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EVERY SPOKEN WORD
65 min read · 12,902 words- 0:00 – 1:13
Intro
- SPShaan Puri
So I got asked this question. This guy was like, "Hey." He DM'd me. He goes, "Shaan, big fan. Um, what- the- whatever the next sentence you type to me, I'm gonna do it or I'll die trying."
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
And I was like, "Okay." And then he's like, he's like, "I'm gonna get to $10,000 a month of passive, uh, passive income profits after," you know. And you know, I'm thinking either A, I start a newsletter, B, I do this other thing. And this... It was like all, like, kinda like stuff we do, uh, either stuff we do or, like, topics we talk about, like e-commerce, newsletter, or this other thing. "Which one do you think is gonna get me there the fastest or the best? Like, which one's the best path?" And I was like, "I don't know, dude. Those all seem pretty hard to get to 10K a month." Like, you know, if I h- if I wanna... If your goal is really 10K a month, um, you know, I don't know, a job will probably get you there. But if... Let's take that off the table for a second. Let's assume you don't want a job or y- you don't have maybe the degree to get the, a, a six-figure job. I was like, "I would just do a productized service." [upbeat music]
- SPSam Parr
Dude, Shaan, so here's the deal. We are officially more... We're, we're popular enough that you have to get your podcast set up right. So what I'm gonna do is-
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
... I talked
- 1:13 – 3:04
MFM leveling up
- SPSam Parr
to Ben. We're having someone come to your house and my house, and they're gonna put a two-camera setup.
- SPShaan Puri
Oh.
- SPSam Parr
So they're gonna, like, cut back and forth, but you've gotta make that r- and they'll, they'll help you, but you're gonna have to make that room look good, and it's gotta, it's gotta be ready every time.
- SPShaan Puri
Dude, that's great. Um, also related to that, I found a new house that I might move into that's way nicer, and I was like, uh, my main motivation was to make this podcast look better. I was like, "You know, I kinda look like a scrub on this podcast." Like, you know, like right now I don't have a haircut, don't have a beard trim, don't have my, my room nice. I was like, "If 100,000-plus people consume this every time, like, I would never go out in front of a stadium like this," [laughs] like-
- SPSam Parr
Right
- SPShaan Puri
... I wouldn't even let three friends come to my house and look at my office like this. Why do I let 100,000 people see the of- see, see the recording studio like this? Simply for convenience. But, uh, there's that. Also, I found on... Uh, have you ever used Peer Space?
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
It's like a, uh, Airbnb for rentals that are not houses, like not necessarily houses to stay in. It's, like, just for a, a venue. And there's a, a place near me for 75 bucks an hour for recording podcasts that's like a two-camera setup with a sick couch and stuff like that. It'd be great for in-person stuff, but if we're not in person, uh, you know, it's just me sitting on a giant couch at that point.
- SPSam Parr
I'm gonna do it. I'll come out there, and we'll finally do it. Ben wanted me to come out there, but I didn't wanna fly. But whatever, I'll do it. I was talking to-
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah
- SPSam Parr
... HubSpot or someone, and I was saying, like, "Hey, yeah, give us budget to make our studio nice 'cause we're, like, the lowest-maintenance people you have." I was like, "For example, two weeks ago Shaan recorded a podcast with literally just one AirPod because he didn't have a mic-"
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
"... and the other AirPod ran out of batteries. So he just used his AirPod and his laptop." So, like, I think we're due. W- we, we're owed one.
- SPShaan Puri
That's hilarious. Um, also, uh, what I was gonna say, oh, there's this guy. Ugh, I wish I could give him a shout-out. I don't know what his name is, but I kinda wanna steal
- 3:04 – 6:00
Courses that improve your webcam setup
- SPShaan Puri
his idea. So this guy has this course. It's an on-demand course that is only about how to make your video camera go from, like, a before to an after, and I was like, "Oh, this is the smartest course I've ever seen."
- SPSam Parr
Ben knows his name.
- SPShaan Puri
And yeah, I don't think... Ben, you know his name?
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. His name is Kevin Shen.
- SPShaan Puri
Kevin Shen, yeah. Actually, I shouldn't shout it. Bleep that out. I'm gonna make it my own competitor course, so bleep this guy out. I'm-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... I'm gonna copy him. No, but I, I really think it's a great course.
- SPSam Parr
But your, your, your setup sucks, dude. It's, like, it's like a fat person giving a course-
- SPShaan Puri
Bro
- SPSam Parr
... on how to lose weight.
- SPShaan Puri
Y- I'm the before story.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
Just wait till you see my after.
- SPSam Parr
You're, you're the way before story. [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs] There's the... We all know. There's the way before, there's the before-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... and then there's the after. [laughs] I'm currently at a before. You should-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
The way before was the one AirPod recording on no microphone-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, last week [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... with no light. Uh, yeah. [laughs] And we're g- we're g- I'm gonna do the after, and then I'm just gonna turn that into a... It's a one-hour thing.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
And it just says, "Here's the thing to buy," and then... 'Cause here's the problem. I've watched a bunch of these YouTube tutorials, and they're like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, go get the Sony A5, or you can get the A6, or you can get the D340." And it's like, all right, well, dude, which one? And then you buy it, and they're like, "Yeah, just connect it to your computer, and then... Okay, see, now it looks good." And I was like, "Yeah, but you... Like, there was, like, seven things in between there that, like, everything went wrong." And they're like, "Okay, you know, you wanna s-" There's one guy who's like, you know-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, it's confusing
- SPShaan Puri
... uh, there's, there's some people who show you how to put your lights up or whatever, but dude, this is the new, um... Like, your webcam is the new face. Like [laughs] your face.
- SPSam Parr
The new business too.
