July 15, 2025 • 49 mins
Josh Suggs shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting with the founding of 203 Media and Tabs Chocolate. He discusses his transition from college to launching Study Buddy and overcoming initial challenges in NYC. Josh reflects on his decision to pursue entrepreneurship full-time while balancing college and business growth. He emphasizes the importance of commitment in scaling a business, transitioning from freelancing to leadership, and overcoming hiring challenges. The episode explores maintaining content quality, ambitions for 203 Media, daily routines, growth strategies, and achieving a six-figure month. Josh also discusses finding mentors, the power of hustle, and shares life advice and non-traditional approaches.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Full transparency, anyone watching this, like,I was you.
(00:03):
Like, if you're watching this and you're tryingto figure out how to be an entrepreneur and be
in this world and how to not have a job and aboss and and find something that you're
passionate about, I was you sixteen months ago.
And if someone is here and maybe all they haveis, like, a laptop and an Internet connection
and they wanna start trying to make money, yep,what would be your advice to them?
So, like, right now,
Josh, who are you and why are you here?
(00:26):
So I'm Josh.
I'm the founder of two zero three Media, thecontent agency.
We do about a 150,000 a month doing streamerview ads for some of the largest CPG brands in
the space right now, like Doctor Squatch,Golly, Ridge Wallet, Magic Spoon, Snow Teeth
Whitening, Blue Chew, Breeze, a lot of bigbrands.
And we get live and authentic reactions toconsumer brands on the street.
(00:47):
So we trained comedians and actors in New Yorkto go and get to go and do street interviews
and get live reactions to consumer products Andbasically get strangers to sell the products
instead of, you know, hiring UGC creator or,like, an actor.
And how old are you?
I'm 22 years old.
That's insane.
Okay.
So I wanna break down exactly how you got tothe point where you are today.
(01:09):
I think to do that, it starts all with a guynamed Oliver a couple years ago.
Tell me the full picture.
Who is he to you?
What was going on behind the scenes?
And how did he help launch your career in thisspace?
Totally.
So Oliver was and still is, like, one of thebiggest reasons that I'm even in this space.
So Oliver's been my best friend for about aabout a decade now.
(01:32):
And when I was 18 years old, he called me andhe was like, I'm starting this ecom brand
called Tabs Chocolate.
And I want you to kind of come down to Miamiwith me, help me run and manage these UGC
creators.
And and he really wanted, like, a right handman to come and, like, help him and someone
that he trusted.
So I just wrapped up my freshman year ofcollege at Syracuse.
(01:53):
And I you know, it was either go back home anddo nothing all summer or go to Miami with
Oliver and, you know, sleep on sleep on thefloor on a on a mattress and and help run
content for an e com brand.
So, obviously, you know, chose the latter andflew down to Miami.
He paid for the flight.
He, you know, paid for everything.
And at the time, I didn't even really know,like, what UGC was.
(02:15):
Like, it was early twenty twenty two, Ibelieve, and we're really one of, like, the
first, you know, ecomm brands to do that kindof of marketing.
Like, there's no money in ads spent being spentevery day.
There's no, like, Facebook ads.
It's all organic content.
So I had a lot of learning to do, but I thinkhe really saw that, you know, I was a good
person, he could trust me, and he saw a lot ofpotential in me.
(02:35):
When we first spoke, you mentioned that whenyou started, you were pretty much absolutely
horrible Terrible.
Doing the job.
Yes.
Why were you so bad?
And then how did you go from being one of theworst performers on his team to now one of the
best performers in the space?
Right.
So the I've so I think that was for when I wasmain content for his next business, Study
(02:56):
Buddy.
Yep.
At Tabs, it was really for, like, the first,like, few months over the summer and then I end
up just going back to college.
Oliver then dropped out of school and pursuedTabs.
He had ended up scaling tabs to, you one of themost viral and well known ecomm brands in the
space.
And then a little over a year ago, he started asecond business called Study Buddy, and he
needed a head of content for that as well.
(03:17):
Well, not necessarily like a head of content,but someone to make street interviews for his
SaaS.
And his competitor was doing street interviewsand doing really well with it.
Right.
So he called me and he asked me, like, do youwanna do street interviews, you know, for my
SaaS?
And at the time, I was I was in college stilland I was like, yeah.
Like, look, like, I would love to do it.
You offered to pay me $2 a month to go and do30 street interviews.
(03:38):
And I was like, bro, are you just, like, beingsuper generous because, you know, we're
friends?
Or is this, like, some like, are you getting agood deal on this?
And he's like, no.
$2 a month for 30 unique ad creatives a monthis, like, very cheap in this space.
And I was kinda floored by that.
And I was abroad with my friends, and I startedjust going out and street interviewing every
(03:59):
single day.
And I was terrible.
As you as you just said, horrible.
Like, I was in London at the time and nobody inLondon knows what a street interview is.
It's it's it's like, you know, New York Citywhere everyone's a street interviewer.
Yeah.
But everyone was pretty bad and they giveterrible reactions.
My questions sucked.
I didn't I had zero camera presence and I wasjust horrible.
(04:21):
And he was pretty straight up with me.
He was like, yeah.
These, like, are not good.
So a little over a month later after, you know,hiring me and paying me, he was like, basically
fired me and was like, this is like, this is itthese videos aren't performing.
But, you know, him being the great friend thathe is, I got back from abroad and I was about
to start my corporate internship at a at adoing, like, marketing sales for a company here
(04:45):
in the city.
And the whole like, the week before I started,he was like, bro, I think, you know, this is a
really good niche that a lot of brands wouldwant.
Like, if you did really put time and effortinto this, like, this could probably be
something.
And at the time, I'd I'd always wanted to belike, do social media, be an entrepreneur, own
my own business, etcetera, but it it was alittle hard for me to grasp just how kind of
(05:09):
how big the niche really was of how many brandsare really out there.
I think as, like, a regular consumer, you see,like, the big brands.
Right?
I I mean, this isn't sponsored, but I won'tname the name.
But, you know, you see all the big brands,Nike, Aloe, etcetera.
You don't realize, like, how many just, like,500 k to, like, $10,000,000 a year.
(05:29):
It's, like, brands there are out there.
Like, there's endless.
There's endless amount of brands and they allneed one thing and that's content, especially
entertaining, engaging content that doesn'tlook like an ad.
So at the time, I really couldn't grasp justhow big the space was, but I decided to quit my
internship.
I emailed them the night before.
And on that Sunday, Jake Paul was having hispress conference with Mike Tyson in New York
(05:53):
City.
So me and Oliver, we stuck backstage.
We met Logan and Jake Paul.
I kind of told Logan Paul my idea.
He gave me a quick, like, you should run it.
And then went back to Oliver's apartment,emailed the company, quit the internship.
Oliver put a little tweet up for me on Twitteras long as my other friend, Matt Epstein, who
also has a pretty big Twitter following, andthey tweeted for me.
They got in my first few brands, and I was offto the races.
(06:17):
I really had no case studies.
I had nothing to show.
I took payment, like, after the deliverables,like, not upfront or anything and just started
running around New York City with some brandsthat you've probably never have heard of.
And it's very hard to think, like, what juststarted as a little idea running around a park,
you know, grew into what it is now.
And you'd be running around New York Citybasically with a mic and trying to get to
interview people.
(06:37):
Yeah.
So I just had, like, like, a microphone andthen I would hold the product and I had a
videographer with a backpack with, like, fivebrands in it And we just run up to people in
New York, like, hey.
Like, what do you think of this product?
Like, I didn't even know what ad creative was.
I didn't know what ROAS meant.
I didn't know it what media buying was.
I didn't know what any of this really was, butit spread like wildfire.
(06:59):
And, like, the first three brands that I had,they're like, hey.
My buddies want you to use for them.
Because was charging, like, dirt cheap rates.
I was undercutting everyone.
And then I had all these agencies trying toreach out to me, like, hey.
Like, could we pay you 5 or $6 a month to onlyexclusively work with us?
And I was like I at first, like, well, it's,like, double what I was about to make my
internship, but I was like, wait.
If you guys are offering me this, like,immediately right now, like, what happened if I
(07:22):
just, like, keep going?
Like, could I get brands myself?
Could I get brands that trust me myself?
And I didn't have, you know, a paymentprocessor.
I didn't have, like, I didn't know any of this,like, any of this.
But I kept going on Twitter and from Twitterand just referrals.
Like, I did really good work.
And unlike most agencies, when you work withthe agency, usually pay the founder of the
agency.
He goes, thank you so much for your money.
(07:42):
And then all of a sudden, you put in a Slackgroup.
It's, like, some person you've never met.
And then you wait, like, thirty days to getyour deliverables and it's the communication is
not great.
Whereas for me, you know, you gave me money andthen you call me, you text me, whatever.
Like, I FaceTime you immediately.
Hey.
I'm in the park right now.
I have your product right here.
Like, it was very it it was very just like,they could tell I was hustling.
(08:04):
And between a work ethic, me being 21 years oldfull of energy, a lot of brand owners kinda saw
me just I was walking thirty, thirty five,40,000 steps every single day around New York
City and just I wouldn't go home until I gotthe best reactions.
And they just saw that hustle and that driveand it was a kind of a wide open market.
Like, there's no one really doing it at thisscale, at this intensity.
(08:25):
And yeah.
I mean, I can keep going on and on about it,but we I got I I did I think I did 15 brands
month one.
By end of the summer, I had worked with over 75brands and then ended up, like, dropping out of
college and we can get more into it.
But yeah.
And for your first month, how much did you makein revenue for that first month?
Month one was 31,000.
(08:47):
It was, like, probably 26,000 profit becausethere was no cost.
Month two was 55,000, probably 46 to 47,000profit because it was just me.
Yeah.
Like, there's just a videographer following mearound and a and one of my editor who's
actually still with me to this day, Kanika, whowas editing for $3 a month.
(09:07):
And you So you decided to take this leap.
You're like, okay.
I'm gonna quit the internship, but technically,you don't have any money coming in the bank yet
when you quit your internship.
Yeah.
What convinced you to give you that leap offaith?
Was it that Jake Paul and Logan Paulinteraction?
Honestly, Oliver was a really big pusher.
Matt Epstein really pushed me.
Matt and Oliver, I would say, those are thoseare some, like, my two closest friends in the
(09:31):
space right now.
Like, besides, like, my home friends who I lovedearly and, like, you know, who are always my
best friends, Matt and Oliver were were, like,very much, like, doing like, crushing it.
They're both still crushing it, and I saw themwork really hard and very and how intense they
were moving and how just how much passion theyhad for the work.
And I just felt like I need to have something.
(09:53):
Like, I need to feel passionate.
Like, I need to work hard.
Like, a lot of my friends at the time werewere, like, you know, still just, like, kids in
college.
Like, I was in a frat.
Like, a lot of them were just, like, wanting tohang out and vibe, and, like, I saw the two of
them just putting their heart and soul intotheir business, and I wanted to find that.
And as soon as like, I I'll I'll kinda neverforget it.
I was walking around the park.
(10:13):
It was maybe two or three weeks into this, andI got a text message from one of my clients.
Hey.
My buddy wants this.
For how much for 20 videos?
I said 3,000.
And this was the first time I charged up front.
So I I sent him a Stripe link for $3,000without even getting on the phone with me,
without even talking to me.
He just hit that link and just texted me paid.
And just like that, $3,000 just got wired to mybank account.
(10:36):
And I was just like, what the fuck?
Like, before this, I I had less than a thousanddollars in my checking account.
And, you know, by the end of that first month,I had, like, $28,000 in my checking account.
And I was just like, like, my mind was just,like, blown and I was, like, I could do this
forever.
I was like, I like to talk to people.
I'm super outgoing and, you know, like, I couldjust wake up, go talk to strangers all day,
(11:02):
make $50 a month, go to sleep.
I was like, this is awesome.
Like, why why do not why do anything else?
What was the moment when you decided, you
know what?
This is killing it.
I'm gonna drop out of college.
Go all in.
And Yeah.
How did you approach that?
So, you know, over the summer, I I had saved upmy first 6 figures figures by the end of that
summer.
So it was, like, zero to, like
(11:22):
In, like, four months, basically.
In, like, probably eleven weeks or Yeah. Twelve
Twelve Okay.
So it was pretty quick.
And because a lot of it was just, like, profit,you know, like, it was I didn't really have any
expenses at the time.
