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So, bankers are basically people who help people sell companies and help people buy companies.
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And when you sell a company for like anything north of probably 50 million, they likely have a banker.
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And I've been contacting bankers, and my pitch to them is this, "Hey, I'm thinking about starting a company in this space.
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You've sold a few companies in this space.
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Tell me everything about why the this company was bought, as well as what the opportunities are that the buyer what they were looking for.
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And maybe in 5 or 10 years, I'll let you sell my company."
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And I've been able to line up meetings doing this.
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And it's a way genius and I've been a part of one or two of those types of conversations, and I was like, "Oh, wow, these guys are like vaults filled with gold."
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I I met a famous person this weekend.
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Um I went and saw Jimmy Is it Yang or Wang? Um the comedian.
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Uh I think it's O Yang or something like that.
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Oh, yeah, it was Jimmy O.
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I forget his last name, but he's uh What was his character in Silicon Valley? Jin Yang? Jin Yang, yeah.
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And he's a comedian, and he was an awesome guy.
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And my friend is dating him, Bree.
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And Bree, who funny in person or not? Yeah, he's awesome. He was awesome. Like comedian funny?
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Like you just talking to him or you're like Were you like "Wow, this person should be a comedian if they weren't?"
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No, he was just really insightful, and he had like really good strong opinions, and he told stories well.
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I mean, I think you could actually do it.
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If you were to sit down and write a a bit, I actually think that you have the same traits.
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Uh but no, he was just a really nice thoughtful guy, but he was like legit famous to where everywhere we went people would talk to him, and it was pretty pretty cool to see, and I imagine quite annoying for him.
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Because the people who are fans of him cuz he he doesn't actually talk like that.
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You know he's American, right?
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And Well, they're not fans of him.
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They're fans of Jin Yang.
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Yeah, well, they are fans of him, particularly the Asian community.
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They love him um because uh well, he's just like he's like representing nicely.
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But basically, they come up to like like a white guy came up to him and kind of said something a little inappropriate and it was like rooted in like the Silicon Valley show.
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And I like they think that he has an accent and things like that and that's super annoying, particularly in Austin where there's tons of like white bros.
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So, I imagine that could be annoying, but he was legit famous and it was kind of cool to see.
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When you're around people who are like, you know, famous in their world, um do you how do you act?
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Do you like do you go route door A, treat them like a normal person, in fact, almost disregard their fame.
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B, nerd out about, you know, asking them a zillion questions about, you know, the show and what blah blah blah, like, you know, basically to ask them all the questions they probably heard before, but with enthusiasm. Or C, something else. What do you do?
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Dude, so I do I the I do B, but I do it in a very direct way, kind of like the podcast where where they could tell that I'm like really confident, but I'm asking questions up that everyone wants to know.
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So, I'm like So, you're like kind of nagging them? Yeah, yeah.
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So, it's like So, what's it like Here's a tiny example.
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I've got a friend of a friend who had cancer and he lost his leg.
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And when I first saw him, I was like, "What's going on, man?
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Um are you crushing it at pull-ups cuz you're lighter now?
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Like, how many pounds did you lose off that leg?"
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And he like really quickly opened up cuz he was like, "Oh, you just got that out You got it We got it out of the way.
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That's You're not acting like he's not here, but you're also um not making a huge deal out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And so, that's like how I usually when I'm with famous people.
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So, I'm like, "So, what's it like? You're pretty famous.
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Is that cool or is it bad?"
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Like, just It's very direct and I typically find that it makes people lighten up and they and they'll and you you are nagging them in a sense, but you're also like congratulating them and they really will just open up.
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"You're better looking in person. I watched the show." Yeah, yeah.
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You're way taller than I thought.
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Yeah, you're not nearly as slight of build that I as I was expecting.
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Yeah, you're actually funny. Yeah.
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I don't know Yeah, you're it's like a you know, I don't care what people say. I think you're great.
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Dude, my brother-in-law has the best celebrity move.
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Um he he see if he sees a celebrity, he greets them like a long-lost friend.
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So, he'll see like like if he saw Mike Tyson and he'll be like "Mike, what's up, man? How you been?"
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And he'll go dap them up and he'll be like, "Hey, good seeing you."
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And he'll just like keep going.
