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If I Wanted To Become A Millionaire Creator in 2025, This Is What I’d Do

My new book, Own Or Be Owned, is all about building a business so good it doesn't need you. It's out September 18, grab your ticket to the launch event here: - cs

Codie SanchezhostJon Youshaeiguest

Sep 15, 202540mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

45 min read · 9,136 words

0:00 – 0:02
Introduction
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  In today's day and age, you don't need more information.
0:02 – 0:23
Navigating the World of Business Content
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  You need the exact right information at the exact right time and nothing else. If you wanna make money online and become a millionaire in 2025, I'm breaking down the exact step-by-step playbook for how to do it. Every single media company that has become very large has struggled financially, to the point of either going under or having to be bought by a billionaire. I'm going to sit down with Jon Youshaei, who is
0:23 – 1:27
Overcoming Fear and Criticism
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  one of the best-known journalists about creators.
2. JYJon Youshaei
  How do you approach your business as a creator so you can scale much more quickly than a lot of the other folks you may see out there?
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  You don't always have to be the expert if you can borrow somebody else's 10,000 hours. If I wanna build, like, a lasting company, I have to build it out in a way where I am not the single point of failure. So we're going to break down not ideas about how to go viral and make money, but my actual playbook. Let's get into it. [upbeat music] Hi, and welcome back to the Big Deal podcast. I'm Codie Sanchez. This show is growing at such an insane rate. Like, no, seriously, it's kinda crazy, and yet over half of our regular viewers haven't actually subscribed. It's a free way of supporting the show, and it helps us to grow the show and bring you even better guests. So if you could double-check that you've hit that Subscribe button, I would be so grateful. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. And as my friend Andy says, "Don't be a ho, share the show."
4. JYJon Youshaei
  You know, it's funny. As I've been doing more interviews with big creators, they've shown me a lot of stuff behind the scenes.
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  Mm.
6. JYJon Youshaei
  I've seen their brainstorming documents.
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  Mm.
8. JYJon Youshaei
  I've seen their Notion docs, their processes. And I kid you not, when, um, your team showed me
1:27 – 2:41
The Concept of 'Show Don't Tell'
1. JYJon Youshaei
  your Notion page and some of your projec- like, I, like, I, I felt, like, a part of my brain that I didn't even existed, like, started to, like, blow open 'cause it's... The way you approach it and some, some of the systems, I wanted to ask you about that.
2. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
3. JYJon Youshaei
  Um, 'cause I think a lot of folks, myself included, just do things, and we don't have a system around it.
4. CSCodie Sanchez
  Mm.
5. JYJon Youshaei
  So we end up recreating the wheel.
6. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
7. JYJon Youshaei
  Um, how do you approach your business as a creator to make it so you can scale and grow much more quickly than a lot of the other folks you may see out there?
8. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah. Well, the first thing overall we do before the tools and tactics is really, like, a mindset thing. Like, haven't you heard a ton of creators say, like, "Well, I got burned out, and so I didn't wanna do it anymore"? I think burnout actually happens because we don't have processes.
9. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah, well said.
10. CSCodie Sanchez
  So if we had processes and systems and people and ways that we followed along to things, we wouldn't burn out.
11. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
12. CSCodie Sanchez
  Um, so one, like, don't believe what other creators say because they say that stuff 'cause a lotta times we creators wanna mimic artists-
13. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm
14. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... I think, and artists have this, like, ethereal nature to them, right? They're like, "Oh, I have to find the muse, and I have to create," and, like, they've got this whole thing, and I kinda think that's bullshit. I think you show up, and you keep working, and then the muse finds you, and, like, you just... That's how it goes.
15. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
16. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so I think it sounds much cooler to,
2:41 – 3:01
The Moment of Realization
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  like, have this ethereal, mysterious way that you create, but I think that's the same thing that people do when they make money. They're like, "Oh, you know, it just... It found me how big this business got. I just... I could barely." And that's not true, and it's the same with creating. Anybody who's, like, famous or rich worked really fucking hard at it for a long time and wanted
3:01 – 3:31
Curiosity and Financial Literacy
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  it really bad.
2. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  Nobody get it s- by accident, even our, like, most famous actors, et cetera. Now I know a lot of them, and they... N- not one of them has ever said, like, "I just stumbled on all this money-
4. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... and fame." They fucking fought for it. I also really like this rule in finance, which is the rule of thirds. Have you heard of this?
6. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm. Well, tell me about it. I know the rule of thirds in terms of cameras and, like [laughs]
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  Oh, interesting.
8. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
9. CSCodie Sanchez
  So, like, the rule of thirds in, in, in business is basically, like, you get taught kinda early that, um, like, one-third of your time you're gonna
3:31 – 6:48
Changing the Investment Landscape
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  be, uh... You're gonna be great. It's gonna be awesome to be a creator-
2. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... or whatever job you have. You're gonna really like it. Then war- one-third of your time you're gonna be kinda neutral, or it'll be... You'll be slightly stretched, but you'll be kinda fine.
4. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  And then one-third of your time, you're gonna be miserable.
6. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, dark, awful, miserable, overwhelmed, inundated.
8. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
9. CSCodie Sanchez
  But the cool thing is, it... They cycle. So, like, when you're in one, just know, like, you're not gonna stay there.
10. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
11. CSCodie Sanchez
  So just, the next one's coming, the next one's coming. And so if I know all of that, then I don't burn out 'cause I have the right mindset. I realize this is just gonna happen for a period, and I keep going. And then the way that you keep yourself sort of honest on all this is I think the only way to build a big business is with people.
12. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
13. CSCodie Sanchez
  And I realized that early on, which meant that, like, I had to get the things that I saw out of my head and into a process. Otherwise, I was gonna go crazy with people asking me again and again what I think.
14. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
15. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so we also have... We have, um... This is the rule of three instead of the rule of thirds, but any time, uh, something that we do has more than s- three steps, and we do it more than three times, we try to write it down-
16. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm
17. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... and create an SOP. Now, are we perfect at it every time? Absolutely not. Tanner and I were just talking in the car about, like, one stupid thing we had never processized, but for the most part, you know, I joke with, with the team, and sometimes I'll be on stage, and I'll be like, "What's my love language," you know? And they're like, "SOPs," you know?
18. JYJon Youshaei
  Can you define SOP for people who don't know-
19. CSCodie Sanchez
  Oh, yeah
20. JYJon Youshaei
  ... what that stands for?
21. CSCodie Sanchez
  It stands for a system and process-
22. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
23. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... system and processes. And, um-
24. JYJon Youshaei
  And maybe, Codie, to put that in context, like, you have this great saying of, like, you should have more SOPs than a pilot does when they're taking off, um, because a t- pilot is like, they have to check so many different things.
25. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yep.
26. JYJon Youshaei
  And it's a repetitive process. Um, what are some of those SOPs that you have or, like-
27. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah
28. JYJon Youshaei
  ... t- t- t- talk to me about it 'cause I feel like a lot of creators don't even know what that stands for, let alone how to implement it.
29. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah. It's definitely a business particular thing, but yeah, if you think about a pilot, they have a little checklist they do every time. Even right now for our podcast, I was annoyed because I'm sure people can relate. Like, we were making the same mistake again and again.
30. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
6:48 – 12:38
The Importance of Processes and Systems
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  that's what you have to do with technicians in the trades.
2. JYJon Youshaei
  My- I am, like, listening to this, and I'm like, "Okay, we [laughs] we gotta do this with our process." Like-
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  The laminated... I mean, the team at first was like, "Why would you do something so weird?" And I was like, "I promise you, it will change your life because it'll just be there. Like, you can't, you can't not do it. It's right in front of your face."
4. JYJon Youshaei
  Codie, I also went through your contrarian creed.
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
6. JYJon Youshaei
  Um, and you had these, like, 13 principles. Which by the way, I love that you had 13 'cause you're like, "We're gonna embrace the unlucky 'cause we're gonna make our own luck."
