of that decision. How are you gonna say don't regret that?" Well, the thing is, you can't make excuses to success.

Codie Sanchez 42:43 Mm.

Dhar Mann 42:43 You can fail your way to success, but no excuse will take your, take you to success.

Codie Sanchez 42:50 Mm.

Dhar Mann 42:50 And the problem with excuses is if you don't see yourself as the problem, then you will never see yourself as the solution.

Codie Sanchez 43:02 Mm.

Dhar Mann 43:03 So whatever bad has happened to you, the faster you can take ownership of it, learn from it, the faster that you're actually gonna grow. The best leaders in the world,

Dhar Mann 43:16 when something wrong happens, they don't look out the window. They look in the mirror-

Codie Sanchez 43:21 Mm

Dhar Mann 43:22 ... because that's where all the personal growth happens.

Codie Sanchez 43:25 Yeah, that's a good reminder. Yeah, I heard the other day that, um, your excuse is somebody else's reason why.

Dhar Mann 43:32 Mm-hmm.

Codie Sanchez 43:32 And I was like, "God, you, you need to remember that."

Dhar Mann 43:34 Yeah. [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 43:34 You know? Because half the time it is very easy-

Dhar Mann 43:37 Right

Codie Sanchez 43:37 ... to get stuck in your own little world-

Dhar Mann 43:38 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 43:38 ... and say, "Here's all the reasons why I can't," as opposed to, "These are all the reasons why I have to."

Dhar Mann 43:45 I actually got my brother motivated to start going to the gym because he's like, "Dhar, I have three kids. I don't have time to go to the gym."

Codie Sanchez 43:51 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 43:51 And I'm like, "They're the reason you need to go to the gym-

Codie Sanchez 43:55 Yeah

Dhar Mann 43:55 ... because you wanna be there for all their important milestones later on in life." So yeah, I love that analogy.

Codie Sanchez 44:01 Yeah. Actually, there's a, there's-

Dhar Mann 44:02 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 44:03 It's interesting because your channel's all about these inspirational stories, and I saw this one. I wonder if it'd make a good... Maybe you could tell me if this would make a good story-

Dhar Mann 44:10 Okay, perfect

Codie Sanchez 44:11 ... or not.

Dhar Mann 44:11 Let's hear the pitch.

Codie Sanchez 44:11 Okay. Okay, here's the pitch.

Dhar Mann 44:12 Well, first-

Codie Sanchez 44:13 Ooh

Dhar Mann 44:13 ... what's the packaging?

Codie Sanchez 44:13 Oh, shit. I don't know.

Dhar Mann 44:14 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 44:14 Okay. Okay. I'm gonna work on the pitch-

Dhar Mann 44:16 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 44:16 ... and totally mess up your four, four Ps. But there's, um, a really jacked dad basically, and um, you know, he, he looks good. He's dressed well, and in, and then there's, like, words on the screen, and the screen space, and the screen basically says, like, you know, "You, you care too much about what you look like. Like, why are you spending all this time working out?" Something to that effect, probably a little pithier. And then it flashes to his daughter, who is in a wheelchair, and he's like, "This is the exact-

Dhar Mann 44:47 Mm

Codie Sanchez 44:47 ... reason why I have the muscles that I do, because..." And then he tells a beautiful story about how he carries her up the stairs every night, and when she first got in the accident, you know, he, uh, wasn't in shape, actually. He couldn't carry her up the stairs, and so he's like, "You know, until my dying day, my gym is, my gym time is one of the most important things I do because I will always carry that little girl up the stairs." And I remember watching it and being like, [coughs] "You know, I need to go to the gym," which is sometimes how I feel when I watch your things. So I guess my question there for you would be-

Dhar Mann 45:17 Would I green-light your story?

Codie Sanchez 45:18 Yeah, exactly.

Dhar Mann 45:19 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 45:19 How much? Do we sell it to Fox? Um, but, like, for that, maybe the question actually is: How do you know, with all these stories out there in the world-

Dhar Mann 45:28 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 45:28 ... that one is gonna be an incredible story to tell?

Dhar Mann 45:30 So A, like, I'm obsessed with the story, right?

Codie Sanchez 45:32 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 45:33 It's amazing. It's got a great pitch. It really does. A muscular dad gets judged for being fit. Turns out that, like, for neglecting his kids because he cares so much about his fitness. Turns out the reason he's fit is to actually care for his children.

