The Dark Truth Of Adam22 | From Skid Row To $1 Million Per Month
Watch on YouTubeVideo summary
Adam22 recounts his journey from a BMX enthusiast in New York City to a multi-million dollar media mogul, detailing how he leveraged early internet trends and strategic pivots to build "No Jumper" into one of YouTube's most successful channels. Starting as an online poker player at age 19 before moving to NYC in 2003, Adam launched his first blog in 2006 after noticing the shift from print magazines to digital rap blogs. Although he initially felt insecure about creating content outside his BMX niche, he realized that while experts were saturated within their specific fields (like poker or skateboarding), there was a massive opportunity for outsiders to interview underground artists and comedians who lacked mainstream platforms. This strategy allowed him to bypass the insular nature of industries like BMX and enter high-growth niches involving rappers, porn stars, and YouTubers, effectively building a bridge between niche communities and mass audiences. The financial trajectory of his career was marked by significant volatility in its early years; Adam recalls making $10,000 a month from ad revenue before the 2007 financial crash wiped out much of that income overnight. He learned to balance blog monetization with poker winnings to sustain himself while living in NYC and later Los Angeles. A pivotal moment occurred when he interviewed XXXTentacion; although Adam did not anticipate the rapper's massive future success, the interview became a historical document after Tentacion's passing, generating millions of views on that specific piece of content alone. This event demonstrated the enduring value of archival interviews with rising stars and instantly connected Adam to major music industry figures like ASAP Rocky's management team, transforming him from an unknown podcaster into a key player in hip-hop media. Adam22 is known for his candid editorial voice, often criticizing trends within action sports or calling out "fake" award winners in the BMX community, which initially earned him significant backlash but ultimately established his unique brand of authenticity. He discusses specific controversies, such as his criticism of a trick called an "Indian," and contrasts this with modern content creators who are hesitant to offer critical opinions for fear of offending their audience. While he admits to being trash-talking in the past regarding industry awards rigged by sponsors, he now adheres to a philosophy of "punching up" rather than punching down, focusing on amplifying talent from smaller backgrounds before they become superstars and potentially thin-skinned millionaires. He also reflects on his own history of bar fights and arrests during college road trips, framing these chaotic experiences as part of the raw, unfiltered nature that defined his early content style. As No Jumper grew, Adam faced challenges regarding burnout and the need to scale operations beyond a single-person setup. He describes working up to 12 hours a day on multiple podcasts simultaneously before realizing he needed to delegate responsibilities like scriptwriting, title creation, and email management to an executive assistant or team members. This shift was accelerated by becoming a father, which forced him to slow down his pace and prioritize family time over constant clubbing and networking events that were once essential for relevance in the industry. He contrasts this grind with creators like Neelk (Niel K), who successfully built long-term brands through strategic storytelling rather than daily content dumping, noting that while he respects their business acumen, his own fulfillment comes from continuous human connection during interviews rather than product development or logo design. Looking toward the future, Adam sets a financial goal of reaching $100 million to achieve true freedom and "chill," though he currently spends modestly on housing (owning multiple properties) and avoids luxury spending like fancy dinners despite his high income. He expresses interest in buying warehouses near Calabasas or Glendale for content creation rather than just selling merchandise, viewing real estate as a long-term investment alongside stocks and crypto where he has held assets without aggressive promotion to maintain integrity. Despite the temptation of lucrative but controversial opportunities like NFTs—where friends turned down millions while others faced backlash—he remains committed to his core mission: interviewing new people daily to humanize them on camera. He concludes that this constant engagement with diverse personalities provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment that traditional brand-building or passive income streams could never replicate for him.
Read the full video transcript
Hey everybody, my name is Adam22.
Welcome back to the iced coffee hour.
And to this date, we have made $300,000.
Great guess. $200,153.80.
Pretty close.
And what an intro. It's almost like you
do this for a living.
Yeah. I got a syrupy voice. I'm like a
phone sex operator.
You really do. You really do.
I appreciate it.
Cut it out, guys.
Anyway, save it for after the podcast.
Okay.
Thank you so much for coming all the way
out here, man. It's an honor, man. I I
watch you guys' podcast. I'm a big fan.
I've learned a lot. So, I appreciate it.
It's crazy for me because I have watched
your podcast for quite some time. You've
had so many people on there and like for
for me to like have you here is just
it's crazy.
Wow. I appreciate that.
Yeah, it really is. We had no idea that
you watched our stuff and it's always
crazy to learn who does. Well, I was
watching the YouTube uploads for a while
before I got turned on to the podcast,
which is kind of weird that like you
could exist in one part of YouTube,
interacting with the creator and not
really get exposed to their other thing.
But the algorithm started pushing some
random episode on me and then I just
started going back through and learning
a bunch. So, yeah,
thanks to the algorithm. Guys, if you
want if you want to help that algorithm,
all you got to do is subscribe, hit the
like button, and comment anything down
below because it it does make a
difference. I've noticed
it does.
So, well, thank you for coming on. Um,
where did you get your start because
you've interviewed such incredible
people. You've grown this p your podcast
to just incredible numbers,
right? Well, so 2006 I, uh, you know,
I've been riding BMX bikes since I was
like 12 years old. Was was super into
that my whole life. Uh, and then I moved
to New York City in 2003 when I was 19.
And pretty pretty I started playing
online poker for a couple years. And
then in 2006 at age 22, I was spending
so much time online playing poker that I
started, you know, really poking around
in the blogersphere at the time. And my
other main interest at that time was
hip-hop. So I started to see all these
rap blogs and everything. And they're
they're really starting to take hold
2005 2006. And I started to notice like
a change in my behavior where all of a
sudden I wasn't buying a magazine at the
store every month about rap music. I was
just reading this blog every day. And
so, you know, a little part of me was
like, well, maybe I could have a rap
blog. And then it was I was too insecure
about that at the time. I was like, I
don't really feel like I have enough
specialized knowledge about that. But
then it it clicked like I know almost
everything about BMX bikes. So, I
started that website and within like a
year or so, it was like hugely popular.
I felt like I was pretty much like a
household name in my niche. And so, I
just kind of kept grinding that from
like 2006 to maybe 2012. I moved to LA
in 2010 and um 2011 2012ish is when I
really realized like oh this blog is
becoming less relevant and social media
is becoming way more important. So I
started to really kind of just dedicate
like big chunks of my time to just
figuring out what my direction was going
to be in that regard. And you know, at
some point I got turned on the Joe Rogan
Experience and started to, you know,
find out about all the rap podcasts of
the time, like uh the the Combat Jack
Show and the Joe Budden podcast and
stuff and started to click in my head
like I know uh I know all these BMX
riders. Maybe I can get my start
interviewing BMX company owners and and
pro riders and stuff like that. And then
like very very quickly I interviewed one
underground rapper and it did very very
significant numbers. You know in the BMX
world it's very easy to just be kind of
like stuck in that niche you know and
never really peak outside of it. There's
a lot of things that are like that. I'm
into poker and poker's kind of very very
similar where everybody who plays poker
seems to know about all the same stuff
and then everybody outside of it seems
completely clueless to everything. But
as soon as I did that one piece of
content with a rapper, I just kind of
realized like, oh, I'm around a lot of
people that are not really being heard
right now, but their music videos might
get a couple million views. If I
interview those guys, it'll probably do
pretty good. I started to do that. I
started interviewing, you know,
YouTubers and comedians and porn stars
and just really felt like if I kept
going and if I kept grinding it out and
just really trying to get better and and
not just that, but also kind of climbing
this like social ladder that previously
I felt like I had no access to because
in the BMX world again, nobody cares.
Like nothing you could do in that world
is going to really make anybody pay
attention to you, you know? And then all
of a sudden I have my foot in the door
and I'm just kind of doing everything I
can to get all these different
interviews done. And that's basically
been like the last six years of my life
or so that I've just been trying to
make it work.
So when you were doing poker, when you
said you were what, like 22 or so? Yeah.
Did you find that like profitable? Were
you really good at poker?
So that was the very very early days of
online poker where
Oh yeah. Everything was legal.
It was being advertised on TV non-stop.
Everybody was horrible in comparison to
now. Everybody is fairly good at poker.
So, it's a lot harder to make a living
now. But yeah, I definitely had a a
couple of $100,000 plus years playing
online poker. That that was my main form
of sustenance before the blog kind of
kicked off. But then as soon as the blog
kicked off, I started to be honest with
myself and I was like, I don't feel like
I'm gifted at poker and I don't feel
like uh this is for me. Like I just I
just kind of knew like I want to
dedicate all my time to trying to make
this uh blog pop off.
And how do you scale a blog? And also
how did you monetize the blog?
So you know this is 2006 is like very
very early days of making money through
being like an influencer or having a
platform. I remember somebody saying to
me like you know you need to start
running ads. And I said nobody's making
money off ads unless you'reing Google or
something you know which is so crazy now
because even a a tiny YouTuber is
thinking about you know maybe I can pay
my rent off making videos or whatever.
And uh at that time it was basically
just me trying to convince all these
different BMX companies to to get me
like 200 300 bucks a month and I was
able to kind of cobble that together
until it started to look like some kind
of legitimate income. But then also on
top of that, you know, I was running
sort of like programmed ads on the side
from Google or whatever. And I actually
at times I had really big success with
that cuz like I said, I started in 2006.
At some point in 2007, I had like a
company get in touch with me who were
like, "Oh, we're going to run ads on the
side of your website and they pay very
very well." I said, "Okay." First month
I made 10 grand from just those ads.
And then theing financial crash hit the
next month
and all these banks and all these
advertisers just it plummeted. It turned
into like a thousand bucks a month
overnight. So that was like one of many
moments where it seemed like things were
gonna work out a little better than
How were you How were you like paying
for housing, food, and stuff like that
when you went from like 10,000 a month
down to a grand, let's just say. Were
you making money elsewhere?
I didn't stop playing poker until I was
making like three grand a month, which
to me at that time that was what I felt
like I needed to get by living in New
York City, which you know, my rent I
think I was splitting a $1,000 a month
apartment with my girlfriend at the
time. So that was reasonable. And I
mean, I felt rich making five grand a
month. You know, I felt like I was
killing it like cuz I couldn't, you
know, I was doing what I really really
wanted to do. And when I look at that,
at that at that time, I had a very big
opportunity to sort of pivot and maybe
not just do the BMX thing, maybe like
start doing some other niches and stuff
like that. But, you know, I was so young
and my my mind state was just 100% like
I love riding bikes. I love making bike
videos. I just want to be out in the
city doing this. And so it kind of took
me a while before I sort of realized
that I didn't have to limit myself to
doing content about one thing.
So you were basically just acting as
like a marketing agency for a bunch of
different BMX companies and then
promoting their products or whatever to
the people that went and visited your
blog, but you also ran ads for those
other companies as well.