And so I was debating on the okay.
Like, I I do have enough of a safety net whereI could probably not go back to college and,
(11:45):
you know, live in New York.
And if I never signed another brand, it couldbe good for a couple years.
Well, I mean, not a couple years in New York,but at least a year.
Right.
And but it was there was no business.
Right?
It was just me.
I had a new videographer every, like, three orfour weeks because they kept, like they they
weren't, like, full time guys.
I had one editor who was in Croatia, and thatwas it.
(12:07):
There was absolutely no team.
And I just undercut all all the agencies whocharge for UGC videos.
I charge, like, a 100 a video or something.
Every other every other UGC agency charges,like, $2.03, 400 a video.
That's why I was getting so much demand.
And I was like, okay.
Like, I could but there was no, like, business.
There was no like, if you if if I broke myankle or I got the flu or something happened to
me, this whole business crumbled.
(12:29):
So I decided to go back to college, and I wasthere for three days.
And while I was in class, I my phone were justgoing off.
Like, more people wanted these videos, morepeople wanted these videos.
And I was like, fuck.
Like, I'm losing, like it's, like, $12,000 I'm,like, saying no to because I'm sitting in this
marketing class.
And, you know, I'd already signed Blue Chew,I'd already worked with Snow Teeth Whitening,
(12:51):
I'd already worked with Breeze, like, I'dalready worked with Laundry Sauce, like, all
these big brands, and they were all stillreaching out to me for videos.
So I decided to fly back to New and I stillstayed in college.
But I moved my classes to Monday and Tuesday.
So then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,Sunday, I would street interview all day and
sleep on my friend Matt Epstein's couch.
Matt Epstein had just graduated because he wasa year above me.
(13:13):
He's living in the city, and he was helping meso much.
He was helping me on Twitter, retweet for me,being so supportive, showing me, like, how to
kinda build this through an agency because heowns a very successful agency himself.
And he was showing me, like, how to set upSlack, like, how to do onboarding forms, you
know, how to systematize this.
So I was sleeping on his couch every night,street review all day, go back to the couch, do
outreach all night long, wake up, repeat, wakeup, repeat, wake up, repeat.
(13:37):
And then Sunday nights, I'd fly back to toschool.
Monday, Tuesday, go to class.
Tuesday, fly back to New York, back to thecouch.
And I did that for four weeks.
And after the four weeks, just back and forth,it was I was just about to, like, explode.
You know, there's just so much chaos.
I had a suitcase full of just, like, consumerbrands that would just lug with me everywhere I
went.
And I was like, okay.
Like, I kinda have to make up my mind.
(13:58):
Like, I have my foot in both worlds.
And I was like, I have this, like, frat, like,frat, Greek life, like, party school life, or I
I can just kinda coast, hang out with myfriends, have a good time, and then figure it
out after college.
Or they have this business that's making me$30.40 k a month.
Who knows how sustainable it is?
Who knows how long the street of your niche isgonna last?
(14:18):
Who knows, you know, am I gonna build a team?
Am I gonna find a partner?
Am I gonna be able make this a business, likean organization, or am I just gonna be a
glorified freelancer forever?
So I was in marketing.
I left because Rob Gronkowski's ice shaker, Igot intro to him.
And his brother, Chris Gronkowski, hopped on acall with me.
(14:39):
And, you know, they're they're one of one ofthe bigger Shark Tank brands Yeah.
Of all time and he got a Zoom call with me andhe was like, yeah.
I want, like, 30 shit reviews, paid me 4,000 onthe phone call and I was just like, fuck it.
I don't know if I can swear, but I was likeYeah.
Yeah.
I was like, fuck it.
Like, there's there's clearly something here.
And I went back, put all my stuff in my car,drove my car to my home, to my house in
(15:04):
Connecticut, took a train to New York with mysuitcase full of brands, went to Matt's couch,
slept on his couch for over a month, and justevery single day.
Just it was just like, success loves speed andmomentum.
Like, success and speed go hand in hand.
So I I I saw this very early on.
Like, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of foundersthat I've met, their biggest weakness is they
(15:26):
move too slow.
They think and they think that they will whatif this happens?
What if this happens?
What if this happens?
And, like, they overanalyze.
Where my biggest weapon was the fact that I wasvery you know, I didn't know.
You don't know what you don't know.
And because I didn't know anything I rememberbeing on a sales call and a brand was like,
what what kind of typical ROAS do you see?
(15:48):
I literally just Google what is ROAS?
Like, I didn't even know.
During the call.
During the call, I didn't even know but like,I'd already I got this is early on but like, I
didn't even I didn't know I didn't know what toknow but because I've but because I moved so
fast and I all day long, I just filmed content,I'd post about it all day long, and then I
would just reach out to more people everynight.
(16:08):
It was like a conveyor belt, and I I didn'teven have anywhere to upload footage.
So I'd go to the Apple Store at night and I'dplug in the SD card from the day to the Apple
Store computer and then I would just make thelink public and then I would just email that
link to my editor in Croatia and I'd wake upand the 10 videos would be ready to go and they
just be sent to the clients and I would justwake up and repeat.
It's like a conveyor belt.
And as long as I was up and ready to go, thisbusiness ran.
(16:32):
And and I was just able to move at such speed,and I was so nimble.
I I was I was I used to set my alarm for, like,04:00 in the morning because brands overseas
wanted videos.
So I wake up, like, 4AM.
I'd get on the phone, but we you know,negotiate with them for, like, a thousand
dollars or $900, whatever they wanted to payme.
And then I would go back to sleep and then wakeup at nine and go like, I I was just so all in
(16:53):
and so consumed.
There's nothing else in my head that I evenconsidered a thought that mattered in my life
besides selling people streaming packages.
It was all I cared about.
It was all I talked about.
I've now kind of tried to, like, have a lifeand make friends and, like, be a kid and kinda
have some sort of balance, but there is nobalance.
Especially, like, as you know, when you'restarting out, there's genuinely I guess, it's
(17:17):
gonna sound bad, but there's nothing else inyour life that that should matter besides the
success of your business.
There's nothing else.
And that's that that was my that was myviewpoint.
And I just street interviewed till I collapsedevery day.
That's why I personally believe, like, having aplan having a plan b is the most dangerous plan
you could
possibly 100%.
There shouldn't be.
Because the moment you have a backup plan, youplan to fail.
(17:38):
It's like, if you wanna win and you wanna winbig, you're better off just going all in.
Just Otherwise,
like The swinging is hard as you possibly can.
Otherwise, don't even do it.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So Exactly.
And that's the other thing I realized too whenI left college.
Like, if I want this to work, I can't, like,have my foot in both worlds.
I was like, kinda have to just burn the boatand just see what happens.
And, you know, we can get into, like, chaptertwo, chapter three, chapter four, but that
(18:03):
initial like, when I left college, I juststarted I was, like, blasting Drake, and I was
just, like I just made these videos for myself.
Like, I would rather like, if I look back onthis video in five years and you're not if you
don't own it, like a media empire and extrememedia, like, had all these exact things I
wanted for myself.
Like, I was so serious.
Like, I will be in a crippling depression.
(18:25):
And I would just say that to myself.
Like, I would, like, record it and I was, like,driving home, like, when I was suffering gas,
like, you're just you're dropping out ofcollege right now.
If this doesn't work, like, I will kill you.
Like, I feel like literally, like, I was so seton, like, I would just talk to my future self.
And I was like, you're burning the boat.
You're going all in.
This has to work.
And if this doesn't work, I'm gonna look backat this video and and I'll be in a crippling
(18:46):
depression.
I'm sure there's people around you that wereprobably thinking because similar thing with me
is like, oh, that's not healthy.
Like, it's not the way to live life.
Yeah.
What do you say to them?
I mean, the the thing is, like, there's areason, you know, if I if I wanted to have,
like I wasn't happy.
Like, I like, that's handsome.
Like, I wasn't I wasn't relaxed.
(19:07):
I wasn't, like, at peace.
I wasn't happy.
I was I'm still not.
Like, I I my happiness comes from my ambitionto keep pushing the field goal back and
achieving.
Like, that's what makes me happy, like, havingsomething to aspire to.
Like, if I didn't have anything to aspire to,and I was like and I would just be, like, be
normal and, like, have be at at peace and belike, that that doesn't make me happy.
(19:32):
What makes me happy is setting massive goals,then doing everything I can to achieve it.
And even now, like, I kinda look back on thelast year because this this has been just about
twelve months since I made my first Streetinterview.
I feel grateful to be where I am right now, butI feel like I'm a toddler, and I just learned
how to crawl and, like, say my first words.
(19:53):
And, you know, in my head, I'm runningmarathons.
So, like, I still feel, like, so early, and I'mlike, wow.
This is what I've achieved in twelve months,like, where am I gonna be in twenty four
months, thirty six months, five years, tenyears, twenty years?
Like, I'm not gonna slow down.
Like, my foot is on the gas.
And if you look at the best the bestentrepreneurs in the space, Gary Vee, like, all
these guys, their foot's on the gas.
Like, there's no coasting, there's no there'sno balance, there's no, like, just trying to
(20:18):
find peace.
Like, there is no peace.
There's peace in chaos.
You told me when we were on a walk with ourmutual friend Nathan that you started this out,
you're basically a freelancer making around,like, $31,000 a month.
Most of that was profit.
Yep.
What what changed from going from a freelancerto actually operating this like a business?
What did you do differently?
(20:38):
It's team.
And that that's the number one answer.
So how it works and assuming that was wasreally impactful to learn was entrepreneurship
is just games.
So I went from, like, zero to one very quicklybecause I had very good product market fit and
extreme hustle.
Right?
So when you're building a business, especiallyyou know, there's a few ways to make money.
(21:01):
Right?
You can sell your time, sell a service, yousell a product.
You you can do, like, a a few things.
So when you're selling a service, you'reselling your time for money.
So how it works is you sell your time for moneyand you wanna be able to do it in a way where
you're you're stacking a lot of cash so thatyou can make your first hire.
Because eventually, you wanna you're basically,like, building up levels.
You wanna get to a point where there's peopledoing all the work and you're just business
(21:24):
development, acquisitions, basically be, like,the face of the company.
But when you start, you're a freelancer sellingyour time for cash.
So I was able to undercut the market, but stillcharge enough money, and I wasn't dumb.
Like, I I wasn't blowing all my money andbuying watches and buying stuff.
I just saved it.
So that way, I could, you know, make my firsthire to to get another street interviewer and
(21:48):
to high and hire hire someone to, you know,come out and make a production assistant and
just start to, like, hire people becausegetting from one to two is all about team.
That's all that matters.
Like, no matter because you get to a pointwhere you have more work than you could handle.
So the only way for that to scale and the onlyway for me to scale was to have other people
doing the street interviews and having moreeditors, just more people working so that way,
(22:11):
you know, I could get out of fulfillment andinto acquisition.
And to get those more people doing the streetinterviews, you tried to bring people in.
Oh, it was next to impossible.
Yeah.
Almost made me almost fail.
Yeah.
And then what changed?
Because the the first few months, a lot of themwere horrible, the videos were performed bad
Yep.
And then you started to realize, like, this isa problem.
What did you do what did you change from thatto try to get to where you are today?
(22:35):
Totally.
So I only brought on my first so September,October, November, I was, like, on a high.
It was just me.
There was, like, no other employees, like, pureprofit.
And I was like, don't need anyone.
I was like, why would I wanna hire?
Like, this sucks.
I've never hired before.
It was hard.
So I had a really hard time doing it.
Is it worth do I just, like, post on myInstagram?
(22:58):
Like, who wants to do street reading?
How do you even hire someone?
And so I was like, why do I hire?
Like, I'm just I'm saving all this money.
Why do it?
Then it got really cold in New York.
People stopped wanting to be streetinterviewed, and the park where I filmed
Washington Square Park got empty.
The brand's like, this doesn't look as good,and I was like, shit.
(23:21):
Like, what do I do?
Like, I was, like, looking at my account.
Was like, how long can I pay rent for if I Ihave to take the winter off?
I was, like, kinda freaking out.
And I had nowhere to stay.
I had to get out of Matt's couch, and I movedinto this random person's loft in Tribeca who
is who I had some, like, crazy roommates and Ihate I hate being there.
(23:43):
How did you find them?
It was just
a friend of a friend of a friend of a friendwho had, like, a random place and it was it was
they were the weirdest people and I was solonely.