Codie Sanchez 45:48 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 45:49 That, in 10 seconds, explains the story, but that's not the first step, right? [laughs] That's actually the third step.

Codie Sanchez 45:56 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 45:57 The step before that is, what is the packaging?

Codie Sanchez 45:59 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 46:00 Okay, well, a muscular dad.

Codie Sanchez 46:02 Mm.

Dhar Mann 46:02 That's interesting, right? What is the title of that?

Codie Sanchez 46:06 Mm.

Dhar Mann 46:07 It's gonna be very hard to describe the title in a few words. Muscular dad judged for his physical appearance, or strong dad judged for his muscles.

Codie Sanchez 46:22 Mm.

Dhar Mann 46:23 That doesn't really create immediate intrigue.

Codie Sanchez 46:27 Weak men are bad fathers.

Dhar Mann 46:28 So... And, and it sucks because there's so many times that I'll hear an amazing story idea.

Codie Sanchez 46:33 Uh-huh.

Dhar Mann 46:34 But if you can't figure out a way to make it an interesting thumbnail, from anyone that's interested in creating content-

Codie Sanchez 46:41 Yep

Dhar Mann 46:42 ... a lot of times, you know, you'll have to kill the idea.

Codie Sanchez 46:44 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 46:44 And somebody will say, like, "Well, what if it's a great story?" And I'll say, "Well, if it's not great packaging, then by default it can't be a great story."

Codie Sanchez 46:53 Great point.

Dhar Mann 46:54 So that's gonna suffer from not having the best packaging. But in terms of story structure, you have an interesting character, right? And this is for anyone that's interested in, like, storytelling or scripted content-

Codie Sanchez 47:05 Yeah

Dhar Mann 47:05 ... which I know is not for everyone. But it could work for podcasting. It could work for all kinds of different content. Um, and I guess just packaging for goods as well. You have a muscular, middle-aged person, which you don't see too often, and that could be somewhat appealing-

Codie Sanchez 47:21 [laughs]

Dhar Mann 47:21 ... for a certain level of audience as well. Creates intrigue for some, and it could be appealing, right? Um, and then you've got the relatable, right? He's a dad. You've got the conflict of somebody saying, and I would imagine someone, like, who's not fit kinda giving him a hard time, "Yeah, I would be in the gym too all the time if I didn't care about my family." Right? That's immediate intrigue right there. And then you've got the emotional backstory.

Codie Sanchez 47:47 Mm.

Dhar Mann 47:47 Right? You've got the part where it's actually like, "Well, the reason I have to train is because I have to carry my daughter up the stairs, you know, every single night, and I wanna be there," or, "Because I have to, I wanna make sure that I'm around for a long time to help support her." So that's the part that's gonna make you wanna cry, and there's a clear lesson there-

Codie Sanchez 48:05 Mm

Dhar Mann 48:05 ... which is don't judge a book by its cover.

Codie Sanchez 48:08 Mm.

Dhar Mann 48:08 Or you really never know what someone is going through, so don't make assumptions. So it has all the necessary elements of an amazing story. Uh, the packaging is where it's gonna suffer. And then I would say also, you know, you really have to know who your audience is.

Codie Sanchez 48:22 Mm.

Dhar Mann 48:22 So this would pertain more towards a middle-aged audience. So for us, YouTube, our YouTube audience skews a lot younger, so it probably wouldn't be as relatable for a 10-year-old boy.

Codie Sanchez 48:34 Mm.

Dhar Mann 48:34 Um, and then for Facebook, that audience skews older, so I would say this would be a great video for Facebook. And so we have different, you know, types of content for different audiences, so you also wanna think about where this could live. But if you wanna test your first story, scripted story, and I'm happy to do this in collaboration with you, 'cause, like, now that we've told our audience, it might be interesting to see it come to life, I would love to do this story with you.

Codie Sanchez 48:59 How fun. What a master-

Dhar Mann 49:00 And you can be that ripped mom

Codie Sanchez 49:01 ... class. But, oh, God.

Dhar Mann 49:02 Yeah. [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 49:02 Well, now I'm just... I identify as a frog lately. Like, I, last night I was thinking about it. [laughs] I just have my little belly.

