How Dave Ramsey Built A $300M/Year Media Empire (#428)

1. 0:00 – 0:52

   Intro

   1. SPShaan Puri0:00

      Dave's back, and Dave's back in a big way.

   2. SPSam Parr0:03

      In a big way.

   3. SPShaan Puri0:03

      Dave, here's some things that Dave has said. He says he has a $600 million real estate port- portfolio that is fully paid off. So $600 million of real estate equity that he, that he owns.

   4. SPSam Parr0:14

      Wow.

   5. SPShaan Puri0:14

      That's kind of insane. His media empire, which is, like, you know, the combination of his, um, radio shows and then all of the financial, like, courses, training, seminars, all that stuff that they do outside of that, he says on their website makes $300 million a year in revenue. [upbeat music]

   6. SPSam Parr0:40

      All right. We're live. Um-

   7. SPShaan Puri0:41

      All right. So what do you wanna talk about today?

   8. SPSam Parr0:43

      Dude, I've got a bunch of good topics. Let me bring up one juicy one. Last year, or two years ago, you asked me a question. You're like, "Who do you admire?" I think you asked me

2. 0:52 – 6:53

   Laird Superfoods

   1. SPSam Parr0:52

      that. And I said this guy named Laird Hamilton. Laird Hamilton is this, like, beautiful surfer dude. He's, like, in his 50s now. Basically, he's beautiful. Like, we gotta, we gotta acknowledge that. He's got, like, beautiful wavy blonde hair and, like, a nice skin, and he's pretty ripped for his age, and he always was ripped. And he's, like, this tough guy that surfs, uh, big waves and whatever. He launched this thing called ... What, are you gonna make fun of me 'cause I'm dreaming-

   2. SPShaan Puri1:13

      No

   3. SPSam Parr1:13

      ... about this guy?

   4. SPShaan Puri1:14

      This is not, I don't even need to make a joke. You've, you've done it all yourself here. [laughs]

   5. SPSam Parr1:17

      Dude, he's a Ken doll. Like, this is, like, this is, like, objective. Like, I'm just stating facts here.

   6. SPShaan Puri1:22

      Okay.

   7. SPSam Parr1:22

      He's, he's a human Ken doll. He launched this thing called Laird Superfoods. Have you heard of that? It's, like, a coffee creamer that's made out of, like, coconut, I think.

   8. SPShaan Puri1:30

      Right.

   9. SPSam Parr1:31

      Uh, anyway, I, uh ... They took the company public. I don't know why they did that.

   10. SPShaan Puri1:36

       Wow.

   11. SPSam Parr1:37

       But they took it public at a 300 or $400 million market cap. At the time, they were doing 50 million in, in, um, revenue. Look up the company now. Can you look, d- can you go and look up the, uh ... Do you know what their market cap is today?

   12. SPShaan Puri1:49

       Let me find it.

   13. SPSam Parr1:51

       I know what it was yesterday. I don't know what it is today.

   14. SPShaan Puri1:54

       Why would it be so different? Oh, wow, $9 million.

   15. SPSam Parr1:57

       $9 million. So this company, uh, I- if you click a ... I have a bunch of notes here. You can click them and read them. But basically, this company, they sell, like, a fair amount of, like, coffee creamer. So yesterday, I think it was 8.8 million. Dude, so listen, they have 20 million in cash, no debt at all. Their revenue is decreasing, so at, like, in Q3 it was 8.8 million. In Q3 of last year, it was 10.9 million. So what's that? Like, a, like a, like a 4 times 8. So it's a $48 million or, or $50 million a year business, but it's declining. They're gr- they have good, decent gross profit. They have an okay balance sheet. But, like, the business, for some reason, it's valued so low. I, I'd have to dive deep into it and really look at the numbers. But it's kinda ridiculous, right? So you were talking about wanting to buy a company. You've said this before. This is your target, dude.

   16. SPShaan Puri2:48

       [laughs]

   17. SPSam Parr2:49

       You get to hang out with Laird Hamilton.

   18. SPShaan Puri2:50

       It sounds like it's your target, dude. [laughs]

   19. SPSam Parr2:52

       This is- [laughs]

   20. SPShaan Puri2:52

       That sounds like this is, like, you know those things where it's like, "We're auctioning off a date with Laird Hamilton." It's like-

   21. SPSam Parr2:59

       Yeah, a hug

   22. SPShaan Puri2:59

       ... "Why, why don't you buy this?" Yeah, and you, you just bought yourself a $9 million hug. [laughs]

   23. SPSam Parr3:05

       Dude, why is this, why is this company ... You haven't looked at this, but why is this company so cheap?

