My First Million: Announcing This Year's Episode of the Year: Camp MFM Recap

Hello and welcome to my first million. This is producer Ben here with the episode of the year.

We ran a highly unscientific poll on Twitter and the people have spoken and you chose the

Camp MFM recap episode as the episode of the year. Shout out to our runner-ups and honorable

mentions. A lot of people said that their favorite episodes were the Palmer Lucky episode, the recent

newsletter deep dive that we did with Austin Reef, the Peter Levels interview, Sam's unpopular

opinions episode, the Saw Hill Bloom episode, Michael Girdley nominated himself, Andrew Wilkinson

got a few shout-outs, the inside story of Ligma Johnson, the episode where Sam and Sean went

super deep on AI, the Stonks Demo Day collaboration, and the University of Michigan pitch competition.

All got shout-outs. And I agree, those were some great episodes, but there can only be one winner,

Vox Populi, Vox Day as Elon Musk is fond of saying, so here we are. If you're really upset

about the winner, you can stop the episode right now, hit pause, go back and play one of those

episodes and pretend like it won episode of the year. But to be clear, it didn't. The winner was

the MFM recap episode. So that's what we're playing. We'll be back to your normally scheduled

programming on Thursday, but until then, please enjoy this episode of the year winner, the Camp

MFM recap episode. So Sean and I did a podcast with MrBeast's real name is Jimmy and Hasan made a

joke like, you want to go play ball? And he goes, yeah, let's go right now. And as he said that,

his two co-workers that were with him started getting on the phone, calling high schools,

principals of schools. And once someone said something like, well, what if they don't let

us for insurance reasons? He goes, what does someone give him a million dollars if someone gets hurt?

He goes, that usually does the trick. Alright, so I guess we all want to talk about the same thing,

right? Yeah, this is going to be the Camp MFM recap episode. I have a lot of things to say.

Let me set the background because you're the one who organized it. So I think you need a third

party here. So basically a month ago, Sean said, I'm going to organize a basketball weekend. And I

want you to come and I'm going to invite some other people, please Venmo me $1800 and show up

at this address at this time. That's pretty much all I knew about. I didn't know anything else.

And I think it was three weeks in advance, right? Yeah, something like that. So basically three

weeks out, it just says, Hey, come to North Carolina in Raleigh by near Duke, and we're going to have

a basketball camp and just show up. That's all I knew. And then I get an email. I booked my

flight. I sent you $1800 a day before you send out who's coming. And it was like me and you,

both Ben's, a couple HubSpot people like Jonathan. And then it was like Hasan Minhaj.

It was Mr. Beast. And it was like 20 other really amazing entrepreneurs. And you rented out this

farm basically, or it's like a vine tree. Yeah. Yeah, with like a lake and a zip line going into

the lake. And it was like 24 entrepreneurs. And you hired this amazing basketball trainer who

was also an entrepreneur. So he like fit in and was really insightful. You kind of half-assed

the incredibly unimportant things. Like there was like, when we went and played basketball,

I was like, Hey, is there any food here? And you're like, well, there's just a bunch of boxes

of cliff bars. And like, Oh, okay, that's okay. I'm okay with half ass on that thing. So anyway,

we all stayed in these two Airbnb's and just played like board of games and like acted like 12

year olds for like two nights. And it was amazing. It was so cool. Yeah, it was basically a summer

camp for grownups. And the origin of it is pretty simple. I love meeting new people. I actually

genuinely love meeting new people. In fact, the podcast was originally started as an excuse

to just get to talk to really fascinating, interesting people. But I hate most of the

traditional ways to do it. I don't like going to conferences. I don't like going to networking

events. I hate just being like, Hey, you want to grab coffee? So, so I basically was like, look,

there's a bunch of people who I think are dope. I would love to hang out with them, get to know

them. And then finally, I was like, what if I just did it instead of a networking event or a

conference? Like what if we just did it with something that it would be dope no matter who

came? And so we can't have this idea for a basketball getaway. And we're like, all right,

here's the criteria. They love basketball. Number two, they're a great hang, just great

hang out with. And number three, that they can teach us something because they're a baller in

their own craft, whatever that craft is. And so that's why we had people in the house that had

built billion dollar companies. We had people who bootstrapped their way into, you know,

tens of millions. And that's where they were. We had people that were entertainers like Mr.

Beast or Hudson who had millions and millions of fans and were creative talents. We had people

that used to be in the NSA. We had a bunch of people from different backgrounds come up and

join this thing. So that was the criteria. And that's basically how it played out. And I'm pretty

sure, by the way, that it was the best weekend of Ben's life. I want to talk about Ben. I want to

talk about Ben in the middle or the end, but I have a feeling I told Ben before we recorded,

I go, Ben, the next six months in your life, I think are going to have the most change you've

ever experienced in your life. Totally agree. Totally agree with that. In fact, I was going to

text you something very, very similar, which is like, I don't know if you realize this yet,

but your life is about to change because you can't just be surrounded by wildly ambitious

people who like and believe in you and spend time, you know, seeing other people who have

realized their dream come true and not go back to your house and look at yourself a little

differently in the mirror. Like you're going to look at yourself and be like, all right,

let's turn that ambition knob up two notches, right? Let's let's turn that faith and belief in

myself up because I saw that these people are no smarter better than me. They're just people like

me. They just they just went for it. All those quote smarter, quote better, quote more successful

people were looking up to Ben. Did you notice that? Yeah. There was just a feeling of I wouldn't

even say looking up necessarily is more like equals. I think everybody, everybody there

viewed themselves as an equal to everybody else. I'm sure everybody there had a moment where they

were like, dude, I'm way out of place. Some people are like the basketball. They're like, oh, you

know, I play basketball, but I'm not really like that into basketball. So some people maybe fell

out of place there a little bit. Some people fell out of place in the house because they didn't know

anybody. And some people I bet fell out of place because they said, wow, I'm talking to this guy

who's, you know, leaps and bounds further ahead in their business career. But everybody had to

deal with that and then come to terms with that. I think that's, you know, part of the challenge.

There's just so much to say. It was one of the best weekends of my life is so amazing.

Sean, I just, I guess I would ask, there's like a really special feeling that is very difficult to

convey throughout the entire weekend. You guys touched on it a little bit of just like no egos,

even though people are at very different places, like there was just this really feeling of

openness and connection. And like, even though there were these really, really successful people

and all these different domains, like everyone just on the same level learning from each other,

I was very cool. Sean, like what do you think it was that went into this weekend that created

that environment where people were able to like feel that way and be that way with each other?

I think it's three things. You actually mentioned two of them. First was the weekend felt very

special. And I think that when people feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves,

when people have a little bit of awe or intrigue or curiosity or fear even,

they get out of their comfort zone. And so part of it was, if you make something that feels special,

that feels different, that inspires some awe or some, they don't know what's coming next,

it brings everybody back to sort of like an equal footing of the sort of a childlike thing. I

remember when, so we invited Alex Basil, who's a trainer to a bunch of NBA stars like Kyrie Irving

and Trey Young and this guy's like, you know, he's like the top of his craft. He trains like,

he came from training like, you know, Kevin Durant to us. He sent us a clip. He's like,

here's what I was doing today. Tomorrow I'll be seeing you shmucks. And like, right, like,

you know, but that first five minutes, I would say, when he had us doing very simple,

like drills, everybody was spread throughout this whole private gym that we had rented.

