5 Genius Business Tactics Turning Broke Authors Into Millionaires

My First Million
4 Mar 202449:42

Summary

TLDRIn this engaging discussion, the host delves into the diverse revenue streams authors leverage beyond book sales. Highlighting figures like Ryan Holiday, who earns more from his 'Daily Stoic' newsletter and merchandise than his literary works, the conversation uncovers creative business models. It showcases James Patterson's collaborative approach to writing, producing a high volume of books, and explores the success of self-published authors like Hugh Howey, who achieved significant sales leveraging community engagement and strategic marketing.

Takeaways

  • πŸ“š Ryan Holiday, a renowned author, has made more money from his daily newsletter 'Daily Stoic' and associated merchandise than from book sales alone.
  • πŸ—οΈ The 'coin thing' refers to Holiday's strategy of selling coins with inspirational Latin inscriptions, which have a high profit margin and no returns or size issues, contributing significantly to his earnings.
  • πŸ“ˆ James Patterson, a highly prolific author, has sold around 500 million copies of his books and has employed a team of co-authors to help produce an average of seven books a year.
  • πŸ“˜ Patterson's approach involves creating a brand around his name, with co-authors writing under his guidance, resulting in a substantial income of around $800 million.
  • πŸŽͺ The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a company that created series like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, attributing all works to a single author to maintain a consistent brand.
  • πŸ€‘ Authors are exploring alternative revenue streams beyond traditional book sales, such as merchandise, newsletters, and coins, which can be more profitable.
  • πŸ’Ό Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL, has capitalized on his brand by naming products in his books and selling related gear through his website, leveraging affiliate marketing and his own products.
  • 🦌 Steve Rinella transformed his book 'American Buffalo' into the MeatEater brand, which includes a website, podcast, and various outdoor products, achieving $100 million in revenue.
  • πŸš€ The story of Hugh Howey, the author of 'Wool', illustrates the power of self-publishing and community building, as he sold film rights and gained significant success without a traditional publisher.
  • πŸ’‘ The script highlights the idea that authors can 'productize' their work and create additional income streams through strategic branding and leveraging their audience's trust.

Q & A

  • Who is Ryan Holiday and what is his connection to the story?

    -Ryan Holiday is an author known for his works on stoicism. He is mentioned in the script as someone the speaker recently hung out with and who has appeared on the speaker's podcast. He is relevant to the story as he exemplifies an author who has found success in generating income through means other than just book sales, such as his 'Daily Stoic' newsletter and associated merchandise.

  • What is the 'Daily Stoic' and how does it contribute to Ryan Holiday's income?

    -The 'Daily Stoic' is a daily newsletter created by Ryan Holiday. It is a property that has allowed him to earn more money than he does from selling his books. The newsletter includes content related to stoicism and also sells coins, merchandise, and advertisements, which collectively have become a significant source of his income.

  • What is the significance of the coin mentioned in the script in relation to Ryan Holiday's business strategy?

    -The coin is a physical product that Ryan Holiday sells as part of his business strategy. It is significant because it represents a non-traditional way for an author to generate income. The coin is inscribed with Latin phrases related to stoicism and has become a popular item, contributing to Ryan Holiday's financial success outside of book sales.

  • Who is James Patterson and what is unique about his approach to writing and publishing books?

    -James Patterson is a highly successful author known for his thriller novels. What is unique about his approach is that he has adopted a model similar to the Stratemeyer Syndicate, where he collaborates with co-authors to produce a high volume of books under his name. This method has allowed him to publish an average of seven books a year and has contributed to his immense success and wealth.

  • How has James Patterson's method of working with co-authors impacted his productivity and income?

    -James Patterson's method of working with co-authors has significantly increased his productivity, allowing him to release a large number of books each year. This high volume of publications, along with the popularity of his work, has greatly increased his income, making him one of the wealthiest authors in the industry.

  • What is the 'Stratmeyer Syndicate' and how did it influence the approach to children's book publishing in the 1930s?

    -The 'Stratmeyer Syndicate' was a company established in the 1930s that focused on publishing children's books. It was unique in that it created a series of books under the same author name, but was actually written by various authors following a set of guidelines. This approach allowed for a high volume of books to be produced and contributed to the popularity of series like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.

  • What is the business model that Steve Ranella, the founder of 'MeatEater', has successfully adopted?

    -Steve Ranella has successfully adopted a content-to-commerce business model. Starting with his book 'American Buffalo', he created the 'MeatEater' brand which includes a website, podcasts, recipe books, and a variety of outdoor and hunting-related products. This model has allowed him to generate significant revenue beyond just book sales.

  • How has Steve Ranella leveraged his 'MeatEater' brand to expand into different business areas?

    -Steve Ranella has leveraged the 'MeatEater' brand to expand into various business areas by purchasing and integrating other brands under the 'MeatEater' umbrella. This includes a duck call business and a clothing line, which have collectively contributed to the brand's revenue of over 100 million dollars.

  • What is the significance of the 'Wool' series by Hugh Howey in the context of self-publishing success stories?

    -The 'Wool' series by Hugh Howey is significant as it represents a major success story in self-publishing. After an initial struggle to sell his work, Howey found success by pricing his book at 99 cents, engaging with his readers, and leveraging platforms like Goodreads and Reddit. His approach to community building and fan engagement helped him sell half a million copies and secure a film deal, showcasing the potential of self-publishing.

  • What strategies did Hugh Howey employ to promote his 'Wool' series and build a dedicated reader base?

    -Hugh Howey employed several strategies to promote his 'Wool' series, including pricing the initial book at 99 cents to attract readers, engaging with fans on platforms like Goodreads and Reddit, encouraging fan fiction and fan art, and making his super fans beta readers for his upcoming books. These strategies helped him build a dedicated reader base and increase his sales significantly.

Outlines

00:00

πŸ“š Ryan Holiday's Diversified Revenue Streams

The host discusses an encounter with author Ryan Holiday, who mentioned that authors often earn more from speaking engagements than book sales. Ryan Holiday has notably made significant income from his 'Daily Stoic' newsletter, selling coins and merchandise, which has outperformed his book sales. The host expresses a desire to explore alternative income methods for authors beyond traditional book publishing.

05:01

πŸ€‘ James Patterson's Thriller Empire

The host delves into the success of James Patterson, a prolific author known for his thriller novels. Patterson has adopted an unorthodox approach to writing, utilizing a team of co-authors to produce a high volume of books annually. This strategy has led to remarkable sales figures, with Patterson's name becoming a brand synonymous with bestsellers. His business acumen, honed during his advertising career, has translated into a substantial fortune, with earnings estimated at around $800 million.

10:02

πŸŽ™οΈ Jack Carr's Branded Military Fiction

The host talks about Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL who has gained popularity with his military-themed novels. Carr's books are known for their detailed product placements, which he leverages on his website to sell related merchandise and gear. This approach has created a unique brand around his books, offering readers a chance to engage with the lifestyle portrayed in his stories through affiliate marketing and direct sales.

15:04

🦌 Steve Rinella's Outdoor Empire

Steve Rinella, a journalist and outdoor enthusiast, is highlighted for his journey from writing about foraging and hunting to building a substantial outdoor lifestyle brand. His 'Meat Eater' brand has expanded into various businesses, including a podcast, books, and even a clothing line, culminating in a successful e-commerce platform. Rinella's ability to transition from content creation to commerce has resulted in significant revenue, with projections suggesting substantial growth in the future.

20:05

πŸš€ Hugh Howey's Self-Publishing Success

The host narrates the inspiring story of Hugh Howey, who rose from obscurity to become a prominent self-published author. Despite initial struggles, Howey's commitment to his craft led to the creation of the 'Wool' series, which gained a loyal following and commercial success. His innovative marketing tactics, such as engaging with fans and leveraging social media, played a crucial role in his books' popularity, ultimately leading to substantial earnings and recognition in the literary world.

25:06

πŸ’‘ Andrew Wilkinson's Networking Mastery

The conversation concludes with an admiration for Andrew Wilkinson's networking prowess and his ability to transform connections into lucrative business opportunities. Wilkinson's ventures, such as collaborating with experts like James Clear on apps and with Huberman on a beverage line, exemplify his knack for identifying potential partners and creating mutually beneficial enterprises. His strategies for fostering relationships, including the use of his design agency as a currency for opening doors, set a new precedent for entrepreneurial networking.

Mindmap

Keywords

πŸ’‘Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday is an author known for his works on stoicism. In the script, he is mentioned for his success in generating income not only from book sales but also from ventures like the 'Daily Stoic' newsletter, which includes merchandise and advertisements. His approach to making money as an author is part of the broader theme of the video, which explores alternative revenue streams for authors.