Yeah. Yeah, we're running ads on the
side, but then also there was some
degree where like, you know, if they're
advertising, you know, I figured that
out at one point, like, oh, if they
advertise with us, we're going to link
to their website in the post about their
video and otherwise we're just going to
run their video and, you know, not
really give them any extra promotion or
anything like that. But, um, yeah, and
when I look back at it, like the real
reason why the BMX blog became such a
big deal so quickly because I'm in New
York City. I'm 22 years old. I have no
connection to the BMX industry, which is
pretty much at that time 100% located in
Southern California. And I was talking
about everything and anything. You know,
my
Perez Hilton at BMX,
right? But but not not in a way of like
trying to be an [ __ ] I just was
being completely honest about
everything. And I pretty much
immediately earned the uh eye of all of
the BMX media people because I I was
really up their business.
And and I I'm like destroying these
million-doll media companies in BMX
because all of a sudden these magazines
are like not anywhere near as relevant
as they were before. And then in
comparison, but I'm making this tiny
amount of money in comparison. But like
I really look back at that and I I see
that
and I'm like, "Wow, that that's pretty
incredible that I was able to have that
effect on that industry." But then at
the same time, um what what [ __ ] it up
was that I really wanted to make more
money. So I started to tone down my
editorial voice and stop talking so
much. And when I look back at that, I
really kind of feel guilty about that
because I would have much rather kept
that platform pure and mean and funny
and just, you know, it's like I I I I
look back now that I've actually kind of
gotten to the money and I'm like, "Holy
[ __ ] I made a lot of decisions that
weren't really me throughout my life
because I wanted to, you know, be
financially stable." So, that's one
thing I kind of look back on and I'm
like, I never want to do that to no
jumper. I never want to like really just
kind of limit myself editorially just to
make somebody happy, you know?
Yeah. Is there is there any blog that
you wrote that sticks out is like most
impactful or something like that or
something that really kind of threw the
industry in a spiral?
Yeah. I would just do all these blogs
where I would just pick one thing that
was normal and I would just tear it
apart and explain why it sucked and why
you should never do it again. And there
what like what's an example?
So there's a bike trick or like a
there's a thing and this is sounds
terrible and racist these days but we
would call it an Indian. It's basically
like if you do a 180
and then instead of turning around and
completing the rotation, you would like
180 and then spin back the wrong way.
So you give it and then you take it
back.
So it's the Indian giver. This was like
2006. This is what we called it. It
seems kind of weird. I heard a lot of
people in BMX don't call it that
anymore. But I remember just writing an
article of just explaining of how stupid
the idea is of doing a 180 and then
turning back again like not completing
the rotation. Like it was just so
obvious to me. So I write this blog. I
get so much [ __ ] for it where people
just claiming that this is freestyle and
supposed to be about having fun and
you're aing [ __ ] You're trying to
take the fun out of BMX. I swear to God
I almost never saw anybody do one again
after that. The thing that's funny to me
is that you were hating on that trick
where it's like you jump back and you
jump forward. But I feel like like like
if you're just riding a BMX, shouldn't
you just like do what you want and do
maybe what looks cool? Rather like I
sure logistically it doesn't make sense
to like to do a 180 just to do it right
back. But
if I showed you it on camera right now,
you would be like, "Oh my god, that's so
ugly." Like not even bike riding, you
would see it and it's just like
offensive the way it looks because it
doesn't look right. And at the time
people would do it really really bad.
And you know I just had an opinion and
to me that's like
I you know a fashion blogger can say
like oh like this brand of pants is
terrible and a rap you know now this is
just so normal that a rap blogger is
going to say or a vlogger or whatever is
going to say this album is trash. This
guy's girlfriend is not a good person.
That's not how I was going to end that
sentence when I started it. But you know
like just all these like it's okay to
have an opinion now. But there are like
like I I watch a lot of skateboarding
sort of meta commentary content and I've
seen them kind of like going through
this where there's certain YouTubers who
kind of have a presence now who they
just talk [ __ ] about skateboarding and
they get so much [ __ ] It's not an
industry that's really like kind to
people being really fiercely critical of
it which doesn't happen in a lot of
other niches. Like in hip-hop you can
just say whatever you want.
But isn't that a part of it though?
Isn't it assumed that you're going to
kind of trash talk each other and that's
just a part of growing?
Yeah, but I think it should be more, you
know, more accepted if anything. Like I
was watching a a one of these skateboard
guys that I watched, this dude, Gifted
Hater, who just talks about
skateboarding stuff and he he showed
this skateboarding contest that had been
streamed online and he's playing clips
from the commentary that they were doing
and he's pointing out how stupid and how
fake the things that the commentators
saying are. And he's like, "Why don't
the announcers of this contest talk to
us like they assume that we have some
degree of intelligence?"
And I was like, "That is a great point.
I've never heard anybody make that point
like on camera before in this way." But
somehow like these action sports are
very very resistant
to any sort of like introspection.
How many viewers did you have to this
vlo the blog back then? It's hard for me
to say blog cuz I just want to say vlog.
It's hard to accum uh to even remember.
Like I have no clue in retrospect. Any
number I would say would be probably
just a lie. But it was, you know, pro it
was by far bigger than any other BMX
website at that time. So
what happened to it? Could you ever sell
it?
I didn't like once No Jumper started to
really pop off. I kind of just put it on
autopilot. Had a couple of bloggers
updating it and stuff and and it just
sort of faded into irrelevance and then
at some point just kind of took it down.
And and I do look back at it and I wish
that I had been able to continue to
scale my business and start doing this
other side of uh content and like you
know be able to hire people who would be
good on camera to do that. And I'm still
kind like I still have conversations
with some people on my team of like
maybe we could bring it back because now
we're making a lot more money on
Facebook. I'm like, if we could just
make YouTube content of BMX riding and
then also make money off it on Facebook,
maybe we'd have enough money to have two
or three people on staff to actually be
able to keep this brand going even if
it's not some big profit center for us.
So, I'm still kind of kicking it around
to be honest.
Got it. Now, on No Jumper, how did you
start?
2014, we had a bike shop downtown Los
Angeles, like basically on the edge of
Skid Row, which is pretty much the
gnarliest place that you could go in LA.
It's like non-stop homeless people and
drug abuse. And that was the only place
where we could really afford a store at
that time. So we start the store. We've
got, you know, some desks in back where
we were just sitting working every day.
And I uh I remember one day I just sat
down and I watched like five videos in a
row of like what equipment do I need to
start a podcast? And eventually came to
some conclusions, started ordering
everything. I remember I just found a
guy on Craigslist that said he was an
audio engineer and I'm like I'm going to
pay you 30 bucks an hour to stand in
this room and listen to this stuff and
make sure that it sounds okay. And
pretty quickly I got it to the point
where uh where it just didn't even need
anything. So I was going there doing
interviews with rappers in the middle of
the night. I'm showing up at 11:00 p.m.
I'm taking my phone, putting it on a
bike stand, not even like a like a thing
that was meant to hold a phone and just
recording. And a couple times I forgot
to put it on airplane mode and um like I
remember the Ugly God podcast that I did
in 2016, like halfway through there's
just no video cuz it just turned off
which is pretty traumatic. But yeah,
over the years just kind of started
trying to get my setup more and more
consistent.
Who was the rapper you had first on that
would like kind of took it off?
There was this dude Xavier Wolf. He was
the first one who was like he had a wave
going at the time like 2016 where he was
popular in like the sort of downtown LA
like hipster type world. And uh yeah,
that just kind of I did one really good
interview with him and then that just
kind of opened the door where like a lot
of other cool rappers wanted to tap in.
And then the one that really went crazy
was I interviewed XXX Tentacion who was
really small at the time.
Uh he had one song with a million views,
but I was getting all these comments by
people who were fascinated by him and
they sent me links to videos of him
fighting people on the street outside of
like bars in downtown Miami or some [ __ ]
like that. There was a clip of him
stabbing somebody
and I was just fascinated by him. So I
did the interview with him.
Didn't really think that much of it. It
was it was an hour a very very good
interview but it wasn't like I I had no
idea his career was going to do that.
And then he just absolutely exploded
after that. And the interview might have
had a couple million views already by
the time he passed. And then uh when I
look back at the graph of all of our
views throughout the history of our
YouTube channel, the day he died was the
day that we got the most views. And you
know, over and over and over doing this
kind of content has sort of shown me the
value of content. And like the fact that
when he died, that piece of content just
became that much more valuable because
all of a sudden this is just like a
historical document for people to
understand this kid that there's not
going to be anything new to understand
him by, you know, and he only did a
handful of interviews.
And I mean that that like even before he
passed, it really changed my life. All
of a sudden, I had everybody in the
music industry hitting me up like
futures managers tapping in with me,
Rocky, ASAP Rocky's managers tapping in
with me. And this is for me at the time
where I had no connections to anybody in
the music industry, but I did one
interview that just got me on
everybody's radar instantly. And when I
look back at it, it's like I very much
could have maybe not have been as big of
a presence and have been maybe more of
like a mid-tier podcaster if it wasn't
for that because that really just blew
out of the water as soon as I had him on
and and really showed me the value of
getting in with people early and
documenting their life and just content
in general. It seems almost like you
become uh almost like you know you know
like the late night talk shows where
people come on and they they talk about
themselves and they're kind of
interviewed except much longer and and
more like a like a real in-depth
conversation in music which did that
were people doing this before you really
dove into it?
Well, I got to give salute to the the OG
DJ Vlad because he really like created
like the blueprint for what it was to do
content with rappers online. When I
started, I honestly wasn't thinking
about him because to me,
he's always kind of cut his into shorter
clips, which I also think was like a
really important innovation, even though
he took an amazing amount of for it at
the time because he was actually drawing
attention to what people were saying in
these interviews. But, um, I was very,
very early on it. And especially with
the underground rappers, it just wasn't
people doing content about them. And one
of my things I I learned early on was
even if it's not the biggest rapper,
even if they don't have a number one
song, whatever, like these are really
interesting personalities. And when it
comes to the internet, the fact that
your your music isn't that popping
really doesn't matter if you have a
really amazing personality and if you're
real and you know, just people want to
hear from you.
Yeah.
How do you pick people?
Just my gut, you know, just who I I look
at the analytics or whatever. I look at
how they're doing on their platform and
a lot of times that'll tell you
something. But a lot of times I'll watch
a smaller YouTuber interview them or
I'll just get tuned into their
Instagram. I take suggestions from
people all the time. Um just try to keep
my mind as open as possible. I just had
this girl CC Reacts on who's I think she
only has 50,000 subscribers. She's
growing really fast though and she's
just this uh a little bit older woman. I
think she might be almost 40. She did a
bunch of prison time for credit card
scamming and [ __ ] and her hers she's
just amazing on camera. And when I heard
her, I was just like, I don't care at
all that she has 50,000 subscribers.
Like, she's she's amazing. Like, I just
want to put her out there to the world.
And I really just believe that it'll
prove to be a good decision, you know?
How much time do you spend researching
your guests before you have them on?
See, sometimes it'll be, you know, like
if I were going to have you on tomorrow.