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And they're just like, "Do I know this guy?"
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Where did I He'd be like He'd be like, "George, yo, how's Houston?" "Ah, George."
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And then he'll like he'll just keep going.
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And like just he'll just make it seem like they are They're just reconnecting rather than meeting for the first time.
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And I thought, "What a hack. What an amazing hack."
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Cuz these people meet tons of people, so they don't they don't remember.
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And so, they'll automatically go with the or assumption that they you like sort of know each other or you're equals in some way, peers in some way.
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You ever Have you ever been to a restaurant and the owner walks around just greeting people and asking how things are? Of course, yeah.
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That is I had a friend that told me he used to pick up women that way where he was just like I would approach this with the attitude like I wouldn't act like I was the owner, but in my head I would act like the owner.
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How's everyone doing here?
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Yeah, and I would just and I had that energy and I was able to meet so many people with that energy.
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restaurant owner energy, dude, that's so good. It's a good one.
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And so, I like at Hustle Con when we're hosting Hustle Con or when you and I are hosting one of our events, like you you kind of know everyone knows who you are and and so, you kind of know that you have the feeling where you can just walk up to talk to anyone and and they'll know what's up. Right.
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You have that energy when you're trying to meet girls and it's the best. Dude, that's so good.
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Like I'm just going to start wearing like a a small dish towel in my waist and then go to restaurants and then just Yeah, just just walk around, just have a drink, and just be walking around, you know, greeting each table, making sure everything's going smoothly for them.
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You're not And you're not lying.
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You're not telling them I never said it. Never said it.
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You assumed based on my big restaurant energy here. Um all right, bro.
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I got a a few interesting things to run by you.
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You had a Did you have a lot left over from last time? Yeah, I kind of did.
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Can I tell you about one Yeah, I don't know like business / idea this niche that's like got my attention right now.
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So, um I Did I talk about this the other day?
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I went to that the Blippi show.
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Did I tell you about this? No.
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All right, so So, do you know who Blippi is?
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Have you heard of Blippi?
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I don't know what that is. No.
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All right, so like remember like back there we had Barney or like, you know, like Pee-wee Herman or whatever like this like It's like it's a dude, so he kind of looks like Pee-wee Herman or whatever, but he's more like a Barney or, you know, Sesame Street style show.
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So, basically there's a guy who went on YouTube, created this brand called Blippi.
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And he um He's entertaining.
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So, he'll be like By the way, the funny thing that he does is there's no like set.
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He just goes into like Hey, we're at the aquarium, but they just go in like after 9:00 p. m. It's like closed down.
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And so, it's just they have it all to themselves.
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Like, hey, we're here in Las Vegas at this rock climbing studio.
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And so, he just uses that to film his thing, but he gives it a shout out at the beginning of the video.
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The video gets like 40 million views, so it's like, you know, it's it's worth it to let these guys film there.
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And he just like goes around and he basically just play with toys.
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He'll be like, I'm at an abandoned Chuck E.
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Cheese, and he'll go play with a bunch of toys.
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And there's like music and whatever overlaid. And it's the same guy. I'm looking at him now.
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It's the same guy every single time.
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It is except for as he blew up and got famous, then they switched him out with just a stunt double for a bit.
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And so, like that guy is like a substitute teacher sometimes, and then sometimes Blippi comes back.
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But like the main guy is the main guy. He wears his outfit.
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It's like this blue outfit with his orange glasses.
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He like always looks the same.
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So anyways, my daughter loved Blippi.
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We used to watch a ton of Blippi.
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And all of a sudden we see this ad that says um Blippi like the live show is coming to Oakland.
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And so we were like, oh we got And so instantly my wife buys tickets for for all of us in the family.
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We go to this thing last weekend.
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And it's it's at the same place you did Hustle Con.
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So it's at the Paramount Theater. And it is packed.
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Like, you know, Hustle Con was like, you know, uh sold out-ish.
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This was like sold out sold out.
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Like all the even the back shitty seat is like sold out.
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And it's full of parents and their kids.
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And then they just just like this they basically just created like a little play, like a little mini musical, 1 hour cuz kids don't have that long of an attention span.
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And it's just kind of like music and and like you know, lights and colors and he's oh, dinosaurs. Oh, rocks. Oh, how did it cost?