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yep.
8. JYJon Youshaei
  Um, but you had this one that you're like, "Even our notes will be mini masterpieces."
9. CSCodie Sanchez
  Mm-hmm.
10. JYJon Youshaei
  Um, which I interpret to say, like, even things you do internally-
11. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yep
12. JYJon Youshaei
  ... have to be, like, super, um, uh, high quality. Uh, can you elaborate on what you meant by that?
13. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah. Well, uh, you know, they talk about Pablo Picasso being one of the, uh, best artists of all times, or at least one of the most well-known artists of all times.
14. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
15. CSCodie Sanchez
  And, uh, and there's two things I think are interesting about Picasso. One is he is also the most prolific artist of all time, right?
16. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
17. CSCodie Sanchez
  So he had more pieces of art created than any other known artist of time.
18. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
19. CSCodie Sanchez
  He had a lot of shots on goal.
20. JYJon Youshaei
  Oh, yeah. F- 50,000 pieces of art, I think last I... Yeah.
21. CSCodie Sanchez
  Right.
22. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
23. CSCodie Sanchez
  The second is, uh, he famously had the story where he was at a table with a friend, a young woman came up to him, asked him to do a drawing for her. He did one in 10 seconds, handed it back to her and said, "$10,000." And she said, "That took you 10 seconds." And he said, "No, it took me 50 years," or however old he was.
24. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
25. CSCodie Sanchez
  Because it was shot on goal, shot on goal, shot on goal to perfection.
26. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
27. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so I remembered those two things, and I wanted to apply that to our business. Um, and the, the last thing, I guess, with the notes in general, I say to the team a lot, you know, like imagine if the piece of content that you create, like the worst thing that you ever do, is the only thing that your, your, like, biggest inspiration ever gets to see.
28. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
29. CSCodie Sanchez
  What if, you know, say Jon is a huge Demi Lovato fan. [laughs] It's probably the top of your list.
30. JYJon Youshaei
  How'd you know? Oh my God. Wow. How do you know? [laughs]
12:38 – 14:47
Creating High-Quality Content
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  and their time even more than them, that I'm X-ing out anything that isn't absolutely necessary.
2. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so a lot of times our team, especially, like for instance, you know, Christian, he'll get a first draft of a script for something, and the second draft is basically just, "Can we cut 30% of it?"
4. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  And even with the book, I started with the book, there was probably 390 pages-
6. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... and whittled it down to 270.
8. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
9. CSCodie Sanchez
  Because t- in today's day and age, you don't need more information, you need the exact-
10. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
11. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... right information at the exact right time and nothing else.
12. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
13. CSCodie Sanchez
  The other thing I think is important too is like, we wanna build... I mean, I'm trying to build something kinda giant here. Um, I wanna build, like, the 21st century media company.
14. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
15. CSCodie Sanchez
  And I, I don't know that I've really ever talked about all this stuff publicly, because we're very focused on, like, what serves Job Working John, right? And that's who we're trying to serve. But when I think about it, I'm like, I think my generation, the finance company of, of me was, like, Bloomberg.
16. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
17. CSCodie Sanchez
  They were where you went to for news. You also logged in and financed your Bloomberg terminal. Like, that's where you went.
18. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
19. CSCodie Sanchez
  And these days it's like, where do you go?
20. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
21. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, most of the finance news is kinda trash, or it's about the stock market, and, like, nobody should be day trading. That's a terrible idea. So, um, so we're trying to build that, and if I wanna build, like, a lasting company that can exist beyond my time, I have to build it out in a way where I am not the single point of failure.
22. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
23. CSCodie Sanchez
  And I think the moment that you do that too, is the moment you unlock all this creative ability too. Because then, I mean, we're talking about Tan and I are like, "Okay, what documentary are we gonna do next?"
24. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
25. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, do we wanna do some full feature films?
26. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
27. CSCodie Sanchez
  Who's the next talent we wanna bring in? But it all started with like, "Hey, I just don't wanna edit this video."
28. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
29. CSCodie Sanchez
  "And so can I make a process-"
30. JYJon Youshaei
  [laughs]
14:47 – 20:08
Repurposing Content and Finding Viral Moments
1. JYJon Youshaei
  h- what are all the different ways you make money?
2. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
3. JYJon Youshaei
  And if I could ask, like, you're very open about financing your ca- how much money did you make last year?
4. CSCodie Sanchez
  Oof. A, a lot. Are you the IRS?
5. JYJon Youshaei
  [laughs]
6. CSCodie Sanchez
  You're gonna... Do I have to report it? Um, I mean, a couple ways we could talk about this.
7. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
8. CSCodie Sanchez
  So how I make mo- the most money is through our Main Street Holding Company.
9. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
10. CSCodie Sanchez
  So that company does nine figures a year.
11. JYJon Youshaei
  Wow.
12. CSCodie Sanchez
  And more than that, like, it varies. It can go up and down. It's, it's going up quite a bit right now, but sometimes we sell a company. So I get s- cagey sometimes with sharing exactly how much we make, because what if we sell a company and then it's not nine figures?
13. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
14. CSCodie Sanchez
  So sometimes I think about that. But that's Main Street Holding Company. That's where we make most of our money.
15. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
16. CSCodie Sanchez
  Um, you know, it's safe to say we're making eight figures a year, pretty healthy-
17. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
18. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... uh, every year. And, uh, Contrarian Thinking, our media company-
19. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm
20. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... is the same. That business definitely makes good eight figures a year-
21. JYJon Youshaei
  Wow
22. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... in revenue, so that's our media business.
23. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
24. CSCodie Sanchez
  And how we make money there, so Main Street Holding Company owns, like, Resi Brands-
25. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm
26. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... which is a trade services franchise. So that's like a company called PINKS, and that one Painter, and, um, there's GarageUp in there. There's, um, a, you know, a couple defense companies. There's... So that, that thing is probably where I'm, we make most of our cash.
27. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
28. CSCodie Sanchez
  The second is, uh, Contrarian Thinking.
29. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
30. CSCodie Sanchez
  So Contrarian Thinking is a media company that owns our education business-
20:08 – 22:36
Building a Community with Cult Sayings
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  monopolized the idea of teaching another person.
2. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  I think it's criminal, and they're totally overrated, and if you look at the actual numbers for educational institutions today, we have had a 3 to 4X incline in the cost of universities, and we have had a flatline of return, meaning our salary increases after university.
4. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  So for me, I got, like, on my, again, on my moral high ground here, it was like, why did I go to an MBA at Georgetown? I mean, if I wanna climb a corporate ladder, it's very useful.
6. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  Having that on there is much better than Arizona State, Harvard of the West, where I went to undergrad, right? Like, way better. But if I don't wanna climb the corporate ladder, that $160,000 degree or whatever it was-
8. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
9. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... that really didn't teach me much of anything, and I'm, and I... Then, then they say, "Well, it's for the network." I don't know, better network by meeting people like you guys at conferences-
10. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm
11. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... than that. I think it's, I think that's a scam. And so once I started to realize that, my mom's a 30-year special education teacher, I was like, I think we can, I think we can go to war with those guys. I think we can be a better financial education company, and we can teach people more about getting financial freedom than a Wharton degree.
12. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
13. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like-
14. JYJon Youshaei
  Wow, you're targeting my, my alma ma- alma mater now. [laughs]
15. CSCodie Sanchez
  Is that yours?
16. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah. I went to Wharton undergrad. Yeah. [laughs]
17. CSCodie Sanchez
  Well, I, I use Wharton-
18. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
19. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... because I think they are the best finance school out there.
20. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah, yeah.
