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70 min read · 13,863 words- 0:00 – 6:04
Intro
- SPSam Parr
What do you, uh... I'm, I'm an investor of yours, so you're, um... I forget how much I invested, but you're, like... Well, I don't really invest in anything other than, like van- like, total index funds and, but you're, like, one of the few. I think you're one of three things that I did. Um, it's going great. I mean, I, I see the returns.
- NHNick Huber
[laughs] .
- SPSam Parr
Uh, but how much do you have in total se- self storage now, like $100M or something?
- NHNick Huber
I think last time I came on it was 15 properties or so, and $20M worth of storage. And we now have 61 properties, uh, 1.8 million square feet of storage. Um, we've acquired it for $103M. We've raised $41M from people like you, who invested in Bolt Storage. Yeah, it's been a whirlwind. The last two years have been crazy. [upbeat music]
- SPSam Parr
Would you say $100M worth of... Is that- that's how much you paid for it. I, I don't know-
- NHNick Huber
Yeah
- SPSam Parr
... how much it's worth.
- NHNick Huber
I don't either.
- SPSam Parr
Because that's-
- NHNick Huber
I mean, we could, we could guess. We could try to guess, but, look, the real estate market has no mark to market, right? Because, like, Elon Musk, he can see how many shares of Tesla he has and the value of those shares. I have no idea. I mean, I can make educated guesses, but if we sold our portfolio today, I don't know, uh, s- six months ago we might be able to sell it for $190M or so.
- SPSam Parr
Oh, that'd be awesome. We, um-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... the, I think the way I met you was... So, uh, it, you're, you know, it's kind of a creepy story. Years ago, I dated this Polish girl, and I remember seeing your picture on Twitter. And your f- this is so weird, your face reminded me of hers. [laughs]
- NHNick Huber
[laughs] That is the best compliment.
- SPSam Parr
Like, I remember-
- NHNick Huber
That's the best compliment I could get.
- SPSam Parr
Are you Polish?
- NHNick Huber
I'm German. Yeah, Huber. My, my-
- SPSam Parr
Oh
- NHNick Huber
... my mom is a Gettelfinger, so yeah, we're very German.
- SPSam Parr
I remember seeing your picture and I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this guy looks Polish almost."
- NHNick Huber
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
And then I was driving cross country and I did a Twitter live, or something like that, I forget what I did, and you, like, commented. And I just called you on air. Or no, I called you on your phone. I just put it on speakerphone and we started talking, and that, and that's how we-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... how we, how we met, I think, right?
- NHNick Huber
Yeah. And now, now we know each other quite well. I think we've punched each other in the face. We've, uh, guarded each other and fouled each other in basketball. We have, uh, hung out at a couple conferences and, and we talk several times a week, so I appreciate your friendship, man.
- SPSam Parr
How long... I appreciate you, too. I, I, and then he told me that he was, uh, the Catholic, and I was like-
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, but you're faster than me
- SPSam Parr
... but you're not, like, you're not good. And then I looked up his times and I was like, "Oh, he's better than I was." Uh, and, and then that's why I liked you even more.
- NHNick Huber
That's very true.
- 6:04 – 7:23
Shepherd
- SPSam Parr
you, we have, can you talk about the Shepherd thing that you're doing?
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, so, um, that company is a phenomenal company and, and I ki- I... It kinda ki- can kick off our, uh, discussion because my goal, real estate's a little bit slow. The company's in a really good spot. I still spend a ton of time saying thumbs up, thumbs down to deals, and thinking strategy and working on it. But, um, I have a lot of time, and I also have 30 million impressions a month on Twitter, and you know what that's like when you have a podcast like this and the distribution that you have. Um, but yeah, my, my goal right now is to, is to build a portfolio of ownership chunks in, in great small companies, you know, sweaty startups. Um-
- SPSam Parr
And s- and Austin, our friend Austin Rief who founded Morning Brew, he was supposed to come on today, and, uh, he had like a last-minute board meeting. So Axel Springer -
- NHNick Huber
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
... thanks a lot, the owner of Morning Brew. Thanks, guys.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah.
- SPSam Parr
Uh, but anyway, I was like, "Austin, what should we talk about?" And, uh, you and me and Austin were in a thing, in, uh, a group chat, and he was like, "Let's talk about..." 'Cause he knows that I hate advertising, um, and I, like, make fun of him. I used to make fun of him as, like, an enemy. Now I make fun of him as a friend. And, um, about how much he got lucky.
- NHNick Huber
You make fun of, you make fun of everybody, Sam.
