He Gets 300M Views a Month… Here’s His Exact Strategy | James Dumoulin | DSH #1872

The number one mistake content creators make when they are starting a channel is they dilute

their brands very quickly. I know that where attention goes revenue flows like I've never ever gotten

to a point where I'm like oh man I'm good we can just kind of like chill or whatever it's like no

I'm still filming you know you blink I mean and you know you never know you know like life too short

all right guys got James here from school of hard knocks one of the most viewed content creators on

social media right now thanks for joining us today man very happy to be here man happy we're

going to make it happen out in Austin yeah hometown for you right yes sir 200 million views

a month 200 million that's the highest I've heard in quite a while that's a bad month too

I've had a couple months where we've done you know 250 300 million we've had videos that

do 100 million on one platform which is insane because you don't even have clippers working on it

you know it's ridiculous that's all you just your own accounts because you've got a 12 million

followers right yeah 12 million across social media now insane so imagine you with a clipper army

crazy yeah you might be able to hit a billion in a month yeah hey you said it first so we're

gonna check back and make that happen it's go man what type of contents popping off you right now

right now again the organic interview content people love authenticity I would say originality

um you know creates attention but storytelling builds connection with an audience and so I think

that you know just keeping it very real and raw you know as much as you know yourself myself it may

be great to like land a big interview with somebody I've seen that myself that goes in most viral with

people that most people have never seen before because you're telling a story from somebody whom this

guy exited for eight nine figures in this business how how did that happen so I think that's something

that's uh really interesting so I mean again like I said I think something that we've done really

well consistently that I think maybe we do better than anybody else in the world is that you know a lot

of my interviews are 20 to 30 minutes long but I'm able to condense that into the best most

viral prone a minute to a minute and a half worth of content and I think that's something that we've

done really well consistently and then hasn't able to you know that consistent growth over the time in

that you know massive virality have you been able to outsource that part of the business or do

you still have to do that so this is really interesting so you know one of the first businesses that we

started when we realized that hey as a content creator you cannot build a business off of ad revenue

so one of the first things that my partners and I realized that hey you know we're disproportionately

better than I'd say 99% of people at creating content but we were only monetizing off ad revenue

when we first started to grow the school of hard knocks and so we're like okay we know content

we're interviewing wealthy people we're getting them millions of views we're getting them exposure

that sort of content agency to kind of bridge the two of those together and through that though

we we were hiring editors we're hiring videographers we're hiring account managers

but one thing that I've never been able to let go and a lot of people don't believe this I was just

talking on another podcast somebody about this I still edit every single one of our videos on

the school of hard knocks and they take two hours I'm posting now like every other day because

I feel like when you get to a point where you have several million followers it all becomes about

quality over quantity when you're starting out it's about quantity but I think as you as you grow

and you really get bigger interaction on social media it's all about quality that's why a lot of

these big entrepreneurs they burn out and a lot of them haven't grown a thousand a hundred thousand

followers in six months to a year a lot of people and I'm telling you it's because they they're

just pouring confidence like dude it becomes all about quality at a certain point in my opinion but

I've never been able to outsource that and even though I think editing I consider like an MWA

activity which is a minimum wage activity I think that because of how consistent our stuff has

just been I'm like I'm sure at some point especially as we continue to grow and other business

ventures grow and we're just you know continuing to film and work on other aspects I'm on a half

a let it go at some point you know they say that you get somebody to do it like 70 to 80% as well as

you can and then you you know delegate that to them but it'll be some serious coaching because I

kind of got it down to a formula that works really well for us yeah I found out similarly I can't

see about on editors no because it's one of those things as a business owner you want to cut costs

yeah but if you go overseas they can't find the clips they'll borrow absolutely yeah I think editors

and the other thing especially if you're on youtube get a killer thumbnail guy um thumbnail is just

I mean you know you obviously know you hear mr. Beast the most successful youtube creators talk about

that the two most important metrics on youtube watch time and click through rate right but

and if you're you know thumbnail title is not optimized for the viewer you know for the viewer

experience kiss that video goodbye it's not going to do well so I think yeah the two things is a

content creator you know especially if you're doing long form obviously editor that applies to short

from as well but then also thumbnails you got to have a crazy thumbnail game I think that's very

important you got to invest because you got to stop people from scrolling which is what you do you

have hooks on all your videos yes 100% and that's the thing is 70% of people they lose their audience

in the first three second of a video so you know that's the biggest thing is you know I work with a lot

of big entrepreneurs help a lot of people go viral on social media and I say dude you got to stop

making the assumption that people know who you are right I tell all of my clients I tell everybody

when you're starting out on social media stop making the assumption that people know who the

fuck you are because they don't and so that's why again it those first three to five seconds is

everything it will make or break a video 100% yeah I definitely agree with that even like if you're

getting hundreds of millions of views there's still people you're not reaching they won't know who you

yes absolutely and it takes years to build that brand recognition which is what you've done now I think

