All right, we are gonna do an episode that people really liked before it was a trip report I did a trip report when I went to Austin I just went to LA and I wrote down a bunch of notes so most people when they travel I don't think they really do this But I I call them micro memories where I just write
down like one to three words That wouldn't make sense to anybody else But it there's a story behind it for me or there's something some insight some story some crazy thing that happened I write them down all trip and then what I did this time was I just published them on Twitter and I said Hey, here's
all my notes. Ask me about any of these.
I wrote down 21 things.
Why don't we try that Sam?
why don't why don't we take this list of 21 and You just pick numbers that you think are interesting and then I'll kind of explain the thing from the trip By the way when you take these notes where are you taking them like on your phone?
Like you just have a running notepad on your phone.
So I have to I have a notepad pen and paper that I take to Everywhere I go and then I have also my phone in case I'm just like not there So Apple just be Apple notes or that it's nothing fancy and you discard the notepad after it's done or you refer back to this Like constantly most people come home
and they unpack their bags.
I basically just unpack my notes My bag is actually still sitting over there.
It'll be there for three months But what I do is the very next day instead of saying oh I got to catch up on work and emails and slack and all this stuff The first two hours.
I basically just take my notes and I type them out and I try to squeeze, you know 20 30 40 percent more juice out of the trip just by reflecting and being like, okay, what was that?
what was that story?
Oh, I should follow up with that person or What was the takeaway there?
And how am I gonna implement that or oh?
I need to this story.
I wanted to share with somebody Let me write this and make sure I send it to that person And so I take a couple hours first thing and I basically unpack my notes You Marketing used to be fun content was simpler to create the leads were easier to capture and now with HubSpot's new marketing and content
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conference and Met this guy there that I really like this guy right away And then I just noticed that who was like probably the most popular guy there So there was maybe 200 people there 150 people there He was my favorite and I think it was everybody's favorite just based on the reaction I got and I
was watching him and I was like, what is this guy doing?
That has made him everybody's favorite person here.
I think that's what we all want.
We all want to be liked especially when we go to these, you know big public events with strangers and He's a big fan of the pod his name is Will and he's got this Twitter account called Student rent pro I think is his name basically what this guy does is he owns a bunch of rental properties student
housing like It's like houses for students in South Carolina So, you know frat houses Rody houses just students living together.
He owns a bunch of properties there bootstrapped it No, no outside investors.
That's what he does.
I'm talking to him.
He loves the pot as soon as I got there He makes a reference the pod from like he's like he introduces me to somebody else.
He goes. Oh, this is Shawn He's real good friends with Orlando bloom.
Remembering this one Years ago, so I was like wow, that was that was a deep deep deep reference and he goes so I'm watching him and I go How come everybody here loves you and he goes, you know you said that thing when hustling Minhaj came on the podcast and he he shared this insight about comedy and This was before
me and you were gonna get on stage we were doing our first live show in Vancouver and I had texted hustling a picture of like 2000 people in the audience and I was like dude give me some tips like how the fuck are we supposed to entertain this crowd were podcasters and He and he said he goes start by talking
about things you're either you see there or you've seen in Vancouver Just make a reference so that it's like I'm here.
You're not getting my spiel.
You're getting me here right now presents because the second thing is a Comedy is a low status art form meaning self -deprecation make fun of yourself Call yourself out Poke fun at yourself.
That is how you connect with people and so this guy will goes he goes I stole that I stole that hard because I've been doing that, you know I once I heard that I really you know owned that and so what he does at this event somebody would be like So, what do you do it?
He'd be like, oh man, I have the I do the hardest form of real estate that will pay you the least amount of money So you don't even want to talk to me here go talk to him.
That's awesome. And then somebody's like what?
What does that mean?
He's like I do student housing But but tell me about and he's always making about you or making about somebody else And so he would make fun of himself if anybody ever gave him a compliment even when I called him Yeah, the favorite guy there.
He was like, oh, thank you so much for saying that I'll be sure to disappoint you next time Like he's just the master of this low status thing and he said he did this he's like he goes so I said when we're at the event he told me I stole that and He goes I also use that on Twitter.
He goes everybody on here.