- SPSam Parr
Not really. Do I? I don't know.
- NHNick Huber
It's, it's good. It, it, it... You just, you just make jokes that are at people's expense, and it's hilarious.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] And sometimes they're funny. And,
- 7:23 – 16:29
Non-Advertising ways of making money on content
- SPSam Parr
and I was like, "Austin, what, uh, what do you wanna talk about?" And he's like, "Let's talk about non-ways or non-advertising ways to monetize media-
- NHNick Huber
Uh-huh
- SPSam Parr
... followings. And you did it, so you did it. I don't know what your net worth would be or what, like, the, the, the value of your percentage of your thing would be, but you've done it to the tune of, like, $100 million of real estate.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
That's your non-advertising-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... way of monetizing your audience.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, my-
- SPSam Parr
You're also doing it in, like, a bunch of... Sorry, go ahead.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, my equity in that is maybe, you know, 10 to 20 million.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- NHNick Huber
So.
- SPSam Parr
And, and so that... And then, like, you operate this successful business, so it's not like it's just because of Twitter. You know, you make smart decisions beyond that. But you are also doing it a few different ways. I'm actually a customer of your other business, which is a cost seg business. I almost use Shepherd, which I don't know if you are a part owner or if you're just an affiliate for. But you're doing it in a bunch of different ways, and I wanna talk about the ways that you're monetizing-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... in non-ad ways of your audience.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah. So Shepherd is the ideal story. I mean, it was late 2020, November, December. I wanted to hire somebody in the Philippines. I met Marshall Haas, who owns Support Shepherd, and I was his customer. I made a deposit for them to hire somebody, and my goal was to get somebody on the phone in my self storage facility that could, you know, press one to make a payment. You're gonna go to this person, and they're just gonna process the payments for us, just some extra help doing very simple things. I gave them... Actually, they built the job description. They got me three candidates ready to interview. I got on and interviewed them all in the course of an hour, and I was absolutely blown away and hired all three of the people. I'm like, "This company is incredible."
- SPSam Parr
What was the, what was the rate per hour?
- NHNick Huber
$5 an hour, $800 a month to get these people-
- SPSam Parr
Okay
- NHNick Huber
... to come and work for my service company. And-
- SPSam Parr
And they were awesome?
- NHNick Huber
... you fast-forward... Yeah, they were, they were incredible. Fast-forward four hour, you know, four months later, I had 15 of these people working inside of my company, and not only were they doing the simple stuff, but they were answering sales calls. They were guiding the logistics of a customer in a, in one of my facilities looking for a specific unit. They were just able to do exactly what our American reps do, except instead of paying 60 or 70 grand a year, they pay, we pay, you know, 10 grand a year. So it was a-
- SPSam Parr
Right
- NHNick Huber
... it was a game changer. Now we have our whole finance department's in Colombia. Shepherd has helped us find those folks in Colombia. Um, so the, the business blew my mind, and I went to Marshall in 2022 or tw- 2021, May, and said, "Hey, I wanna be an affiliate of this company. Like, give me a cut of what I can bring in, and I'll do some tweeting." Um, at that time, they were doing about 50 grand a month in revenue, Shepherd was. Um, I got-
- SPSam Parr
That's their net, their... That, that's the net of the, net of payouts to the, the workers?
- NHNick Huber
No, that's, like, total revenue. Total revenue-
- SPSam Parr
Total... Oh, okay
- NHNick Huber
... for Shepherd as a company-
- SPSam Parr
Got it
- NHNick Huber
... as that business, the one that, like, does the headhunting and finds the employees for American companies. Um, so they were doing, you know, 50 placements a month or, or less, and they were growing fast. It was a good company. And I started tweeting and pissing off the woke mob and recommending-
- 16:29 – 21:16
Greatest regrets in life
- NHNick Huber
me a text yesterday and said, "Nick, what's your three biggest regrets in life?" And one of them is not going-
- SPSam Parr
Why did... Wait, he, he asked you that question? What a weird question to ask you.
- NHNick Huber
He works on, he works on this dumbass content online. Who knows what he's gonna put, tweet about?
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] Why is he asking you that? Okay, go ahead.
- NHNick Huber
One of them was not going to Marshall a year earlier and getting equity instead of freaking a cut of profits or a cut of revenue.
- SPSam Parr
Well, yeah, uh, yeah, I, I just don't know if a clip agency is ever gonna sell.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah. I love agency, I love agency businesses.