Yeah.
I don't even know if I have to do any
research because I already watched a lot
of your podcast. Maybe I want to like
read through a bio so that little things
like where you're from or whatever
doesn't escape me. But for the most
like, you know, I kind of feel like I
don't have to do any research. But a lot
of times with the rappers, I want to see
their videos. I want to have a decent
idea and I do hold myself to a pretty
high standard with that sometimes
because I really I want to do an
interview a lot of times that is for
your fans, you know? I want to bring
something new out of you that'll
actually make them happy, you know? I
don't want to like I I call them cover
band interviews when people just do an
interview that somebody else has already
done and just repeat all the same
questions and I just think it's like
shameful and I just hold myself to a
higher standard than that. But you know
then sometimes I mean I remember back in
the day I had to interview WFT from the
Fujis
and I mean I probably spent a whole
weekend like listening to his listening
to his music all day at night I'm
watching documentaries. I'm just trying
to learn because his career was just so
vast
that I just felt like I had to know as
much as possible. But through doing so
much research, I've gotten like really
fast and efficient at actually figuring
out the stuff that I need to know.
I'm always terrified of doing too much
research because sometimes I'll I'll
know something and then not ask it
because I I know it already versus going
in doing nothing and then showing up
then I ask the questions that I feel
like a viewer might also ask who's not
familiar.
Yeah. We try to go into each podcast
with one of us knowing a decent amount
about the guest and the other person
knowing nothing. So you get both the
in-depth questions and the surface level
questions because realistically you come
on our podcast, our audience for the
most part, they're not going to be the
same as your audience. They won't know
who you are. So like Graham's going to
need to ask the questions. Let's just
let's just say theoretically if he's not
well researched that they're going to be
wanting to know and then I'll ask the
questions if I am the researched one
that you know your your audience would
want to know.
Yeah, that makes sense. I just really
always try to bring something different
to it as well. Like I just have this guy
Larry Lton on my podcast who's like
America's biggest jewel thief of all
time
and he he went on DJ Vlad maybe a year
or two ago and told his all his whole
story and then when I sat down with him
he was kind of like reiterating parts of
his story and everything and I just uh
you know I felt like we had a
conversation that very much like kind of
went beyond the basis of what he did in
his life you know where you can talk
about your opinions on things and all
these different things. I just feel like
that's kind of important to be able to
expand upon what other people have
already done. Like in my head, I want to
be doing some I like to hold my audience
to the standard of catching up, you
know, and then I want your audience to
actually be interested in the interview.
It doesn't always work out that way, but
I really like to have my repeat audience
kind of need to know what's going on a
little bit. Not not that they need to
know because we'll we'll cover the
things, but I like to just try
Yeah. keep them informed. How do you do
that? because I'm always trying to
figure out like I I love Joe Rogan and
how he asks questions and it's amazing
to me how naturally he makes it seem
from the like beginning to end it seems
like just a normal conversation but he
brings out these topics that I would
never think of.
Do you ever go into it thinking I'll ask
these questions or how do you take it in
that direction and get good at that?
I'll write a bunch of questions down.
Yeah, but I I think you always have to
be looking at like who you are as an
interviewer and what your style is. And
to me, Joe Rogan when it comes to a lot
of topics like now when it comes to MMA,
when it comes to maybe like nutrition
and working out and stuff, he's he's the
expert. You know, he knows everything
realistically, you're probably not
bringing anything to the table that he
doesn't know about unless you're a huge
expert in that field. But then when he
interviews, you know, a rapper or a
person, like I heard I was listening
interview James Hetfield from Metallica
and I I'm pretty sure at one point in
the interview he's just like, "Dude,
this one song like I forgot what song it
is." He's like, "That [ __ ] song
rocks, dude." And I'm like, "Bro, Joe
Rogan is the alpha male of normie
interviews right here." Cuz he's
interviewing the motherucker from
Metallica and he's so clearly like
didn't even really pry into this guy's
past at all. Whereas if I was doing that
interview, I want to do enough research
that I could feel like a Metallica fan
is going to get something out of it and
not just be sort of rehashing whatever.
But that's just my style is that I kind
of
want to be as informed as possible and
just as tapped in with as many different
subcultures in general. And I mean
really I started doing interviews
because I was just spending so much time
sitting in my room watching
documentaries, watching other people's
podcasts, reading blogs for for a while
before I started doing podcast. I want
to be a writer. And I'm sitting in this
[ __ ] coffee shop for like eight hours
a day just just trying to write blog
posts and write articles and stuff. And
uh at a certain point, I just kind of
had the epiphany of like I I think
podcasting is way more for me. Like I
shouldn't be sitting around trying to
figure out how to perfect a sentence,
which is so much of what writing is. You
know, what we're doing right now.
If you were to transcribe this and
present it as like an article, it would
be terrible. It's like we're thinking
out loud, you know? So, uh, I found that
that was kind of way more my style.
When did you start doing it full-time
and like that was your focus? That was
what's paying the bills.
I mean, I've never had a job since I was
in high school.
So,
yeah, when I was 22, I started doing
that BMX thing and I just kind of
transferred from that to no jumper
around 2016 or so, 2017. And, you know,
we still had the bike shop on Melrose in
LA, but uh, we got rid of that actually
luckily like right before the pandemic.
And uh we we want to make a return in
that regard, but uh not not really sure
exactly when or where, but yeah, it
pretty much, you know, like I I can't
remember when the No Jumper thing
actually started making a decent amount
of money, but within like the first year
or two, I was looking at it and seeing
it making, you know, two grand, five
grand, however much. And then when it
really started to hit its stride,
though, is because I was also doing
these iPhone vlogs. So, an average day
for me would be wake up, go to my shop,
film clips, talking to the fans, film
clips of all the freaky that's going on
outside, all these weird people out out
and about in Los Angeles and Hollywood.
And then I'm also bouncing between doing
that to doing interviews in the back of
the store. So, like an average day, I
might have been doing, you know, an
iPhone vlog all day that I would then
edit that night and then also multiple
podcasts throughout the day. So, I was
just looking at that like this is this
is it. I got up to like 50k a month from
doing that. And then the ad apocalypse
hit and it became 5k a month.
Wow.
And that was when I started to realize
like I have to do all kinds of stuff. I
have to diversify. I have to start live
streaming. I have to start doing merch.
I have to start doing a lot of different
stuff. And um yeah, that just was very
very important in the development of
everything because you know even right
then immediately I landed on one of our
biggest revenue streams that I've made
millions off of which is we go on live
stream and I it started to occur to me
like my DMs are flooded with people that
want me to listen to their music. So we
go on live stream
and people start sending $10, $20 with
their Soundcloud links so we could
listen to their song. And I think the f
one one one of the first time, it might
not have been the first time, but one
time we did it, we was charging $20 a
song and we stayed on for I think 12
hours and ended up making like
10 grand or something, which is massive
to me at the time. And then we just kind
of evolved from there. Now we charge 120
bucks per song. I got like a whole cast
of me and my friends. We sit around, we
average around 2,000 bucks an hour.
And uh that that just was me being
reactive to the fact that I had all
these people sending me their music. And
I was like, "Okay, well, if you want me
to hear your music, here you go." You
know,
that's genius.
It is. How much thought did you put into
the into the shot? Because I remember
watching your earlier videos and I'm
like, "Where is this being filmed?" And
this is like a table with a whole bunch
of stuff everywhere and there's so many
people just like hanging out. And that's
why that's like the best example of
that, the XXX interview, because there's
people like uh DJ Scheme, who's still
like a very popular DJ and producer and
stuff. you just see him just sitting on
a bike because we didn't have enough
chairs. So, he had to sit on a bike for
an hour while we're doing that
interview. And yeah, in the beginning, I
didn't care about aesthetics at all
because keep in mind that when I started
almost nobody was putting their podcast
on YouTube. Everybody was audio first.
And when I [ __ ] look back to that
time period, I did a lot of like sort of
goofy in my opinion now as a YouTuber
things. like I filmed four episodes
before I went live so that I would be
able to put them all on the iPhone uh
the podcast app at the same time so that
I would be able to rise up on the charts
or whatever. I thought that was super
important at the time. And um now I just
focus on YouTube although we do we make
a good amount of money off the audio as
well. But yeah, that the the the visual
part I just figured, you know, if I have
anything that'll be pretty good, right?
But what about now? Because you could af
you could afford like the
top-of-the-line set and like
professional people kind of like what
Impulsive has where you have that one
camera
the one that moves around and yeah zooms
in zooms the one and like the other guy
doing it and he has like five people
behind the scenes just like tinkering
with everything.
Yeah, we just have a bunch of DSLRs on
tripods. Um my guys who are editing for
me, they they pop up and they set all
the cameras up when I'm about to do the
interview. I lock in. and I got one guy
running the OBS and then that's it. I've
always tried to keep the actual
podcasting like extremely low cost just
cuz you don't necessarily make that much
on YouTube off of a a single interview,
especially when some of the interviews
don't really go crazy. And so I I I
don't know. I care about the way it
looks, but I'm also just not really that
pressed about making it look incredible.
I don't know. There there's there's got
to be something to be gained for it or I
feel like there's people out there that
I see are kind of making a name for
themselves through having really high
quality, but I don't know that it really
is going to move the needle that much
for us.
Would you ever do that or do you think
it's more your brand just to kind of
have a
relaxed environment?
Yeah, exactly. We're kind of doing like
a full redux of our filming setup
because we just bought this like $5
million office building near our current
spot and we're just sort of rethinking
everything and just putting so much
money into building out these different
studios and everything. So, we're
actually building like cool sets and
backgrounds and kind of rethinking how
we're going to approach the cameras and
everything like that. So, we're we're
doing a little bit more of it now, but I
also just don't really think that's our
primary value.
Million dollars. Why? That's a big
investment. Where could you tell us
where that is in LA? I'm guessing by
like downtown Burbank.
Yeah.
Why? Why so much? Well, you know what?
Before we go into why so much, why are
there always people hanging outside?
Like you walk outside and there's like
10 people just like waiting.
So, you're thinking of the store. This
is the office which is secluded and we
have security and nobody's allowed to
come there.
Um, when there were people hanging out
outside, I mean, I seen some of the
weirdest [ __ ] I ever seen in my life
outside the store. I mean, people would
just pull up, go to the weed store down
the street, and then just sit outside
and roll weed. And like, you know, at
first I would be able to stand outside
of the store and have a conversation
with people, and it was nothing. And as
the months went by, it just became more
and more if I went outside for 5
minutes. There would already be a bunch
of people who wanted to take photos. And
then there would be people who started
pulling over in their cars and all of a
sudden we're 40 deep outside the store,
which I didn't have security at the
time. I wasn't thinking about anything
like that.
And it's, you know, it's just like a lot
of people want to make it in a creative
world, right? And like I mean, if if
you're the biggest Graham fan in the
world, like how do you meet Graham? You
probably just don't. Or maybe you go to
like a meet and greet or a live event at
some point. Maybe you get to shake hands
at some point, but it's very hard to
like approach or get exposure to the
people that you're looking up to, right?