Dhar Mann 49:08 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 49:08 I put my hands on it. I just lay around.

Dhar Mann 49:10 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 49:10 But, um, master class in taking an idea right there real time and breaking it down segment-wise. You can see that you've done your 10,000 hours really intensely. One of the things I was curious about here is, um, you are basically green lighting hundreds and, well, thousands, I guess, of stories a year. How many... What is the ratio? How many ideas-

Dhar Mann 49:33 Mm

Codie Sanchez 49:33 ... do you guys typically have to picking one story?

Dhar Mann 49:37 That's, this is actually a great question. We're right in the thick of this right now, where we've actually developed a green lighting percentage ratio for every step in the process.

Codie Sanchez 49:48 Wow.

Dhar Mann 49:48 And so before, if I had an amazing story, just like what you said right now, I would just go and develop it right away.

Codie Sanchez 49:54 Yep.

Dhar Mann 49:54 Right? I would say, "Oh, this is moving forward." And then I would wait to see what the actual results are, and then if it didn't meet my expectations, I would be disappointed or come up for some reason that it didn't work.

Codie Sanchez 50:05 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 50:05 Now it's a little bit more of a methodol- methodology, where we have a certain percentage of ideas that start in packaging, right? Um, so let's say that we have 10 ideas in packaging, where that is just a title is what we begin with. If it passes the title stage, then it goes into the actual thumbnail design.

Codie Sanchez 50:28 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 50:29 So you can do this very cost-effectively. You could do this through AI. So we'll start with a title. Then we just imag- if that title gets approved, then we imagine what it's gonna look like visually.

Codie Sanchez 50:39 Mm.

Dhar Mann 50:39 If the title isn't approved, then it dies. So let's say out of 10 ideas, nine of them, uh, pass the title stage. Then we'll actually visualize it, and we'll look at the thumb and say, "Ah, you know, this isn't interesting enough to warrant someone clicking on it."

Codie Sanchez 50:57 Mm.

Dhar Mann 50:58 If it isn't, then it's scrapped. If it is interesting enough, then it goes past the illustration phase into the actual design phase.

Codie Sanchez 51:06 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 51:06 You want me to break this down sort of more?

Codie Sanchez 51:08 So good.

Dhar Mann 51:08 Okay. So once it gets past the illustration, right now we are adding a layer where now we will survey our audience. So every single week, we have a new Google Form where our audience can go on, and they can actually green light the next ideas that we're going to produce. And so every step of this process, we'll ask them-

Codie Sanchez 51:29 Mm

Dhar Mann 51:29 ... "Which of these titles do you find interesting? Which of these illustrations do you find interesting?" The next step is we will actually take a real design. We'll think of casting, and then we'll create a real thumbnail and see what that looks like. Sometimes things work in illustration, but they don't work in practicality. And so once we actually see, all right, well, here's what an official final thumbnail would be, then it moves forward to the actual pitch stage. So from there, now we're thinking about, hey, how do we explain this in 30 seconds? Has to be a page or less, and it has to have all the most important parts of the story. We've got a muscular dad. We've got somebody, um, so he's the protagonist. Who's the antagonist?

Codie Sanchez 52:12 Mm.

Dhar Mann 52:12 It's somebody who's judgmental. Uh, their backstory is maybe they haven't gotten into the best of shape. They use their children as an excuse. They're kind of unhappy with how their life is. Now, what is the interesting environment? Maybe someone is leaving a gym while the other person is leaving a restaurant. They happen to cross over, right? [laughs] Um, and I don't know, maybe this guy, the overweight guy, drops something heavy, is struggling to pick something up, uh, up, and then the muscular guy comes in and says, "Oh, I can carry that for you." And now the not fit guy feels a little bit embarrassed 'cause there has to be some sort of inciting incident.

Codie Sanchez 52:47 Mm.

Dhar Mann 52:47 Why is this guy upset?

Codie Sanchez 52:49 Right.

Dhar Mann 52:49 It just can't happen for no reason. The simplest thing is you're gonna have them bump into each other, right? Um, so you have an inciting incident. Now, where is the conflict coming from? Now we're hearing this overweight guy shaming the muscular guy for being a bad parent because he's neglecting his kids because he's in the gym. What is the irony in that story? The irony is he's actually fit because he really cares about his children because he's taking care of his daughter that's in a wheelchair. And then what is the resolution? The resolution is now the overweight person sees that he shouldn't be judgmental. They should, you know, think twice before they assume. Uh, so that's the moral lesson. That can be shareable.