Everybody in this conference at Twitter They always just go on there brag about their returns a brag about how awesome they are brag about their method He goes I just did the exact opposite.
I'll go on there. I'll talk about how well today, you know, I'm I'm some 19 year old Bitch, I got to go.
I got to go fix a toilet and I had a frat house right now, you know, wish me luck He's like I'm always talking about how bad my business is how hard it is how you know I don't envy any I don't envy myself like, you know, whatever he goes I just say it how it is and I'll say I'll actually shine a light
on the worst parts of what it is and and the Uncertainties of what I'm doing he goes, but he goes I'll tell you what I think I can out He's like I've never raised any money.
But if I wanted to I think I can out raise everybody here because What I've been doing on Twitter has built a lot of connection and a lot of trust and I just think that goes a long Way, and then when I watched him at this conference, he was doing something that Ben Levy's a master of which is He realized
that the way to build value at a conference is not to puff your chest out and say oh, hey Come talking, you know, come look at me.
Come talk to me about my greatness what he would do is any two people he would just connect them to each other and Then he would basically get the goodwill of having made that connection and he would just keep doing that and he'd be like Oh, this is Sean.
He'll never tell you this but his podcast is a huge deal This guy's a this guy's podcast is incredible.
You got to talk to him about this and Sean this guy He's we call him the multifamily King of Dallas.
This guy's like the flavor flavor of a conference He's just hyping people up you would just keep connecting people He would give you this like really hyperbole intro where he'd be your hype man He'd make you feel good and he just kept doing that kept making connections kept giving people two ways to
intersect Oh, you know you guys will get along because you're both really into X Boom and what what that does is just creates this like enormous glue and goodwill at a conference So you need people like this at a conference But also for him he actually ended up being the high status guy.
He's the guy that everybody loved He's the guy that everybody knew And he's the guy that everybody sort of felt completely Not on the defensive with and so because people felt they could be real with him He actually form real connections at the same I thought it was really awesome to see in person two
things dinner with millionaires and the rich are the guy the we are the guy Okay, the rich are the guy the weirder the guy is a is an obvious one for me.
So What we do at these events is we kind of stack meetings with a bunch of interesting people that live in that city So when we go to a city often Ben will say alright, here's like, you know, a bunch of our friends a bunch of people We know or loosely know, you know, who do we want to hang out with and how
busy do we want to make this trip?
we and we sort of stack a schedule from there and One of the things that really stood out was the more successful the person the richer the guy the weirder With really no exceptions during this trip And when I say weirder, it would be that they have weird hobbies would have that they have weird Marriages
or relationship dynamics.
It would be that they have just like really weird social skills and what I realized was that I always assumed by default that People are just normal chill just chill normal people right?
Like I don't know like I just put that on people that was my default assumption and I realized like I really need to stop making that assumption because it is a Way way wrong when it comes to these kind of outliers successful people and I thought about that and I was like Is it that like are they successful
because they're weird or are they weird because they're successful?
And then I think there's a bit of both going on.
So like for example, I think they are successful because they're weird in that they're willing to be Unconventional like you know They didn't go get a job and they didn't they didn't look at some industry and assume it was like well -run and they actually Disrupted it and you know, they grinded it out
for ten years taking no salary to try to get to that success So because they were willing to be unconventional in their career It really shouldn't surprise me that they're also unconventional in their marriage and unconventional their hobbies like what's an example?
Well, I don't want to say a specific story to make somebody feel weird, right because these people listen to the podcast so it's not You know, I don't want to put them on blast like that, but I mean you've you've seen this in San Francisco I have I think those particular people they tend to be on the coast
in cities like LA San Francisco in New York I know a bunch of people that are worth nine figures that live in Missouri where I'm from Not a bunch handful and I think that they are shockingly actually normal I think it's if you've if you've gotten extremely wealthy at a young age and you live in one
of these cities you're Very you should assume that they're gonna be a freak There's also just like rough edges so, you know Social norms are very weird, right?
Like we were at a breakfast and There was two people there and they didn't know each other and so we were like, hey like, you know You know, I could make an intro but it'd be easier, you know Do you just tell your you just intro yourself and like what I thought would happen if I say hey make an intro
Like Sam, what are you gonna say if I say it?