And so, you know, just the fact that we
had that store just made us like way too
accessible to people, which, you know,
it's nice to be able to have that kind
of relationship with people, but at a
certain point, it just doesn't scale at
all.
Yeah. Now, you're telling me that Lil
Xan was hanging around.
He was stumbling around up off pills.
Yeah. Like he was just one of these
regular kids that was hanging out around
there.
Was this before he his career took off?
Yes. And then one one day his career
blew up and I was like, how the [ __ ] did
that I didn't see it happening. Like I
didn't think his music had that kind of
Why was he hanging around? Is it because
he knew that you were so big in the
scene? He just wanted to make his
presence known.
Yeah, he there's like a photo from way
back in the day that was just like a fan
photo of him and me that's kind of crazy
to look back on just that he was
thinking about me like that and he just
wanted to get his rap career going so he
was just kind of hanging around, you
know.
Jeez. And he just blew up and then
afterwards you had him on the podcast
and everything and
Yeah. Like one of our biggest videos is
just interviewing him after he blew up.
Yeah, that was one of my favorite videos
I have to say. I think that's how I was
introduced to you was through the Lil
Xan video.
Yeah. What was the one I'm I'm um
blanking on the name. The one song that
everyone
betrayed. Betrayed.
It was a great song. It was I really
like it. And I
How could he never do that again?
Like not not even to talk [ __ ] about
him, but like
I never really understood but I I used
to talk to his manager and he said that
he just wouldn't record. He'd be hanging
out with like 10 girls a day.
He just wouldn't record. How? But he was
like 18 when that song took off.
He was pretty young. Yeah,
maybe he had less in his system when
that was when that song came out.
I think it is. You you can't handle that
sort of attention and money at 18 and
conceptualize it when you come from
nothing.
But also, he was really bad with drugs
and since he was really young,
which is like pretty much the whole
story. Like if he had been sober during
that time period, I feel like he would
have been able to
pull it together, but he was the
opposite of sober.
Yeah. Uh, and it's rough when you give
someone like that in that position
access to anything that they would want.
And for two years afterwards, he could
pick anything and just be like, I want
that and then do it.
I mean, and there's no one telling him
no. Or maybe there are, but at at that
level, you could afford just to say, all
right, well, you know what? Go away. I
remember I went and I was hanging out
with him and his former manager stat Quo
and it was right before South by
Southwest and um he had some shows
booked and it's I don't think that they
were like paid shows or they're like
pretty lowaying shows you know and uh
stat was saying like we got to go
tomorrow we're going to South by
Southwest and Lil Zan was like [ __ ] that
I make money online every day I don't
got to do that [ __ ] and I remember his
manager just saying like this show is
for genius you know like genius.com is
like [ __ ] big ass platform they could
do a lot for you in terms of music and
stuff. He's like, "If you don't go to
this show, they're not going to [ __ ]
with you again. They're not going to
care about you anymore. If you don't rub
their back right here, and not even
that, but like you are booked. You said
that you were going to go. If you don't
go, it's going to be really, really bad
for your career." And he didn't give a
[ __ ] And I mean, that's just not how
you become a popular artist. Most of the
most popular artists I know are people
who are kissing babies and shaking hands
at the radio stations and [ __ ] Not Not
always. Sometimes you're so popular and
cool that you don't have to do that, but
you know, realistically, he probably
should have done that.
It seems like in the rap career, it's
pretty common that someone like
skyrockets and becomes extremely popular
very fast and then like a lot of the
times they'll drop off. What have you
noticed uh like are the main
determinants of if someone's able to
continue going on that rocket ship of
success or something that usually leads
to a lot of people's downfall? Is it
like drugs? Is it ego? Is it other stuff
like that? drugs and ego are a huge
part, but also I would say that a lot of
rappers kind of blow up not off being
rappers, but off being memes. And
sometimes there's like a song that is
the distillation of their personal meme.
So the song is kind of like their whole
thing, but then after that there's not
that much further for them to go with
it. And even there's some popular
rappers that I can look at and I'm like
that guy doesn't have a second album in
him, you know? like his his value
proposition to the people right now is
just the fact that he has like a cool
voice, cool style. He's kind of got a
different flow, but by the time you get
to album number two, he's not going to
be able to keep people interested. And a
lot of times that's how it happens. And
then once in a while, you'll find
somebody who actually is able to keep
switching it up and and keep the people
interested. And that's, you know, a
enduring superstar. And even of the
rappers who are big, that might be 10%
of them or something like that, you
know. And uh yeah, it's just
Do you ever warn people like if you see
that sort of situation like hey you got
one great record. Do you ever just say
hey be smart with it? Like I'm going to
tell you from my experience. It doesn't
really work out. I'm just like don't
blow it right now. Like play it smart
these next like two years.
I don't really think it's my place to be
doing that. you know, you kind of
realize over time that there's certain
things
that might be true and correct that you
just don't have to do. Like, like one
thing I realized kind of early on is
like I never need to be criticizing a
young rapper who's coming up. It's just
not what people want from me. It's not a
good look. It's not doing anything for
me. And it's it's the easiest, lowest
hanging fruit. And there's like a whole
little world of YouTubers who make
videos about rappers falling off saying,
"Oh, this guy did a show and 10 people
showed up or this guy's album dropped
and he sold 4,000 copies, so he's a
[ __ ] loser." Whatever. Okay, I
probably agree with a large percentage
of those videos. But for me, I feel like
I'm much better suited to be, you know,
amplifying and helping people in their
career um at least the majority of the
time or at least unless they disrespect
me, at which point I'll usually just
start being honest.
Now, hasn't some of that changed?
Because it seemed like in the beginning
with BMX you were trash talking and that
was like a way in. Has that shifted now
you you stay away from trash talking or
is it just like you've just grown
but I was trash talking the industry and
I was talking about like just for
example one of the things that got me in
a lot of [ __ ] in the beginning was that
there was a a BMX awards show that they
did and do every year and I just did not
agree with some of the people who won
because it's like it's voted on by the
industry. So you get these [ __ ] ass
people winning because all the people in
the industry are friends with each other
and they just vote for the [ __ ] that's
popular and there's even been rumors
about you know that [ __ ] being rigged
for the sponsors and everything like
that. And you know I don't hold my
tongue at all when I'm talking about
Nicki Minaj or when I'm talking about
Drake when I'm talking about you know
because I just have an opinion like they
don't [ __ ] care. Uh or if they do
care so what? Like you're famous. I'm
not gonna be able to do anything that
would negatively impact your career. But
when it's some girl that's coming out
who's got 20,000 followers, it's just so
much more on brand and beneficial for me
to be the one who says,
"I think you have some talent. I'm gonna
give you an interview and help you in
this rise." You know, there's something
to be said for that. I I like being able
to play that role where But then
sometimes those people become gigantic
superstars and some they might hear me
having a real opinion about their music
or their career or whatever. And
ideally, by the time they become
millionaires, they're not going to be so
so thin skinned. Although a lot of times
they are, you know,
that's a good rule of thumb. Always
punch up, never punch down. It's just
not a good
At least you have to be a millionaire,
right? If you
at least Yeah, be a millionaire.
At least they're they're a millionaire.
What do you think of the Island Boys?
I interviewed them before. They were the
Island Boys.
How did you find them?
They were just popular memes on on
YouTube and stuff. They were always
going on Instagram live and just arguing
with everybody. And uh
this is before the song took off.
Before the song. Yeah. Which the song
wasn't really that big. It was just a
Tik Tok of them doing the chorus of the
song. And I remember thinking to myself
like is this below me? Like like is is
this really beneath me to do this
interview with these guys? Because their
music is very very bad. And uh but I
thought they were so funny and they were
so viral. I was like dude I just I can't
not do this. I did it and it got a
couple million views and I was pretty
hyped on it because then they really
blew up after that. So, I was like, I'm
I'm very glad that I got in there early.
What was your impression of them?
Because I I would love them to come on
the iced coffee hour. I would love it.
Uh I sent them a DM. They did not get
back to me. He said the the doors open.
They didn't see it, but
I think that they're um frauds for sure.
You know, like no disrespect to them,
but they're running around saying
they're bloods. No, they're like running
around kind of acting tough for a while.
It's like no, this is not I mean, it's
just like, you know, they're cool.
They're kids. They're they're having a
good time, you know? Like maybe the
music will get better over time, but I
mean they're they're kind of dumb.
They're kind of like just clueless as
[ __ ] Just I mean like look at them.
They have the full tattoo. They look
they got the Kodak black hair now. They
got [ __ ] lineup. I don't know.
But do you think that they're actually
smart like underneath it all? Because
like But think about what they've done.
Like they've probably made a lot of
money.
seen a lot of they've seen a lot of
success,
you know, the Fashion Nova sponsorships
on Instagram. I tried to calculate how
much money they made and I went through
all of their income and I tried to
calculate I guessed that they were
making about they they were on track to
make about $1.5 million total between
all of those between the two of them. So
like you know 750 each if that continued
throughout the year,
right? Maybe. I mean, yeah. What are
they going to do with their fame from
here? You know, it's kind of hard.
Only fans.
They were really cool with me, too.
Heck, don't give them ideas.
They unfollowed me when I uh Well, I
didn't even do it. Somebody on my news
team posted the video of them getting
booed at the club and they were
extremely upset about that.
I saw that video.
I didn't have anything to do with this.
This happens to me all the time where
people are furious at me for something
that one of the people who works for me
posts, but I mean, it happened. I don't
know what's so bad about it having
attention called to it.
Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever worry about like
burning bridges? Like let's just say
they hear you say, "Oh, they're dumb or
this and that." Does that ever worry you
that like, "All right, now you've kind
of lost not lost that connection, but
like you're not keeping the door open in
the future."
I guess with some people I try to be a
little bit more delicate, but I mean, am
I really going to sit here and lie to
you and be like more optimistic than I
really am? I mean, the [ __ ] people
know.
They know it's a crazy social media
world. They know these guys are not
famous for their music. If they do find
some other way for them to be enduring
personalities and parts of the culture,
you know, good for them. Like I'm I'm
not like hating on them at all, but I
also wouldn't really say that they're
like evil masterminds or anything like
that. I would say that they're just kids
who kind of just became famous from just
being really [ __ ] simple. Really?
Is there is there anyone you've had on
your podcast where you were like so
nervous to meet them or someone that you
were a huge fan of and it was a big deal
to you?
Master P.