Codie Sanchez 53:31 Mm.

Dhar Mann 53:31 So we know what the pitch is.

Codie Sanchez 53:33 Mm.

Dhar Mann 53:33 All of that has to be contained in that one-pager. So this idea would pass the pitch phase. But let's just say, you know, you've got out of 10 titles, nine move forward to illustration, eight move forward to actually pitcher, and I would say maybe five move forward to the actual pitch. Once the pitch is greenlit, and that could be by the audience, that could be by the showrunner, that could be based on your own gut instinct, um, now you go into the actual scripting, and the scripting is when you develop, you know, a full however long the script is gonna be. And by the way, every creator does this, regardless if you're a scripted creator, if you are creating, you know, spectacle-based IRL videos. Even podcasters generally-

Codie Sanchez 54:15 Yeah

Dhar Mann 54:15 ... have an outline as to where this interview is gonna go. So you- that's what I consider the scripting phase. Out of that, you know, maybe out of the five, I would say three to four move forward. Um, and then out of those remaining, usually one will get scrapped in post-production.

Codie Sanchez 54:34 Wow.

Dhar Mann 54:34 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 54:34 After you've done everything.

Dhar Mann 54:35 Even after we've shot everything and then we take a look at it or we decide it's meant for a different platform-

Codie Sanchez 54:41 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 54:41 ... or we have different channels, like some for our highest bar content and then some for lower. But, you know, our content is produced much less expensively than, um, how traditional is, so we have the ability to do that, 'cause we never wanna alienate the audience experience-

Codie Sanchez 54:56 Mm

Dhar Mann 54:57 ... by delivering something that we don't fully believe in. So I would say out of those 10 ideas, ultimately when you break it all down, you have about one that finally makes it to the YouTube page.

Codie Sanchez 55:08 I think it's nice to see... Like, what I'm taking away from this is, like, one, it does take a lot of quantity in many ways to-

Dhar Mann 55:15 Mm-hmm

Codie Sanchez 55:15 ... get to the thing that you want in life.

Dhar Mann 55:17 Right.

Codie Sanchez 55:17 Like, you have so many reps that f- by now you are able to manufacture millions. But at some times I think it's nice to see that and go, "Oh, it's not just that Dhar's a genius," although he is.

Dhar Mann 55:28 Mm.

Codie Sanchez 55:28 It's that, you know, Dhar has muscle memory of this for over eight years-

Dhar Mann 55:33 Mm

Codie Sanchez 55:33 ... running this playbook again and again until he gets to speak a language and seem almost fluent in it, because, you know, you've done it so long. And so, you know, I, I, you... I think I got numbers for you, and I don't know if these are right, so tell me, but that on average, it might take you 21 days to do from script all the way to even filming something or pre-production for one video-

Dhar Mann 55:57 From script to screen

Codie Sanchez 55:58 ... or post-production. Script to screen, 21 days, which is actually-

Dhar Mann 56:02 Mm

Codie Sanchez 56:02 ... in many ways, it's crazy compared to s- to Hollywood. They might take years.

Dhar Mann 56:06 Right.

Codie Sanchez 56:07 But then compared to somebody who's just starting, it's like, okay, that's a lot of work too.

Dhar Mann 56:11 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 56:12 And so you can see sort of the progression of where you've been. I guess maybe a question there is, like,

Codie Sanchez 56:16 did you ever have one that you put a ton of money, a ton of time into? You put it out, total flop.

Dhar Mann 56:23 Happens all the time, and there's ones that, like, we put the least effort into, thought it would flop, and ends up doing the best, right? But that's why it's such an important numbers game, right?

Codie Sanchez 56:33 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 56:33 Consistency matters more than anything. Like, imagine it took me 100 videos to go viral, and you know what keeps me up at night sometimes? What if I quit on number 99?

Codie Sanchez 56:43 [exhales deeply]

Dhar Mann 56:43 You never know how close you are to success unless you keep going. You could be one phone call, one door, one piece of viral content away from your whole life being completely different. So no matter what, the most important thing you can do is not give up on yourself.