And it was, like, November in New York City,and I had no team.
And, yeah, I I was really scared then.
I just come off this whole hive of summerfeeling, like, invincible, and then all of a
(24:04):
sudden, it was cold.
All my friends are in college.
I, like, had basically nowhere to stay, and Ihad no one to, like, lean on.
Like, it was just me every single day going tothis park and talking to strangers, and I was
gassed.
I was burnt out.
I couldn't like, there was days where I wouldgo to the park and I would turn the mic on, and
I was just so physically exhausted that, like,I just, like, turn it off and I would just go
(24:27):
home.
And, like, then the brands kept, like, pickingme, like, when the video's coming, the video's
coming out.
I was just I I started getting so much anxietybecause I felt all the pressure on my
shoulders, like, all these brands needingcontent.
Like, I have nowhere to go.
Like, I have no friends.
Like, I'm so lonely.
It's, like, dark at 4PM.
Like, it used to be, like, till 8PM.
Now it's dark at 4PM, and it cuts it cuts myfilming time to, like, twenty minutes.
(24:50):
Like, I was like, what was just so lost.
So I started going into the subway stations andto stop trying to stop people in the subway
because I was warm, and that didn't work.
So then I would just post my Instagram story,who wants to work?
Like, who wants, like, who wants a job?
Like, I need someone.
I don't know what I want you to do, but I justneed I just know I need someone else to help me
(25:13):
figure this out.
And I had this guy, Tyler, go on castingnetworks and find me, like, actors who I'd pay,
like, $30.40 bucks to an hour to come out andjust pretend to be strangers in street
interviews.
So for, like, two weeks to, like, catch up, Iwould, like, fake some of the street
interviews, and I would just script it.
So that just kinda helped me, like, not have tobeg strangers to stop, but, like, it allowed me
(25:34):
to, like, breathe.
And then one of those actors that showed up tofilm with me in a subway car, she ended up,
like, being really good.
And she was like, you know, can I come back?
Can I keep doing this?
Like, do you need more host?
Do you need this?
I was like, I yes.
I was like, that is exactly what I need as amatter of fact.
(25:56):
And two of those hosts ended up being prettygood, and they it turned out that a lot of
actors in New York had a lot of spare time andnot too much money.
And I was like, wait a second.
Like, how available are you?
She's like, I'm pretty available.
And she ended up this is now December.
And she was like, could we do this in Miami?
(26:17):
And I was like, we could definitely do this inMiami.
Like, a 100% get this in Miami.
When do you wanna go to Miami?
She's like, I'll go tomorrow.
And I was like, that that works that works forme.
So the next day, I booked our flight to Miami.
We stayed at a friend's house, and we usedOliver's car because he was in New York.
Yeah.
And this girl that I'd never met before who,you know, had a boyfriend, had her own life,
(26:40):
like, had everything, kind of saw that, youknow, where this was going, kinda saw an
opportunity for herself as well, came with meto Miami.
And the two of us, my editor, I had anotheranother, like, manager kind of role, like,
admin person at the time.
So I started building, like, that first team,and she was now able to go film screen reviews.
(27:04):
Like, for two weeks, I filmed her doing screenreviews and just gave her notes.
I told her how to hold the mic, how to stand,how to stop people, how to, you know, say the,
like, the right call to actions, etcetera.
And she had friends in Miami that she was alsoable to stay with too, so it worked out.
And I was able to stay with my friend.
So today, you post hundreds of pieces ofcontent every single month for for your brands.
(27:25):
You'll work have hundreds of pieces of content.
I think the one of the things that you talkedabout earlier
is
also speed.
Yep.
But how do you balance having that velocity,having that volume, while also making sure
every single piece that you put out is the bestthat it could possibly be?
So the answer is like you don't.
Like, especially at first.
Like, you can't be a perfectionist.
(27:46):
Like, you shouldn't.
Right?
So you could go back and you watch you learn onthe job is is what I've learned.
Go back and watch Jake Paul's, like, firstvlogs.
Go back and watch Logan Paul's first vlogs.
Go back and watch David Dobrik, Casey Neistat,mister Bees.
Like, any creator you respect, go back andwatch their first videos.
They suck.
They're they're terrible.
Go back and watch anyone doing anything whenthey start, and they all suck.
(28:11):
The whole point is to get good at something,you need to do it as many times as possible.
And to do as many times as possible, you needto do it as fast as possible.
Right?
Like, I could've been like, no.
I'm not good enough.
Like, I'm only gonna take on one brand a monthuntil I'm good.
No.
No.
No.
Like, it's part of life.
Like, Jake Paul could've been like, no.
I'm not sure if I'm I'm great at content yet.
(28:31):
I'm gonna keep practicing it.
No.
He just started daily vlogging every singleday.
And, you know, month zero to month six, bymonth six, he was very good at vlogging.
Why?
Because he did it every single day, and he wasokay looking like an idiot.
He was okay looking dumb.
He was okay being bad.
He was okay getting criticized.
And I think being like, having the the courageto do it when you suck and do it when you're
(28:53):
bad and when you're a beginner and being ableto just know that to get great at anything just
takes is just repetition and consistencybecause you can't you you physically will not
fail and you will not be bad at anything if youjust do it a thousand times.
You can't it's impossible.
So just knowing that you're gonna suck, knowingthat people may not be happy with your work,
but knowing that you need to do it to getbetter is that's what you need to do.
(29:16):
You want to build the biggest media entityYeah.
In the country.
Yes.
What does that look like for you, and how doyou plan to actually go out and execute on
that?
Sure.
So these the street of your niche is not gonnabe around forever.
Right?
But this is, my chosen horse my chosen horseinto the world of advertising and content
(29:38):
social media.
Right?
So now I have connections.
Now I'm known.
Right?
I I have some success.
And this was kind of, like, my door that openedinto being in this world now.
And since, like, be and, like, stay in thisworld.
The whole the whole game of being in this worldis just being able to survive.
If you survive in this entrepreneurship game onthis ecom world, if you survive in here for
(29:59):
twenty years, you will be rich.
And the whole point is just you have to stayalive, you have to keep going.
A lot of people drop out, a lot of people fail,lot of people quit.
So, anyways, I saw this as, like, my Trojanhorse into this world and to get relationships
with some of the biggest brands to get to andto get really good at advertising.
But where this is going, like, live socialshopping is gonna be huge.
(30:21):
Like, we will definitely have a live socialshopping component to our to our agency in the
future.
And we're gonna be a full media conglomerate.
It's like I brought in a partner and his agencya couple months ago, and they were doing
similar monthly revenues to us.
And they've been around for close to half adecade now with super sticky clients, high LTV.
(30:43):
So they've kinda come in and very much, like,helped me build a real system here.
So now we have, like, a storage unit, about tenminute walk to Washington Square Park.
We have a PA that goes to the storage unit,picks up the brands for the day, sets up a
booth in the park, and then we have all theactors come throughout the day, get the briefs
that are printed out.
They can memorize the briefs, go out, shoot theproducts, come back, get the next brand.
(31:05):
So now it's like a real operation that I don'teven go to the park anymore.
I don't even need to be involved.
I can even just, like, text in our Slackchannel what brands need to be shot.
But we have a we have our shot list, like, twoweeks out already planned.
So we're way more organized.
We have way more systems.
It's way more of an operation.
We're moving all brands over to a retainermodel.
At first, you know, a big way I was able tosucceed was I didn't really do long term
(31:28):
commitments, the short term commitments.
But, yeah, we're we're we're we're reallybuilding us into a, you know, multi 7 figure
agency already.
And then that on top of adding, like, internalupsells like podcast, live social shopping, and
then all other kind of content formats.
Like, brands need built through content.
Content is king.
I mean, I don't know who toined that coinedthat term, but it is true.
(31:50):
Brands and personalities and building in publicis the future of advertising.
So, you know, we're we're just gonna be thefirst movers in whatever niche and vertical is
is next.
What does your day look like?
So I usually I wake up, I turn off tounderserved, check Slack, and then go get an
extra large cold brew and then hop on mymorning team call on my phone.
(32:13):
Wait.
So you did the call on your phone.
Yeah.
Why not your computer?
Do you not use your computer?
I don't use my computer.
I probably I don't even know where it is rightnow.
I've been
You don't know where your computer is?
No.
I don't think I've even I've gone on it maybe afew times in the last, like, six months to,
like, watch a YouTube, but I do all my workfrom my phone.
(32:34):
I don't really like to sit down.
A lot of people, when they do work, they'resitting at a computer, and I I am moving 2020%.
I take all my calls on my phones.
I I have Slack on my phone.
Like, I I I have a big phone, but I, like, doeverything while moving.
Like, I write emails while moving.
I write Slack messages while moving.
I make revisions on edits and make all thenotes while moving.
(32:55):
I'm constantly walking.
Either if I'm in my apartment, I just walk incircles.
Or if I'm on calls, I always take the calls,like, while just moving.
So, like, there's this is probably the longestI've sat down for, you know, in probably months
in full transparency.
That's why Streamviews did a great job Yeah.
Yeah.
Because, like, I didn't have down.
I could just walk around New York City all daylong.
(33:16):
Ankur Nagpal from Teachable is very similar.
Yeah.
Is I think he built that to 250,000,000.
But all of his calls that he takes now for hislatest company Yeah.
Every single call, he does not typically dothem through Zoom unless he absolutely has to.
Yeah.
He goes on a walk, goes on his phone, and justwalks while he's taking the call.
I'll do Google Meets if it's, like, you know,an introduction sales call or something, but
it'll probably be on my phone.
(33:38):
And I I can I can, like, prop it up and, like,sit down for
Are the clients not, like, why the fuck are youon your phone?
They're just
Most of our most of our work are referralbased.
Okay.
So, like, it's usually not me sitting down,like, a presentation of why you need streaming
ads.
It's like, they're very warm.
They've probably met me before.
They've probably seen my work before.
It's more so like, here's what we kinda workwant to, like, do.
(33:58):
Could you do this for us pretty much?
And, like, this is what we offer and we kinda,like, work it out on the sales call.
But it's usually it's not many, like, completeintroduction calls.
It's all you know, we don't run ads.
It's not an ad that you would talk about, butwe're one pretty much, we're a 100% referral
based agency.
Like, we've scaled to Doctor Squatch, to Ridge,to Obvi, to all these big brands, 100% from
(34:19):
referrals.
I've never done cold email.
I've never run an ad.
We barely do any outreach.
It's all just referrals.
How do you build that strong of a referralengine?
You do really, really good work.
You over deliver, and you provide a servicethat, you know, not so many other people are
doing.
You've also wanted to build a moat, and youthink about defensibility a lot.
Yeah.
What does defensibility look for you right now,and how do you go about building that out?
(34:43):
Yeah.
So I really didn't wanna start doing media, youknow, like, telling people what we're doing
until we did have that boat where, like, youcould've just, you know, grab a microphone and
run around a park.
Like, we now have over a dozen creators.
Right?
We have a over 25 person team now.
And, yeah, I I because there isn't like, theperson watching, I guess, it's an amazing, you
(35:05):
know, hustle to start doing is just content forbrands.
Maybe not screen reviews, but you can do UGCfor brands.
You can do any kind of content for brands.
Shoot b roll for them.
Like, do anything.
But I really wanted to have a team.
I really wanna have a sustainable business, notjust, you know, churn clients and try to beg
for new clients.
Like, I really wanted to get to a point of,like, I can predict the next week.
(35:28):
Like, before I could predict anything.
But, yeah, now that I'm at a point where thereis team, there is infrastructure in place,
there is real results, now the only thingthat's stopping from going from a 100 and 50 a
month to a million a month is just more peopleknowing that we exist.
How did it feel you to hit your first 6 figuremonth?
Great.
Great.
Great.
Great.
Great.
(35:48):
Especially as a yeah.
I mean, in full transparency, anyone watchingthis like, I was you.
Like, if you're watching this and you're tryingto figure out how to be an entrepreneur and be
in this world and and how to not have a job anda boss and and find something that you're
passionate about and to do as a career, I wasyou sixteen months ago, maybe even less,
(36:12):
fourteen months ago, honestly.
And I genuinely don't feel any different now.
I would say the number one feeling that I dofeel that is different than fourteen months ago
Fourteen months ago was an immense feeling ofgratitude.
I just feel so grateful.