   24. SPShaan Puri3:09

       No, I don't know. I mean-

   25. SPSam Parr3:10

       What is going on?

   26. SPShaan Puri3:10

       I, I don't know how much debt they have, but, uh-

   27. SPSam Parr3:12

       None. I said that. The, so I read their report. They had their, uh, Q3 report.

   28. SPShaan Puri3:17

       So, so I never understand this.

   29. SPSam Parr3:17

       $20 million in cash, zero debt. Zero debt.

   30. SPShaan Puri3:20

       So I never understand when, when companies trade this far below their just cash value, 'cause, you know, the obvious question then is why do you not buy this thing for 15 million and just wind it down and distribute the 20 million to yourself, uh, and make $5 million, you know, like, in the, in the process?
3. 6:53 – 25:23

   Dave Ramsey

   1. SPShaan Puri6:53

      are you familiar with Dave Ramsey?

   2. SPSam Parr6:54

      Uh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very.

   3. SPShaan Puri6:56

      T- tell me what you know about Dave Ramsey, and I'm gonna fill in some gaps for you.

   4. SPSam Parr6:59

      So Dave, uh, he's like a fi- personal finance guru. He's based out of Franklin, Tennessee. He's in his 70s probably now. He started as a radio host where it was just like Dave Ramsey, like, show, and then he parlayed that into, like, the Dave Ramsey network, so now he has, like, 4- or 500 employees based out of Franklin, Tennessee, and they do, like, 400 or 500 million a year in revenue where they sell, like, personal finance stuff. A lot of his... I think he's pretty controversial because a lot of his, like, rules, his, a lot of his personal finance rules are based in, like, biblical, like, rules. He also believes in, like, zero debt, and he, um, he's pretty conservative, so people who aren't conservative aren't into him.

   5. SPShaan Puri7:39

      Okay. Well, you knew a lot more than I would've guessed.

   6. SPSam Parr7:41

      [laughs]

   7. SPShaan Puri7:42

      So yeah.

   8. SPSam Parr7:42

      Dude, I'm from, I lived next to-

   9. SPShaan Puri7:43

      I guess the segment's over

   10. SPSam Parr7:44

       ... Tennessee. [laughs]

   11. SPShaan Puri7:45

       [laughs] It's like, Franklin, Tennessee? How do you know this stuff? What's going on here? [laughs]

   12. SPSam Parr7:49

       He also bought all of his buildings without any debt, so he owns, like, a campus in Franklin, Tennessee.

   13. SPShaan Puri7:55

       Yeah, yeah. So I didn't know all this.

   14. SPSam Parr7:56

       Sorry, but did I, I don't know. [laughs]

   15. SPShaan Puri7:58

       No, you know, well, you spit in my food, but all right.

   16. SPSam Parr8:01

       [laughs] Dude.

   17. SPShaan Puri8:01

       I'm still hungry, so let's go.

   18. SPSam Parr8:03

       [laughs] Sorry.

   19. SPShaan Puri8:03

       Um, so Dave-

   20. SPSam Parr8:05

       Sorry. So sorry

   21. SPShaan Puri8:05

       ... he's 62 years old. Uh-

   22. SPSam Parr8:07

       Yeah

   23. SPShaan Puri8:07

       ... he was a realtor turned radio host, and yeah, he's from Tennessee. Uh, so basically what happened is by his mid-20s, so this is, like, back in the '80s, so back in his mid-

   24. SPSam Parr8:15

       But d- you, you didn't know who Dolly Parton was, and she's also a Tennessee person. So, like.

   25. SPShaan Puri8:20

       Yeah, I guess I, I... Lesson learned.

   26. SPSam Parr8:22

       [laughs]

   27. SPShaan Puri8:22

       I'm not coming at you with any Tennessee trivia anymore.

   28. SPSam Parr8:24

       [laughs] Yeah.

   29. SPShaan Puri8:24

       You're a ringer for that stuff.