And we're all literally dribbling the ball almost accidentally in unison,

like that old Nike commercial. There was little pockets, little moments like that,

where it just felt special. And you know, so, so I think that's the first piece is you got to

give people a feeling that they're part of something bigger than themselves. Number two,

you invite people who are inherently curious. So everybody there, I would say it actually

has an ego. Everybody there has an ego. Otherwise they wouldn't get to where they were,

but bigger than their ego is their curiosity. And so as long as you can create the curiosity

factor where who's this person? Oh, they're interesting. Oh, they're interesting. They're

interesting. Then again, the attention go, they're so used to attention being on them. They're so

used to being the most interesting person in the room. So you want people who are naturally

curious about the people around them. So even the sort of celebrities or kind of the big hitters

that we had in the house that were maybe the wealthiest or the most popular people that were

there, I picked specifically people that in my limited interaction with them, they were very

curious. Like for example, when you had first met Mr. Beast, you met him before we did, you were

like, yeah, he just called me and he was like, yeah, I'm on this walk. I do this every night.

I just call somebody and say, yo, teach me something. And I said, already I know everything

I need to know about this person. Same thing. When Huston came on the podcast, he asked me

more questions than I asked him. I felt bad afterwards. I was like, dude, I just blew the

podcast because he was asking me questions. I'm supposed to ask him. Nobody gives a shit about

me. They wanted to know from him. But that showed me like he would fit into this group because

he would be curious about, oh, what's this real estate guy doing? What's this guy doing? Who's

rolling up like those claw machines at amusement parks and pinball machines. And like, that's

what this guy does. And he's building a little mini empire doing that, right? You need somebody

who's curious. Otherwise they would just be like, that's weird. I don't know. Stay away from me,

right? You're different. I would say the third was the immersion. So it wasn't like you couldn't

get away for better or for worse. Like normally you go to a dinner, you sit there for three hours.

It's sort of a safe space. You know the routine and then you leave and you get to go back to your

place. So you can, you can stay surface level with a lot of people with this. It's like, dude,

I'm sleeping in the same room as somebody else sometimes. I'm definitely under one roof for

the house. We're eating breakfast together, lunch together, dinner together. We're figuring out

logistics. You want to shower first for me. And at some point you're going to just be your real

self because you can only fake the funk for so long. You can do it for two hours, three hours,

four hours. By hour five, you're just going to be sitting there, you know, tired and cranky.

And you're going to be your real self. And like, that's just the way it was. So I think that those

are the three things I would say that like created that environment. Well, and I was going to say

it started from the top down. I mean, I would say mostly it was your brand. Partially it was the

brand you and I have created together, which is actually similar to both our personalities.

But basically like your casual person, your relatively low ego person, as in like you're

easy to be around and it kind of stemmed from that. So I think that actually matters a lot.

And it was like the house we are in was kind of like gross, but in a cool way. Like people

on my Twitter were like, dude, that's a sick set. You made it look like a grandma's house. I'm like,

oh no, that's just like this woman's bedroom. It just looked like that. All right. So if you're

under 35 and you maybe don't know who Mr. B says he's a YouTuber who's only 24. Maybe he's got a

hundred million subscribers, really big business that makes nine figures a year. And he just makes

tons of videos that gets viewed by a lot of the world. So I have an interesting story about him.

So we were in a car and I was talking about like a popular band or politics or something. I think

we were even talking about a movie like Harry Potter. And I could tell he wasn't registering what

we were talking about. He was trying to partake in the conversation and be polite, but I could

tell that he didn't, he didn't like know what I was saying. And I said something to him like,

oh, hey, have you ever heard about this thing? And I think it was like Harry Potter or something,

or it was like something like mainstream. And he goes, no, I really, I just don't know anything

about that. I've never seen that. And I could tell that he didn't know this about a lot of things.

And I said, what's going on? How do you not know about this? And he goes, when I was young,

I made a goal when I was 15 to be the most popular YouTuber in the world. And I pretty

much stopped paying attention to everything else. So if whatever you're talking about is not part

of like YouTube culture, I don't know what it is. And that was incredibly interesting to me. And he

said a few other things that showed his intensity. The second thing was he said, I've gotten so big

and I've like studied and gotten great at my craft that I can't really learn too much from other

YouTubers. So I talked to a lot of experts on human behavior and researchers in order to improve my

craft. And also I don't really have work weeks. So I just kind of work and I get obsessed over

stuff and I roll out of bed at 10 or 8am or whenever it is. And my team like tells me what I

have to do. And then I just work all night until I get tired and then go to bed and I work seven

days a week. And then occasionally I get burnt out and I take a couple of days or however long I

need to recharge. And then I do it again. I don't pay attention to the normal work week. The third

thing that he did was he didn't care about rules. So Sean and I did a podcast with him at about a

ended at like 11pm. And Hassan made a joke like you want to go play ball. And Jimmy was like,

Mr. Beast's real name is Jimmy. He goes, yeah, let's go right now. And as he said that, his two

coworkers that were with him started getting on the phone, calling high schools, principals of

schools, like all these people in order to get a basketball court. And we couldn't, we couldn't

make it happen. But he was like really, really going after that to make that happen. And I thought

that was crazy interesting. And once someone said something to him, someone said something like,

well, what if they like don't let us for insurance reasons? He goes, well, just tell him we'll

give him a million dollars if someone gets hurt. And it was just so funny that he wasn't. He goes,

that usually does the trick. I was like, how many times have you done this, bro?

He just didn't pay attention to rules. I thought that was a trick. Now I'm going to

contrast that with this other person. I'm not going to say his name, but he might have been

the wealthiest person there. And he wholly owned a business that was worth probably 500 to 800

million dollars. And it made tens of millions a year in profit. And he basically told me that he

worked really hard to get it going. But now he works one week a month. And then the other week

a month, he likes to travel. And then the other two weeks of the month, he's just kind of searching.

So his company, he owns a bunch of companies. The other two weeks, he's just online searching

for other deals and companies to buy, but at a fairly casual pace. And I thought this was

interesting because these two guys were the exact opposite of when you met them. One guy,

you'd be like, oh, you're easy to be around. You're well balanced. The other guy, Jimmy,

not well balanced at all. But both of them had this laser focused intensity of when they're on,

they're on. And they played their game at a really, really high, highly levered. So lots of leverage

and that type of scale where it was just like, anytime, if I make a decision, the outcome is

potentially big. And I don't always have to make a lot of decisions. I agree with everything you

just said. And in fact, I think we could probably do a two episode series, literally just on Mr.

Beast. And I don't mean that because I'm a fan. Like, in fact, I've watched a couple of his videos.

It's not like I went in being like, Oh, this guy's my favorite, you know, like it's not that,

right? Like, I've watched a couple of his videos. It's like, Oh, okay, I get it. That's cool. I get

why that works. It's good. Good fun. And so it's not that, but I am now a much bigger fan of him

after seeing how he operates. I'm going to tell you a couple of stories. So you didn't go for this,

but a couple of us who arrived the day before, we got to go visit his studios and we got to go tour

his production facility, which is like, I don't know, Ben, how big is that place? Like 50,000

square feet or something like that? Like basically an airplane hanger, right? And imagine a giant

airplane hanger. And on one end, they're like, Oh, we're building this set over here. It's like

a Hollywood production thing. So there's four production teams. And you're like in rural North

Carolina. We're in, yeah, like people make this pilgrimage out to go see Warren Buffett and to

call them the Oracle of Omaha. But I was like, where are we? And where are we going for this

pilgrimage? And so we get out there, but it's like, had that same thing, very special. You go there.

And it's like, this group of people who are all singularly focused on one mission, which was to

create the best videos possible to create the best videos that get the biggest reactions that, you

know, like, and that's all they were all doing 24 seven, they were all just working on that. So

I'm going to tell you a couple of kind of amazing stories from that. We were like, so what is your

like, what's your model, dude? And his model is basically this. He started off making videos with

no money, just him and his bedroom doing dumb stuff. Like, I'm going to say Logan Paul's name

100,000 times. I'm going to take this plastic knife and I'm going to cut through. I'm going to saw

through this plastic table in the next 48 hours. He just sat there. He would just do stuff like

that. No budget, no whatever. But he knew he understood even at that time, like, okay, what

would get somebody's attention? What would make them laugh? What would make them watch? What's a

bit of a spectacle? Low budget spectacles. Now he's doing high budget spectacles. Like we get

there. There's a camera flying above us. There's fireworks and smoke bombs. And there's crazy

stuff going on, right? Because now he's investing, I think on average, Ben, what is it? Like half a

million or a million dollars per video or something like that? I think he said 1.5. 1.5. Yeah.