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So every ticket I want to say was That venue seats Maybe like 60 bucks a seat, something like that.
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So that venue seats between 2,500 and 3,000, I believe.
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Yeah, so I think there was 2,000 there.
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Um and I believe the tickets were were something like um something like 50, 60, 70 bucks, something like that.
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So we're in like 120,000 in sales.
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And then he played four shows in a row um that weekend and then he went to the next city.
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So it was or like maybe no, he had done eight shows or he's doing something like that.
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So it was like some crazy like thing where I was like, oh wow, this weekend they made whatever 800 grand.
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Um and yeah, the tickets tickets basically range from like, you know, 60 bucks to 90 bucks.
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And um and the place is lit, by the way.
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So like, you know, he comes on stage, kids go to crazy.
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He's like he you know, he'll be like, you know, what does the bubble do?
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And everyone's like, pop.
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And then he's like, when I say pop, can you say pop?
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And like so it's like not like a quiet show.
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Like cuz kids are loud anyways.
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So some kids are just not paying attention.
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Have to like my daughter during intermission was like, I want to watch Blippi on YouTube.
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And so we like had to open up YouTube on our phone and give it to her during intermission cuz she couldn't like go 5 minutes without stimulation.
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And so is and then they have like the merch and the the like the concessions.
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They have like all that right?
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So it's like pretty dope actually.
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And I was like, wow, this is kind of genius.
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They just took YouTube IP.
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And this is this guy who was there was not Blippi.
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The guy on stage was just some, you know, theater kid who like didn't make it, Plan B, I'll be I'll be Blippi.
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And um and so it was like they they took the IP, but they made their own show out of it.
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And so I started looking into this and there's a company that does this called VStar Entertainment. Awesome.
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So VStar, what they do is they go license these kids brands and then they put on kids Broadway basically and they tour around the country. Awesome.
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And so And Blippi's just a guy with a guitar, right?
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Or were there more instruments? No guitar. He just just him.
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So were there any instruments or was it just like a soundtrack?
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Just soundtrack and like lights and like uh stage props. So like, you know, Wow.
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So he he only had like a crew.
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Like, you know, if they came out as sharks, like a bunch of like little backup dancers came out as sharks and then they would have like That's awesome. theater show, right?
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And so VStar Entertainment, they do uh another brand that you've probably heard of called or you may have heard of called PAW Patrol.
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It's basically another kids cartoon.
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So guess how much This is my like kind of triangulation.
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Guess how much they sold in PAW Patrol tickets last year.
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Just take a take a guess. 20? 20 mil? $40 million.
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$40 million in event tickets?
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In event tickets for And that's just the tickets, not the merch.
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And that was just last year in '22? I I don't know.
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It's like this is like the just before COVID numbers.
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So like I don't know if it's '20 '20 '20, '19 '20, '20, something like that. Wow.
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got bought by Cirque du Soleil.
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So first So the backstory is some guy decides, oh, you know what?
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Like he's watching Sesame Street.
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He's like, Sesame Street should do a live show.
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And he goes and he basically raises 500 grand from this guy.
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He mortgages his house, gets an extra 25 grand out of his home equity.
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So he's got $525,000 and he goes and he gets the license to Sesame Street.
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He started with the Sesame Street show and then Muppets and like he you know did a couple must have been years ago.
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This was in the like 1980s something like that. Yeah.
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And then um this other guy was doing it they merged and then that whole thing gets bought by Cirque du Soleil last year.
11:50
Is it Cirque du Soleil by the way like guess how much Cirque du Soleil revenue was?
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Have you ever been to a Cirque show?
11:57
No, I've not but I do know that the guy who started it uh it is a Canadian guy. He's a billionaire.
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I read Dan Bilzerian's book and they talk about that guy a lot.
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I think he's like I mean he started a circus so he's like or whatever it Yeah, he's really eccentric and wild and everything.
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So it made him a billionaire.
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How much revenue does it make?
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Um Ben have you been to a Cirque du Soleil show?
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Cirque du Soleil did a billion does a billion dollars a year in revenue which is insane.
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10% of 5 or 10% of all Las Vegas tourists go to a Cirque show when they're in town.
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Is that what it What's that Cirque?
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Is that the Is that like the name?
