The Easiest Way To Make $10,000/Month In Passive Income

Shaan Puri

I got asked this question. This guy was like, "Hey," he DM'd me. He goes, "Sean, big fan! Whatever the next sentence you type to me, I'm gonna do it or I'll die trying." I was like, "Okay." Then he's like, "I'm gonna get to $10,000 a month of passive income profits." You know, I'm thinking either A) I start a newsletter, or B) I do this other thing. It was all kind of like stuff we either do or topics we talk about, like e-commerce, a newsletter, or this other thing. He asked, "Which one do you think is gonna get me there the fastest or the best? Which one's the best path?" I was like, "I don't know, dude. Those all seem pretty hard to get to $10K a month."

Sam Parr

know if I heard if I want

Shaan Puri

If your goal is really $10,000 a month, you know, I don't know if a job will probably get you there. But let's take that off the table for a second. Let's assume you don't want a job or you don't have maybe the degree to get a six-figure job. I would just do a productized service.

Sam Parr

Dude, Sean, so here's the deal. We are officially popular enough that you have to get your podcast set up, right? So, what I'm going to do is talk to Ben. We're having someone come to your house and my house, and they're going to put in a two-camera setup. They're going to cut back and forth, but you've got to make that room look good. It's going to be ready every time.

Shaan Puri

Dude, that's great! Also, related to that, I found a new house that I might move into that's way nicer. My main motivation was to make this podcast look better. I was like, you know, I kind of look like a scrub on this podcast. Right now, I don't have my haircut done, my beard trimmed, or my room nice. I was thinking, if over 100,000 people consume this every time, I would never go out in front of a stadium like this. I wouldn't even let three friends come to my house and look at my office like this. So why do I let 100,000 people see the office, see the recording studio like this? Simply for convenience. Also, I found something. Have you ever used PureSpace? It's like an Airbnb for rentals that are not houses—not necessarily houses to stay in. It's just for a venue. There's a place near me for $75 an hour for recording podcasts. It's got a two-camera setup with a sick couch and stuff like that. It'd be great for in-person stuff, but if we're not in person, you know, it's just me sitting on a giant couch.

Sam Parr

I'm gonna do it. I'll come out there and we'll finally do it. Ben wanted me to come out there but I didn't want to fly, but whatever, I'll do it. I was talking to HubSpot or someone and I was saying, "Hey, give us budget to make our studio nice because we're like the lowest maintenance people you have." I was like, "For example, two weeks ago Sean recorded a podcast with literally just one AirPod because he didn't have a mic and the other AirPod ran out of batteries. So he just used his AirPod and his laptop." So like... I think we're due. We're owed one [studio upgrade].

Shaan Puri

that's hilarious also what else I was gonna say oh there's this guy

Sam Parr

I wish I could give my shout out I don't

Shaan Puri

I don't know what his name is, but I kinda wanna steal his idea. This guy has this course... it's an on-demand course that is only about how to make your video camera go from like a "before" to an "after." And I was like, "Oh, this is the smartest course I've ever seen!"

Sam Parr

ben knows his name

Shaan Puri

yeah I don't think ben you know his name

Sam Parr

yeah his name is kevin shen

Shaan Puri

Kevin Shen: Yeah, actually, I shouldn't shout it... [bleep that out]. I'm going to make it my own competitor course, so bleep this guy out. I'm going to copy him. No, but I... but your...

Sam Parr

your setup sucks dude it's like it's like a fat person giving a person how to lose weight

Shaan Puri

I'm the before story just wait till you see my after

Sam Parr

you're the way before story

Shaan Puri

I... that's like, we all know there's the "before" and then there's the "after." I'm currently in a "before." The "way before" was the one AirPod recording with no microphone and no light. Yeah, and we're gonna... I'm gonna do the "after," and then I'm just gonna turn that into a... it's a one-hour thing, and it just says, "Here's the thing to buy." Because here's the problem: I've watched a bunch of these YouTube tutorials, and they're like, "Oh yeah, go get the Sony A5, or you can get the A6, or you can get the D340." And it's like, "Alright, well dude, which one?" Then you buy it, and they're like, "Yeah, just connect it to your computer, and then, okay, see? Now it looks good." And I was like, "Yeah, but there were like seven things in between there that... like everything went wrong." And they're like, "Okay, you know..."

Sam Parr

you want us there's one guy who's like you know there's there's some people show you how to

Shaan Puri

Put your lights up or whatever. But dude, this is the new... your webcam is the new face.

Sam Parr

the new business too

Shaan Puri

It's basically, yeah, it's your suit. It's like what people see. Like this one time, this guy told me, "Yeah dude, I spent... I gotta go get my haircut." I was like, "How much do you spend on your haircut?" because he has nice hair. It kind of made it sound like a big deal, like, "I can't do anything today, I gotta go get my haircut." I was like, I just kind of, you know, it's like in the middle of another task. I'm getting my haircut. That's kind of how I feel.

Sam Parr

would work yeah like if the great clip just so happens to be in the mall that you're at

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly. Like, "Which Supercuts do you go to?" And he was like, "Yeah, I go to this one place. She's been cutting my hair for years. I have a standing appointment." I was like, "Damn, dude. You're really into your hair." He goes, "Your hair is like half of your face." I was like, "Oh shit, it's so true." Yeah, but you're not into the...

Sam Parr

It's all good, right? Like, you don't moisturize or anything?

Shaan Puri

I was like, "Damn, he's right. I'm just leaving 50% up to Supercuts. That ain't right." Like, good hair is like an extra 2 inches of height as far as... you know, that goes. So anyway...

Sam Parr

dude speaking of being I don't

Shaan Puri

even talk about even

Sam Parr

Speaking of being really good looking, did you see the tweet that happened today? So, this woman, this like good looking woman, and her good looking husband...

Shaan Puri

damn hey she's married dude bad girl

Sam Parr

They're both handsome. They're... they're a beautiful couple. She sent me this message, basically, and I shared the screenshots on Twitter. But basically, a year ago you tweeted something. I sent you the tweet... I actually forget. Do you remember what it was?