1.5 million dollars per video just on the production. That's kind of insane. And so

the thing I admired the most about him was, okay, in that house, there was let's say 25,

everybody there was entrepreneurial. So if I said, who here is entrepreneurial?

How many out of, let's just pretend out of 100%, how many people would raise their hand?

Almost all. Okay. We were at 100 out of 100. I said, who here has a clear vision of what they want?

Now, how many people do you think are raising their hand? 60.

Okay. I say, who here can think about that vision and can honestly say that it is wildly ambitious?

Like Mr. Beast's ambition is to be a billionaire YouTube creator, to get to a billion followers

and make billions of dollars. He has told me that he wants to be one of the richest men on the

planet, the most famous person on the planet and president. So, okay, that's his ambition.

What's yours? Right? So how many could just say in their own right that I'm thinking really big?

I'm thinking wildly ambitious. So we're at 60%. Where are we at now? Maybe 20.

We're down to 20%. And now if I ask the last question, the most important question of them all,

I said, who here is truly and totally obsessed? Meaning you are willing to give every hour of

your day, every dollar you create, you're willing to reinvest back into your thing. You don't take

anything off the table. You don't hedge. You don't buy that nice house. You don't buy those fancy

cars. You don't put it away for your kids. You wake up, you do your thing till you pass out

and you are getting every hour, every dollar and every ounce of your soul to that ambition.

How many people are left? How many, what percent are left raised in their hand? How many people?

He might be the only one. And I would say, well, it's also because he was the youngest.

But that could just, you know, it could play out where even if he's not the youngest, he still

would have behaved that way. He would be the only one. And that's not just about that house. I could

go down into San Francisco. I could say, hey, gather around every venture backed founder here. I could

go into every, I can go to a gymnasium full of people who all say they want to be a big YouTuber,

all say they want to be a comedian. By the way, this isn't necessarily a good thing.

It could be a good thing. It could also, I think, be his downfall.

There's a reason most people don't do it, I think, is what you're saying, which is like,

there's a price that comes with that. And that price is a price that most of us will not pay.

What do you think? I just think there's a couple of things he said throughout the weekend that I

was like, oh, this guy is so successful. But to Sam's point, like, he's on a knife's edge.

If you play out his life a hundred times, I think in like 25 or 30 of them,

he literally ends up on the street as just like an addict because he does have that obsessive

personality. And if he had ended up, for whatever reason, obsessed with not the right thing, that's

the way it would have gone. I have a list of like three things that might be his downfall.

Keep in mind, the guy is like 24. So he's going to evolve quickly. But one, he was incredibly naive

about business, which is actually a pro, I think, in a lot of cases. But in his case, I think that

like, you have to get a little bit less naive and learn a little bit more about business.

You know, the thing you said about him cutting through a table with a plastic knife,

that's kind of how he's done his life. He's just like, you know what I mean?

Like he's just like brute force his way. And I think that's great. That can get you a long way.

But in order to last and be as big as he wants to be, like a Bezos, you got to have a little bit

more sophistication as you grow. He's got plenty of time, though. The second thing is hiring.

I think that he kind of told stories that it made me seem it made it seem like he just hired

his friends. And it's like, Hey, you're fun. You want to do this. That I don't think that's

going to cut it either. And then the third thing is company building. We asked him on the pod about

like work hours and about like meetings. And he I actually don't remember if he did it. I don't

think he did a great job of answering it. But the vibe that I got was it was like a little bit

like just whatever Jimmy wants, Jimmy gets. And I think that's okay for a little while. But in

order to be as big as he wants to be, you got to have a little bit more company building,

a little more process oriented things like that that are kind of the antithesis of like being

a cool YouTuber in many regards. So I'll disagree with you on a couple of those. I think that first

of all, I think he's 24. So I remember when I was 24, 24, I became a CEO for the first time of like

a real company, a company that had revenue and employees that were not like my two best friends

from college. And where he's at at 24 and where I was at 24 is like, if me and you're saying

boat go and run a race, it's like there is such a like on one hand, he's sitting in a room. I think

that, you know, the oldest person in our group was maybe 43. And the average age is maybe like

34, 35, something like that. Probably something like that. Yeah, by the way, I'm not insulting him.

I'm incredibly impressed. Right. So I just think where he's at on the learning curve, like, yeah,

there is no shortcut to the learning curve. You've got to learn all these lessons. But where he's at

is actually pretty far along. And the brute force approach actually works. Like you said, there is

a strength to that. And I think that if you're just what he's, if you're doing what he's doing,

which is you're just like, effort, I'm doing it. I'm holding nothing back. I'm going to go all in.

And I'm going to repeatedly go all in until this like, just, I just find a way to make this work.

I think that overcomes a lot of the mistakes you're going to make, right? Because maybe for the first,

maybe for the first billion or two. Yeah, exactly. I think that that is a great attitude. And what

he proved is that you could have that attitude for like late stage in your career, even though he's

24, like he's got late stage in terms of results, even though he's probably in 10%, 100%. In most

cases, he's late, he's late stage. But in order to get as big as he wants, he said he wanted to build

multiple 10 billion, even I think he said $100 billion company, you know, that's we're talking

Walmart, you know, like you, you can't always bet the farm at that size. And I'm going to be honest

with you, I had an initial reaction to him that was sort of, there was a part of me that was like,

ah, fuck this guy. Right. And not because he did anything bad, he's totally nice. But his

ambition is almost uncomfortable to where you're like, I'm not talking to somebody who's who they

don't live in the same reality that I live in. And so my initial reaction was like, okay, you're

saying things that don't either, they don't make sense. Or it's like two, like one sided, or it's

like just like pure unadulterated, like raw ambition. And there's something uncomfortable

about that. Cause I kind of like people that are like, like one of the things I admire is people

who are well-balanced. So I told him this when I was talking to him, I was like, he was basically

like, I admire Elon, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, like these are the people that I admire. I'm like them,

I'm wired like them. And I like to hang out with people like them. And I go, yeah, I'm not like

them. And we're on the phone. And now there's like, you know, like a 10 second uncomfortable silence.

Because it was true. I was like, what am I going to pretend I am? No, I could just, you know,

I'm going to say what's real. And I was like, you know, I was like, that doesn't mean I'm not

ambitious. I just point my ambition at a different outcome. Those guys all became the wealthiest men

on earth. They created like, you know, world changing, like spectacles, like landing rockets,

you know, self landing rockets, self driving cars, electric cars, all this crazy stuff,

right? Created the iPhone. So those people, they were wildly ambitious in that way. There are other

people that are wildly ambitious in other ways. I said, you know, like somebody I look up to,

I model myself after is like, Naval, I think he's really successful in business, but also

he's revered because of his wisdom, not because he created the iPhone, right? Like, you know,

he hasn't gone through five marriages and breakups and like, you know, he hasn't like

been bankrupt and then back to the top and then is depressed, but he's super successful. It's like,

to me, that's not winning. But I get it that for other people, there is winning. I'm glad there's

people who think that's winning because they're the ones who are going to create the next iPhone

and create the next Tesla. And but I just was explaining that to him. And I think that that

was the only, I don't actually think he's naive about business. I don't actually think about

anything. I just think like, when you, when you have your play style, it's very sexy to be like,

my play style is the play style. My play style is the, is the cool one. And all the other ones

are weak for these other reasons. And I think as people get older, they really start to respect

other people's play styles. I think this has happened for most of the people I really get

along with where they're like, they can admire a billionaire as much as they can admire a single

mother because they're like, dude, these are just different games, but I really, I can,

I can admire and not in like a token, just saying the right thing kind of way. Like they truly

feel it in their heart. Like, like, you know, they truly feel that, wow, what you're doing

is your Super Bowl. And I respect the way you approach your Super Bowl. And your Super Bowl is

just as valid as my Super Bowl, even if they're totally different.