   30. SPSam Parr8:25

       [laughs]
4. 25:23 – 29:51

   Why Shaan is in a great mood

   1. SPShaan Puri25:23

      Sam, I'm in a great mood. Can I tell you why?

   2. SPSam Parr25:25

      Yes.

   3. SPShaan Puri25:27

      I did something that I forgot is an amazing tactic and technique, so I'm gonna say it out loud here so other people could do it, but also it's a reminder to myself to do it. Have you ever heard of something called flooding?

   4. SPSam Parr25:39

      N- no. Is that when you text someone a lot of... No, I have no idea.

   5. SPShaan Puri25:42

      [laughs] So it could be a lot of things. Don't Urban Dictionary it. It's probably something weird. But, uh, here's, here's how I learned about it. Uh, Tony Robbins talked about this thing. So he goes... Somebody asked him, they go, "What's a, like, you know, marriage, like, advice or a thing you do in your marriage that, like, you know, uh, makes it better?" And he, he basically had, like, two stories that I, I really loved. I'll, I'll skip the first one for now. I've told it. I teach it in my course, but I'll, I'll skip that one for now. The second one that he had said was, he goes, "About once a month we'll do something called flooding, which is basically us, we sit down on the, on the couch, you know, like we're about to watch Netflix or something else. But instead of just mindlessly vegging out to some TV, we watch videos or photos, uh, we go... Of, of some part of our past, some, some era of our past. So maybe, like, this vacation that we went on or our wedding or whatever. And you basically, you'll get this flood of memories and emotion that are linked and anchored to those moments. Uh, but most people don't, like, revisit it in a kind of, like, in, in a, like, a spec- like, a conscious way or an intentional way like this. And I do this in two ways. Um, one, I'll do it with, like, life photos or memories, uh, videos or, or, or videos or photos. The second one is, and this is the one I did before this, which is why I'm in a great mood.

   6. SPSam Parr26:58

      Like old blog posts or something? Or go through old-

   7. SPShaan Puri27:00

      I will pull up a bunch of videos that were really funny to me back in, like, the day-

   8. SPSam Parr27:05

      Mm.

   9. SPShaan Puri27:05

      Back in college. Like, b- back when YouTube was, like, the new shit. And-

   10. SPSam Parr27:09

       EbaumsWorld

   11. SPShaan Puri27:09

       ... and, like, you know, things would go viral. But it was like, yeah, EbaumsWorld. Like, things would go viral and, like, everybody knew about that, that video. You know, whatever, the Charlie Bit My Finger or whatever. But there's this set of videos that were so funny to me, and they're not even that fu- Now that I go back and look, it's kinda like an old movie where you're like, "Dang, uh, this movie doesn't h- it doesn't hold up. It doesn't, it doesn't have the same juice." Like, things are much funnier now. Like, Ti- the average TikTok is funnier than the best videos back in, like, 2006.

   12. SPSam Parr27:37

       Which, which videos did you look at?

   13. SPShaan Puri27:40

       Uh, [laughs] okay, this is gonna sound, uh, dumb, but have you ever seen this video? [laughs] Uh, you know, 12-year-old boy, uh, disclaimer. Here we go. I've recently this video of this cop pulling over this guy, and he's got his hands above his head. It's like this, this-

   14. SPSam Parr27:53

       Yeah. Yep, yep.

   15. SPShaan Puri27:54

       Yep, yep.

   16. SPSam Parr27:55

       [laughs]

   17. SPShaan Puri27:55

       And he goes, he's patting him down. [laughs] He goes, he goes, "All right. Let me just check your pockets. Hold on. Here we go. Up. Hey, what- what's this?" And the guy goes, "That's my penis." And he goes-

   18. SPSam Parr28:04

       [laughs]

   19. SPShaan Puri28:04

       ... "That's your penis?" And then he continues on. [laughs]

   20. SPSam Parr28:07

       [laughs] Yeah.

   21. SPShaan Puri28:08

       And this video cracks me up, just the way he goes, "That's my penis." And the guy goes, "That's your penis." [laughs]

   22. SPSam Parr28:12

       [laughs] I see that one.

   23. SPShaan Puri28:14

       And so there's that video, but then there's just a whole bunch of these that were, like, just goofy videos. Yeah, a lot of them were, like, you know, the news anchors interviewing some- like, that kid who, like, "I like turtles" kid or, like, the Grape Stomp video or, like, whatever. There's just this whole bunch of these. And I watched like six of them and they just cracked me up in this, like, way. It's like, ah, a simpler time-

   24. SPSam Parr28:33

       [laughs] Yeah, the evolution of dance

   25. SPShaan Puri28:35

       ... where I didn't have kids or a wife and a mortgage.