πŸ’‘Daily Stoic

The 'Daily Stoic' is a newsletter created by Ryan Holiday. It serves as an example in the script of how authors can diversify their income beyond book sales by selling related products like coins, merchandise, and advertisements. The 'Daily Stoic' has reportedly generated more revenue for Holiday than his book sales alone.

πŸ’‘Stoicism

Stoicism is a philosophy that focuses on virtue and reason, and it is the thematic focus of Ryan Holiday's work. In the script, stoicism is the core of Holiday's brand, which he has leveraged to create content and products that resonate with his audience, such as the 'Daily Stoic' newsletter and coins with Latin inscriptions.

πŸ’‘James Patterson

James Patterson is a prolific author mentioned in the script for his unique approach to writing and publishing books. Known for his high volume of output and collaborative writing method, Patterson has become a brand in the publishing industry, often co-authoring books with others. His strategy exemplifies the video's theme of authors finding success outside traditional book sales.

πŸ’‘Co-authors

In the context of the script, co-authors are writers who collaborate with James Patterson on books that are published under his name. This method has allowed Patterson to increase his output and capitalize on his brand, which is a key point in the discussion about authors finding innovative ways to generate income.

πŸ’‘Product Placement

Product placement in the script refers to the intentional inclusion of specific brands or products within creative works, such as books. Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL and author, is highlighted for his use of product placement as a way to generate additional income through affiliate marketing and his own product sales, which ties into the video's theme of alternative revenue for authors.

πŸ’‘Affiliate Links

Affiliate links are a form of monetization mentioned in the script where authors, like Jack Carr, can earn commissions by promoting products and including these links in their content. This method allows authors to generate income from their audience's purchases, showcasing another way authors can earn beyond traditional book sales.

πŸ’‘MeatEater

MeatEater is a brand and website created by Steven Rinella, an author and outdoor enthusiast. The script discusses how Rinella expanded his brand beyond writing to include a variety of products and media, ultimately generating significant revenue. MeatEater serves as an example of an author creating a lifestyle brand that goes beyond book sales.

πŸ’‘Content to Commerce

Content to Commerce is a business model discussed in the script, where media companies or individuals with strong content creation capabilities transition to selling products related to their content. This model is exemplified by MeatEater's success and represents a shift from traditional content monetization to direct-to-consumer sales.

πŸ’‘Habit-Forming App

A habit-forming app, as mentioned in the script in relation to James Clear, is a type of application designed to encourage users to form or break habits. The concept is tied to the video's theme as it represents an innovative way for authors to extend their influence and generate income beyond book publishing.

πŸ’‘Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is a method of publishing where authors, like Hugh Howey in the script, retain control over their work and distribution. Howey's success with his book 'Wool' demonstrates the potential for authors to find significant audiences and revenue without traditional publishing deals, aligning with the video's exploration of alternative income streams.

Highlights

Ryan Holiday, a successful author, earns more money from speaking engagements and his daily newsletter 'The Daily Stoic' than from book sales.

The Daily Stoic newsletter includes merchandise and advertisements, contributing to its profitability.

Ryan Holiday's 'The Daily Stoic' newsletter has sold coins with Latin inscriptions, capitalizing on the stoicism theme.

James Patterson, a renowned author, has sold 500 million copies of his books and has a unique business model involving co-authors.

Patterson's approach to writing involves a team of co-authors, which allows him to produce a high volume of books annually.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate, founded in the 1930s, created popular children's book series like Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.

Stratemeyer Syndicate operated by having multiple authors write under one name, ensuring a consistent style and brand.

Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL, has written successful books that heavily feature product placements, tying into his website's affiliate marketing.

Carr's website, JackCarr.com, sells gear and merchandise related to the products mentioned in his books, creating an additional revenue stream.

Steve Rinella, the founder of MeatEater, has transformed his love for the outdoors into a multi-million dollar business.

MeatEater started as a podcast and grew into a comprehensive outdoor lifestyle brand with its own products.

Rinella's business acumen and the MeatEater brand have led to significant revenue from both content and commerce.

Eric Jorgenson authored 'The Almanack', a compilation of Naval Ravikant's tweets, and has potentially made millions from it.

Jorgenson's approach to curating existing content into a book format and giving away the e-book for free has proven lucrative.

Hugh Howey's self-published book 'Wool' gained massive success through community engagement and strategic marketing on platforms like Reddit.

Howey's story illustrates the potential of self-publishing and leveraging fan engagement to achieve bestseller status.

James Clear's launch of a habit-tracking app in partnership with Andrew Wilkinson demonstrates the trend of content creators expanding into apps.

Andrew Wilkinson's strategy of partnering with experts to create apps and products based on their content is a new model for monetization.

Transcripts

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all right we're live Sean I've got a

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little bit a few actually stories but it

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starts with a person I hung out with out

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the other day you know Ryan holiday

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right the author Ryan holiday of course

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he came on the Pod he's awesome I was

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hanging out with him the other day and

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he said something actually to me in

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person but he previously said this on

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the podcast that we I think he's been on

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twice he said something about how he

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actually made a funny comment he's like

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most most authors say they make more

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money through speaking than they do

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actually selling their books those

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people they just didn't sell a lot of

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books

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[Laughter]

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[Music]

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however uh Ryan has sold a ton of books

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we know that for sure but he also

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mentioned to me that his other things

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like the daily stoic which is his daily

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newsletter so Ryan holiday wrote a book

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on stoicism he's written six or seven

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now at this point but he has his other

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property it's a daily newsletter called

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daily stoic where they sell coins and

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merch and advertisements he has told me

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that that has made more money for him

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than selling books like which is crazy

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because that's what he's known as as an

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author and so what I wanted to talk to

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you about today was I went down this

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huge Rabbit Hole where I found ways that

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authors are making money other than just

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like writing a book well you got you got

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to tell the coin thing because the coin

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thing is the perfect simple example of

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this I don't know what he confirmed

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exactly but explain the coin thing

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because I think it's the perfect simple

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example an author making money not off

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their book but a lot of money in some

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other way Ryan holiday's whole shtick is

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stoicism it's a philosophy that is

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fairly useful and it's just like how to

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deal with hardship in your daily life

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and for some reason he decided to come

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up with a coin and it's a coin that in

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Latin it says like you're going to die

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or like today's one of your last days

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alive or something like that like some

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like inspirational thing but it's in

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Latin so I'm not exactly sure what it

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says and a coin is a great product to

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sell because it costs 25 bucks to sell

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it costs like like a dollar to make it

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ships for whatever a stamp two stamps so

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however much that is 80 cents there's no

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returns there's no sizes it's just like

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the easiest thing ever to sell and on

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the podcast I don't remember if he said

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the exact number but I believe he said

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tens of thousands of coins which is

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millions and millions of dollars is that

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what he said he did he did say that and

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he also said that he works with some

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mint some mint in the United States and

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I guess it's it's one of the old famous

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coin mints and he I think he was like

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their biggest customer so like he's like

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they're minting more of his momento Mor

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coin than they are anything else so what

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I want to do and that was surprising to

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me I had an inkling and then he kind of

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revealed that that is true where he made

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more money not from selling books but I

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had uh I went down this rabbit hole and

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what I want to do is I want to show you

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three people who are making

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significantly more money than you would

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think and they are doing it in ways

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other than just writing one book making

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whatever 10% of the revenue that they of

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which they sell all right so we're going

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to start with the first one Sean do you

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know who James Patterson is I do not

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know who James Patterson is who is James

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Patterson I did not think you would know

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sandwiches maybe a former baseball

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player who are we talking about here you

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you are very smart you're a very high IQ

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smart person oh God here it comes the

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fact that you don't know some of the

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most basic things like of pop culture

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like it's it's beyond pop culture at

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this point this these are things that

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you see all over bookstores whatever it

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shocks me that you don't know this is he

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the vampire in

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Twilight yeah

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boyfriend who is this no okay your

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second guest was a lot further away from

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the first guest so listen to this so

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have you ever heard of this strap Meer

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Syndicate you probably haven't right of

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course if you haven't heard James

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Patterson you also probably haven't

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heard of Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys

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have you heard of those things I know

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who those they write murder Myster they

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write mystery novels right for kids or

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something yeah yeah yeah so they are the

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main characters in murder mystery novel

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so the way it starts is in the 1930s

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there was this thing called the shrap

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Meer Syndicate it was this one guy he

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came up with this company in the 30s

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where he was like Hey not a lot of

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people are writing children's books I'm

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going to go ahead and start publishing

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children children's books and then he

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was like you know what I need to write

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more books but I don't feel like dealing

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with the hassle of working with these

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artists authors who like are just a pain

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in the butt to deal with all I care

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about is making like kind of cookie

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cutter novels that children like so what

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he did was he goes I'm gonna actually

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just come up with these characters so

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Nancy Drew The Hardy Boys and he had a

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variety of other series and I'm going to