100% were you the first to really do those street interviews you know I this is a great

something that I thought about a lot right obviously street interviews have been around for 20 years

every major legacy media you know news platform news site they've been doing street street

street interviews ever since microphone and camera was existed right but I think in terms of

this concept obviously you know we started this back in 2021 so I think at the time

there were a couple people that were doing somewhat of like interviews where they'd be approaching

people going up to people but it wasn't in the sense of like I think our format our format is

what made it really unique where it was all business you know there's people that you know

you know went up to cars and stuff like that but in terms of like actually you know just going

cold approaching going straight for the business advice you know trying to our big goal was to kind

of have like a mentors at scale type of program I was blessed growing up with great mentors a lot

of my peers and my hometown in the DC area they didn't have that so one of the big reasons for

wanting to start this channel was not only seeing the immense opportunity in the creator economy

being that media in my opinion is one of the best industries to get into in today's world it's a

long game it's definitely not overnight but um but but I think again being able to kind of

go find and seek the industry experts that have 10 20 30 40 years of experience and be able to

package that to somebody all around the world who may not have a great mentor maybe they're you know

in a third world country maybe they're growing up in an impoverished environment I'm sure you've

had people from all around the world reach out to you as a creator as somebody that's making

influential content there's nothing better than somebody reaching out to you from Australia talking

about I quit my job because of this podcast or because of this episode that I saw or you know I

was in a really low point in your videos kind of got me out of that right and so that's a big

thing that I think has kept us going kind of to do the mentors at scale but in terms of being the

the first to do it how we say no matter what type of content you go into you have to be an innovator

and whatever niche that you're in the more you can continue to do that the more relevant you'll be

the longer you'll be in the game for absolutely you got to put your own unique twist on it 100

percent is a million podcasts right now and there's probably a million people trying to copy your

style absolutely I see it every day yeah I see different well pop up every day I get tagged in

video or set a profile and you know I mean you know some people say like imitation is the greatest

one more flattery I actually I'm not I'm not the biggest fan of it if I'm being honest now

granted there's some people that may say that I've tried to copy style or emulate other people's format

who maybe we're doing it before me but like I said I'm a huge believer in you know Damian John

has the saying that pioneers get slaughtered and settlers prosper meaning if you're trying to

think about how do I go viral on social media right now you don't have to reinvent the wheel every

form of content has been done every every type of podcast obviously you know like you said you got

to be innovative you got to add your own twist to it but but that's essentially what it is and

whatever niche that you're in is like I said you don't have to reinvent the wheel you know you

you go study the 10 to 20 accounts that you want to be like that's pop and see what they're doing

but then just find ways to add your do you ever think about the risk you didn't take

buying Bitcoin early investing after 2008 loading up on the video AI's changing jobs and markets are

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at selectquote.com slash DSH on originality your own creative twist to make it you and I think that

where I start to kind of go a little bit like man I don't like that shit is when I see people

literally exact same hook question everything like that but it is what it is like you know you can't

do anything about it at the end of the day some people are jump starting their career off of it

so you know I'm all good with it yeah but there's no longevity in that no there isn't you can't

copy your way to you you definitely can't and it's interesting because you know I don't know if

you're familiar with like the Coke and the Pepsi Wars back in like the 1980s where they were constantly

Coke would do one thing then Pepsi would do it than that so maybe to an extent depending on how

how big you're able to kind of take it but I do agree I 100% see you saying that there is not

longevity in doing that yeah and it also you ask really great questions I think that's what separates

you for sure and I've seen you talk about it before where that's literally what separates the

the best podcast the best channels in the world is asking those unique questions and honestly I'll

say this as well is that I don't think people realize how the the questions like that I actually

are and I'm not saying that in like a in a bag of doses way but I'm saying because again we

optimize the best minute and a half worth of content out of 20 to 30 minutes but like in those 20

to 30 minutes like I'm getting so specific asking them very verbatim like deep like specific questions

that if more people saw you be like damn but sometimes you have to realize that there is something

with like virality that like putting a question like that in there make cut up the pacing it may

so but yes question asking is absolutely very important and I think one of the most interesting

things that I've actually I've always done this and I think because we got our start when we were

doing the street interview content where we were literally just going up organically to people which

we we would have no idea who these people that we were talking to what their businesses were

obviously you know we called approach like Mark Cuban we interviewed him and we do a little bit

about Mark Cuban but mostly people we didn't and so that kind of enabled me to realize that hey

you want to be a good question asker you have to genuinely listen you have to genuinely be

interested in the person that you're talking to and so like I give the example we're just talking

the other day that I just interviewed one of the only self-made Latina billionaires in the world

her name is Carolina Ronson she's based out of Miami Florida and you know I had the interview set

up in Miami for probably like three weeks I didn't start doing research on her until 15 minutes

before the interview whoa but the reason why is because I think you get really raw organic conversations

that way because she was telling me something that maybe I had no idea and I'm like it's a genuine

reaction I'm surprised like this is my first time viewing this yeah whereas it's like okay if I

had been doing research on here for a week out or a couple of days out then it's like then it's

like it's kind of hard to like not be genuinely and obviously maybe there's some downsides of that

because you're not uncovering maybe a specific part of the story that would be really interested

to highlight but that's why like I said I try to get really deep in those to like get specific

moments out to kind of talk about there's a balance I think because you can overdo it I've been

on a show where the guy does 30 hours of research on each guest oh I can see you more about me

than I knew about me oh you know what I mean it's just like Nard War and I'll never see Nard War

yeah but at the same time there's shows that don't do any and that's actually more impressive to

me because to be able to ask good questions with no prep yeah means you're really skilled interviewer

it's definitely a skill but it all just comes with a lot of reputation like I probably interview

you know thousand people by now I'm sure you have as well yeah um and and also you know having

that ability there's not many people that you know we'll line up five 10 interviews in the day