- SPShaan Puri
It's basically-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, it's your suit. It's, like, what people see. Um, like this one time this guy told me, he goes, he goes, "Yeah, dude, I, I..." He's like, "I spent..." He's like, "I g- I gotta go get my hair cut. I'm..." And I was like, "How much did you spend on your haircut?" 'Cause I was like, I ki- he has nice hair, and I was like... It kinda made it sound like a big deal, like, "I can't do anything today. I gotta go get my hair cut." And I was like, I just kinda like, you know. It's like in the middle of another task I'm getting my hair cut. Like, that's kinda how I, I roll.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, like if the Great Clips-
- 6:00 – 10:27
The My First Million marriage
- SPSam Parr
They're, they're both handsome. Um, they're bo- they're, they're-
- SPShaan Puri
They're handsome yourself
- SPSam Parr
... they're a beautiful couple. And they, uh... She sent me this message basically, and I shared the, the screenshots on Twitter. But basically, a year ago you tweeted something. I sent you the tweet. I actually forget what, what... Do you, do you remember what it was?
- SPShaan Puri
No, I, I didn't see the tweet. What was the original tweet? Should we-
- SPSam Parr
So, yeah
- SPShaan Puri
... is it interesting? Does it matter?
- SPSam Parr
Uh, she said it was, like, really cringe that she even replied to it in the first place, but here, I'll pull it up. So basically, uh, you said, um, "I have zero interest in buying a fancy car. You know what I want? A personal in-house chef. I can't think of a better way to spend money on than a chef. How do I start one? How do I start getting one next week?" And she replied, like, "Hey, hire me. I'm a chef, but I've got about 32 other skills." Uh, whatever. And this guy DM'd her, and she said that they were just talking about, like, I guess ch- the chef business or something like that. Uh.
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, I mean, it was clear what was going on in the get-go, but he, like, she sent me... She's-
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
She sent me the first message, and it just, they were just, like, talking, shooting the shit. Then she-
- SPShaan Puri
He's like, he's like, "Hey, whatever the thing you're talking about, I'm super interested. Tell me more about whatever that was." [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
Well, and he's from Ind-
- SPShaan Puri
Anyway
- SPSam Parr
... he's from Indiana, and she's from Ireland. And so she's in Europe, he's in America, and they start talking back and forth, the DMs. Then they get on a call, and she said they hit it off. And after two weeks of just constant calls, he booked a flight to Europe, and for two weeks they, they, like, had this great time. And then now a year later, so they're, uh... she moved to America. Uh, it's been a year about since that tweet. They're getting married in a couple months, and it was all because she said that she listened to MFM and read The Hustle. She started listening to this. She started commenting on your stuff and my stuff. He noticed that, and then they, like... I think his in was, like, talking about, like, the pod and like, "Oh, you like them too?"
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
And, uh, it totally worked. She sent me a picture of the... They're, they're both... I mean, they're both tens. It's, it's a good-looking couple. So, uh, uh, our new tagline is MFM, getting you paid and laid.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, there you go.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, and I, I am sure all of our listeners are as good looking as them.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, I don't think so.
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
But they, uh, they, they, they did a good job. But I was, I was showing this to my mom, and I'm like, "See, not... It, it's not just neckbeards that listen to this." Like, it's actually, like, you know, like, real people who, like, shower and stuff. But it looks good. I'm happy for these people, so shout out to them.
- SPShaan Puri
Sh- maybe we should do a date night every, um, nine months, and we should just bring together listeners, and it's just be dating. And let's just see what happens.
- SPSam Parr
It's gonna be like-
- SPShaan Puri
Like, right? Like-
- SPSam Parr
Like, you know, Greg and Steve. Everyone's gonna be named, like, Chris and Tucker. Like, it's gonna be all guys. [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
Like, so, so only come-
- SPShaan Puri
Well, you're the-
- 10:27 – 19:45
38 Year Old Lawyer worth 16 million
- SPSam Parr
to you. So basically, there's this subreddit called fatFIRE that I like. I've sent it to you. And every once in a while you get these amazing stories about people, because they reveal, like, their income and things like that. And I've been following this lawyer. He's a 38-year-old-
- SPShaan Puri
Well, ex- explain what fatFIRE is
- SPSam Parr
... yeah, so fatFIRE-
- SPShaan Puri
For people who don't know what fatFIRE is.
- SPSam Parr
So, F- FIRE stands for financially independent, retired early. Traditionally, it's, like, a movement of people who wanna save, like, 500,000 to a million dollars and live off of, like, thir- thir- 30 or $40,000 a year. That's not exactly what it means, but that's, like, traditionally, like, with the stereotype. fatFIRE means you wanna retire in- early and be financially independent, but you wanna be doing it fat. So you wanna, like, you know, save, like, $20 million or something like that. So you wanna start a company, sell it, and retire. And so it's people who wanna retire while they're young and, uh, do it by still living, living lav- lavishly. And it sounds douchey, but it's actually quite interesting. It's all, like, entrepreneurs, bankers, tech people who, like, work at a... It's just, like, rich people shit and... which is always fun to, like, be voyeuristic. And so there's this guy, he's a 38-year-old personal injury lawyer, and for the past four years, he's given an update every couple of years. And he explains everything that's going on in his business. And so his background is basically that he was a normal... He went to a good school and then worked at one of the big law firms, which is, like, something that you, like, grind for 80 hours a week and hopefully climb your way up. And eventually you make a million dollars a year after 10 or 15 years, but it's kinda boring, and you're, like, kinda like the, your boss' bitch for a long time, and it just kinda sucks. And so he goes, "You know what? Screw this." A friend of his got hurt, and he goes, "Hey, I'll represent you. Uh, just pay me whatever's fair." And then he did, and he won, and then a few other people started coming to him, just word of mouth. And so he was doing this in the evenings, uh, while he was still working his main job. And after a year, he quit to do his own thing. That's when his, uh, income from his moonlighting became bigger than his normal thing. So fast-forward now, um, I believe it's been about eight years since he's been doing this, so 2014 to 2022. And he's listed out his income as well as his net worth, breaking it down by assets, for every single year. So in year one, it was $300,000, two $600,000, $800,000, 1.2 million, 3 million, 5.6 million, 6 million, 6 million, and this year so far 3.3, and it's gonna be 8 million this year, and that's personal income. Basically, he, i- i- he has these posts where he breaks down exactly how his businesses work, what his current plan is, what his growth challenges are, what his marketing is. And basically he's got, like, five attorneys that work for him, and he's slowly built up to that. He gets a little bit of cut of all that they have. Uh, they have 300 cases that they do a year. Um, he talks about growth challenges, which is that they're struggling with the CRM. They don't have a CRM. Everything's done manually, manually, and it's a lot of work. And one of his goal is, goals is to automate a lot of stuff. But it's incredibly fascinating for two reasons. One, this is a sick business, right? Like, it's, like, a just a 37-year-old smart person, but he doesn't seem, like, that particularly extraordinary, but he's, like, killing it now. He says that his net worth is currently $5.8 million. Um, w- and his kids have a trust fund of 1.7 million. And then secondly why this is cool, for a couple of reasons. One, Alex Hormozi had this business. Alex Hormozi was a guest here. He had this business called Gym Launch where he basically worked with gyms where he... That you paid him 20 or $30,000, and he set up your whole CRM, and he set up all the automated emails for onboarding and just kinda set up the automation flow. Someone should do that for these personal injury attorneys. This is awesome. They have way more money than gyms-
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
... and there's probably just as many of them. I, I have no idea, but probably. Um, I don't know. What do you think about this post? This is pretty cool, right? [upbeat music]
- SPShaan Puri
I can't find this client info.