Like, even if this all turned off tomorrow, youturn off the cameras, I may count it, like, to
zero.
Like, even if all of this came down, like, thisroller coaster, this ride that I've been on for
(36:34):
a year now, I will tell my grandkids aboutforever.
And for for me, like, I'm playing with housemoney now.
It feels like even though I'm still so earlyand I'm still so young, I feel so grateful just
to be able to have this opportunity.
But the number one thing is you need to exploita niche.
You need to find a niche, find something thatsomeone will pay money for, and get really good
(36:56):
at it, and just do it as much as possible.
That's number one.
And then number two is have your ear to theground.
So, like, now that you I'm a little bit in thisspace, I now see so many opportunities to
exploit.
And you need to get to a point where you needto sell your time for money so that you can
know you can pay rent and eat ramen noodlesfor, like, at least six months so that you can
(37:17):
see.
Up until that point, you're, like, heads downjust trying to cash cash cash.
Get cash.
Get cash.
Get cash.
A dollar.
As soon as you can get to the point where itmaybe have $10 or $15 or something just some
sort of breathing room, then you can kinda,like, look around and see what's happening.
You go on Twitter, go on LinkedIn, go watchpodcasts, see what other people are doing, and
see what you can do better.
(37:38):
And it's just personal brand to service.
That's it.
You need people to know you're providing aservice and to get really good at the service.
So whatever that service is, you should bemaking content around that service every single
day and then be getting as good as possible todo that service and then train people to do
that service.
That's the formula for going from, like, zeroto, like, a 100,000.
If somebody is listening to this and they mighthave had their first big hit like you did with
(38:01):
street interviews Yeah.
How do they know what's the best next verticalto go into next, and how do you evaluate that?
That's going from go once you have, like, alittle bit of success, you know that success is
a lot of it's, like, where prepper preparationmeets opportunity, knowing the right people,
and then just being very aware of what'shappening, you know, in the space.
(38:24):
So, like, right now, there's, like, a liveshopping booth in Santa Monica.
I see a couple million profit a month.
Just booths, actors, and it's like QVC prettymuch for, like, TikTok shop brands.
You wouldn't know that like, my parents don'tknow that exists.
Right?
Like, my home friends called like, a lot peoplethat I'm friends with outside of space probably
don't even know that it exists.
(38:44):
It's even a couple million dollars of profit.
The founders is mid to late twenties.
So there and, like, just seeing that, I'm like,woah.
You know, that's awesome.
That doesn't make me discouraged.
Like, we could set that up in my apartment.
I can set up a a booth, a backdrop in myapartment tonight.
I can then DM brands until one of them respondsand start doing it for them, use them as a case
(39:05):
study, start posting the case study, beingcontent around the case study, and get my
second brand, third brand, fourth brand.
So you you wanna be the buccaneer, not thepioneer.
You don't necessarily wanna be, like, the veryfirst person to do something, but you wanna go
and see what other people are doing, seeingwhat other people have any success with, and
that what you could do better than so, like,I'm seeing this Santa Monica live shopping
(39:26):
studio.
They're doing a great job, but it's not rocketscience.
It's it's cameras.
It's brands.
It's having the cash to be able to build.
That's the other thing.
You do need money to be able to deploy.
If you until you have money to deploy, you needto sell your time for money.
You need to sell your time sell your time toprovide a service so that you can have cash to
be able to deploy.
And then and then just try it and failing ituntil you figure it out.
(39:49):
That's it.
And if someone's here and pretty much all theyhave is they don't have a ton of resources,
maybe they're a college student, maybe all theyhave is, like, a laptop and and an Internet
connection Yep.
And they wanna start trying to make money Yep.
What would be your advice to
them?
You go to people that are so you go to peoplethat are a couple levels above you and you add
their add value to them for free.
So, like, right now, I currently have Icurrently have who's gonna be an employee,
(40:13):
who's not even an employee, staying with me onan air mattress, who I'm going to hire as a
full time content creator for, like, $6 a monthplus commission.
He's gonna make 6 figures a year.
He's currently 24 years old living with hisparents in Philly in Pennsylvania, and he just
kept texting me kept texting me kept textingme.
Told me he would interview and make content forme for free, showed up to the park, showed up
(40:37):
on set to go shoot.
I didn't even know he lived in Philly.
Did amazing work.
Next day, he did amazing work.
Next day, did amazing work.
And I asked him go out for dinner.
He told me he has to go back to to Philly.
And I like, why are going to Philly?
He's like, I live in Philly.
I'm like, you live in Philly?
You've been driving three hours each way justto come here for free?
He's like, yeah.
I I already want an opportunity.
Boom.
You're now hired.
You're ready to go.
(40:57):
I moved him in with me until he found anapartment and, you know, now he's now now he's
my boy, but he showed me, like, he's willing towork.
He's up all night long, like, to kinda docontent ideas, writing new scripts for brands,
like, he's all in.
That is someone that I will bring with meforever with every venture that I go into.
So if you don't have money, go find someonethat's one or two levels above you.
(41:19):
Go on Twitter.
Go to LinkedIn.
Just find their email.
Like, show up to their office.
Find out where they live.
Like, text them until they respond and just addany kind of value to them that you think is
necessary.
Do it for free and they will hire you.
And if you're the person running that business,how do you find those people?
It's luck, man.
It's so luck.
Like, I found my best talent.
(41:41):
It's like, you just keep going until you untilyou find it.
Like, I never went, like, the headhunter route.
I just it was always referrals, referrals, andjust sourcing through people until you find
someone.
And for a couple of closing questions, thefirst one is, what's the best piece of advice
you've ever received?
What if it works out better than you imagined?
(42:04):
What if it works out better
than you Like, most people, when you mostpeople, when you go to try anything, they're
like, what if this happens?
What if this happens?
What if this?
Like, what if you succeed more than you couldpossibly imagine?
Like, why not you?
Why not you why can't why can't you be the theyoungest billionaire in the world?
(42:25):
Why can't you, you know, sell your a companyfor hundreds of millions of Why can't you do
all these incredible thing?
Like, the people that you're watching succeedon your phone on social media right now are no
different than you.
They're not smarter than you.
They're not they're not any different than you.
I've sat in rooms with people that I used tolook up to as a kid, and they oftentimes are
(42:46):
less impressive than than you think, honestly.
A lot of them aren't that nice.
A lot of them, like, they don't work that hard.
Maybe they did for a period of time, but, yeah,a lot are.
A lot are killers and a lot are amazingoperators and and, they're rightfully
successful.
Talking more so, like, in the entertainerworld.
But they're no different than you.
(43:07):
And a lot of them, the only difference is theytried.
And most people's biggest fear is is notfailure, but it's failing publicly.
It's having their circle where that's liketheir hometown friends, their college friends,
their peers, their girlfriend, their whatever,like watching them fail publicly.
That's people's biggest fear.
(43:28):
And if you could just get over that, like, whenI left college, I was wearing a corn hat for
the like, Love Corn was a brand, and I wasrunning around a park, like, in a corn outfit.
Basically, like a glorified, like, you know,the the mascot side of a car dealership.
Yeah.
I, like, glorified one of that for but theywere paying me $4.
I was like, fuck.
Like, screw it.
Like, I I I have no pride.
I don't care.
I'm in, like, I'm in my my hustle phase rightnow.
(43:51):
And, you know, most viewers wouldn't be willingto drop out of college to wear a court costume
and run around a park.
Like, they just wouldn't be.
But there is no limit.
The only limit to to your success is how bigyou can think and how big you can imagine.
And a lot of people have a glass ceiling abovethem and they just think they just wait for
permission because you're you're taught yourwhole life, you have to ask permission.
(44:13):
Everything up until you're an adult, you haveto ask permission for.
Even to get into the classes you want incollege, even to to get a job, you have to ask
for the job.
Like, to do anything, you need to ask.
Do you have to ask to go to bathroom in middleschool?
Like, everything.
You have to you have to ask your parents'permission.
You have to ask you have to keep on asking forpermission.
It gets so ingrained in you to ask permissionto do anything that you realize there is no red
(44:35):
tape.
And most people live their life as an elephantwith one of my, like, mentors told us to me,
most people live their life as an elephant witha chain attached to their ankle, but that chain
is attached to a thumbtack.
And they think because they have a chain ontheir ankle, they can't move.
But in reality, there's nothing that chain isattached to.
(44:55):
Like, the elephant can just walk.
There's no red line.
That elephant can just move freely.
But because there's a chain around his ankle,he assumes he's attached to, like, a brick
wall.
And most people, they just assume they can't doanything and they assume that they always have
to ask permission.
I've never asked permission for anything.
I'm not I'm on an a like, I wasn't an agencyowner.
I've never run a business.
I didn't like, I've never made an ad.
(45:16):
I never I never did anything, but I just triedand I looked like an idiot and I sucked.
They're held back by their own minds.
But They they just they they think they thinkbecause more people aren't doing it that it
must be impossible.
There must be you must have to have, like, asecret sauce, secret formula.
Truth is, most utterly successful people aren'tthat brilliant IQ.
They just, like, are either naive enough to bedelusional to go think that it's possible or
(45:40):
they are high risk takers.
But those are the characteristics you need.
On the contrary, what's the worst piece ofadvice you've ever received?
Stay in college.
Yeah.
Go go slow.
Go slow
down.
Slow down.
Slow down.
Take it slow, breathe, relax.
Does it all need to happen at once?
(46:01):
Like, It's that is terrible advice.
Yeah.
Especially when you're young and you're filledwith energy and you're super ambitious
Take advantage of it.
Yeah.
You should this is the peak you're gonna feel.
Like, you should be all in and doing everythingyou can to be as successful as humanly
possible.
And last one, what's one rule that you live bythat most people don't?
(46:28):
I just think most people think that they needto have it figured out.
Like, most people need to they they play byrules.
They think there's rules.
Like, they think that there is a way to dosomething.
Something.
And something that I've realized is I'm superADD.
I was in special ed.
I was I was in the lowest math classes in myhigh school.
(46:50):
Like, I I I I'm I'm an anomaly in a lot oflike, I've never played by the rules.
I've never, the like, I I've never like,nothing I've done has been traditional.
Even till I get my internship, like, I was theyoungest person.
They hired I did the card tricks for the peoplethat are hiring me.
(47:10):
They just, like, liked me.
So they just hired me.
Like, I it wasn't because I had a good goodresume.
There isn't a way to do anything, and that thebest innovation happens when you give it to
someone that has no idea how to do it, and theyjust try to do it themselves.
And, like, when you just like, when you tellpeople there's a certain way you have to do it
like this, that's when no innovation happens atall.
(47:31):
So, yeah, keep keep not playing by the rules.
Your card trick reminds me of this story.
So Dan Porter, who we had on the show, he's thefounder of Overtime, Overtime, he is a
professor at NYU.
Yeah.
And he was trying to give his students adviceon how to get internships in finance because
most of them are looking to go at GoldmanSachs, whatever.
And he had this a student that was trying toget in and wasn't working and one of his other
(47:55):
students had worse grades, worse credentials,but got the job.
And the a student's like, well how did this guyget the job?
And the story there was so random, like, he itwas outside, rainy day he was outside the
Goldman Sachs office and he walked one of thepartners to the subway station under his
umbrella and it was one of the things thathelped him get the job.
(48:15):
So I think it's those untraditional things that
100%.
Really help.
It's it's personal.
It's it's your relationships and yourpersonality and your your charisma and just
your hustle.
I I think Jesse Itzler ran, like, a marathonin, like, Zico coconut water costume because
they didn't have, like, an advertising budget.
And, you know, I I I even, like, I walked40,000 steps around New York City every single
(48:39):
day for, like, eight months just, like, justjust to try and push this thing forward.
And when you're an there's this is also Ididn't come up with this, but I didn't come up
with this.
But, you know, if your car breaks down the sideof the highway and you sit in your car and you
just are screaming, crying, no one's gonna helpyou.
If you get out of your car and you start to tryand push the car, you may not push that far,
(49:02):
but people will stop and help you.
And I think a lot of the time, most people justdon't even try because they don't have the
answers.
Or if you just are endlessly trying andfailing, endlessly trying to fail, but you just
don't stop and you're relentless, people willhelp you.
People will people gravitate people gravitatetowards hustle.
And I I think it's very underestimated how farjust sheer hustle with can just take you.