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have these authors write these books but

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I'm just say it's written by the same

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author every single time I'm not going

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to give a person like their little bit

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of Fame I'm going to pay them a fair

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rate but it's and and and they're gonna

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follow my rules and maybe eventually

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they'll become a famous author but for

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now they're just going to follow my

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rules and that's what he did and there

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was at one point where like every kid in

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America could name Nancy Drew The Hardy

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Boys things like that Strat me Syndicate

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what a name uh so wait sorry The

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Syndicate

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is I think I missed something here The

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Syndicate is the set of novels The

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Syndicate was the name of his company he

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called it a Syndicate which sounds like

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a drug like a drug Syndicate it sounds

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like something illegal because usually s

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that was just the name of his company it

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was a legitimate company this wasn't

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like anything shady although he did a

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bad job of nameing it'd be like naming

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like your kids children's book like warm

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candy and vans or something like that

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like he did a very bad job of like

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naming his publishing company called The

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Syndicate kind of weird got but

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basically he came up with these rules

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where he was like all books need to be

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part of a series uh every chapter needs

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to end with a preview of what the next

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chapter is going to be the beginning of

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each book needs to give a summary of

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only one page what happened in the

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previous books and he just had this like

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outline of how to like make hits well

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fast forward 70 years there's this guy

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named James Patterson at this point now

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he's 75 years old he started uh in

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advertising in New York for the J

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Thompson advertising firm which just

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some huge firm but on the side died in

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his late 20s and early 30s he starts

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writing novels and they do okay like

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they're not like that big a hits um but

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he keeps at it and he's a workaholic and

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he keeps going and eventually at the age

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of 47 he retires from advertising and

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goes all in on publishing these novels

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so he's been doing it now at this point

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for about 20 years and he's finally

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starting to see success and the whole

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point of his novels is they're Thrillers

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some people might say they're kind of

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like trash formulaic Thrillers but the

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thing is is people love him and at this

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point he sold something like 500 million

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copies of his books and at one point he

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uh accounted for 16% or sorry 6% of all

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hard cover novels sold in America so the

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guy's a hitmaker he s he sells a ton of

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them but here's the craziest part since

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he started writing uh about 48 years ago

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he's published on average seven books a

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year and at this point even though he's

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75 5 or 74 he's doing something like 30

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books a year now how on Earth does a guy

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do that that's like ridiculous right at

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this point uh to be doing that it's

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ridiculous to be doing that at a young

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age it's more ridiculous to be doing in

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70s well more than a book every two

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weeks it's ridiculous well here's how he

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does it he has co-authors and a little

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secret with James Patterson even you

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know he's well- loved in America he

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actually has only written about 20% like

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solely written 20% of the books that his

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name is is credited with as writing the

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way that he does it he has a team of uh

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of co-authors and so what he does is he

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pays these guys out of his own pocket he

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kind of comes up with a framework they

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flesh it out he reviews it almost like a

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movie script and he's like writes notes

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in the in the in the margins and he

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gives it back to them and they kind of

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flush it out and at this point he's done

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it so much that you'll see that there's

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James Patterson with Dolly Parton I

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think there's a James Patterson and then

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the co-author is Bill Clinton and then

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the other co-author who's like the

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person doing the actual work is listed

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below it but this has been so success

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successful that at this point he's made

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something like $800

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million what yes that's how rich this

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guy is he owns like three or four homes

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each of them are worth 40 million bucks

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he's donated something like 50 million

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according to his website to small

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bookstores but this has been a smashing

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success I'm shocked you've not heard of

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James Patterson I think I have seen the

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name what's like his most famous book I

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don't even know the name of his books

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but he's almost like a do you know Tom

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Clancy yes okay he's like Tom Clancy

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does Tom Clancy do the same thing or

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does he write all his own books no Tom

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Clancy uh would write them but Jim

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Patterson does not write as much but you

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know like Jim Patterson at this point is

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sort of like Tom Clancy where you're

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like oh it's a Tom Clancy novel and I

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don't even know what Tom Clancy I can't

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even name his novels but I know it means

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like it's like a spy novel right okay so

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um let me ask you a question did this

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guy start out writing all his books and

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then over the years was like how do I

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scale and he's like what if I got

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another author or from the beginning was

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he like did he have this plan from the

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beginning or did this come about

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organically trying to scale up so over

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the last 20 years that he's been killing

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it I don't I don't think one of his

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books I'm not sure exactly but most of

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his books have not themselves been

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bestsellers however he has been a

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best-selling author if you add up all of

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his titles for many decades and he

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learned early on he was like well like I

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don't know if any of individually are

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going to be a hit but I'll just make a

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[Β __Β ] ton of them and so he discovered

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early onto on his career he goes we're

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going to be about quantity and at this