- SPSam Parr
And I'll, I don't wanna, like, give advice to people all the time. Do you know what I mean? I think it's different when you're with Marshall because Marshall is, like, a very proven entrepreneur who has a couple exits under his, under his belt. But, like, sometimes when I'm talking to people-
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, he doesn't wanna listen... Yeah, they don't need or want me to get involved in their operations. Yeah.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. I'm like, "Dude, I don't wanna, like, uh, I don't wanna guide you. I just wanna send you customers." And, um, I, like, I wa- I- sometimes I prefer transactional, is what I mean.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
Um-
- NHNick Huber
Yeah
- SPSam Parr
... so what we both-
- NHNick Huber
I love, I love leaning in, I love leaning into the ops. Um, my business partner's an operational mastermind, and, you know, yeah, I have three other companies that I'm working on launching right now on a, on a very same, very similar trajectory as Support Shepherd.
- SPSam Parr
By the way, Diego's company, it's called Short, so, like, a, a short clip, and then zy.co. Shortzy.co, so Short and then zy.co. I'm giving him a shout-out.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, man, you should own, you should own 25% of his company.
- SPSam Parr
Mm, yeah, I don't know. Maybe, maybe I will end up regretting that, but I'm, I'm happy with the deal.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah.
- SPSam Parr
But we, uh... And so, uh, what were the other two regrets?
- NHNick Huber
Oh, um, I don't know. Let me look. I think it was- Um, go ahead and get married a little earlier and have kids a little earlier, even though I did it when I was almost 30. Um, and then-
- SPSam Parr
You, you weren't married until you were 30? Or first kid at 30?
- NHNick Huber
I got married when I was 27 and had my first kid at 29. And I kind of... If, if that was three years earlier, I would've been just as happy.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- NHNick Huber
But in general, I told them I don't-
- SPSam Parr
So, so many, so many people I talk to say they wish they would've had their kids earlier, by the way.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
And I'm shocked that people say that.
- NHNick Huber
Are you, are you excited to be a dad at some point? I know you and Sarah have started to talk about it. Are you... What do, what do you think about... How do you think that's gonna change your life?
- SPSam Parr
I'm pumped. I'm so pumped. I, I think that, um, A, I agree. I wish I would've done it earlier. Um, and I am so pumped. I think it's gonna be life-changing. I think, I was talking to Sarah about this last night. I was like, so we've achieved a lot of, like, interesting things at a relatively young age. Like, professionally, like, we're known in our field and, like, we have some respect amongst some peers. Financially, like, we've achieved some things. Um, like, and then we were like, parents say, like, "Well, you're never ready." And I was thinking last night, I'm like, "Dude, I'm totally ready. Like, what else do I need to do?" This is like, it feels like the next step. So I'm incredibly ready. And I don't really care about this, but I actually think it's gonna turbocharge my career. Um, I think that, like, it's gonna make you feel, like, amped up. Like, before it was I was earning so I don't know why. I was earning... I was trying to make money for ego- egotistical reasons. And then after that, I was like, now I'm in the place where I make money because I do shit that's fun. And because of my fun hobbies, often the outcome is income. I pick and choose different things. Now I think it's gonna feel like I want something for my children. I want to impress them. Um, I wanna show them how to work hard. I think that there's gonna be, like, a little bit of that. And it's also gonna be, like, I don't wanna spend all of my time, uh, after like 6:00 PM working. And so I have to pick and choose my battles, and I think that's gonna actually force focus, and the outcome will be better financially. Am I wrong?
- 21:16 – 35:46
RE Cost Seg
- SPSam Parr
Um-
- NHNick Huber
I think you're right.
- SPSam Parr
W- I wanna talk about the cost seg business 'cause that thing-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... that seems like it's going even better than, um, sh- Support Shepherd. So, uh, I'm a customer. I used it.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
I got it for free, though, so.
- NHNick Huber
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
But I, I am a customer, and I, uh, I'm using-
- NHNick Huber
You did a, you did a video. So cost seg is w- we have engineers who go in and they break out the different parts of a commercial property or an income property, a piece of real estate, and then they give you a schedule of which you can depreciate that to the IRS. Meaning, like, the windows-
- SPSam Parr
Because normally it's, what? 27 years?
- NHNick Huber
It's normally 27 years straight line depreciation. They take it so that, oh, the windows, those are only a five-year life. You know, the landscaping outside, that only has a five-year life. Then you got all these ground improvements that we're gonna make and all these other things that can be accelerated a little faster, so. And then there's something called bonus depreciation. We're going way in the weeds. You don't need to know that. But basically, our engineers come in the building, they draw a picture of the property, they split it out into different values, and they give you a document that you can give to the IRS to get way more depreciation and save money year one.