(49:25):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, I think that's a great great way to endit, Josh.
Thanks for taking the time to join the show.
Thank you, Ramyun.
For anyone who has not yet heard of two zerothree Media, link is in the episode description
down below.
If you're a brand, work with them, they'rebeasts.
Thanks for tuning in.
Thank you guys for for listening.
Awesome.
Full transparency, anyone watching this, like,I was you.
(00:03):
Like, if you're watching this and you're tryingto figure out how to be an entrepreneur and be
in this world and how to not have a job and aboss and and find something that you're
passionate about, I was you sixteen months ago.
And if someone is here and maybe all they haveis, like, a laptop and an Internet connection
and they wanna start trying to make money, yep,what would be your advice to them?
So, like, right now,
Josh, who are you and why are you here?
(00:26):
So I'm Josh.
I'm the founder of two zero three Media, thecontent agency.
We do about a 150,000 a month doing streamerview ads for some of the largest CPG brands in
the space right now, like Doctor Squatch,Golly, Ridge Wallet, Magic Spoon, Snow Teeth
Whitening, Blue Chew, Breeze, a lot of bigbrands.
And we get live and authentic reactions toconsumer brands on the street.
(00:47):
So we trained comedians and actors in New Yorkto go and get to go and do street interviews
and get live reactions to consumer products Andbasically get strangers to sell the products
instead of, you know, hiring UGC creator or,like, an actor.
And how old are you?
I'm 22 years old.
That's insane.
Okay.
So I wanna break down exactly how you got tothe point where you are today.
(01:09):
I think to do that, it starts all with a guynamed Oliver a couple years ago.
Tell me the full picture.
Who is he to you?
What was going on behind the scenes?
And how did he help launch your career in thisspace?
Totally.
So Oliver was and still is, like, one of thebiggest reasons that I'm even in this space.
So Oliver's been my best friend for about aabout a decade now.
(01:32):
And when I was 18 years old, he called me andhe was like, I'm starting this ecom brand
called Tabs Chocolate.
And I want you to kind of come down to Miamiwith me, help me run and manage these UGC
creators.
And and he really wanted, like, a right handman to come and, like, help him and someone
that he trusted.
So I just wrapped up my freshman year ofcollege at Syracuse.
(01:53):
And I you know, it was either go back home anddo nothing all summer or go to Miami with
Oliver and, you know, sleep on sleep on thefloor on a on a mattress and and help run
content for an e com brand.
So, obviously, you know, chose the latter andflew down to Miami.
He paid for the flight.
He, you know, paid for everything.
And at the time, I didn't even really know,like, what UGC was.
(02:15):
Like, it was early twenty twenty two, Ibelieve, and we're really one of, like, the
first, you know, ecomm brands to do that kindof of marketing.
Like, there's no money in ads spent being spentevery day.
There's no, like, Facebook ads.
It's all organic content.
So I had a lot of learning to do, but I thinkhe really saw that, you know, I was a good
person, he could trust me, and he saw a lot ofpotential in me.
(02:35):
When we first spoke, you mentioned that whenyou started, you were pretty much absolutely
horrible Terrible.
Doing the job.
Yes.
Why were you so bad?
And then how did you go from being one of theworst performers on his team to now one of the
best performers in the space?
Right.
So the I've so I think that was for when I wasmain content for his next business, Study
(02:56):
Buddy.
Yep.
At Tabs, it was really for, like, the first,like, few months over the summer and then I end
up just going back to college.
Oliver then dropped out of school and pursuedTabs.
He had ended up scaling tabs to, you one of themost viral and well known ecomm brands in the
space.
And then a little over a year ago, he started asecond business called Study Buddy, and he
needed a head of content for that as well.
(03:17):
Well, not necessarily like a head of content,but someone to make street interviews for his
SaaS.
And his competitor was doing street interviewsand doing really well with it.
Right.
So he called me and he asked me, like, do youwanna do street interviews, you know, for my
SaaS?
And at the time, I was I was in college stilland I was like, yeah.
Like, look, like, I would love to do it.
You offered to pay me $2 a month to go and do30 street interviews.
(03:38):
And I was like, bro, are you just, like, beingsuper generous because, you know, we're
friends?
Or is this, like, some like, are you getting agood deal on this?
And he's like, no.
$2 a month for 30 unique ad creatives a monthis, like, very cheap in this space.
And I was kinda floored by that.
And I was abroad with my friends, and I startedjust going out and street interviewing every
(03:59):
single day.
And I was terrible.
As you as you just said, horrible.
Like, I was in London at the time and nobody inLondon knows what a street interview is.
It's it's it's like, you know, New York Citywhere everyone's a street interviewer.
Yeah.
But everyone was pretty bad and they giveterrible reactions.
My questions sucked.
I didn't I had zero camera presence and I wasjust horrible.
(04:21):
And he was pretty straight up with me.
He was like, yeah.
These, like, are not good.
So a little over a month later after, you know,hiring me and paying me, he was like, basically
fired me and was like, this is like, this is itthese videos aren't performing.
But, you know, him being the great friend thathe is, I got back from abroad and I was about
to start my corporate internship at a at adoing, like, marketing sales for a company here
(04:45):
in the city.
And the whole like, the week before I started,he was like, bro, I think, you know, this is a
really good niche that a lot of brands wouldwant.
Like, if you did really put time and effortinto this, like, this could probably be
something.
And at the time, I'd I'd always wanted to belike, do social media, be an entrepreneur, own
my own business, etcetera, but it it was alittle hard for me to grasp just how kind of
(05:09):
how big the niche really was of how many brandsare really out there.
I think as, like, a regular consumer, you see,like, the big brands.
Right?
I I mean, this isn't sponsored, but I won'tname the name.
But, you know, you see all the big brands,Nike, Aloe, etcetera.
You don't realize, like, how many just, like,500 k to, like, $10,000,000 a year.
(05:29):
It's, like, brands there are out there.
Like, there's endless.
There's endless amount of brands and they allneed one thing and that's content, especially
entertaining, engaging content that doesn'tlook like an ad.
So at the time, I really couldn't grasp justhow big the space was, but I decided to quit my
internship.
I emailed them the night before.
And on that Sunday, Jake Paul was having hispress conference with Mike Tyson in New York
(05:53):
City.
So me and Oliver, we stuck backstage.
We met Logan and Jake Paul.
I kind of told Logan Paul my idea.
He gave me a quick, like, you should run it.
And then went back to Oliver's apartment,emailed the company, quit the internship.
Oliver put a little tweet up for me on Twitteras long as my other friend, Matt Epstein, who
also has a pretty big Twitter following, andthey tweeted for me.
They got in my first few brands, and I was offto the races.
(06:17):
I really had no case studies.
I had nothing to show.
I took payment, like, after the deliverables,like, not upfront or anything and just started
running around New York City with some brandsthat you've probably never have heard of.
And it's very hard to think, like, what juststarted as a little idea running around a park,
you know, grew into what it is now.
And you'd be running around New York Citybasically with a mic and trying to get to
interview people.
(06:37):
Yeah.
So I just had, like, like, a microphone andthen I would hold the product and I had a
videographer with a backpack with, like, fivebrands in it And we just run up to people in
New York, like, hey.
Like, what do you think of this product?
Like, I didn't even know what ad creative was.
I didn't know what ROAS meant.
I didn't know it what media buying was.
I didn't know what any of this really was, butit spread like wildfire.
(06:59):
And, like, the first three brands that I had,they're like, hey.
My buddies want you to use for them.
Because was charging, like, dirt cheap rates.
I was undercutting everyone.
And then I had all these agencies trying toreach out to me, like, hey.
Like, could we pay you 5 or $6 a month to onlyexclusively work with us?
And I was like I at first, like, well, it's,like, double what I was about to make my
internship, but I was like, wait.
If you guys are offering me this, like,immediately right now, like, what happened if I
(07:22):
just, like, keep going?
Like, could I get brands myself?
Could I get brands that trust me myself?
And I didn't have, you know, a paymentprocessor.
I didn't have, like, I didn't know any of this,like, any of this.
But I kept going on Twitter and from Twitterand just referrals.
Like, I did really good work.
And unlike most agencies, when you work withthe agency, usually pay the founder of the
agency.
He goes, thank you so much for your money.
(07:42):
And then all of a sudden, you put in a Slackgroup.
It's, like, some person you've never met.
And then you wait, like, thirty days to getyour deliverables and it's the communication is
not great.
Whereas for me, you know, you gave me money andthen you call me, you text me, whatever.
Like, I FaceTime you immediately.
Hey.
I'm in the park right now.
I have your product right here.
Like, it was very it it was very just like,they could tell I was hustling.
(08:04):
And between a work ethic, me being 21 years oldfull of energy, a lot of brand owners kinda saw
me just I was walking thirty, thirty five,40,000 steps every single day around New York
City and just I wouldn't go home until I gotthe best reactions.
And they just saw that hustle and that driveand it was a kind of a wide open market.
Like, there's no one really doing it at thisscale, at this intensity.
(08:25):
And yeah.
I mean, I can keep going on and on about it,but we I got I I did I think I did 15 brands
month one.
By end of the summer, I had worked with over 75brands and then ended up, like, dropping out of
college and we can get more into it.
But yeah.
And for your first month, how much did you makein revenue for that first month?
Month one was 31,000.
(08:47):
It was, like, probably 26,000 profit becausethere was no cost.
Month two was 55,000, probably 46 to 47,000profit because it was just me.
Yeah.
Like, there's just a videographer following mearound and a and one of my editor who's
actually still with me to this day, Kanika, whowas editing for $3 a month.
(09:07):
And you So you decided to take this leap.
You're like, okay.
I'm gonna quit the internship, but technically,you don't have any money coming in the bank yet
when you quit your internship.
Yeah.
What convinced you to give you that leap offaith?
Was it that Jake Paul and Logan Paulinteraction?
Honestly, Oliver was a really big pusher.
Matt Epstein really pushed me.
Matt and Oliver, I would say, those are thoseare some, like, my two closest friends in the
(09:31):
space right now.
Like, besides, like, my home friends who I lovedearly and, like, you know, who are always my
best friends, Matt and Oliver were were, like,very much, like, doing like, crushing it.
They're both still crushing it, and I saw themwork really hard and very and how intense they
were moving and how just how much passion theyhad for the work.
And I just felt like I need to have something.
(09:53):
Like, I need to feel passionate.
Like, I need to work hard.
Like, a lot of my friends at the time werewere, like, you know, still just, like, kids in
college.
Like, I was in a frat.
Like, a lot of them were just, like, wanting tohang out and vibe, and, like, I saw the two of
them just putting their heart and soul intotheir business, and I wanted to find that.
And as soon as like, I I'll I'll kinda neverforget it.
I was walking around the park.
(10:13):
It was maybe two or three weeks into this, andI got a text message from one of my clients.
Hey.
My buddy wants this.
For how much for 20 videos?
I said 3,000.
And this was the first time I charged up front.
So I I sent him a Stripe link for $3,000without even getting on the phone with me,
without even talking to me.
He just hit that link and just texted me paid.
And just like that, $3,000 just got wired to mybank account.
(10:36):
And I was just like, what the fuck?
Like, before this, I I had less than a thousanddollars in my checking account.
And, you know, by the end of that first month,I had, like, $28,000 in my checking account.
And I was just like, like, my mind was just,like, blown and I was, like, I could do this
forever.
I was like, I like to talk to people.
I'm super outgoing and, you know, like, I couldjust wake up, go talk to strangers all day,
(11:02):
make $50 a month, go to sleep.
I was like, this is awesome.
Like, why why do not why do anything else?
What was the moment when you decided, you
know what?
This is killing it.
I'm gonna drop out of college.
Go all in.
And Yeah.
How did you approach that?
So, you know, over the summer, I I had saved upmy first 6 figures figures by the end of that
summer.
So it was, like, zero to, like
(11:22):
In, like, four months, basically.
In, like, probably eleven weeks or Yeah. Twelve
Twelve Okay.
So it was pretty quick.
And because a lot of it was just, like, profit,you know, like, it was I didn't really have any
expenses at the time.
And so I was debating on the okay.
Like, I I do have enough of a safety net whereI could probably not go back to college and,
(11:45):
you know, live in New York.
And if I never signed another brand, it couldbe good for a couple years.
Well, I mean, not a couple years in New York,but at least a year.
Right.
And but it was there was no business.
