The Untold Story Of Ludwig | Inside The $10,000,000 Per Year Empire

Ledwig is a live streamer and a YouTuber with 3 and a half million subscribers. And he has done the impossible. From being fired from three different jobs, moving out to California with absolutely nothing, to now having the world record of most subscribers in a month on Twitch, beating out Ninja, making over $1.4 million a month. It's safe to say that Lewig is one of a kind. Well, in this video, we get an exclusive inside look into Lewig's business empire, where he will reveal how he did it and how much money he made along the way. So, if you're interested in content like this and want to see more like it, make sure to subscribe because we post a brand new episode every single Sunday. So, hit the button. It's totally free. And now, with that said, let's begin. Podcasts over two years so far has made $550,000. Uh, no. $266,000. And the podcast is with Graham and Jack. No, no, Jack and Graham. Jack and Graham. We agreed on Jack and Graham. We've always said Jack and Graham, haven't we? It's Graham and Jack. You I actually wanted Graham and Jack. You wanted Jack and Graham. It does sound better. The short than the long. It's got to be short and long. That's true. Well, anyway, welcome to the podcast. And we're in your set today, by the way. Grahamjer, like Graham cracker. We'll work on it. [laughter] We don't need to work on it. We planned on meeting at 11:30 and we kind of mentioned it, but Graham and I were like, "Oh, we should go to a coffee shop first. We could plan out some questions, get everything straight." And we decided some random coffee shop. We show up there and right after we get our coffees, Graham's talking to a fan that like recognized him. And I'm like, "Wait a second, there he And you just walk straight in the coffee shop. Apparently you go all the time. Yeah, that was just a wild coincidence. You guys picked a great coffee shop. Yeah, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. I mean, come on. You find a good coffee place. I typed in your area and I just typed in coffee and I saw the coffee places. Some of them didn't look good at all and there was a Starbucks. I like I'm not going to Starbucks, but I found a random place that looked so good with like really unique uh drink options and I tried it. It is so good. Now, this is like a $7 coffee, but this is the best coffee I think I've had. It was good. And you just dried in, man. The funny thing too is when you were there, there were probably 15 or so people in there. Two of them recognized you. Yeah. Is that like is that a common thing? Does that happen often to you? Yeah. What is that like? I get recognized a good bit. Uh I mean it's generally like everyone's pretty nice. The thing that they usually want is a picture, you know, that's like the like the end of the engagement. It's like initially it's like you seem familiar. Oh, I know who you are now. confirm by asking then greeting and then end it by asking for a picture so that you can say you have done this move on with your day and I think that's generally how every interaction goes. I always have the encounter where I'm just kind of like sitting somewhere and I'll look around and someone kind of like looks you make eye contact for a split second and then I'm like let me look back and they're always like this. Oh, they're like comparing things like that and then we lo contact. They're like like that always. But it's always they have to confirm on the phone to be like cuz they don't want to be wrong. The embarrassment of being wrong outweighs the pleasure of being right. But you [laughter] know what I do is I never look at them cuz like you can tell through your peripherals if they're looking at you. Oh yeah. I I make them do the work of confirming and coming up to me. I'll never do the look cuz that's like an invitation to come in and they need to have that bravery on their own. And you mentioned, I was watching a video when I was researching you before this, that you used to have a password where people would have to say this in order to prove to you that they're like true fans. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's something PewDiePie did. I had a silly one. It was like, you are gigached, super ripped, awesome, hot, dude. Something like that. And they had to tell me that. And only one guy ever gave me the password. And the problem is when people meet, I don't know if you experienced the same thing. When people meet me, uh, they're very nervous. unnecessarily nervous I would say but I think it's just very unexpected shock met with like oh I have not planned for this interaction and so they're always very nervous and so when this guy was telling me like my passcode he's like you're like super tall and hot and [laughter] and I was like I was like okay this is weird he tried he did the thing and and I was like did you just forget that you had told people this no I I remember I told people but in my head when they would tell me they would tell me in a way that was like we had known each other for years but obviously no plans to meet me because they don't know where I'm at. And so when it actually happens, it came out a lot weirder than [laughter] I thought it would. So I'm like, "All right, let's just cut that. Just come up to me. We'll grab the picture. It's all good." Yeah. You know what's kind of surprising? You're actually 6 feet tall. Yeah. You actually are. And here I'm not saying that I was initially kind of like, you know, questioning. People round up. I round up to six feet. A lot. Yeah. Not 65. [laughter] Yeah. A lot of people they say they're six feet, but they're like 5'9, 510. Right. But you when I saw you, you're actually as tall as I kind of thought you would be, which is Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a big thing for streamers especially cuz you have no idea how tall streamers are or how big streamers are cuz you always see him behind the camera and the only thing you have for reference is what's around them in that frame. And so every single streamer deals with a joke of being short. And I probably wrote that joke harder than most. So everybody thinks I'm short or comes in at least like thinking that maybe I'm not as tall as I say I am. But yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm tall as hell. I got a truck because my dream car. It's a mini truck. It's called like a K truck. It's a Subaru Sandbar 1997. It's imported from Japan. Oh my god, dude. Hey, he had it out front, Jack. I'm surprised you didn't see that. Yeah, you won't drive by this guy. Yeah, I noticed it. I was trying not to hit it with my suitcase. How much was that? It was 5500 and then it costs about another 1,800 to import. So 7,300 total. That's safe to drive. Like I'd imagine there's no Is there an airbag in that thing? Yeah, there's an airbag. Yeah. The things that make it a little more dangerous is that it's a right side car cuz it's an import from Japan. So, I'm driving on the right, which can be a little weird. And then it's also like uh like a left-handed, you know, manual transmission, which can be a bit weird. Left-handed manual. Yeah. But I but I drove it for the first time from Long Beach. Um and it felt fine. Like I you know, it doesn't go the quickest. It goes about 70. Uh, but like I felt decently safe on it. I I wasn't too worried. I mean, I'm sure if I hit something, this is not this is not a Tesla safety rating. Shit's a [ __ ] tank. Hits a wall. Bang. But, you know, if I don't do that, I should be fine. I've always Yeah, I I've been curious. Left-hand uh drive, how difficult is that to learn versus right? I'd even for me like I drive stick but I think you're left hand instantly cuz you don't you're not gear shifting especially in a car like this. I mean it's not like a sports car where you're like you know having to go first, second, third, fourth, fifth. Like it's pretty slow and steady uh and you just you just put it in the slot and you and you know when it's right. Like you do the same habits like do you wiggle a neutral? I'll wiggle the the gear shifter neutral just to make sure it's in there. Uh so it's the same vibe. Uh it's just the other hand. And what's your inspiration behind all these weird modes of transport that you have like the Vespa in this car like why don't you just get like a you know I feel like people in your situation would buy like a Lambo or buy something flashy I don't I can't see you in a Lambo I can see I can't necessarily I could see a Model S plaid I could see that I could see that. So while I thought about getting like a Tesla for a bit but I didn't get it because everybody has a Tesla and and I think I enjoy a sense of originality uh and I hate sports cars. Like I would never I would never blow money on a sports car. I would never blow money on any like fashion brands. I don't like spending money there. It makes me feel like a like I I once rented a Porsche 911. Like um Do you call it 911 or do you call it 911? 911. [laughter] Every anytime someone says Porsche 911, I just kind of cringe a little. 911 911. Okay. All right. Porsche 911. I got Porsche. [laughter] Porsche 911. Never forget. Uh, and it was lime green and I was driving it around like West Hollywood and I just felt like a piece of driving by a bunch of people who are homeless on the streets and I'm in a Porsche at a stop sign, you know? I just I I feel like it's too much of a flex. And then I also am way more stressed driving it because it, you know, I'm scared where I park it. Maybe someone nicks it. Maybe it gets broken into. Maybe it's so because it's so low, I just hit a curb or something and and now I just have a $7,300 car that I think looks dope that if it gets beat up, I don't really care. Yeah. But my plan for it is I think I'm going to put a ton of money into it and make it an EV. Whoa. Cuz I think that or you just want the originality. I think it'd be so sick because it I think the car looks dope and so I want to paint it to match my Vespa and then I want to make it an EV and then it would probably be way better to drive. Yeah, that was something I was not expecting. We ran into you at a coffee shop and you're like, "Oh, yeah. Just follow me there." And you're in a Vespa. Yeah. And a cool looking one, too. It's like some retro style something or other, right? Yeah. It's like a Chinese knockoff my girlfriend got me. But it's meant to look like the style of a classic '80s Vespa. Uh it's like a sick mint green color. I got it cuz I went to I went to Italy. Uh and I just I rented a a Vespa in Rome. I just like asked the concier. I was like, "Can you get me a Vespa?" They just hooked me up for like 3 days. No license, no nothing. and I just rode it around and it was so fun. And uh and I've always had a problem where I'm like a AI bot with a small AoE field and I will only engage with humans who I'm physically able to interact with in person. And I'm very bad at like messaging online. But the problem is I can only engage with those I can physically walk to or if I live with. And the Vespa's like unlocked my radius because now I'm way more happy to hop on the Vespa and drive 10 miles than I was getting into a car, which is weird because it's very similar, but the Vespa is just like easier to get in and I'm happier riding it and I feel like annoyed if I have to drive 10 miles. Safe driving the Vespa? Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty safe. I feel good. I don't know. I feel like I would worry about the safety of a Vespa. And I've I've wanted a Vespa for a strong six years, but I was never allowed to have one for my parents because it's dangerous. Yeah. So, what I did to circumvent that was I bought a bike and threw a motor on it. And of course, I mean, I totally destroyed that thing and it broke cuz I don't know what I'm doing, but it was probably a lot more dangerous than a Vespa, but I feel like I would just be worried about the safety. I don't know. I think it depends where you're at. Like, where where I'm at, it's it's not like downtown LA. And so, riding the Vesper around feels like pretty safe to me. Uh, and and I think you get used to it after a while. I mean, it certainly is more dangerous than a car, like just inherently, but you don't feel that because every day when you drive, you don't get injured. And so, after doing that a 100 times, you're like, "Oh, I am in a safe vehicle." So, I think I think your brain tricks you. But first off, we have to thank our sponsor, Hensen Shaving. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I am a hairy dude. And in order to look my age, I need to shave nearly every day, which is why I am so happy that Henson Shaving reached out to sponsor this video. Henson is a familyrun aerospace machine shop that has brought precision engineering to the razor business. Their razors have a precisely built handle that securely holds the blade, which is very important in shaving since the firmer the grip on the blade and the shorter the extension, the safer and better the shave. 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Thank you so much, Henen. And back to the podcast. So, what do you do for fun besides Vespas and cool cars? I ride my Vesper around. Outside of that, uh I I love watching sunset. I'm a big sunset fiend. I thought you were about to say watch Selling Sunset, the Netflix show. No, the real estate show. I I just literally go at sunset hour and I'll and I'll either walk and do a little hike or I'll just like stretch uh and I'll just watch it go down and then I I met a random Taiwanese dude and so sometimes we catch up there cuz he also likes watching sunsets and so we're buds. We hang out. You plan that out or is it just by chance you guys meet up? Literally just two ships in the night crossing and I don't have any way to contact him cuz he's like a 55year-old Taiwanese man. It's cool though. But if we do cross we chat for like an hour. not think about getting his number. If you chat for an hour, you would think this like, "How do I contact you again?" I think it's cooler this way. This is like how you have to do it back in the day. What if he's just socially awkward? Like he wants you to reach out but just doesn't know how to ask for more time with you. It feels like it's been it's been so long he hasn't asked me. He probably isn't interested. It's about once every two weeks. So, you know, maybe next time. Maybe we've hung out about four or five times. Maybe the next time I I'll slide the number in. What is it about watching the sunset? Is it just calming? Is it What about it? I think it's grounding. I think it's very easy to be in your own world, think about your own game, but it's really small. Every YouTube channel is small. Even Mr. Beast is small in the grand scheme of the world and how it's moving. And in a hundred years, if you look back, is Mr. Beast someone that people talk about regularly? Probably not. And I think it's grounding to look at the giant sun that we spin around and it makes me feel good. Why does it make you feel better? For me, I feel like that would make me feel insignificant and that everything I'm doing doesn't doesn't matter. Nothing I do matters. Why am I doing anything? I think it helps humble you and it helps make the things you do less about the ego and about being the biggest and the best. But it still matters that you help the lives of those around you cuz that changes like all of society for years. And I think that's the most important thing you can do is uplift the people around you. And so I think I think that's still an important thing. It makes me feel good and I have less of ego importance put into I have hit three and a half million subscribers. Wow. Uh cuz that doesn't matter. Let's talk a little bit more. I know you've talked about this a lot, but feel like we kind of have to visit it since this is a finance and businessoriented podcast, the YouTube acquisition type thing, right? What was that process like to get acquired by YouTube from Twitch? I know that you kind of had a relationship with Twitch since you I mean, you've been on there for an extremely long time. Was that hard to disband from Twitch to go to YouTube? And what was your reasoning to switch from Twitch to YouTube? Yeah, I think the dream for every creator is to eventually be a big enough creator that you can leverage that and then fish a deal from all the major players, which now is Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch, and then try to get the best one for your livelihood. Uh, and for me, I was like, "Okay, I've reached a status as a big enough creator that I can try to get one of these deals after my original partner contract ended. Uh, so let's do it." And the goal was to just get a deal from Facebook and YouTube so I could leverage it for a better Twitch deal. That was what I was thinking going in cuz I was like, I'm a Twitch streamer through and through. I'm not leaving Twitch. Why would I do that? Uh and and so we started uh and you know, we had like a like a verbal Facebook offer and and a YouTube offer, but when I was actually in the negotiations, I started to shift how I was thinking about it. Um because the the Twitch people were just a lot they weren't like the people who I specifically talked to were very nice, but they were a lot less um caring about like what I was trying to do and and the goals I had and trying to accomplish that. And it was much more I am a gear in the system that makes Twitch run. They need me to stream this amount of hours which gives them this much money and they give me this much of a cut of that amount of money and then okay, good job. Tap me on the ass. Get the next person in line. And so you're very replaceable on Twitch, which I don't think they're wrong to think that because throughout the whole Mixer thing, turns out that people are very replaceable. Twitch is still has the biggest market share, you know, but when you get when you when you feel like that, it feels a lot worse. And YouTube, I mean, they make you feel like you're you're having drinks with your buds at the table. Uh, and so talking with them more and more, I started to feel better about it. But I was still very much leaning Twitch up until the very end. I don't know if uh you know like the whole coin flip story. I like that story a lot. Yeah. Can you explain this? Yeah. So, like I I was even though I had a much better deal from YouTube. It was it was not like double the amount of money, but it was pretty close. Like it was it was pretty close to double the amount of money Twitch offered, I was still leaning towards Twitch. Uh and I went into a call with the YouTube guys and you know, we had shared a lot of time. We'd gone on lunches, all that good stuff. And I was like, "Hey, you know, it's nothing you guys did wrong. you guys fought really hard and I think you guys did really well and I love what you're doing with YouTube, but I'm going with Twitch." And they were like, and they hit me with a last second offer that was that was just like a 20% bump. And I was like, "Wow, that's like crazy." So, I thought long and hard. And the original reason that I told them I wasn't going with them and I and I didn't let them know right there is that I had flipped a coin and heads was Twitch, tails was YouTube. Uh, and it had gone with heads cuz I just I couldn't make the decision. And a lot of the times in my life, I like to leave it to chance. And and somehow that ended up as an insane negotiating tactic of me walking and they were like, nah, stay. Uh, and so then I thought I'd do the same thing to Twitch, which is like, hey, let's hop in the call. I'm going to tell you I'm going to leave. And then they were just like, have fun. And you know, they have the next creator in line they have to worry about, which again, no flame to them. That's how their business runs. I like the coin flip thing. Jack knows I'm I yeah I believe that whatever is meant to be is going to happen. So I like to leave it up to fate. You call it chance. I just say, you know, then it's destined to happen. It's out of my control. And this was meant to go in this direction. So I flip coins or I flip my phone. You flip your phone. Yeah. So I'm like, you know, if it lands at this, it's heads and and this is tails. And I'll flip my phone half the time. That makes the decision for me. Yeah. And it's never led me astray. And for you, even when you flip the coin, I mean, that coin flip ended up making you so much more and getting you to where you are today. If it wasn't for that coin flip or if it just had landed on YouTube, you would have just done it anyway and uh left some extra money on the table. Yeah. If it was just YouTube, I would have just had a worse deal overall, which is funny to think about. Yeah. I'm not as deterministic and destiny focused, but I know that any path you take in life, it will work out cuz it just has to. The world keeps spinning, your life keeps moving on. Everything has to work out. There's no other choice. Um and so I it's like whatever decision you make, you just have to be happy with it. And uh and I think that's why I was okay with the flip. Do you think that Twitch's unwillingness to fight for their creators is going to come back and bite them in the butt at some point in the future? And are you bullish on Twitch as a platform for the, you know, to have longevity? Or do you think YouTube's going to dominate? Because I have friends that stream as well, like more casually, but they say that it seems like Twitch is like kind of falling apart and it's mostly internal stuff that that's causing that. Yeah, I think the not paying for creators is honestly a decent decision that they've made internally to try to become profitable. I think what's going to screw them over. And to be clear, I think they're going to have market share for the next 5 years, but I think 5 years from now, they're going to be a bit screwed because of every single decision they've made. I don't think any product they have released has really helped them grow, and they really lucked out by doubling in size because of COVID. Without that, I think they'd be in a really bad spot. I think co saved their asses because every product they make is extracting value out of the people that already watch them rather than growing. And YouTube already dwarfs them in terms of people on the platform. So, it's like just a matter of time, I think, for YouTube to catch up in terms of the basic products that people expect watching a live stream, you know, like a like a better functioning chat, a culture of emotes, um, and all that stuff. YouTube will get that. they're slow because they're a bloated company and then it'll be a lot harder. And I think what also might screw them over is I I know there's an internal pressure to become profitable because they're just tanking money and I feel like they might eventually remove Twitch Prime, which is a huge driver in revenue for creators. Uh so I think if that day comes, that's when the turning that's the going to be the turning point. It seems like Twitch makes the creator compete with them as a platform rather than really boosting them up because I know they also have that like their toos as far as banning goes is pretty like it's not very stable and I know people have been banned for like really simple things and kind of honest mistakes and then other people haven't been banned or you know temporary short. Who was the one that uh you know had was doing they were doing doing stuff on the live stream. You want to say what that was? familiar with that doing stuff like you know like uh oh the one who's getting railed doggy style yeah I didn't want to say that but uh yeah [laughter] grammy you just got to be I'm sorry you heard that hey it's okay Susan you should have seen it bro [laughter] but yeah but uh yeah so what that was a suspension and then brought right back but other people suspension she was having actual intercourse live explain it to your grandma so she understands I think I'm intercourse yeah yeah grandma you know it doggy you've been there we all I'll cut that one [laughter] out. But uh no, I like I think PR-wise Twitch has just had a detrimental past year and a half. Part of it is all the products they release and then part of it is just a failure to adhere to like a terms of service that people like generally align with their morals. Uh and so like yeah, someone had sex on stream and they were banned for seven days and they were back. Uh and then just yesterday somebody got banned for 30 days. uh a pretty well-liked creator because someone in chat was like like roasting them, being mean to them, and then they said, "I'm going to fight you at TwitchCon. This is not a joke." As a joke, which you know, cuz obviously they're not going to go to TwitchCon. That's a joke. Yeah. But they said that and then they gave him a 30-day ban. Which, look, I'm not against banning someone for threatening physical harm to somebody else, even if it's an anonymous stranger online. But 30 days in uh rel uh relative uh to a 7-day ban for actually having sex seems weird to most people. Uh and and I think that problem always comes up. Uh and it's just a PR thing cuz like look, the same problem exists in the NFL. Like the NFL has varying bans of of weeks to months and it none