I've you've done it I've I've I tell people all the time it's like especially if I'm going to the

city you know and I've got somebody who's like sending me people to interview I'm like look let's

be clear I'll do seven to 10 interviews yeah I'll do it and it's like I think doing it that much

that repetitively you just get so used to it to where it's like I can literally go into cold

to talk to anybody whether they're in venture capital tech private equity real estate a home

service business like it like I'll find out something to get like a cool story out of them or

something to you know get some real actionable specific stuff out of them and I don't know

about you but I was a huge introvert growing up so for me to be interviewing people for a living

now it's like a total 180 that's interesting yeah for sure where you always kind of like this social

you know yeah so I I think I've always been a pretty social person I've always I think my

ex-factor maybe you know my ability to communicate and you know conversate with people but a lot of

that was also because I grew up and I really didn't have a choice you know we were talking earlier

I lived in South Korea for four years from six to ten and when I was living over there my dad

was running the largest overseas military base in the entire world and Camp Humphries in a city called

Piontech South Korea so it was a military it was in a military family but I was growing up like

watch my dad who's you know one of the most influential people in my life speak in front of

tens of thousands of people he's meeting you know leaders of all these foreign countries and I'm

you know they're a lot with him because a lot of the time a lot of events you go to it's with

your family so when at a young age when I'm meeting all these people who have a lot of influence

overseas and international affairs and US military you know I kind of had to learn and I observed

an early age like how effective communication strategic communication is extremely important no

matter what business or industry that you're in yeah you mentioned you had good mentors earlier some

assuming your dad was one of them dad was absolutely great mentor not not a not a big business guy

but I had other people you know my family that were and obviously I think my brother was definitely

the most impactful person in terms of me wanting to go the business route and kind of for go like

the traditional nine to five route yeah and especially you know I for the longest time growing up

wanted to go with the military like my dad my dad you know had an incredible career in the military

he was a West pointer anybody who knows West Point knows that like the military academies are

some of the hardest institutions to get into in the in the world and so I thought for a long time

I was going to follow in his footsteps but ultimately again but yeah I had my dad from a you know

discipline and integrity standpoint you know and still in those values in me you know my mom same

way you know I great parents my uncle my uncle Doug you know was part of a healthcare company was

the number two at a healthcare company that exited for four billion dollars yeah so I had a little

bit of you know that side as well to where I kind of got exposed to and like you know what they always

say you can only grow to what you're exposed to yeah so you know kind of seeing that part of life and

just having a great balance people it was everything you know I would say mentorship is the only

shortcut to success mentorship is wisdom without the wounds yeah because you're paying for all the

hours they spend yeah wisdom without the wounds you know what I mean because it's I mean and I mean

obviously the only other thing is to go through it yourself but it's like I mean when you think

about shortening the learning curve I mean some conversations I'm sure you've had with some of

the people that you're meeting that you're interviewing can literally you know shave five minutes of

learning off your life um so it's it's imperative you know to uh to get around those kinds of people

I'd say more than five minutes in some cases sometimes years that's what saying five years I'm sorry

I don't know but yeah yeah absolutely 100% yeah 100% um that's why you launched your community

right your mentorship community yeah absolutely you know and the reason why is because and let's

say this right the number one was the number one mistake content creators make when they are

starting a channel is they dilute their brands very quickly by you know selling some bullshit

whatever it may be but also when they go to figure out okay I know I know that where attention goes

revenue flows that's why I think media is such a great business to be in today's world however

how do we actually monetize that and the mistake that I see a lot of creators make is that they have

too much of an emotional attachment or an ego to when they're getting ready to sell some sort of

like product they're like oh I've always wanted to do a clothing company I'm a sort of clothing

company but you haven't asked your audience yet so why are you gonna so close or why are you

gonna sell a peril if you've never even checked to see if your audience wants that giving an example

we're two years into building hard knocks at the time we have a couple hundred thousand followers

hadn't hit our our big break this last year was when we went crazy right I hit a million

followers on Instagram in February I hit two million followers on Instagram in May three million

in July four million in October and we just hit five million followers a couple days ago and

you know but we're two years in right I'll give you just a quick little story we're two years

in there growing the school of hard knocks it's like 2022 late 2022 at this point and I'm like okay

you know we got to find do you ever think about the risk you didn't take buying Bitcoin early

investing after 2008 loading up on the video hey eyes changing jobs and markets are all over the place

nothing feels guaranteed and at some point you realize no one's going to save you we're kind of the

phomo generation but here's one thing you don't want to miss protecting your future if you're new

to life insurance you're not alone thankfully I found select quote for over 40 years they've helped

more than two million Americans understand their options and secure over 700 billion dollars in

coverage as a broker their mission is simple to find you the right insurance policy at the best price

and they work for you for free you can even get same day coverage up to two million dollars with no

medical exam required and even if you have pre-existing conditions they work with companies back