21. CSCodie Sanchez
  I think NYU Stern is, like, second, but I, it's not Harvard, and MIT and Stanford are actually incredible for entrepreneurship and engineering degrees. But Wharton's like the cream of the crop, crop in finance, and I can't tell you... Sorry, Wharton grads. I can't tell you how many of them I meet who come up to me. One came up the other day, and I just, it just tickles my little taint. But, um, th- this guy came up to me, and he's like, [lip smack] ah, what was he? Oh, no, this was to Chris, my husband. Moral of the story, ah, dude comes up. We're like, "Hey, how's it going? Who are you?" He's like, "Oh, you know, I'm so and so." "What are you up to?" And he says, "I am a, um, independent sponsor," which is a fancy Wharton-esque way-
22. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah, what does that mean? Wait
23. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... of saying, "I'm buying a business."
24. JYJon Youshaei
  Oh.
25. CSCodie Sanchez
  That's literally-
26. JYJon Youshaei
  Wow
27. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... fake vernacular-
28. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
29. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... about I'm buying a business.
30. JYJon Youshaei
  So come on, dude. Who is that guy? Give me-
22:36 – 23:00
Consistency in Personal and Professional Identity
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  is a rascal 'cause I'm not as much. But the point being, like, I think they give people a false sense of the real world.
2. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, when I left Georgetown, and I was, you know, at Goldman and some of these other places, yeah, it helped people maybe take me more seriously. But, like, you going to Wharton or me going to Georgetown does not mean that I know more than a guy who's actually run a real P&L business.
23:00 – 24:31
Building a 21st Century Media Company
1. JYJon Youshaei
  Oh, yeah. And I, I feel like I've learned more, like, afterwards, like, running this business with Amanda than... Like, I, I don't know. There's so many things, and I never fully felt like I, I was studying marketing entrepreneurship, less finance. But yeah, I think you're spot on.
2. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah. No, I mean, and I think that's where people go sideways. So anyway-
3. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
4. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... so I feel good about us creating that education business.
5. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah, yeah.
6. CSCodie Sanchez
  1,000%, even though there are people that don't like that online, and I think a lot of people don't like it online. I d- I don't really understand why except that there are people who are scammy.
7. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
8. CSCodie Sanchez
  But I think the ultimate scam is six figures in debt that you can never shake off-
9. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
10. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... because the government doesn't allow you to, which is what happens with student loans.
11. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
12. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so, I, that's a hill I'll die on. [laughs] Um, so I feel really good about what we do there. It's a big business, you know. That's an eight-figure business a year.
13. JYJon Youshaei
  Wow.
14. CSCodie Sanchez
  And, uh, we're working on accreditation with some local universities.
15. JYJon Youshaei
  Cool.
16. CSCodie Sanchez
  Um, and my plan is that I wanna build that out to be a real institution but at 100th of the cost-
17. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
18. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... which I think is actually doable and, and feasible.
19. JYJon Youshaei
  In your book, you talk a lot about, like, how to buy a business, wh- which is even a concept that, like, just, it didn't really feel accessible and started, until I started going through with this. And I see a lot of creators trying to start these flashy businesses that-
20. CSCodie Sanchez
  Oh, yeah
21. JYJon Youshaei
  ... you know, you get, you see the headlines when they launch. But then when you check in on them a year later, they've gone out of business.
22. CSCodie Sanchez
  Mm-hmm.
23. JYJon Youshaei
  What are some of the most interesting examples of creators who are starting businesses that you feel like are smart, they're extensions of what they're doing, the content kind of, like, amplifies it? Like-
24. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah
25. JYJon Youshaei
  ... take me into that world of it 'cause I, I know you also said, like, making
24:31 – 29:05
Breaking Down Income Streams
1. JYJon Youshaei
  money off of content alone is one of the worst ideas in terms of b- business-
2. CSCodie Sanchez
  It's a terrible business model [laughs]
3. JYJon Youshaei
  [laughs]
4. CSCodie Sanchez
  It's a really bad business model. I mean, h- what do I mean by it's a bad business model? Every single media company that has become very large has struggled financially-
5. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
6. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... to the point of either going under or having to be bought by a billionaire-
7. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
8. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... for the most part.
9. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
10. CSCodie Sanchez
  So, so we know that, in fact, playing the game of attention with purely information is highly pro- problematic.