That's a great way to put it. The way that I've also put it is I say, I don't care about money.

I care about people who like actualize their dreams and their dream could be to be the best

parent, their dream could be to be a billionaire. It could be to be an athlete, to be strong,

to be skinny. I don't care what exactly your dream is. I just want to see you achieve it.

And that makes me happy when I see someone going places. And it just so happens that money and

traditional success is a very practical way to measure that or to like achieve it. Like it just

says like, well, I just do this business thing as opposed to being the best parents a little bit

more challenging. But yeah, I completely agree with you. We have another friend or I have a friend

you met him. I don't know if you, I don't know if you love the guy or hate the guy because he

also is uncomfortably ambitious. He remember he came to a dinner with us. I don't want to say his

name, but I came to a dinner with us once and you could describe your impression of him. But

he's also this type. I was embarrassed to be around him. I met him when he was 1920,

something like that. And he at that time was basically like, yeah, I'm like,

I'm going to be a billionaire, multi-billionaire, just a matter of like, you know, is it at 25 or

26, 27? But I don't know when. And I was like, so do you date? He's like, no, I'm just going to

wait till I'm a billionaire that I'm going to date like, you know, the hottest woman on earth,

who's also like, you know, loves me and is like the heir to the throne somewhere, right? Like he

just, I'm just going for a 12. And he's like, you know, so first I'm going to be a multi-billionaire,

then I'm going to date this 12 and marry her. And then I'm going to have like all these children

and then my children are going to do this. And like, if somebody else was like really excited

about their thing that's like kind of small, he'd be like, well, that's kind of a waste of time,

right? Like you could just, why not just do something bigger that would make you more money?

And like, he's just so matter of fact, so black and white about it. Like not in a way that's not

in a way that's rude. Like he's not trying to be rude, but he just genuinely only obsesses over his

thing, which is in his case, like investing and being like a better investor in the Warren Buffett.

He's like, you know, I've, I've, I've watched every video read every book by Warren Buffett, Ray

Dahlia, all the greatest investors I've studied them. I'm just as good as them. Yeah, I'm younger

than them, but I'm just as good at them. In fact, I think I'll be better than them. But you know,

by the time I'm, they're, they're 90, I'll be better than them by 90. How's it going?

I mean, who knows? I don't know. I can only, I literally can only check in with them so often

because if you talk to them too much, it's just like, oh dude, like I get, I get a headache. Like,

A, I feel insecure because I'm not as ambitious. And then B, I just get frustrated because I'm like,

dude, come back to reality. Like you're floating away in your own bubble somewhere. But I like

people like that. They, those people also are like the server real place in my life.

Can I, can we, can we, can I bring up a different topic that was subtle, but crazy fascinating?

Yeah. So Ben Levy invited this guy whose Twitter handle is Commodore and Commodore is famous,

I guess, because he started a DAO and he's trying to buy an MBA team and he's raised 10

to millions of dollars to do it. And I started talking to this guy and we started talking about,

you know, just all types of stuff. And I go, what's your name, by the way? And he goes, Commodore,

I go, Oh, that's a sick name. Like why did your parents name you Commodore? Will, I forget what

it was, but he goes, Oh, that's not my real name. I'm, I'm anonymous this weekend. I go, what? He

goes, yeah. So like in order to get rid of, in order not to have like some legal implications as,

and I don't actually know what all the implications were. He goes, I'm just anonymous. And I go,

does anyone here know who you are? He goes, no, no one here knows my real name. Ben Levy, the guy

who invited me, he has no idea who I am or my name. And I was like, what? That's interesting. So I

just called him Commodore and we talked about like family. We talked about his wife and children,

where he lived and how like, you know, I am maybe familiar with that area. We talked about all these

things. And we got like 30 minutes to do a really deep conversation. I was like, what were you doing,

what were you doing before this? He was like, Oh, I was doing this, this and, Oh, wow, that's

amazing. What was it called? He goes, Oh, I can't tell you, I'll dox myself. And I was like, Oh,

and I got back and I like remembered we are anonymous. And I thought that was so fascinating.

What did you think about that? I don't know. I didn't find it that fascinating. But now that you

say it, I'm like, yeah, that was kind of crazy. Like you see, it didn't feel crazy. It didn't feel

crazy. You people who have there's, you see people who have their like handle online and that's their

persona. But you're right. I've never actually just met one of those people in real life and have

them just be like, yeah, that's just, that's my identity. I've just given like, I don't use my,

my birth identity, my, my legal identity. I use my online identity as my main identity.

And everybody was like, All right, what's up, Commodore? I call them Commodore the whole time.

I thought that was his real name for the first 24 hours. Every time you walk to room, people

are like, Commodore, Hey, where's Commodore? Is he ready to go? And it's like, that's not like,

who is this guy? Nobody here knows who this guy is. And we're all okay with it. That was kind,

yeah, right. That was kind of amazing. And I was like, can I just take a picture of you and like

reverse search this? He goes, you can, but you won't. And I was like, you're right. I'm not going to.

Yeah, there was sort of respect at some point. It's like, I'm not going to try to know this

because you're cool. And I don't need, why would I do something you don't, you're not comfortable

with? You don't want that? All right, I'm your friend. I'm not going to do that to you.

Dude, that was, it was so weird at first. And then it became completely normal. And now,

now I totally get this an on thing. And I asked him, I go, do your friends know who you are?

And he's, no, he's like, they, they, a lot of them just don't know what I do for work.

So there was a group of people there that are pretty interesting. So one guy who we both

loved, who we did a pod with. So I guess I'll explain the rest of the setup. So

we did a couple other cool things. I thought we had a chef who's there at the house just

making all the meals. That was great. So nobody had to think about anything.

And then we had Kevin Durant basically sent us like 30 pairs of his shoe.

So everybody that was there, they got a pair of his shoes. We got a custom like shirt jersey

that said camp MFM with your name on the back of your number. So people kind of had their

like jersey for the weekend. We got like, they also sent like Nike sent bags for us.

So there was a couple of things that were like cool, you know,

why I was talking about the moments in between the moments,

we tried to have some moments in between the moments.

It felt like Christmas morning, like with all these shoes here. And we all like got there

and like unwrapped them. It was really cool. Yeah, we all turned into little kids were like

unboxing our thing and be like, Oh yeah, I got it. Like, you know, all these people could afford

a thousand shoes a thousand times over, but like, it just, it's still great to just get a free,

cool thing that somebody sends you.

Can I say one cool thing you did, Sean, is that it wasn't all KDs. It was like KDs and a couple

Kyrie's and some LeBron's. So it was fun to open up to be like, Oh, which shoes did I get?

Yeah, that was true. Some other great moments. So we, we had gotten connected with the guys at

Duke because we're in North Carolina and we had said, Hey, can we come like get a tour of the

place? They did. So basically some of the former players who are now coaches, some of the current

players basically came together and they, they took us on a tour of the practice facility.

What did you think of that? By the way, you're not like a, like, I went to Duke. That to me was

obviously cool. Dude, it was so cool. It was so awesome. So I don't know anything about basketball.

I even made a joke when we walked in, I go, Ben, who's that dude? And it was coach K.