play09:33

point he says that for the last 40 years

play09:35

he's worked something like uh 70 hours a

play09:38

week and he writes all day and when we

play09:40

talk about writing it means working with

play09:42

a team and things like that but he

play09:43

discovered early on he's like we're just

play09:45

gonna do quantity we're gonna pump these

play09:46

babies out and so at this point Jim

play09:48

Patterson he's a face he's a guy he's a

play09:51

real person but it's almost like a brand

play09:53

and he's like gets these authors to kind

play09:56

of come under his brand and he makes

play09:57

jokes but he'll say things like they

play10:00

should pay these like these referring to

play10:01

as co-authors they should pay me to be a

play10:03

co-author because I'm teaching them so

play10:05

much and they're getting their name out

play10:06

there and he actually gives them press

play10:07

so they're able to like list but it's

play10:09

almost uh it's almost like the way the

play10:11

music industry works of like have Nicki

play10:13

Nicki Minaj coming on your song you have

play10:15

to pay Nicki Minaj you know what I mean

play10:17

right I like that that's the first one

play10:19

you went to Nicki Minaj um all right so

play10:23

this is interesting uh what what do you

play10:25

like about this guy you like that he

play10:26

basically to me one one thing I like is

play10:28

I feel he broke the like Precious rules

play10:31

of like like writing and book like being

play10:34

an author is this like high Prestige

play10:36

usually it's a high Prestige low volume

play10:39

labor of love uh you know that may you

play10:42

know almost never makes money and if it

play10:44

happens to make money you you kind of

play10:45

got lucky with this one Smash Hit And um

play10:48

you know the honor is in slaving away at

play10:51

this novel for four years and he's

play10:54

sounds like he broke all those rules

play10:55

he's not precious about it he's like

play10:57

cool let's write books people want to

play10:58

read read let's make it formulaic uh

play11:01

let's make it so that I can hire people

play11:02

that are going to write these books um

play11:04

let's scale this baby up no individual

play11:06

we're hitting singles and doubles baby

play11:08

we're not going for home runs

play11:09

necessarily because these will all add

play11:11

up and it sounds like the cool thing is

play11:12

that this guy almost like productized

play11:15

this type of book and treated it more

play11:17

like a business person than he did a

play11:19

artist well in reality what he is is

play11:21

he's he was he was the CEO of the

play11:23

Thompson Agency Group that's like a

play11:26

that's part of a huge corporation and

play11:29

he's basically an advertising executive

play11:31

turned author and he brings some of that

play11:34

Pizzazz

play11:35

to being an author and it has worked

play11:38

really well so he's both a business

play11:39

person am and an advertising person all

play11:41

right everyone a quick break to tell you

play11:42

about HubSpot and this one's easy

play11:44

because I'm going to show you an example

play11:45

of how I'm doing this at my company when

play11:47

I say I I mean not my team I mean I'm

play11:49

the one who actually made this so I've

play11:50

got this company called Hampton you can

play11:52

check it out join hampton.com it's a

play11:54

community for Founders and one of the

play11:56

ways that we've grown is we've created

play11:57

these surveys where we'll ask ask our

play11:59

members certain questions that a lot of

play12:01

people a lot of times people are afraid

play12:02

to ask so things like what their net

play12:04

worth is how their assets are allocated

play12:06

all these like interesting questions and

play12:07

then we'll put it in a survey and I went

play12:09

and made a landing page so you can check

play12:11

it out at join hampton.com wealth you

play12:14

can actually see the landing page that I

play12:16

made and the hard part with this is with

play12:18

Hampton we are appealing to a sort of a

play12:20

a higher-end customer sort of like like

play12:23

a Louis Vuitton or Ferrari so I needed

play12:25

the landing page to look a very

play12:26

particular way HubSpot has templates

play12:28

that's what we used we just change the

play12:29

colors a little bit to match our brand

play12:31

very easy they have this drag and drop

play12:33

version of their Landing Page Builder

play12:35

and it's super simple I'm not Technical

play12:37

and I'm the one who actually made it and

play12:39

once it's made I then shared it on

play12:40

social media and we had thousands of

play12:42

people see it and thousands of people

play12:43

who gave us their information and I can

play12:45

then see over the next handful of weeks

play12:48

this is how much revenue came in from

play12:49

this wealth survey that I did this is

play12:51

where the revenue came from so it came

play12:53

from Twitter it came from LinkedIn

play12:54

whatever it came from I can actually go

play12:56

and look at it and I can say oh well

play12:58

that works that didn't work do more of

play13:00

that do less of that and if you're

play13:01

interested in making landing pages like

play13:03

this I highly suggest it look I'm

play13:04

actually doing it but you can check it

play13:06

out go to the link in the description of

play13:08

YouTube and get started all right now

play13:10

back to MFM let me give you two more

play13:12

that I think are even more interesting

play13:13

have you seen these books lately written

play13:15

by this guy named Jack Carr it's kind of

play13:17

all the rage right now I've I've heard

play13:19

the name but I I haven't read anything

play13:21

now all right so Jack Carr is a former

play13:23

Navy SEAL he served in the Navy Seals

play13:25

from 1996 I think to

play13:27

2016 and he started writing these books

play13:30

called uh the first one was called the

play13:32

terminal list it came out in 2018 and if

play13:35

if you go to the terminal list on Amazon

play13:36

you'll see it's it's one of the highest

play13:38

reviewed books I've ever seen given the

play13:40

quantity of reviews it has tens of

play13:42

thousands or hundreds of thousands of

play13:43

reviews and it's like a 4.5 I read one

play13:46

of them two weeks ago I think I even

play13:48

suggested that you read it but it's

play13:50

really great it's basically like the

play13:52

equivalent of a romance novel for a

play13:54

woman it's like James Bond for the man

play13:57

it's like basically the story of a guy

play14:00

who goes through all these hardships

play14:02

where he's a he's an ex Navy SEAL his

play14:04

family gets hurt he's got a save them

play14:07

he's got to get revenge whatever all

play14:09

that like Epic Man [Β __Β ] however I

play14:12

started reading his book and I noticed

play14:13

something really interesting he names

play14:16

products and Brands like crazy in his

play14:19

books and I'll give you an example so

play14:21

this is a a few excerpts or one excerpt

play14:24

from from one of the books where he

play14:25

talks about he reached inside and

play14:27

removed the 9mm myth and Weston M39 from

play14:30

his chest better known in the SEAL Teams

play14:32

as the mk22 hush puppy and then he goes

play14:36

on to saying he grabbed a box of his 9

play14:38

millimeter super Vel subsonic ammunition

play14:40

that was sitting next to his Yeti cooler

play14:45

he I swear to God he'll talk about

play14:48

things like for example he'll talk about

play14:50

like he sipped his athletic

play14:53

greens he names Brands like crazy like

play14:57

there was one point where he was talking

play14:58

about like they're like he needed the

play14:59

best most durable equipment so we

play15:01

started using a hill person fanny pack

play15:03

or something like that and I'm

play15:05

like like dude can we get like my he's

play15:08

like he he put on his headphones and

play15:11

turned on my first million his go-to on

play15:13

Tuesday and Thursday for all types of

play15:15

entrepreneurial inspiration and then dud

play15:19

he he named stuff like crazy and the the

play15:22

main character his name is James Rees

play15:24

he's like a James Bond type of guy where

play15:25

he does a lot of bad stuff but like you

play15:26

really like him and you kind of want to

play15:27

be like him and he just names all of the

play15:30

products that he uses and it's crazy and

play15:32

so I was interested I'm like why is this

play15:34

guy naming all these products so I go to

play15:36

his website I Googled jackar Brands I

play15:38

just Google that he's got this whole

play15:41

website I think it's just Jack car.com

play15:43

but if you Google uh jackar Brands uh

play15:47

what you'll see is he has Jack car.com

play15:49

and he creates do do you know like that

play15:50

website um unrate or uh uh gear Patrol

play15:56

he basically has created his own version

play15:58

of that where he has all these gift

play16:00

guides or he'll be like here's all the

play16:02

gear that uh James reest used in this

play16:05

book and he has these beautiful guides

play16:07

on his website and lo and behold if you

play16:10

highlight over a lot of them they're all

play16:12

affiliate links and in

play16:15

fact and in fact oftentimes on Jack

play16:18

car.com he sells his own stuff and so

play16:21

one of the main parts in this first book

play16:22

that I read is he's got this fancy

play16:24

Tomahawk which is basically like an Axe

play16:27

and he uses this Tom Tom Hawk to kill

play16:29

people and it's like a really high

play16:30

quality Tomahawk Well Jack car.com sells

play16:34

that exact same Tomahawk and I thought

play16:37

that this was brilliant because when

play16:38

reading these stories he's talks about

play16:40

the cars that he's in like the type of

play16:42

car that he's in is like a main part I'm

play16:43

like I want all this stuff because this

play16:45

character James ree is so cool all I

play16:47

have to do is go to Jack car.com and I

play16:49

can buy all of this stuff and it's

play16:51

amazing I love this strategy yeah this

play16:54

is brilliant i' never I never would have

play16:56

thought that product placement in books

play16:58

would work like product placement in

play16:59

movies does but that makes perfect sense

play17:02

this is his uh this is his febles this

play17:04

is his prime

play17:06

Tomahawk dude it's awesome and by the

play17:08

way I was just giving him a little [Β __Β ]

play17:10

not all of them are affiliate links but

play17:12

a lot of them are and if you go to like

play17:14

his Amazon page he even has this cool

play17:16

feature on his Amazon page where it

play17:18

lists all of the products in the books

play17:20

and those are think this is just like um

play17:22

you know for example a lot of people ask

play17:24

us a bunch of questions about like oh

play17:25

what do you use for this whatever and

play17:26

it's like sometimes writing the [Β __Β ]