   26. SPSam Parr28:36

       Oh.

   27. SPShaan Puri28:36

       And I didn't have it, you know... It's just literally that was like, those videos were, just took me back. They just teleported me. And so highly recommend this, this idea of flooding. Uh, you probably have done some version of this on accident, but, like, make it a practice. It's pretty awesome, and it just puts you in an amazing mood.

   28. SPSpeaker28:52

       [upbeat music] This data is wrong every freaking time.

   29. SPSam Parr28:57

       Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform where everything is fully integrated.

   30. SPSpeaker29:03

       Whoa, I can see the client's whole history: calls, support tickets, emails, and here's a task from three days ago I totally missed.
5. 29:51 – 33:19

   Why you shouldn't buy domain names

   1. SPSam Parr29:51

      so here's the story. I tweeted out that I think... I, it, it always bothers me when, when people collect domain names. That's a, that's a pet peeve 'cause I, 'cause I'm saying if you're doing that you're doing the wrong stuff. 'Cause people will say, "I'm gonna... I've got this great idea. I'm gonna buy a domain name." Or even worse, they'll say, "I've got this amazing domain name. I should build something for it." I'm like, "Dude, don't build something just 'cause you have a domain name."

   2. SPShaan Puri30:11

      [laughs]

   3. SPSam Parr30:12

      So anyway, I tweeted out, I'm like, "Just make money first and just use, like, a, you know, store name.squarespace.com for, like, the initial, like, 100 bucks in sales, and then go and get the domain name." Like, and someone's like, "You can't do that." And I was like, "Oh, no, I've done it a bunch of times." And they're like, "Yeah, well, you're doing it because you have a name." I was like, "No, I did it actually in college tons and tons of times." In fact, I found this old website that I had, and it was, um- ... uh, alcohol name .wordpress.com

   4. SPShaan Puri30:36

      Right.

   5. SPSam Parr30:36

      And I went and looked at the old stats, and it's getting 5,000 views a month still-

   6. SPShaan Puri30:43

      [laughs]

   7. SPSam Parr30:43

      ... on a WordPress.com free website. And this, it's a store. It's a, quote, "a store" that is a blog post and a click to PayPal. And basically what I did was, there was this really unique drink that was sold in Nashville, and for some reason only one or two stores were carrying it, but this particular type of drink was popular across the country. And I thought, "Well, I should set up an online store to sell this stuff," and I did. And I made friends with the person selling it, the, the, the liquor store, whatever, and I go, "Hey, I'm gonna sell this for 3X the markup, but I'll buy a bunch of it from you, so whatever," and I did it. And I didn't... I'm an idiot. I didn't realize that like as this thing was growing, I was making like a lot of money, and I went and told the legal team at my college, I was like, "Hey, I think my business is like working really well. Do I need to set up like an LLC or something?" And they're like, "Oh, you're breaking the law. Like, you can't-

   8. SPShaan Puri31:35

      [laughs]

   9. SPSam Parr31:35

      ... you can't sell this without like a liquor license." So I was like, but it's like a collect- basically this thing that I was selling, it was a, it was a very rare whiskey that was in a very particular type of bottle that was like a collector's item, and I thought like, "Oh, it's just like a collector's item. I don't even know if people are gonna drink this thing." So anyway, it was making like $1,000 a day sometimes. And I looked at the old blog post that I was selling this, and it was hilarious, and it reminded me like of a simpler time when I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

   10. SPShaan Puri32:00

       Yeah. [laughs]

   11. SPSam Parr32:01

       And life was good. And I was building motorcycles in my living room, and it was working out well.

   12. SPShaan Puri32:06

       [laughs]

   13. SPSam Parr32:07

       So I was like... [laughs]

   14. SPShaan Puri32:08

       I was building motorcycles in my living room, sleeping on the floor-

   15. SPSam Parr32:12

       [laughs]

   16. SPShaan Puri32:13

       ... and selling [laughs] collector's whiskey illegally on the internet. [laughs]

   17. SPSam Parr32:18

       [laughs] It was a simpler time, and I went and-

   18. SPShaan Puri32:20

       You know, the American dream. [laughs]

   19. SPSam Parr32:22

       The American dream. I was one of those kids that, uh, you probably had this too. I didn't have beer. Like you remember those c- college kids that would have like beer cases-

   20. SPShaan Puri32:30

       Yeah

   21. SPSam Parr32:30

       ... the cardboard on their walls?