Yeah. So like, I don't really know anything about basketball, but it was inspirational

because the assistant coaches now, I think they are, they told stories about working with coach

K who's like known for, you know, 30 years of excellence and tradition and like perfection.

And he told, they told some amazing stories. And I felt, I did feel like I was in a, I don't know,

holy place when I was there. So I want to say something about that too. So one of the players

there, Emile Jefferson, who he was on the championship team maybe seven years ago or so.

Was he like the coach, like the guy leading the tour? Yeah, he was the guy kind of telling the

most stories. And I just want to give him a shout out because basically they didn't know what the

hell was going on neither did our group. All of a sudden 30 people are standing face to face in

this practice facility. And it's like, so, uh, okay, who are you guys? And like, what am I supposed

to show you? What are we doing here? And like, I don't think anybody, he totally winged it.

He did. He did good. It also helped that we had Mr. Beast here and, uh, Hasan. So everyone thought

that like, Oh, everyone else here must be famous too. I just don't recognize. Yeah, exactly. It's

like, they didn't know we're all just prolific newsletter creators, you know, podcasters and

newsletter creators and a couple of actually famous people. Yeah, they ball we blog. Exactly.

So he tells the story and I just got to give him credit. Like that was like a maker break moment.

Do you have a story or do you not? And I just want to encourage everybody to like

have a story in your back pocket. Like whatever the most common question you get, which is like,

in this case, what's coach K like, you know, what was it like playing here? What's it like,

you know, whatever. And don't just be like, it was good, man, really cool, really special to be

here. Yes. I mean, it's just been awesome. I've learned so much. It's like, that's what I would

say nine out of 10 people would have done. He's like, you know, when I first got here, I thought

it was hot shit, blah, blah, blah. And then coach K was just yelling at me, yelling at me, man,

I didn't know what to do. He's like, later on, I realized that once he stopped chilling at you,

that's what it's bad because that he's giving up on you. But like, you know, for that moment, he's

like, in some practices, and then you say, he's at a counter intuitive things. He's like, some

practices, he just sat there, man, he didn't say anything. And the whole practice, he wouldn't say

a word and you just think, Oh man, he's just checked out. Like he's not doing anything. Like,

I don't know. It's weird. I guess he doesn't care right now. But then three weeks later,

he would reference something that he was observing that day. And you're like, dude,

you've been watching everything. You got like cameras in the walls and microphones. Like,

how do you know all this stuff? He tells the story. He's like, you know, we have this one

little film room and the secret, like, he's like, see that wall right there? There's like a secret

door. You go in there. There's a film room right next to the practice gym. He's like, and he took

me in there. He's like, come here. And I go in there and I haven't been playing that well. And

he takes me in. And there's like all these screens in there. He's like, and on all of the screens,

it's just a picture of me, like various pictures of me all doing the same pose where I'm just

sitting there like this. I'm like, I'm exasperated. I'm like mad at the ref or my teammates or the

coaches. My hands are out. My hands are up. My palms are up. I'm like, it's like the Y

like type of like expression. And already everybody's on the edge of their seat in the

story because we're like, Hey, this is cool. This is interesting. I wanted to know what was this

about? He's like, he said, look, look at this son. You're one of the leaders of this team.

You look like a beggar. You're sitting there with your palms out, begging for a call from the referee,

begging for the coaches to help you, begging for your teammates to do something. He's like,

you're a leader. I don't ever want to see you look like a beggar again. He's like, don't do that.

This is not the body language of a leader. Look at your face. Look at your hands. And

I was like, hey, such a good story. He's like, for the rest of the season, you'll watch me.

If something happens, I'm like this. He's like, it does a totally different pose. He's like,

you'll never catch me doing that pose again. And I thought, great way to connect with the group,

right? Like we're all like kind of CEO leader types. So you tell a leadership story, you tell

a counterintuitive one, entertaining one, and it's a happy ending, right? And I just thought, man,

he just killed it with that moment. And I just felt, for myself, if I look at how I was hosting

that weekend, I felt like if I was going to level up how these things go, that's one thing I want

to work on is in those moments where you need to either make the toast, welcome everybody in,

everybody in, tell the story, get people primed for what we're about to do. Like the difference

in the whole experience can just be in that like two minutes story right before you start. And

that's what I want to get great at. I told you this like three times, you pulled this off perfectly

and you nailed the important stuff and you failed and ignored the not important stuff. The not

important stuff is the nice to have that. But here's the thing, most people would spend time on

that. So you had no website. You had no like invitation. You just DM people and you said,

Venmo me money. And I didn't know what I was getting into, but I just trusted you. You last

minute sent us the address. So basically like on the way to the airport, you told me the address

of where I had to go to. I didn't know what time dinner was. I just know I just sometime throughout

the day, hopefully I show up at this address and I and I like hopefully there's a place to sleep.

All I did was I sent you money and I told you my shoe size. That's all I did. And I showed up and

there was all these amazing people there and you nailed it and you did it quickly and the Airbnb

was perfect. We had a chef there. That was perfect. The house pretty messy, kind of just not messy,

horribly, but almost, but borderline. Like this is disgusting. We go and play basketball a day and

you have this amazing trainer at this awesome high school gym that was also perfect. But I'm

like, all right, is there any like drinks here? Like what do we, what do we do? It's like, well,

there's just a water fountain and some clip bars. And I was like, okay, that's less than ideal.

But you know what? That doesn't matter because I appreciate that you just like, you just ordered

this shit on Amazon and you go, but that's not the important shit. We're going to focus on the

important stuff. We had a podcast studio there that was already set up an important thing that we

needed and it was like kind of like a little hoodie, a little hood rat set up and it was

fucking perfect. It was exactly what we needed. The people that you selected were awesome. We

didn't do any like real introductions. We just hung out and you just, you did, I think if you're

executing on a project, what you did this weekend was a perfect example of just getting the main

things right. Now in the future, maybe you'll know, or maybe you'll want to like, all right,

you know, we should actually have like people didn't like eat this type of food. We should not

do that this time. And like, that's the unimportant stuff though. And it was perfect. What do you

think of Sean's execution? Did I nail it? Yeah, yeah, I think you were 100% right. Nailed execution.

Just everything about it was perfect. Sean, do you think it's something, could you just copy

and paste it? Or does it need to be different every time in order to create that feeling of it

being special? I think you could copy paste 80% of it and you would change 20. And so I think

that that would be the plan. I want to basically, so I just bought a domain. I'm putting up a website

today, mfmcamp.com. And I'm going to put the pictures from this one. I just kind of want to

make a blog of where this was, but I'm also going to put a form on there for people who want to come

to the future. Because half the people who came to this, I didn't know they had reached out when I

had first said the idea. I think you should let people apply. But I don't think you got to keep

it just like 20, 25 people. I'm going to do two versions. I'm going to do the exclusive one, which

is like, basically it's hitters only, right? No small boy stuff there. That's what this one was

like, right? 20, 25 people in the room. Everybody had their claim to fame, whatever it may be,

right? Like we had one guy, Al, who's built the biggest quilt company in the world. They do over

$100 million a year selling quilt, you know, patches and accessories and stuff like that.

And it's like, that's his, and he bought a town and he's making it like the quilting hub of America,

like a tourist destination for quilters everywhere. Like the guy's crazy, but he's totally different

than the next guy who's done it in a different area, right? So I'm going to do one or two of these a

year that are the small 20 person type of events. I might even go smaller. I might even go 15. I

think this was too many people. And then I also want to do one that's like one notch less.

The D league. Yeah, it's not the D. It's more like the B, the B league, right? It's like,

that I want to do like a thousand person or 500 person or something bigger, maybe not five,

maybe not that big, maybe it's 200, but that'll be like a retreat somewhere. It's less intimate,

less exclusive, but it's still people who are, they're all entrepreneurs. They're all, they've

all made their first million, right? According to the podcast, they all listen to the pod,

they get the jokes, they get the humor, they get the style. So when they show up, they know the vibe,

the vibe, the vibe should be immaculate from day one. And that's what I, that's what I want to do.