- SPSam Parr
So I haven't-
- NHNick Huber
That's what the company does
- SPSam Parr
... gotten my, I haven't gotten my report yet, though. But let's just m- make believe on a million dollar property that what's... A million divided by 27 is what?
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, you're gonna get-
- SPSam Parr
Like
- NHNick Huber
... 27,000. Is it much? $27,000 a year. Yeah.
- SPSam Parr
Okay. In depreciation. Duh.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
Uh, uh-
- NHNick Huber
2.2% maybe, something like that.
- SPSam Parr
And then on, um, with this it would be what? Like 200 grand in year one?
- NHNick Huber
Yeah. On a, on a self storage facility, it's anywhere from 20 to 30% year one depreciation. Um, an industrial property might be 10 to 20%, an RV park might be 60, 70%. It just depends on how many ground, how much ground improvements you've done, like work to the outside of the property, landscaping, you know, windows, doors. You, you might expect 10, 10 to 15
- SPSam Parr
But then do, do, do you pay that, do I pay that tax back if I sell the property before 27 years?
- NHNick Huber
Um, yeah. It's, it's called recapture. So if you don't plan to hold the property for a while, then you need to keep some money 'cause your basis drops, basically. Your taxable basis drops by the amount that you'd appreciate, so that gap is called recapture, and you pay that at the recapture rate, stuff like that. So yeah.
- SPSam Parr
And where is-
- NHNick Huber
Anyway, this-
- SPSam Parr
... your team doing this?
- NHNick Huber
Um, we have my, my friend Mitchell Baldridge, who you know, his wife Mel. Um, they are my partners. My business partner Dan is a minority owner as well. Um, I own 45% of RE Cost Seg. And m- I mean, Mitchell, Mitchell had done 100 plus of these before we started this company, and he'd never really thought about, hey, uh, we can, we can find some engineers and do this stuff really well. Um, we created a Twitter account, RE Cost Seg. We got really competitive pricing because instead of me flying somebody to your property in Texas, we did a FaceTime. You FaceTimed with one of our guys, and he walked around, took some screenshots. What was that like?
- 35:46 – 38:53
Building value via Instagram and YouTube
- SPSam Parr
about between two and six months ago, Shaan and I on this pod talked about a few things. I told him, I was like, basically, like, on Instagram, you have, like, Rihanna and the Kardashians, and then there's, like, thousands and thousands of more. But those two, those, the f- the Kardashians and Rihanna are, like, two prominent examples of people who have built hundreds of millions or billions of dollars worth of, uh, net worth via Instagram. On YouTube, we have MrBeast. He's, like, the common, he's the one everyone talks about. Um, and then, you know, there's way more, uh, of people who have-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... built. Like, there's the lady who started Ipsy, I think it's called, the makeup brand. There's just tons of them. On Facebook, you could say that, like, BuzzFeed and, like, uh, um, a bunch of other people, like, you know, built multi-billion dollar businesses on the backs of Facebook. Now- There hasn't really been one who's done it on Twitter. The re- and Snapchat, same thing. You, we can think of a few more examples. The reason Twitter maybe it hasn't worked is because I think people haven't taken it seriously, and also there's only, like, 350 million people on it as opposed to Instagram, there's like, what? Billions. But I think that's changing, and what we haven't seen yet is someone who has built, like, the, the equivalent of the Kardashians, uh, on Twitter. Except instead of selling makeup, I think they're gonna be selling B2B or professional, whatever that is considered, you know, ah, B2B services or, ah, something where it's, like, a higher end person, not a young woman buying, like, $12 makeup. And, um, we haven't seen that yet. And then Shaan was like, "Yeah, and then we have, like, the guy mafia." So you've have people like the Strip Mall. It's like these anonymous accounts, like the Strip Mall guy, who I know who he is. I'm friends with him.
- NHNick Huber
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
And he is a large business and I, I don't know what is, what has come from Twitter, but he has a large business. And then there's, like, five or six other guys. There's, like, the used car salesperson guy, and he's, like, potentially gonna build a large business and, like, it's very predictable that that is-
- NHNick Huber
The luxury watch guys is selling shitloads of watches on Twitter.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. I almost bought a, a Rolex from him. He, like, had these Datejust that I wanted.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
No one has done this to the extent of, like, hundreds of millions. So I guess you kind of almost have already. But no one has done this to the extent that I think possible. You might be one of the first ex- or at least one of the people that I know closely who might be one of these early people to build a multi-hundred million or even a billion dollar fortune mostly because of your audience on Twitter. Do you think that's, that's, uh, uh, accurate?