play17:28

down is actually just it's valuable to

play17:31

them it's useful to me it saves me time

play17:34

uh and I know that a bunch of podcasters

play17:35

do this but it's it's like small income

play17:36

it's signed income it's not their main

play17:38

thing do you think this guy's like he's

play17:39

got to be making more off of his books

play17:41

than he is off of this uh this Amazon

play17:43

affiliate thing right I think he's

play17:45

making more off his books but my third

play17:48

example is I'm going to show someone

play17:49

who's making way more off this thing and

play17:52

I think there's a world where Jack Carr

play17:54

will make way more off that side thing

play17:56

than the original thing meaning when you

play17:58

think of a Navy SEAL you think of like

play18:00

many things including like the cool

play18:01

types of gear they have and you like see

play18:03

what they're wearing you're like that's

play18:04

neat I would love to have that thing or

play18:05

you know it's like cosplaying to be a

play18:07

tough guy there's a

play18:09

here's right I mean like he says in his

play18:13

cardigan

play18:17

yeah yeah as he walked around his home

play18:19

wearing Birkin socks

play18:23

yeah does JC Penney like sell like

play18:25

really good boxers or something I could

play18:27

talk about the third one Steve ranella

play18:31

have you heard of Steve re renella I'm

play18:33

three for three no who is Steve ranella

play18:35

okay this one is I would I would not

play18:37

think you would know who this guy is so

play18:38

he originally starts as a magazine

play18:41

article guy for outdoor magazine so

play18:43

basically he's from Michigan went to

play18:44

school in Montana He loves the outdoors

play18:46

he also loves writing and so he starts

play18:48

as a freelance journalist he works for

play18:50

outdoor magazine he works for like Men's

play18:52

Health these things where he he's able

play18:53

to like talk about the outdoors and they

play18:55

pay him a small amount of money whatever

play18:57

his first book book that he writes is

play18:59

about foraging so which is basically

play19:01

just he wanted to create the books sound

play19:04

silly but they're actually awesome he

play19:05

wanted to write about how he went and

play19:07

hunted and forged his own Thanksgiving

play19:09

dinner but like in doing that you find

play19:11

like the meaning of life and you see

play19:13

like the history of food whatever and

play19:15

Outdoors it's awesome the second book

play19:17

that he did is called American buffalo

play19:18

and it's this amazing book about him

play19:20

hunting Buffalo and how the Buffalo are

play19:22

really important to American history

play19:24

whatever if you're not into that you're

play19:25

not into it which I don't think you are

play19:26

but for the people who are what gave it

play19:29

away

play19:31

yeah this is like you know my body

play19:34

language right now is the body language

play19:35

of a girl who's about to get grinded on

play19:38

by a guy at the club unwantedly no no no

play19:40

thanks foraging for my food no thanks

play19:43

I'm out of here would you like a free

play19:46

copy of my book it's signed

play19:50

nope yeah you're you're not into this

play19:52

guy but you're going to be into what

play19:53

what I'm about to explain so he writes

play19:54

This Book American buffalo it gets

play19:56

pretty popular so then he creates this

play19:58

website called meater.com have you ever

play20:00

heard of meat eater I have heard of meat

play20:02

eater yes so meat eater starts as a

play20:04

series of podcasts they have a show on

play20:06

this thing called the the outdoor or the

play20:08

sports channel something like that and

play20:10

it starts working out well eventually

play20:14

chernin I think you know churnin they

play20:16

invest into it and at this point in 2023

play20:18

meat eater is a website where Steve

play20:20

Rella uh blogs about Outdoors he

play20:24

publishes books his books under the meet

play20:25

eater name he has recipe books he has uh

play20:29

more podcasts whatever newsletters

play20:31

however they went and bought a bunch of

play20:33

Brands they bought a duck call business

play20:35

they went and bought um a clothing line

play20:39

now in 2023 they announced that they did

play20:42

a 100 million in revenue from selling

play20:44

all of the products on meater.com of

play20:47

which his kind of claim to fame or at

play20:49

least where he gets a lot of the traffic

play20:51

from is his books and then his podcasts

play20:52

and things like that and so this is an

play20:54

example of a guy who I think has made

play20:57

significant ific more or will make

play20:59

significantly more in terms of

play21:00

Enterprise Value from selling the

play21:03

product that he talks about in the books

play21:05

or selling the lifestyle those Guy's

play21:07

super fascinating dude going from

play21:09

American buffalo a book about buffalo in

play21:13

America or whatever

play21:15

to having $100 million doll in revenue

play21:18

on your business is like that's not the

play21:20

American dream but it's it's something

play21:23

it's someone's dream somewhere it's it's

play21:26

an American Dream It's yeah that is I

play21:29

can't believe that that happened that's

play21:30

insane churnin is so smart by the way

play21:32

they took this one thesis of content to

play21:35

Commerce so they were like hey anybody

play21:38

whose's world classic content it's not

play21:40

valued properly in the market because

play21:42

media is such a [Β __Β ] business that

play21:44

they're valued as a media business but

play21:45

if you can flip their business model

play21:47

from content to Commerce then this thing

play21:50

is gonna this thing is going to take off

play21:52

and it's going to take off in the same

play21:54

way that our YouTube Subs are going to

play21:55

take off when you go to YouTube and you

play21:58

say to yourself godamn I'm learning a

play22:00

lot from Sam today about mediators and

play22:02

about authors and about all these people

play22:05

and they're going to go to YouTube

play22:06

You're Gonna Go to my first million and

play22:07

you're gonna click subscribe because you

play22:09

love us so much thank you very much

play22:10

that's the plug that was a good one

play22:11

pretty seamless right good job I think

play22:14

um if I had to make a prediction I think

play22:16

that meat eater will be worth many many

play22:18

many hundreds of millions maybe even a

play22:20

billion dollars in the next 10 years I I

play22:23

believe it these these lifestyle Brands

play22:25

once you get like there is no no Niche

play22:28

too small with these lifestyle Brands

play22:29

mediator is actually pretty big compared

play22:31

to some of these lifestyle Brands like

play22:32

the hinki the watch brand luxury watches

play22:35

only right or there's things for like

play22:37

you know how people when they get into

play22:39

biking they become like you know Lamer

play22:42

they start dressing like

play22:44

SpongeBob Spandex and like clipons and

play22:47

they walk into a coffee shop after like

play22:49

a 990,000 mile ride that morning like

play22:52

those people are super valuable as an

play22:53

audience and they need content that's

play22:55

like so lame like that that it's the

play22:57

thing that they care about and so

play22:59

there's like an endless niche of these

play23:00

like really really hypers specific

play23:02

lifestyle content brands that I think

play23:04

can be built uh you just have to come

play23:06

from that space it sounds like this guy

play23:08

Steve Rella you know came from that

play23:10

space which is pretty pretty cool you

play23:11

want to know the uh here's a curveball

play23:13

to the situation he lives in

play23:17

Brooklyn for real he lives in he lives

play23:19

in Brooklyn yeah well he lives in

play23:23

Brooklyn I was doing research on him and

play23:25

he's like from Montana and he's like I

play23:26

know Montana better than anywhere

play23:28

anywhere anyone else in the country like

play23:30

I knew enough to get the hell out of

play23:31

there yeah and now he lives in Brooklyn

play23:34

which is what I thought was kind of

play23:36

weird um but anyway those are my three

play23:39

examples of strange ways or shocking

play23:42

ways that a bunch of these authors are

play23:43

making money I know that you were

play23:44

thinking about becoming an author does

play23:46

this change but I think you've paused it

play23:48

I'm not sure if you've paused it or well

play23:50

I think becoming an author uh to make

play23:52

money is just uh that's like saying you

play23:55

know I was hungry so I went to church

play23:56

it's like yeah just cuz I have some some

play23:58

food there doesn't mean that's why you

play23:59

go and so like I don't think making

play24:02

money is the reason to write a book if

play24:03

you're going to want if you want to make

play24:05

money and you're smart about marketing

play24:06

and all that there's a hundred times

play24:08

easier ways to make money did you just

play24:10

make up that analogy that was a really

play24:12

good uh that was a really good analogy I

play24:14

did my morning routine today so you know

play24:15

the brain is on um the brain is awake

play24:18

the thing that I've looked into is how

play24:21

much these authors make so there's like

play24:24

tiers to this so uh if it was 10 tiers

play24:27

the first five tiers you know of tier 10

play24:30

through five is just all of them made no

play24:33

money actually maybe tiers you know like

play24:36

uh 10 all the way to number three all

play24:38

made no money but a couple of

play24:39

interesting data points uh that are in

play24:41

our world so I think the top tier is

play24:44

like the JK rowlings of the world the JK

play24:47

Rowling James Patterson which is like

play24:49

you actually are mainstream Canon right

play24:53

you are you're a part of the meta like

play24:55

you you became the equivalent you know

play24:57

you're going to get a Netflix show type

play24:58

of thing dude have you ever thought

play25:00

about by the way have you thought about

play25:01

JK Rawling and how she invented an

play25:03

entire universe and made up rules to

play25:05

like a game or a language that people

play25:08

refer to now like the word muggle she

play25:10

just thought of that word at least twice

play25:12

a week you know people do the Roman

play25:14

Empire thing I don't give a [Β __Β ] about

play25:15

the Roman Empire but dude I do think of

play25:18

like Diagon Alle I think about Hogwarts

play25:19

I think about all these places right

play25:21

like I think about that twice a week how

play25:23

cool that is someone made it up yeah

play25:27

it's weird to me that when I think about

play25:28

that I'm just like that's that's so odd

play25:30

no [Β __Β ] what percent of you is like

play25:33

might be

play25:34

real is there any part of you that's

play25:37

like well I I am just a mugle how would

play25:40

I know the way that I think about it is

play25:43

it she is so good at inventing this

play25:46

thing that she couldn't possibly have

play25:47

invented it and she's just telling a

play25:49

true story like you know what I mean

play25:51

like it's just impossible to think that

play25:52

one brain like our brains are each six

play25:55

pounds but that came out of hers I don't

play25:57

understand

play25:58

how that happens dude I've been at an

play26:00

airport where it's like you have the

play26:01

smart cart thing and I'm walking between

play26:04

you know nine and 10 and I don't run at

play26:08

it but like you know I'll take my finger

play26:09

and sort of drag it against the wall

play26:11