Shaan Puri

no I I didn't see the tweet what was the original tweet

Sam Parr

should we is

Shaan Puri

it interesting does it matter

Sam Parr

She said it was really cringe that she even replied to it in the first place. But here, I'll pull it up. So basically, you said, "I have zero interest in buying a fancy car. You know what I want? A personal in-house chef. I can't think of a better way to spend money than on a chef. How do I start getting one next week?" And she replied, "Hey, hire me! I'm a chef, but I've got about 32 other skills," or whatever. This guy DM'd her, and she said that they were just talking about, I guess, the chef business or something like that. Yeah, I mean, it was clear what was going on from the get-go. But she sent me the first message, and they were just talking, shooting the shit.

Shaan Puri

Then he's like, "Hey, whatever the thing you were talking about, I'm super interested. Tell me more about whatever that was."

Sam Parr

Well, he's from Indiana, and she's from Ireland. So, she's in Europe, he's in America, and they start talking back and forth in the DMs. Then they get on a call, and she said they hit it off. After two weeks of just constant calls, he booked a flight to Europe. For two weeks, they had this great time. Now, a year later, she moved to America. It's been about a year since that tweet, and they're getting married in a couple of months. It was all because she said that she listened to "MFM" and read "The Hustle." She started listening to this, commenting on your stuff and my stuff. He noticed that, and then they connected. I think his in was talking about the podcast and like, "Oh, you like them too?" It totally worked. She sent me a picture of them. They're both... I mean, they're both tens. It's a good-looking couple. So, our new tagline is "MFM: Getting You Paid and Laid." Yeah, there you go! And I am sure all of our listeners are as good-looking as them. I don't think so, but they did a good job. I was showing this to my mom, and I'm like, "See? It's not just neckbeards that listen to this. It's actually real people who shower and stuff." But they look good. I'm happy for these people, so shout out to them!

Shaan Puri

Maybe we should do a date night every 9 months. We should just bring together listeners, and it's just speed dating. Let's just see what happens.

Sam Parr

it's gonna be like

Shaan Puri

like right like

Sam Parr

Like, you know, Greg and Steve. Everyone's going to be named like Chris and Tucker. It's going to be all guys. So, only come if you're looking for a man.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, exactly! We got the tagline too, so it's perfect. That is a pretty cool moment. I'm glad that happened. That's kind of crazy that it happened. But Ben, producer Ben, young producer Ben, we need your story. Did you do anything bold when you met your wife? Did you do something like this guy? It was a pretty bold move, right? Slide into the DMs, figure out some excuse to call each other every day, then book a flight, go over there, and fall in love. Get married! That's kind of amazing. Did either of you guys do any bold moves?

Sam Parr

We were set up on a blind date, and it was my boss at the time... actually, my boss's boss's boss, the CEO of the company I was working for. I ran into him one night, and he was like, "Oh, do you know Katie Jowers? You have to take her out." So he sent a text to both of us. It sounded like a work email. He was like, "Katie, I have CC'd Benninger. He's a great employee and will take you on a nice date." And I was like, "Alright, well I guess I'm locked in."

Shaan Puri

why did he know that you should take her out a date

Sam Parr

Are you guys... was she Mormon too? Yeah, yeah. This was Utah, so we're all Mormon. Everyone in the store is Mormon. How tall is she? She's 5'11". Well, there! That's why he's like, "You guys are both big, tall, white Mormons. You should procreate." Again, you're describing everyone in the state of Utah though. The whole population is tall, white Mormons.

Shaan Puri

You said it like it was a movie twist. You're like, "But here's the thing: I'm Mormon." She was Mormon. Everything's a story. It's like the end of *The Sixth Sense*. It's like, "He was a ghost, and I'm a ghost." With this whole thing, it's all movies about ghosts.

Sam Parr

That's awesome! So, no, no, no, no, great DM. Sorry, dude. Alright, I have something interesting that I saw. Sean, I posted a link to the subreddit, to this Reddit post that I saw right before I logged into the podcast, and I linked it to you. So basically, there's this subreddit called **Fat FIRE** that I like. I've sent it to you, and every once in a while, you get these amazing stories about people because they reveal their income and things like that. I've been following this lawyer; he's a 38-year-old.

Shaan Puri

explain what fat fire is

Sam Parr

yeah so fat fire don't know

Shaan Puri

what fat fire

Sam Parr

is so fire stands for financially independent retired early traditionally it's like a movement of people who wanna save like 500,000 to a $1,000,000 and live off of like 30 or $40,000 a year that's not exactly what it means but that's like traditionally like with the stereotype fat fire means you wanna retire early and be financially independent but you wanna be doing it fat so you wanna like you know save like $20,000,000 or something like that so you wanna start a company sell it and retire and so it's people who wanna retire while they're young and do it by still living living lavishly and it sounds douchey but it's actually quite interesting it's all like entrepreneurs bankers tech people who like work at a it's just like rich people shit and which is always fun to like be voyeuristic and so there's this guy he's a 38 year old personal injury lawyer and for the past 4 years he's given an update every couple of years and he explains everything that's going on in his business and so his background is basically that he was a normal he went to a good school and then worked at one of the big law firms which is like something that you like grind for 80 hours a week and hopefully climb your way up and eventually you make a $1,000,000 a year after 10 or 15 years but it's kinda boring and you're like kinda like the your boss's bitch for a long time and it just kinda sucks and so he goes you know what screw this a friend of his got hurt and he goes hey I'll represent you just pay me whatever's fair and then he did and he won and then a few other people started coming to him just word-of-mouth and so he was doing this in the evenings while he was still working his main job and after a year he quit to do his own thing that's when his income from his moonlighting became bigger than his normal thing so fast forward now I believe it's been about 8 years since he's been doing this so 2014 to 2022 and he's listed out his income as well as his net worth breaking it down by assets for every single year so in year 1 it was $300,000 2 600,000 800,000 1,200,000 3,000,000 5,600,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 and this year so far 3,300,000 this year and that's personal income basically he he has these posts where he breaks down exactly how his businesses work what his current plan is what his growth challenges are what his marketing is and basically he's got like 5 attorneys that work for him and he slowly built up to that he gets a little bit of cut of all that they have they have 300 cases that they do a year he talks about growth challenges which is that they're struggling with the crm they don't have a crm everything's done manually manually and it's a lot of work and one of his goals is to automate a lot of stuff but it's incredibly fascinating for two reasons 1 this is a sick business right like it's like a just a 37 year old smart person but he doesn't seem like that particularly extraordinary but he's like killing it now he says that his net worth is currently $5,800,000 and his kids have a trust fund of 1,700,000 and then secondly why this is cool for a couple of reasons one alex hermosy had this business alex hermosy was a guest here he had this business called gym launch where he basically worked with gyms where he that you paid him 20 or $30,000 and he set up your whole crm and he set up all the automated emails for onboarding and just kinda set up the automation flow someone should do that for these personal injury attorneys this is awesome they have way more money than gyms and there's probably just as many of them I I have no idea but probably I don't know what do you think about this post it's pretty cool right I can't find this client info