- SPSpeaker
Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform, so it shares its data across every application. Every team can stay aligned. No out-of-sync spreadsheets or dueling databases. HubSpot. Grow better.
- SPShaan Puri
This is great. I don't go on fatFIRE as much as you do. Um, I do it from time to time, but I don't, like... I don't know. I need to, like, add it to my feed or whatever. Uh, but yeah, this is great. 38 years old, $15 million, $15 million net worth, not five. Uh-
- SPSam Parr
Oh, sorry. Yeah
- SPShaan Puri
... so 15.8. Uh, and then the 6 million in annual income is actually the more stunning part. Like, I'm not surprised that a lawyer at 40 can have 15 million in n- in net worth. It's the 6 million in annual income that's sort of, like, stunning, which makes me wanna understand this personal injury lawyer business better. Like he says, like, you know, "I do no marketing. I basically just hand out business cards, plus I get referrals from my existing clients." Um, but that is a ton. That is a ton of, like, take-home from your, like, your legal practice. I don't think that's common. So I wonder what he's doing that's uncommon. Like, he talks about, look, these cases basically, like, you know, it's not about more cases. Like, 300 cases could end up being worth more than 3,000 cases because you c- you know, you get paid based on the outcome, you know, the, the profits of the, of the cases. But-
- SPSam Parr
Man, I think-
- SPShaan Puri
Isn't that kinda weird? Like, isn't-
- SPSam Parr
No, I don't think that's-
- SPShaan Puri
Is that surprising?
- SPSam Parr
So this guy's in southern California, so maybe he's in San Diego, so it's a pretty big city. But I think if you look at the top 20 cities in America, if you look at the billboards, it's always personal injury, uh, lawyers. And there's this one guy-
- SPShaan Puri
Okay
- SPSam Parr
... in, um, s- in Austin, and Austin's, like, a top 15 city maybe, and he says that his earnings are... I, I forget exactly what it says his earnings are, but I looked him up on Instagram, and he's got a collection of, like, 15 Ferraris. He was in the newspaper because he had a birthday party for his daughter or for himself, and he had, like, Rod Stewart or someone crazy, and he spent, like, 3 million on that. And they talked about his home, and he was donating checks for 2 or $3 million, and that was in Austin. Uh, his name was Thomas, I think. Something Thomas. And I think I know a personal injury attorney in St. Louis, and he's got a mansion in Miami. He's got a place in St. Louis where we're from. I mean, I think some of these guys could, could really roll in it and re- netting 10 or 20 a year.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah. This, this is, it's wild. And I like that idea of the, the s- the Gym Launch for X. Um, y- I think you're right with lawyers. Like, I see this right now. My, my father-in-law has senior living facilities, and he's always like, you know, I'm like, "How's biz?" And he's like, "Oh, it's good," or, "It's bad." But his thing is always just, like, you know, we have a, a 64-bed facility, and every bed in the facility, so, like, let's say if it... So it's, uh, there's, like, a, a senior living care center. So basically what he does, his model is, like, he'll buy one. So say it has 32 beds, but it's permitted for up to, up to 80. And just the current owner, like, doesn't really have the motivation or the construction experience, and so he'll... He just looks for that first. He's like, "All right. You have a good business, and I can expand. I can just double the number of beds, which will double the net income of this roughly, which will double the value of this property. So if I'm buying it for 4, this'll be worth 8 to 10 by the time I'm done with it, and I gotta put in 2 million in construction." Just round numbers, just for, for argument's sake. Then he has a, a management company that will actually, like, run the thing 'cause I was like, "Dude, do you know how to run a senior living facility? Like, isn't that hard and weird?" And he's like, "Well, like, I don't go there. Like, I [laughs] I hired this... I found one really good property management company, and they run all my properties." And I was like, "Wow, okay." He's like, "Yeah, she's been doing this for 30 years. That's what she does, and, like, she, you know, she gets a cut." Um, and then the other thing he was saying, he was like, you know, it's all about occupancy, right? Just like any hospitality type of business. You know, every bed, they pay us on average, let's say 6 to $8,000 per month. Um, so, you know, if we just get, like, four more bookings, you know, these are... That, that adds an extra whatever, you know, $30,000 a month or whatever to our, um, to our revenue, which is, which is great. And so he- what he'll do is I'm like... So every time I ask him, "How's business going?" He's just like, "Oh, it's good. We lost two clients. Uh, you know, we, we're gonna, we're gonna place another one today." And I'm like- I'm like, "How do you get clients?" And he's basically like, "Oh, you know, we kinda..." Like, she networks with the hospitals. They know her, so they send her some people. I'm like, "Do you advertise at all?" He's like, "No. How do I do that?" And I was like, "Oh, shit." I was like, "Like, if somebody Google searches, like, you know, senior living near me, and like, you know, your city name, like, do you come up?" And he's like, "No." [laughs] And, and, and there's like these aggregators, like these search engines that they, like, they SEO rank to the top. Um, but I was like-
- SPSam Parr
I knew a guy who like-
- SPShaan Puri
... damn, I feel like if you just did like...