just in case there's a little little

play26:13

give in that in that wall you know I'll

play26:14

play I'll see um so there's that that

play26:17

tier right that's like god tier then

play26:19

there's the James clear you know Atomic

play26:22

habits David gogin Mark Manson I think

play26:25

these guys have cleared like 30 to $50

play26:27

million off of a single book that's a

play26:29

lot I would say more like 20 so James

play26:33

Clear I think uh I don't know how many

play26:34

he's sold now it's his thing is

play26:36

escalating by the way which is really

play26:37

interesting he tweeted this out recently

play26:39

and it was it was something like I'll

play26:40

try to find it but it was basically like

play26:42

he first year was like you know maybe

play26:44

like a 100,000 and then the next year

play26:46

was like 200,000 the third year was a

play26:48

million and then the fourth year was

play26:50

like 4 million and the fifth year was

play26:53

like 15 million and he's just gone up

play26:55

and up and up I think now he sold uh

play26:58

basically I don't know 20 million copies

play26:59

or something like that worldwide and so

play27:01

you know no way really that many 20

play27:03

million yeah yeah his book is like a

play27:06

it's like a runaway train basically um

play27:08

so I I think I'm pretty sure his his

play27:09

book has grossed like 150 to20 million

play27:13

probably 100 probably $150 million

play27:15

worldwide it's my guess you know I might

play27:17

be off by 30 million in either direction

play27:19

but but I'm not off by by half you know

play27:22

um and he's just a guy in Ohio I think

play27:24

like he's just he's just a guy like I I

play27:27

knew him before the I talked to him

play27:29

before the book and he was just like a

play27:31

blogger in Ohio like it didn't seem

play27:33

particularly fancy he years what I yeah

play27:37

I knew him before he stopped talking to

play27:38

me yeah so so I think that's like the

play27:42

next tier David gogin his book I think

play27:44

has done like 35 $40 million in sales

play27:47

and he did it through scribe so he kind

play27:49

of like owns more of that um Tim Ferris

play27:54

surprisingly didn't sell that many

play27:55

copies of 4our work week I thought 4our

play27:57

work week was like a to me it was like

play27:59

that was a huge book it obviously did

play28:02

super super well but I think it sold two

play28:04

million copies you know so two million

play28:05

versus 20 million 10x more for for

play28:07

Atomic habits which is pretty crazy a

play28:09

fun one is Eric Jorgenson so you know

play28:11

Eric Jorgenson um he he was like a

play28:15

startup growth guy he lived in some I

play28:18

don't know where he lives he lives in

play28:19

like Kansas City or something like that

play28:21

and Eric Jorgenson wrote the naval manac

play28:24

which was basically he's like yo naval's

play28:26

tweets are the [Β __Β ] what if I printed

play28:29

them out basically like what if I

play28:32

printed it out and stapled it together

play28:33

right obviously he did more than that

play28:35

but the core idea was he didn't write

play28:37

the book he didn't do a he didn't study

play28:39

nal's life and write a biography he

play28:41

didn't create a bunch of original wisdom

play28:43

he just took naval's existing wisdom

play28:44

that was super fragmented packaged it up

play28:46

into a really easy to use book and then

play28:48

and he actually gives away like the

play28:49

ebook for free I think online um I'm

play28:53

pretty sure Eric he's never told me this

play28:54

is my my guess work based on some some

play28:57

back of the envelope stuff pretty sure

play28:58

Eric has made like3 to5 million off of

play29:00

the nalmanac himself no way I don't

play29:04

believe that that is so much 82%

play29:07

confident that that's a real number dude

play29:09

if you're even half right I would be

play29:12

he's definitely made more than a million

play29:13

dollars I think it's like three to five

play29:14

million do off the nval manac okay well

play29:17

that's insane does Naval get anything

play29:20

Naval got distribution I don't think he

play29:22

gives theal any money from it I don't

play29:24

know I'm going to make you famous baby

play29:25

you're going to be superstar that's what

play29:26

I'm going to tell you I'm going to

play29:27

create the sha

play29:28

shaam dude you said that way too

play29:31

naturally that was not the first time

play29:33

you've said that is that what you told

play29:38

trun that's insane I uh that that

play29:42

basically the concept is ridiculous

play29:44

right I mean it's good the concept is

play29:45

genius is what it is he he took somebody

play29:48

else's genius that was fragmented and

play29:49

was like why would I write nobody wants

play29:52

to read the Eric jensson book but a lot

play29:54

of people want to write the nval book

play29:55

and nval is kind of Open Source with it

play29:57

he has he said this many times he's like

play29:59

the best thing you could do is let other

play30:01

people reshare your ideas they're you

play30:04

know stealing your ideas but really

play30:05

they're propagating your ideas it's one

play30:07

of the highest compliments one of the

play30:08

best strategies you can have to get more

play30:10

distribution and so you know I think he

play30:12

was happy that Eric you it took him like

play30:14

a year he put a lot of effort into it

play30:16

not nearly as much effort as the guy who

play30:17

actually came up with the content well

play30:20

nal's made 500 million in his life so I

play30:22

think he's done fine too right that's

play30:24

that's the whole idea no and Eric by the

play30:26

way I think is now the CEO of scribe

play30:28

David the the company that did David

play30:30

gagan's book so and the company that I

play30:33

think you might you be using uh yeah not

play30:36

yet but um okay so another crazy story

play30:40

so I've never heard of this book and I

play30:41

doubt you have either because are you a

play30:43

Sci-Fi reader not exactly only like the

play30:45

most famous ones so have you ever heard

play30:47

of this book called wool no talking to

play30:50

me about science fiction is like talking

play30:51

to you about

play30:53

bison you know I mean ain't going very

play30:55

far that conversation's got a lot of

play30:57

dead heads yeah that's a hard yes hand

play31:00

well basically here's the here's the

play31:01

idea I was looking at the uh at the

play31:03

charts and I saw all of the Game of

play31:05

Thrones books so it's like you know A

play31:08

Song of Ice and Fire and it's basically

play31:09

George R Martin George R Martin George R

play31:11

Martin there's five of his books and

play31:12

there was one book on top of it called

play31:14

wool and I was like I've never heard of

play31:16

this book what is this book so I went

play31:17

and researched it so the author this guy

play31:20

Hugh Hoy which sounds like a fake name

play31:22

might be I don't know um the his origin

play31:25

story is he's living in North Carolina

play31:27

he's broke uh he was doing some odd jobs

play31:29

he was like oh this a roofing gig yeah

play31:31

I'll go help you out you know I'm a

play31:32

technician sure I'll help you out and

play31:34

basically at some point he's unemployed

play31:36

and he's like you know what I'm gonna

play31:37

write a book his wife was kind of

play31:39

supporting the household he's like I'm

play31:40

gonna write a book and she's like okay

play31:41

honey great uh sure you don't want to

play31:44

get out there with the old resume and

play31:45

he's like no no I'm gonna write a Sci-Fi

play31:47

book like it was like the idea was like

play31:49

something he like what if aliens at this

play31:51

flying car or whatever I don't know what

play31:52

it was some crazy idea this conversation

play31:55

could go way different it'd be like hey

play31:56

by the way like I know that you love

play31:58

having these action figures in the

play31:59

plastic still but can we make a little

play32:01

bit of room for the

play32:03

baby oh you're going to write a book I'm

play32:05

gonna go find another husband so so he

play32:09

puts the book out he sells less than a

play32:11

thousand dollars of the book okay so

play32:13

first first try and it fail most people

play32:15

would obviously quit strike one he's

play32:17

like oh I'm just getting warmed up he's

play32:19

like I that was that was good but I can

play32:21

do better and he still has no job he

play32:23

needs to kind of start you know paying

play32:25

for the bills a little bit so I love

play32:27

this part about the story he gets a job

play32:29

but he's like he's trying to find not

play32:31

the highest paying job he's trying to

play32:33

find a job that will make a minimum

play32:34

amount of money of money that he needs

play32:36

to live with the maximum amount of free

play32:38

hours so he ends up finding this job

play32:40

that he could do for about 25 30 hours a

play32:41

week it pays only 10 bucks an hour but

play32:43

he's like I'll take it because there's a

play32:45

lot of downtime where I'm just sitting

play32:47

there not doing anything I could be

play32:49

writing during that time and it's only

play32:51

30 hours a week so I can spend all of my

play32:53

free time doing this and I also don't

play32:54

even want a good job that'll make it

play32:56

hard to quit later because I want to be

play32:57

an author and I'm not going to trap

play32:59

myself in a job that's like hard to

play33:02

leave then he changes his schedule he's

play33:03

like I'm going to wake up 2 am every day

play33:06

and I'm gonna write before my job I'm

play33:07

gonna write during my lunch break I'm

play33:09

write after dinner it became a

play33:10

compulsion for him and in three weeks he

play33:13

writes this book wool three weeks so

play33:15

again just like James Patterson wasn't

play33:16

precious about the whole idea of writing

play33:18

books this guy was like three weeks not

play33:20

three years and so he bangs he bangs out

play33:23

this book he puts it on Amazon for 99

play33:25

cents and he sells like 1 th copies he's

play33:27

like boom thousand bucks all right love

play33:29

it and he's like uh and the but like you

play33:32

his small reader base it's kind of like

play33:33

weissy they say you want like a small

play33:35

number of people you'd rather have a

play33:37

thousand people that love you than

play33:38

100,00 people that just kind of like you

play33:40

so you had a thousand people that really

play33:42

led the book and they were like dude we

play33:43

got to write a sequel so very next month

play33:46

before they get cold he writes a sequel

play33:49

by the way wall Wall's 530 Pages he did

play33:52

that in three weeks so then he uh he

play33:55

writes a sequel a month later he uh or

play33:57

like you know two months later whatever

play33:58

it is and he sells 3,000 copies of that

play34:01

one he's like all right I got to keep

play34:02

going so he writes two more and he sells

play34:05

10,000 copies and finally he puts out

play34:07

the collection all five of the books

play34:09

that he's written in a very short period

play34:11

of time and the first month he sells

play34:13

23,000 copies of the set and now he's

play34:15

selling it for

play34:16

$67.99 he makes basically 140 Grand that

play34:20

uh in in gross revenue that month and

play34:22

he's self-publishing this whole thing so

play34:24

he's keeping 70% of it um whereas a

play34:26

normal author is going to keep 10% maybe

play34:28

15% of it and all of a sudden um you

play34:32

know the months Roll by he's now sold

play34:35

500,000 books uh before H you know

play34:38

before anybody knows it which is a [Β __Β ]