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Shaan Puri

This is great! I don't go on Fat Fire as much as you do. I do it from time to time, but I don't know, I need to add it to my feed or whatever. But yeah, this is great. 38 years old, $15,000,000 net worth—not $5, but $15.8 million. The $6,000,000 in annual income is actually the more stunning part. I'm not surprised that a lawyer at 40 can have $15,000,000 in net worth; it's the $6,000,000 in annual income that's sort of stunning. This makes me want to understand this personal injury lawyer business better. He says, "I do no marketing. I basically just hand out business cards and get referrals from my existing clients." But that is a ton of take-home from your legal practice. I don't think that's common. So I wonder what he's doing that's uncommon. He talks about how these cases are basically like, you know, it's not about more cases. 300 cases could end up being worth more than 3,000 cases because you get paid based on the outcome, you know, the profits of the cases.

Sam Parr

man is he paying

Shaan Puri

kinda weird like isn't it no

Sam Parr

I don't think that's so. This guy's in Southern California, so maybe he's in San Diego. It's a pretty big city. If you look at the top 20 cities in America, the billboards are always filled with personal injury lawyers. There's this one guy in Austin, and Austin's like a top 15 city, maybe. He says that his earnings are... I forget exactly what it says his earnings are, but I looked him up on Instagram and he's got a collection of like 15 Ferraris. He was in the newspaper because he had a birthday party for his daughter or for himself, and he had like Rod Stewart or someone crazy perform. He spent like $3,000,000 on that. They talked about his home, and he was donating checks for $2,000,000 or $3,000,000. That was in Austin. His name was Thomas, I think... something Thomas. I also know a personal injury attorney in St. Louis. He's got a mansion in Miami and a place in St. Louis, where we're from. I mean, I think some of these guys could really roll in it and be netting $10,000,000 or $20,000,000 a year.

Shaan Puri

yeah this is it's wild and I like that idea of the the the gym launch for x I think you're right with lawyers like I see this right now my my father-in-law has senior living facilities and he's always like you know I'm like how's biz and he's like oh it's good or it's bad but his thing is always just like you know we have a a 64 bed facility and every bed in the facility is still like let's say so there's like a senior living care center so basically what he does his model is like he'll buy 1 so say it has 32 beds but it's permitted for up to up to 80 and just the current owner like doesn't really have the motivation or the construction experience and so he'll he just looks for that first he's like alright you have a good business and I can expand I can just double the number of beds which will double the net income of this roughly which will double the value of this property so if I'm buying it for 4 this will be worth 8 to 10 by the time I'm done with it and I gotta put in 2,000,000 in construction just round numbers just for for argument's sake then he has a a management company that will actually like run the thing because I was like dude do you know how to run a senior living facility like isn't that hard and weird and he's like well like I don't go there like I I heard this I found one really good property management company and they run all my properties and I was like wow okay he's like yeah she's been doing this for 30 years that's what she does and like she you know she gets a cut and then the other thing he was saying he was like you know it's all about occupancy right just like any hospitality type of business you know every bed they pay us on average let's say 6 to $8,000 per month so you know if we just get like 4 more bookings you know these are that adds an extra whatever you know $30,000 a month or whatever to our to our revenue which is which is great and so he what he will do is I'm like so every time I ask him how's business going he's just like it's good we lost 2 clients you know we're gonna we're gonna place another one today and I'm like I'm like how do you get clients and he's basically like oh you know we kinda like she networks with the hospitals they know her so they send her to people I'm like do you advertise at all he's like no how do I do that and I was like oh shit I was like like if somebody Google searches like you know senior living near me and like your city name like do you come up he's like no and there's like these aggregators like these search engines that they like they seo ranked to the top but I was like I feel like if you just did like

Sam Parr

Dude, I knew a guy who owned one of those search engines, and he was making a couple million dollars a year. Basically, he would come up on top on Google and then sell the lead for $200 to your guy. Your guy would buy that lead and then hopefully close them to make $8,000 a month.

Shaan Puri

Exactly. So, I was like, "You should either be buying these leads, or you should set up some referral system. You should take local newspaper ads, local magazines... you know, I don't know. You gotta do something on the marketing side." He's just like, "I don't know." Basically, he looks at marketing the way I would look at what he says, which is, "Well, just do a renovation and take it from 32 beds to 64 beds. Then get the permits for the memory care from the city and do this and that." It's like, "What? I gotta read this manual and figure out what color the elevator buttons need to be? I'm out! I just can't do this. I fail." And like, that's what "dude, set up a Google AdWords account" feels like to him. So, I think there's that arbitrage, which is basically how many people are there that are injury lawyers, senior living centers, pool construction companies that just simply don't know digital marketing? Can you build either a lead generation business or go consult and help them, taking a share of the increase in revenue? Like Gym Launch, it just seems like that is one of the easiest ways to do it. So, I got asked this question. This guy was like, "Hey, he DM'd me. He goes, 'Sean, big fan. Whatever the next sentence you type to me, I'm gonna do it or I'll die trying.'" I was like, "Okay, go ahead." Then he's like, "I'm gonna get to $10,000 a month of passive income profits after... you know." I'm thinking either A) I start a newsletter, B) I do this other thing... It was all kind of like stuff we do or topics we talk about: e-commerce, newsletter, or this other thing. "Which one do you think is gonna get me there the fastest or the best? Which one's the best path?" I was like, "I don't know, dude. Those all seem pretty hard to get to $10K a month."

Sam Parr

know if I heard if I want it if your goal is

Shaan Puri

Really, $10K a month? You know, I don't know a job... Before we get you there, but if... Let's take that off the table for a second. Let's assume you don't want a job or you don't have maybe the degree to get a six-figure job. I was like, "I would just do a productized service." He's like, "What does that mean?" I was like, "Okay, even just skip 'productized,' just a service." I...