- NHNick Huber
I think these companies are so in, so in their infancy, and it's really easy to get to 250 grand of revenue. But ask guys like Andrew Wilkinson how hard it is to go from $250,000 a month to, you know, $250 million a year in revenue. Like, those types of jumps is on another level, right? I don't know if I have what it takes to do things like that. Um, but I am-
- SPSam Parr
You're saying you don't think you, you, you, you have what it takes? How can you-
- NHNick Huber
No, I'm gonna try
- SPSam Parr
... how can you say that?
- NHNick Huber
I'm gonna try. Hell yeah, I'm gonna try. But I mean, what I'm saying is it's, it's-
- SPSam Parr
Like, how much harder can it be than what you're doing now, but you give it 10 or 15 years to mature?
- NHNick Huber
I don't know. I think what Austin Rief does at Morning Brew, like managing these bigger companies is just a different skill set. It's different. Like, it's not-
- SPSam Parr
But you're not doing it.
- 38:53 – 46:04
Can Huber become a billionaire?
- NHNick Huber
But I'd have to to become a billionaire, wouldn't I?
- SPSam Parr
I don't know, because dude, it's kinda like you're like the Ryan Reynolds of Twitter a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, he's got Mint Mobile. He has the soccer team that he partakes in. He's got, uh... I don't, the, the alcohol drink that he has. Uh, I think he has a few more. I, I mean, that guy's not operating those companies. Conor McGregor-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... is not operating the whiskey thing. But like, if, if-
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, and I can't operate, frankly, I can't operate my companies either. I'm focused on my real estate and everything else. Yeah. So.
- SPSam Parr
And so my point being is if you're just, if you have 10% to 20% or 30% of a handful of things, one of them could hit. There's this guy named-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... Felix Dennis. Have you ever read, uh, this awesome book called How to Get Rich?
- NHNick Huber
I, I love that book. Yeah.
- SPSam Parr
I love that book. I recommend that book to everyone. It's horribly titled, but it's the best book I've ever read on wealth creation.
- NHNick Huber
You should have equity in that, you should have equity in that book, Sam.
- SPSam Parr
Dude, I, uh, whenever we mention it in the pod, we'll notice the next day it goes up the charts like a ton.
- NHNick Huber
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
And, uh... Well, he, he's dead now, but he, he built, like, a publishing empire. That was like, it made him a, a, a lot of money. But the bulk of his wealth was he owned 10% or 20% of this thing called Micro Warehouse, which went public for multi-billions, and he made many, many hundreds of millions from it. And he had the same thing where he was like, "Look, I own the magazines that I'm gonna promote you guys in there for free, and I'm also gonna be, like, an advisor, but I'm gonna be considered a co-founder, and this was my idea, and I hired you guys." But he didn't manage the company. He, he met with the f- with the other founders a lot, and he gave his, uh, opinion, but he wasn't, like, running the day-to-day thing. I don't see why you, you couldn't do that with a few more things.
- NHNick Huber
I think the, you know, the power of blowing up a brand is one thing. The power of spotting and reading and hiring and delegating to really good operators is something, is another thing as well that's underrated and something that I'm think that I'm good at. Finding people who really think about business the right way. And to build these companies, I can't operate them. I'm an investor, I'm an advisor, and I, and I pump their stuff on Twitter, and I'm a customer, and I, you know, help. But you gotta find somebody who really is really good at running a company. And that's where I wish I... I made a joke on Twitter that offended a couple of my good friends a couple days ago that said, like, "I need to do more angel investing so that I can invest in these companies. I can see how these founders think about business and how they make decisions and how they write their updates and how they fight through, and I can get a look into their brain and f- and I can spot the killers," right? I can find those, those guys that are just really good at business, and then I can pull them aside when they give up. And I made a, a, a statement like the hell, you know, when they wanna leave the hellscape that is venture capital, and that's not true.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- NHNick Huber
Um, it was, it was, uh, it was just not cool for me to say that about my buddies who add so much value to the world in, in that space, but anyway-
- SPSam Parr
And you're joking.
- NHNick Huber
I was, I was half joking, half being serious because I wanna pull these people away and, and basically found and start and buy businesses that I think that they could come in and run great businesses that are ran like crap and just accelerate their growth and make them better.
- SPSam Parr
Dude, Austin Rief is an amazing operator. And, um, I remember when I first met him, I was probably 28 or 29 or 30, and he's younger than me. He's four years younger than me.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
And I was like, "You're the first person, you're one of the very few people who's, like, my peer but younger than me who I'm, I'm a little intimidated by." I'm like, "You, you..." I, I'm, I, I remember telling him, I was like, "Dude, I'm a lot better than you at a few things. You are so much better than me at a few other things, and I wish I would've met you earlier."