11. JYJon Youshaei
  Like a BuzzFeed.
12. CSCodie Sanchez
  A BuzzFeed.
13. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
14. CSCodie Sanchez
  A New York Times.
15. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
16. CSCodie Sanchez
  Um, you know, we see this again and again. And if you think that it's bad now in the age of Google scraping all of our stuff, wait until AI comes for us.
17. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
18. CSCodie Sanchez
  You know, we're going to have AI Johns all over the place. We're gonna have AI Codies.
19. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
20. CSCodie Sanchez
  We're gonna have content ripped off, duplicated, and increasingly, I think relevancy's gonna be hard.
21. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
22. CSCodie Sanchez
  So that's what you can look forward to.
23. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
24. CSCodie Sanchez
  And while I think i- if you're a creator today and you're not thinking about acquiring businesses and how to get equity and what's called distributing equity, where they keep paying you over time-
25. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
26. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... you're making a huge mistake. If you are only living off of AdSense and you are only living off even info products or education or anything like that, you're in trouble.
27. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
28. CSCodie Sanchez
  Because I think that is very easily scrapable. So instead, I would obsess on becoming a deal-maker, which is why I wrote the book.
29. JYJon Youshaei
  Tell me more about that, 'cause I, we get approached with a lot of deals. They're like-
30. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah
29:05 – 32:55
The Challenges of Brand Deals
1. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
2. CSCodie Sanchez
  Which one do you think brands pay more for?
3. JYJon Youshaei
  The latter.
4. CSCodie Sanchez
  Output.
5. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
6. CSCodie Sanchez
  Which ones do we usually negotiate for as creators?
7. JYJon Youshaei
  Inputs.
8. CSCodie Sanchez
  The first one. So if you're confident in your ability to deliver results, you'd probably wanna do output goals.
9. JYJon Youshaei
  Huh.
10. CSCodie Sanchez
  And you'd wanna say, "Shit, I think I'm gonna crush this."
11. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
12. CSCodie Sanchez
  "I wanna get a percentage of every customer I bring in at over 10K, 'cause I'm gonna kill it."
13. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
14. CSCodie Sanchez
  In the beginning when you don't know what you're doing, you'd probably say, "Ah, I don't know. I probably wanna have input related, 'cause I don't know how this is gonna land with my audience."
15. JYJon Youshaei
  Huh.
16. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so the, it... Basically, everything in deal-making comes down to risk transfer.
17. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
18. CSCodie Sanchez
  So, like, who holds the risk and who has more of it?
19. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
20. CSCodie Sanchez
  And the person that has less risk typically, uh, gets less reward, and the person with more risk gets more reward.
21. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
22. CSCodie Sanchez
  I think what you should take away from all this, if this feels like, "Fuck me, we're looking at so many numbers, and we got pie charts, and I thought I left finance," what you might wanna take away is just if you can learn the language of money, which is really deal-making-
23. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm
24. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... you'll never be poor. I truly believe that.
25. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
26. CSCodie Sanchez
  Because you will understand how wealthy people think, and you will understand how companies make money, and you make more money when you understand how people who make money make money.
27. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
28. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so, um, so what I would do is obsess on deal-making, which is why I wrote the book and why I won't shut up about it on the internet.
29. JYJon Youshaei
  I love it. A lot of people will say you have the number one business channel on YouTube. Um, other people may say, um, you know, you're the most powerful businesswoman on YouTube with, like, your investments, you're able to f- bring exposure to them. Um, but there's a quote in your book from your dad-
30. CSCodie Sanchez
  Uh-huh
32:55 – 38:59
The Value of Education and Info Products
1. CSCodie Sanchez
  pumped it in? Yeah, thankfully. But what if, like, our payroll had all just died one Friday-
2. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm
3. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... and I didn't tell anybody? Like, would my employees have trusted me again with that?
4. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
5. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so, um, there are so many moments. Um, but I think, you know, I do go back to the Warren Buffett adage, which is like, "I'll forgive any- an employee any mistake-
6. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah
7. CSCodie Sanchez
  ... uh, except one that costs us our reputation." And so the thing that keeps me up the most at night is, like, do I always feel like we're doing the right thing?
8. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
9. CSCodie Sanchez
  You know, uh, do I feel like we have enough checks and balances in place to make sure that we're compliant and we're being truthful and honest?
10. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
11. CSCodie Sanchez
  'Cause I think we have a huge responsibility as creators.
12. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
13. CSCodie Sanchez
  I mean, we saw the media fuck it up royally, right?
14. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm-hmm.
15. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, they literally... We have the lowest level of trust as a society of media ever.
16. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
17. CSCodie Sanchez
  Um, we actually, uh, are lower than some third world countries, which is usually the opposite. And so I think about that as creators, too.
18. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
19. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, we have a real responsibility to make sure it's, uh... Let's see. What does Jordan Peterson says? He says, um, tell the truth or maybe at least ju- just don't lie.
20. JYJon Youshaei
  Hmm.
21. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so I obsess on that a lot.
22. JYJon Youshaei
  I wanna talk about the elephant in the room, because business content is, you know, like, gets a bad rap.
23. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
24. JYJon Youshaei
  Especially on YouTube, you know?
25. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
26. JYJon Youshaei
  It's a lot of people who say they're influencers, who have absolutely no influence at all.
27. CSCodie Sanchez
  Yeah.
28. JYJon Youshaei
  People s- who claim to have expertise who don't have expertise. I'm curious, as you started to, like, navigate that world, how did you think about differentiating? 'Cause your content feels different and gets many more views.
29. CSCodie Sanchez
  Thanks. Well, you know what? I, I was, like, uh, super freaked out to talk on the internet at first. Like, if you think about it, like, if you look at my background, like, I was in finance and investing for 12 years. I wasn't... I didn't even have an internet presence before we started kinda blowing up three years ago. And so when I started making videos, I was like, "Ah, this is scary." Like, not talking about the thing, but being on video was kinda scary. But then I remember, uh, one time that made me chill quite a bit is, uh, and I talk about this with, like, another one of our, our mutual friends. But, uh, I remember we were sending videos back and forth, and it was this guy getting shit on. Like, like, just like, they were like, "Who's this finance guru? What an idiot."
30. JYJon Youshaei
  [laughs]
38:59 – 44:44
The Importance of Deal Making
1. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
2. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so I think I served the content, one, because I was curious about it, and then two, because it made us cash. And then maybe the last part is, like, my, my egotistical, like, belief that [sighs] I think, one, freedom is actually green. It's just, it's money. Like, the more money you have, the more you can assert your will on the universe.
3. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
4. CSCodie Sanchez
  And I think, you know, if I was to say money is the root of all-
5. JYJon Youshaei
  I mean, the saying goes evil, but I think it's root of power. It can open things up. I mean, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm a kid of immigrants, so I think I view it a bit differently.
6. CSCodie Sanchez
  Totally. But, like, why? If we were to ask a room, I go and do these speaking events, money is the root of all, and everybody goes, "Evil." And you're like, where, who programmed that?
7. JYJon Youshaei
  Yeah.
8. CSCodie Sanchez
  Like, who said that it had to be that way? How come it's scammy if we talk about money?
9. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
10. CSCodie Sanchez
  How come it's scammy if we talk about business? Oh, of course, because if we talk about it, then we're gonna get more of it, and then we can push back on the people who have it.
11. JYJon Youshaei
  Mm.
12. CSCodie Sanchez
  And so I, I just don't like that. So I'm like, no, I'm gonna talk about it because when I was young and hungry, nobody told me how to make money. It was super confusing, so I never had any, and I didn't have any understanding of financial literacy, and I wish somebody would've talked about it in, like, simple terms instead of the second that you get money in this country we're like, "Shh, don't tell him how you got here," you know? 'Cause that would be gross or that would be scammy. Like, no, actually that's just like putting a hand down. So that's my moral high ground that I get on sometimes about cash. [paper rustling]