Sam Parr

was like totally

Shaan Puri

Basically, find one niche of a business and figure out how you can help them make more money. I was thinking maybe it's just email marketing services for e-commerce companies. Maybe it's lead generation for pool construction companies. You know, it's like the Gym Launch playbook where it's like, "Yeah, I'll just do sales calls for you and help you close X new customers every month." Or, "I'll make your website convert 1% better through a series of experiments." You pay me a flat fee of $4,000 a month, and that 1% for you is going to be worth at least 10 times more than that. These are the simplest things. Then, what do you do? How do you get clients? Let's assume you don't have any money. You create content that just talks about, for example, if you're doing conversion rate optimization for an e-commerce store. You could post, "Check out what these guys do in their add-to-cart process," or "Check out what these guys do with their email pop-up," or "Check out what these guys do with their checkout buttons." We did this change and this change, which improved conversion by X%. Or, "Here's a collection of the best designs for landing pages." People will see that and they'll think, "Oh yeah, that's smart." The first time you do it, they'll think, "That's smart." The second time, they'll say, "Those are smart." The third time you do it, they'll think, "He's smart. Let me just hire this guy. I just want this problem solved." You could do that and get to $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 a month in profit. That is a way better path than what most people think about doing instead.

Sam Parr

Yeah, and also I hate that question because I get that all the time too. I'm like, "I don't fucking know, man. What are *you* good at?" I don't know... like, go play in the NBA? I have to know what your attributes are. I hate that question. I'm just like... you know what I mean? It's the stupidest question ever. I cannot stand that because they just want me to tell them what to do. You like that one? They just want me to tell them what to do. But when you have zero context, it's just useless bullcrap advice.

Shaan Puri

yeah I I I could see that but also I don't know I kinda empathize like

Sam Parr

I empathize unless

Shaan Puri

you but

Sam Parr

I think it's stupid I can I can I can understand why you asked that and think it's stupid

Shaan Puri

I understand why you're doing the stupid thing I totally get it

Sam Parr

yeah I I would've I asked that question too and now I know it's it's not the right question

Shaan Puri

yeah but then you gotta follow-up with what is the right question

Sam Parr

well you just need more context you know

Shaan Puri

who's stupid now who's stupid now stupid

Sam Parr

Well, I never said I wasn't either, dude. Did you know that Elon Musk has a sister?

Shaan Puri

What kind of amazing subject is that? No, I didn't know that. I only knew about Kimbal Musk.

Sam Parr

Okay, well she's... Brother Elon's got a sister, and she owns this thing called PassionFlicks.com. It's basically like audio erotica, I believe. Like... you know... like... it's the tagline is...

Shaan Puri

I'm familiar

Sam Parr

Yeah, the tag. The tag.

Shaan Puri

video guy

Sam Parr

myself but alright

Shaan Puri

yeah I guess you could always close the tab just listen

Sam Parr

The subject or the tagline is "Passion Flicks: Get Your Passion On - Romance on Demand for $6 a Month." It's basically romance novels, which we had talked about earlier. I guess it's like audiobooks, but you know...

Shaan Puri

Do we get credit for this? Like, does Elon Musk's sister listen to the podcast? Because we've been talking about this for a long time. You should tell the story again because the podcast is much bigger than the first time. Tell your story about the romance novel thing. First, tell the story about how you did it for The Hustle as a marketing stunt, and then what you did with our buddy.

Sam Parr

Alright, so for the hustle. When we launched the very first article, we had to come out with a bang. I knew this guy who basically would plagiarize other people's books on how to sleep with women. He would get a Filipino to rewrite it to pass the Kindle plagiarism filter. Then, he would game it by buying reviews. He was making $50,000 to $60,000 a month. I would joke with him, but I was like, "Dude, this is super unethical." And, "You don't even sleep with women! You don't know anything about this topic. I can't believe you're living this lie." But whatever, he was making money. So, we wrote an article about that when it first came out. To prove that it was legit, because a lot of people didn't believe us, we said, "Fine, watch. We're going to copy this and do it." Instead of doing it in the "how to sleep with women" category, we did it for the romance category. If you look at the liquidity of the marketplace on Amazon, romance novels have the most buyers and the most transactions. These women are always buying the stuff. We looked at what the popular categories were, and there were women who wanted to have sex with like a werewolf, and women who wanted to have sex with military people. So, we made like a military fantasy. Right? Yeah, and so we made like a...

Shaan Puri

Military guy, a rich billionaire guy, right? That's *50 Shades of Grey*. A vampire? That's *Twilight*. Right? That's how it's fantasy.

Sam Parr

We made it like a military vampire werewolf guy. We combined all of them, and then we found the tie.

Shaan Puri

that really what you did

Sam Parr

Yeah, well, we found a book that was good for the title. So, we just like plagiarized it and then made the title and the description about a vampire, werewolf, military guy, billionaire. I forget, it was like a joke we did with all of them. In a couple of weeks, or maybe in a week, we were the number one best-selling in a particular category. We changed our LinkedIn profiles to "best-selling author" because we were like, "How do we get speaking gigs now?" At the time, I didn't know, but we actually plagiarized the largest romance publisher in the world, Harlequin Books. They called us, and I thought they were going to sue us because they sent this angry email. In the email, or on the call, they said, "Look, we get it. You're not really making fun of romance novels; you're making fun of this Kindle thing, which we agree is silly. But you used us as an example. No big deal, we get it, but you gotta take it down." So, we took it down. I've always been curious about this industry. About two years ago, or maybe three years ago, my friend Ramon and I created this website called Captivating. I don't know what it was called. The first book was called "Captivating Claire." What was the book? It was short but romantic. We launched a website called shortbutromantic.wordpress.com, and we basically got someone on Fiverr. We got someone on Fiverr...

Shaan Puri

Short but romantic, dot WordPress.com is the least short and least romantic domain you could possibly have chosen.

