Jimmy Darts: From Zero To 10M Followers In 2 Years

Jimmy, darts. What's up, my friend? Good to see you.

How's it going? Another great morning. Excited here.

I, I, I'm joined with my CFO here. He wanted to meet you.

What's up, buddy? How's it going? Are you running the business?

You look like he's running, he's watching lots of tick tock videos of kindness.

There you go.

Actually, so this is, this is actually true. We went to Target yesterday looking for random acts of kindness with this guy inspired by you. So you're, you're, you're changing kids lives all over.

How was it, buddy? Was, did you have some fun?

No.

It could be intimidating at first, but if you keep doing it, you're gonna love Jimmy.

I got two questions for you. Obviously I just want everybody to meet you because your energy is infectious and if people don't know who you are, they need to. And I really have two questions I want to ask you, and the first is you, you started this thing like two years ago, right? You started sharing all these kindness videos and doing acts of service to the world two years ago. And the entire following that you have has grown in that time. Is, is that right? And if so, what were you trying to make it happen?

Yeah, so, yeah, actually I, it is true. I, I started doing this two years ago, but really it came from just a lifestyle of doing this since I was a kid. I always share with people that, yeah, when I was a young kid, my parents, for Christmas, they'd give us $200, 100 for ourselves, 100 to give away to a stranger or, or someone on the street. And I just got comfortable with helping people out from an early age and really kind of went on this journey of just, I just have a blast. I travel around the world. I was living in India, Australia, all over, I forget Brazil. And I just loved enjoying these interactions with people.

And I was, I was, yeah, I was running an Amazon business, doing that for a while.

That's my second question.

Yep, yep, I was doing that. And so basically, yeah, about two years ago, I was, My dad asked me this question. He said, jimmy, what do you want to do with your life if you could do anything? I was like, wow, I mean, all right, I clearly can't be a quarterback in the NFL. That's, but if I could do anything else, or actually more so than that, I would love to just travel around the country and help people out. 24 7. I know that's not like a job I can apply to get because it's like, doesn't even Exist. But could I do that? Help people all the time and eventually maybe start this crazy wild church with a water slide and show people.

At the same time. And so really started this journey, but did it with some intentionality. You know, I, I knew to do this you'd have to take it serious and I'd have to really. Yeah, just, just really come up with a way to do it. And so I, I created an audience doing comedy first and I grew audience.

How do you know that part of your journey?

Yeah, so I, so I grew an audience about a million followers doing just crazy stuff like I proposed to a 65 year old lady at Mount Rushmore, or I'd go to Denny's to a family sitting there, I'd say, sorry I'm late, and sit down with them and get their reaction. Heck you. I'm like, I'm the guy at Home Depot selling you that couch or whatever. And yeah, I just really had fun with people. And then when I had a million followers, I was like, man, I think I can really do what I want to do, which is just to help people 24 7, hire people just to, yeah, just to like, not just drive by people, but to have conversations. And met this homeless gentleman in Miami and asked if you want to be friends for the day. And he did. So we went and played basketball, rollerblading, all this stuff. And just in the car, he broke down crying and he's like, man, I was suicidal today. Like, you don't have an idea of what that meant to me. And I was like, no way, bro, that's crazy. Like, I, I can't believe that. Can I pray for you? So say a prayer for him. I said, man, do you have cash app by chance? And he said he did. So I was like, all right, bro, I don't know how this is going to work, but I'm going to put your cash up at the end of the video and see if people will donate. So I went to bed, the video had like 10,000 views. I was like, maybe he got 50, 100 bucks. But how cool would it be to just like get the whole Internet to support this guy? You know, I remember being a kid, people were always donating to things, but I'm like, how cool is that if you could donate and then see the video of the face that went to next morning I wake up, video's got like 10 some million views and he has over $30,000. Amazingly becomes not homeless. He traveled South America for a while and so it's, it's really it's really cool. And the whole heart of these videos, man, is just not bring a light to me. But it's all shot first person, where the people are the vocal point.

Yeah.

And it's all about them passing a kindness test. Then they get rewarded because truly, you know, a Deborah in Walmart, you know, or the. The Joe on the street, like, they've been kind their whole life and it's.

The one, and no one's seen it.

Yeah.

You know, so. So this is why I asked this question, because. Because there's lots. We talk about audience building all the time in the 1%.

Right.

Talk about being yourself. Authentic. I'm a dad in a car with this kid on a live stream, you know, like, we. We talk. We talk about audience building. And someone said in on our team, like, we need to have someone this year at capcon who just built an authentic brand. And they said, being good to their customers. And I was like, I already booked Jimmy Darts.