Just hey, maybe you guys introduce yourselves.
You guys don't know each other two people I would say hey, what's going on?
My name's Sam I live on the East Coast.
I work in media the media industry and I work on a podcast I'm super into health and wellness great.
You said your name you say where you're from You say what you do and you say maybe something you're really into or kind of like a hobby.
That's a big part of your life Yeah, totally normal chill thing to do One guy just starts with his name and literally he finished two minutes later with his company's ibida and like the terms of their recent Acquisition like the and I was like what is going on?
I was like, yeah I think rich people just really really out of touch with what they are willing to share and overshare about their But that happens I think that happens to you and I because if they if they listen to the podcast and they realize that we talked about numbers a lot when what he was trying
to do is to like either show off or Impress you that yeah, I thought that this is just what you talk about all the time Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, but you know, it wasn't bad.
Like it was actually really fascinating It's interesting, but I did note like wow that you know That's not a normal thing to do and I think that's you know, I never I enjoyed it in the moment But like and the by the way, the other person at the breakfast did the same thing.
I was like, okay cool We all just went deep really fast, which is weird but cool and in its own way So yeah, the rich are the guy the weird the guy You What about dressing well versus dressing comfortably Okay, this is right up your alley because I think you are on a a big dressing well kick not not not displayed
today with Your white t -shirt, but you right this is like currently like a fascination for you.
This is an $80 t -shirt Sean So is that an $80 t -shirt?
It's the t -shirt that the dude Jeremy wears in the bear.
So It's called fashion Hello Nothing like buying an $80 t -shirt and then have somebody else say You're speaking a language I don't even know that's the problem I just can't even wreck I paid $80 to this t -shirt So yeah, I think I know something or two about fashion I mean, obviously if you go to Los
Angeles, you're gonna see a bunch of beautiful people and I Started just like paying attention to it while I was there, you know on the flight I was like man people really like dress beautifully for this flight.
Like this is This is really cool.
And I remember that Paul Graham once wrote this essay called cities He says that every city is kind of whispering something in your ear all the major cities You know San Francisco is sort of whispering in your in your ear.
You're not ambitious enough.
You got to go bigger You know, you want to launch rockets or you know Artificial intelligence whatever you're not ambitious enough.
And what does New York tell you they go you're not powerful enough.
They go uh, yeah Exactly.
You're not rich enough LA basically whispers you're not hot enough and This is why people are injecting all kinds of shit into their face and their lips and their butt and all kinds of stuff And to me that that part is a bit of a turn -off, but I do appreciate the the dressing well component of you're
not hot enough and the funniest part was I went and our buddy Sully lives in LA right now and I saw a few months ago when he was living in San Francisco The guy transformed dude, he went from like SF startup scrappy style to you Cool guy LA chic and not even like in a try -hard way Just casual right
like just very casual but well -dressed casual and I was so inspired by it I was like, wow, this is my same friend two different cities Comes across two different ways just by you know, a couple of choices and I will literally was like he was like explaining to me I was like, shut up.
I just looked at his tag I took photos of his shirt while he was wearing it I was like, I'm buying this exact outfit and that'll be my starting point and I Realized okay, you know, I I've had this in my mind this choice, which was either dress comfortable or dress nice It's one or the other it's not but when I
saw him I was like, oh he's comfortable and rice like duh That was a false choice stupid story.
I was telling myself that was dumb Pretty easy to change this And I remember 10 years ago I actually hired a stylist in San Francisco to come to my house and she threw away all of my clothes She took everything out of my closet and she took me shopping for one day and we bought a whole bunch of new
stuff And it was like three grand to do it and it was great But that was 10 years ago and like, you know, since then I have like gone back to my old ways And I've copied many things for Sully in life mostly business stuff, but this is a something else I'm gonna copy from him, which is to you know, do
a very simple upgrade of style here Do you know why you thought that dressing well is the opposite of comfortably it's just because your shit didn't fit right if you If you wear like you can wear really nice clothes like as much as a tie and nice shirt if it fits well It's not uncomfortable.
I think that do do you value art at all?
Like does art talk to you ever like do you ever still feel inspired by beauty like or in what in what form does it?