Sam Parr

Yeah, it was horrible. So, we created "Short but Romantic." We got someone on Fiverr to write part one of a sexy story. Frankly, I didn't even read it. Then, we got another Fiverr guy to narrate it, and we put it on the website. We titled it "Part 1 of Captivating Claire" or whatever it was. It said, "Read the story," and at the end, it asked, "Do you want part 2? Sign up here for $25 a month, and we'll send you one of these every single day." We put ads on Facebook for it, and I found this girl I went to college with. I asked her, "Hey, can I use your face on this website and act like you're the author? It wouldn't look good if it was me." So, we did that, and we made like $500 in revenue in just 12 hours because the ad rate was crazy. If you went to the website, people were commenting, saying, "This story is amazing! I love this! I want more of this!" You saw it, right?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I remember seeing the prototype. It was like, dude, Sam was a genius, man! I love how you spin these things up. I love the names that you pick. I love the speed to launch. I love the way that you did the test. Most people would go and spend months trying to find an author and write a book. You were like, "Okay, werewolf military, you know, blonde girl named Claire." Claire wants to feel... no, Claire wants to feel, you know, contemplated... no, captivated! Yes, sorry, captivating. Claire wears a red dress and she bumps into this billionaire, and his hand grazes her thigh. And that's it, we got it.

Sam Parr

alright we're working now I'm like

Shaan Puri

I gotta say, I saw the website and I just saw your fingerprints all over it. I was like, "I remember being so impressed." We invested in our buddy for this because I was like, "Dude, this is a great market to be in." If you're kind of growth hacky, you're gonna do this, and nobody else is doing it, right? There’s so little competition because most serious people could never bring themselves to do this. You're gonna compete with the other not-so-serious people that are out there on Earth. I would put our skills up there with any of them.

Sam Parr

Yeah, absolutely. It was a good idea actually, but the thing that was... the thing was like, I don't give a shit about this. Neither did he, you know? This was exactly what we weren't... We weren't exactly fueled by this passion to create these like sex novels, and so we kinda shut it down. But a listener, a podcast listener, did something like this and he spun it up, I think, to $10,000 in revenue a month... like really fast, right?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, that's what I think. I also believe there's a difference between literal audio porn and romance novels. Passionflix, which is what Elon Musk's sister is doing, offers romance novels on demand for $5.99 a month. I actually think this is a great idea. If you're good at internet marketing and have a good sense of humor about yourself, I believe this is a business that will work if you apply enough pressure. It's hard, though, to stay excited about it for a long time unless you just love selling widgets. In fact, our buddy Ramon, the first time I met him, you introduced me to him. We went out to lunch, and he was telling me his life story. His life story is full of substance. He said, "I was raised in the Netherlands, and I was kind of out on my own at a young age. I'm a single father to my son," and so on. He had a bunch of experiences that showed he was self-made in many ways. So, I was curious and asked him, "So, do you like...?" I kind of expected him to say that he was working on something with deep meaning. Instead, I asked, "When was your last business?" He replied, "Oh, I created a soap opera blog and sold it for $10,000,000." I was shocked and said, "What? You love soap operas?" He responded, "No, I've never seen one in my life."

Sam Parr

I was like what the hell and I was like how

Shaan Puri

Did this work? He's like... and there's a... he's the second episode of this podcast. So if you scroll all the way back to the second episode, I think it's Ramon. It's one of the best episodes ever that's been on the podcast feed. But basically, he's like, "Yeah, I just went on Facebook and there was an arbitrage opportunity where you could buy Facebook page likes." Facebook wanted to promote pages, so you could advertise a page for like... you could get a like for about a cent. I just figured out, "Oh cool, once I get them to like my page, I could post a link. Then I'll get them to my website." And like, okay, that costs like 7 cents to get them to my website. Then Google AdSense can give me 9 cents or 12 cents or whatever. Like, there's some money arbitrage there. So he's like, "So then I just had to figure out what is the best categories." So I spun up like 22 Facebook pages about every niche I could think of.

Sam Parr

And yeah, his niche was like WWF wrestling, soccer, politics, and just a bunch of crazy stuff.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, every interest you could think of, and he's like, "Okay, which one's the best?" He said the top 3, I think, were wrestling... The number 1 was like right-wing conservative politics, which, you know, turned out to be what really overran Facebook also.

Sam Parr

and he was like I just don't wanna do this it doesn't make anyone happy

Shaan Puri

Yeah, he... so that one, he's like, "Alright, I'm gonna scratch that out." Then the next two are wrestling and soap operas. He's like, "Alright, let's do soap operas. I don't like Pixar or wrestling." He never really told me that part, but whatever. So, details. He's like, "Alright, well, what do people care about?" It's like spoilers. What's gonna happen on tomorrow's *Days of Our Lives*? It turns out you could just sign up to get the sneak peek of the synopsis of what happens tomorrow. He would just publish that as a long-form thing, and he hired some people to write for it. Some women were writing for this stuff, whatever. So, he was doing that, and he ends up selling the thing for $10,000,000 in cash basically.

Sam Parr

It was making like $3,000 to $4,000 a month in profit. It was very profitable.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, and so you met him. He reached out to you from the hustle. He goes, "Here's my story. I want to tell it." And you were like, "No way, this sounds fake." He's like, "Well, here's my analytics and here's my bank account. Go ahead and look." And you were like, "What?" You guys met, and you guys are like best friends. So you introduced me. You were like, "Hey, in the email, you go, Sean, meet Ramon." And you're like, "Sean's a good buddy, smart guy, nice," you know, normal intro stuff. And you're like, "Sean, this is Ramon. I trust Ramon with my life."

Sam Parr

like incredible

Shaan Puri

incredible actor

Sam Parr

I didn't remember that

Shaan Puri

and because it's it stuck out to me right it was like so better

Sam Parr

this is

Shaan Puri

One of those writing things, I'm like, "Wow, that was amazing." Then I met Ramon, and I also now trust Ramon with my life. He's just that kind of guy. So, he told me at that meeting, "I was like, so you just... you'll just work on whatever? Or like for your next thing, you know, are you gonna do something like soap operas or whatever?" He goes, "You see this cup?" It was like a little, you know, at a restaurant, the water cups are the cheap plastic ones. He goes, "If I could just move this cup from here to here and it's like I make a dollar doing that, then I'm a cup salesman. I'll sell anything." So, what ended up happening was he was gonna do this romance thing, and you guys spun up this test, and it started to work. But one of his other businesses that he had bought started to work even better. He just kind of tried to do both for a little while, but he's like...