That's just one that comes to mind
because like
I had to [ __ ] pull some some tricks
to make it happen. Like there was a
store right next to ours who was doing a
drop of some like famous Masterp album
art. They were doing t-shirts with his
album covers or whatever. And I I get in
with the guy from the store and I tell
him, I'm like, "Can you make it part of
the deal with you doing this event for
him that he'll also stop by and do this
interview with me?" And somehow this
actually happened. And you know, Master
P is a massive human who is well, I
thought he was extremely rich at the
time. There seems to be a debate about
that online now if he actually is rich
or not. I don't really know where that
stands, but um you know, he had all
these these guys were on all black pull
up before he got there scoping the place
out looking around like real deal
presidential security that I was very
impressed by. And then he just comes in
and his demeanor is just so just
grizzled like he's just seen everything
and done it all. And yeah, I was I was a
little nervous for that. Or even like
somebody like Joe Budden is like just
such a huge podcasting hero of mine and
then he just comes in. But I mean that's
part of the challenge. I try to like I
don't like meditate as much as I should,
but I try to just be in this extremely
calm state when it comes to doing the
interview. I try to just like the thing
I'm thinking about is like breathe deep,
relax, just be as comfortable as
possible because any energy that you're
wasting on being nervous is useless.
Doesn't do anything for you. It's just
energy wasted. But I mean, sometimes
I'll have podcasts where I realize
partway through my hands are clammy, I'm
[ __ ] sweating under the armpit, etc.
And I just try to try to keep it cool
and you know, but that happens so
infrequently, right? I used to have that
feeling about everybody at first. I was
nervous as [ __ ] to interview anybody and
that just has slowly kind of dissipated
through doing a few thousand of these.
You know who I was really nervous uh was
Andrew Hails. Remember that we did the
chatting with because I had watched him
since like 2012.
He's laugh on YouTube. He did a lot of
prank stuff.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Yeah. So, someone like you had seen
growing up years and like that kind of
shaped like that really helped get me
into YouTube. So, like to meet that
person who was like who I was like,
"Wow, it's it's him." Like that was
scary for me.
But, okay, this is also part of it is
that I could never be nerv I never be
that nervous to interview you because
you're a YouTuber. You talk on camera. I
would probably never be nervous to
interview a podcaster, a comedian, a
whatever because I mean that's just what
they do. like your kind of job is to
think of [ __ ] to talk about. Sometimes
I'll have a rapper who's really young
and really
not that conversational, but their music
is really really popping at that time
and people want to see me interview them
and sometimes you get into that
environment and they start one word
answering you and then it becomes like,
you know, how do you coax something out
of them? How do you get them to open up
to you a little bit? And uh sometimes
I'll be kind of nervous in those ones
because you have to start filling the
the timeline with you talking more to
make up for the fact that they're giving
you these short ass answers and like how
do you break them out of that box?
But you know I I feel like usually when
that happens the audience blames it on
them not me. So
sure
at least if I put my best foot forward
that that can be good.
Do you think it's just they're nervous
or that they just don't want to be there
or that's just naturally them of just
like Yep.
Yeah. I think they're just a lot of
times when they're young, they're just
they don't have great conversational
skills. And then even beyond that, a lot
of times, so many times I've had people
come on the podcast and they think that
they're just going to smoke a shitload
of weed before the podcast and during
the podcast. And like there's this thing
where if I'm sitting at home alone
smoking weed, watching TV, I don't
notice the change in myself because I'm
not really doing anything. I'm just
sitting here. But if you're sitting on
camera with the bright lights on you and
you're just high as [ __ ] a lot of times
because people are lying to themselves
because there are rappers who just
literally smoke blunts all day and it
doesn't really impact them that much.
Honestly, I could have been smoking weed
all day right now and you guys probably
wouldn't really know. But some dudes do
this and they don't realize how bad on
camera it makes them to be high. Not to
mention, oh my god, the lean. Oh, the
lean or the pills. if somebody's doing
that. Like I remember one time I
interviewed this rapper Sosa Geek from
Brooklyn and he uh I had watched another
interview with him where he was clearly
on some kind of upper and it was great.
It was he was just talking nonstop and
then I interviewed him and he walks in
drinking lean and it's a downer and it
was you know not great. It was certainly
not his best interview you know just
slows you down to a crawl that [ __ ] you
know. What was the weirdest thing that
you've seen? Or have you ever been in a
position where you're like, I gotta cut
this. I can't I can't post it.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, definitely. There's
been a lot of stuff. I mean, we used to
do the pods live.
Yeah.
And I remember uh Boonk aka John
Gabbana. He
Oh my gosh. Boom.
Boom. Gang.
Whole lot of Oh, I say we're live.
Oh my gosh. I forgot about him.
What happened to that? He pulls up and
he he could barely get a sentence out.
And like I'm just like, "Bro, I'm not
doing an interview with you like this.
You're [ __ ] up, bro. Like you need to
you need to go get some sleep or
something. Like this is not it's not
okay." And he just like kind of forced
himself into the chair and was just
babbling and it was terrible. And then
as soon as he gets up, he just boom, he
[ __ ] passes out and smacks his head
no
on the wall right there. And that was
one of the most viral things that we
ever had happen because I remember the
next the next week I was in Hawaii and
like the waiters at the restaurants like
a couple of them said something about it
to me and I was just like well if this
[ __ ] has traveled to the the
workingclass waiters of Hawaii that
means that apparently it's pretty big.
Wow.
Are you ever excited when someone walks
in and you just know it's going to be a
catastrophe? Because like that's where
the real viral moments can hit.
Yeah. Gosh. Boom.
I would rather have a great conversation
and go viral that way than for them to
be [ __ ] up. You know, especially for
me now where if it's really bad, I might
just not put it out or Yeah.
You know, like the ones where they just
embarrass himself. Like the Boonk one
was the one where it was so extreme and
it might not have been that viral, but
then he hit his head on the wall and
then it was viral.
What happened to him? Because I remember
I used to watch his Instagram videos
and he found Jesus and he's a boxer now.
Are you serious?
I watched him beat the [ __ ] out of
Supreme Patty in a boxing Beat Supreme
Patty.
Supreme Patty. Oh my god. That's a name
I haven't heard of.
Wild.
Wow.
I did a lot of fighting as a young guy.
Did you really?
So much. Like we just fight all the
time. Since I was like elementary school
all the way up through my like early
20s, I would get in bar fights all the
time.
Do you ever get into like an actual like
damaging fight?
Yeah. Bad.
What was that? What was that like?
I mean, I just remember it was one night
where I got in a fight with some guys in
a bar in um in Austin, Texas with a
bunch of my friends and this guy just
like started something with me and I
remember I just wound up and just
punched him in the face and I remember I
felt my hand really like enter his mouth
and like all his teeth got knocked out
and then I ran up out of there and
I realized one of my friends didn't make
it out with me and I'm with my
girlfriend at the time too and all him
and all his friends run back out and
beat the dog [ __ ] out of me and uh like
really jumped me bad. And I can hear my
friends attacking them while they're
jumping me. And I remember just being
curled up in a ball just like waiting to
get knocked out and it never happened.
And I was when I And also I could tell
that the dude who I knocked his teeth
out was one of the guys beating the [ __ ]
out of me because he had my sweater was
just soaked in blood that was clearly
like pouring out of his mouth. And then
the girl cuz I went to New York the next
day. I had a flight to catch and I
remember the girl just telling me that
she saw him a couple days later with
jawwires shut and uh yeah that was near
the end.
What was the fight over? I could never
imagine getting getting like that angry.
Nothing like like he said something to
me in the bar like he he overheard me.
He was drunk and he overheard me saying
something about I was talking about a
friend of mine who owned a bar
and I was just saying I'm like yeah my
my buddy owns this bar and yeah and the
guy walked by me and he goes nice name
drop or something like that. So that was
enough at that time in my life to chase
him down and attack him.
Oh my god.
Wait. So So he said nice name drop and
then you went up to him after that and
just
Yeah. Just like sped over there like 10
seconds later I'm like in this heated
confrontation with him. Yeah.
Oh, so you caught you confronted him
first and then when he
he put his hand on my shoulder and that
was when I was just like, "Okay." And I
remember I had a beer mug in my other
hand like sort of like this and I
remember that after I punched him in the
teeth I just looked at his friend and
just went
boom and just broke it on his head and I
had all these holes in my hand from the
from the the mug.
I don't know what I was thinking.
Did you get in trouble for never been
arrested as an adult? Well, one time and
I got I got away with it easily.
Okay. What? I got a lot of questions
now. What'd you get arrested for as an
adult?
I was on a BMX road trip and uh there
were two girls who lived in Manhattan
that agreed to let me and like eight
dudes stay at their house. They had a
really nice apartment uh middle of
Midtown Manhattan, great area, super
nice area. And uh one of my little
homies who's like 19 or something, he's
kicking it with one of these girls and
they're getting drunk together. And
apparently like at some point they think
it's funny. They start throwing Corona
bottles up the window. We're like 30
floors up. And I'm They had a two-story
apartment, which is very rare in
Manhattan. That basically says a lot
about how rich these kids or these girls
parents were. And um and it was like
their first week of college. Like they
hadn't even started classes yet. And I'm
downstairs with her friend [ __ ]
making out with her or something. And I
start seeing lights flash outside. So I
I I look down and I see like a couple of
cops down there. I think, you know,
whatever. I start seeing more lights. I
go and look again. There's way more
cops. One of those beer bottles hit a
cab.
Oh no.
And so the cops come, the cops start
pointing the lights. They figure out
which apartment it is. They storm up in
there. The girls the girls uh roommate
lets the cops in. Um all my guys are
asking me, "What do we do?" And I tried
to do the right thing. I said, "Don't
snitch on the girls cuz if you snitch on
them, then we're not going to be able to
stay here. And if you don't snitch on
them, there's no way they're arresting
12 people in this apartment, right?"
which seemed like a safe assumption was
not accurate because they arrested all
of us.
Yeah. We did like 24 hours in the local
jail.
What do you get arrested for? I mean,
why would they do that? Because they
could vandalism or something. They
couldn't prove it to you.
They couldn't prove anything. And that's
what I was telling him. I'm like, how
are they ever going to prove who threw
the bottle,
right?
You know, they're not going to be able
to.
It was more just to
But they were mad. So, they they
arrested us anyway and made us sit
around for 24 hours. And then I remember
one of my friends hired like a $10,000
lawyer to represent them. But all of us,
like everybody else, we just use public
defender because it was so clear to me
that we're gonna be able to beat this.
Like nothing. That's the only time I
ever got arrested as an adult. Yeah.
Wow. And I remember there was a clip
that went super viral of you doing your
podcast and someone showed up with a
weapon.
Yep.
Can you walk us through what that was
like for you?
So that thing we do where we play
people's music.
Yeah.