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Well they have like 10 shows right?
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It'll be like they have O and then they have Zumanity and they have like whatever. And the Beatles.
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I yeah I I know all about it and I'm I'm into it and it's publicly traded or at least it was before it was acquired by private equity right?
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equity owns it now and um and it's a pretty badass business.
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The idea was do a circus but no animals.
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So it was like only human performers and to do that they did like crazy acrobats and like great costumes and stuff.
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its own genre at this point though. Right.
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And so he built that thing into a a real juggernaut and so Cirque then bought Blue Man Group and Vstar Entertainment and so they got Blue Man which is like an added they what they had said was like we do 10 million in ticket sales a year for Cirque du Soleil.
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Blue Man adds another 2 million and then um and then Vstar adds another 2 million.
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But they're all like different ticket prices but like they do 14 million in tickets sold per year.
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And so this I this like live entertainment thing really has caught my attention because I think as the world moves more and more digital the the like demand for like these one-off experiences like hey let's get out of the house and go do something.
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I think it's just going to keep going up.
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Music festivals, that's a winner.
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And then there's like uh I think plays and musicals are going to be a winner.
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I think they're going to be bigger than they were before even though the world moves digital and in fact because the world moves digital.
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What do you think about all this?
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about all this? I 100% agree and so earlier today I sent you uh a a notion doc of some of my notes on I'm interested in peer businesses which is basically like you pay money and you're part of a club and you meet up with them and I uh I can't talk too much about
14:06
what the names of the companies were but they were doing like uh one of them does a hundred million a year in profit and you they it's basically two or three meetups a year and there's executives paying fifty thousand dollars a year to be part of them and I think actually these are going to completely boom. I think
14:19
I think conferences right now are interesting but those are really hard.
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This actually seems way easier to pull off.
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Um all types of meetups, Airbnbs, I'm 100% on board that I think that in person is is the move. Yeah.
14:34
I I and I think that So then I started thinking like what are the other opportunities?
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And so I think A you could just like go compete with these guys on like the either the same brands or other brands.
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So like what they did was the Vstar guy took TV IP, turned it into a live show.
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The Blippi guy is doing is taking YouTube IP and turning it into a live show and I think you could just even do this for more.
14:53
So like I think you could even do like we've talked about religion which is the greatest free IP in the world.
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So I think somebody could do this for religion which would make a extremely kid-friendly, in fact kid-focused like Christianity show basically.
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I think you could do this for dinosaurs or science as a generic genre cuz like if kids love trucks and dinosaurs or whatever and you could just basically create the like the the show or you know, day with dinosaurs or or like that.
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And it once you get like if you have a certain level of quality, moms will spread this and they will talk about it and they will like in their mommy groups, they will help you sell these tickets.
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And um And I just feel like there's a like it's not that hard.
15:34
Like you build one show and then you sell that one show a thousand times, right?
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Like the show goes on tour.
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Mama Mia has made like I don't know, some stupid amount of money just being the same show on tour with replacing the the low-cost actors over time.
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I'm trying while we're talking, I'm trying to find the numbers.
15:50
So we used to So we did events, but we would do like these this thing called Hustle Con, which was like the our big one where like thousands of people would come.
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But then we do this thing called 2X and 2X was basically from like 7:00 p. m. to like 10:00 p. m.
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and it was basically we got 15 or 10 women all who were in tech and business.
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Not that many of them were like well-known, but they would have 10 minutes to like tell a story and we would charge like $25, but then we would get tens of thousands of dollars in sponsors.
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But we got to the point where we could pull this off like kind of like almost weekly in other cities.
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And when we started doing this, the Hustle wasn't that popular, but we were making like I think like 30 grand a night when we were doing it.
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And we had one employee running it.
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And she would use a team of contractors and then we wouldn't supply anything.
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Like I think we had free wine, but I don't know, I don't even think it was free.
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I I we wouldn't supply anything, but then when we have corporate sponsors and we crushed it.
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And in my head, I'm like I can always fall back on this to make a living because it was so much easier than people thought. Right.
17:00
It was Yeah, it was Well, that's pretty good for a tech bro um a tech bro business.
17:04
Like all of you you have you were running one of the best like women's entrepreneurship events in the country.