Right?
It was just me.
I had a new videographer every, like, three orfour weeks because they kept, like they they
weren't, like, full time guys.
I had one editor who was in Croatia, and thatwas it.
(12:07):
There was absolutely no team.
And I just undercut all all the agencies whocharge for UGC videos.
I charge, like, a 100 a video or something.
Every other every other UGC agency charges,like, $2.03, 400 a video.
That's why I was getting so much demand.
And I was like, okay.
Like, I could but there was no, like, business.
There was no like, if you if if I broke myankle or I got the flu or something happened to
me, this whole business crumbled.
(12:29):
So I decided to go back to college, and I wasthere for three days.
And while I was in class, I my phone were justgoing off.
Like, more people wanted these videos, morepeople wanted these videos.
And I was like, fuck.
Like, I'm losing, like it's, like, $12,000 I'm,like, saying no to because I'm sitting in this
marketing class.
And, you know, I'd already signed Blue Chew,I'd already worked with Snow Teeth Whitening,
(12:51):
I'd already worked with Breeze, like, I'dalready worked with Laundry Sauce, like, all
these big brands, and they were all stillreaching out to me for videos.
So I decided to fly back to New and I stillstayed in college.
But I moved my classes to Monday and Tuesday.
So then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,Sunday, I would street interview all day and
sleep on my friend Matt Epstein's couch.
Matt Epstein had just graduated because he wasa year above me.
(13:13):
He's living in the city, and he was helping meso much.
He was helping me on Twitter, retweet for me,being so supportive, showing me, like, how to
kinda build this through an agency because heowns a very successful agency himself.
And he was showing me, like, how to set upSlack, like, how to do onboarding forms, you
know, how to systematize this.
So I was sleeping on his couch every night,street review all day, go back to the couch, do
outreach all night long, wake up, repeat, wakeup, repeat, wake up, repeat.
(13:37):
And then Sunday nights, I'd fly back to toschool.
Monday, Tuesday, go to class.
Tuesday, fly back to New York, back to thecouch.
And I did that for four weeks.
And after the four weeks, just back and forth,it was I was just about to, like, explode.
You know, there's just so much chaos.
I had a suitcase full of just, like, consumerbrands that would just lug with me everywhere I
went.
And I was like, okay.
Like, I kinda have to make up my mind.
(13:58):
Like, I have my foot in both worlds.
And I was like, I have this, like, frat, like,frat, Greek life, like, party school life, or I
I can just kinda coast, hang out with myfriends, have a good time, and then figure it
out after college.
Or they have this business that's making me$30.40 k a month.
Who knows how sustainable it is?
Who knows how long the street of your niche isgonna last?
(14:18):
Who knows, you know, am I gonna build a team?
Am I gonna find a partner?
Am I gonna be able make this a business, likean organization, or am I just gonna be a
glorified freelancer forever?
So I was in marketing.
I left because Rob Gronkowski's ice shaker, Igot intro to him.
And his brother, Chris Gronkowski, hopped on acall with me.
(14:39):
And, you know, they're they're one of one ofthe bigger Shark Tank brands Yeah.
Of all time and he got a Zoom call with me andhe was like, yeah.
I want, like, 30 shit reviews, paid me 4,000 onthe phone call and I was just like, fuck it.
I don't know if I can swear, but I was likeYeah.
Yeah.
I was like, fuck it.
Like, there's there's clearly something here.
And I went back, put all my stuff in my car,drove my car to my home, to my house in
(15:04):
Connecticut, took a train to New York with mysuitcase full of brands, went to Matt's couch,
slept on his couch for over a month, and justevery single day.
Just it was just like, success loves speed andmomentum.
Like, success and speed go hand in hand.
So I I I saw this very early on.
Like, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of foundersthat I've met, their biggest weakness is they
(15:26):
move too slow.
They think and they think that they will whatif this happens?
What if this happens?
What if this happens?
And, like, they overanalyze.
Where my biggest weapon was the fact that I wasvery you know, I didn't know.
You don't know what you don't know.
And because I didn't know anything I rememberbeing on a sales call and a brand was like,
what what kind of typical ROAS do you see?
(15:48):
I literally just Google what is ROAS?
Like, I didn't even know.
During the call.
During the call, I didn't even know but like,I'd already I got this is early on but like, I
didn't even I didn't know I didn't know what toknow but because I've but because I moved so
fast and I all day long, I just filmed content,I'd post about it all day long, and then I
would just reach out to more people everynight.
(16:08):
It was like a conveyor belt, and I I didn'teven have anywhere to upload footage.
So I'd go to the Apple Store at night and I'dplug in the SD card from the day to the Apple
Store computer and then I would just make thelink public and then I would just email that
link to my editor in Croatia and I'd wake upand the 10 videos would be ready to go and they
just be sent to the clients and I would justwake up and repeat.
It's like a conveyor belt.
And as long as I was up and ready to go, thisbusiness ran.
(16:32):
And and I was just able to move at such speed,and I was so nimble.
I I was I was I used to set my alarm for, like,04:00 in the morning because brands overseas
wanted videos.
So I wake up, like, 4AM.
I'd get on the phone, but we you know,negotiate with them for, like, a thousand
dollars or $900, whatever they wanted to payme.
And then I would go back to sleep and then wakeup at nine and go like, I I was just so all in
(16:53):
and so consumed.
There's nothing else in my head that I evenconsidered a thought that mattered in my life
besides selling people streaming packages.
It was all I cared about.
It was all I talked about.
I've now kind of tried to, like, have a lifeand make friends and, like, be a kid and kinda
have some sort of balance, but there is nobalance.
Especially, like, as you know, when you'restarting out, there's genuinely I guess, it's
(17:17):
gonna sound bad, but there's nothing else inyour life that that should matter besides the
success of your business.
There's nothing else.
And that's that that was my that was myviewpoint.
And I just street interviewed till I collapsedevery day.
That's why I personally believe, like, having aplan having a plan b is the most dangerous plan
you could
possibly 100%.
There shouldn't be.
Because the moment you have a backup plan, youplan to fail.
(17:38):
It's like, if you wanna win and you wanna winbig, you're better off just going all in.
Just Otherwise,
like The swinging is hard as you possibly can.
Otherwise, don't even do it.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So Exactly.
And that's the other thing I realized too whenI left college.
Like, if I want this to work, I can't, like,have my foot in both worlds.
I was like, kinda have to just burn the boatand just see what happens.
And, you know, we can get into, like, chaptertwo, chapter three, chapter four, but that
(18:03):
initial like, when I left college, I juststarted I was, like, blasting Drake, and I was
just, like I just made these videos for myself.
Like, I would rather like, if I look back onthis video in five years and you're not if you
don't own it, like a media empire and extrememedia, like, had all these exact things I
wanted for myself.
Like, I was so serious.
Like, I will be in a crippling depression.
(18:25):
And I would just say that to myself.
Like, I would, like, record it and I was, like,driving home, like, when I was suffering gas,
like, you're just you're dropping out ofcollege right now.
If this doesn't work, like, I will kill you.
Like, I feel like literally, like, I was so seton, like, I would just talk to my future self.
And I was like, you're burning the boat.
You're going all in.
This has to work.
And if this doesn't work, I'm gonna look backat this video and and I'll be in a crippling
(18:46):
depression.
I'm sure there's people around you that wereprobably thinking because similar thing with me
is like, oh, that's not healthy.
Like, it's not the way to live life.
Yeah.
What do you say to them?
I mean, the the thing is, like, there's areason, you know, if I if I wanted to have,
like I wasn't happy.
Like, I like, that's handsome.
Like, I wasn't I wasn't relaxed.
(19:07):
I wasn't, like, at peace.
I wasn't happy.
I was I'm still not.
Like, I I my happiness comes from my ambitionto keep pushing the field goal back and
achieving.
Like, that's what makes me happy, like, havingsomething to aspire to.
Like, if I didn't have anything to aspire to,and I was like and I would just be, like, be
normal and, like, have be at at peace and belike, that that doesn't make me happy.
(19:32):
What makes me happy is setting massive goals,then doing everything I can to achieve it.
And even now, like, I kinda look back on thelast year because this this has been just about
twelve months since I made my first Streetinterview.
I feel grateful to be where I am right now, butI feel like I'm a toddler, and I just learned
how to crawl and, like, say my first words.
(19:53):
And, you know, in my head, I'm runningmarathons.
So, like, I still feel, like, so early, and I'mlike, wow.
This is what I've achieved in twelve months,like, where am I gonna be in twenty four
months, thirty six months, five years, tenyears, twenty years?
Like, I'm not gonna slow down.
Like, my foot is on the gas.
And if you look at the best the bestentrepreneurs in the space, Gary Vee, like, all
these guys, their foot's on the gas.
Like, there's no coasting, there's no there'sno balance, there's no, like, just trying to
(20:18):
find peace.
Like, there is no peace.
There's peace in chaos.
You told me when we were on a walk with ourmutual friend Nathan that you started this out,
you're basically a freelancer making around,like, $31,000 a month.
Most of that was profit.
Yep.
What what changed from going from a freelancerto actually operating this like a business?
What did you do differently?
(20:38):
It's team.
And that that's the number one answer.
So how it works and assuming that was wasreally impactful to learn was entrepreneurship
is just games.
So I went from, like, zero to one very quicklybecause I had very good product market fit and
extreme hustle.
Right?
So when you're building a business, especiallyyou know, there's a few ways to make money.
(21:01):
Right?
You can sell your time, sell a service, yousell a product.
You you can do, like, a a few things.
So when you're selling a service, you'reselling your time for money.
So how it works is you sell your time for moneyand you wanna be able to do it in a way where
you're you're stacking a lot of cash so thatyou can make your first hire.
Because eventually, you wanna you're basically,like, building up levels.
You wanna get to a point where there's peopledoing all the work and you're just business
(21:24):
development, acquisitions, basically be, like,the face of the company.
But when you start, you're a freelancer sellingyour time for cash.
So I was able to undercut the market, but stillcharge enough money, and I wasn't dumb.
Like, I I wasn't blowing all my money andbuying watches and buying stuff.
I just saved it.
So that way, I could, you know, make my firsthire to to get another street interviewer and
(21:48):
to high and hire hire someone to, you know,come out and make a production assistant and
just start to, like, hire people becausegetting from one to two is all about team.
That's all that matters.
Like, no matter because you get to a pointwhere you have more work than you could handle.
So the only way for that to scale and the onlyway for me to scale was to have other people
doing the street interviews and having moreeditors, just more people working so that way,
(22:11):
you know, I could get out of fulfillment andinto acquisition.
And to get those more people doing the streetinterviews, you tried to bring people in.
Oh, it was next to impossible.
Yeah.
Almost made me almost fail.
Yeah.
And then what changed?
Because the the first few months, a lot of themwere horrible, the videos were performed bad
Yep.
And then you started to realize, like, this isa problem.
What did you do what did you change from thatto try to get to where you are today?
(22:35):
Totally.
So I only brought on my first so September,October, November, I was, like, on a high.
It was just me.
There was, like, no other employees, like, pureprofit.
And I was like, don't need anyone.
I was like, why would I wanna hire?
Like, this sucks.
I've never hired before.
It was hard.
So I had a really hard time doing it.
Is it worth do I just, like, post on myInstagram?
(22:58):
Like, who wants to do street reading?
How do you even hire someone?
And so I was like, why do I hire?
Like, I'm just I'm saving all this money.
Why do it?
Then it got really cold in New York.
People stopped wanting to be streetinterviewed, and the park where I filmed
Washington Square Park got empty.
The brand's like, this doesn't look as good,and I was like, shit.
(23:21):
Like, what do I do?
Like, I was, like, looking at my account.
Was like, how long can I pay rent for if I Ihave to take the winter off?
I was, like, kinda freaking out.
And I had nowhere to stay.
I had to get out of Matt's couch, and I movedinto this random person's loft in Tribeca who
is who I had some, like, crazy roommates and Ihate I hate being there.
(23:43):
How did you find them?
It was just
a friend of a friend of a friend of a friendwho had, like, a random place and it was it was
they were the weirdest people and I was solonely.
And it was, like, November in New York City,and I had no team.
And, yeah, I I was really scared then.
I just come off this whole hive of summerfeeling, like, invincible, and then all of a
(24:04):
sudden, it was cold.
All my friends are in college.