Um we were doing that one night, you
know, just hanging out. Everybody's
smoking, chilling. There's probably like
five or six dudes there in the back of
the bike shop. And we ordered some
Postmates. The Postmates comes. My guy
goes outside and he grabs it. And as
he's opening the door, this dude sneaks
in who was kind of hiding in the in the
corner back there and he runs towards me
with this gun and starts pointing my
head and like you see in the clip that
I'm kind of like covering up and I I go
he like I made this like weird noise
like I don't know this like nervous
reaction or what
but the thing you can't see on camera
that was kind of trippy is that my guy
is got his gun out pointed at the dude's
head. So, by the time I see this dude
running at me, I'm also thinking like,
"Oh my god, this dude's about to get
murdered right in front of me right
now." And somehow the guy did not pull
the trigger, which is his own personal
situation, but then I don't know, we
beat the [ __ ] out of the guy and then he
he the gun ended up being fake. We
called the cops. The cops like didn't
even want to come. They like didn't I'm
like, "What am I supposed to do? I'm
supposed to drag this unconscious person
into the alley and leave him there?" And
the cops were almost saying yes. And I'm
like, "No, you need to come here.
There's a weapon. There's a It ended up
being fake, but whatever. And uh I
actually ended up going to court about
it, but then I got dismissed before I
even was able to say anything.
Why did the cops not want to come?
I guess just because Melrose is a
[ __ ] free-for-all. And keep in mind,
this is way like crime is so much worse
in Hollywood and particularly on
Melrose. And they just didn't seem to
think that it sounded like something
that they should care about. And then
even when they came, they clearly didn't
know anything about me or what was going
on in this operation here, which is
fine, but to me, if you're a cop in this
area where there's already like a bunch
of incidents that had happened at the
store, it was like this just proves to
me that you guys are really inept and
really clueless that you don't know
anything about what's going on here. But
I don't know what happened to the dude
or anything.
Why Why did he break in? Was it to rob
you guys or was he angry or just
mentally? I think he was [ __ ] up on
drugs. He had DM'd me like a couple
dozen times and I'd never even seen it
or opened it.
So, I guess he wanted some attention. I
don't know.
What did that feel like to have a gun
pointed at you? At least that you
thought was real.
I mean, it's like you spent a lot of
your time thinking like, oh, like I'm
not famous like that, you know? Like, I
don't need security. Like, I don't need
to have people around me with guns and
[ __ ] like that. Like, but then that was
just kind of this wakeup call of like,
oh, maybe it is real. like maybe I
actually am like notable enough that I
need to move around a certain way at
least when I'm in this environment. When
I think about that now, I mean the fact
that the fact that we were that easily
run up on aable is just insane. Like
what like I just take my security so
much more serious. I say that I'm out in
Vegas right now with no security and
nobody with me and I'm just cuz I was
like thinking about I'm like am I really
going to have security out here and I'm
going to be sitting at the poker table
for like eight hours a day and what is
the security going to do? I don't know.
But in LA, like at our office now, we
have guys like take care of us and
everything.
I mean, it would make sense at an office
where people could figure out where you
are and show up there. But would you do
you do you have security when you go
around LA?
I wouldn't say I have security, but I'm
usually with a a large gentleman who's
looking after me. So,
have you ever had an incident or No,
I mean, there was that.
Yeah.
Um Oh, yeah. One time I was uh sitting
in a a nail salon next to my store and
this is like 2017. I didn't know, it
wasn't clear to me how big I was yet or
whatever. And uh this is just something
I would never do now. And I just went in
this nail salon and I was getting a
manicure and then uh some guys ran up in
there and one of them just punches me in
the face from the side and I like I
think he hit me one more time as I went
down
and I just like look up and I see them
running away and I'm just like what the
you know I couldn't believe it and then
I ended up figuring out like a year
later that this rapper who I had talked
a pretty bad about had sent these guys
to pay me a visit. So yeah, that that
was another important learning moment of
nobody's going to catch me lacking ever
again.
Wow.
Yeah. Parts of LA have really degraded
and gone downhill. I mean, I know that
Melrose area I've seen because I I grew
up in Los Angeles and I've just seen the
decay over the last well, especially the
last like three years. It's gotten
really bad. Do you know if they've
cleaned it up now or they're making an
effort to
help with that situation? It just seems
like it's just crime has been getting
worse and I've been hearing more and
more and more reports now. It's it's
become a a common
in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, believe
it or not. Um, what people will do is
they'll stock really nice cars
and then the strip club because you have
cash on you, stuff like that.
But even just like someone's leaving
from work, they park their car in a lot
or they go out to dinner and then what
what will happen is that there'll be a
car that'll follow them back home. And
usually a lot of the these wealthier
houses will have gates or whatever or
the garage door. The garage girl open up
and they just run in behind
where they see them open the door and as
soon as they open the door they run up.
But you know the crazy part too is that
everybody has the cameras out in front
of their house and stuff now. So there's
always like a a video element of it
because I when I think about it though
like like it's just so normal for us now
that we're always sharing videos of
crimes that are taking places at
people's houses or stores or whatever in
LA. And uh part of me wonders like if
it's just well I I know that the crime
rate is up in general, but part of me
wonders if there's just more video
evidence because nobody would really
care if there wasn't,
you know, but the I don't know.
I don't think so. I've seen because
these were all the areas that I worked
for like 12 years and now I'm seeing
it's just non-stop of like people
getting their watches ripped off of
them. if they're just like sitting down,
someone will come up and just, you know,
point a knife and just like take off the
watch. There's another guy a video on
Beverly uh Beverly Drive in Beverly
Hills. The guy's in his Ferrari and
someone comes up, yanks him out of the
car at a red light and takes his watch.
Yeah.
I mean, it's cra I've never seen it that
bad before.
There's a girl I know who uh is a
rapper. She wears a bunch of jewelry and
she was with security the other day and
dudes ran up on her and took all her
jewelry and stuff and um there was some
debate about maybe the security was in
on it or something like that. But
I mean yeah that like sometimes I have
people who are like why don't you wear
diamonds? Why don't you have like a big
chain? I'm like yeah I don't want to
bring that kind of energy around me at
all. That feels like such a liability
like to just be walking around with that
much money on you. Like I just don't
find that attractive in general.
Yeah. Have you ever wanted to leave
California?
I don't think I could because I just
kind of need to be where the people are
at. So, it's been interesting seeing
like Miami and Austin become so much
more relevant
or even Vegas, I guess, to an extent.
Memphis.
Memphis. Yeah. I I don't really like to
travel to do my podcast because I feel
like I'm kind of
I like to like let people come to me. I
kind I don't know. There's never like
one piece of content that I want so bad
that I'm willing to go travel for a few
days to get it done usually. Um, but
yeah, leaving I don't know. I don't
think I could do it. And plus like my
girls like her family is like such a big
deal with her. Uh, cuz she's Armenian.
It's like, oh yeah,
they're just they're so tied in. And for
her to leave, I mean, it would be like
such a betrayal of everything that they
believe in. I don't think I could leave.
Yeah.
But spending 5 million bucks for a new
set, that's a that's a lot of money.
Porn money.
That's a lot. Let's let's talk about
let's talk about your different business
structures and verticals that you have
going on because I know also you guys do
Only Fans.
Yeah.
Can you talk about like percentage-wise
where the money comes from from your
different revenue streams?
Well, the nice thing is that with no
jumper, we bring in a a pretty
significant amount of money, but also,
you know, I got all these editors, I got
filmers, I got all these different hosts
who make uh content on the platform and
everything. So, the money gets divided
up decently. You know, we still make
pretty good money. But then, uh, with
Plug Talk, which is my Only Fans
podcast, we have one employee.
Realistically, we probably don't even
need one employee. We could do it all
ourselves if we wanted. I'm trying to
hire more people just because it's
growing pretty rapidly. But uh yeah, at
one point um maybe uh I'm thinking 2019
or like right before the pandemic um
there's this guy Vitali YouTuber
of course
and he had a site called Vitali
Uncensored. Yep.
And the the team behind that they were
reaching out to me because they wanted
me to do my own version of it and uh his
thing was kind of like pranks but then
there would be some boobs exposed at a
certain point or something like that. I
never seen it. It sound I mean no
offense tell
I heard he was making 500,000 a month
from that site.
I would be very skeptical of that.
Exactly.
That's what he said on that's what he
said on impulsive.
Yeah, I would be very skeptical of that
having talked to the people involved and
everything like that. But who knows?
Maybe he had a $500,000 month. I don't
know. I'm telling you that that's not
out of the question for us at all.
That's kind of regular for us at this
point. But um they they wanted us to do
something that was, you know, a podcast
where the girls took their boobs out at
some point. Me and my girl just kept
talking about it and I was like, A, I
don't think we need this company and B,
I think we need to [ __ ] the girls after
we interview them because otherwise it's
just fake. Like otherwise, somebody else
is going to do that. And it's like, why
wouldn't we just take it to the logical
extreme? You know, we know all these
porn star girls. We know that they would
do this kind of content. Who else is
poised? Like I do interviews. You're a
famous porn star. like my girl only
works with me but you know or and other
girls but you know I was just like we
could just do this and we uh we had a
lot of delays because she got pregnant
as we were kind of gearing up to do this
but yeah we drop an episode a week and
for me I I think of it as like right now
it's just this weekly podcast that you
get to see the full version on only fans
but I have so many ideas for just like
holes in the adult marketplace that I
think we could fill in terms of
additional content and I just really am
excited to kind of turn it into this
like vibrant porn porn media company
because I feel like porn is so much more
mainstream now and there's so much
growth to be had in it but a lot of
people in the industry are maybe not
that forward thinking you know because
they just I know so many people who just
just rake in money just making content
that realistically doesn't require any
sort of thought or anything like that
you know people just pay for porn um
pretty consistently and uh yeah that's
that's kind of become a thing and we do
a lot of variety now too where sometimes
The other day we interviewed a couple
together that does porn together and
then they had sex with each other after
and that was a really interesting
interview to find out the dynamic of
their relationship. And you know
sometimes we'll do uh interviews with
girls where uh we'll have a guy come in
and like we had we interviewed a girl
the other day who lost her uh peach
emoji virginity on the podcast with a
guy afterwards which was pretty cool.
And um
imagine doing this Jack
like Jack I got this new idea for the
podcast.
A lot of people can't even fathom it.
And to me it is so second nature. It's
so easy like in comparison to a day
where I'm just talking on camera.
Those days feel incredibly easy. Like
I'm just so super laidback and relaxed
the whole time cuz it's so
it's like from a from a monetary
perspective it's genius.
Like I'm sure that you guys are raking
it in.
So I'm confused. So, you're interviewing
somebody at the table and then like
halfway through they decide to
Well, it's kind of
or or they talk it through or
we do the interview cuz it's like a mic
situation where we're wearing the
clip-on mics for the interview and then
at a certain because we don't want to
have to have like a desk with mics
because then you can't see the girl or
whatever and then at a certain point we
just sort of break for a couple minutes
so that we could switch to the boom mic
and then we get into it. Yeah. Although
I would really like to make it smooth
enough that we could just transition
right from the conversation into the
sex, but the mic situation like I'm just
I'm not going to use a boom mic for the
podcast. It's going to sound like [ __ ]
and I refuse like Yeah. And then we
can't wear lapel mics or sex.
You're going to sound so stupid, but
like uh when when they're doing their
their show, you know, do you ask them
questions? Do you continue the interview
or
No. No. Yeah.