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for less and save more than 50% at selectquote.com slash DSH

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selectquote.com slash DSH wait I'm monetized beyond just like ad revenue and I'm like hey what if

we started to sell you know motivational you canvases motivational canvas art and my part is like

hey yet that's actually really good idea you know we're we're interviewing business people like

that makes sense right people want that wrong so we've been hired and we outsourced we hired

an outsource CMO paying in $5,000 on like a three month thing so we wasted $15,000 we sort of

like maybe a cup a handful of canvases and it was at the time where we you know we're literally

only making money off of ad revenue and so we realized from that point on it's like you got to

talk to your customer you got to talk to the audience what do they really want and so when we

decided about the mentorship community was that okay why do people follow us well yes we are in

the media business yes we're creators but at the end of the day we're in the bridging business where

we are bridging your you know your normal consumer normal person who's just scrolling content

obviously there's a lot of business people that follow us people that are just trying to get more

financially literate but we're bridging them to the top 1% of people so okay if that's what our

content is doing what's the number one reason why people have reached out to us or DM us it's how

do I get access to this person how are you coming in contact with these people like you know how

how like like what's the secret to this so there's the answer right there people want to know how

they can get access to these people so we launched and built let's become one of the biggest online

you know entrepreneur communities where every week you know we host mentorship calls with the

millionaires and billionaires we interview but that's again that makes sense because of our audience

and those creators they have that attachment where it's like oh I'm going to do this because I want

to do that and it's like the people don't want that you know so I think that's extremely important

when we're a lot of creators ultimately go wrong and don't make money really and yeah I'd say most

creators mess up with them and I see it all the time especially the merch one that one never made

sense to me because the margins are so bad exactly absolutely and that's the thing is if you have a

community right what is the double R and rules for a stand for recurring revenue so it's like if

you can build some sort of you know community where you know you have residual and obviously it's kind

of it's got to be something that really makes sense it's like I look with us as my kind of thing

we hired a community manager and his thing is like to do for the price of less than four subway

sandwiches you get to get on weekly calls with eight nine figure and even you know billion-dollar

entrepreneurs people that have you know built legit businesses that have sold companies for

hundreds of millions of dollars you know like I know if you want to you know get on a call with

a guy obviously you're in the relationship business you have a platform so it's like it's different

but I'm saying like if you're just somebody who's you know in any other business right where you

don't necessarily have a value add to that person it's ten thousand dollars a minimum for some of

these people to hop on with for an hour and I'm saying like a minimum of like a thousand dollars

for me if you go on connect I think PBD is like 20k an hour right now that's what I'm saying you

know what I mean so I think that uh you know that that's why it's like it's a product that I genuinely

believe in and that's the one of the biggest hurdles that I've had to overcome over the last year

is that our first three three and a half years we never sold anything this is my first ever like

digital product and thing and so I've had that hesitancy like what's wrong with I don't want to be

too sales it's like we've gotten this far without doing it you know you don't want to do it but it's

like as genuinely if it's genuinely a product that that's I think that's that's the switch that you

have to flip is it you're you're not some of this person you're serving them you're like you were

this product is genuinely going to change their life and I think and Dean Graziosi who's one of the

best you know internet marketers of all time in this realm of business is actually the one you know

we we had like a like a like a kind of like a one-on-one mastermind me and my two co-founders went out

there to Scott so he's a great guy and he actually taught us that where it's like you got to you

got to stop looking at like you're selling them and that you're actually serving them wow you know

so that that changed my perspective a lot on it and it made me a bit less hesitant to you know

being able to get on the story or getting the YouTube video or getting the camera and just you

know tell people about your product you know because you have to that's the thing is you have to

market your business every single day a lot of people are extremely good at what they do but no

windows what they do hmm dude I love that so much I'm two years in I haven't sold anything yet yeah

it was with which honesty though but it's it's that's very smart though you know what I mean and and

you know when you know you're stacking up these incredible guests and stuff like that to where

it's like you know you're just gonna have that reputation and that trust built in with your audience

and I think that you know being able to have that is more important than just you know selling out

early on because like I said media is a long game it is not overnight you know it's a it's a 10

year it's a 10 12 year thing you know what I mean so but I think there's a lot of value in that

because like you know you said that you want to it goes to exit for a lot of money but in doing so

it's like maintain like the number one thing is just not diluting your brand equity I think even

like I would give that advice over how to go viral how to like it it's literally do not dilute

your brand equity that's very important yeah that's like my least favorite question how to go viral

people ask they probably ask you that all the time right yeah absolutely all the time it's like

dude it's like kids go viral like no and that's that's the thing is that uh you know

what's interesting about that is that most people again they that's another thing where

the biggest reason why content creators fails because they get discouraged with not going viral

instantly but like I'm I'm sure you've experienced the same thing but where the amount of content

creators will come and ask you for advice and you can give them the blueprint you can give them

the playbook you can tell them and you know you can check back in after a month hey you know how's

everything going well I posted 10 videos nothing really hit so you know my friend called me corny

he threw my posts in a group chat and it's like and it's just like you know um like I know for a