- SPSam Parr
Dude, I knew a guy who owned one of those search engines.
- SPShaan Puri
Go ahead.
- SPSam Parr
And he was making a couple million bucks a year, and basically he would come up on top on Google and then sell the lead for $200 to your, your guy, and he would buy that lead and then hopefully close them to make 8,000 a month.
- SPShaan Puri
Exactly, and so I was like, "You should either be buying these leads, you should set up some referral system, you should take, you know, local newspaper ads, local magazines." Like, you know, I don't know, you gotta do something on the marketing side. And he's just like, "I don't know the..." Like, basically he looks at marketing the way I would look at what he says, which is, "Well, like just do a renovation, and like take it from 32 beds to 64 beds, and then get the permits for the memory care from the city, and then do this and that."
- SPSam Parr
Right.
- SPShaan Puri
It's like, what? Like, I, I gotta read this manual and figure out, like, what color the elevator buttons need to be? Like, I'm out. I, I just can't do this. I'm f- I fail. And like that's what, dude, set up a G- a Google AdWords account, like feels like to him. And so I think there's that arbitrage, which is basically how many people are there that are injury lawyers, senior living centers, pool construction companies, that just simply don't know digital marketing and like can you build a l- either a lead gen business or go like consult and help them and like take a share of the increase in revenue, like Gym Launch? It just seems like that is one of, like w- um, that is one of the easiest ways
- 19:45 – 23:23
Best ways to make $10k a month
- SPShaan Puri
to do it. So I, I got asked this question. This guy was like, "Hey." He DM-d me, he goes, "Shaan, big fan. Um, what- whatever the next sentence you type to me, I'm gonna do it or I'll die trying."
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
And I was like, "Okay." And then he's like, he's like, "I'm gonna get to $10,000 a month of passive, uh, passive income profits aft- you know, and, you know, I'm thinking either, A, I start a newsletter, B, I do this other thing." And this is like all like kinda like stuff we do, uh, either stuff we do or like topics we talk about, e-commerce, newsletter, or this other thing. "Which one do you think is gonna get me there the fastest or the best? Like, which one's the best path?" And I was like, "I don't know, dude. Those all seem pretty hard to get to 10K a month. Like, you know, if I he- if I wanna, if your goal is really 10K a month, um, you know, I don't know, a job will probably get you there. But if, let's take that off the table for a second. Let's assume you don't want a job or y- you don't have maybe the degree to get a, a six-figure job." I was like, "I would just do a productized service." And he's like, "What does that mean?" I was like, "Okay, even just skip productize, just a service." I was like [laughs] ...
- SPSam Parr
Totally
- SPShaan Puri
... basically find one niche of a business and figure out how, what you can do that helps them make more money. So I was like, maybe it's just email marketing services for e-commerce companies. Maybe it's lead gen for pool construction companies. Maybe it's, um, you know, this, it's like, you know, the, the Gym Launch playbook where it's like, "Yeah, I'll just do sales calls for you, and like, I'll help you close X, you know, new customers every month." Or, you know, "I'll make your website convert 1% better, you know, through a series of experiments, and you pay me a flat fee of four, four grand a month. And like that 1% for you is gonna be worth at least 10X more than that." You know, th- these are the simplest things. I was like, "And then what do you do? How do you get clients?" Like, let's assume you don't have any money. You create content that just talks about, like for example, if you're doing conversion rate optimization for an e-commerce store, you could just post, "Check out what these guys do in their add to cart, you know, in their cart, shopping cart that improve, improves conversion by 8%. Check out what these guys do with their email pop-up. Check out what these guys do with their checkout buttons. And we did this change, and this changed this percent." Or like, "Here's a collection of the best, you know, whatever, uh, designs for landing pages." And people will see that, and they'll be like, "Oh, yeah, that's smart." And they'll d- one time you do it, they'll be like, "Huh, that's smart." The second time they'll be like, "Hmm, those are smart." Third time you do it, they'll be like, "He's smart. Let me just hire this guy. Uh, I just want this problem solved." And like, you could do that, and you can get to 10, 20, 30K a month of profit, and that is a way better path than like, I think, what most people think about doing instead.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, and also, I hate that question because I get that all the time too. I'm like, "I don't fucking know, man. What are you good at? Like, I, I, you know, I, I don't know. Like, go play in the NBA. Like, I, I, I, I have to know like what your attributes are."
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] I hate that question. I'm just like [laughs] you know what I mean? It's the stupidest question ever. I cannot stand that because [laughs] they just want me to like tell them what to do. You like that one. They just want me to tell, tell them what to do, but it, when you have zero context, it's just useless bull crap advice.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah. I, I, I could see that, but also, I don't know, I kinda empathize, like, uh-
- SPSam Parr
I empathize-
- SPShaan Puri
Unless you-
- SPSam Parr
... but I think it's stupid. I can, I can un- I can understand why you ask that and think it's stupid.
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
I understand why you're doing the stupid thing.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
I totally get it. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. I, I would've a- I asked that question too, and now I know it's, it's not the right question.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, but then you gotta follow up with what is the right question.
- SPSam Parr
Uh, well, you just need more context, you know? Um...