Sam Parr

when that other one was equally as weird it was a dog ramp business for wiener dogs so they can get on the couch

Shaan Puri

Yeah, actually, it's even worse than the plastic cup. He's like, "Do you have a wiener dog?" No. "Oh, well, if you did..."

Sam Parr

do you know that if

Shaan Puri

They tried to jump on or off the bed; they could get hurt, I guess. So, yeah, we make them sell ramps for wiener dogs to get on and off the bed. I was like, "What?" And he was like, "Yeah, we'll do like, you know, $7,000,000 this year." I was like, "What the hell?" And so, you know, then that business grew like crazy or whatever. I was like, "Wow, this guy is like, you know, this guy." He was just so different than everybody else in Silicon Valley. I loved it! I loved how different he was. He lived here, but it was like an alien living in Silicon Valley. He just did not have anything to do with software, venture capital, or high-tech stuff. He was literally like a cup salesman wandering around Silicon Valley, making millions of dollars selling the most arbitrary gadgets, like fidget spinners to, you know, elderly people.

Sam Parr

When I first met him, he was wearing sweatpants and a shirt with holes in it, along with old Jordans. He was a huge, big white dude, and he had an accent. I was talking to him, thinking, "Who is this guy?" As we started walking back to his car—I was going back to my office—I noticed he had a brand new Tesla at the time. It was the nicest, fanciest Tesla, worth about $150,000. I said, "Oh, sick car!" He replied, "Thanks, bro. Had to pay all cash for it because I don't have a credit score." I was like, "What? I guess you're legit."

Shaan Puri

Yeah, and we make him sound braggy, but he is the opposite of braggy. Like, he'll just show up with something, or... I don't know, he'll do something that you're like, "That makes no sense whatsoever." And then when you dig in, it's because he always takes the hard, weird path to do stuff in this hilarious way. It's what makes him incredible. I love it.

Sam Parr

yeah he's crazy

Shaan Puri

He got diagnosed with a herniated disc, and then on the way home from the doctor... signed up for an Ironman. It's like, "What are you doing? Why are you choosing this?" I did the Ironman with him. Choose violence.

Sam Parr

I did the Ironman with him. It was me, him, Sully, and Ramon. Ramon literally got last. He was so slow that he didn't train at all; he just showed up. When he arrived, he had this bike and was like, "Hey, could you show me how to use these shoes that clip into the pedals?" He didn't know how to ride his bike; it was like he was taking the tag off of it for the first time. It's an Ironman; it's really hard. He finished dead last, but he finished! There was a golf cart rolling behind him, and it was getting dark at night. They were about to pull him off the course, but he pushed through and finished.

Shaan Puri

Oh, that's incredible! Alright, let's do some other ones. I got some... okay, I got an idea, and then a really... I got a bad idea that I have, and then a really good idea for a company that I just heard about. Which one do you want?

Sam Parr

The good one? I would like the... I'll get the bad one and a better one. Do you want the better one or the bad one?

Shaan Puri

Alright, so the great one. There's a company called Ghost that I just heard about. This story, to me, is kind of incredible. So if you go the...

Sam Parr

word quest competitor

Shaan Puri

No, it's a new one. So, G-S-T-G... I'm sorry, G-H-S-T. So it's "ghost" without the "o." I think it's "ghost.io" is the name of it.

Sam Parr

ugh this is only too too new age for me I'm out

Shaan Puri

no no no you're gonna you're gonna appreciate this you're gonna you're out but I'm a bring you back here here's here's the deal so I heard about this because this guy who's like a vc somewhere he goes back in 2020 our team started to notice a big shift that was going on with like stores like walmart target like any big store was that basically remember when covid happened and like the supply chain shut down and like the fucking ship got stuck in the canal and like everything was just bad like shipping container prices went through the roof and so everybody had like a shortage right when demand went like through the roof because everybody was at home everybody was ordering tons of products and we're all getting stimulus checks and stuff like that right so that's like demand went way up to shop because people couldn't go do experiences and supply went way down and it was like this crazy situation and so what happened was retailers basically they ordered more to try to catch up because nobody knew how long the pandemic and stuff would go and also like the stuff that got delayed like finally showed up but what that created was like this huge glut of excess inventory over a $1,000,000,000,000 of excess inventory was kind of like the the guess and so these guys these these venture capitalists they sort of noticed this trend and they posted this 26 page pdf called the inventory apocalypse is coming and they were just like look we are looking at this like a combination of people returning things the supply chain glut and then brands over ordering to try to keep up with like this the explosion in ecommerce right like there's just too much inventory on hand and this is all playing out now like that was in 2020 2021 something like that now in 2022 if you go look there's these amazing charts of like all if you notice all the every brand is like discounting like crazy right now they're like oh 40% off summer sale semiannual sale like liquidation whatever and it's because everybody has way too much inventory to hold and so and like target and walmart I think have come out and said some crazy public numbers ben see if you could find it like how much excess inventory is on the shelves some absurd number so anyways these guys put this out and at the same time this startup gets started by this guy josh and dee and and dee is kind of well known in like the kind of like ecommerce world and so they they go and they start this company basically what they do is they they're creating like a marketplace or a clearing house so any it's called ghost because it's like any retailer rather than doing a huge discount which kind of like it kind of cheapens your brand it sort of just pulls forward revenue that like your customers probably would have spent full price but like in order to move inventory you kind of like you you gave it away cheaper and you you know you sort of eroded your premium prices or whatever it basically connects them to the liquidators of the world so there's like tj maxx ross marshalls like those types of companies but there's also just like international versions of those companies there's like boutiques and and wholesalers that could carry your stuff there's basically like a way to like get rid of inventory that's on your shelf that you're directly selling and you could sell it wholesale for somebody else to kind of move you'll take a discount with them and that's better than giving a discount to your customers who like then they'll get trained to expect and wait for 30 40% discounts rather than paying the premium price

Sam Parr

I'm back in so this is awesome so dude their site I knew

Shaan Puri

you'd come back in

Sam Parr

Their site has five words on it, and it's beautiful. I look at their site, and it's literally five words: "We make your inventory disappear." But the way that it looks, I love it.