fact that I've had probably plenty people from hometown that while we were growing our channel

even to this day people that still throw me in the chat you know what I mean but it's just like

just like again what what are they doing absolutely nothing you know so that that's you know I think

that that's you know like I always love to say one of my favorite things of all time is credibility

kills all bad attitudes and so it's like you know if you're able to build a platform you're in

the right rooms that a lot of people like can't even pay money to get into with some of these people

you know it's kind of like like who cares and I think that I think that again like I said what

people get discouraged and that will prevent them you know more than anything else you know

yes seriously there's always going to be hey I mean I look at the comments in your videos you're

teaching people how to become financially free and there's people hating in the comments right

it's just my outlawing to me it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what you do but oh you always

gotta remember though is that like no successful person hates you know whatever you genuinely though

like I received it myself the other day it's like I don't think I've ever left a hate common

in my entire life and and I can't like any I mean all just successful person that I know I mean

they'll get me wrong I know that there's probably some successful people like everybody you know

I would be honest everybody probably has a little bit of like hatred in them you know everybody does

you know absolutely like it just is but it's also like it's like you know do you do you

you want to comment that you know whatever you like you're gonna you're gonna like I haven't

seen it like I've been I've been you know thinking about that recently and maybe you know there's

some where it is a little bit justified or warranted for certain people or certain styles of

videos but yeah I mean it doesn't matter you know what you do there's always gonna you know

be somebody that tries to like say something like that you know I love what you're doing

internationally because you could get only so many views within the US right we got

300 million people that live here but now you're starting to go to Saudi Dubai other countries

so and and the big you know thing why this is very important is so I one of our calls we hosted

with a gentleman named Neil Patel I'm sure you're familiar yeah he's been on the talk great guy

yep really got new Patel is one of the greatest internet marketers of our generation yeah

absolutely I mean he owns one of the biggest marketing agencies in North America and you know

somebody asked him hey what's your best advice to me as a content creator or digital marketer I think

this is applied to any industry or any business and he said the next five to ten years it's going

to be the globalization of content you know and so with us you know obviously we've got 12 million

followers and it's all like American it's all English yeah well it's like what's stopping us I mean

like what mr. Beast has done extremely well he's got mr. do you ever think about the risk you

didn't take buying Bitcoin early investing after 2008 loading up on the video hey eyes changing jobs

markets are all over the place nothing feels guaranteed and at some point you realize no one's

going to save you we're kind of the FOMO generation but here's one thing you don't want to miss

protecting your future if you're new to life insurance you're not alone thankfully I found

select quote for over 40 years they've helped more than two million Americans understand their options

and secure over seven hundred billion dollars in coverage as a broker their mission is simple

to find you the right insurance policy at the best price and they work for you for free you can

even get same-day coverage up to two million dollars with no medical exam required and even if

you have pre-existing conditions they work with companies that can help life insurance is never

cheaper than it is today get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50%

at selectqote.com slash DSH save more than 50% on term life insurance at selectqote.com slash

DSH today to get started at selectqote.com slash DSH Beast Espanyol has got all the different

languages so it's like not only not but I think it's it goes way more beyond the the dub channels it's

like look you know you want to not fry you don't you want to not saturate you want to not like

you know get stagnant and creating content and go to a different market like there's

think about there's billions of people that live in you know I don't know the exact numbers

I don't want to talk out of my ass but there's billions of people that live in like India right

aren't there Asia yeah India might have or China has a bill I think yeah well just a hundred

millions of people that live in these different countries and those business models over there as

well go get different perspectives from them and I think that that's something you know there's

only so many trips you can take out to Miami yeah I mean I mean obviously so many West Watson's

out there yeah so so obviously you know there's a you know you know you can take a lot of trips

to like LA and Miami and obviously people are always moving around there's always people that are

coming up which is which is great and that's the beautiful thing about their journey and about

businesses there's always people coming up that are always going to be you know fasting that's why

I think you know just being in the interview game being in the podcast game is so great because

like telling new stories they don't ever get old but I think that's a big thing as well as it's like

like what we've done right we've done a lot of stuff out in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and we want to

go all over Australia and just find all those you know different markets because like you said you

can appeal to like way bigger audiences over there as well and I think it also just keeps it

interesting it keeps it fresh for your normal viewers your your retaining viewers because again like

I was saying a lot of these guys gets stagnant because they're constantly pulling the same

content down everybody's throat while I'm like okay well something that I can do better of

that's incorporate a lot more interviews with women right and that's one of the biggest complaints

that I get is that you never hear any of your women and it's just like well you know I mean if you

look at the stats it's like percentage of show you know I mean we're interview wealthy people and

don't get wrong I've some of the smartest people I've ever met and interviewed are women but

it's sometimes harder to find them compared to the amount of you know men that are the business owners

so it's like I have nothing against them I've always said if you can bring me you know a woman with

a cool story or counted you know these entrepreneurs we're running that all day I want to run that

more than most men just because of you know how much more prone that is to to be a hit and also

inspire a lot of people but yeah I think absolutely yeah getting out of the box in terms of the

content the globalization of content is going to change change games yeah no that's fact so intelligent

woman get the most views on my show to you man they do and I think it is like you know it's just