- SPShaan Puri
Ah, ah, who's stupid now? Who's stupid now, stupid? [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] Well, I never said I wasn't either.
- 23:23 – 27:00
Passionflix
- SPSam Parr
Dude, did you know that Elon Mu- Do you know Elon Musk has a sister?
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs] What, what kind of amazing subject change is that? N- uh, no, I didn't know that. I only knew about Kimbal Musk.
- SPSam Parr
Okay. Well, she's-
- SPShaan Puri
His brother
- SPSam Parr
... Elon's got a sister, and she owns this thing called Passionflix.com. It's basically like, uh, audio erotica, I believe. Like, uh, like, like, you know, like, uh, uh, it's, it, the tagline is Pa-
- SPShaan Puri
I'm familiar.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
The, the, the, the, the, the, the passion-
- SPShaan Puri
More of a video guy myself, but all right.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah. [laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
I guess you could always close the tab and just listen. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] The subject or the tagline is Passionflix, get your passion on, romance on demand for $6 a month. And, uh, it's basically romance novels, which we had talked about, uh, in your ears, I guess.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah
- SPSam Parr
Like audiobooks. Um, but, you know-
- SPShaan Puri
I mean, do we, do we get credit for this? Like, does Elon Musk sit here and listen to the pod? 'Cause we've been talking about this for a long time, and you... I think you should tell the story again, 'cause the pod's much bigger than the first time. Tell your story about the romance novel thing. Tell first the story about how you did it for The Hustle as a marketing stunt, and then what you-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah
- SPShaan Puri
... did with, uh, with our buddy.
- SPSam Parr
All right. So for The Hustle, when we f- the very first article we ever launched, we had to come out with a bang, and I knew this guy who basically would plagiarize others pe- other people's books on how to sleep with women, and he would get a Filipino to rewrite it so it passed the Kindle plagiarism, like, filter, and then he would game it by buying reviews. And he was making 50 to $60,000 a month. And like, I would joke with him, but I was like, "Dude, the, A, this is super unethical, and B, you don't even sleep with women. Like, you don't know anything about this topic. I can't believe you're, like, living this lie." But whatever, he was making money. And so we wrote an article about that when it first came out. And to prove that it was legit, 'cause a lot of people didn't believe us, we go, "Fine, watch, we're gonna copy this and do, and do it." And instead of doing it in, like, the how to sleep with women category, uh, we did it for romance cate- uh, the romance category. Because if you look at the, the, the liquidity of the marketplace on Amazon, romance novels has the most amount of buyers, and also, like, the most amount of transactions. Like, these women are always buying this stuff. And so we, like, looked at, like, what the popular categories were, and there was, like, women who wanna have sex with, like, a werewolf. There was, like, women who wanna have sex with, um, like, military people. And so we made, like, a, like a mili-
- SPShaan Puri
It's like fantasies, right?
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
Like, things like a-
- SPSam Parr
And so we made, like, a-
- SPShaan Puri
... military guy, a rich billionaire guy, right? That's Fifty Shades of Grey. A vampire, that's Twilight, right? That, that's-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah
- SPShaan Puri
... how these fantasies are.
- SPSam Parr
Vampire, that's what. So we made, like, a military vampire werewolf guy. We, like, combined all of 'em, and then we found, uh, like-
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] Like the ti- like the-
- SPShaan Puri
Is that really what you did? [laughs]
- 27:00 – 38:39
The legend that is Ramon Van Meer
- SPSam Parr
And so about two years ago, three, maybe three years ago, my friend Ramon and I, we created this website called Captivating... Oh, no, what was it called? The first book was called Captivating Claire. Uh, what was this-
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
That was the book, the book that we launched, Captivating Claire. What was the book? Was it, uh, Short but Romantic. We launched a website called shortbutromantic.wordpress.com, and we basically [laughs] we got someone on Fiverr [laughs] we got someone on Fiv-
- SPShaan Puri
By the way, shortbutromantic.wordpress.com is the least short and least romantic-
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... domain you could possibly have chosen. [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs] Yeah, it was horrible. It w- and it's... So we, uh, we created Short but Romantic, and we, [laughs] and we got someone on Fiverr to write, like, a part one of, like, a, like, a sexy story thing. Like, I, uh, frankly, I didn't even read it. And then we got another Fiverr guy to narrate it, and then we put it on the website and we said Part One of, like, Captivating Claire or whatever it was. And it was like, "Read the story," and then at the end it said, "Do you want part two? Sign up here for $25 a month, and we'll send one of you- one of these every single day." And we put ads on Facebook for it, and I made, like, a... I found, like, this girl that I went to college with, and I, it was like, "Hey, can I use your face on this, uh, this website and act like you're the author, and like you're the one behind it? 'Cause it wouldn't look good if it was me." And so we did, and we got like $500 in revenue in, like, 12 hours, because the ad rate was crazy.
- SPShaan Puri
[laughs]
- SPSam Parr
And if you went to the website, people were commenting on this saying, like, "This story's amazing. I love this. I want more of this." You saw it, right?
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, I remember the, I remember seeing the prototype, and I, it was like, "Dude, Sam is a genius." Man, like, I love how you spin these things up. I love the names that you pick. I love the, like, the speed to produ- speed to launch. Um, I love the way that you did the test, which was most people would go and spend months trying to find an author and write a book, and you were like, you know, you just were like, "Okay, werewolf, military, uh-"
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... you know, "Blonde girl named Claire. Claire wants to feel, uh, captured. No, Claire wants to feel-"
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
... you know, con- contemplated. No, uh, captivated. Yes, sorry, Captivating Claire. Um, Claire wears a red dress, and she bumps into this billionaire and his hand grazes her thigh, and that's it. We got it. All right."