Do you find like inspiration?
Yeah, not paintings but me neither you know things if they're like beautifully simple designs right like a lot of like furniture or Interior design like a space which is kind of like like interior design of a space To me is like it just really stands out if I walk into a space that's got a certain vibe
It's like I don't know It's just like I can't pay attention to really anything else in that moment because I know that that same space With just a different set of you know lights and furniture and plants and whatnot would feel completely different same shell You know somebody has created this vibe.
So I agree I like architecture and I like energy of a room and furniture and for years I thought art just meant like paintings or like just like Sculptures and I don't find inspiration from those things and I thought architecture or clothing that's not art.
That's a waste of time That's a waste of energy.
And then when I kind of like realized I'm like, no, it's actually like Just as important as are it's not a waste and I started giving into that feeling I realized it this is this is what makes like this thing to my soul I should like give into this stuff and it's worth the effort.
This isn't you know, it's not simply utility It could also be something that just inspires me or just sings to me a little bit And so once I realize that they're all it's all related to self -expression and it's all art it kind of changed my perspective I mean or instead of just saying it's like that right
music music is probably the easiest one to appreciate Yeah, and it's and instead of saying well, I'll just pay someone to do this I actually realized no, I want to learn like I want to learn like what are these things communicating or like what goes like It is in a weird way in art.
I don't want to just phone it in I want to actually figure out like what makes beautiful beautiful art or what language do I want to speak when I'm communicating this?
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I'm also probably the only sucker that bought two NFTs because I was like, oh that's beautiful art And I didn't mean it as like the cover your ass of like I'm just trying to get rich Was that the holographic Kobe Bryant thing?
the Kobe the Kobe Floating into heaven one and the other one that's just a strawberry Beautiful and I bought this strawberry NFT that you know is currently worth zero, but in my heart.
It's still worth something So here's the deal.
I made most of my money from a newsletter business It was called the hustle and it's a daily newsletter at scale to millions of subscribers And it was the greatest business on earth The problem with it was that I had close to 40 employees and only three of them were actually doing any writing the other
Employees were growing the newsletter building out the tech for the platform and selling ads and honestly It was a huge pain in the butt today's episode is brought to you by beehive They are a platform that is built exactly for this if you want to grow your newsletter If you want to monetize a newsletter,
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That's B E E H I IV comm All right, let's go to one or two more things which one do you think is interesting Okay, I think the little luxuries in life Is a good one.
I think Mike Posner is a good one Yeah, I want to learn about him.
But would that ruin the pod?
No, it won't ruin the pod.
All right, so you interviewed Mike poster I've no I know Mike poster because of a song like I took a pill in a piece I was like at the biggest hit I think but then I also know him because he's kind of like a hippie mellow guy I read about him or watched a YouTube video about him walking across America And
so like he's actually a little bit more guru II not that he's a self Describe that but I am looking to him as like an energy guru a little bit So yeah, but I wouldn't call him energy guru, but I know exactly what you mean, which is that he's an inspiring guy so the backstory here is I Went to Duke and in my
freshman year I heard that there's a guy in the dorm next door who's like some white guy rapper from Detroit.
I was like, okay cliche And it turns out that that was Mike poster he's in the same year as I was and He lived, you know one building over and I remember hearing his songs before they ever went public And yeah, for example cooler than me, which was his first kind of hit song I remember hearing that and being
like okay, this is actually kind of catchy But at the time it just seemed far -fetched to me like yeah, this guy's really gonna make it and he wasn't the best rapper He wasn't the best singer and all that stuff.
So, you know at the time we just sort of wrote him off And then while we were at Duke he blew up.
I think the second or third year Cooler than me took off and we used to hear that this guy was traveling like every weekend He would just go do shows concerts that other campuses need fly back He'd fly out on Thursday fly back Sunday night He's there on Monday for classes and I remember being like what the hell
like he had a meeting with Jay Z's record label I was like, wow, this is crazy.
What's going on? So anyways That was how I initially heard of Mike poster and over the next I don't know 1015 years He went on this journey where it was like a perfect three act story Which is kind of ironic because when I did the podcast I didn't cover any of the story as you normally would so He is like
a podcasters dream.