17:09
You got labeled wrong, dude. I did I yeah.
17:11
There I'm like an onion man, there's layers.
17:14
So but basically like we used to do this thing called pizza and forties where we would do a meet up and I would interview someone and they would drink a 40 oz and when the 40 oz beer was done the talk was done.
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But then like women were like this is like there's all dudes here and so we created like a like a wine version and that had like way better it was like called like cheese and wine.
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I don't even remember but that had way better engagement and so we're like oh like let's pursue this thing like this there's clearly an opportunity here and so we created 2x which uh come it's it's like 2x chromosomes which I thought was clever.
17:47
I stole it from Reddit uh but anyway we would do I think we did 10 or 12 uh in 1 year and every single time it was like 20 and 30 grand and the cost to the cost was nothing.
17:59
The cost was renting the venue which cost like $3,000 and we would make like 20 grand.
18:04
Which and you also you had readers in every city, right?
18:06
So, that's how you sold the tickets is that Yeah yeah but we weren't basically the speakers sold the tickets.
18:10
The reason why we had 15 speakers was was I was like I bet each 15 will get 25 people to come plus our like little bit of our engine like this is easy.
18:20
And you weren't making the money off the tickets you're making it off sponsors really anyways.
18:25
The tickets pay the the business model was the tickets paid for the event and then the conference was all or the sponsors were all the profit but when it's there's two things going on.
18:36
One like women so whenever you have like an underserved community like sponsors definitely are willing to pay more and two it was like a B2B component so wasn't kids component which I think would alter the economics.
18:45
But my point of it is that I think that this it was far easier than people thought and it was way more rudimentary and raw than people thought and it worked.
18:54
We just used splash that.
18:56
I think if you Google like 2x the hustle you'll like see like the splash that is basically event bright.
19:03
It was nothing special and it freaking worked. That's dope.
19:07
Um all right what else we got?
19:09
Um all right uh let me uh I just got kicked out of the document. All right, I got it.
19:12
So, one thing tell me what you what you think about this.
19:16
One thing that I've been doing as I'm now starting to like get back into the game or thinking about it.
19:21
So, I've been setting up calls with bankers.
19:23
So, bankers which I didn't even know what those were.
19:27
Bankers when someone's when like Sarah, my wife went to Penn Works at a bank.
19:32
Yeah, and she like I would always make her friends be like, yeah, like I you know, I'm a banker. I work at a bank.
19:38
I'm like, oh, which branch?
19:38
Uh and so bankers are basically people who help people sell companies and help people buy companies.
19:45
And when you sell a company for like anything north of probably 50 million, they likely have a banker.
19:49
And I've been contacting bankers and my pitch to them is this, hey, I'm thinking about starting a company in this space.
19:55
You've sold a few companies in this space.
19:58
Tell me everything about why the this company was bought as well as what the opportunities are that the buyer what they were looking for.
20:04
And maybe in 5 or 10 years, I'll let you sell my company.
20:09
And I've been able to line up meetings doing this.
20:13
And by the way Genius and um I've been a part of one or two of those types of conversations and I'm like, oh wow, these guys are like vaults filled with gold. Dude, so much. need podcasts.
20:26
Like what what why are they why are these guys not talking? Well, they can't. much info.
20:30
No, but they can talk like generally speaking.
20:32
They don't they can't talk about any specific deal, but like they know a lot, dude.
20:38
And they actually know everything.
20:38
It's like you're you're It's like accountants and bankers and everything. Yeah. They know everything.
20:42
And they've been telling me so much information.
20:44
So, I like they'll like basically they'll say, here's why this company was doing well.
20:50
Here's why it was succeeding.
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Here's why they bought it.
20:52
And I'm like, all right, great.
20:53
What what other companies was that buyer trying to buy and why?
20:56
And they're like, well, they always struggled with blank.
20:59
And I'm like, boom, thank you.
21:01
And then I'll say like, you sold three businesses in the same space.
21:05
Which one was more fun to run?
21:07
And so like for example, I'll give you I'll give you a concrete example.
21:10
The business that I'm interested in now, we've talked about a a bunch.
21:12
It's like Vistage, so which is basically a peer group.
21:17
So companies that it's like a group of 10 or 40 people who all have a similar job title and they meet together and they discuss their problems and it's like a safe space to discuss you can't talk about on the internet.