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
We're working now. And like, I could just see... I saw the website, and I just saw your fingerprints all over it, dude.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
So I was like, I remember being so impressed. And I tried... We invested in our buddy for this, 'cause I was like, dude, this is a great market to be in, and if you're kinda growth hacky, you're gonna do this. And if nobody else is doing this, right? It was like there's so little competition, 'cause most, most serious people could never bring themselves to do this. So it's just you're gonna compete with the other not so serious people o- out, that are out there on earth. And like, I would put our skills up there with any of them.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, absolutely. And it was a good idea, actually. But the thing that was the, the thing that was the thing was, like, I don't give a shit about this, neither did he, you know? Like, this wasn't exactly what... Th- we weren't exactly fueled by this, uh, passion to create these, like, sex novels, and so we kinda like shut it down. But a listener, a podcast listener did something like this, and he spun it up, I think, to 10,000 in revenue a month, like, really fast, right?
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah, that's what... I think so. And then also, um, there was a difference. I think- There's a difference between, like, literal audio porn and then, like, romance novels. And this, I think Passionflix, the Elo- what Elon Musk's sister is doing, is the, uh, the romance novels, uh, on demand, 5.99 a month. So I actually think this is a great idea. Um, you know, I- I- I may say I think this is a great idea. If you're good at internet marketing and you're, like, you know, got a good sort of s- sense of humor about yourself, I think that this is a, uh, a business that will work if you apply enough pressure. It's hard, though, to, like, stay excited about it for a long time unless you just love selling widgets. In fact, our buddy Ramon, the first time I met him, you introduced me to him. We go out to a lunch, and he's telling me his life story, and his life story is full of, like, substance. It's like, you know, "I was raised in the Netherlands," and then, like, you know, "I had this... I was kind of, like, out on my own at a young age," and then, like, "I have... I- I'm a single father to my son," and blah, blah, blah. Like, whatever. He, you know, had a bunch of things that were, like, you know, these journeys throughout his life's- lifetime that were, like, you know, these, these, uh, meaningful... You know, "I train MMA." He, like, he seemed like a dude who, like, you know, he really kind of, like, you know, was self-made in many ways. And then h- I was like, "So do you..." Like, I kind of expected him to be like, you know, "So that's why I'm working on this thing that has, like, this deep meaning also."
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
And I was like, "So what was your last business?" He's like, "Oh, um, created a soap opera blog, and I sold it for $10 million." [laughs]
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
And I was like, "What?" I was like, " 'Cause you love soap operas?" He's like, "No, never seen one in my life."
- SPSpeaker
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
I was like, "What the hell?" And I was like, "How did this work?" He's like... And there's a... He's the second episode of this podcast. So if you scroll all the way back to the second episode, I think it's Ramon. It's one of the best episodes ever that's been on the podf- Fast Feed. But basically he's like, "Yeah, I just went on Facebook, and there was a arbitrage opportunity where, like, you could buy Facebook page likes. Facebook wanted to promote pages, so you could get... You could advertise a page for, like... You could get a like for, like, a cent. And I just figured out, oh, cool, once I get them to like my page, I could post a link, and then I'll get them to my website. And, like, okay, that costs, like, seven cents to get them to my website. And then Google AdSense can give me nine cents or 12 cents or whatever." Like, there's some ar- like, money arbitrage there. So he's like, "So then I just had to figure out what is the, um, you know, what's the best categories. Like, so I s- spun up, like, 22 Facebook pages about every niche I could think of."
- SPSam Parr
And yeah, his niches, it was, like, W- it was, like, WWF wrestling and, like, soccer and, like, politics and just a bunch of, like, crazy stuff.
- SPShaan Puri
Yeah. Oh, e- every interest you could think of. And he's like, "Okay, which one's the best?" And hi- he said the top three, I think, were wrestling... Uh, no, number one was, like, right-wing conservative politics-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah
- 38:39 – 45:24
Ghost
- SPShaan Puri
All right, so the great one. There's a company called Ghost, um, that I just heard about. So this story, to me, is kind of incredible. So if you go to the website, I think it's-
- SPSam Parr
The WordPress competitor?
- SPShaan Puri
No, it's a new one. So G-S-T... G... Oh, sorry, G-H-S-T. So it's Ghost without the O. Um, I think it's ghost.io is the name of it.
- SPSam Parr
Ugh, this is-
- SPShaan Puri
So-
- SPSam Parr
... already too, too new age for me. I'm out.
- SPShaan Puri
No, no, no.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
You're gonna, you're gonna appreciate this. You're gonna... You, you're out, but I'ma bring you back in.