He's got a perfect three act story It's the rise, you know the unlikely rise of this college, you know musician in his dorm room who you know becomes international pop star then he's got act to the fall which is He's a one -hit wonder his next song goes triple platinum But it's still not enough because it's
smaller than the first song then the next song goes double platinum Which is even worse and then his record label shelves him and he doesn't get even get to make music anymore They won't release his music anymore for you and see like a does he also get into drugs that I'll call or he gets depressed
He's like I live this lifestyle, you know, I was on the road.
I'm taking my shirt off on stage I'm the man now I'm not the man anymore And he's kind of bummed out and he hits rock bottom when he goes to a concert with his friend Avicii they're kind of the one friend of the music industry who didn't write them off as like a has been and He's now in general admission.
He's in the crowd And he's like I'm watching my friend on stage doing the thing I used to do the thing that I want to do Which is you know, like do this concert in front of thousands of fans who love him I'm sitting I'm standing in the crowd just like a normal civilian and he's like I'm hoping that somebody
recognizes me And then there's somebody does they come up to me?
Hey, are you Mike Posner?
He's like and then I realized that was my worst nightmare.
Cuz they're like, what are you doing here?
Like why are you at the crowd?
He's like and then I take a like this guy offers me a pill and I take it and that becomes That rock bottom is the genesis of the song.
I took a pill and a beezer to show Avicii I was cool the first line of that song.
Yeah That becomes the new hit so it hits rock bottom ends up making a hit even bigger than the first one two billion streams on spotify and then again Feels a bit depressed cuz like is this what I want out of life and is I'm just chasing this high this fame high and That's when his dad dies and he now
act three the rebirth and this is where he ends up doing a bunch of things He climbs Everest and he with his friend He actually climbed 71 mountains to prep forever And he has his quote, you know you train for climbing a mountain by climbing mountains and he climbed 70 mountains He ends up climbing
Everest. He then decides to walk across America after his dad dies He walks across Two -thirds of the way gets bit by a rattlesnake almost dies has to relearn how to walk after he months of therapy where he relearns that a walk goes back to the spot where he got bit and resumes the walk and Finishes
it and anyways, he's become this very happy positive upbeat guy.
Now. He's he's sober.
He doesn't do drugs.
He doesn't drink He doesn't watch porn.
He like sings about songs that he just wants to make art that inspires people cool So he's got this like amazing story I do this podcast where I talk about almost none of it and the reason why was he's told that story before and I'm in the season of sort of indulging my actual curiosities It's like
let me have the conversation.
I actually want to have and so I talked to him about, you know How do you actually make the songs that you make like what is the creative process for you?
Like where does a pit song come from?
How do you do that and a lot of his mindset mentality stuff?
So I think the podcast is gonna be great But it's different than probably what people expect which is just kind of beginning middle and end of his story with someone like him who is Famous but maybe doesn't regularly have hits or a tour.
Does how does he just have super lumpy income?
I mean, how does he like survive between hits?
well, so what he told me he was like I was like, how did you do that and he's like well part of it is like I got financial freedom like he's like my Like wealth manager guy sat me down and was like hey we ran Monte Carlo simulations and like look like they're good You're good.
You're good And so like you of course you can always make more and of course like you know anything could happen But like by and large you're good if you don't let your lifestyle get fucking crazy You're alright He's like so then that gave me the freedom of like I don't even need to have another hit
Which freedom which is like all of his hits have come from a place where he wasn't trying to make a hit and every time He's tried to make a hit.
He didn't make a hit right?
It's like that irony of the whole thing and so I Go to his house and by the way The best thing to do with these podcast is to go to people's house to film it.
Was it nice Well, we filmed it in his studio, which is like a side house that he has that we didn't go to the main house But it's cool.
It's at the top of this mountain So you have to like basically make a trek up this like windy road up to his mountain I was like cool.
I'll you know, I'll pass on this windy road every day but but the house itself was cool as the top is mountain and I'm standing there at his studio.
He's he's like oh his guy was like, oh he's got in it He's got a meeting right now.
He'll be out in a second.