- NHNick Huber
Li- listening to the way that he, listening to the way that he thinks about business problems and the way that he talks through them and the way that he paints a story in, in a clear and concise way when you're asking him about his business is... That's what I'm talking about. Like, that's the 10X-er. Austin is the 10X-er. He's 100X-er.
- SPSam Parr
Totally.
- NHNick Huber
He's, he's on another level. But, like, when you're around a lot of these people and you s- talk to them, you start asking questions and hearing the way they think about business- You can do it too. Like, you can just tell. You can tell when somebody's different, when somebody's really got it. You know what I mean?
- SPSam Parr
Dude, he's the best. But I would also say, like, Andrew Wilkinson's a great friend of mine. I don't know what his empire is worth, but in the 500 to a billion range, depending-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... on public markets. He, uh... When I talk to him, I don't feel like... I'm like, "Andrew, I don't feel you're out of my league. You've just been doing it for longer, and you are really creative, and you were the first person. You were, you were bolder and smarter than, than me to, like, believe that this could actually become a thing, and you did the thing, and then you did it for years and years, and you didn't give up, and you never bowed down. You always did it your way." But in terms of, like, your vision and my vision, uh, you know, my vision now that I see you can do it, I'm like, "I don't think you're ball... I think we're in the same ballpark of, like-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... intellect." Um, and so that's why when I see him, I'm like, "Dude, you're inspiring to me," because I kind of feel like we're almost the same, although the results are not the same, and I find that to be very inspirational. And that's-
- 46:04 – 49:55
What Sam is up to now
- SPSam Parr
two.
- NHNick Huber
Two? Two years, okay. Never mind. Um, yeah, I mean, you build something, you sell something, you have that event, and then when it's over, you're like, "Well, shit, I kinda lo- I love, I love building. I love tinkering. I love entrepreneurship and business."
- SPSam Parr
I needed... So I gave myself one year to-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... I basically wrote the rules where I was like, "I'm gonna read anything that interests me, whether that's..." So I read a lot of fiction, and I read... I don't read business books anymore. Um, and then I also said, "I'm just gonna search. I'm just gonna search." So I'm just gonna plot and search and just whatever interests me, I'm just gonna pursue it, you know? I was like, I was like, "I'm just gonna, a dog on a walk following my nose, and I'm not gonna, like, feel guilty about that." And I noticed that after about six months, I was ready to roll again. I scr- made some mistak- I made some irreversible decisions at my company, like some culture decisions. Basically, when I started the company, I was 25, and then when I about sold it, I was about 30, and, like, I was a different person. And I'm more solid on who I am now, so I would have different values when I start my next things. But anyway, I made some mistakes, so I basically kinda had to sell the company or in order to, like, get out, and so I was pumped about it. But at the same time, I was like, "I wish I was wealth..." I wish I was w- I wasn't wealthy when I started the business. I had nothing. I was like, "I wish I was wealthy so I didn't have to sell this to get liquidity."
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
Because I would've liked to have owned it forever, but I was very, very, very happy to get that time to relax and to seek. And then after about six months, I was like, "Dude, I need action. I need to gamble." I felt, I remember watching a James Bond movie, and I'm like, "Should I become a cop? Like, I need to go out and, like, get into trouble. Like, I need to experience-"
- NHNick Huber
It's the-
- SPSam Parr
"... like, a thrill"
- NHNick Huber
... it's the uncertainty, I think. It's like, it's the, it's making a decision where you don't know what the answer's gonna be and then waiting and seeing what happens that is just incredibly addicting about entrepreneurship and business.
- SPSam Parr
Dude, I just like like being a shithead with my friends. I love our group chat, like, when it gets spicy. I, like, think about it all the time. Like, it's so funny. And I'm like, "I gotta go do something now to one-up the, the guys here," and that's how I feel. So, like, my, my best, the be- time I have that I love the best when it comes to work is when I'm with, like, my partner Joe or someone like that, and we're like, "We can't pull this off, can we? Oh, fuck, let's go try it." Like, that, that a- adrenaline, that's like my version of, like, James Bond. When I'm watching him, like, having, like, a car chase, I'm like, "Dude, let's, this is our, this is our nerdy version of a car chase." I need that thrill. And it just so happens that the outcome typically is money.
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm.