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
Here's the, here's the deal. So I heard about this because, uh, this guy who's, like, a VC somewhere, he goes, "Back in 2020, um, our team started to notice a big shift that was going on with, like, stores, like Walmart, Target," like, any big store, was that basically, remember when COVID happened and, like, the supply chain shut down, and, like, the fucking ship got stuck in the canal, and, like, everything was just bad? Like, shipping container prices went through the roof. And so everybody had, like, a shortage right when demand went, like, through the roof because everybody was at home, everybody was ordering tons of products, and, um, we're all getting stimulus checks and stuff like that, right? So that's like, demand went way up to shop 'cause people couldn't go do experiences, and supply went way down, and it was, like, this crazy situation. And so what happened was retailers basically, they ordered more to try to catch up 'cause nobody knew how long the pandemic and stuff would go. And also, like, the stuff that got delayed, like, finally showed up. But what that created was, like, this huge glut-
- SPSam Parr
Wow
- SPShaan Puri
... of excess inventory. Over a trillion dollars of excess inventory was kind of, like, the, uh, the guess. And so these guys, these, these venture capitalists, they sort of noticed this trend, and they posted this 26-page PDF called The Inventory Apocalypse Is Coming. And they were just like, "Look, we are looking at this," like, a combination of people returning things, the supply chain glut, and then brands over-ordering to try to keep up with, like, this, the explosion in e-commerce, right? Like, um, there's just too much inventory on-hand. And this is all playing out now. Like, that was in 2020, 2021, something like that. Now in 2022, if you go look, there's these amazing charts of, like, all... If you notice, all the... Every brand is, like, discounting like crazy right now. They're like, "Oh, 40% off. Summer sale. Semiannual sale," like, liquidation, whatever. And it's because everybody has way too much inventory to hold. And so, um, and, like, Target and Walmart I think have come out and said some crazy public numbers. Ben, see if you could find it, like, how much excess inventory is on the shelves. Some absurd number. So anyways, these guys put this out, and at the same time, this startup gets started by this guy Josh and Dee. And, um, and, and Dee is kind of well-known in, like, the kind of, like, e-commerce world. Um, and so they, they go and they start this company, and basically what they do is they c- they're creating, like, a marketplace or a clearing house. So any... It's called Ghost 'cause it's like, any retailer, rather than doing a huge discount, which kind of, like, it kinda cheapens your brand, it sort of just pulls forward revenue that, like, your customers probably would've spent full price. But, like, in order to move inventory, you kinda, like... You, you gave it away cheaper and you, you know, you sort of eroded your premium, uh, prices or whatever. Um, it basically connects them to the liquidators of the world. So there's, like, uh, TJ Maxx, Ross, Marshalls, like, those types of companies, but there's also just, like, international versions of those companies. There's, like, boutiques and, and wholesalers that could carry your stuff. Uh, there's basically, like, a way to, like, get rid of inventory that's on your shelf that you're directly selling, and you could sell it wholesale for somebody else to kinda move. You'll take a discount with them, and that's better than giving a discount to your customers who, like, then they'll get trained to expect and wait for 30, 40% discounts rather than paying the premium price.
- SPSam Parr
I'm back in.
- SPShaan Puri
And so-
- SPSam Parr
This is awesome.
- SPShaan Puri
So-
- SPSam Parr
Dude, their site-
- SPShaan Puri
I, I knew you'd come back in
- SPSam Parr
... their site has five words on it, and it's beautiful. I look at their site, and it's literally five words: "We make your inventory disappear." And the... But the way that it looks- I love it
- SPShaan Puri
And there's like a, a, a s- a smoky cloud like a gho- like a, like something evaporated right behind it
- SPSam Parr
Yeah.
- SPShaan Puri
And then basically what it loo- it seems like what they're doing is they're creating a private marketplace. So this is key, right? Like it's gotta be private, can't be public, and it's a marketplace between your retailer, who has excess inventory, and these wholesalers and liquidators who will take this sort of like excess inventory. They'll pay, you know, they'll get it at a huge discount, and then they'll flip it on their own. That's their business. So it's connect- connecting these two through, um, through this B2B marketplace. And I think the thing is growing like crazy. So I think they said, um, let's see. In the first year, I believe they got to, um, multi-million dollar net revenue, so not GMV, uh, profitably, and they're like not even launched yet. Like you gotta like sign up to do a demo and shit like that with them. But just knowing what I know about like what's going on in e-commerce, I could tell you this thing is gonna be big. Like I, I need to chase these guys down to go invest in this because this is a real problem, and the marketplaces are the best type of internet business. But like, you... It sort of feels like all the... It's like all the good ones are taken, all the good guys are taken. It's like, ah, all the good marketplaces are taken. Like someone did it for, you know, Amazon did it for this, eBay did it for that, you know, Etsy does it for crafts, and it sort of feels like there's no marketplaces left. I think this could be that, one of those multi-billion dollar marketplaces that comes out.
- SPSam Parr
Well, it's not a marketplace. It's just software, isn't it?
- SPShaan Puri
No, it's a marketplace.
- SPSam Parr
The mark- You were descri-
- SPShaan Puri
They're connecting buyers and sellers
- SPSam Parr
And so they don't char-
- SPShaan Puri
They're connecting the wholesalers with all the retailers
- SPSam Parr
But the, so the, the fee, they don't charge a fee to the people for using their software. It's, it's just they'll set it up for free, which is probably, it's a huge integration process. They set it up for free, and then they make the transaction, they make a, a, a transaction fee?
- 45:24 – 56:38
Shaan's retail clothing idea
- SPShaan Puri
Sam, you're a good-looking dude. Um, in fact, I would say whatever you wear tends to look good. I feel like if I almost wore the same shirt, it wouldn't look as good, right? Because you got the body. You don't need, you don't need to go pay, you know, crazy amounts of money at, you know, whatever, Scotch & Soda, our favorite brand here at My First Million. You don't gotta go pay for the fancy stuff 'cause honestly, if you dress in basic blacks and whites, neutral colors, um, you'll look good. And in fact-
- SPSam Parr
Thank you
- SPShaan Puri
... there are a lot of people that are out there that may not be as fit as you, but they do subscribe to the same philosophy, which is they kind of just wanna opt out of the fashion game. Like I went to Lululemon to go j- I just wanted something that's high quality, that fits well, and I went and I found a pair of shorts and a, and a T-shirt, and, um, the shorts were $85 and the T-shirt was like, you know, whatever, $77 for one, right? And so if I just wanted to have really awesome basics, like high quality basics that are, um, premium qu- premium like material and fit, but, uh, I don't care about the brand name. I'm not looking for the status. Uh, where would I go today to get that? Do you have a, a place in mind where I might go for something like that?
- SPSam Parr
For plain T-shirts, Clean Fresh Tees. Those are my fav. $10 T-shirts that fit pretty good.
- SPShaan Puri
Yep.
- SPSam Parr
And that's mostly it for, for, for basic shit.
- SPShaan Puri
And so there's, there's that. There's like, let's say Italic. I think Italic does this with, uh, I think... I don't know if you're also an investor in Italic. I am, but like-
- SPSam Parr
No, but I like it
- SPShaan Puri
... they do it with cool stuff like handbags and scarves and like a lot of designery type of stuff, so like a wider selection. But I think that somebody can go create the Costco for clothes. And what do I mean by this?