So that's what I'm thinking of doing out of this. What do you think of that idea?

Yeah, I told Kip, the CMO of HubSpot, I go, Sean just did this on his own. Like you gotta

carve out some budget and just let us, let us or let him have this money. And, and we got to make

this happen. This was magical. And he's like, dude, I found all your guys's picture and Instagram

from this. This is amazing. We're in. And yeah, I think it's a really good idea. You should do a

bigger one. That bigger one, the bigger one will be freaking exhausting, but it'd be fun.

Yeah, totally. I hate events, but the fact that I still want to do this, even though I hate events,

shows me that it's like a good thing to do. Okay. So those were a couple of the things that can I

share a couple of the other kind of like takeaways or anecdotes. So one takeaway. A lot of people

there were pretty, I'll call it like straight narrow now. Like it's like a lot of the conversations

were like about their kids. So Nick, who's sweaty startup on Twitter, he goes, he wrote a blog post.

Did you read this thing? He goes, I spent the weekend with multimillionaires. Here's what I

learned. And he goes, we organize this thing, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, he texted his wife

afterwards, put a screenshot up. He goes, I'm very inspired by a lot of the guys here, had some

incredible deep conversations with some spectacular people. A few things I am ready to change right

away. Number one, I want a therapist. Number two, I want to bring energy to the kids. I think I need

to disconnect from the phone to do that. Number three, I want to drink less alcohol. Number four,

I'm ready to bring a positive mindset to being a family man and a dad and nurture that garden

in the same way that I've nurtured business and social. Number five, I want to start honoring

you like treating you like the queen that you are. I'm so lucky to have you, right? It's like, whoa,

those are some, you know, come to Jesus, you know, sort of thoughts. And I'm glad that, you know,

he had that impression. And so he said something. He goes, he goes, here's my takeaways. He goes,

we're all dorks. He goes, I was expecting a room full of giants, people with charisma,

blah, blah, blah. He's like, don't get me wrong. Some people could tell great stories, but for the

most part, everybody's just normal and like overcome odds. They were just smart storytellers

who were really obsessed with their thing. Now, number two, he goes, we all suffer with

insecurity, fear, failure and a general emptiness at times. He goes, I talked to a few guys who

enjoyed their success more than five years ago, have been worth 20 plus million for a long time,

and they spoke about business as an unhealthy addiction, how it leaves them searching for more

and empty feeling after an exit. Others talked about their nagging ego and need for more and

bigger. Others discussed a constant fear that their career, about their career, that they

weren't worthy or didn't have what it took and just general insecurity. Another one,

they had lots of kids. A lot of guys spend a lot of time talking about their kids and how they

spend a lot of energy in this area. Most of the folks spent a lot of time talking about how they're

trying to raise good kids and how they're trying to help their kids embrace the struggle rather

than protecting them from it. He goes, very few of them had new groundbreaking businesses. Most

started normal businesses that already existed, not revolutionary technologies. They saw a need

and just went after it better than anyone else. Good old fashioned, boring stuff. He talked about

the humility is astounding. Money has not turned these people into jerks. They're still mentally

tough, still willing to slum it. They are humble. They're searching for ways to improve, blah,

blah, blah. Most didn't drink alcohol. A couple of us had one or two drinks, but I'm surprised

that this many people were able to socialize, hang out without using alcohol. It inspired

me to do more. Yeah. Basically, the big question for most people in the room is, what am I going

to do with my life? He goes, one last quote. He goes, I talked to somebody who said this,

I walk around my house in my office sometimes just acting like I'm doing things. Then I just go

outside and walk around or a cut wood. He's like, everybody is kind of on some kind of search.

So I thought it was a really good recap. To add to that, most people were really transparent.

And so we would be like, if we would ask them money questions, and they would just say,

this is what I have. This is where I put it. This is what I do. And they would be fairly specific.

Or they would say, no, I don't have enough to do this, this, and this. We're talking about flying

private. Like, no, I'm not wealthy enough. I can't do that. I can't afford it. And I was like, oh,

or I am wealthy enough to do that. And here's how much I spend, but I didn't do it until I hit this

number. Or, you know, like my wife and I argue about X, Y, and Z. Or I'm nervous about my children

for these reasons. Or like people were really transparent. Can I tell you a few more Mr. Beast

nuggets real quick? Because I think he was the most alien of, he was the alien amongst aliens,

basically. Yeah. So he's got a runner. Do you know what I mean when I say this? No, wait, what?

No, there is somebody 24 hours a day. He's two people that do 12 hour shifts. Basically, he's

got a dude outside the house at all times, just sitting in his car 24 hours a day. It's a personal

door dash. So if he ever needed something, I don't know if you noticed, he was like, oh,

I want to play settlers of Catan. So he's like, Hey, could you go get Catan? And the guy would

just run to the store, go get Catan and bring it back within 15 minutes. What? He was outside our

house the whole time. And he's outside the studio, wherever he goes. These two people are there,

12 hour shifts each. So 24 hours a day. He's got somebody just watching his back ready to go do

anything. Like that's some real, that's like a really funny. And so he's talking to me, he's like,

he's like, yeah, he's like, I don't get it. He's like, all these people here are wealthy, but like,

nobody here had that. He's like, why don't why don't you guys do that? It's like,

it's a waste of your time to go do those things, right? Like, if you value your time, why would

you? And I was like, I was like, he's like, why do you think that is? And I was like, honestly,

I don't think any of us had even thought about it. Like, I was like, I was like, I had never

considered this possibility. I didn't know that was a thing. And so it's actually like a trait

commonly found with greatness, which is a very matter of fact, simple way of looking at things

that is unafraid of like, how that looks, how that sounds, or like, what it costs. So for example,

when he reinvests everything into every video, and I was like, okay, so, you know,

you know, what's the game plan here? He's like, well, just, you know, like, make the best video

as possible, just put it all in, keep growing it, make this the biggest thing ever. And like,

you know, that's my goal. And I was like, okay, but like, you know, what about XYZ? It's like,

I told you my goal. So why would I consider XYZ? Like, yeah, you're not listening to the first

parts of where I said, I call it, I started to think about this. Because again, the stunning

thing for me was, I had never really met anybody who puts every hour, every dollar and every ounce

of their soul into their wild ambition. That's what I took away from him. It doesn't matter

if he was a YouTuber or an athlete. In fact, the trainer there used to train with Kobe and

Kobe's daughter, Gigi, before they passed away. And I was, you know, I was like, dude, I hate to

be the guy who asks you for a Kobe story, but like, you got to tell me a Kobe Bryant story,

like what you got. And he started telling me, I was like, you know, is the work ethic thing

legit? Because like, I don't know if you follow this, but like on Reddit, there's these stories

where it's like, no, dude, yeah, I sat and listened to that guy talk. He was, he was, that was,

that was probably the best storytelling. So there's these stories about Kobe that you don't know

if they're marketing or if they're real, where it's like, Kobe would wake up, like there's a story

like Dwayne Wade, who's another, you know, Hall of Fame basketball player. He's like, yeah, I,

we went to the Olympics. That's my first time I got to see how Kobe works, because he was a

competitor before that. Now we're on the same Olympic team. He's like, we got to the gym at

6am. Kobe was already there, like fully sweating. We're like, what are you doing? We just got here

for the 6am practice. What are you doing? And he's like, oh, this, like, yeah, I'm ready. I'll be

ready in a minute. They're like, well, why are you sweating so much? He's like, oh, I had my first

workout at four. I'm just finishing up. I'm going to join you guys in a second. I'm going to go get

my ankles re-taped and then go back. And the guys, so he's got this legendary work ethic. So I was

asking the guy, I was like, is it real? He's like, dude, I thought it was bullshit too. He's like,

so I started texting him at four. He's like, can you get me back right away? The guy was awake.