it comes down to statistics right like you can't argue with facts yeah facts over feelings like

it is it is it is very true no they draw you in with the looks but then when they talk and they're like

yeah really it's like oh my god like there's crazy substance you know what I mean so and that's like

like I said genuinely some of the smartest people I've ever met and interviewed are 100%

having women so it's it's really cool to you know again just appeal to different audiences and get

different but right now I think we have 70% men that follow us 30% what I'm saying wow yeah yeah

which which I think is a pretty reasonable demographic especially if you're you know

interviewing successful people or business people because who's primarily consuming that

content right again but I think even you know trying to maybe close the gap a little bit more

or do what we can to try and do that yeah so yeah I'm on the simpath I'm playing a long game too

man I'm learning Spanish now actually because I want to start going out to Mexico and Spanish

speaking countries yeah do interviews it's very smart huge markets huge under it's underserved as

well you know I interviewed a a long time ago gentlemen like this is before we even had a camera

like when we started doing interviews we were on the iPhone it was a guy downtown Austin and I

said how can somebody become wealthy in 2022 and he's gonna you gotta go you gotta be bilingual

multilingual so I think that that's definitely a an audience to appeal to for sure yeah I don't

know any of the Spanish pods are now to be honest yeah I don't either yeah Instagram just launched

a new language feature did you see that I didn't it'll auto translate your your clips now that's

huge yeah you gotta talk a lot on Instagram's really innovative man yeah trials has been a game

changer for me I'm not sure if you're messing with trials I haven't I haven't done it yet yeah really

I haven't I mean I just like our stuff has just been really consistent with how it is I'm all I'm

I'm familiar with the future though where you said it sends us a trial to see how you perform yeah

and then and then you can kind of test whether you want to push that to your audience or keep keep

the video yeah so I'm recycling my old content because you you have years of content right do you

only post it once or do you repost I do and and you know a lot of the times you know my you know

other co-founders would be like oh you should repost this one and I'm like dude I've every time

I've reposted a video it's never done like the same numbers as it did so that's the good thing with

trials it shows the post to a new audience he interesting it doesn't show it to your followers wow

I like that so the fact that you're getting 250 a month without trials yeah means to me you could

probably get half a million a month that's crazy with trials and you'll also grow a lot more followers

interesting yeah yeah I got to check that out for sure yeah check out trials man what's your best

platform in terms of use best platform well let's pull it up but flex on them now let's see I'm

gonna guess TikTok uh it's TikTok or Instagram I'll show you those two obviously Facebook does

pretty well as well so I'll just show you and just that way people can see as well yeah we'll

store it up on the screen too if you want a screenshot in text me so this is uh last 30 days on

Instagram holy crap last 15 million 150 million and then also um and again yeah and then I'll show

you last 90 um I can do that that is nuts and 90 days 244 million that's just Instagram and then I'll

just do one more TikTok I know I love how you pull out the receipts too because a lot of people

cap with their numbers are you guys absolutely that's with anything and then TikTok is uh let's go to

talk studio last 28 days on TikTok they talk last 28 days 121 wow so it's got the slight edge on

yeah it does a little bit yeah but obviously they fluctuate depending on the videos that are

pop and then obviously YouTube across you know long format shorts will do about 15 and then

Facebook will do about 50 to so so honestly last month it's probably a bit closer to 300 wow

so but but again that's also in result of you know every once in a while I'll have a video that does

like 30 to 50 million views on both you know to the platforms because that's the other really

interesting thing as well is that it's crazy how aligned I don't know if you noticed this but like

if I have a video that's gonna go really viral on TikTok it's gonna also go really viral on

Instagram usually oftentimes you know like I had a video recently that it didn't Scottsdale

with Craig Jackson coming out of a Bugatti is my first ever you know Bugatti video and it got like

44 million on Instagram and like 43 million on TikTok and then I think another 30 or 40 on

Facebook so I was that's that was a big that's a big reason for that right so you know obviously um

you know but yeah crazy crazy to say this yeah do you stockpile content like how long is your

backlogs on content great question I'm huge on this man probably I've got like 30 to 40 videos

right now I interviews right now that I'm definitely gonna be posting and um you know I think

another thing that is just very vital and something that has just kept us going and growing is that

like never getting comfortable or complacent and I think that's the beautiful thing about also it's

a blessing in a curse right because when you're constantly hanging around people you're building

close friendships relationships with these guys whose companies are doing you know 200

million a year 300 million a year they're netting high eight figures um you just you feel you feel

small and I even think from like a follower standpoint right like we've got 12 million followers I'm

like you there's people out there that have 50 on one platform and that's why like I've never ever

you know gotten to a point where I'm like oh man I'm good we can just kind of like chill or whatever

it's like no I'm still filming like every week or buy weekly I'm going to the next city getting

on that flight and I've always had that mentality ever since we started um that's the beautiful thing

about having you know two other great co-founders is that hey I'm able to focus all on the media the

content side of things it's like okay we've got 12 million followers I'm all I'm thinking about

as how do we get to 15 how do we get to 20 million within the next you know year to year and a half

right um and that's why I'm just always thinking about okay that next collab that next viral video