21:27
And some of them do huge.
21:29
One of them, I can't say which, does over 100 million in profit a year.
21:32
And they're just like meet ups in real life.
21:35
And I'll just be like, well, what job titles was uh Gartner or whoever buys these companies, what job titles are they trying to get to and they're really struggling to uh to to reach.
21:46
And they'll just tell me.
21:48
I'm like, oh great, I can create a community around that and I think I could build it to sell it.
21:51
Which what I want to know from your perspective, is that even a good plan, building to sell?
21:57
So part of me is like, yes, it's clear path to make money.
21:59
Another part is like it's kind of lame though. Yeah.
22:03
Well, I think where you're at now, let's take three three options. Build to sell.
22:10
That which is basically optimizing for like, oh, is there a sort of like a flip?
22:14
Is there a Is there a buyer on the other side of the of the business like this?
22:19
Another one is build to win, which is basically like um For example, when I talk to these bankers, what I'm trying to figure out is what which of these businesses is like not a special snowflake?
22:28
Where it's like, oh, that's actually like a rinse and repeatable model.
22:33
Like I didn't Like that founder didn't like catch lightning in a bottle at the perfect time and it's their perfect background and then they got really lucky about this one thing.
22:42
It's like, oh, those I don't want to emulate.
22:43
I want to emulate the one where it's like I think somebody could start that same business today and do equally well or do do just as well in this one adjacent space.
22:51
And I you don't need to be a genius with that.
22:53
And so that's the second part of it, which is I build to win.
22:57
It's like optimizing for something that's going to work.
23:00
And then there's the last one which is sort of like you know, build for fun or build for mission, which is like go for something that like you something you would never want to sell that you're willing to do even if it's low likelihood of success.
23:11
I think we all know the answer is to do that bucket, right?
23:15
Like I think the question is like how many how much security do you need before you go do the thing you know you should do?
23:24
Well, or it could be a combination of all three.
23:25
Like it could be like you enjoy winning or you enjoy the space and you want to make it successful.
23:30
But there's a great clip from you and what's free what's what's all in David Friedberg.
23:37
There's a great clip that I shared that you and him had where he basically said that founders always sell themselves short and they go for these small ideas because they because they think it's more reasonable.
23:50
But when doing that they kind of screwed themselves because it's actually easier sometimes to do much a grander bigger ideas because that attracts the crazy types of people who you want to work with.
24:01
You attract competitive because nobody else No no not every Joe is going to try to you know do it like you know going and trying to you know start a a railroad business or whatever versus an FBA business.
24:13
It's like Well, they're both going to take all your time. So that's equal.
24:15
Money, well, you're going to go have to go raise money from investors.
24:19
One will let you just raise you you're still going to get the money you need from investors.
24:24
Just one you'll make maybe raise more at a higher valuation and the other one you'll raise less at a lower valuation, right?
24:29
Like But did you agree do agree with him? I I do agree with him.
24:32
And I've I've thought this for a very long time.
24:34
I remember back in the day did you ever hear about this thing called the Unreasonable Institute?
24:38
I don't even think this is around anymore. That's a great name.
24:42
It's sort of like the same guys who did Summit.
24:44
It's not it's not actually the same guys, but it's the same it was like the same idea.
24:47
It was like The Unreasonable Institute was basically this like it was based on this one word unreasonable in the way that the Hustle is built on this one word Hustle and Trends is built on one word Trends.
24:56
And so the unreasonableness was exactly that.
24:59
It was like it's going to take unreasonable people to do unreasonable things for the world to move forward.
25:04
And it was like very inspiring and then they met with all bunch of people, you know, bunch of people who did that, the sort of Elon Musk types who went and did unreasonable things.
25:11
And then you start to look at it and you're like you know, all things equal um all you know, I guess like your inputs are sort of the same.
25:19
It's just your time and energy.
25:22
And then like the outputs can be very, very different Well, the the inputs the inputs aren't the same because it is possible to build something pretty cool and not work that hard.
25:31
But it's kind of impossible to build something huge and not work very hard.
25:35
All right, who do we know and I let's do real examples.
25:37
I'm not saying it's not true, but who do we know that's building successful awesome businesses without working too hard? Well, how about Sully? I actually don't know. What's his schedule?