He was at the gym. He's like, it was insane. He's like, he's like, and then I was like, okay,

so he's got the crazy work ethic. What else? He's like, he had this ability where if you were in

the room with him, he's like, most of the guys I work with, the famous athletes, they're like kind

of like ADD. They're like, if they don't know, if you're not like a bullseye of what they're

interested in, they don't think that they don't look at you as someone they can learn something from

always. Yeah, just normal people. He's like, so, you know, they'll check their phone. They'll look

around. They'll talk to you. They'll talk to their manager. They'll talk to this person. They're just

whatever. They're all over the place. He's like, Kobe, if he got a room with you, you'd feel like

there's only you in the room. He would lock eyes. He would not look at his phone. He would not move

away. He would ask you questions. He would remember your name and the name thing was fascinating.

Did you hear that story? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other guy, Luke, tells the story. So he goes,

we're at the gym and I was like, this first time I ever met Kobe, he's like, we're playing pickup.

And I was playing with, I jumped in. He's like a trainer. He's like, I jumped in the game and

I missed like six or seven shots. And Kobe just doesn't say anything. He's like, after the game,

he goes, damn, you, damn, damn, man, you come make a shot or what? And the guy goes, I'm a volume

shooter, bro. Like, you should know. And the Kobe, like, I mean, he tried to like kind of basically

make fun of Kobe. Kobe's like, oh, the only volume I know is five, like five rings. He's like,

whatever. They have that one interaction. It takes five seconds. They just laugh,

move on with life. Three weeks later, he comes back to the gym and the guy walks into the gym

and Kobe goes, what a volume. And just like remembered who he was. Kate remembered his nickname.

And so then the guy was like, already impressed with that. He's like, but I, he's like, I had never

talked to him besides I never told him my name, nothing. He had asked somebody what my name is.

So that three weeks later, he goes, he's like, I was leaving. And Kobe goes, damn, Luke, you're

not going to say bye. And he's like, you know my name. And secondly, you're stopping. I just

didn't want to bother you. Like, and the guy was like sneaking out, like just casually trying to

leave. And Kobe just saw him walking around. I was like, dude, what the hell? Are you going to say

goodbye to me? And so he knew his name. He knew. He's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he

remembers everybody's name. And I asked him once, I go, Kobe, like, why do you like, is that easy

for you? He's like, no, it's not that easy. I just make an effort. And he's like, why do you care?

Like to learn all these people's names? He goes, because for most people, this is the only time

they're ever going to interact with me. And if I remember their name was something so simple,

and they not only will they remember it forever, they'll tell everybody they know about this.

He goes, so I'm not just remembering. I'm not just like making an impression on them. I'm making an

impression on a thousand people throughout their lifetime that they're going to tell this Kobe

Bryant story too. And I thought that was so baller. And that was the same thing I was admiring

about Mr. East. I admired about Kobe in that same way. He didn't even crazy your story where

Alex had mentioned like a few weeks prior that his mom's birthday was on a particular date.

And on that particular day, Kobe texted Alex, the trainer goes, what's your mom's cell number?

And he facetimed the mom goes, what's up, mom? You know, I just want to say, I hope you have a

wonderful birthday today. And Alex is like, I didn't even facetime my mom. Exactly. So those

stories were amazing. Again, those are the moments in between the moments, right? You can't plan for

that. But you put a bunch of people in the room and serendipity like that can happen.

But the other story that was like that. So, so, so the trait out of the thing I was calling Mr.

Beast, I was like, he has a level of commitment that I call kamikaze commitment. He has a kamikaze

level commitment to winning. Kobe had that too. That's our new phrase, bro. That's a good job.

The manifest cowboys and the people who got that kamikaze commitment, the dogs. And so

I was like, how do you compete with a YouTuber like Mr. Beast? I thought about this. I was like,

because I was like, literally, I was like, could I fund somebody? Could I just give someone like

$5 million to become Mr. Beast? And I was like, I don't think it would actually work because

not just the talent, there's like, he's not the best looking dude. He's not the funniest guy.

He's honestly all the things he knows about YouTube you could learn. I could tell you everything

that he, you know, you need to know about YouTube in 85% that you would need to know to get pretty

far ahead, right? There's the last 15% that you'll crew over time. But like, dude, you need a great

clickable title and thumbnail. Here's what makes it clickable. The first 10 seconds, you need to

hook people and tell them what they're going to get out of this video. And then you need to visually

stimulate them. And then you need to use these cuts. And then you need to introduce a twist in

order to keep their attention. And here's the metric you need to hear about, right? Like you

could train that what you can't train is the guy is willing to put all the money he makes back into

the next videos. So like imagine competing in a business with somebody who's willing to take no

like they're going to beat you on price. They're going to beat you on value because they're willing

to lower their price that they're willing to reinvest all of their profits into building a

better product. So he's willing to reinvest all of his money and all of his time into this.

And then that compound. So at first that was really cheap. That was, you know, the first brand

that gave him a $10,000, the first brand to try to give him a $5,000 sponsorship. I don't know if

you know the story. They quit trying to give him $5,000 for the video. He was like, he's like,

I talked to the guy on the phone for like an hour being like, dude, make a 10,000 more people will

click. She's like, 10,000, just that number 10 grand in the title is going to get way more clicks

than five. I don't know why it just five is not the same as 10 in the title. And so it's like,

just give me 10. They're like, dude, we just are budget. He's like, I'm not even going to keep the

10. I'm going to give all 10 away. So the gate, they said yes to 10. He immediately went and gave

10 grand to a homeless guy. And then that video gets like a million views and all the stuff that

pays the pays the video off. The advertisers happy. So then they get 20 grand, 30 grand,

50 grand, 100 grand and eventually advertisers willing to pay nearly a million dollars for

to be a part of these videos. But he's willing to take that and port all back in. So how do you

compete with somebody who's willing to spend all of their creative energy and time and all of their

money? I think that is like just kind of all inspiring to see somebody execute the like sort

of kamikaze commitment strategy. I know I'm not willing to do it. Maybe because I'm older.

I'm not willing to do it. I got kids. I mean, I don't know what it is. I don't know what the

factors are. It's really that I just, I don't need to. It's like, it's like I said before,

like I think being a Olympian, being an Olympian is a trap. Like I don't need to be a gold medalist.

I don't want to be Michael Phelps and give up like 20 years of my life to train every single

moment of every single day to become that. Like that's okay. I don't think, I don't think his

lifestyle is fitting for happiness and maybe, maybe even being fulfilled. But by the way,

he would agree. Like he said that himself. Yeah. And he said that. And I'm happy that he exists.

And I know I am not that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Those are the two certainties that I have on that.

You know, before, before we went on that trip, you are real and I, and I, and I, and I am not it.

Face tattoos and cornrows, right? Yeah. Face tattoos and cornrows. I'm cool.

They, other people have them. Not for me. Yeah. Before I went there, I was like, maybe we should

really like double down on you. Maybe we should triple down on YouTube. I was like,

I think I could become like the biggest business creator on YouTube. Do I want that? I don't know.

And then I, when we were there, there was like a 30 minute shoot where he was like

a photo shoot for the thumbnail of one of his videos. And I was like, yeah, I don't think I want

to do this. Like I don't think in my day, these are the things I want to spend my energy on.

Well, we don't, I think somebody is willing to do that. Of course somebody's willing to do that.