Shaan Puri

And there's like a smoky cloud, like something evaporated right behind you. Yeah, and then basically what it seems like they're doing is creating a private marketplace. This is key, right? It's gotta be private; it can't be public. It's a marketplace between your retailer, who has excess inventory, and these wholesalers and liquidators who will take this sort of excess inventory. They'll pay, you know, they'll get it at a huge discount and then they'll flip it on their own. That's their business. So it's kind of connecting these two through this B2B marketplace, and I think the thing is growing like crazy. They said, let's see, in the first year, I believe they got to multimillion-dollar net revenue—not GMV, profitably. And they're not even launched yet! You gotta sign up to do a demo and stuff like that with them. But just knowing what I know about what's going on in e-commerce, I can tell you this thing is gonna be big. I need to chase these guys down to go invest in this because this is a real problem. Marketplaces are the best type of internet business. But it sort of feels like all the good ones are taken. It's like, "Oh, all the good marketplaces are taken." Someone did it for, you know, Amazon did it for this, eBay did it for that, Etsy does it for crafts. It sort of feels like there are no marketplaces left. I think this could be one of those multibillion-dollar marketplaces that comes out.

Sam Parr

well it's not a marketplace it's just software isn't it

Shaan Puri

no it's a marketplace they're connecting buyers and sellers they're connecting the wholesale to all the retailers

Sam Parr

But the... so they don't charge a fee to the people for using their software. It's just that they'll set it up for free, which is probably... it's a huge integration process. They set it up for free and then they make the transaction. They make a [percentage or fee from each transaction].

Shaan Puri

A transaction fee, that's my guess. So I think it's probably similar. I think one of the closest analogies is a company called Fair, which also does something similar. So Fair is like, "I have an e-commerce brand. I want other retailers, like Susie's Gift Shop, to carry my product." Well, it would be time-consuming to go find all the Susie's corner shops, contact them, sell them my services, create purchase orders, and manage that whole thing. So Fair created a marketplace to do that, and it's like a $10 billion company or something like that. It's one of the faster-growing startups that exist. This is doing that but more on the larger liquidator types, like more like TJ Maxx or Ross, versus just kind of so-and-so's boutique shop that wants to carry your stuff.

Sam Parr

Dude, this is sick! Yeah, you're right. I'm in. This is actually amazing. I'm eager to see how this plays out. There's nothing on the internet about them though, so like when I research it, I can't find a thing.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, I think they literally just came out of stealth yesterday, basically. So that's how we saw it. Let me tell you, okay? Now, can I tell you my bad idea? It's also in the e-commerce space. So how do we want to put this? Let me sell you on this. Let me turn on the charm a little bit. Sam, you're a good-looking dude. In fact, I would say whatever you wear tends to look good. I feel like if I almost wore that same shirt, it wouldn't look as good, right? Because you got the body. You don't need to go pay, you know, crazy amounts of money at, you know, whatever, Scotch and Soda, our favorite brand here at My First Million. You don't have to pay for the fancy stuff because honestly, if you dress in basic blacks and whites, neutral colors, you'll look good. And in fact, there are a lot of people out there that may not be as fit as you, but they do subscribe to the same philosophy, which is they kind of just want to opt out of the fashion game. Like, I went to Lululemon because I just wanted something that's high quality that fits well. I went and found a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. The shorts were $85 and the t-shirt was like, you know, whatever, $77 for one, right? So if I just wanted to have really awesome basics—like high-quality basics that are premium material and fit—but I don't care about the brand name, I'm not looking for the status, where would I go today to get that? Do you have a place in mind where I might go for something like that?

Sam Parr

For plain T-shirts, clean fresh tees are my favorite. $10 T-shirts that fit pretty good. That's mostly it for basic stuff.

Shaan Puri

And so there's that. There's like, let's say *Italic*. I think *Italic* does this with... I think. I don't know if you're also an investor in *Italic*. I am, but like, no.

Sam Parr

but I don't

Shaan Puri

You do it with cool stuff like handbags and scarves and a lot of designer-type items. They're like a wider selection, but I think that somebody can go create the Costco for clothes. What do I mean by this? I think you could create a business model that flips it on its head. Instead of paying the 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x markup that you pay today when you go buy a shirt... and you buy a shirt for $25, that shirt probably costs $5 to make.

Sam Parr

is that true so

Shaan Puri

Yeah, so you're going to be paying, I think on average, something between 3x and 4x as a normal markup. And then once you get into luxury brands like Lululemon, you're probably going to be paying more like 6x or 7x, that's my guess. They're a public company, so you could go find their actual margins, but let's assume that's the case.

Sam Parr

what what about like a louis vuitton thing what about like a $500 gucci shirt

Shaan Puri

Those are different. You're buying those literally for the status. So let's put them in a separate category. I'm focusing more on like when you buy something from Nike, Lululemon, Aloe Yoga, or whatever. These brands are about trying to have a high-quality version of a fairly basic thing, but there's also some status component. What I'm saying is, let's strip away the status. So I'm saying...

Sam Parr

yeah basic curl stuff

Shaan Puri

Yeah, you create a company called **Neutral**. Neutral basically opts out of the fashion game and says, "First of all, I don't need your status. I don't need your brand name. Second of all, I don't need your fancy designs. Third, I don't need to pay 5x markups because what a waste! What if I just want to pay for the actual cost of the goods?" So, what it is, it's a membership model like **Costco**. Costco's model is you pay, whatever, $100-something a year for the membership, and then they give you all the groceries at cost + 10%. The 10% is just for their labor, stocking, and the stuff it takes to actually move the goods around. Because of that, you get incredible value out of Costco. Moms love shopping at Costco for that reason. They're not sacrificing on quality; they just are sacrificing on the fluff, the packaging, the branding, the shelves, and the store experience. They say, "Screw that! I don't need to have a fancy display in the store. I don't need to have fancy packaging. Just give me the stuff raw. I'll pay the actual goods cost + 10%, and I'll pay you the membership fee." For me, I make back the membership fee within my first month or two of shopping with you. I think somebody could do that with all basics for clothing and just say, "We're going to get the same quality as whatever the highest quality fit and materials are for these fancy **Lululemon** type brands and just provide it at the actual cost." So, you would be buying that same shirt for $8 or $9. It's a step up from Hanes and H&M or whatever, but you're getting it at... and the marketing is that, "Hey, you're paying nothing for the brand name. In fact, there's no brand on this. It's like brandless." All you gotta do is pay the membership fee and make this happen. Now, the counterargument is there was a company that tried to do this called **Brandless**. They tried to do it with homeware and stuff like that. They went...