   22. SPShaan Puri32:31

       On the walls. Yeah. We did it

   23. SPSam Parr32:32

       I wasn't that bad.

   24. SPShaan Puri32:33

       [laughs]

   25. SPSam Parr32:33

       But I did have an American flag. I definitely had the American flag, so I was pretty trashy. But, uh, yeah, I was, so I was looking at my old like blog that I used to do, and I couldn't even remember the password, and, uh, so I flooded myself a little.

   26. SPShaan Puri32:46

       [laughs] I'm just flooding my pants today. It's great.

   27. SPSam Parr32:50

       [laughs] Yeah. Um, uh-

   28. SPShaan Puri32:52

       All right. The, the good thing is, by the way, this whole, if, if you're not watching on YouTube, you're missing half of it-

   29. SPSam Parr32:55

       [laughs]

   30. SPShaan Puri32:55

       ... 'cause Sam's wearing a Harvard sweatshirt while we tell these stories. [laughs]
6. 33:19 – 41:18

   Chambers

   1. SPSam Parr33:19

      out. Go to chambers.com.

   2. SPShaan Puri33:21

      Chambers? Okay.

   3. SPSam Parr33:23

      Yeah, like that Harry Potter stuff, chambers.

   4. SPShaan Puri33:25

      Chambers and Partners, is that it?

   5. SPSam Parr33:27

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   6. SPShaan Puri33:28

      Okay.

   7. SPSam Parr33:29

      Okay. Dude, check this out. So this website, they, uh, I think they're mostly in Europe, but they are in America as well, is they put out these rankings once a month or once a quarter, something like that, and they go and they interview lots of, I think they have 200 employees who do this, 200 employees who go out and interview different lawyers. They talk to your past clients, and they try to like see which cases you're winning, and it's all done manually. Like there's not like a lot of like tech behind it. And then they create these rankings for like best legal firm or whatever like that or like, you know, m- uh, a good firm for this, a good firm for that, like different niches. And then they put out these rankings, and if you're a lawyer, you can pay money, uh, and, and get like a plaque. They'll send you a plaque, and then also they'll allow you to use their like thing in the, in their... Like when you send an email, it could be like, "Voted a top lawyer by Chambers."

   8. SPShaan Puri34:19

      Right.

   9. SPSam Parr34:19

      And you could do, and you could do all that. Dude, this company, they do 44 million euros or, yeah, so, uh, or sorry, 44 million pounds. So what's that in real p- real money? That's like 60 million in revenue.

   10. SPShaan Puri34:31

       Oh, my.

   11. SPSam Parr34:32

       And then 18 million in profit, and they're selling right now for close to $500 million. It's a crazy company because I've been-

   12. SPShaan Puri34:41

       You saw this site for sale somewhere?

   13. SPSam Parr34:43

       Uh, just like on a trade magazine for, uh, media companies that I follow. It's like this small thing called Flashes & Flames because this c- that website, they cover like B2B media stuff 'cause I'm like been obsessed with B2B database-

   14. SPShaan Puri34:54

       What's the name of the b- of the B2B media thing?

   15. SPSam Parr34:56

       Flashesandflames.com. I love it.

   16. SPShaan Puri34:59

       Okay.

   17. SPSam Parr35:00

       It's like my favorite site. I didn't even wanna tell people about it 'cause I want one of the few-

   18. SPShaan Puri35:02

       Yeah. I, I, I like how you tried to just mutter it.

   19. SPSam Parr35:04

       Yeah.

   20. SPShaan Puri35:06

       That's when you know-

   21. SPSam Parr35:06

       Yeah, I could call it that

   22. SPShaan Puri35:07

       ... it's a good one.