Codie Sanchez 57:01 Mm.

Dhar Mann 57:01 And so yeah, I would say, you know, as time goes on, all that changes is that you become more methodical, and then you become a little bit better at having instincts as to what's gonna work or not, right? My 99 videos were a flop, but once I figured out that 100th successful one, my batting average was no longer one in 100, right? [laughs] It might've been, like, one in five, and then after that it was one in four, one in three. You just get better and better, right? So even you as an entrepreneur, you have multiple businesses. I bet before having multiple businesses you failed a lot, I'm guessing. I don't even know-

Codie Sanchez 57:35 Yep

Dhar Mann 57:35 ... if this is your story or not. Is that true?

Codie Sanchez 57:37 Oh, of course.

Dhar Mann 57:37 Yeah. You had lots of ideas that never really worked, but now you're a lot smarter. You're a lot more experienced. You have a better team around you. You have systems in place. You get better opportunities vetted to you because you've built a name for yourself, right? So what is your chance, what is your hit rate now? It's a lot, it's a lot higher. And guess what? Banks are also wanting to loan you.

Codie Sanchez 57:58 Mm.

Dhar Mann 57:58 And so even if you fail,

Dhar Mann 58:01 they can give you a lifeline for you to keep going to give you more time to figure it out. So it's consistency that ultimately enables that success. So you can't quit on those first 99 videos [laughs] or even, you know, however long it takes. But the key is to make it so fast and inexpensive that it allows you the runway to succeed.

Codie Sanchez 58:21 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 58:22 So when I started, I had $600 in my bank account. Even if I went and I took every credit card that was available to me, every friends and family loan that was available to me and said, "I really wanna make a film," and I looked it up online, and to make a film, it costs about a million bucks, which in reality costs far more than that, right? I put all my money together that I possibly could through all my friends and family, buried myself deep in debt, put it in one video. That one video would've failed. If I took half the money and made two, both of them would've failed. The only reason it worked was because my wife was the creative, my brother-in-law was the actor. I was filming everything-

Codie Sanchez 59:01 Mm

Dhar Mann 59:01 ... on iPhones. My studio apartment was our set. So you have to do things as scrappy as you possibly can, which gave me the runway to fail 99 times until I finally got to that 100th time. We used to have it where the two actors that we'd have in our videos would show up, and we'd all kinda sit around, and on a paper, on a piece of paper I would write... On a, on a napkin, I would write, "All right. Well, wouldn't it be interesting if this happened?" Or, "Here's what happened to me last night while I was leaving the parking lot, and someone judged me because of the broken-down car that I had. Maybe there's an interesting storyline there because..." right? Or, "Hey, I helped someone with jumper cables, and then I had positive karma later. What if we did a video on, like, how-

Codie Sanchez 59:45 Mm

Dhar Mann 59:45 ... karma can travel and some sort of positive change?" We'd come up with a concept right there. We'd shoot it, and within, like, two hours it would go live. So 21 days is now we've gotten to a point where as... In the beginning, everyone is, again, a family environment, right?

Codie Sanchez 1:00:02 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 1:00:02 Your first, the first five, 10 people you have, they're passionate. They're w- answering your calls at midnight. They're burning the midnight oil with you. Everyone is doing everything. But as you start to scale, then that's not sustainable.

Codie Sanchez 1:00:16 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:00:16 You really have to create work-life balance. You have to provide certain types of benefits. At Dhar Mann Studios now we're releasing, like, an equity program where our actors, some of our longtime actors and employees actually have equity in the company.

Codie Sanchez 1:00:30 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:00:30 We have a better 401 [k] program rolling out than most traditional studios even do. So now we're really able to invest back in the team to provide them a more stable environment to really grow and build a career on. Kinda going back to McKinsey is, like, how do you get people to that partner-level status? Our product is our team. We invest in that team. Um, and so yeah, what works now isn't what worked in the beginning, and so you have to be able to be scrappy, to evolve fast. To put in those reps. And then once you finally get there, then you can build more sustainable systems.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:05 It's so good. What advice do you have for somebody today who wants to be successful and win?