25:54
Does he grind constantly? Uh he works hard. Yes. He he works hard. So then no one.
26:00
You don't we don't know anyone.
26:01
But you and me like maybe I'll give you one nuance on it.
26:05
He got there faster than the normal person.
26:07
So it like it looked like it came easier, but that's just cuz he was better.
26:11
It it wasn't cuz he worked like he he wasn't putting in a tenth of the hours.
26:15
He was putting in the same number of hours and getting there ten times faster.
26:17
I just think that like there's a world where you have business A and it doesn't grow nearly as fast and you're working 40 hours a week.
26:24
And then you have business B that's growing significantly faster and you have to work 100 hours a week.
26:29
Like that that is a reality. Yes, that's true.
26:32
That's what I'm talking about.
26:34
I'm not talking about like very little.
26:35
I'm talking about normal versus not normal.
26:37
There's also things like this podcast or like people who have like newsletters or blogs or something like that where it's like or they teach a course and it's like, you know, like like unless you take your buddy Neville, right?
26:47
So Neville, I don't think you you me.
26:51
Well, but because but I'm doing multiple things, right?
26:52
So, it's like on each one I'm not putting in as much time, but like overall I'm working harder.
26:57
And if I didn't do those other things, that one thing would just expand in time. I would just do more.
27:03
I would spend Wait, how how often are you working now a day? Normal work hours?
27:09
Uh not normal hours, but I work like a the equivalent of 8 hours a day. Got it. Okay. Just not all to you.
27:16
Not not all continuously.
27:17
All right, but back to What was the original point?
27:19
So, my my my my point was like uh is it is this really true that you can kind of like chill and win?
27:28
And like No, I I I didn't mean I I didn't mean to say chill. I mean chill less.
27:31
Or sorry, chill more, work less. Yeah. Okay.
27:36
Wait, so then bro, if you agree with Friedberg, which I think I do, why are you not going after like one big grand thing?
27:46
Like I started a newsletter.
27:48
That's not exactly like you know, that's not like world-changing entirely.
27:52
It's neat, but I I would I would put it on a six out of 10 in terms of like maybe a five in terms of like big ideas. Right.
28:01
Yeah, I I agree with you.
28:01
The reason why is because to me it's not a bigness contest.
28:06
It's a do I have a clear picture of what I want to like my life to be?
28:13
And then can I like do I have a crystal clear picture and then can I make that happen?
28:17
And it's like knowing what I want and then getting what I want.
28:18
And so if what I wanted was not to work the 100 hours, right?
28:23
Even though I even though I agree like that's cool, it's fun, and if I did do it, um I do think there's all these extra benefits.
28:32
You would get amazing talent to come join you, you'd make a bunch of money, you'd uh have a bunch of fun.
28:36
Like there's there's great benefits if I did the big one, the the the big big big one.
28:39
But I decided that like what I wanted was more Yeah, what I wanted more was more like the 40-hour a week but hours spent on doing these types of things. Like I love teaching.
28:52
Teaching's not the most it's not the most like world-changing, Unreasonable Institute style, you know, like let's go land a rocket on Mars type of idea, but I have the most fun doing it.
29:03
So I'm just optimizing for like a different thing rather than a bigness.
29:06
I'm optimizing for like, you know, my own enjoyment.
29:10
And so that's why I'm not going after that.
29:11
So I need things that are sufficiently interesting so that I'm interested and big enough so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time, but like it's not maximally big. Right. I feel you.
29:24
Well, to wrap up the bank thing, I think it's it was it was it's been kind of interesting.
29:29
I'm going to continue doing it.
29:30
Maybe I'll I didn't ask these people who I spoke with today if I could talk about what we discussed, so I'm not going to bring it up, but uh very useful. I sent you the notes. They were cool. They're great.
29:40
And also this technique um whether it's a specific technique or a similar technique, it's like there are people who just know a lot of things.
29:51
Um you know, people who invest other people's money, uh accountants, bankers, people like um you know, VCs are like this.
29:58
They see they see hundreds and hundreds of businesses a year.
30:01
And so it's like those people, if you want to like speed dial your learning, you can go to them and you can get basically free learning off of off of them. All right, that's it. That's the episode.