Although sometimes
it is more talkative than you'd think.
Like sometimes there is a a decent
amount of conversation flowing
afterwards. Yeah.
How much does that make?
Many many many hundreds of thousands a
month, I guess, is simple way to say it.
And my girl obviously is 50/50 with me
on it, but we both are
very happy with it. Yeah.
And we manage girls under that umbrella.
You know,
I'm sure you drive a lot of traffic too
from No Jumper to the Only Fans.
Yeah. But also, it's kind of its own
entity. Like, if you if you subscribe to
No Jumper on YouTube, you would never
know unless you just heard me mention it
in a random podcast. We have one clip
per week. Like, we'll take like a
10-minute clip and on the weekend, we'll
drop it from the plug talk thing just to
give it some extra exposure. But yeah,
it's not really I like it because over
the years we've always just had porn
stars on and then the fans like who who
just want to see rap interviews are
complaining and acting like we're sort
of like, you know, invalidating the
whole purpose of the channel by
interviewing porn stars as well. And for
me, it was kind of nice to be able to
say, "Okay, let's
segment this up." We still have some
porn stars on uh No Jumper from time to
time, but usually only like really big
names.
Wow. So, how many people do you have
employed? Like what's the how's the
business structured?
Geez, I don't know. Maybe like 10
in-house and then we have a bunch of
freelance people and a bunch of people
that we kind of pay to do stuff. I don't
know. It would be hard to say. Could be
like 15.
Okay. Can we talk numbers at all in
terms of like in are you comfortable
sharing any of that?
Sure. I don't care.
What is what does the whole brand make
in in a month or in a year?
I mean, no jumper might bring in a
million a month.
Wow.
And then plug talk.
Crap.
Not quite as much, but
in the ballpark arena of that.
Wow. Where's it? How we do that?
Yeah. You got to consult us on the Is it
sponsorship revenue?
Not really. That That's how we would get
to 2 million a month is if we had a
[ __ ] bar stool sports type ad sales
team really blanketing our [ __ ]
in ads. No, I mean a big part of it's
Patreon, you know. We have a Patreon
that does six figures a month. We
Facebook has been insane. We're making a
couple hundred grand a month on
Facebook. YouTube does good. Our clips
channel all of a sudden
that's just posting the podcast on
Facebook. A full podcast.
We have a team that'll take the
interviews and cut them into these like
four-minute clips and they're super good
at making it pop off. Like we It feels
like everything they post on Facebook
will do a million views.
So that team should use their services
for other podcasts. They do. I could You
want to get hooked up?
So I Yeah, I tried I tried doing that
for my videos and it did horribly. And I
realized that Facebook's audience is so
vast that my segment for like young 20s,
30omes for personal finance is not there
on Facebook. They're not there on
Facebook. They're on Instagram, YouTube.
I bet there's a strategy that could get
your [ __ ] in front of them. I think
Facebook wants you to pay money to reach
your audience or to reach a I don't
know. I know a lot of people doing
really good business on there and it's
totally lost on me how they do it
because I always posted stuff on
Facebook and would do okay. I mean my my
goal cuz we have a bunch of different
Facebook pages in the works,
my personal uh branded Facebook page
like we're converting from a personal
account to like a page or however that
works. We're doing a Plug Talk account
etc. Um trying to do see how we can do
with the BMX side of things on there.
But I mean, my guy who I do the Facebook
thing with me, he told me he's like, "I
think you can make a million a month
from just Facebook."
Gosh, we got to do that, Jack.
Yeah, I'm actually very down to talk
about that.
What do you offer on Patreon?
So, we do we do one episode per week
where we have a different uh only fans
girl or whatever. And it's not plugged
because there's no sex,
but they get naked or they do crazy
stuff, whatever. So, it's kind of like
one uncensored episode per month. And
then um we we release the audio from
some of the podcasts early or like um no
the actual interviews on there early
sometimes, but the majority of it is
just the fact that we have naked girls
on there, which I know you're thinking.
It sounds very redundant with plug talk
except that they're not having sex, but
it turns out they don't care. I guess
the audio version, you know, I never had
put really an emphasis on the on the
audio version, but there's this company,
Megaphone, that we signed with, that's a
Spotify company or whatever, and they
insert
ads into your podcast, so it's not like
the ones you're reading. Like you can
you can add the ad breaks or whatever,
and that that's been really big for us.
It's just a combination of a bunch of
things. But the Facebook thing was
really what put us over the top because
it's almost like more money than we make
on YouTube where I've been
grinding away day in day out for like
six, seven, eight years.
Wow.
Facebook and Snapchat. Snapchat's pretty
good to us. Um
we can try that. Our Tik Tok's been
doing really well.
Yeah, the ice coffee hour does really
well on short form. Graham's main
channel stuff doesn't surprisingly it
doesn't do quite as well, but the Tik
Tok stuff it's like you clip it up and
whoever guest you have on their audience
also like the Tik Tok al the Tik Tok
algorithm will just like find them
immediately. So those do extremely well.
Yeah.
Yeah. And we've spent a good amount of
money getting our Tik Tok up to where
it's at now. I think we have like 1.6
million or whatever, but we have not
monetized it in any real way, shape, or
form.
Yeah. It's not good for monetization.
It's just brand awareness.
Yeah.
Yeah. What do you do with all the money?
Nothing. save it, invest it.
Where do you invest it?
Uh, real estate, stocks, crypto. I'm not
I don't personally spend a ton of time
on thinking about it. I just have a team
or a business manager who helps me
do the right stuff with it. I'm very
confident in him. So, yeah.
What sort of real estate do you own?
Uh, the house I live in now, it's like a
couple million on that. Uh, and then we
bought this big warehouse and I'm just
planning on probably doing more of that.
Just I just want to own more stocks,
more crypto, more real estate in
general, you know.
Talk crypto. When you start buying
crypto,
not I don't have like a a cool crypto
story. I just have like a couple hundred
grand in it. It's just been sort of
rocking there. Not gaining or losing
much value the whole time I've had it in
there.
All right. Is it What is it? Bitcoin,
Ethereum, I get both. Yeah.
Got it.
Yeah. I kind of missed out on it, man. I
I I look at all the rappers who were
able to pull off these crazy crypto
promotion things.
Oh gosh.
And on one hand, I'm like, geez, I'm so
glad that I like kept my integrity
intact and didn't do those. But then at
the same time, I know a lot of people
who did it and really didn't experience
that much backlash because it was early
enough.
And you know, Coffeezilla can only
target so many people. You know, you
have not to say you'll end up with
Coffeezilla.
Yeah. Like my girl, my girl turned down
like half a million for an NFT thing uh
6 months ago or however many months ago
and I remember telling her I'm like it's
not worth it.
They're going to make videos about you.
You don't want to be a [ __ ]
advertisement for this [ __ ] And she,
you know, she okay I'll trust you. And
the exact deal that she did is the thing
that Lana or that she didn't do is the
thing that Lana Rhodess did. Oh yeah.
That she's getting because they're
they're friends. And like seeing Lana
Rhodess get turned into this [ __ ]
billboard of like what a NFT scam is
has been pretty crazy. But I mean like
Soulja Boy was selling NFTs of all of
his old tweets in the beginning and
people were buying them and stuff. Like
Soulja Boy probably made so many
millions of dollars doing these stupid
things that nobody even remembers
because it's easier to go after Jake
Paul or Logan Paul or Steve will do it
or whoever, you know, like Coffeezilla
or whoever is going to
target the the big obvious superstar
dudes, you know, even if my girl had
done that.
Lana Rose is like a lot more famous than
my girl, I guess. So, realistically, she
might have still just been the one to
take the [ __ ] for it.
Correct.
But who knows?
Steve will do it. Someone I would love
to meet, too. Have you met him?
Good guy. We did video we interview like
before they were big. I remember them uh
they their idea was to dress up as
Soundcloud rappers and come to an event
at my store and basically troll the fans
and just say crazy stuff to them and get
them to fall for it.
But this was like one of the the times
where they realized that even if they're
wearing disguises that they were too
famous and they weren't going to be able
to pull this off anymore. So, uh
that was kind of crazy to see them have
that realization. Yeah.
Yeah. I have so much respect for Neelk
and everything they have done. It's
incredible. I love listening to the
interviews with um with Kyle
just any podcast. He did he did one with
a Canadian channel and they were they
were really small. They had like I watch
yeah 10,000 subscribers but they were
from their hometown and like we just
want to support and it was one of the
coolest interviews I've listened to just
to get into the mind of Kyle like how he
sees everything as a business and beyond
all the partying and the drinking like
he's so smart and strategic with
everything he does. I really respect
that.
And they really doubled down on like
just creating a brand and not worrying
about that short-term YouTube money. You
know, their videos are geared to be as
entertaining as possible. It's they're
like Mr. Beast in that way, too, where
like I'm just going to make the best
stuff. I'm going to build the coolest
brand and
I'll I'll do that. Whereas like so many
of the earlier generation of YouTubers
were just I'm going to make a video per
day because I'm making $10,000 a video
and I'm going to grind this [ __ ] until I
have a couple million and then I'm
probably going to stop because I'm, you
know, it's so taxing doing this day
after day. And to see Neelk have such a
bigger vision has been pretty crazy. And
I remember on that interview, I think I
wanted to go an hour and I think we only
went like 40 minutes or something like
that. They they didn't strike me at that
time as being people who were gonna do a
really great podcast, but Kyle, he kills
it. He's been doing great.
Yeah, I agree. It's It's been cool to
see their evolution, too, because I
remember them going just from quick
pranks to then the storyline behind the
pranks and they were I believe they were
one of the first people to like here's
leading up to the prank and we're going
to be going to this party and sleeping
on someone's couch and okay, now we're
going to do the prank and here's it
afterwards and we're going to run away
and we're going to talk and they created
like this whole 20inut story line.
around a two-minute prank. And then
briefly they tried doing like scripted
content. And it was interesting to see
how how quick they pivoted because
everyone in the comments like this ain't
it. Sorry. I can see you're trying. Like
I just hate this content. Go back to
this. But you could tell they're
listening in every single video and
they're like, "All right, they didn't
like this. Let's tweak it a little bit."
Definitely.
And they developed that so well.
And they were just smart about aligning
themselves with people who could do
things that were too big for them to
take on themselves. was like with the
happy dad thing. The fact that they just
went and linked up with a really serious
team who could get something like that
done and that's I'm just amazed by that.
It's really impressive.
I'm curious if they got offers for
buyouts on that. I I I like 100% someone
should have made an offer or or I bet
they did and they probably turned it
down to buy that.
Yeah, cuz I mean the next couple years
of growth Yeah.
they got that for sure. I feel like at
some point maybe it gets so big that
they aren't able to really like run it
themselves. But it feels like the people
they partnered with are experienced
enough that you know if they do sell
it's going to be to [ __ ] Budweiser
some huge company you know.