- SPSam Parr
And so that's what I'm motivated by, is, like, the thrill. Um, I don't give a shit about legacy. When people talk about legacy, I'm like, "I don't give a shit, dude. I'm gonna..." I'm like, "Imagine the feeling that you had when you, before you were born. That's what I think I'm gonna have when I'm dead. Why do I care what people think about me," you know? I wanna, like, leave something to my children 'cause I love them, but, like, I don't give a fuck about what everyone else thinks. I don't care about legacy. I just wanna have fun and, like, have excitement in the moment, and that's-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... uh, what I'm motivated by.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, making these, making these business deals and these business decisions and these, and these calculated bets, we'll call them. Like, [beep] with you and, and all these things I'm working on, they're just calculated bets. And when you, when you put the money in, you just never know what's gonna happen. You never know what's gonna happen when you try to sell it, when you start to get customers, when you start to solve problems, and it's, it's addicting, for sure.
- SPSam Parr
By the way, well, we can keep this on, but Producer Ben, we have to bleep out the name of what he just said. I haven't announced that yet.
- NHNick Huber
Ah.
- SPSam Parr
I've, I've mentioned it.
- NHNick Huber
But can we talk about it? Can we-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, yeah, yeah
- NHNick Huber
... can we talk about it?
- SPSam Parr
We can, we can't say what it is, but we can-
- NHNick Huber
Okay
- SPSam Parr
... we can, we can mention I have a thing that I'm gonna be announcing in a month. I'm gonna... my new thing.
- NHNick Huber
Okay, one month.
- SPSam Parr
Nick just said the name of it. We gotta bleep that out. I'll be announcing it in one month. I've been doing it low-key for two reasons. One, I wanted to prove that I can do it without my audience. Um, and two, I wanted to make sure that it worked and was life-changing, it's a wonderful product, before I'm-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... I, like, get, like, an influx. But I'm gonna announce that in a month. Um, what else do we wanna talk about? Anything else?
- 49:55 – 59:24
What holds you back
- SPSam Parr
I mean...
- NHNick Huber
I mean, I've been thinking a little bit about, like, what holds people back, and anxiety, and the decision-making that... Like, the hardest thing-
- SPSam Parr
You have anxiety?
- NHNick Huber
No, I just mean, like, the uncertainty, like, the, the fear of failure. Like, it, it, it's, it's in everybody. Not, not that... I guess anxiety is a, is a bad term. More like insecurity, right? I have insecurity and the, and it holds me back from making big decisions. And the problem with it is, is the more insecure you are, the less decisions you make, and decision-making is, like, something that you have to practice to get really good at. If you don't make-
- SPSam Parr
For sure
- NHNick Huber
... big decisions with a lot on the line, you have to... You're never going to get better at it, ever going to get better at it. So then you have un- unmade decisions, and that equals stress, 'cause stress is a decision that hasn't yet been made. And then it just cycles and snowballs, so people who are, they have insecurity, they have anxiety around making decisions, then they get stressed out because they have to do these decisions, and it's just a big compounding snowball of, of, like, it just holds people back from kicking so much ass. Like, every high performer that I know, they, they make a ton of decisions. They make some of them wrong. They lose some money. Like, there's downside, of course. But they just make them and make them and make them and they make them quick, and they get better at it and better at it and better at it, and that's when the leverage kicks in and they can just build and grow and build and grow.
- SPSam Parr
My parents, when I was a younger kid, I would, like, sell CDs or, like, sell used stuff on eBay, and I would... I remember making mistakes and they're like, "Oh, that's all right. You can't get a hit unless you're in the game." And, uh, I was, they were like, uh, "You swing and you miss, but you know, you gotta, you gotta swing to get the hit, and you can't get a hit unless you're in the game." I remember hearing that, and that, like, changed my life. And so now whenever I screw up, I'm like, "Uh, whatever." Like, you know, a 300 batting average in baseball is great, so I'm like, "That's all I need." Like, that in business is fine. In fact, in business you actually need less. If you try 100 times and one thing works, it makes up for all the 99 things. Um, but and that's what I always tell people. I'm like, "Dude, you gotta s- you, you gotta... You can't get a hit unless you're in the game."
- NHNick Huber
I've been asking high performers this because now I have a five-year-old. I'm thinking about what I can do for my kids to help them just get better at making decisions and get, you know, more, a more solid foundat- a more solid foundation in the event of insecurity. Did your parents just, like, let you struggle a little bit? Like, that's something that I've found is re- very common among entrepreneurs and successful people. 'Cause so many parents nowadays, they really mess up because they, like, shelter their kids from all decision-making. They, like, make the decisions for the kids. They, like, they, they keep them from getting in any pain at all. They're gonna keep them from having to deal with the uncomfort of pain. They're gonna put them in a bubble. And I look back on my parents, and my, my parents would, like, they would make me make the little decisions when I was a kid so that I got better at making the decisions, and then when they, they were bigger, I wasn't overwhelmed with fear and insecurity.