   23. SPSam Parr35:07

       It's a good one. Like I'm a paying subscriber to it, which is like ridiculous. Uh, but dude, these lawyers pay like 1,500 to $4,000 a year, and they said they have like no churn. They're like, "We have, we, no insurance from our, from us," because these lawyers want it for so much. This, these lawyers want it for so much. And I, uh, am interested in this, and I found like eight or nine other businesses. They call them like data businesses or databases or intelligence businesses, and they're not really much tech, but right now a lot of them are selling for eight to 10 times revenue, and I found 10 examples of companies that have sold in the eight to 10 times revenue range for one of these data businesses. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. And this sounds like a scheme, um, because what they do is they rank you, and then they go, "Hey, if you want, like, to make like a special profile-

   24. SPShaan Puri35:55

       Right

   25. SPSam Parr35:55

       ... on our website, uh, we'll do that, and it's $4,500 a year. And what we'll do is, uh, like once ranked you could purchase this one-pager where you get a profile on our site." It's almost like a Wikipedia page where they like, one of their journalists just writes like two paragraphs and it says like, "This legal firm is known for X, Y, and Z." And then you, you could put that, if you're a lawyer, you could put that in your email signature, and you're allowed to do that, and then people can-

   26. SPShaan Puri36:16

       Right

   27. SPSam Parr36:16

       ... click and see whatever. It's crazy, man. This is a caper. They're pulling it off, and I, and I love stuff like this. You know, it's like-

   28. SPShaan Puri36:23

       Well, you know how-

   29. SPSam Parr36:23

       ... JD Power we talked about

   30. SPShaan Puri36:24

       ... you know how you know they're smart, because their logo is like, it looks like a medallion, like a s- like it looks like a special emblem or award Like it's a C with this like w- I don't know what you call these, but like the petals going around it. Um, yeah, put this on the YouTube channel so like pe- people can see it. But like-
7. 41:18 – 47:34

   Trademarkia

   1. SPShaan Puri41:18

      does this. So there's a business called trademarkia.com. So it's like trademark with I-A, so trademarkia.com. If you go to it, all of a sudden it's like, like if you just compare side by side, like in the YouTube chat you should do this. Like take USPTO and try to find even where do you go fi- search for trademarks and then like how that looks versus this where it just says, "Search 11 million trademarks for free. Search your thing. Example, Mickey Mouse." And it's like you can just type in your brand name, so like if I typed in, you know, The Hustle, uh, I'm gonna search for this and it's gonna tell me what trademarks exist for this, who owns them-

   2. SPSam Parr41:51

      Dude, this company kills it. I-

   3. SPShaan Puri41:53

      ... what, what categories that they're in. Okay, so, so HubSpot, HubSpot owns it now. So it says The Hustle, HubSpot owns it. It's pending, a- and it was filed December 3rd, 2022. When did you sell?

   4. SPSam Parr42:03

      Uh, December thir- uh, when did I... Two, two years ago. What would that be? '21?

   5. SPShaan Puri42:08

      Yeah. So tw- okay, so-

   6. SPSam Parr42:10

      Wow, so they... I, yeah, I didn't own it. And that... [laughs]

   7. SPShaan Puri42:13

      [laughs] They also, it also looks like you abandoned one in 2020. Um, so you know, some- somebody did something-

   8. SPSam Parr42:21

      They tried

   9. SPShaan Puri42:21

      ... on your team. Maybe tried and, and didn't get it or whatever. It tells you what class it's in, et cetera, et cetera. So it's a great, great little thing and you can search for like associated names or whatever. So great website, and so I reached out to the guy who owns it and I was like, "Dude, this is a..." And so I, I, I said, um- Trademarkia is a great, great idea. Brilliant interface. Um, you know, you know, props to you. And he goes, uh, so the guy lives in the Bay Area actually, and he goes, "Yeah, it's, it's a really cool website. Um, you know, we have 5 million in ARR, um, and I can't, you know, uh, we never raised VC 5 million in ARR. It was kinda declining from the peak, but I just came back to the company. We removed the subscription. I got big plans now, you know, I wanna talk to you about it." And, um, you know, he's gonna try to make this like, he wants to go for like the billion-dollar outcome. And I was like, "Dude, I think you have a $5 million a year cash cow, um, that you could probably get to like eight or nine with just like some simple tweaks, and like, you know, chill." Like, that, that sounds awesome. Um, but, but I thought this was a really cool website. And again, it's just a simple... Like, these businesses are everywhere, man. These businesses are hidden in plain sight, and in this case, it took a public data set and just put a much more user-friendly wrapper on top, versus what you were talking about with Chambers is they created their own data set, and then have, then they own that proprietary data.