Dhar Mann 1:01:10 So if you wanna be the first millionaire in your family-

Codie Sanchez 1:01:13 Mm

Dhar Mann 1:01:13 ... you have to do these three things. Number one is start saving money consistently. And it doesn't have to be a lot. You don't have to listen to these online gurus who say you have to start with $10,000 or $25,000 or $100,000. I'm talking about $100 out of your paycheck, 50 bucks, 20 bucks, whatever it is. Just save up consistently, and you'll be shocked as to how that money starts to compound over time. The second thing is, instead of asking whenever you receive a little bit of money, "What can I buy?" Ask yourself, "What can I invest in?"

Codie Sanchez 1:01:49 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:01:49 And the third thing I would say is the most important, and that's to cut out three time-wasters in your life.

Codie Sanchez 1:01:56 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:01:56 And we all know what those are because your girlfriend has probably told you, your spouse or your mother or that little internal voice inside of your head.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:03 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:02:03 Replace those with learning two new skills.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:08 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:02:08 And you'll be shocked six months from now as to how those new skills you've developed have turned into new income streams. So now that you have those three steps, if you follow them, you'll be amazed as to where your life can be a year from now.

Codie Sanchez 1:02:22 You're doing 65 million in revenue now. You have, you know, 200 employees, $150,000, or 150,000 square foot studio, but that's not where you started. How did you get started?

Dhar Mann 1:02:34 I don't think people realize how much better their life could be if they just start doing the things that they're already thinking about doing. I know it's scary. I know it's terrifying. But do you know what the only thing more scary is than doing that thing? Is the thought of looking back at your life 10 years from now, wondering what your life could have been if you-

Codie Sanchez 1:02:58 Mm

Dhar Mann 1:02:58 ... just decided to take action. We're all so burdened by all the things that we heard growing up, these limited beliefs that were placed on us.

Codie Sanchez 1:03:05 Mm-hmm.

Dhar Mann 1:03:06 What if you fail? You're thinking too big. What will people think? But none of that actually matters. Just start taking action now, and you'll be shocked

Dhar Mann 1:03:17 as to how far your life can come if you just get started today.

Codie Sanchez 1:03:21 That's, um, the Nike campaign.

Dhar Mann 1:03:23 Yes.

Codie Sanchez 1:03:23 Just do it.

Dhar Mann 1:03:23 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:03:24 I still like it to this day. What do you think is the best piece of advice you've been given when it comes to making money?

Dhar Mann 1:03:29 Stop trying to look rich before you actually are rich. We spend so much of our time trying to impress people that are not even paying attention. So we spend all of our money on that nice watch or that pair of shoes or that handbag or that designer outfit, which actually takes us further away from our goals. Instead, real wealth is built quietly, and if you focus on taking all the necessary steps versus showing it, you'll actually get to a true place of building wealth. And the ironic part is, when you actually have real success, you'll not wanna show it [laughs] because you just become a bigger target in everyone's eyes anyway. So I would say build wealth quietly and put in the hard work in silence.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:15 I like it. Neither of us-

Dhar Mann 1:04:15 Yeah [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:04:16 ... have fancy watches on today.

Dhar Mann 1:04:17 I don't have, like, 20 different watches that's been given to me.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:17 You know? No. No. I don't have one.

Dhar Mann 1:04:19 I got my Oura ring.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:20 Yeah, I know. [laughs]

Dhar Mann 1:04:20 It's not real gold.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:21 I know.

Dhar Mann 1:04:22 But-

Codie Sanchez 1:04:22 What do you think has been the biggest sacrifice you've ever had to make in your business?

Dhar Mann 1:04:27 The biggest sacrifice I've ever had to make in my business was the toll it took on my relationship when I was just starting out.

Codie Sanchez 1:04:34 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:04:34 I just thought that because I was trying to improve the life of my wife and my kids, that that made every decision okay. So I skipped out on the date nights. I skipped out on the dinners. I skipped out on the school plays. And then I came to realize that, what is success if I can't even spend time with my own family? And so even though I may not take 100% of the opportunities that I get today, even if I can go for 80% of them or 70% but still have a life and show up for my wife and kids-