I'm that's all I'm thinking about all the time you know what I mean and I think that's you know

there's a there's a saying um that hey poor gas down their throats you know because if not right

there's a million other people that are trying to do what I'm doing trying to do what you're doing

hey somebody will come up in your space and they'll and they'll and they'll take your spot and so

I've just realized that hey I gotta I gotta keep going it's like hey I got a lot of love for people

you know I want to support a lot of people you know as much as I can but if you're in my space like

I'm gonna if it's business I'm gonna I'm gonna kill you you know what I mean like like like that's

a mentality that I that I have mom mentality you have to man you have to um it's all love

at the end of the day but it's also hey you know if you're gonna come up and do exactly what I'm doing

in this format and do you ever think about the risk you didn't take buying Bitcoin early

investing after 2008 loading up on the video hey eyes changing jobs and markets are all over the

place nothing feels guaranteed and at some point you realize no one's gonna save you we're kind of

the FOMO generation but here's one thing you don't want to miss protecting your future if you're new

to life insurance you're not alone thankfully I found select quote for over 40 years they've

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selectqote.com slash DSH space it's it's war you know same way though when I see viral podcasts

I get hyped yeah I guess so and bigger 100% man you get inspired you motivated you're like okay

I like that you know what I mean so it's it's it's in a way you know you kind of like man this guy

sick you know talking about myself you know but it's that obsession and another great point is it's

like that's how you know that's how you know you're doing what you need to be doing and a lot of

people are straight up lost and a lot of people will ask how do I figure out what it is for me

what's literally when you have that feeling you know when the first after the first year of the

channel in literally over the last three years because I think April will be our like fourth

is will be officially like four years but after our first year I could not go anywhere without

thinking about I wish I had my camera to go walk up and do this doing interview with this guy I could

have been at Jersey Mike's sub shop and I saw this like old greasy guys got a little bit of or

coming out of the sub shop I could have been at an ice cream place I could have been on a cruise ship

and like that's all I could think about constantly like even today like or you know you know

I'm still staying up till 2 3 a.m. just like scheming thinking about you know that next thing but I

think that's again any hyper successful person that is no doubt one of the most uh common threads

and traits is just that like raw obsession that they have yeah for for whatever it is that they're

doing has that led into your personal life yes unfortunately yeah however however well what do you

mean by personal life affecting personal friendships relationships time with family for sure

but I think especially over this last year I've definitely have come to the realization of just

how vital it is to enjoy the journey celebrate the wins because that's the thing I mean you know

for our first couple years even when we hit like a hundred K on YouTube and hit a million followers

like we never celebrated anything wow and obviously um you know um I'm not saying like you know

celebrate you got to go out for three weeks and then go back to business no but take time to you

know that's that's what it's part that's that's part of it you know I'm like you got to enjoy that

and and really highlight that and and especially now I'm like putting a huge emphasis on family time

spending it with them because that's very important you know my parents are older I love

them to death and I don't ever want to look back and say man I wish I would have spent more time

with them and and honestly something I just you know really want to work on and and do a better job

of is incorporating that aspect into things because uh you know you blink I mean and you know you never

know you know like life too short I mean for any of us yeah even myself you know you never know what

God has uh and store it could be a week a month it could be I mean who knows who knows so yeah

and you actually talk to a lot of people that exit and are super rich and they say the building

phase is actually the most fun yeah absolutely it's the journey man if you and if you don't like

that adversity or some of the failures that come along with it then it probably isn't for you um but

but I think you know my two co-founders and I like to call them the the trench days yeah and the

trench days even you know in those that first year or two we're paying ourselves like two thousand

dollars a month that this is just making you know 25 to 30k and we're paying ourselves you know

and living in Austin it's a bigger city it's more expensive it's not like LA but Austin still

it's getting pretty expensive you can't live up to KM up and Austin you know I mean but we were

I mean we're yeah probably doing like two to three K a month probably had like our rent was maybe

like a thousand K and then the rest was just going to food and yeah obviously you know like I said

the business was doing 25 to 30 but again we just you know one of the most recurring themes is

the importance of reinvesting putting the money back into the business and that ultimately was

huge for us um especially because uh you know there were some you know times of adversity where we

felt where we literally went from making 25 to 30k like a year and a half two years into making like

five K a month so uh you definitely you know that it was vital for us to do that you know when it

worked out yeah I reinvested almost everything I learned that from Mr. Beast I mean if you want to

grow that's the way to do it I know it's a lot more risky yeah but other than my salary I reinvest

almost every single dollar very smart and very smart but that's why most people don't though

what's people don't and most people don't I've only been podcasting for two years but that's because