Do you have any other advice for us is
uh trying to continue to grow the
podcast. We've we've uh like what
difficulties have we had Jack? I would
say our big one is um making sure that
we have exciting guests on that we ask
the right questions. We we try to play
to the strengths of the algorithm.
sometimes. And uh but our thing is like
how do we keep improving and oneupping
and
yeah, I mean one of the things that I
think about a lot and I was thinking
about this when I was listening to you
talk about what your days are like of
like really being focused in on your
video for the day and listening to you
talk about how much time you put into
thinking of the titles and the
thumbnails and stuff. I love that. But
at a certain point, it started to really
click with me that like I can only do so
much on camera and I I just needed to
build a team and then I needed to start
like embracing some of the people I was
meeting to make content for me, you
know, and I feel like I could I don't
know if that's necessarily a logical
process for you. But I think that like
getting people under your umbrella and
even with plug talk like I have this big
idea that we're working on right now
where we're going to have a separate
podcast that people can pay extra for
where we have these two girls that we
manage and they're going to interview
male porn stars and then [ __ ] them on
camera afterwards. And I mean I'm just
like this is amazing because if I can
make this happen then that could be
content that we're making on a day where
I'm off doing no jumper content and I'm
not even there. And I mean that's kind
of how I see it now is like a lot of
times I just in my schedule I'll be like
Wednesday I'm not doing anything. I'm
working with my team and I'm reviewing
people who have sent in their
information that want to do stuff on
camera because if I can find even one
person that's good on camera they might
make me you know a 100 hours worth of
content this year and uh that's just
really valuable and you know if I if I
really focus on just doing as much as
possible. I think I have have seen the
limits of that for myself because I've
I've had days where I did five podcasts
where I was on camera for like 10 hours
straight and I've had days I've had
weeks where I did you know 10 12
podcasts in a week and that's not the
only and some of them are plug talk
episodes where I'm also having sex and
I've like I've really burnt myself out
as much as I possibly could to the point
where uh you know I've I've taking a one
week off vacation was like the hardest
thing I could have possibly done at that
time and I don't really feel that way
anymore. I feel very much more like
content with being a little bit more
moderate with my behavior. And I think
having a kid really helped me a lot with
that because it's just something that I
needed to slow down and I needed to be
able to like enjoy the the simple things
in life a little bit more. And my kid
has kind of forced me to do that because
I just realized within the first couple
months of like if I keep working every
weekend, I'm just never really going to
see my kid grow up. And so I've kind of
found like a better pace at this How do
you balance the two?
I pretty much just work 10 hours a day
or 12 hours a day Monday through Friday
and try to get that time in in the
morning and then Saturday and Sunday I
usually just have cleared and sometimes
I'll have to go do something during that
time. But I mean it's just really forced
me to like look at what I'm doing with
my time and just make these decisions of
I have so many friends that still go to
the club and they swear up and down that
the club is just such a valuable
networking experience that you just have
to do it if you want to stay relevant in
this game. And I'm just like, I can't
justify staying out till 3:00 in the
morning doing anything, never mind uh
just hanging out, you know? It's not fun
to me. Like, I want to be advancing in
my life, etc. And so, yeah, I've just
kind of like found how to cut as much
stuff out of my life as possible to be
able to focus on things that seem like
they matter. Um, yeah. And I mean, but
like, you know, certain things of are
the casualties of that. Like on my
personal YouTube channel, I've barely
posted for the last year or two. And
that's one thing I really want to do is
just find somebody who can help me
script videos and like really help me
just make that more consistent so that I
can be voicing the videos and maybe not
necessarily being the one writing them
because I love writing. I love to sit
and
Yeah. What are the videos you do?
I did a bunch of them where, you know, I
was like reacting to people's only fans
for some reason. Well, that that was
like the entry clickbait, but it's
really just like kind of like a venue
for me to talk about whatever. And I
remember I did like a half hour video
about this porn star Brian Pumper who
just had like the most ridiculous life
story ever and I felt like it wasn't
properly documented online. So I just I
might have spent a month researching
this guy just so that I can I could just
write this ridiculous video about him
and ended up getting like a million
views. And I was very happy that I could
have that many people paying attention
to a male porn star's life story. Had to
slip Brian Pumper in there. My fans are
going to be like he mentioned him. He
had to do it.
Brian Pumper.
What a name.
Not his real name.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I figured. Wow.
So, you're honest and you you've watched
the main my main channel. I mean, your
honest advice is to find someone to
script those videos that I'm doing
because it's so intricate. I mean, if
you watch it, you see that
I wouldn't say that like you should do
that because obviously your channel is
just your baby and it just
so clearly it's coming from your mind.
But I do think that the most important
thing that I've had to figure out and
I've been kind of slow to figure it out
is that you just got to figure out how
to delegate responsibility and you got
to find people who can do the do certain
things for you that you wouldn't that
you're doing yourself. You just have to
be able to clear up more and more time.
I was just recently doing a lot of
research into hiring an executive
assistant. I I saw somebody on some
podcast recommend that and I started
really researching that and and I just
feel like that would be the key to me
making me way more productive. Like I
still write all of our titles and review
the timestamps and come up with the
clips and everything like that. I feel
like that's something where if I hired
somebody who could do all that stuff for
me on every episode that that would be
uh really helpful in terms of just
clearing up more time that I could be on
camera more doing more stuff that I'm
kind of uniquely available to do. Yeah,
it's interesting. For me, it's uh it's
emails that take up my time. But some of
those emails, it's like, well, I gotta
respond to those emails just because
it's
why
just because like someone else would be
asking me, what do I say to this? And I
would just dictate the message anyway.
But if you have an assistant that you
really trust to be able to like answer a
lot of your emails for you and forward
them to the right places and really like
I feel like that's something that if I
were to clear that up in my life
then I would be able to put a lot more
time into creative things. But I mean
I'm really excited to get a store again
because I have this vision like we
always made content out of the store.
And like when I think about a store I
don't think of it as like you know we
sell stuff and we can make money selling
stuff but that's never going to be the
real backbone of it. You know, I want to
make content out of there and I really
want to get a store and do a live stream
out the back of the store and then be
able to interact with the customers in
the front of the store, like having a
camera out where I can talk to them and
create content off of like we never
really made that much content with all
these strange people that were coming to
the store aside from maybe getting a
clip here or there. And I just feel like
there's I don't know just the content
machine
I feel like could be operating a little
bit more effectively. And yeah, we were
going to get this one store and then
just the landlord was such a nightmare
to deal with that. I think we just
pulled back and just said, "Hey, we're
going to find something else cuz it's
just not going to work long term."
Where do you want to be 10 years from
now? Where do you see yourself?
I really don't know. It's just it would
be nice to think that I would have
enough money that I wouldn't really have
to be that concerned with hustling, but
then like the thing that is the most
profitable for me to do most days is
also pretty much my favorite thing to
do. Like days where I go in and I do
three interviews in a day are, you know,
I feel so incredibly content. And I feel
like when I look at how I went in this
direction, it was really because I
wanted to do something that I could do
over and over and over and never get
sick of. And I have a lot of friends who
run brands where maybe they have a logo
and the the basis of their entire life
is putting that logo on different things
and coming up with different logos and
different products and coming up with
cool uh you know ways to market it and
promote it and stuff like that. And I
really really respect that. But I don't
know that that would have kept me
entertained in the long run. Like I just
need to be talking to somebody new every
day. And uh or not every day, but just
all the time. The more people that I can
get to know on camera. And I feel like
it makes me a better person. Like I feel
like I I'm sitting there in the chair
reminding myself to breathe deep and not
think about myself for a couple hours
and just really focus in on like how can
I humanize this person or what what's
the what's the best thing that I could
pull out of this person right now and
you know just trying to get as intense
and and personal with them as possible
is really just like I don't know
sometimes I wonder if there's anything
that's going to really give me that
sense of fulfillment.
Yeah. You mentioned a dollar amount
maybe that's like if I had this, you
know, I wouldn't. Could you throw out a
dollar amount that that kind of you had
in your mind or like like a goal or like
if I hit X amounts?
Well, there's a a lyric from the great
little baby where he says, "I ain't got
100 mil yet. I can't chill yet."
And I felt that.
So 100 mil.
Well, I just thought, you know, at 100
mil, maybe I could chill. But definitely
I can't chill before that. It's a good
goal. I like that.
Wow.
Well, that's a number I couldn't imagine
what the [ __ ] I would do with it. So, at
least that's, you know,
it would be a new world of problems,
perhaps.
But you said you don't spend your money
on much. Like, do you not have expensive
taste or anything?
Nothing. No.
Cars. What do you drive?
At least an i8 or something. Some BMW. I
don't I don't even know anything.
Well, the i8's with the doors that go
up.
Yeah, but no, the doors don't go up.
Oh, then
M I I don't know. Cuz my girl's dad got
mad at me because he said he said like,
"What kind of car you got?" I said,
"BW." He goes, "What kind?" I don't know
much about cars. I don't know anything
about sports. I have many many cultural
blind spots.
Sure.
Yeah.
Clothes.
Nothing. Fancy dinners?
We'll go out for nice dinners, maybe.
Still like relative to your income,
that's
500 bucks every couple weeks or
something, you know. Me and my girl also
very into exercise and um diet and
stuff, too. So that would probably keep
me from getting too into fine dining.
Wow,
that's incredible. You could always
spend money on a on a nicer house.
Yeah.
You know, that's always something for
me.
But the thing about it is is that
when we really like now that we've owned
a house
and it's three and a half million or
something, four million, it's like the
realization that the the house that we
want or that would actually be good for
us in the long run is probably more like
10. Yeah,
that's kind of like, oh [ __ ] that's a
lot of money and that's a big that's a
lot to bite off there. I also really
want to have a skate park and like a
warehouse
um ideally like near my current spot. I
would love to just have it buy a
warehouse and like buy around the
Calabasas area.
Yeah.
A little further inland though.
But if I got to drive 40 minutes north,
I don't know if that's going to suck the
fun out of it, but I would love to have
that Glendale too.
Glendale. Yeah, that's where my girls
from.
Yep.
Yeah.
Well, is there anything else? Any any
questions for us that you could think
of?
[ __ ] Let's go get some steak.
All right, that sounds delicious. Thank
you so much. This is actually
Shout out to my boy Landon for
Thank you, Landon.
I noticed his camera turned off at some
point, but
yeah, I heard the click, but we never
ended up using it. So, you know what? We
Yeah, it's it doesn't even work anyway.
Well, thank you guys.
We're really appreciative of this, man.
No doubt. Appreciate you guys.
Thank you. Really appreciate it. Did you
get your free stock down below in the
description when you sign up for public?
Certainly not. No.
With the code Graham? You didn't get it,
Jack?
I haven't even gotten it. No,
I'm going to make you do it right
afterwards. It's free money.
All right. Thank you.
All right. Thanks for subscribing. Thank
you so much. We'll link to your info
down below in the description. And until
next time.
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you, man. That's actually That was
great.