of it lines up. Like people get banned for smoking weed for two months and then there was like um what's his name who who assaulted like 30 women in a massage parlor. Have you heard of this? I haven't. He's one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league and he was originally just suspended with pay for like 4 weeks for assaulting about 30 women at massage parlor and coercing them. Just No, it was just uh I think it was like a civil case and settled out. Uh but it was just like he had coerced them into doing sexual favors after asking them for just massages. Uh and it's like he got suspended less long than people smoke weed. But the NFL is very easily able with their PR team to just shove that aside. And then Twitch doesn't, you know, uh Twitch is is held accountable and then probably overly roasted for the bad decisions they make. Uh and they've never been able to get behind that. Yikes. I think another issue with Twitch is discoverability. And it seems as though the people on the top stay at the top because they're the ones that get pushed versus everyone else. The algorithm is not there to find new creators who are up and coming unless you already know of them. Yeah. Yeah. There's uh this is a real quote from the CEO. He had said this in a private meeting and I I I had found out about this. He said, "The best way to grow on Twitch is to grow on another platform and then bring the audience over to Twitch." Which is just a failure of the platform. And I discovered recently that I don't know how to stream on YouTube. I just figured it out this week because the entire time for the first eight months, I'd been streaming as if I was on Twitch. And the way that you stream on Twitch is you just have the most viewers in a certain game category. And then you stay live for a really long time cuz you'll build up uh a lot of dead viewers, people who just have you on their second monitor, they leave to work, they go to bed, whatever. And then you'll stay higher in the category. and then people always click whatever's at the top of of their favorite category, whether it's just chatting a a video game like League of Legends or Valerant or whatever it is, and you just grow and grow and grow. Doesn't work like that on YouTube or Tik Tok. There's no categories. You don't go to a game you like and then watch who's playing that game. You are fed the stream based off what the algorithm thinks you will like. And so it's much more important for uh to create um a stream that has really good watch time and has a sense of urgency that makes people stick around because the better the watch time, the more people will will stay and the more it'll get recommended, which doesn't exist on Twitch. And I just figured it out that out this week. Uh cuz I started doing streams that are like I have 1 hour to beat this game. Uh and I play like Minecraft and I have a timer on screen and the closer I get to the hour, the more the viewership goes up. Uh, and I and I ended up with streams that would get like 30,000 40,000 viewers um because it just gets pushed and pushed and pushed because people will stick around waiting for it to reach an hour. As opposed to Twitch, you're better off streaming 20 hours straight like XQC or Train Wrecks do. Lily Pichu is doing that now. I see her. Yeah, she'll be streaming for like 12 hours straight. Yeah, that's not good for YouTube. Nuts. But I have to also say, so I had a channel, well, we had a channel. called Millennial Money where we went live and we did that for about a year and a half and then we talked to someone who was a rep at YouTube who said that if you just film this ahead of time and post it as a video, it's going to do better than a live. And we did. And instantaneously from going from live to just pre-recording something like this and posting it, our views doubled. Yeah. So, I think there's something there that YouTube isn't quite pushing live streams. And for some reason, people don't seem as willing to click on a live stream that was like a day old because it's like, "Oh, it's not live anymore." versus if it's just pre-recorded. Um, how do you approach that? Do you have to go live or is this something where you could just film something? I guess it's less fun for for your audience because they're accustomed to that. Yeah. So, so my original strategy, which was a new strategy when I was streaming on Twitch, is every stream would have segments that would become YouTube videos. I'm not just streaming for the sake of being live and playing a game. I have a specific thing like I'm going to give my credit card to stream to buy anything they want on Amazon for a couple hours that'll turn into a YouTube video. And that worked when I was on Twitch because there are people who like watching live streams and there are people who like watching YouTube videos. It's separate. When I went to YouTube, I recognized pretty quickly that the watch time that that I would get from viewers was way lower. Like they would stick around for like 7 10 minutes, then they'd leave because I'm competing with other videos. Like in the sidebar there's like a juicy Veritassium video that's gonna make you feel like a genius for 10 minutes or it's my dumb ass playing Mario, you know? So it's like the competition is way way fiercer. And so it's important that for a good YouTube video, you need like like an intro, you need a specific goal, and you need stakes, right? Those are all important things to YouTube video. And then the thing that you need for a live stream is a sense of urgency. Because the thing that a live stream has as an advantage, you can think of it when you think of like a like a professional sports game like a basketball game is the ability to be there for the moment. Say I was here and you lose that when you watch the video. That's why, you know, like highlights are way less popular than watching the game itself. Like that's the cultural moment. So you need a sense of urgency in a live stream that make it feel like it was worth the time to watch in a moment that makes it that you can say you were there for. How do you come up with these ideas? Like what to do on stream? So like the the idea of like the urgency or like like that concept or like specifically what I'm doing specifically what you're doing because it seems like you have multiple segments. Sometimes you'll you'll do one thing over the other. How how do you pick so frequently what you think will do well? I spend a couple hours every day and I'll just watch streamers. Like the way I watch streams is like I click on Summit 1G. I watch him for 3 minutes. Then I click on Lyric. Maybe he's doing something cool. He's playing a cool new game. watch them for a few more minutes. Should I try that game? Eh, maybe not. It's a little more niche. He's a little different of a creator. All right. What's Miskf doing? What's XQC doing? And I click on every creator who I think does things well and who might push the meta of what is being streamed and what is being consumed and see what maybe I could try doing. Uh, and if I don't find inspiration there, then maybe I look at YouTube videos or maybe what I was doing six months ago because you know what I was doing six months ago probably will work now if I just spin it a little bit. Uh, and I try to think that day of what I'll do. Uh, and it's pretty much on an everyday cycle. Like I I know what I'm doing uh like at 400 p.m. at 2 p.m. that same day and I don't know like any anytime before that. What if you have no idea? If I have zero idea, sometimes I just won't go live at all. Like I will like that period of time that I'm saying is 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. might go from 12 to 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. Uh, and it can feel sometimes like I'm not even working cuz I'm just actually just watching streams and just trying to think of things. Maybe I just get some air, ride my Vespa, go somewhere and and try to come back. And I will either make a decision to just not do anything and then maybe I'll make a mogul mail. I'll do an offline recording for something else. I'll work somewhere else. Uh or I'll just go live and I'll just be like, "Hey, I got nothing to do today. Maybe we can just like watch this video, play this random game, and just like at least still give a stream to the people who look forward to streams as content for their day." How do you find inspiration and how do you stay productive? Like wouldn't it be easy to get distracted if you're just watching people's streams and then maybe extending that 3 minute period to a 30 minute period? Oh yeah, dude. Like I pretend that I'm working when I'm watching Tik Toks cuz it's like, "Oh, I'll like the Tik Toks and watch them later on stream." But it's like, "No, I'm sometimes I'm just watching Tik Toks for 90 minutes." I always have the goal of of trying to accomplish something that day. So, I feel accomplished if I do a stream or if I record a video offline or if I'm working on on uh something business related in a profound way. So, as long as I'm able to accomplish one of those and I and I know the deadline is when the day is over, um I'll still feel like I've done something. Uh and in the greatest way that I'm able to at least get something out is just the good old yoink and twist. So, like if if I'm really out of options, like I can just take something I've done and twist it up a little bit and and it usually will do well if it did well in the past. Sure. Tell us about this credit card spending on Amazon. How does that work? That was an idea I had cuz Sodapoppin used to do this concept where random people would link him items and he would just buy them. And I was like, that's cool. But what if I had like a time limit and I allowed them to buy anything they wanted and they would vote on whether they buy it or not with an item limit, you know? So, it's like you guys can only buy 10 items. You have an hour to do it. I will I will purchase everything. You link me things and then I'll just click on them and then you vote yes or no. And it's interesting to see like like some people will buy really expensive things. Some people will try to buy like a 100gallon bottle of lube or something [snorts] just cuz they think it's funny. And uh and so I've done that series probably like six or seven times in slightly different ways. How do they vote on it? Do you just see like yes or nos in the chat? Yeah, just run a poll. I run a poll. I see. Simple poll. Yes or nos? 51% I get it. 51% nos I don't get it. What's the weirdest thing that you think you've bought from that? Yeah, I bought insane. I bought a $16,000 statue of Jackie Chan. What'd you do with it? It's just in my stream room. He's just there. He terrifies people when they walk in cuz no one expects it. Why is it $16,000? It's like a Madame Tous level like wax figure. Like it looks very accurate and it feels a bit like skin. Like it's rubber. It's like silicone. Yeah. Yeah. And it looks like Jackie Chan. How bummed were you when they picked a $16,000 like [laughter] item that has no utility? Yeah, I I think I think it's funny. Like I I don't I don't like spending money again like on fancy cars or fancy clothes, but I don't care how much I will spend on on videos and content. I because it feels like it's productive in a way. Is there ever a desire to return it the next day? Let's get it and then think, ah, let me let me refund this. Let me send it back. The only time that I really hate it is when it's something that I just really can't use. Like they bought a $1,800 water bubbler. Like the ones you would see at a school or a office building. What was a water bubbler? Uh like a water fountain. Like the ones where you like you click it like an eklay and then the water comes out from the spout. I don't know what you guys call them. You call them water bubblers. East Coast. Water fountain. Water fountain. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Water fountain is probably West Coast terminology. But yeah, just one of those water fountains and it's $1,800 and I just can't install it. like I don't have a plumbing for this. I I can't attach this to the wall. So, it's just useless and I just ended up donating it to like some um school because I I I can't do anything with it. So, I I'm only annoyed when I have something that I feel like I cannot use in a way that's entertaining. What about everything else that you can't use? Like you're talking about just random items. Do you keep them? No, we end up usually trying to donate what we can and then it's a lot of waste uh of just, you know, I have just a stupid amount of random statues and knickknacks and like desk ornaments that that I just cannot keep all of them. Uh and so I've done there's three ways I get rid of them. One is I just straight up donate it to who will take it. The other is I've done like charity auctions and I've sold on stream for charity the items I've gotten in the past. Uh, and then people will buy it. And then the third is I just have to trash it. Well, before you trash it, Jack will take it. Yeah. Well, I I don't know about that. 100 gallons of lube. Jack, I would take the Jackie Chan if you ever get rid of I think that's so funny. Jackie is awesome. You guys will see him. You guys will see him. He's terrifying when you walk in and see him. Yeah, there was a really cool uh it was a movie prop. So, you could go on websites and find these really realistic like alien movie props, but there was like a big scary 16ft yeti that was so cool looking. I wanted that for the living room. A 16 foot 16 feet. That's tall, man. How you gonna get that through the through through the back door. Through the back door. Yeah. You got 16 foot voltage ceilings. Yeah. In Vegas. Vegas are 22 foot ceilings. I guess that is a Vegas thing, right? Having those giant volted ceilings. Yeah. craziest thing I wanted to buy that I was so close to buying uh and I should have bought it was it's it's called the Timothy Olton Apollo and it's a replica of the uh one of the Apollo spacecrafts or whatever and inside of it was uh like a sitting area so it's like a like a circular thing with a table in the middle and they're so unbelievably cool and I thought I could put that in the living room and it looks like a spaceship and we could film a podcast in there. How much was it? 150 grand, but I could write it off because it would be for the podcast. True. Yeah, that' be But it just happened to sit in the living room. Now I think those things would have been way more because this was in co Yeah, because this was uh in like the worst of co where everyone was like just panicking, didn't know what was going to happen with the economy and they discounted this thing. I think normally it was like 200 grand for these things. Uh and they discounted it and I explained like here's who I am, here's how it would be used. I think they only made like 10 of them. What do they make them for? uh decoration. Oh, just too seldom. Too seldom. Yeah, but they're like seating arrangements inside of it. So, it's purposely there's supposed to be a utility with it, too. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't imagine how big that would be. It's huge. Yeah. But there are things like that that I see that I'm like, man, I I would love to do that. There's a a thing. It's a $700 flashlight. I saw it on TikTok. I have 10 of those. You have 10? Are you serious? It's the um the Ilamin. Yep. Uh R18 or whatever purpose. I got a bunch to see how many it would take to cook an egg. That's a genius idea. And how many did it take? Two. So, you didn't need eight of them? I didn't [laughter] cuz I thought stupidly you get eight and then everyone stands around and they just point it at the egg. But what you actually do is you put one flashlight underneath and then one on top and it becomes like a convection oven. So, I know you have a relationship with Mr. Beast. Mr. Bean. Pretty good one. You were in one of his videos. Three. Yeah, I saw the plane video, right? Mhm. I've done three videos. One's been posted on his channel. One he didn't post, so I stole. And then the final one hasn't been uploaded yet. Oh, okay. Yeah. See, I only saw the uh the uh the plain one. I knew the one he posted on your channel, but I didn't know if that like count, right? Yeah. Maybe it doesn't count. Yeah. But what was that like? Cuz for those that don't know, Mr. Beast basically made a full-on video. How much money did he spend on that? Yeah. So, the first time he ever asked me to do a video was like a $1.1 million shoot that involved like two people, military guys doing a bunch of obstacles, biggest sumo wrestler in the world, giant obstacles, whatever it was. Uh, and and I went out there to record to be basically a backup host for him because it was a race. He would not be able to beat get to the next obstacle sometimes if they're going faster than him. So, I would just be there in case to explain what to do. Uh, and that was why he asked me to go out there. And I had met him before this just to hang out. Uh, and and I think he thought I was funny and I would do well and and so we do it all. Finish the recording. A couple things go wrong in it. Like there's a few hiccups and uh and so I'm waiting for it to get for it to get uploaded. Hit him up like every week. I'm like, "When's it going up? I'm curious. When's it going up?" He's like, "I don't know. I don't know." And then one time um I hit him up. I'm like, "When's it going up?" He's like, "I'm not uploading it." like what? You spent $1.1 million. He's like, "Nah, I didn't like it. It's not good." Was he that matterof fact about it or was he like depressed at all or was like, "No, he's when he makes a decision, he just does not care. It just is what it is." And and like he's the person who makes that call too, right? It's not like somebody above him, he's like, "You know, Jimmy, I don't think this is the one." It's him who's like, "We're not uploading it." And everybody else who's worked on it for months like, "Dude, but but like that's his thing." And I think he almost takes pride in the fact that he spends money on things that don't go out because it shows how much he cares and how much he's willing to put into YouTube where most creators wouldn't. So, he just scrapped it. And then we did a podcast with him when I was filming a second video um with him and and just as a joke, I was like, "Well, if you're not uploading it, let me upload it on my channel." And he was like, "Yeah, that'd be funny." Cuz he wanted my most viewed video to be his video. And now it is my most viewed video. It's just his video. It's just his video. His thumbnail, too. Yeah. His thumbnail, his title, his video. I did it. I did. I did two intros. I'm in it for about 30 seconds. I remember clicking on your video and being so thrown off that like I thought it was a Mr. Beast video at first, but I saw you uploaded. Wasn't it like I stole was it how much? A million dollars from Mr. Beast. That was my explanation of it, but the actual video is called I buried $100,000. Go find it. Y and it's I and it's Mr. Beast in the thumbnail and it's my channel. Yeah. Do you think it could have done better? Because I honestly didn't know about you too well when I when I scrolled across that video for the first time, but changing your profile picture and channel name to Mr. Beast when you post it and then you post it as him cuz that would have been able to click on it had I known it was an actual Mr. Beast video. Don't you lose your verification when you change your name though. That's a good point actually. You would have gotten it back. Yeah. But yeah, I think it would have. And I think part of it was an experiment. like he was curious cuz he's always had the idea that YouTube is all skill, not luck. And with the knowledge he has, if he had to start a channel from ground zero, it would just skyrocket upwards. And so, this is like, okay, let's find out. Uh, and I think there's definitely an element to a video being really good, having great click-through rate and great watch time, but also it helps if the video is uploaded on a channel with 100 million subscribers and has just a guaranteed bedrock of viewership. Um, so I think like if this video was on his channel, it certainly would have gotten 40 million views at least. And on my channel, it's sitting at about like seven and a half. I agree with that. I probably would have been more compelled as a viewer to click on it just because it's Mr. Do you know what he didn't like about the video? Cuz I saw it. I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Yeah. There was a couple things that went wrong. Like the first problem uh was they had a giant target that they were supposed to shoot like a bullseye with a cannon and the targets ripped cuz it was outdoors. It was just vinyl. It's huge vinyl targets. They just ripped both of them and then they were like, "Okay, backup. We'll shoot the car with a cannon." And then the cannonball just turned out to be super flimsy in the wind. Barely moved at all. So that just looked kind of bad like that segment. Whatever. One segment. Move on. There's another segment. They're supposed to wrestle a a Japanese the heaviest Japanese sumo wrestler. Uh they're supposed to like do a sumo match against him. They both end up because he has the coordinates tucked in his side just running up grabbing it and leaving it and you can hear the Japanese sumo wrestler in Japanese after he goes have he started. So it's like just kind of lackluster and then the ending they just sprinted to the end before anyone was really there. So, it's like I think the day of the shooting felt a lot worse than what the final product ended up being, but it's hard to detach that feeling from what it looked like at the very end. Yeah. He's got an interesting business model with his main channel. It seems like that's the loss leader. Like that's the Costco chicken that's in front that gets people through to then watch his other channels like his gaming channel he was talking about makes so much. And then the reacts channel um and if he wanted to, he could just post reacts videos all the time and just print money. I mean, that's got to be mostly profit, right? But the main channel, yeah, he's very uh upfront that he loses money on a lot of those videos. And I think Costco is a good example cuz I think he's just as prideful of it being a loss leader. Yeah. I think he's like he loves that he is like, I've spent like $10 million on videos in the past two months and I've thrown away half of half of them. It's like he loves that because I think it gives him a sense of pride. Yeah. It is astounding though. He's not exaggerating that he does spend everything. Yes. It there's I I don't know. I I was trying to calculate in my mind like here's how much he makes, here's how much he spends. It all gets reinvested. It is amazing to me how little he's taken out for himself and just everything is back into the videos and just making good and he's he's that serious about I'm like, "All right, you know, Mr. Beast, just okay. Really, it's not just about making the best videos, right?" He's like, "No, it's the best videos. That's all I want to do." It's incredible. I would love to see you do that again. Would you try another channel and see if you could replicate that once more? I think it's too hard to completely isolate all the variables in that sort of experiment and I think the idea of skill.luck is interesting and fun and people love exploring that. So I I am working on that but rather than do it through a video that I make, I'm working directly with a creator and I have been for a while now. Um cuz you remember that Mr. Beast tweet and it's like I worked with this creator. This is the before of how much they made. This is the after. I was like, "That's crazy." So, I I thought I would try the same. And it's been going pretty well. And you can't say what creator is. No leaks because then it'll kind of sell you. How does that Yeah. How does that work? How did you find the creator? Do you do you take a split in terms of No, you is it just a test? Purely just like I am trying to mentor this person and you know, at first we would have like scheduled calls and it's been going on long enough now that they know what they're doing. Um, and they're I think they're incredible at it. Uh, and and I want no ownership of it. And and I keep telling them if the thing that comes out of this is you have grown and I don't even get a video out of it, I'm happier than if I get a video uh and you haven't grown. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, I'm I'm just mostly focused on on that. Yeah. Sometimes I'll notice people and I think they're going to be successful no matter what happens. If if I'm helping or if I'm not, they're going to do well. And sometimes some people that you come across just have whatever that might be and you're like, "Oh no." Jack Gordon was a great example. I found his channel so early on. I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Uh he's like a young Vsauce. And uh you know what? I think I can't remember if I I think I made him an offer to come work with me in the very beginning. Oh yeah. Yeah, I did. I thought it would be so cool because then we'd have two Jacks. We'd have one Jack and then Jack Gordon. And I I thought it was a long shot he'd even take the offer. He's And he didn't. But I was I wasn't even surprised. I'm like, "No, it's his channel's going to blow up." And sure enough, it did. Yeah. But he just had some uh he's at 350 now, but he's in high school. Oh, wow. And uh he barely ever posts. Oh, really? Yeah. He'll post a high schooler. Yeah. He's he'll post every now and then, but I'm like, if you just quit high school and just posted one video every other week, you would be he would be at a million subscribers within like a few months. I remember I think I was it was VidSummit last year. I was there and I was at an event there and some lady came up to me and she started talking to me. Turns out it was his mom and she was like, "Yeah, like I don't want him to drop out of high school or I don't want him to like pursue this because he needs to pursue his education and stuff like that." I just thought he was but he's but he's an example. He'll do well whatever he sets his mind to. Like if he wants to be a marine biologist, he'll be the best marine bio. He's she's just got that mind but he's also good on camera. Just a focused person who's charismatic. Yeah. What's the most expensive thing you've bought? Uh, probably the Ford GT, but that was an investment. Everything I bought was like that car was actually better than the S&P 500s, but it's it's almost as good as some of the best real estate deals I've done. Why Why What is the goal with the money? Why are you the dragon who hoards the gold? I don't think I I don't think it's a dragon who hoards. I It's uh I just enjoy it. I like I like being frugal. I like business. I understand being frugal and not spending, but for me, uh, when I hit a million dollars, I'm like, I'm good. This is all I need. Any amount more than this outside of a house, I will say, uh, is not necessary for my day-to-day to function. And if I had more, I wouldn't know what to do with it. And I would rather I don't I don't need that. Which is why I have a lot of overhead as opposed to you who doesn't have a lot of overhead, but has way more money than me. So, it's like what what do you see? I love investing. I love personal finance. I love finding a deal. I I take so much enjoyment in in finding an undervalued whatever it might be and investing in it. So, I I take a lot of pride in and in finding something that maybe other people didn't see. And for me, like the Ford GT was something like I think that these are going to be half a million dollar cars. This is a good deal. I set a price. Like I found the car worked out. So, everything I do is is kind of focused around that. But then I also I only want to spend like 2% of what I have invested. And then that way it's sustainable. So that no matter what happens, I'm always living off of 2% of whatever the total is. But that means also that let's say you know you make a million dollar, you invest a million dollar. Well, that's now an extra $20,000 a year that I could spend guiltree because I know no matter what happens, it's going to be coming back. Right. To be fair, like I I respect the fact that you are so thrifty to the extent of like actually probably helping the environment because we'll go out and he'll like save the ketchup packets, [laughter] but he's going on record saying he makes like 6 million or whatever in a year, but still at the same point saving ketchup packets. But but here's the thing. But I don't want them to go to waste. So I'm very much like if I waste anything, like this cup for instance, I'll keep the cup, wash it out so I could reuse it again. But stuff like that, it's just cuz I don't want to waste the cup. It's a plast. It's a plastic cup. Reuses them. Macy Macy hates that. I rinse I rinse them. She's She's used toilet paper because it's wasteful. What do you use by hand? What? You could just wash it in the sink. Water's cheaper than toilet paper. So, you're just What do you What do you mean you w What do you mean? Do you have a bet? No. No. That's expensive. What? You need to get a bet. I'm kidding. No, he doesn't wipe with his hand, [laughter] man. No made that up. That was a joke. Will they do that in France? No, they don't. Yeah, because the bedet are separate attachments from the main unit. So, you have to get up after you're [ __ ] and then you go over to the other bedet and then you turn it on and then just use your hand to clean it off. That Wait, what? You just use your hand to clean your ass. I mean, like you would in the shower. I don't know. I don't Okay, that's that's too far for me. I thought you might have had a little French in you. I thought you had that dog in you. [laughter] I have a attached bedet. So, it's like it's like a uh that's actually something I'm about to drop is I just made my own bet cuz I love beds. Do you have one? No. Do you have one? You know what? Everyone who has one swears by them. Yeah. No, I' i've tried one one or two times. I don't like them. What bed did you use? It was one in a hotel. That's why a heated seat, two different types of oscillating sprays, heated water. Okay. Five different pressure levels. It has a deodorizer for when you're using it. You need that. All right. It also has a self-regulated energy saving uh and dryer if you don't want to use TP, but I mean I still use TP. But what you do is is is uh I've been working on this for like a year now of making this bedet and I've made two. One that's probably similar to the hotel like a everyday $50 unit and then one that's like the $500 souped up unit. Uh and I think it's just a total life changer. So what about bday? Are you so fascinated bed? What about bed days really enamor you? I think it's the correct way hygienically probably right to go to the bathroom. Why is it better? It's just it's just like it's like you asking me. It's like why are we showering and not just using more deodorant? Like that's what it feels like. It's like you are taking a poop and then just using dry paper and then just pulling out some of it. Like pulling out some Think about this. Think about this. Do you have a pet? Yeah, I do. Okay. Your pet your pet poops on a carpet. What are you just going to grab Bounty and then just rub it in and then be like, "All right, I've done it." And then walk away. No. Well, I like to think my butt isn't a carpet. Close, but it's not a carpet. Unless you're waxing, it is. And I unless you want to open up to this podcast right now and let Graham Graham know what's going on down there. What What if you do wax? Does that make a difference? I think so. Yeah. I actually think if you wax, it's just the It's just the cleanest wipe. Uh it's probably still better to have water, right? Like just hygienically. Um You wax? No. No. God, no. Yeah. My friend got waxed for a podcast and he was crying in pain. Really? Yeah. He got He got everything. I've been waxed on my chest before. Yeah. Very very painful. Right. Very painful. Anyway, I'm going to get I'm going to get you guys I'm going to have you try a bet. Okay. And then you will your lives will be changed. So you're turn So you're selling a bedet. You're turning this into make money from it. Yeah, I've made a bet. It's been like a eight-month process. I have a factory in Korea that I've worked with and and we're about ready to to sell them. Give us a price point. How much is that going to be? It's 50 for the base level and then 500 for the primo. Why not anything in between? Because there isn't much, right? Like there's the bed that just directly connect to the water line and that only requires like a splitter and then you just turn it on, turn it off. And then there's the ones that require electricity and and so there's not like a way for that one to be cheaper. It's a bunch of electronics. Um, so it's like you would just be making up value. Couldn't there be a battery operated one or one that you just plug in and like charge maybe, but no one would use that. I think the amount of electricity you'd pull and the amount of times you'd have to It's not really something that exists in the market. I think there are versions of the $500 ones that are cheaper, but I went with the one with all the all the the gizmos and the gadgets. So, are you taking like a like a is it like a white label sort of product and kind of switching it up a little bit or you developing from scratch or how? Yeah, it's kind of similar to a Yeah, it's mostly a white label project, but it we've customized it because um they're like the largest bedet manufacturer. It's Brondell. Uh and we've worked with them to like basically find the best thing we can make and then have one that is still affordable that that looks good. You serious about selling the bed? Like you want to take this in the direction of like making money from this or is it a side project for you? I want to be like the my pillow guy but for beday and not racist. Who's the who's the my pillow guy? He's like the he's like the big Trumper who would sell pillows. They're like $60 pillows and he was just hardcore. So every Republican would have like their pillows and you'd see guys at rallies with their pillows next to him. But but like he's like trying to revolutionize by having comfy pillows. I feel like everybody should use bedayets. Like I feel like that is the correct thing. And after using them, most people hate going back. Like if you go on a trip, your life is significantly worse. And so I want to bring beds to America. It's already in most of Europe and in um Asia, in the Middle East. It's just America that's very far behind. Why do you think that is? Why are Americans not embracing a bet? I think we're shy about potty. We're we're shy about bathroom stuff, you know, like like I think I think that's mostly it. I think it's like we don't we don't talk about it. We don't discuss it. And it probably doesn't do well for marketing as well. You know, talking about what you're gonna poop with. So, I'm just trying to I'm trying to I'm trying to start a movement. All right. So, when I'm done with all the streaming, you know how Mr. Beast got beast burger? Yeah. This is my beast burger. Okay. Ledwig's bed. It's called Swipe. Wow. That's a great name. That's pretty good. You like that? Yeah. You should incorporate movement in like the the logo or the or the slogan. I'll show you the box. Yeah. It could be like, you know, short for bell movement, like, you know, the movement you need or like something like that. I don't know. The slogan is welcome to the 21st century. That's good. Yeah, cuz I think that, you know, toilet papers that's unaboom stuff. Can I connect to your iPhone though? Like I feel like it should have some sort of control like smartphone. They have a remote specifically for the the toilet that you you just connect to the wall and then you pull it out. Okay. It's a whole thing. How about this? Can we talk about your relationship? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, when did you meet your girlfriend? I met her streaming. I was live and she was live cuz she was a streamer. She started same time as I did and she used to compete in these like I don't know if you know like Austin show uh but he used to do like these like dating shows online kind of like reality TV type stuff but for live streams. That's what Minkx did. Yes. That was the thing Minkx did a lot. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And uh and she would compete on them and she would win a lot because she was very good at like like going above and beyond. and she's like a baker, so she would make cakes and stuff for them. Uh, and then she would farm like random um guys in who were streaming for content. So, she would just go to their streams and be like, "Be my chat's dad." And then leave and go to another person, leave, go to another person. And they just came into my stream one time and then I I was like, "No, I'm I'm a tier three sub to Pokemon." And we just joked around and then we followed each other and we started talking and uh and now we've been dating for almost three years. And how is that balancing relationship while also having a pretty rigorous work schedule? It helps that she's also a streamer, right? Because there's periods of time where she's way busier than I am. Like she's run events like the streamer awards uh that that have got more views than me, XQC or or like Msk have ever gotten. Uh and when she's working on that, she's gone the whole time. So like I get it when she has to do that and she gets it when I do my stuff. The only time that there was ever a period where she was like, "Okay, this is way too much." was the Subathon, which I get cuz I wasn't even sleeping with her at night. I was sleeping on She was uncomfortable sleeping in front of the I mean, I mean, she wasn't sleeping on the camera. She was by herself in our room. Uncomfortable to sleep on the C. Oh, yeah. She wouldn't have wanted to come. Yeah. Of course not. Yeah, that'd be weird. That would be a little bit weird if we're both sleeping together. [laughter] Didn't even come on. Get banned for seven days, Jack. Yeah, it's only seven days. So, it's been good because I think we both understand the space pretty well. Yeah. Do you think you want uh marriage and kids one day? For sure. Yeah. But it's kind of weird in the at least where I am right now. I think part of being a streamer is you're also like a like a you act like a teenager and like in you just like go live and then you yell and you play video games all day. And I think it's it's hard to balance having a family with that. Mhm. So I think it would be at a point in my life where I am selling beday and I'm producing streams for other people rather than I'm the person in front of the camera at all times. Is that the end goal? I think so. Yeah. Uh and that's why I started off-brand which is the company that I made with with my business friends uh Atriox Sands and Nick Allen that is just meant to make shows for other people, make productions for other people. Uh because I I thought one day I just like it was 6 months ago I was like why do I have to be the guy in front of the camera all the time? Like I think I'm think I'm a decent host but I'm not the best at this job. I don't attract the largest audience. I'm not the like you know most palatable. I know how to make a show and I know most streamers just like being live 10 hours a day so they can make money but won't put the effort in and the work in in the hours in a day to actually make a show. So why don't I do that work for them? Why don't I get funding for it? Why didn't I sell on it? take a larger cut from it and then just produce it. Have them um create their like greatest thing they will do that year in terms of viewership in in like critical acclaim and uh and and just be behind the camera. What do you mean by a show? I think like as opposed to an average stream, right? Right. So, like most streams is just like dude behind camera and there's not really a way to build upon that. And often times when you do it feels inauthentic like if you have an insane setup uh with like you know the five cameras and dog it's too professional and and it and it it's hard to relate to the person behind that. But it the meta and the thing that has been succeeding a lot for for streams is a is a a large scale production. So, I don't know if you know the Spanish streamer Ebby, but he does these large productions very frequently. He has a huge team in Spain, and he got uh I think 3 million live concurrent viewers on a boxing event he ran, which is the record for the most viewers on any live stream. In these events, you can think of him in the same way as Mr. Beast's loss leader. Almost assuredly, it's a huge cost to run this and it'd be much cheaper and he'd make much more money if he just sat behind a camera at his room playing Minecraft, but they bring in so many new eyes that then his daily streams get a lot more views and he'll do a lot of these at a very high rate. Uh, and so I've run a couple of these, like I did a a Jeopardy clone called Mogul Money. Yeah. And it got 150,000 viewers live and we had an in-person audience of 6,500 people. Uh, and it was it was probably like the greatest live streaming event I've done to date and and it lost money, but it will funnel in people for live streams in the future. Wasn't that the one where a sponsor backed out? Wasn't that the reason why it was a loss? Like, you would have made money had it not been for that? I think so. I we we definitely didn't hold back on spending. Like, I I booked the venue for an extra rehearsal day, which cost 75K, and I think if I hadn't bought that, we we we probably even would have broke even. Um, but yeah, that was that was the biggest one is that Coinbase was our sponsor and then crypto crashed and then they just pulled out of all verbal agreements because they just couldn't they couldn't pay for it anymore, right? Uh, so yeah, events should make money. Usually the first ones don't cuz like it's proof of concept. Brands are very uh riskaverse. Uh, but after doing like that one, if I do another one, I know that will probably make money. How do you balance that between, I think, more of like an amateur-ish take, which could do better because it feels more relatable? Like when I see big shows like that, I appreciate all the work and the production that goes on, but then I think it it it feels less like I'm there sitting in the room because of how produced it. It feels like I'm watching a TV show, right? How do you find the balance between that? I think it's always important to make it feel like an event that you cannot miss that that has that urgency that you were there to see live and it doesn't necessarily need that one-on-one feeling as if you were watching a friend behind a camera as long as it feels like something that was worth your time to watch. So like in December I'm running a chess boxing event and I've lined up about seven to nine matches. We'll see how many we get at the end of it. Uh, and I think like that's an event that you need to watch live because if you don't, you're going to hear who won on Twitter. You're going to see who won on Twitter, whatever it is, and it will feel a lot less uh, rewarding to watch the VA of it. What's chess boxing? The coolest sport ever, dude. What? It is one round of chess and then you switch for one round of boxing and you alternate until somebody wins by checkmate or knockout. Are you ser? Wait, wait, wait. What? So, it's just two people going back and forth. Yeah, one round of chess. Yeah, you play 2 minutes of chess and then after the chess portion you switch you you do boxing for 90 seconds. You switch back to chess. How do you do boxing for 90 seconds and like put the gloves on and have that be like So for the boxing specifically for chess you you have one glove on, you're wrapped up and then the other one is wrapped but you have one glove off and then you have to choose your your chess hand and then you play chess with that hand and then they you have like a like a 30 second we'll have a trainer come out, put the glove on, make sure you're good to go, have the referee clear everything and then they box for 90 seconds. What if it's like 10 rounds that people have to go? There's a maximum. So the chess is a timed chess. It's going to be like five uh uh minutes of chess with 0 seconds added per move. So you will guaranteed lose by time uh if you are not you know moving quickly enough. Now my thought is with the boxing removing the glove is a big deal. Yeah. Um have you thought about the timing it would that it would take between like playing a round of chess like I'm guessing it's probably 10 minutes to for someone to sign off on that glove to make sure it's No. So chess boxing is a real sport. Like it's a sanctioned sport. There's associations in almost every single state and they do this professionally and so the the the turnaround time is actually a lot faster than you'd think um to sign off on it. It's about 30 seconds at at when it's functioning at its best cuz it's only one glove you need to have on and you keep the wraps on. Who is going to be boxing? Could you could you reveal any names? give us some. So, initially I thought about doing it, but I really want to host the event and I want to be commentating the events and I think if I had a fight that day and then I had to switch from host to fighting, that'd be impossible. Yeah, I agree. So, I I haven't been able to pull this together. This is the last piece of the puzzle that I'm missing. But, I want to slapbox someone, which is I don't know if you ever seen Moist Critical's videos on this. It's a real thing. It's mostly like a Eastern European sport, but you just have two men, you huge burly men, and they stand there. They're not allowed to move, and then another person across from them slaps them and you just keep going back and forth until someone quits or passes out. I I've seen it. I don't get the point. Am I the only one who just I I don't What's the point of being Olympics? It's all content, baby. Come on. Man slaps man in the face, man falls. That's fun to watch. Is it a sport or is it just like entertaining? Sport. Like, there's actual competition. And I've seen like the crowds it generates, but I So this slap box a slap chest boxing. So we would slap each other then make a move. Slap each other, make a move. When is this going to be uh live? When could people see it? December 11th. We have the Galen Center, which is like where USC does their basketball games and it's, you know, we're trying to get a crowd of like 10K out and uh and just make it real hype. I would go to that. That should be fun. It'll be in LA. It's in LA. Yeah, it's gonna be USC. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'd go to that. I'd go. That'd be fun. I would love to go as like a spectator and watch, but there's a lot of training that goes on for that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We They've been training for like most everyone at least the past two maybe 3 months. It's been like five six months of lead time, which isn't the most in the world, honestly. But at least everybody started with the same like [snorts] totally amateur knowledge of boxing. You did it. Yeah. I started with six. I had six months, but I really was serious about it for four. of those six months. What's serious? Like how often were you going? Three to four times a week for an hour, but I should have sparred more. Uh the the last month I started sparring, but I only did a few times. And I should have been doing sparring, I don't know, after two months of doing it, right? And just like, you know, light rounds just just to get used to it. But I that was my one regret is not doing that more because it it's is it jarring to get punched and that's like you need to get accustomed to that. Yeah, that that was where I feel like I uh I could have improved because once I got hit in the head, I've never been hit in the head like that before, right? Uh cuz when I when you're wearing the head gear, it's a bigger target, but it it's not so like crazy. And when you're when you're doing a you know, sparring, it's not quite the same intensity with like people around. But yeah, when you're hitting the head, it's so weird. It's it's uh kind of like imagine like blinking for like a split second, things just go and then come back. doesn't hurt, which is strange. I thought it would hurt. Yeah. But it's just that weird like out back in and it takes you like a few seconds to just get your bearings and be like, "All right, I'm standing here. This is what's going on." But you don't have that time. It's like you have a split second and then at least for me, I got hit once, kind of went out, came back in. It was like came back thinking for a split second like, "Oh, that was" and then boom, happens again. So that's something that I think you need to get used to like so you can instinctually in that feeling when you know you're going out maybe put your guard up. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense to me. And I also think it should be better because of the extra break time in between rounds. I expect everyone will become pretty fresh and the guard will be, you know, you'll be it's not gonna your hands are going to be heavy. You know, you're going to be able to lift up the gloves uh because you have two and a half minutes in between each round. Um, so you know, I'm hoping everyone comes out of it. Yeah. I think that break, that 2 and 1/2 minutes is going to set people up to be really energized when they come back in. So each round is going to be full intensity. Yeah. Cuz what happened like even like the Idubbbz fights, like the end of it, they're just cooked, which is like Yeah. It's like a cardio thing. And so I think that break is going to make it more casual, but also make everyone feel a little bit better doing it. Yeah. It was weird watching Logan fight Mayweather. And I remember round like five or six or I forget how many. I think they went eight rounds. Uh or maybe it was nine. And I remember like round five like Mayweather seemed like he was just doing just fine. But Logan was tired and I'm thinking, "Oh, that's easy. Why is he tired? I don't get it." But oh man, you're like end of round one and you're just winded. You You can't explain. It's like running as fast as you can without a break for 3 minutes and then expecting you to be like still have energy after that. It's It's insane. Yeah. The time's so short, so I think people's expectations are you'd you'd be fine. But no, like if you just actually I went to one boxing training. They made us do jumping jacks for 3 minutes. I was cooked. Yeah. Not that's not even boxing. I was just doing jumping jacks. Like I couldn't feel my calves the next day. I was like, "Okay, I get it. I get it. You can tire yourself out real quick." A lot of it, too, is mental. It's the thinking through what are they going to do? It's your mind racing at the same time that you're, you know, physically exerting yourself. I think that's what it is. I think it's the combination of the two. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's that's the uh that's the next event. I'm pretty excited for it. And so, how does that work uh moneywise? Do you have sponsors covering it? Are you selling tickets? Is there an expected ROI? You're looking to break even. Is it pay-per-view? No, it'll be totally u I want it to be my most viewed stream ever. So, currently that's like 205,000 which was the end of the subathon uh concurrent viewers. And I and I'd like for this to be the most. So, it's not going to be pay-per-view cuz I think pay-per-view is also like, yeah, maybe you pull a million bucks, you know, maybe $2 million in in like sales, but I I don't think that's worth the the loss in like cultural momentum by creating something that people care about and watch and talk about. Uh, so the main way that I'm hoping to make money is ticket sales and sponsors. I don't really know. I don't I don't think I have I've already spent about half a million just for all the people who are competing in it. Uh and just paying them, making sure that they're covered for all their boxing time and food. Um cuz that's not cheap. And so I I'm not exactly sure where this will come down. I mean, it has a lot of seats, so maybe maybe it'll make money, but I'm also very happy if this breaks even and I just have a really cool event. Yeah. Is there anything that you want to ask us? Any other topics that you feel like you want to cover? Yeah, I got a question for you guys. Uh, what do you think, and I don't know if you have much knowledge on it on the general esports space cuz it's kind of a money sync from VCs, uh, who all put money into it. Have you looked into this at all? I I'm always a firm believer that if something's that good, you you'd keep it private. Um, right. And it seems like a lot of the IPOs are a way for investors to get their money out uh and a way to capitalize on all the work. And I I do think that from everyone, I mean, Faze is so recognizable and they built such a huge brand, but I kind of think if they believed in themselves and they had the longevity, why do they need more money? Because they they would have no problem funding what they need to. Well, again, I don't know the inner workings of their business. What generally happens with most esports companies is they start somewhat small, somewhat manageable, and then the overhead becomes absurd because getting like an a spot for for League of Legends, like an LCS spot, it's like $40 million to buy that, you know? Getting a spot for like Valerance like 15 million. What does that mean? Like to be in the league like like think of it as like the NBA like buying a team slot. And if you don't have that, you're not a premier team. Right. So you can't you earn it. You have to buy it. You can have an amazing roster of players in maybe a different league or or you know some minor doing some minor league stuff, but then the only thing you can get out of that if you're the owner of it is selling the players. So the the the game has really become flipping players. So just trying to get talented players and then sell them to bigger orgs or flipping spots in professional teams uh in like um like syndicated teams. I forget the exact word I'm looking for. Uh, but like flipping those is like generally how people are making their money. Uh, but outside of that, they're usually just burning through investor money with insane overhead and then eventually hoping to go public or get another round. Uh, but pretty much everyone is like just tanking money from the esports side. Doesn't sound viable. No, it doesn't sound sustainable. It sounds like it's a bit fatty. Yeah, you know, kind of. Yeah, for sure is. There's like teams that have just poofed away, right, and just disappeared. I feel like FaZe also kind of wanted to do like the the cloudy thing, which was like, yeah, if you go public, that's a ton of clout. But they were the first they were the first to do it, right? They were the first. Yeah. Yeah. I I think there's like a holding company that's public that owns another esports or Yeah. Uh but they're the first. That's like their their ticker is phase. Yeah. I'm sure it could be a lot of just a fad right now, but then over time it could develop. But I'm very much about like what's the bottom line? and how much money does it make? Let's not spend too much money. Let's keep low overhead and keep this thing running slim and lean. Then let me give you a little question. I'm going to show you my Robin Hood account and you tell me what are good investments and what are bad investments. Yeah, let's do Can we could you All right, let's see. All right, so you've gone from 261 down to 180. I mean, that's the market generally, but in total, he's lost $25,000 in principal, which isn't like it's not bad. I was up like 40% at one point. What sucks is that you're down 5% today. Uh nine almost $10,000 today. That's not That's not bad, man. That's That's good down. Are you Are you using margin at all or no? What does that mean? Okay, that means you're borrowing money from the platform. All right, so you got a third of a Bitcoin. I think that's fine. 6,000 Dogecoin. I think that's a that's fine. I had I had some Dogecoin back in the day. I turned $100 into 17,000. Isn't that crazy? That's insane. You had you had incredible timing. He sold at the peak. Yeah. I lost it all though. It's It's fine. Yeah. I I had made a bit off it and then just kept some just in case. Yeah. But I sold a lot of it. Mhm. It's good. Probably good. Yeah. Uh I like your stocks of art. Microsoft really safe. Apple, you can't go wrong with it. Disney I think is pretty good. Baba. Uh what do we got here? Coca-Cola. Got a Warren Buffett stock there. Love Coke. Then we gota Verizon. Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of Verizon, but you know, but I'm bitter. I invested in T-Mobile a while ago and they did nothing. How'd you pick these stocks? Uh, so they're mostly things that I believe in. One, things that somebody told me to buy. Like Verizon was the stock guy on Twitch who just told me to buy Verizon, so I did. And then uh some are memes like United Airlines I bought as a joke because I had a running thing that airlines can only go up. Uh, and then some are random yolos that I found on random websites. Yeah, like App Harvest. That's a weird I've never heard of this company, but you got uh at your average cost is $3.95. Not bad. But at the peak, this was a like $30. No. Yeah. $33 stock and now it's 256. Yeah. Told me to buy it because he said it was revolutionizing agriculture. Oh, no. And I bought it cuz I like Germa. Anytime. It's democratize or revolutionize. I'm just like, "No, move on from that." Honestly, it's not that bad. Uh I invested in Rocket. That's that's been a terrible terrible terrible company. Wall Street Bet YOLO. It was right before their call or earnings call or whatever, and they're like, "It's going to go up." And I bought it and it's down a lot. Yeah. Uh Ford, I really like Ford a lot. Palanteer has been awful. That was one I never got into. Another Wall Street Bets. It turns out they're also an evil company. Oh, really? I think so. Right. I don't think so. I'll stop recording. I don't think it's bad. Not bad. This is your play money, right? This is what this is. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is the So, that's the thing. It's like if this if this were your retirement account, I would look at that be like, bro, we got to sell everything just an index fund it, keep some cash on the sidelines. But if this is just like play money, it doesn't really matter. And I would just look at this like are these companies that you believe in for the next five years? And if not, I mean, it doesn't hurt to take a loss on them, get a write off and put that money in a company that you do believe in. What does that mean? Uh, if you sell those at a loss, you're able to sell other investments that you have as a gain to cancel out. So, let's let's just say you lost 100 grand here, but you made 100 grand over here. You could sell those those winning investment that that profit, offset it with a loss, owe no tax whatsoever, but it's the same amount of money. Correct. Yeah. You just it's like the net change in total. Is it just a a way to pull out of a company you don't believe in that you're losing on? Correct. The benefit. Yeah. Just just sell and then reby back in if you really want to you made money on. It resets your cost basis. So that that way like imagine you sold this profitable stocks for you know 100,000 profit. Now you'd have to owe tax on that, but you could offset that with losing investments like this and then that way it resets your cost basis on whatever you want to buy. So I've made a [ __ ] ton on Amazon. I believe in them. I've lost a [ __ ] ton on App Harvest. I don't believe in them. I sell both. It offsets and then I go right back to Amazon every day. And now your cost basis is higher. Like imagine you're at uh let's just let's just call it even numbers. $10 on Amazon. Now it's worth 20. Yeah. Uh that difference you're going to have to pay tax on that. But by offsetting it now all of a sudden your tax basis is $20. So if it goes from 20 to 30 now you're only paying tax on the $10 instead of on the the $20. Okay. Do you get that or is No, I I'm here. I'm here. Are you guys are tap tax loophole enjoyers? I I enjoy No, not maybe not a loophole, but you know within the tax code there are there are some opportunities there. A loophole. Is that not a correct term? Not really. I think loophole has a negative connotation to it. I I I think using the tax code as it's intended is a great thing. I guess I'm referring to things like billionaires borrowing and then borrowing their borrowing and borrowing their borrowing so they never have to pay capital gains tax eventually. No, but the thing is eventually they'll pay the capital gains tax. It goes somewhere. Now the the goal is that you will pass away and that your heir your heirs will inherit that at a stepped up tax basis. I think that's a that's a loophole that they will close at some point, but right now it's totally fine. Uh so I'm all for it. I think for most people it doesn't make sense to borrow against assets to pay for things, but if you're in a category where where you could do that effectively, then I think it's okay. What about the flying to Puerto Rico, living there for the 10% income tax, and then sailing out of it? Uh there are a lot of stipulations to doing that that you have to follow. Uh, I think a lot of people just think blindly, oh, I'll move to Puerto Rico for six months in a day and I'll save all this tax. There's certain businesses that are qualified to do that. You have to comply with that. I think if you go through the process, uh, why not? But I think it's a lot more involved than most people think. Sure. We just got a warehouse space and, uh, we're going to we're going to do most of the work out of the warehouse for any like uh, shows or productions that we have. Uh, and I'm excited to not be in my house and work for my house because I've just been doing that for four years, you know. See, once we visited Jimmy, like he knows this, too. But as soon as we saw his warehouse, we were like, "Oh my gosh, having a place like this feel like could make us so much more productive and give us so much more freedom, too." Because right now, our podcast space, like, it's good. We have really high quality equipment. It looks professional, but at the same time, the room is tiny. Like, the room is significantly smaller than this. Right. Right. And it's so Yeah. I mean, it's like I mean, I probably Is it like the blue at the Yeah, it's probably like the blue up there. Oh, no. Bigger. Probably probably where those those things are. I see. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a pretty small room for the amount of like like production that people walk in, they're like, "Wow, we thought this was so much bigger warehouse." I mean, it opens up so much more freedom, too. You could have depth in your podcast, too, which is kind of sick. And lots of stuff. So, we kind of have been dabbling with that idea. Realistically, it's probably not going to happen, but it'll be interesting to see how that affects your work. And if you find yourself more productive leaving the house and working somewhere else and like being able to separate like home life from work life. Yeah, I think I'm excited for that idea. Yeah, I think that that that'll uh it'll change how I feel in my house cuz I don't think I've felt that in like ever, you know, really. It's kind of funny because I I growing up like I always figured I would do some sort of nineto-ive at some point and you dreamed to do the job where you can work whenever you want but as soon as you start doing that and especially if you're working from home you strive to have more structure and to be able to effectively like clock in clock out and go like but if you don't have that that's all you want. It's just like the grass is always greener and I schedules are so sick. And when I first went full-time, I was just going live and then I would stay live until I'm tired and then I would go to bed. And I ended up having just a terrible schedule and my life was just in shambles cuz I just didn't have a time I had to show up. So, I just showed up when I wanted and I stayed how long I wanted and it was it was unhealthy. Uh I think a lot of streamers uh are unhealthy because they run that same what I was doing uh before I switched to like a more concrete schedule. Yeah. I'm afraid I would just never leave the office if if this was something that wasn't at my house. Yeah. But in that same logic, then you are never mentally leaving the office in your house. Correct. But at least I'm home. Sure. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's really hard for me to turn my mind off. Yeah. It's it's it's something I'm working on, right? But yeah, it's hard when you're in the focus and just like you're in the moment. It I'm always thinking about it's always in the back of my head. Especially if you're able because like it's fine to think about work when you're not at work, but if you're able to act on it, too, then it's like, well, why don't I do it right now? Why don't I just go do this thing? Well, I always have a task. So, like I'll make maybe five things that I have to do and my day doesn't end until those things are done. And so, usually once I finish up, I'm good. Are you good at making sure the task list isn't too big or too small? Um, yeah, usually. Yeah. There'll rarely ever be something that I put on that list I don't finish like because I just got to get it done so it'll get done. Are you good at that? I'm terrible at that. Like I'm always like it's 8 a.m. I'm like I'm do this this this and it's so much stuff I can't get it all done. I'm not really a task guy. I know there's things that I have to do. I just have things that if I do them I will feel accomplished for the day. So it's like I got to work out uh that will make me feel good. I got to um post at least one video or stream. And so it's like I just do one business thing. So, it's like if I do all three of those, I feel good. Yeah. And it and it manifests in different ways. Like, what do you have to do for the rest of today? Today, I have to uh make a thumbnail for one video. Okay. So, I can upload that video right after my stream. I have to figure out what I'm going to stream and then I got to stream it. And if I do those, then I feel good. And then I have to play at least two League of Legends games. So, you're streaming today? Yeah. Final question. Cool. You said China would fail in 13 days. It hasn't. I didn't say 13 days. What did I say? It was uh 31 days. 31 days. 31 days. Well, that was meant I don't want to say in what what do you call that? A lot of the times what what we do for our tongue and cheek. Yeah. You quote other people's like ridiculous claims and you talk about said article within the video. So, it's not necessarily Graham's quote saying that, although he didn't necessarily quotate it or whatever, but yeah, I think I put in the thumbnail 29 days, but that was in reference to I think it was Cascad's Academy video which said 31 days and I posted like a few days after him. Yeah, I think their economy is in the crapper. I think there's a lot of things that they have to overcome, but I an allout collapse is is is going to take a lot. People would have to completely lose faith in the system and there's nothing stopping China from burying it and just trying to find a way to, you know, snuff this out over here, print more money, ease pol. There's so many things that they could do to prevent that from happening. But long term, it's not looking good. I think they have a lot of potential, though. I mean, if they really wanted to like, you know, be competitive, they they have a lot of areas that I think they could improve and grow at the same time and they could be a major competitor, but I think with their current policies, it's not going to happen. I feel like it's so easy for them to switch it though because it's an authoritarian regime that like if it's not going well, they can see that and they can just do it. They can just change it. It's not like something they have to uh sway people on or convince companies. They just they can control whatever they want to. Yeah. So, they have that advantage. Uh, so I feel like they do spin it around. Yeah. And I think they will continue to do that, right? But no, I don't think it'll collapse and three three Exactly. three. I actually don't know how he came up with that. Uh, I'm I'm thinking it's just, you know, a title sort of deal. It's like, hey, it could be somewhere around here. If you put a time frame on something, people uh are more likely to click it. For sure. There's like a sense of urgency. Yeah. So I'm guessing they're like what's going to happen in 30 on that 31st day that's going to be different from the 30th day. I think there's also like a inherent nationalism even for like finance bros or or like uh business guys uh to like be like okay China's failing. Yeah. Cuz like for 10 years they hear that China's going to usurp America as the number one economy. So any anything that's in contrast to that is like oh interesting. Yeah. I think a lot of people were worried. Ray Dalio came out with a perspective of the changing world order. It's an incredible video. It's like an hour long, but it explains that the US has been the reserve currency now uh since the I think it was like the 1940s or 50s is when it was officially announced. And no uh currency has been the reserve for more than like a hundred and something years. And so according to him, there will be a point where maybe something else takes over. And so some people were speculating, oh well maybe it's Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. And you know his argument was that China is growing at such a fast pace that they could outpace the US and they could but then again you have to have trust in that currency and right now there's not that universal trust that they would need. But I think a lot of people took an interest in that and also everything happening with Everrand and the fact that it's something different and uh you know I think just in general China's been in the the media quite a bit and so people take an interest in that. Yeah. So, when I post those videos too, it's interesting to see because 80% of my audience is US-based. When I post one of those videos, it's only 60% US-based. So, there's a lot bigger reach and I think a lot more people outside of the US that could watch that video and maybe learn something from it. Yeah, that makes sense to me because I guess it's like if especially if you're not American or in China, you want to see like big world players, what's going on, feel in touch with those. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. But I try to make videos that I think people would want to see. So if people are either commenting on a certain topic or I see certain topics doing well, chances are that's a topic that people are interested in in hearing about and then uh from there I'm just happy to share my perspective. Right. I got one other question. You said as soon as you passed $1 million and I'm assuming what net worth like liquid net worth. Uh yeah, that's when you finally calmed down and allowed yourself to add on to like uh more expenses and overhead and stuff like that. As soon as you hit that, because I feel a similar philosophy. I I I didn't set mine at 1 million. I set mine between two and four million. It used to be four. Now it's kind of two. I'm kind of like inching down, right? But as soon as you hit that, did you feel a great wave of relief or did it not really change anything? You feel the same? No. Cuz it it doesn't for me manifest by the dollar amount. I don't really know where my finances are uh on a day-to-day basis unless I like specifically look it up. I can tell how I'm doing financially by seeing how well I'm doing like professionally, whether it's like my viewership or with like my my like my video views and things like that. So, you know, I think when I was starting to average like a quarter million, you know, views a video or when I reached like a million subscribers on YouTube, like those are the things that I I'm more able to look at and be like, "Oh, okay. Nice." And this is a theory that I have, but as soon as you let go of this like financial constraint you put on yourself where you cared about it so much, did you actually see a positive ROI on that when you allowed yourself to take on more overhead and not worry so much about the financial consequences of every single business decision you make? Maybe it spurred more creativity or something. I think it's a little different for me. I think I have a dumb brain in the sense that I've always been I've never been burdened financially or or felt stressed financially. uh I mean part of that is we grew up middle class and we were pretty comfortable and then uh you know we had like a a decent amount of savings. We had like a life insurance policy. My dad died so it's like money money was not a a big problem. We like college was half paid for. So I always had this mentality is that was like yeah I'll make money whatever I do. Like I don't think I need to be rich or I will be rich but I'll always have enough money to to live life. Uh, and it's always worked out and I always assumed everything would work out and and I think humans are way better at adjusting to the life that they lead than they realize. And so it's like, you know, if I'm if I if I'm at my poorest, which was when I first moved to Los Angeles, I immediately adjusted to that and I was cool with just eating, you know, peanut butter sandwiches from Trader Joe's. And then if I'm at my richest, I immediately adjusted to that and I was like, "Oh, this is normal and it is okay that I'm getting, you know, insane first class fights and and I think nothing of it." So it's like I there was never a point where I had I'd thought about it, which I think is a part of just the privilege of having grown up middle class. And do you think that that inner confidence or even like potentially could be considered naivity worked in your favor or do you think it worked against you? Maybe like you got to like I got to the time is now. I got to grind. I got to do all this. Do you think that perspective would have helped you out more or do you think this confidence? Yeah, I I think it helped a lot. But it also could be what's the word? Survivors uh survivorship bias. Yeah, survivorship bias. So, it's like in my mind, yeah, like the idea that everything will always work out has helped me because I it allowed me to throw myself going full-time with less money in the bank account than I was comfortable with and hiring people before I knew if I could even afford the salaries. And it's all worked out and the business has only grown every year uh by like, you know, in insane numbers. But that's also because it's grown and it's succeeded. Like there's a world where it's failed and then I'm not in a podcast but talking and kicking myself because I spent it all and I could have done better saving it. But I've never had to confront that cuz it hasn't happened. So it's it's hard for me to say if the naivity helped or if I just got lucky and now I don't have to worry about it. All right. Is there anything else? That's great. You're good. All right. Hell yeah. Thank you.