play34:40

ton of books to sell that's like you

play34:42

know you're in the top top you know

play34:44

percent of a percent uh that are of

play34:47

authors at that stage and he's getting

play34:48

approached by Publishers and they're

play34:50

like he's like okay what's the deal and

play34:51

they're like we'll give you you know

play34:54

$250,000 like I'm already making

play34:55

$250,000 they're like okay we'll give

play34:57

you more money he's like well I'm what

play34:59

why would I give you why would I take

play35:00

some money today for like now I give up

play35:03

all my upside and they're like well we

play35:05

can help you get distribution he's like

play35:07

I've sold 500,000 copies myself and

play35:09

they're like how the hell did you do

play35:10

that and he's like and so his strategy

play35:12

his like gorilla tactics to get this

play35:14

book out there where he's like all right

play35:16

I need to influence the influencers so

play35:18

he sent basically like copies of the

play35:20

book to bloggers and reviewers at

play35:22

Goodreads so not like influencers but

play35:24

book influencers so people who

play35:27

books and good reads like high rank and

play35:28

good good reads people so then he's like

play35:30

all right that's good Next Step he goes

play35:33

on Reddit and he's got uh he does an AMA

play35:35

on Reddit for 12 hours and so he's just

play35:37

like I'm just gonna like soak up all the

play35:39

Reddit love for this day on on Reddit

play35:41

all right does that then he starts

play35:43

encouraging fan fiction and Fan Art

play35:46

whereas most authors are pretty again

play35:47

precious about like it's my IP they try

play35:50

to like you know take down anybody who

play35:52

writes like variations of their book

play35:53

he's like no no no go crazy I built the

play35:55

universe but you guys can fill up all

play35:57

the stories and he would basically

play35:59

incentivize people to design other

play36:01

alternative book covers for it so now

play36:03

their little audience would you know

play36:05

their art that artist audience would see

play36:06

them designing a book cover for this

play36:08

book called wool that was pretty cool he

play36:10

picks 30 of the Diehard readers and he's

play36:12

like okay how do I get my die hards to

play36:15

help me and become like you know super

play36:16

evangelist and so he made them beta

play36:18

readers again everybody's so precious

play36:20

they keep everything under lock and key

play36:22

he took his super fans and was like

play36:23

you're going to be readers of the of the

play36:25

early editions of new books before they

play36:26

come out so he did a bunch of community

play36:28

building essentially like stuff that

play36:30

doesn't really scale that each one

play36:32

individually wasn't a game changer but

play36:34

if you add up that and the 20 other

play36:36

things that he did you could see how he

play36:37

like that's not what made it successful

play36:39

but he did start turning the crank at

play36:42

the beginning the crank is pretty hard

play36:43

to turn but eventually you know you you

play36:46

you if you power through that first part

play36:48

of the crank it'll start to move on its

play36:49

own and that's basically what happened

play36:51

for this guy and so then someone comes

play36:53

up to him and they're like look I don't

play36:54

think you should sell your book rights

play36:57

but I do think you should sell your film

play36:58

rights you haven't actually you're not

play37:00

going to make a film yourself so he sold

play37:02

his film rights and um and he kept his

play37:05

his uh book writs you know as an

play37:06

independent person for a while I I think

play37:09

maybe he sold it now I'm not sure but he

play37:11

uh he also Met George R Martin once he

play37:13

went to a book signing for uh for George

play37:15

R Martin and he's like hey George like

play37:17

um it's me you know Hugh Hoy and the

play37:20

guy's like never heard of you and he's

play37:22

like I'm the number six guy on the

play37:23

Sci-Fi list like you know it's your five

play37:26

books and I'm number six and George AR

play37:28

Martin he posted this thing that George

play37:29

AR Martin signed his book and said to

play37:31

number six keep trying and then a couple

play37:34

months later a couple months later he

play37:36

actually hit number one and so uh just a

play37:38

pretty cool story of like a

play37:40

self-published author that that really

play37:41

made it happen like entrepreneurial

play37:43

hustle story that's a great story do you

play37:45

use Goodreads do you know anything about

play37:47

Goodreads I've used Goodreads yeah I bet

play37:48

the founders of Goodreads uh and I was

play37:50

like Yeah o is Chandler yeah they're

play37:52

they're really cool people really nice

play37:53

people it's a cool product but but it's

play37:56

old now it's been around for a long time

play37:59

but it's got a great Mo I I can tell you

play38:00

a little bit about good reads but this

play38:02

guy Hugh Hol he has so I'm I use good

play38:05

reads religiously I'm I'm I'm that's

play38:08

kind of like my it's where my library I

play38:09

keep everything this guy has

play38:11

750,000 ratings which is huge and if

play38:15

you're in the hundreds of thousands of

play38:16

ratings and you have over a fourstar

play38:19

review you're like the best the best he

play38:20

has a 4.15 review uh out of five for

play38:25

almost a million reviews it's a amazing

play38:27

yeah it all started with a standalone

play38:29

short story basically it wasn't even

play38:30

like a full book it was like a short

play38:31

story that he published at the at the

play38:33

beginning of that first three weeks but

play38:34

again that's kind of what you want it's

play38:35

a prototype right he treated it like an

play38:37

entrepreneur would not like a author

play38:38

would he's like the blue collar version

play38:40

of sci-fi this guy's like the Larry Bird

play38:42

of sci-fi you know what I mean like from

play38:44

French Lick Indiana

play38:48

yeah dude how insane is it that Larry

play38:51

Bird was so amazing and would just

play38:54

literally drink beers like on the bust

play38:56

to the game and like people used to

play38:58

smoke cigarettes at halftime of those

play39:01

games like isn't that absolutely insane

play39:04

now like now LeBron James sleeps in like

play39:06

a hyperbaric chamber but like the guy

play39:08

who was basically the LeBron James of

play39:10

his time was literally just like Downing

play39:12

Bud Lights after games and he was like

play39:14

so skinny and so pale had the worst

play39:17

haircut the shortest shorts the best

play39:20

mustache the best mustache but he like

play39:22

kind of looked like a like a human

play39:24

version of like big bird and he just

play39:26

killed and he's considered one of the

play39:27

top five yeah that guy's amazing he he

play39:29

gives uh he gives the weirdos hope uh

play39:32

this story is amazing Hugh Holly um

play39:35

that's a good story um you want to do

play39:36

one or two more thing yeah uh

play39:39

Mill you Shepherd it's great you need to

play39:42

hire somebody go check it out it's how I

play39:44

hire a bunch of people if you want to

play39:46

hire people like I do use Shepherd how's

play39:49

that all right there that's there was no

play39:51

thrill in that chill but I kept it short

play39:53

do you have one more thing oh well I

play39:54

guess we didn't talk about this uh this

play39:56

is kind of cool James Clear just

play39:57

launched an app yesterday which I think

play39:59

was the stimulus for this whole thing

play40:01

that we didn't we didn't talk about

play40:02

Andrew Wilkinson he put out this tweet

play40:04

where he said uh we partner with James

play40:06

Clear tiny owns 40% James owns 60% we

play40:10

made this app I actually didn't look at

play40:12

the app it's a productivity app or a

play40:13

habit tracking app yeah what if it was

play40:16

just something completely different it's

play40:18

just a social media app just a network

play40:20

photo sharing app James just some like

play40:24

stupid game it's like you like they

play40:25

recreated like snake from

play40:30

Nokia that's so funny by the way okay so

play40:34

let's talk about a couple things here

play40:36

great idea to release a habits app uh

play40:39

you want an app to be habit forming

play40:40

literally that's like only successful

play40:42

apps are ones that you use habitually so

play40:45

creating a habits app is a good idea

play40:46

there's lots of there's habits apps but

play40:48

they're not made by James clear so I

play40:50

think this is like no no brain or idea

play40:52

he just created anything that was a

play40:54

habit like just like some supplement or

play40:55

drug like like I'm going to get you

play40:57

addicted we're going to make this habit

play40:59

watch this we're going to call it

play41:01

crack so I think genius idea by him

play41:05

maybe doubly genius idea by Andrew to

play41:08

pull this off I think it's amazing what

play41:10

he's doing he's done this now with

play41:11

huberman so he launched uh the Yerba

play41:13

mate drink with huberman which I think

play41:15

is also a genius idea I think what

play41:18

Andrew is doing now is the new playbook

play41:19

of what chernin did remember I was

play41:21

saying like chernin's Playbook with the

play41:22

content to Commerce they did it with bar

play41:24

stool they did it with eer they did it

play41:26

with like a bunch of these media media

play41:28

Publications that was a really good

play41:30

model and it's played out over the last

play41:32

10 years I think what Andrew doing now

play41:34

is going to play out over the next 10

play41:36

years which is he's partnering with

play41:37

these experts and authorities and he's

play41:40

like look I already have metalab that

play41:41

can do the design the engineering uh I

play41:44

have I I own a portfolio of businesses

play41:46

I've you know made a billion dollars

play41:48

doing this whole thing so let me find a

play41:50

CEO we'll build the whole thing you just

play41:52

have to promote it and it's a perfect

play41:54

fit with what you do I think it's is

play41:56

like such a good model it's also really

play41:58

fun for him right cuz he's going to get

play41:59

to hang out and rub shoulders with

play42:01

people who he likes and respects he's

play42:03

got like a cool cocktail story of being

play42:05

like Oh yeah we built the James Clear

play42:06

app we did the huberman drink we did the

play42:08

whatever right um they've done a bunch

play42:10

of these these apps now so I just think

play42:12

it's an awesome win all around like I'm

play42:14

I'm really happy for it we should have

play42:16

Andrew on to talk about it but my

play42:18

prediction is that this won't make

play42:20

nearly as much money as some of his

play42:22

other boring things that no one would

play42:24

ever talk about but

play42:26

it's cooler than all of the other ones

play42:29

like it's significantly cooler it won't

play42:31

make as much money but it's way cooler

play42:33

like to be able to like I think this

play42:34

thing is gonna make a lot of money why

play42:35

do you think this is not gonna make

play42:36

money well I just think that it's his

play42:39

other stuff just does so much better if

play42:40

I had to guess I think the can do like

play42:43

hundreds of Millions on meditation I'm

play42:45

pretty sure that you can get like 30 40

play42:48

million of ARR on a habit app I think

play42:51

maybe you can but Andrew also owns all

play42:53

these boring agencies that are like the

play42:56

thousandth most popular agency and they

play42:59

also make t many many tens of millions a

play43:01

year in profit no no if you add them all

play43:03

up they do but each individually does

play43:05

not right like if you add them all up

play43:06

they do his his agency if you add up

play43:09

what he's going to do with huberman with

play43:11

James Clear in the next five that he's

play43:12

going to do like this those are going to

play43:14

add up to be much bigger the hubman

play43:16

drink is a brilliant idea that is a

play43:18

absolutely brilliant idea the James

play43:20

Clear app like he's getting the right

play43:22

type of things like you don't want

play43:24

necessarily the A-list celebr because

play43:26

the A-list celebrity for every you know

play43:28

George Clooney or Ryan Reynolds that you

play43:30

get that that have a hit there's tons of

play43:32

others that they don't really care about

play43:33

promoting it they're too busy but it's

play43:35

not a fit they don't have like a direct

play43:37

relationship with their audience because

play43:39

they're actually on in Hollywood they're

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not like have a direct Channel Through

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social media and so the people that he's

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finding are like this is Meaningful for

play43:47

them it's a perfect fit with them they

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have a direct relationship with their

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audience and they haven't like um they

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have like love from Their audience it's

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not just like people who are fans of

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them it's people who have deep trust in