Codie Sanchez 1:05:07 Mm

Dhar Mann 1:05:07 ... to me, that's worthwhile. And I'll just tell you a quick story as to what helped me realize that. There was a day I was working in my office, and my five-year-old daughter came in and said, "Daddy, play with me." And I said, "Daddy's busy working right now." And so my daughter left. She went into the kitchen. I could just tell from the look on her face that she was really disappointed. So that guilt was eating at me. Eventually, I get up. I go to the kitchen. I say, "Sweetheart, you see this big house that we live in?" And she says, "Yeah." I said, "Well, that's why Daddy has to work so hard, okay?" She nodded her head. I could tell she wasn't really happy with that answer. So I go back to my office. I start working again. And a couple minutes later, my daughter comes in, knocks on the door, and she goes, "Daddy?" I said, "Yeah?" She said, "I don't wanna have a big house anymore." It's like the thing that I valued, that I thought that I was delivering on as a dad to help make everyone else's lives better or dreams come true, was actually not even the thing that they really wanted. They really just wanted me to be there. That mattered more than anything. So I would say trying to find that balance between presence and presents.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:20 Oh.

Dhar Mann 1:06:21 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:22 You're gonna make me cry on this one.

Dhar Mann 1:06:23 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:06:24 So-

Dhar Mann 1:06:24 It's the pregnancy hormones.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:25 Yeah, actually, [laughs] that's very true. I could cry at anything.

Dhar Mann 1:06:28 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:06:28 It's not really you. [laughs]

Dhar Mann 1:06:29 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:06:30 Um, so let's say somebody here is young and starting out in their business. What do you wish you had known as a 20-year-old business owner that you now know? Like, what did you think was true back then that now you realize that is not true at all?

Dhar Mann 1:06:43 People's opinions don't matter.

Codie Sanchez 1:06:45 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:06:45 We get so hung up on, what if I put out this video? What is that person gonna think of me?

Codie Sanchez 1:06:52 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:06:52 What if I try, and this doesn't work out, and I fail? How is my family gonna judge that? People are gonna judge regardless, and the people that are judging are the ones that were too afraid to go after their own dreams in the first place.

Codie Sanchez 1:07:05 Mm.

Dhar Mann 1:07:06 I promise you that if you just get started, the people that are questioning why you're doing something are the same ones that are gonna ask you how you did it. And remember, because the people that were with you during your struggle, they're the ones that deserve to be with you during your success

Codie Sanchez 1:07:22 Mm-hmm. Do you think that most people quit too early in business?

Dhar Mann 1:07:28 I think there's two ways to look at that. The obvious answer is yes, but it really depends on your purpose alignment. If you know that this is the one thing that you were meant to do, it keeps you up at night because God has put these big dreams in your head, and you know that your life will never feel complete if you are not this thing, then I would say try as long as you possibly can. Like, if your dream is to be a pro athlete and you're 45 years old and you've not made it, then I would say move on, right? But if you still have the ability to achieve that dream and that's the thing that really fuels your soul, then no matter what it takes, keep going after that thing. But on the converse, even if you are successful at something, even if you are making a lot of money, but it no longer aligns with your purpose, then I would say at some point you are gonna start to feel really empty and create a void that no amount of money can ever fill, so it might be time to try something else.

Codie Sanchez 1:08:32 Last question. Have you ever had a dark night of the soul in business, where you thought, "This isn't gonna work out. I'm not gonna cut it, and I'm not gonna make it"? If so, how did you-

Dhar Mann 1:08:42 Always listen to your gut

Codie Sanchez 1:08:44 Mm-hmm

Dhar Mann 1:08:44 God has put in some sort of ability for us to know whether something is for us or not for us, and every time we turn

Dhar Mann 1:08:54 off that compass that's saying, like, "I feel it in my skin. I get goosebumps when I talk about it. Something's not right about this. But you know what? Maybe I'm being irrational, unreasonable. I'm just gonna move forward," those always end up being terrible decisions. So whether it's some opportunity, whether it's a person-

Codie Sanchez 1:09:12 Mm

Dhar Mann 1:09:12 ... whatever it is, if something doesn't feel right instinctively inside of your gut, listen to that. And you know what? Even if it seems like it was a bad decision at first, like, "Oh, my gosh. Look at... That person is succeeding," a day will come where you'll realize, "My instinct was right. I'm glad I didn't listen to that."

Codie Sanchez 1:09:33 That's so true.

Dhar Mann 1:09:33 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:33 We've had that. Um, Dhar Mann, this was amazing.

Dhar Mann 1:09:36 Thanks, Codie.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:37 Okay, so-

Dhar Mann 1:09:38 This was amazing

Codie Sanchez 1:09:38 ... new podcast is called-

Dhar Mann 1:09:40 What Happens Next?