I, like, had basically nowhere to stay, and Ihad no one to, like, lean on.
Like, it was just me every single day going tothis park and talking to strangers, and I was
gassed.
I was burnt out.
I couldn't like, there was days where I wouldgo to the park and I would turn the mic on, and
I was just so physically exhausted that, like,I just, like, turn it off and I would just go
(24:27):
home.
And, like, then the brands kept, like, pickingme, like, when the video's coming, the video's
coming out.
I was just I I started getting so much anxietybecause I felt all the pressure on my
shoulders, like, all these brands needingcontent.
Like, I have nowhere to go.
Like, I have no friends.
Like, I'm so lonely.
It's, like, dark at 4PM.
Like, it used to be, like, till 8PM.
Now it's dark at 4PM, and it cuts it cuts myfilming time to, like, twenty minutes.
(24:50):
Like, I was like, what was just so lost.
So I started going into the subway stations andto stop trying to stop people in the subway
because I was warm, and that didn't work.
So then I would just post my Instagram story,who wants to work?
Like, who wants, like, who wants a job?
Like, I need someone.
I don't know what I want you to do, but I justneed I just know I need someone else to help me
(25:13):
figure this out.
And I had this guy, Tyler, go on castingnetworks and find me, like, actors who I'd pay,
like, $30.40 bucks to an hour to come out andjust pretend to be strangers in street
interviews.
So for, like, two weeks to, like, catch up, Iwould, like, fake some of the street
interviews, and I would just script it.
So that just kinda helped me, like, not have tobeg strangers to stop, but, like, it allowed me
(25:34):
to, like, breathe.
And then one of those actors that showed up tofilm with me in a subway car, she ended up,
like, being really good.
And she was like, you know, can I come back?
Can I keep doing this?
Like, do you need more host?
Do you need this?
I was like, I yes.
I was like, that is exactly what I need as amatter of fact.
(25:56):
And two of those hosts ended up being prettygood, and they it turned out that a lot of
actors in New York had a lot of spare time andnot too much money.
And I was like, wait a second.
Like, how available are you?
She's like, I'm pretty available.
And she ended up this is now December.
And she was like, could we do this in Miami?
(26:17):
And I was like, we could definitely do this inMiami.
Like, a 100% get this in Miami.
When do you wanna go to Miami?
She's like, I'll go tomorrow.
And I was like, that that works that works forme.
So the next day, I booked our flight to Miami.
We stayed at a friend's house, and we usedOliver's car because he was in New York.
Yeah.
And this girl that I'd never met before who,you know, had a boyfriend, had her own life,
(26:40):
like, had everything, kind of saw that, youknow, where this was going, kinda saw an
opportunity for herself as well, came with meto Miami.
And the two of us, my editor, I had anotheranother, like, manager kind of role, like,
admin person at the time.
So I started building, like, that first team,and she was now able to go film screen reviews.
(27:04):
Like, for two weeks, I filmed her doing screenreviews and just gave her notes.
I told her how to hold the mic, how to stand,how to stop people, how to, you know, say the,
like, the right call to actions, etcetera.
And she had friends in Miami that she was alsoable to stay with too, so it worked out.
And I was able to stay with my friend.
So today, you post hundreds of pieces ofcontent every single month for for your brands.
(27:25):
You'll work have hundreds of pieces of content.
I think the one of the things that you talkedabout earlier
is
also speed.
Yep.
But how do you balance having that velocity,having that volume, while also making sure
every single piece that you put out is the bestthat it could possibly be?
So the answer is like you don't.
Like, especially at first.
Like, you can't be a perfectionist.
(27:46):
Like, you shouldn't.
Right?
So you could go back and you watch you learn onthe job is is what I've learned.
Go back and watch Jake Paul's, like, firstvlogs.
Go back and watch Logan Paul's first vlogs.
Go back and watch David Dobrik, Casey Neistat,mister Bees.
Like, any creator you respect, go back andwatch their first videos.
They suck.
They're they're terrible.
Go back and watch anyone doing anything whenthey start, and they all suck.
(28:11):
The whole point is to get good at something,you need to do it as many times as possible.
And to do as many times as possible, you needto do it as fast as possible.
Right?
Like, I could've been like, no.
I'm not good enough.
Like, I'm only gonna take on one brand a monthuntil I'm good.
No.
No.
No.
Like, it's part of life.
Like, Jake Paul could've been like, no.
I'm not sure if I'm I'm great at content yet.
(28:31):
I'm gonna keep practicing it.
No.
He just started daily vlogging every singleday.
And, you know, month zero to month six, bymonth six, he was very good at vlogging.
Why?
Because he did it every single day, and he wasokay looking like an idiot.
He was okay looking dumb.
He was okay being bad.
He was okay getting criticized.
And I think being like, having the the courageto do it when you suck and do it when you're
(28:53):
bad and when you're a beginner and being ableto just know that to get great at anything just
takes is just repetition and consistencybecause you can't you you physically will not
fail and you will not be bad at anything if youjust do it a thousand times.
You can't it's impossible.
So just knowing that you're gonna suck, knowingthat people may not be happy with your work,
but knowing that you need to do it to getbetter is that's what you need to do.
(29:16):
You want to build the biggest media entityYeah.
In the country.
Yes.
What does that look like for you, and how doyou plan to actually go out and execute on
that?
Sure.
So these the street of your niche is not gonnabe around forever.
Right?
But this is, my chosen horse my chosen horseinto the world of advertising and content
(29:38):
social media.
Right?
So now I have connections.
Now I'm known.
Right?
I I have some success.
And this was kind of, like, my door that openedinto being in this world now.
And since, like, be and, like, stay in thisworld.
The whole the whole game of being in this worldis just being able to survive.
If you survive in this entrepreneurship game onthis ecom world, if you survive in here for
(29:59):
twenty years, you will be rich.
And the whole point is just you have to stayalive, you have to keep going.
A lot of people drop out, a lot of people fail,lot of people quit.
So, anyways, I saw this as, like, my Trojanhorse into this world and to get relationships
with some of the biggest brands to get to andto get really good at advertising.
But where this is going, like, live socialshopping is gonna be huge.
(30:21):
Like, we will definitely have a live socialshopping component to our to our agency in the
future.
And we're gonna be a full media conglomerate.
It's like I brought in a partner and his agencya couple months ago, and they were doing
similar monthly revenues to us.
And they've been around for close to half adecade now with super sticky clients, high LTV.
(30:43):
So they've kinda come in and very much, like,helped me build a real system here.
So now we have, like, a storage unit, about tenminute walk to Washington Square Park.
We have a PA that goes to the storage unit,picks up the brands for the day, sets up a
booth in the park, and then we have all theactors come throughout the day, get the briefs
that are printed out.
They can memorize the briefs, go out, shoot theproducts, come back, get the next brand.
(31:05):
So now it's like a real operation that I don'teven go to the park anymore.
I don't even need to be involved.
I can even just, like, text in our Slackchannel what brands need to be shot.
But we have a we have our shot list, like, twoweeks out already planned.
So we're way more organized.
We have way more systems.
It's way more of an operation.
We're moving all brands over to a retainermodel.
At first, you know, a big way I was able tosucceed was I didn't really do long term
(31:28):
commitments, the short term commitments.
But, yeah, we're we're we're we're reallybuilding us into a, you know, multi 7 figure
agency already.
And then that on top of adding, like, internalupsells like podcast, live social shopping, and
then all other kind of content formats.
Like, brands need built through content.
Content is king.
I mean, I don't know who toined that coinedthat term, but it is true.
(31:50):
Brands and personalities and building in publicis the future of advertising.
So, you know, we're we're just gonna be thefirst movers in whatever niche and vertical is
is next.
What does your day look like?
So I usually I wake up, I turn off tounderserved, check Slack, and then go get an
extra large cold brew and then hop on mymorning team call on my phone.
(32:13):
Wait.
So you did the call on your phone.
Yeah.
Why not your computer?
Do you not use your computer?
I don't use my computer.
I probably I don't even know where it is rightnow.
I've been
You don't know where your computer is?
No.
I don't think I've even I've gone on it maybe afew times in the last, like, six months to,
like, watch a YouTube, but I do all my workfrom my phone.
(32:34):
I don't really like to sit down.
A lot of people, when they do work, they'resitting at a computer, and I I am moving 2020%.
I take all my calls on my phones.
I I have Slack on my phone.
Like, I I I have a big phone, but I, like, doeverything while moving.
Like, I write emails while moving.
I write Slack messages while moving.
I make revisions on edits and make all thenotes while moving.
(32:55):
I'm constantly walking.
Either if I'm in my apartment, I just walk incircles.
Or if I'm on calls, I always take the calls,like, while just moving.
So, like, there's this is probably the longestI've sat down for, you know, in probably months
in full transparency.
That's why Streamviews did a great job Yeah.
Yeah.
Because, like, I didn't have down.
I could just walk around New York City all daylong.
(33:16):
Ankur Nagpal from Teachable is very similar.
Yeah.
Is I think he built that to 250,000,000.
But all of his calls that he takes now for hislatest company Yeah.
Every single call, he does not typically dothem through Zoom unless he absolutely has to.
Yeah.
He goes on a walk, goes on his phone, and justwalks while he's taking the call.
I'll do Google Meets if it's, like, you know,an introduction sales call or something, but
it'll probably be on my phone.
(33:38):
And I I can I can, like, prop it up and, like,sit down for
Are the clients not, like, why the fuck are youon your phone?
They're just
Most of our most of our work are referralbased.
Okay.
So, like, it's usually not me sitting down,like, a presentation of why you need streaming
ads.
It's like, they're very warm.
They've probably met me before.
They've probably seen my work before.
It's more so like, here's what we kinda workwant to, like, do.
(33:58):
Could you do this for us pretty much?
And, like, this is what we offer and we kinda,like, work it out on the sales call.
But it's usually it's not many, like, completeintroduction calls.
It's all you know, we don't run ads.
It's not an ad that you would talk about, butwe're one pretty much, we're a 100% referral
based agency.
Like, we've scaled to Doctor Squatch, to Ridge,to Obvi, to all these big brands, 100% from
(34:19):
referrals.
I've never done cold email.
I've never run an ad.
We barely do any outreach.
It's all just referrals.
How do you build that strong of a referralengine?
You do really, really good work.
You over deliver, and you provide a servicethat, you know, not so many other people are
doing.
You've also wanted to build a moat, and youthink about defensibility a lot.
Yeah.
What does defensibility look for you right now,and how do you go about building that out?
(34:43):
Yeah.
So I really didn't wanna start doing media, youknow, like, telling people what we're doing
until we did have that boat where, like, youcould've just, you know, grab a microphone and
run around a park.
Like, we now have over a dozen creators.
Right?
We have a over 25 person team now.
And, yeah, I I because there isn't like, theperson watching, I guess, it's an amazing, you
(35:05):
know, hustle to start doing is just content forbrands.
Maybe not screen reviews, but you can do UGCfor brands.
You can do any kind of content for brands.
Shoot b roll for them.
Like, do anything.
But I really wanted to have a team.
I really wanna have a sustainable business, notjust, you know, churn clients and try to beg
for new clients.
Like, I really wanted to get to a point of,like, I can predict the next week.
(35:28):
Like, before I could predict anything.
But, yeah, now that I'm at a point where thereis team, there is infrastructure in place,
there is real results, now the only thingthat's stopping from going from a 100 and 50 a
month to a million a month is just more peopleknowing that we exist.
How did it feel you to hit your first 6 figuremonth?
Great.
Great.
Great.
Great.
Great.
(35:48):
Especially as a yeah.
I mean, in full transparency, anyone watchingthis like, I was you.
Like, if you're watching this and you're tryingto figure out how to be an entrepreneur and be
in this world and and how to not have a job anda boss and and find something that you're
passionate about and to do as a career, I wasyou sixteen months ago, maybe even less,
(36:12):
fourteen months ago, honestly.
And I genuinely don't feel any different now.
I would say the number one feeling that I dofeel that is different than fourteen months ago
Fourteen months ago was an immense feeling ofgratitude.
I just feel so grateful.
Like, even if this all turned off tomorrow, youturn off the cameras, I may count it, like, to
zero.
Like, even if all of this came down, like, thisroller coaster, this ride that I've been on for
(36:34):
a year now, I will tell my grandkids aboutforever.
And for for me, like, I'm playing with housemoney now.