So he comes out and I just hear from the other side like He's just so happy that he's like outside enjoying his day He doesn't even realize that we're already there and he's like, oh you're here And then he comes in and he's just like a ball of good vibes It's like energy was really like off the charts
and you could people don't know this but Ari we've talked about this Which is we get to see the guest before the lights turn on and after the recording is over and it's very striking What people are like some people have a very stark contrast of the before pod and after fad pod versus when they're recorded
And some people are just like the same or even better when they're off -camera I would say Mike was a great example of somebody who off -camera like his energy was just a very very contagious extremely positive person very nice to everybody in the room took the time to do Even afterwards when he had to
go like his manager was there was like, hey, we got a good Mike We're late.
We got to go somewhere.
He like stopped and was like, hey He's like I got to go do this real quick.
But I don't leave I want to come back and say bye Which like most musician pop stars Don't give a fuck right?
They don't need to come back and say goodbye.
They're just like, yeah thanks everybody but you see I'm on to my next important thing because remember I'm a very important person and Instead he was like made you feel important which I thought was he remember you from Duke Well, we didn't actually ever really cross paths like we didn't know each
other when we were there We just knew I knew of him.
He didn't know anything about me.
All right, let's do One or two more.
Well, what's the little luxuries?
So this stood out. We Again, we meet a bunch of people one of the things we noticed was we would have a like a meeting or lunch or something or hang out go to someone's house who Was like super wealthy and what we noticed was like man, even if this person has like let's say ten times the network that we
have They don't have like ten times the better life.
They don't even have maybe two times the better life I don't actually don't think but there's really like any link and I don't mean better life as in like Let's say their health or their family like forget those things.
I'm talking about even just material life Like there's not that much that they can spend on that We really need Or would want so we you know, and I'm on the lookout for it Like what are ways that people use money either spend money invest money, whatever that is interesting to me and what I noticed
was that There were very few luxuries that I actually wanted that other people had and Instead what we flipped it and there was actually some really small little luxuries of life so like when we were talking to Ben and Ben's like Dude, there's this little luxury of life.
I miss at this Airbnb.
He's like the Airbnb had really cheap towels He's like yeah, he's like I just recently splurged on like having amazing bath towels is like and then I use two every time He's like it drives my wife nuts Every time out of shower and like I bought the like forty dollar towel or the fifty dollar towel instead
of like five dollar towel He's like, but it's the little luxuries man And I was like dude, that's me with socks like I will like I hate having mismatch socks So I threw all my socks away when we got acquired the only thing I bought was I threw all my socks away And I asked I said what is the highest
quality sock and I just that you can find what's the answer by the way Well, the answer I got at that time was bomb us socks and now I actually have like custom socks so I went to a manufacturer and I was like hey, I I want a sock like this and So now I have like a hundred hundred two hundred pairs
of custom manufactured socks Is it really factory that I found off Alibaba?
Yeah because I like wearing crew socks like you know, like the kind of calf like like socks, you know, whatever calf length socks I mean calf and But like if you wear the Nike compression ones, they're too tight all the time That's so funny.
If you just wear the Hanes ones, they're like kind of good, but they're pretty basic And so I kind of made my own hybrid.
Do you know that Gen Z makes fun of Millennials for wearing ankle socks?
Good. I knew fashion would come back around and be on my side Work for a long time wearing non ankle socks.
You've been when it you win this one Young people don't like ankle socks.
They like socks that show so you're right You and like skinny jeans are not cool either, right?
Like you got to wear like big jeans or something.
I waste yeah Yeah Baggy and high -waisted pants are in thank God because they're way more comfortable by the way way more comfortable But they call it the words called cheugy So when you are like a 35 year old that you wear skinny pants or skinny jeans It's called you're being cheugy.
That's like the the phrase How do you use it in a sentence like you're being chewy?
Yeah, you could do that.
Yeah, you could use it that way or you could say like I don't want to wear skinny jeans That's that's pretty cheugy You could use it that way but yeah cheugy means like like for example, yeah, so Tight jeans ankle socks.
It's super cheugy. You don't want to be cheugy, man Alright well that's that's it that was my LA trip report.
I had 21 things we talked about a few of them.
Alright, that's a pod You