I'm reinvesting that's like the equivalent of probably five ten years of a podcast yeah it's

it's extremely smart um and especially because I love the saying that concentration builds wealth

but diversification keeps it so it's like hey you've focused you made good money doing what you're

doing and if there's opportunities to come your way where you want to make a play you know I know

that you've been in doing business for a long time though um and you obviously I know

sure have invested a lot yeah I like I up until this last year wasn't a big investor

but because of you know we've been very profitable uh the last like six to eight months I mean

we've had some crazy months um to where like now like the last couple of months we've been able

to put a ton of money in the real estate nice and uh you know I'm not thinking about going to buy

like a nice car like obviously you know at some point for sure I want to do that but I'm like hey

yeah this is now like our one year of like making really really good money like I want to set

ourselves up for long term so it's like you know hey we built so many beautiful relationships so many

great connections of the most successful people um in different industries so now it's like all these

people that were telling us hey you want to invest in this you want to do that now it's like hey we

can actually take advantage of those opportunities uh because of how smart we were um and again

everything went back into the business and so by two other co-founders are very like minded in that

sense and we all thought again long-term that same way that hey we're going to be able to make big

plays because of how smart we were in those first couple years and building and then it got to

point where it's like okay now we can start to invest a lot and make those big plays by school

dude I'm impressed with how level how did you stay despite your viewership yeah you know a lot of

people lose their sense of self with crazy views yeah I've noticed that a lot again I think the

humility aspect is very important and I think it comes down to two things from you ultimately

with that is that you know number one I've again meeting hyper successful people you know the best

of the best in different industries some extremely famous people I've seen how those people

I've I've seen both sides to how you know there's people that made tens hundreds

millions billions of dollars and they treat people with the utmost respect and dignity no matter

who they are and then I've also seen the flip side where people are just assholes they treat people

like shit and so I like to you know take a little bit of something from everybody and it's like okay

those are the kind of people that I want to be like so I think that's very important um and also

again when you you know when you're constantly around these people that are super it's again

I feel like you do happen inside you where it's like you know I'm not shit they're like this guy's

doing this and that um like I said that's a blessing with the curse with that but then the last

thing I think obviously is the the Godfactor as well um I think that understanding that like at the

end of the day you know any sort of success views money all of that is is is really cool but it's

also temporary it's a dying dead road and understanding that there's something way bigger than me out

there also I think it's been very imperative for kind of maintaining that levelheadedness and

being very grounded and just knowing that hey this is all this is all temporary yeah it's cool

that you found the right co-founders because that's one of the hardest decisions to make in life

that it is and one of them is my brother and one of them is a childhood friend that I was in the

same boy scout troop with well three of us were all boy scouts together and all became legal scouts

and being from the DC area where it's a very structured city sent it around a lot of government

jobs defense politics contract and we're just talking about how DCs federal right it's you

gravity towards those like-minded people and uh but I'll say the most important thing in our

partnership that really work out well because you know people a lot of the times we'll run against

going into business with close friends and family but the number one factor that I think the

three of us have that have enabled us to really have a great partnership that have worked out is

that none of us are yes men if we if two people disagree we will butt heads and we will go at it

wow it will be harsh like I mean genuinely like it will it will be it will be harsh but you need that

you have to because a lot of the times you know when you're around close people that you know or you

grew up with it can breed a lot of comfort and that comfort can ultimately lead to your guys

downfall and so I think that um us having that within us that yes we have a lot of love we have a

lot of great morals that we all share we have a lot of values that we all share I I never have to

worry about one of them taking a dollar out of the business behind somebody's back I know for a

fact on my life that I wouldn't do that behind anybody else's back and um I think that's having

that is it's great but then also despite us having those values and morals the fact that we are

able to hold one another accountable call one another out on their bullshit yeah uh it's something

that is is necessary if you are gonna go into business with friends and family so I'm definitely

I've proponent of it as long as you do have that instead of her it's like yes we love one another

for boys we grew up together we're blood but you still we still have to like if we want to keep

this thing on we're gonna have to keep going you know I love that dude when I read Elon Musk's

biography um managed to get in fist fights when he was building tape out with the old founders dude

like mentally fist fights it would end up in the hospital I mean I did not know that but that's

that's the least I just yeah I just I think back I was thinking about this another day and it's

like yeah man there's some tires where we got he did not to that point yet got really but uh

but that just shows how much you guys care passion man you're out of name like if you guys didn't

care that it wouldn't get to that point hundred percent so that's super cool man James it's been

awesome I can't wait to see who you interview next uh where people learn more about your community

the school of hard knocks on all platforms and then the school of mentors it is the number one

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go check it out come get mentor from a millionaire billionaire and go watch a live change but

like and subscribe to the pod with that man Sean and that was awesome. Thanks for staying all

the way to the end guys means a lot to me if you could please leave a review on Apple that

helps us climb the charts it helps us get way more guests and it helps us continue growing the

podcast and the team so it would mean a lot to me if we left a review on Apple or wherever else

you're listening thanks so much. Do you ever think about the risk you didn't take

buying bitcoin early investing after 2008 loading up on the video. AI is changing jobs and markets

are all over the place nothing feels guaranteed and at some point you realize no one's going to save you.

We're kind of the FOMO generation but here's one thing you don't want to miss protecting your future

if you're new to life insurance you're not alone thankfully I found select quote for over 40 years

they've helped more than two million Americans understand their options and secure over 700

billion dollars in coverage as a broker their mission is simple to find you the right insurance

policy at the best price and they work for you for free you can even get same day coverage of

to two million dollars with no medical exam required and even if you have pre-existing conditions

they work with companies that can help life insurance is never cheaper than it is today get

the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at selectquote.com slash

DSH made more than 50% on term life insurance at selectquote.com slash DSH today to get started

at selectquote.com slash DSH