Many people are willing to do that, to win that game. And I was like, I'd rather do a game where

I'm willing to pay the price that it takes to get the outcome that I want, rather than try not to

do it. You and we, we could play that game, but you don't have to play it his way. You know,

his way is a reckless way and it works. There are, there are lots of different examples of people

succeeding in different ways. You know, the wealthiest guy there, keep in mind was basically,

he was the wealthiest guy there by a lot, I think, and he played the game totally different

than, than Jimmy did. Yeah. But I think the YouTube game that, you know, like there is a,

I think there is a default path and you'd have to really be saying, I'm going to go try to be an

outlier, right? I'm not going to be on, I'm not going to do X, Y, Z to be the top. I'm going to be,

yes, if you want it to be the top mainstream type of guy, I agree. Right. But there's like

lots of games. If we wanted a sweet lifestyle where we're making a few million dollars that

you're here doing it, like you're right. There's many ways to do that. But if you want to be the

top, right? And that's the question I was asking myself. Do I want to try to go for that?

No, I don't, but I would, I would, I'd be okay with pretty good.

And doesn't that feel weird when you spend time with people who, who are like,

they hear that sentence and they're sort of repulsed? Isn't there a part of you that's

sort of like embarrassed to say, I'm okay with just good enough? There's a part of me that's

for sure embarrassed to feel that way. Yeah. And I used to feel, so I used to feel embarrassed

about that. And then I realized, I started like reading about stoicism. And I got,

went into this Ryan holiday, like deep rabbit hole. And I'm like, Oh yeah, we're all going to

die. And we're all going to be bullshit. And like just ashes, like what I'm not going to play

other people's games. But here's the thing I want to wrap up with as I left that weekend,

a little angry at myself because I experienced envy, pretty hardcore. And I experienced like

inadequacy of like, you know, a lot of places where I go, I'm the big shot there. We were the

low, we were probably below average in terms of traditional success. And I remember being there

and I'm like, I am nothing and I should want more and I should achieve more. And I remember

feeling that way. And I felt guilty that I felt that way. I was like, why, why am I like, you

know, why am I feeling envy? This is envy is like the one of the worst feelings you should,

you can have envies in some regards worse than hate. Right. And so like, I remember feeling

envy. And I was like, I'm falling down the traps. I'm falling. I'm doing it. I'm doing

what everyone says you do. And we all know you're not supposed to do. And I said forever,

I wouldn't feel that way. I made the number that I made. And I thought I won't want any more after

that. And I am wanting more. And I am, I'm giving into it. And I felt really guilty about that.

I know exactly what you mean. I'll tell you what worked for me to like, it's like a, it's like

a hunger pang, right? You can't prevent yourself from feeling hungry, but you can choose how you're

going to satisfy that, right? How you're going to address it. And I told, I had come on the pod

before when I had visited that person's house that like, they had like a $20 million house.

And I was like, wow, this is just incredible. And, and I, I wasted the first two days,

just kind of like being envious and or like bullshitting about why this like, yeah, but you

know, I want to focus a family, you know, coming up with these like other things. I was like, yeah,

this is, this is actually bad for these reasons. Yeah. Just cognitive. Just like trying to convince

myself that I was good. And, and so, you know, and what I had come away with there was like,

actually the right way to handle that moment is to just reframe it. Like, oh, this is sick. I'm

getting to sample a set of options to see which one I want. Oh, okay. You have this and you live

this lifestyle. Tell me about that. I want to hear about that. I want to just, this is just the,

the person walking around at the party with the tray. Oh yeah. I'll try the bruschetta.

Okay. Do I like bruschetta? Is that what I want? Okay. Now let me try the shrimp. Okay. Is that what

I want? Is that what I like? So that's how I, that's at this place. I didn't feel the envy per

say, because as soon as it came up, I was like, oh, this is cool. I'll be getting this guy lives

in Puerto Rico and does this and this and this. Instead of feeling jealous, I pay so much in taxes

and he doesn't let me learn about that. This person has this wild success and they kind of work

this one, one week out of a month. All right. Is that what I want? What's that like? You know,

tell me about that. You know, like I was getting this sample, which just helps me figure out what

I really want. And I get more broad exposure, but I definitely know what you mean to when it was like,

okay, let's go around the circle and like tell, what's your story? What's your, what's your thing?

I'm like, uh, damn, my little like, you know, cricket level of success compared to the whales,

you know, like there is a moment where you panic. I've always had this in any group setting where

they're like, say your name and, you know, an interesting thing about you. It's like, you know,

for a moment, my initial reaction is like, there's nothing interesting about me. Not one iota of me

is interesting. I should just leave the room. How far away is the fire alarm? What happens if I vomit?

Do I have to do this? Like, you know, like there's that that happens in three seconds. And then my

body's like, Oh, wait, what do you do? What are you talking about? Like, and then I come back to

normal. But I, that reaction happens to me in these group settings for sure. Yeah. I remember,

I felt the exact same way. And I was like, I am nothing. It's a, here it kind of made me feel

better when people who I didn't know told me about my life. And I'm like, ah, fucker, you listen,

got you. Like, you know what I mean? Dude, I gotta tell you the story. That was a little better.

Totally unrelated story. But do you just remind me of it? It's so hilarious.

Back in the day, me and my buddies used to go gamble a lot. We didn't have much money. We're

just fresh out of college. We basically had won a business plan competition. And we were like

extending the runway by going and playing poker and like trying to like win a few extra thousand

dollars doing it. But sometimes we would lose. And so who knows, we probably net it out, you know,

slightly down. Anyways, one of the guys, he would play table games where you have no edge or you're

going to lose. And so he'd go play craps, whatever. And when he would lose, we'd be like, all right,

man, like we should cut it off. And he's like, hold on, let me just go get a coffee to go to the

ATM and get more money to come back. And we're like, ah, dude, he's a degenerate. We got to stop him.

But we didn't. So we came back up to the hotel room and he's gone for like another five hours,

five a.m. He comes back into the room and I wake up because I hear the noise and he doesn't know

that I'm awake. We're asleep. He doesn't know that I'm awake. And he's, he comes up to the,

he stands in front of the mirror in the hotel room. Actually, first he goes to the bathroom,

changes into the robe, which is always the sign of somebody trying to get their value

out of the hotel room because they lost a bunch of money in the casino. There's a little tip

for degenerates. It's when they start using all the shampoos and stuff, they're trying to get back

at the casino. So he goes, comes out in a robe, he's looking at the mirror and he just goes,

you suck. You suck. And he just goes, you fat fuck, you suck. And he just digs it up and he

just goes, and he just holds up his hand. He goes, five, five iPhones. You lost five iPhones.

He's telling him something. And I start laughing so hard. He realizes that we're awake. And then

it was like, it totally lightened the mood just because of how funny the situation was. And we

always reference five iPhone. We always like, if I go gambling, he's like, how many iPhones? I'm

like three iPhones. I lost three. I lost three iPhones. Like a stack of phones. Rappers use

like racks. Like how many racks did you lose? Or how many racks did you win? We use iPhones.

And dude, I'll never forget that story. It was so funny.

And that's what that's what I was telling myself. A million subscribers. You only have a million

subscribers. I remember. Deleture account. That weekend, you and I, this channel, we hit 100,000

subscribers. And then I went and looked at Jimmy's numbers. And I think he was adding a million a

week or sorry, a million a month. I forget what it was. Or sorry, 100,000 a day. That's what he

was adding. And we were like, we just hit 100,000. He goes, nice today. Yeah.

I remember that's how I felt. I was like, oh, we suck. We suck so hard. I felt that way. Ben,

are people, is this, is this going to be a great episode? I got so much energy from this.

This is definitely self-indulgent. But like, who cares? I needed to debrief this.

And I would say like, you know, some part of padding ourselves in the back some parts,

we're making fun of us ourselves, sometimes making fun of other people. I hope we weren't hard on

anybody. You know, it was a lot of fun. And yeah, let's do it again. All right. That's the app.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.