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them and I think that that is a I think

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he's picking the right influencers to do

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these I I would bet that he's going to

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make hundreds of millions off of these

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plays if you if you add up the you know

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three to five that he's going to do in

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this category I would bet that that's a

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three to three uh like a300 million

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prize I guess we'll have to have him on

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and uh ask him about it I'm he he's like

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a Spider Man he's or like an octopus

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he's has his tentacles like all over the

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place I see this I'm like how the [Β __Β ]

play44:23

did you weasle your way into that thing

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like just like he knows everything like

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he not knows everything he knows

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everyone I don't know how he gets his

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fingers on all these things I'll be like

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I'll be like hey uh where's our email

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we're influencers Andrew where you at

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well where's our offer he also plays

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Dumb with me all the time I go like

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you're I I'd probably be like hey have

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you heard of this guy named hberman I've

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been loving his podcast and Wilkinson

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would be like yeah I think it's a nice

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podcast I also enjoy it and then like

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weeks later like yeah we partnered with

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him and launched this company on this

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deal for 18 months yeah I'm like okay

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like he does that he does that kind of

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on a regular basis with me where I'll be

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like if you heard of this thing it's

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kind of neat and I'll be like yeah I

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agree that is neat he he is a super

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networker he is a absolutely P like

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incredible networker I am I I I am I

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admire his networking skills like he's

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like cool I like Bill Amman now I'm

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friends with Bill Amman and he's an

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investor in my company oh Charlie

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munger's my

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hero years later I'm having dinner with

play45:21

Charlie merer and he's offering me you

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know XYZ it's like he is really able

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when he puts his mind to it with who he

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wants to meet he is able to make that

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[Β __Β ] happen and um and I think he does

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it in a way that's mutually beneficial

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it's not like uh you most people when

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they're like oh I want to meet this

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person it's like just begging for you

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know time or attention in a way that's

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not additive to the other person I think

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he does it in a good way that's additive

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to the other person yeah he's he's

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fascinating in the way that he's able

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but he also he also

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turns a weird networking opportunity

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into like real businesses like usually

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more often than not when I meet people

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I'm like that was nice to meet you I'll

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see you never again uh this is awesome

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right high five and that's like where my

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brain stops yeah what a guy

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yeah that's like I'm literally like you

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know Dumb and Dumber when he's walking

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out of the 7-Eleven he's like big gulps

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huh all right catch you later that's

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that's me at every networking event same

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that's exactly how I am where it starts

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and ends right there and it's just like

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a passing memory and yes Andrew somehow

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like makes it into money and turns it

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into dollars I don't know how he does it

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but he's very good at it he told one

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story on the Pod where he was like I

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wanted to meet Dan Gilbert I met Dan

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Gilbert and then they had this challenge

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with this like or he had a product I

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have a design agency so we just made him

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a website for free that was really nice

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because he like used that as his

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currency to like you know hey I think

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you're awesome and we did this thing

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this is awesome right oh it's cuz my

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agency's awesome cuz I'm awesome and he

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just uses it to sort of like open the

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door he'll put in the work basically and

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he's he'd be like oh whenever you're

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free I'll fly there and let's you know

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I'll meet you you know I'll make the

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effort to come to come make this happen

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the takeaway is to have an agency to

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either have like an agency or like a

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sick house it's like oh you're in town

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come stay in my home and then you know

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what I mean you have to have like some

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like awesome ex should I do that anytime

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someone's traing like oh do you want to

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stay in my house and I just rent an

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Airbnb they can stay in they're just

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absolutely indebted to

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me well it's kind of a good tactic Chris

play47:24

sacka said that had this house in trucky

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and uh you know he would like lure which

play47:29

sounds weird more weird than it actually

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is he would lure these like inter house

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in

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truy come to my bed yeah I got AWS

play47:40

credits come

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over and he would like get these guys to

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come up and become friends with them and

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it was like they're they're like well I

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would love to hang out in trucky and

play47:46

just what happens you have a house and

play47:47

that's how we become friends with them

play47:49

but maybe great line about he goes uh

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when I lived in San Francisco I was just

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constantly getting like meeting requests

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or event invitations and it was like a

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good problem to have but at it's still a

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problem he's like I was playing defense

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I was just reacting to whatever was

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going on he's like when I moved to

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trucky then I played offense I would

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figure out who who it is that I want to

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actually spend time with and then I

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would proactively plan and like set it

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up so that Travis Callin came for the

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weekend and stayed with him he's like

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we're not going to just get coffee we're

play48:16

gonna hang out for a weekend and like

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for every 50 coffee meetings I do like

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one weekend is just so much more

play48:23

powerful than 50 coffee meetings and so

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he's like we hang out we spend time

play48:27

together they meet my family we chill in

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the hot tub we brainstorm in the morning

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then later that evening we a new idea

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comes and I'm just very helpful for

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these people that's how he did his Uber

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investment he did the same thing with

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the founder of Instagram that's how he

play48:39

did his Instagram investment too was he

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invited Kevin syrm to come stay at his

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place in trucky and he stayed there for

play48:44

whatever few days a week or whatever it

play48:46

was and by the end of that like they

play48:48

were kind of bonded and I think that was

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kraka did a lot of cool things and

play48:52

that's definitely one of them I don't

play48:53

know if a a three-bedroom place in the

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BBS is going to do the trick I think

play48:59

both of us are going to have to step it

play49:01

up can I interest you in Walnut Creek

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yeah we'll go to Safeway we'll come

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back like the only appeal you like

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marble countertops I got I got marble

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countertops like um all right is that it

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is that the pod that's the

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[Music]

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pod

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h

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