It feels like even though I'm still so earlyand I'm still so young, I feel so grateful just
to be able to have this opportunity.
But the number one thing is you need to exploita niche.
You need to find a niche, find something thatsomeone will pay money for, and get really good
(36:56):
at it, and just do it as much as possible.
That's number one.
And then number two is have your ear to theground.
So, like, now that you I'm a little bit in thisspace, I now see so many opportunities to
exploit.
And you need to get to a point where you needto sell your time for money so that you can
know you can pay rent and eat ramen noodlesfor, like, at least six months so that you can
(37:17):
see.
Up until that point, you're, like, heads downjust trying to cash cash cash.
Get cash.
Get cash.
Get cash.
A dollar.
As soon as you can get to the point where itmaybe have $10 or $15 or something just some
sort of breathing room, then you can kinda,like, look around and see what's happening.
You go on Twitter, go on LinkedIn, go watchpodcasts, see what other people are doing, and
see what you can do better.
(37:38):
And it's just personal brand to service.
That's it.
You need people to know you're providing aservice and to get really good at the service.
So whatever that service is, you should bemaking content around that service every single
day and then be getting as good as possible todo that service and then train people to do
that service.
That's the formula for going from, like, zeroto, like, a 100,000.
If somebody is listening to this and they mighthave had their first big hit like you did with
(38:01):
street interviews Yeah.
How do they know what's the best next verticalto go into next, and how do you evaluate that?
That's going from go once you have, like, alittle bit of success, you know that success is
a lot of it's, like, where prepper preparationmeets opportunity, knowing the right people,
and then just being very aware of what'shappening, you know, in the space.
(38:24):
So, like, right now, there's, like, a liveshopping booth in Santa Monica.
I see a couple million profit a month.
Just booths, actors, and it's like QVC prettymuch for, like, TikTok shop brands.
You wouldn't know that like, my parents don'tknow that exists.
Right?
Like, my home friends called like, a lot peoplethat I'm friends with outside of space probably
don't even know that it exists.
(38:44):
It's even a couple million dollars of profit.
The founders is mid to late twenties.
So there and, like, just seeing that, I'm like,woah.
You know, that's awesome.
That doesn't make me discouraged.
Like, we could set that up in my apartment.
I can set up a a booth, a backdrop in myapartment tonight.
I can then DM brands until one of them respondsand start doing it for them, use them as a case
(39:05):
study, start posting the case study, beingcontent around the case study, and get my
second brand, third brand, fourth brand.
So you you wanna be the buccaneer, not thepioneer.
You don't necessarily wanna be, like, the veryfirst person to do something, but you wanna go
and see what other people are doing, seeingwhat other people have any success with, and
that what you could do better than so, like,I'm seeing this Santa Monica live shopping
(39:26):
studio.
They're doing a great job, but it's not rocketscience.
It's it's cameras.
It's brands.
It's having the cash to be able to build.
That's the other thing.
You do need money to be able to deploy.
If you until you have money to deploy, you needto sell your time for money.
You need to sell your time sell your time toprovide a service so that you can have cash to
be able to deploy.
And then and then just try it and failing ituntil you figure it out.
(39:49):
That's it.
And if someone's here and pretty much all theyhave is they don't have a ton of resources,
maybe they're a college student, maybe all theyhave is, like, a laptop and and an Internet
connection Yep.
And they wanna start trying to make money Yep.
What would be your advice to
them?
You go to people that are so you go to peoplethat are a couple levels above you and you add
their add value to them for free.
So, like, right now, I currently have Icurrently have who's gonna be an employee,
(40:13):
who's not even an employee, staying with me onan air mattress, who I'm going to hire as a
full time content creator for, like, $6 a monthplus commission.
He's gonna make 6 figures a year.
He's currently 24 years old living with hisparents in Philly in Pennsylvania, and he just
kept texting me kept texting me kept textingme.
Told me he would interview and make content forme for free, showed up to the park, showed up
(40:37):
on set to go shoot.
I didn't even know he lived in Philly.
Did amazing work.
Next day, he did amazing work.
Next day, did amazing work.
And I asked him go out for dinner.
He told me he has to go back to to Philly.
And I like, why are going to Philly?
He's like, I live in Philly.
I'm like, you live in Philly?
You've been driving three hours each way justto come here for free?
He's like, yeah.
I I already want an opportunity.
Boom.
You're now hired.
You're ready to go.
(40:57):
I moved him in with me until he found anapartment and, you know, now he's now now he's
my boy, but he showed me, like, he's willing towork.
He's up all night long, like, to kinda docontent ideas, writing new scripts for brands,
like, he's all in.
That is someone that I will bring with meforever with every venture that I go into.
So if you don't have money, go find someonethat's one or two levels above you.
(41:19):
Go on Twitter.
Go to LinkedIn.
Just find their email.
Like, show up to their office.
Find out where they live.
Like, text them until they respond and just addany kind of value to them that you think is
necessary.
Do it for free and they will hire you.
And if you're the person running that business,how do you find those people?
It's luck, man.
It's so luck.
Like, I found my best talent.
(41:41):
It's like, you just keep going until you untilyou find it.
Like, I never went, like, the headhunter route.
I just it was always referrals, referrals, andjust sourcing through people until you find
someone.
And for a couple of closing questions, thefirst one is, what's the best piece of advice
you've ever received?
What if it works out better than you imagined?
(42:04):
What if it works out better
than you Like, most people, when you mostpeople, when you go to try anything, they're
like, what if this happens?
What if this happens?
What if this?
Like, what if you succeed more than you couldpossibly imagine?
Like, why not you?
Why not you why can't why can't you be the theyoungest billionaire in the world?
(42:25):
Why can't you, you know, sell your a companyfor hundreds of millions of Why can't you do
all these incredible thing?
Like, the people that you're watching succeedon your phone on social media right now are no
different than you.
They're not smarter than you.
They're not they're not any different than you.
I've sat in rooms with people that I used tolook up to as a kid, and they oftentimes are
(42:46):
less impressive than than you think, honestly.
A lot of them aren't that nice.
A lot of them, like, they don't work that hard.
Maybe they did for a period of time, but, yeah,a lot are.
A lot are killers and a lot are amazingoperators and and, they're rightfully
successful.
Talking more so, like, in the entertainerworld.
But they're no different than you.
(43:07):
And a lot of them, the only difference is theytried.
And most people's biggest fear is is notfailure, but it's failing publicly.
It's having their circle where that's liketheir hometown friends, their college friends,
their peers, their girlfriend, their whatever,like watching them fail publicly.
That's people's biggest fear.
(43:28):
And if you could just get over that, like, whenI left college, I was wearing a corn hat for
the like, Love Corn was a brand, and I wasrunning around a park, like, in a corn outfit.
Basically, like a glorified, like, you know,the the mascot side of a car dealership.
Yeah.
I, like, glorified one of that for but theywere paying me $4.
I was like, fuck.
Like, screw it.
Like, I I I have no pride.
I don't care.
I'm in, like, I'm in my my hustle phase rightnow.
(43:51):
And, you know, most viewers wouldn't be willingto drop out of college to wear a court costume
and run around a park.
Like, they just wouldn't be.
But there is no limit.
The only limit to to your success is how bigyou can think and how big you can imagine.
And a lot of people have a glass ceiling abovethem and they just think they just wait for
permission because you're you're taught yourwhole life, you have to ask permission.
(44:13):
Everything up until you're an adult, you haveto ask permission for.
Even to get into the classes you want incollege, even to to get a job, you have to ask
for the job.
Like, to do anything, you need to ask.
Do you have to ask to go to bathroom in middleschool?
Like, everything.
You have to you have to ask your parents'permission.
You have to ask you have to keep on asking forpermission.
It gets so ingrained in you to ask permissionto do anything that you realize there is no red
(44:35):
tape.
And most people live their life as an elephantwith one of my, like, mentors told us to me,
most people live their life as an elephant witha chain attached to their ankle, but that chain
is attached to a thumbtack.
And they think because they have a chain ontheir ankle, they can't move.
But in reality, there's nothing that chain isattached to.
(44:55):
Like, the elephant can just walk.
There's no red line.
That elephant can just move freely.
But because there's a chain around his ankle,he assumes he's attached to, like, a brick
wall.
And most people, they just assume they can't doanything and they assume that they always have
to ask permission.
I've never asked permission for anything.
I'm not I'm on an a like, I wasn't an agencyowner.
I've never run a business.
I didn't like, I've never made an ad.
(45:16):
I never I never did anything, but I just triedand I looked like an idiot and I sucked.
They're held back by their own minds.
But They they just they they think they thinkbecause more people aren't doing it that it
must be impossible.
There must be you must have to have, like, asecret sauce, secret formula.
Truth is, most utterly successful people aren'tthat brilliant IQ.
They just, like, are either naive enough to bedelusional to go think that it's possible or
(45:40):
they are high risk takers.
But those are the characteristics you need.
On the contrary, what's the worst piece ofadvice you've ever received?
Stay in college.
Yeah.
Go go slow.
Go slow
down.
Slow down.
Slow down.
Take it slow, breathe, relax.
Does it all need to happen at once?
(46:01):
Like, It's that is terrible advice.
Yeah.
Especially when you're young and you're filledwith energy and you're super ambitious
Take advantage of it.
Yeah.
You should this is the peak you're gonna feel.
Like, you should be all in and doing everythingyou can to be as successful as humanly
possible.
And last one, what's one rule that you live bythat most people don't?
(46:28):
I just think most people think that they needto have it figured out.
Like, most people need to they they play byrules.
They think there's rules.
Like, they think that there is a way to dosomething.
Something.
And something that I've realized is I'm superADD.
I was in special ed.
I was I was in the lowest math classes in myhigh school.
(46:50):
Like, I I I I'm I'm an anomaly in a lot oflike, I've never played by the rules.
I've never, the like, I I've never like,nothing I've done has been traditional.
Even till I get my internship, like, I was theyoungest person.
They hired I did the card tricks for the peoplethat are hiring me.
(47:10):
They just, like, liked me.
So they just hired me.
Like, I it wasn't because I had a good goodresume.
There isn't a way to do anything, and that thebest innovation happens when you give it to
someone that has no idea how to do it, and theyjust try to do it themselves.
And, like, when you just like, when you tellpeople there's a certain way you have to do it
like this, that's when no innovation happens atall.
(47:31):
So, yeah, keep keep not playing by the rules.
Your card trick reminds me of this story.
So Dan Porter, who we had on the show, he's thefounder of Overtime, Overtime, he is a
professor at NYU.
Yeah.
And he was trying to give his students adviceon how to get internships in finance because
most of them are looking to go at GoldmanSachs, whatever.
And he had this a student that was trying toget in and wasn't working and one of his other
(47:55):
students had worse grades, worse credentials,but got the job.
And the a student's like, well how did this guyget the job?
And the story there was so random, like, he itwas outside, rainy day he was outside the
Goldman Sachs office and he walked one of thepartners to the subway station under his
umbrella and it was one of the things thathelped him get the job.
(48:15):
So I think it's those untraditional things that
100%.
Really help.
It's it's personal.
It's it's your relationships and yourpersonality and your your charisma and just
your hustle.
I I think Jesse Itzler ran, like, a marathonin, like, Zico coconut water costume because
they didn't have, like, an advertising budget.
And, you know, I I I even, like, I walked40,000 steps around New York City every single
(48:39):
day for, like, eight months just, like, justjust to try and push this thing forward.
And when you're an there's this is also Ididn't come up with this, but I didn't come up
with this.
But, you know, if your car breaks down the sideof the highway and you sit in your car and you
just are screaming, crying, no one's gonna helpyou.
If you get out of your car and you start to tryand push the car, you may not push that far,
(49:02):
but people will stop and help you.
And I think a lot of the time, most people justdon't even try because they don't have the
answers.
Or if you just are endlessly trying andfailing, endlessly trying to fail, but you just
don't stop and you're relentless, people willhelp you.
People will people gravitate people gravitatetowards hustle.
And I I think it's very underestimated how farjust sheer hustle with can just take you.
(49:25):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, I think that's a great great way to endit, Josh.
Thanks for taking the time to join the show.
Thank you, Ramyun.
For anyone who has not yet heard of two zerothree Media, link is in the episode description
down below.
If you're a brand, work with them, they'rebeasts.
Thanks for tuning in.
Thank you guys for for listening.
Awesome.
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