Sam Parr

I think that was harder. I think it's amazing. The problem is, I basically ask myself two or three questions when I'm looking at which projects to start. It's basically like: **Do people want this?** and **Can I pull it off?** This one falls into the second category. Do people want this? Yeah, obviously. It's not going to be hard to get people to buy this. Can I possibly pull that off? That sounds so challenging. Your experience seems challenging in pulling it off.

Shaan Puri

like what what like getting the products like just the logistics of the

Sam Parr

Having tons and tons of SKUs like that seems really hard. Trying to get members to sign up profitably seems a bit of a challenge. Is Italic able to get... do they have any profit or no?

Shaan Puri

I mean, I can't really say if they have profit or not, but they're doing well in the sense that they're growing. They are getting members to sign up; people are buying into the value proposition. They're retaining [customers]. The question is, you know, is there some payback? And if that payback is... like, if it's 1 month, wow, this is one of the best businesses ever. If it's 12 months, okay, you know, it's going to be more cash intensive.

Sam Parr

well you're the e

Shaan Puri

type of business

Sam Parr

you have an ecom company do you think would you ever work on this

Shaan Puri

I wouldn't work on it just because, knowing what I know now about eCommerce, I'm like, "Oh, there are easier ways to win." But if I was going to work in eCommerce, I think an idea like this is a better idea than 99% of eCommerce ideas. Why? Because I think you'll end up with subscription revenue. I think you're differentiated, and I think you appeal to the lowest common denominator. You're not like everybody needs shirts. There are some brands, like Cuts and Fresh Clean Tees, that have scaled to over $100 million in revenue in, I don't know, 3 or 4 years. You look at it and you're like, "Dude, really? It's just a t-shirt brand." They're doing just t-shirts, you know? Well, like this, they're not offering it at the factory cost, and they're not offering it on subscription, right? So that's a key difference here. But the fact that they've been able to scale that much without it, to me, is extremely impressive. It just sort of speaks to the fact that everybody needs shirts, and it's like an "everybody" problem. Whereas, like my eCommerce idea, or like we talked about Ramon's dog ramp thing, that only works if you have not only a dog but a small dog. Not even really a small dog, but a small dog that might get hurt and can't get up and down stairs or a bed very easily.

Sam Parr

and you want that dog in your bed

Shaan Puri

That applies to me. That applies to me like... I have 3 of AlphaPaw's ramps in my house because my dog is like this tiny little baby dog. You have like this massive self-sufficient dog that, you know, has like a college degree. So your dog doesn't need like a hand-me-down. They're like... they don't need a ramp to, you know, get help up onto a couch. Sorry dude, my dog doesn't even drink water from a bowl. I have to like carry her.

Sam Parr

to the

Shaan Puri

sink and I my hand is

Sam Parr

a small bowl

Shaan Puri

my hand is a small bowl and she drinks only fresh water from my hand

Sam Parr

Dude, just keep it outside for a week. It'll toughen up. Like, that's crazy that you do this.

Shaan Puri

oh she doesn't even go outside man

Sam Parr

How are you so soft, dude? You just interviewed this guy Rich Roll who does all these interviews and shit, and you're like... you're like the least... you don't even leave your house.

Shaan Puri

Yeah, he was like, "Yeah, I did this competition. It was, you know, fantastic challenge. 300-mile run across 3 nights." And I was like, "What?" I was like...

Sam Parr

I'm with the target last week

Shaan Puri

Yeah, like I... I didn't. I Instacarted from Target last week, but I had to step foot outside to bring the groceries into my home, and it was like my...

Sam Parr

Toe got a little cold. That's fucking hilarious! How are your dogs that bad?

Shaan Puri

You know, whatever... like dogs start to look like their owners. My dog is like a spoiled little brat.

Sam Parr

and I'm

Shaan Puri

a spoiled little brat about life too I don't know it's good we we we suit each other well

Sam Parr

When my dog was young, like every once in a while, I would just be like, "I'm just not gonna feed you until you behave." And it worked.

Shaan Puri

Dude, my dog doesn't eat dog food, nor does she eat like chicken or anything that normal dogs eat. My dog only eats: 1. Clover 2. 4% cottage cheese that's freshly scooped into her bowl 3. A little bit of dog food And she has an appetizer bone before it all.

Sam Parr

she won't eat your food

Shaan Puri

If you don't do that, she's like, "Cool, I'll die. I'll just die if you're fine. Blood's on your hands if you just want me to die." Like, she'll go 5 days without eating unless she gets her cottage cheese.

Sam Parr

Oh my God, that's your fault! This is crazy. I can't believe you're eating for sure as well. How old is the dog? When will it die?

Shaan Puri

oh well bro come on

Sam Parr

I mean like how long like how long do will you

Shaan Puri

when will it die

Sam Parr

how long will you own this animal for

Shaan Puri

forever a 100 years that's how long

Sam Parr

I've been on my dog. My dog is getting close to dying, and I know this sounds hilarious, but I'm getting his face tattooed on me. I'm going to have a massive pit bull face tattoo on my body, and I think it's going to be the greatest thing ever. People are going to see me and think, "What the heck are you?" I'm going to be this walking contradiction—a yuppie, bougie tech guy with a pit bull tattoo on him. When I'm driving, people are not going to know what to think. It's going to be wonderful.

Shaan Puri

yeah that's gonna be not even in your bottom three worst tattoos

Sam Parr

we're into like 12 year olds we should leave

Shaan Puri

We should leave. Yeah, Ben, you gotta just stop the recording when we cross whatever that line is. You gotta just be like... we won't even realize that it stopped recording. Just like, don't worry.

Sam Parr

for your own good I

Shaan Puri

cut you guys off like I

Sam Parr

Gotta be like the elementary school teacher: "Sam, we took a gold star off your chart after that comment." Yeah, by the way, you weren't here the other day, Ben, and we were talking about something and we were like, "Shit, this sucks without Ben. Like our moral compass... we don't know if this is right or wrong." I'm keeping you guys on the straight and narrow. Alright, well, what do we think? I think that was pretty good.