   10. SPSam Parr43:40

       It's called, uh, you know, an, uh, um... Who was it? Uh, Anon from CBM Insights was on, and he was like, "No, we just like taking public data that's messy, and we just make it a little bit easier to under-"

   11. SPShaan Puri43:51

       Structure.

   12. SPSam Parr43:51

       Yeah, "We just make it clean." Um, by the way, My First Million is owned by Advance Magazine pub- Publishers, which is a big company in New York, and it's a entertainment services, namely an online non-downloadable video series featuring star athletes explaining their life as millionaires. I guess that's that GQ thing, which I search, or where I see when I search on YouTube. But, uh, anyway, badass.

   13. SPShaan Puri44:14

       Yeah.

   14. SPSam Parr44:15

       I love this company.

   15. SPShaan Puri44:15

       In fact, uh-

   16. SPSam Parr44:15

       Do you wanna h-

   17. SPShaan Puri44:16

       I'm gonna go trademark this before this episode comes out. [laughs] Because now somebody's gonna go squat on this.

   18. SPSam Parr44:22

       Do you, uh, and, um, a funny story about Native Deodorant. I've always remembered this story. I've never brought it up to you. So you and I, The Hustle's office and Twitch's office was just a block or, like 50 yards-

   19. SPShaan Puri44:35

       Up the street

   20. SPSam Parr44:35

       ... from each other. So if, you know, there's, there was like Kearney or whatever you were, and then you were the left. If you go to the right, there was a little cafe that was lovely that I, that I really liked, and I believe Moyes, the f- So Native Deodorant is a company called, uh, Native Deodorant. They sell deodorant. It was sold for $100 million in, in cash, and it probably does hundreds of millions now, and it has like a really cute branding. They make shampoo. They make everything. And I remember walking by this lovely cafe and I thought, "Huh, this cafe's called Native too, and their logo looks just like Native Deodorant."

   21. SPShaan Puri45:09

       [laughs]

   22. SPSam Parr45:10

       And I realized that Moyes worked nearby. Uh, and so I put kinda two and two together. So if you Google Native Co SF-

   23. SPShaan Puri45:21

       Yeah

   24. SPSam Parr45:21

       ... you'll see a little c- you'll see a little cafe. Uh, you'll see their Yelp page. They've changed their logo to, uh, green, but it used to be yellow. Or sorry, it used to be blue, the exact same as Native Deodorant. And so I have a feeling-

   25. SPShaan Puri45:33

       [laughs]

   26. SPSam Parr45:34

       ... that he was just thinking of like good branding-

   27. SPShaan Puri45:37

       I've seen this. I've walked by this, and I was like, "This is..." I remember thinking, "Dude, Moyes, they're ripping off your brand. Are, are you doing a cafe?"

   28. SPSam Parr45:43

       Exactly.

   29. SPShaan Puri45:45

       And now it's realized the obvious. He was like-

   30. SPSam Parr45:48

       So it-
8. 47:34 – 1:00:17

   The people ripping off MFM

   1. SPShaan Puri47:34

      way the world is going. Dude, have you seen people ripping us off? I don't know if you've seen this, but-

   2. SPSam Parr47:38

      No, but that's cool

   3. SPShaan Puri47:39

      ... uh, in the next two weeks, you're gonna see Twitter threads, LinkedIns, short videos on TikTok, other podcasts talking about the exact same stories that we tell here. [laughs] There's like this group of 10 people that just take our content, and then they just say the exact same thing.

   4. SPSam Parr47:55

      They're probably better than us too.

   5. SPShaan Puri47:56

      And they just tell that exact same story.

   6. SPSam Parr47:57

      [laughs]

   7. SPShaan Puri47:58

      Then they're gonna be like, "Dude, Dave Ramsey. Dave, how Dave Ramsey built a $600 million empire, animation, this, that." And then they're just gonna be like literally cut, steal our shtick. It's, it's kind of annoying. I get it. Um-

   8. SPSam Parr48:11

      Michael from Our Future has done it a few times.

   9. SPShaan Puri48:13

      Yeah, they do. Yeah, he, he's one of the 10 that, that does this all the time.

   10. SPSam Parr48:16

       Who are the other nine?