Describing Jimmy Darts.

I already booked Jimmy Darts. So it's really good to know that there was intention. Are you stuck, bud? Come here. There was intention, there was a strategy, there was a model behind it, and it was people centric. The other thing that I wanted to ask you, Jimmy, was you don't talk much about the Amazon business that you had behind the scenes, but it seems like that was paying for your life in order to allow you to do that. Was that going on in the background, allowing you to go build this audience and do this good work?

Yeah, 100%. So basically rewind, like five, six years ago. I'm in Austin, Texas, living there, working at a restaurant. Running to you. Yeah, lifetime. And I'm like, man, I heard, you know, about Amazon, all this stuff, and you're like, come to Capitalism Conference. So I look it up, it ends up costing like a couple thousand bucks. I'm like, dang, I can't afford to get in there. But I work at the restaurant where it is housed. So I was just a server man. And all these people from Capcom were eating there, and I'm just picking their brains. And this guy just. Man, I was in. I was on sales and started Amazon business, and now it's making 10, 15 million a year. I'm like, what did you just say? And I'm like hearing these guys and they're just like giving me their phone numbers and stuff. I'm like, man, I. I don't want to work at a restaurant forever. I don't want to do this and I don't want to Climb a ladder. Like I'm gonna, when I get off work, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna research Amazon products. And I tried like four or five things and they failed. I tried like mouse traps where it would like rat trap. I tried like dog water bottles, all this stuff. And these suppliers in other countries would like rip me off and take my listings, all this stuff. But kept trying and trying. And then eventually my, like my fifth product I launched became successful. Not to a crazy amount, but to a good amount where it was bringing in like three to $5,000 a month. And it has stayed doing that for the last like five years. And that was just enough for me and my little Honda to mob around, do this, and actually pursue what I love. So it's a great tool and business is a great way to fuel the stuff that really makes you come alive and eventually that can actually become your full time thing.

That's right. That's exactly right. This, you know, this is my, maybe my favorite story of my career. Of you being at capcon as a server and then us, you know, reconnecting and me not knowing the in between story.

Right, right, right.

And now you're speaking at the event and like, I cannot wait to have you, dude. Like I, it's, it's funny, you know, in a way I might have shifted the direction of your life, but now you are radically shifting the direction of mine. And just our conversations and our phone calls, like you, you are making me want to do more, be more, become more. And I'm so thankful for that reciprocal relationship.

Yeah.

And it's just like the best story ever of what happened at Cap. And now you get to be on stage.

Yeah, it's absolutely crazy. And it's so true, man. I'm so excited to be there to like help give these people advice, to build these audiences. Because truly, no matter what industry you're in, whatever, if you're doing something for the benefit of other people, to help them, or even if it's not a product that necessarily is going to transform the customer's life, but just at the workplace, the way you manage those people and just to have vision for them and stuff and build a community, it's so powerful. And yeah, I'm super excited, man. And business is, it's amazing. You know, people say money is evil, but truthfully, you know, if you got an evil person and a good person, I want the good person to have all the money to make decisions to stop some of that evil going on. And I know the people at this event are going to be amazing people with great intentions, and they're going to be able to use what they create from their businesses to help shift culture in an incredible way.

Well, Jimmy, I'm. I'm proud to call you a friend, and we'll.

I.

We'll just tease this. Jimmy and I are now talking about building brands together. So it's coming, like, full circle again. So this real. The plot just keeps thickening with Ryan and Jimmy.

Hey, anyone going to the event, be kind to the waiter downstairs. You never know, you might be working with them.

The ground keeper, the waiter, the service, everybody. So here's. Here's. Here's a couple things you'll learn from Jimmy at the event. You'll learn how to build an audience really fast because he's done it. You'll learn how to have a product that pays for your life. You'll learn how when you're focused on people, everything opens up. You'll learn how to get exposure from doing really cool things and how to make things happen really fast by just following the instinct of who you want to be and what you want to create in the world. So if you want an example of somebody who has done that, you've got a good one in Jimmy.

Darts.

Jimmy, it's great to see you, man. I can't wait to see you again in April. I'm so excited for what we're doing, and I'm just pumped to know you and to have you.

Oh, yeah. Let's get it, baby. Thanks so much, man, for having me on here. Stoked to be there.

You bet. All right, everybody, if you want to come, go to capitalism.com capcon as of this morning, there were 41 tickets left, if you want to come. So we would love to have you. Thanks, Jimmy.

Thanks, everybody.

We'll see you soon. Bye.