- SPSam Parr
[laughs]
- SPShaan Puri
I think you can create a business model that flips it on its head. Instead of paying the 4X, 5X, 6X, 7X markup that you pay today, when you go buy a shirt and you buy a shirt for $25, that shirt probably costs $5 to make.
- SPSam Parr
Is that true?
- SPShaan Puri
And so... Yeah, so you're gonna, you're... On, I think on average you're gonna be paying some betw- something between 3 and 4X is like a normal markup. And then if you, once you get into like Lululemon and luxury, you're gonna be paying more like probably 6 or 7X is my guess here. Um, they're public, so you could go find their, their actual like margins, but like let's assume that's the case.
- SPSam Parr
What, what about like a Louis Vuitton thing? What about like a $500 Gucci shirt?
- SPShaan Puri
Tho- those are different. You're buying those literally for the status. Um, so let's, let's put them as a separate category. I'm focusing on more of like you go buy something from Nike or from Lululemon or Alo Yoga or like whatever. These brands that are like you're just trying to have a high quality version of a ver- of a fairly basic, uh, thing, but there's like some status component. What I'm saying is let's strip away the status. So I'm saying-
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, basic girl stuff
- SPShaan Puri
... you c- yeah, you create a company called Neutral. And Neutral basically just, it opts out of the fashion game and says, "First of all, I don't need your status. I don't need your brand name. Second of all, I don't need your fancy designs. Third, I don't need to pay 5X markups because what a waste. Like what if I just wanna pay for the actual cost of the goods?" And so what it is, it's a membership like Costco where Costco's model is you pay whatever, 100 something-ish bucks a year for the membership, and then they give you all the groceries at cost plus 10%. And the 10% is just their, like, the labor and the stocking and the, the stuff it takes to actually, like, move the goods around. Um, and so because of that you get incredible value out of Costco. Moms love shopping at Costco for that reason. Uh, they're not sacrificing on quality, they just are sacrificing on the fluff, the, the packaging, the branding, the shelves, the store experience. And they say, "Screw that. I don't need to have a fancy display in the store. I don't need to have fancy packaging. Like, just give me the stuff raw. Um, I'll pay the ac- the actual f- goods cost plus 10% and I'll pay you the membership fee because, hey, for me, I make back the membership fee within, you know, my first month or two of shopping with you." I think somebody could do that with all basics for clothing and just say, "We're gonna go get the same quality as, like, whatever the highest quality, you know, fit and, and materials are for, like, you know, these fancy Lululemon type brands, and just provide it at the actual cost." So you'd be buying, like, that same shirt for, for eight or $9, and it's a step up from, like, Hanes and H&M or whatever, but you're getting it at... And you... And the b- marketing is that, hey, you're paying nothing for the brand name. In fact, there's no brand on this. It's, like, brandless, right? Um, you, all you gotta do is pay the membership fee and make this happen. Now, the counterargument is there was a company that tried to do this called Brandless. They tried to do it with, like, home ware and shit like that. They went massively out of business.
- SPSam Parr
Yeah, I think that's harder though. I, I think that was harder. I think, I think it, I think it's amazing. I think w- the problem... There's basically, like... I ask myself, like, two or three questions when I'm, like, looking at which projects to start. The, the... It's basically, like, do people want this and can I pull it off?
- SPShaan Puri
Right.
- SPSam Parr
This one falls into the second category. Do people want this? Yeah, obviously. It's not gonna be hard to get people to buy this shit. Can I possibly pull that off? That sounds so challenging. Like, y- your experience makes-
- SPShaan Puri
Which part seems challenging?
- SPSam Parr
Uh, pulling it off. It, it seems-
- SPShaan Puri
Like what? Like what? Like c- k- getting the products, like, just the logistics of the rest of the operation?
- SPSam Parr
Having tons and tons of SKUs, um, like, that seems really hard. Uh, trying to get members to sign up profitably seems a, a bit of a challenge. Is, uh, Italic able to get, uh, to... Do they have any profit or no?
- SPShaan Puri
Uh, I mean, I can't really say if they have profit or not, but like, you know, they're doing well as in they're growing, so they are getting members to sign up. Uh, people are buying into the value proposition. They're retaining. The question is, like, you know, there's some payback period, and is that... You know, if that payback period is, like, you know, one month, wow, this is one of the best businesses ever. If it's 12 months, okay, you know, it's gonna be, it's gonna be more cash intensive for this type of business.
- SPSam Parr
Well, you're the e- You have an e-com company. Do you think... Would you ever work on this?
- SPShaan Puri
I wouldn't work on it just 'cause knowing what I know now about e-commerce, I'm like, "Oh, there's easier ways to win." But if I was gonna work in e-commerce, I think an idea like this is a better idea than 99% of e-commerce ideas.
- SPSam Parr
Why would you do-
- SPShaan Puri
Because I think you'll end up with subscription revenue, I think you're differentiated, and I think you appeal to the lowest common denominator so you're, like, you're not... Uh, like, everybody needs shirts, so, like, there's some brands like Cuts and Fresh Clean Tees. These brands have scaled to, like, 100 million plus in revenue in, I don't know, three or four years. And you look at it and you're like, "Dude, really? It's just a T-shirt brand?" And they're doing just the T-shirts, like, you know, well like this. They're not offering it at the factory cost and they're not offering it on subscription, right? So that's a key difference here. But the fact that they've been able to scale that much without it, to me is, like, extremely impressive, and it just sort of speaks to the fact that, like, everybody needs shirts and it's, like, an everybody problem, whereas, like, like, my e-commerce or, like, we talked about Ramon's dog ramp thing, like, that only works if you have not only a dog, but a small dog. Not even really a small dog. Like, a small dog that might get hurt and can't get up and down stairs or a bed very easily.
- SPSam Parr
And you want that dog in your bed.
Episode duration: 56:38
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Transcript of episode wPBI_s4ySh4