   11. SPShaan Puri48:18

       Uh, I mean, I don't even really wanna give them shine of, of doing that. You know, this is, uh, literally if you're one of those people, just, you know, this is, have your own silent embarrassment. Uh, there's nothing wrong with sort of like taking ideas and remixing them. Uh, but what most people do is they just take the same idea, they just tell the same story, uh, the same way we, that we already told it in their own Twitter thread or their own LinkedIn and, and whatever else. Um, which is fine, but like give credit at least. If you're gonna, if you're gonna say the same thing, be like, "Oh, I was listening to My First Million and they told this great story." Check it out, right? Now, you know, yeah, that, that's, I think, a, a slightly better way to do it. Um, but, you know, whatever. It's, it, it is what it is.

   12. SPSam Parr48:54

       But this is why... So I have a new project. I'm actually gonna announce it in about a month, or three weeks. This is why I didn't announce it. I've been working on this for almost a year now. I didn't wanna announce it. Copycats. Everyone, everyone talks about build in public. I hate building in public. Building in public is not cool when you're popular. Building in public is really cool when you wanna get popular.

   13. SPShaan Puri49:11

       Yeah, exactly.

   14. SPSam Parr49:12

       But once you already have a following, I don't wanna do it. Like, The Milk Road, did you guys have a bunch of copycats?

   15. SPShaan Puri49:16

       Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, tons. Uh, there, there's like, there's tons of embarrassing ones that are out there. Uh, there's, like, people that literally just took the same exact newsletter and they would... Some people would translate it, so they're like, "Oh, I'm, you know, Leche, Leche whatever," and it's, like, so the Mexican Milk Road.

   16. SPSam Parr49:34

       [laughs]

   17. SPShaan Puri49:34

       And then they would translate it to Spanish and do just, like, Google Translate and then publish. Um, there's another one that, uh, there's one [laughs] I don't know if I wanna put this guy on blast, but, um, someone who tried to buy The Milk Road and failed-

   18. SPSam Parr49:50

       Yeah, I know who you're talking about

   19. SPShaan Puri49:51

       ... then just tried to copy it in his own, like, way. And you can just... The, the, the funny thing is they very rarely work. Um-

   20. SPSam Parr49:58

       They don't

   21. SPShaan Puri49:59

       ... and it's, like, kinda surprising. Why don't they work? I, I kind of expected them to work. Um, like, for example, when people take our content and then write a thread about it on LinkedIn, like, it does pretty good. Like, it, that, that kind of works for them, otherwise they wouldn't really keep doing it. But the copy the whole newsletter thing, like, for some reason, that doesn't really work. I'm not sure, I'm not 100% sure why.

   22. SPSam Parr50:17

       I'll explain why. I know why. Do you wanna know the... So, basically, if, for people who have been raised on the internet, they have a very high bullshit detector, and do you wanna know the best way to circumvent someone's bullshit detector?

   23. SPShaan Puri50:30

       No.

   24. SPSam Parr50:31

       Don't bullshit.

   25. SPShaan Puri50:31

       [laughs]

   26. SPSam Parr50:31

       You don't bullshit. Don't bullshit. That's how you circumvent that bullshit detector. You don't bullshit. And people can sniff this out, and so if they read something and it's like, dude, you're like a not cool older guy trying to act like a cool younger person, I know that this is not good. Like, this doesn't work.

   27. SPShaan Puri50:48

       Yeah. I told you about the, uh, NQR, right? The, the, the KFCs in China, not quite right. And it's like, dude, it's the same menu.

   28. SPSam Parr50:55

       No. [laughs]

   29. SPShaan Puri50:56

       Like, the, this is, this is the spicy chicken sandwich, and it's like, that's not quite right. [laughs] And people... It just doesn't taste right. The taste buds reject it. Now, I believe that when it comes to if I use one product and then somebody tries to copy it, I'm like, why would I want the shitty copy? I'm just gonna keep going with the original. But in markets where you're, you're reaching a new audience or people who haven't heard of the original, I'm surprised it doesn't work. And I think my theory of why it doesn't work in those cases, I think you're right when it's, uh, when people have tasted the original, that they don't really want the, the shitty copycat.

   30. SPSam Parr51:25

       Or when it's like a community, community brand, uh, like, personality driven. You know? It's w- it's that one moat that Peter Thiel doesn't understand.

Episode duration: 1:00:17