- SPSam Parr
I was always skateboarding and rollerblading and going to skate parks, and I remember I had a unicycle. I would, and I would try to ride it downstairs, and they were like... [laughs] I was crazy. I would, like, do all this crazy stuff. I remember when I was in fourth grade, I could ride a unicycle and juggle, and I would do all this crazy, like, skateboarding shit, and they would be like, "Uh, hey, let's go to the skate park." Uh, but the only rules they had was you have to wear a helmet. They go, "As long as you wear a helmet, we don't care." And so I was in and out the hospital, broken, broken, broken fingers, br- uh, stitches on my eye, broke my arm, broke my collarbone. I've had a lot of broken bones. And they were... I always say my parents, they... Once I, uh, left school, I wasn't financially, uh... Like, they didn't, they've never, like, helped me with the business or anything, but they supported me, uh, up until then. And so I had that, but they were emotionally supportive. So I remember when I left school and moved out to San Francisco and told them I was gonna join this s- thing called Airbnb, they were like, "This sounds like a multi-level marketing thing. Like, is this-"
- NHNick Huber
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
"... like, you're gonna..." And I was like, "No, guys. Like, it's, like, I think it's legit." Like, at the time I was like, "2 or 300 people work there. It's legit." And they're like, "You're gonna leave school to go do this?" And I was like, "Yeah, it's legit." And, and they were like, "Well, that sounds horrible, but, uh, you know, we'll see you Saturday. We'll come down there and help you move out." And so, like, they did things like that that were, like, very emotionally supportive. And so-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... and that was, like, huge. And so a lot of my friends who don't take risks, oftentimes their parents were quite neurotic and they, instead of saying, um, "Why..." Uh, y- instead of saying, like, "Of course this can work," they would default to saying, like, "Well, this will never work because of this, this, and this," or like-
- NHNick Huber
Mm-hmm
- SPSam Parr
... "You can't go study abroad. Like, Mexico-"
- NHNick Huber
Yep
- SPSam Parr
"... is dangerous. Haven't you seen that there's, like, shootings?" Or, uh, you know, like, "People get sick when they, uh, do this and that." Like, I remember, like, that was usually the default versus, like, "Screw it. We'll, we'll, we'll handle it when we get there."
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, putting your kids in a bubble, and now that I have a five-year-old, like, it sucks to watch him struggle, and I, and I have a bunch of employees and it sucks to watch... I, I don't know. There's, there's a lot of similarities between, like, raising your kids-
- SPSam Parr
Do you let your kid get hurt, though? Like, let's say your kid's riding a bike and he's wearing a helmet, and you're like, "Dude, he's 100% about to knock his teeth out."
- NHNick Huber
Um, if he's about to hurt himself bad and I'm gonna go to the emergency room, obviously I'm gonna run and try to catch him. But if he- he's o- over on the other side of the cul-de-sac and he hits a curb and he falls down and he starts screaming, I'm not gonna sprint over there and pick him up and coddle him. Does that make sense? Like, I'm gonna-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah
- NHNick Huber
... I'm gonna let him, I'm gonna let him figure that crap out. But I just think it bleeds over into- Everything. Like if you, if an employee walks into your office and they, they have a problem and you just say, "Get out of my way, I'm gonna solve that problem," then that enables, that enables them to... A, it doesn't let them learn how to solve problems on their own, and B, it en- it enables them to bring you more and more problems and just be completely unable to like get shit done without you as a boss.
- SPSam Parr
Um, do you, uh... Ben just texted me, and he wanted, he wanted me to ask you. You, you, you have all three boys, right?
- NHNick Huber
I have a five-year-old boy, three-year-old boy, two, uh, or a 10-month-old girl.
- SPSam Parr
A- are you gonna raise her the same way? I would imagine yes, right?
- NHNick Huber
Oh, man. I don't know. I don't know if I will.
- SPSam Parr
Well, yeah, you gotta.
- NHNick Huber
Yeah, I-
- SPSam Parr
You gotta
- NHNick Huber
... if I have a daughter, I mean, this is my... I'm hypothetical. You're living it. But I think I would definitely. You gotta do it the same way, right?
Episode duration: 59:24
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Transcript of episode K2KH_h8lZts