Codie Sanchez 1:09:41 ... What Happens Next? Dhar Mann on all the YouTubes, socials, Instagram. If they had to start with one place with you, where would you tell somebody to go and follow you today, or go and watch?

Dhar Mann 1:09:53 The Codie Sanchez Podcast.

Codie Sanchez 1:09:54 [laughs]

Dhar Mann 1:09:55 Uh, I would say, you know, to learn more about me is definitely my podcast, but if you're interested in inspirational stories that truly will help move your life forward in a positive way, there are scripted content on YouTube or Samsung, um, Facebook. We're on all the different platforms. Uh, it's a great place to get some inspiration and kinda get you out of a rut.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:17 I love it.

Dhar Mann 1:10:17 So-

Codie Sanchez 1:10:17 Well, I found this podcast so helpful. I'm literally... You know, you'll... You know, too, probably from doing these podcasts, there are some that I go back and listen to a lot, and there are some that are like, "Okay, that was amazing. It wasn't for me. It was for this person that was listening."

Dhar Mann 1:10:29 Who are the ones that you felt that you're not gonna go back to?

Codie Sanchez 1:10:32 Uh, well, I can't tell that one.

Dhar Mann 1:10:33 [laughs] I'm just kidding.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:33 I can't, 'cause then I'd be a jerk.

Dhar Mann 1:10:34 I was just joking. [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:10:35 But this one I'm gonna go back to, and I'm gonna have the, the team listen to, too. I think the, the parts on failure, the parts on how to build a business tactically, it's kinda rare that you can listen to something where you can walk away with, "Here is a 15-step process. Here is a four-step process."

Dhar Mann 1:10:52 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:10:52 And simultaneously, I feel fired up. You know, David Goggins-

Dhar Mann 1:10:56 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 1:10:56 ... is just like, "Go fucking run," but you're like, "How?" He's like, "Shut up. Run."

Dhar Mann 1:10:59 [laughs]

Codie Sanchez 1:11:00 You know?

Dhar Mann 1:11:00 Right.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:00 And this is a unique mix of both, and so thank you for sharing it with us today.

Dhar Mann 1:11:03 Yeah, thanks. Oh, such an honor. I really appreciate it. Just me being the creator and thinking about retention, you might wanna cut some of that out-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:10 [laughs]

Dhar Mann 1:11:11 ... as sweet as it is. And, uh, and I'll just share a story that if you wanna place earlier in the podcast-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:15 Yeah

Dhar Mann 1:11:15 ... feel free. But when I actually met Codie-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:17 Mm

Dhar Mann 1:11:17 ... uh, I was a fan of your content first, and, uh, we were at the Rosewood Hotel.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:22 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 1:11:22 And I think I approached you as probably, like, some crazy fan coming up to you at, like, 9:00 in the morning or whenever it was. And I was like, "Hey, we have mutual friends, and I'm gonna launch a podcast," and this and that. So it's just so cool to see things come full circle probably a year later or so.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:35 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 1:11:35 And, uh, and what an honor to be on your podcast, so thank you so much. Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:37 Well, thanks. I can't wait to come see your studio, get on the podcast.

Dhar Mann 1:11:40 I'm trying to get you on.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:40 Yeah.

Dhar Mann 1:11:41 Yeah.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:41 And if you have questions for Dhar, hit me in the YouTube comments, and I will actually bring them direct to you next time.

Dhar Mann 1:11:45 And the Muscular Dad Story.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:47 Yeah. [laughs]

Dhar Mann 1:11:47 If, if you wanna see that happen-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:49 Dude, I do.

Dhar Mann 1:11:50 No, for real.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:50 I don't even know how-

Dhar Mann 1:11:51 Yeah

Codie Sanchez 1:11:51 ... to script something like that.

Dhar Mann 1:11:52 Well-

Codie Sanchez 1:11:52 Okay

Dhar Mann 1:11:52 ... I'm, that's why I'm here.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:53 Let's do it.

Dhar Mann 1:11:54 So yeah, I don't know.

Codie Sanchez 1:11:54 I know. I got to see you do it in 30 seconds. That was insanity.

Dhar Mann 1:11:56 [laughs] [outro music]