Patrick Bet David - Valuetainment & PHP Agency

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What'S going on, everyone? Casey Adams here and welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode, I sit down with Patrick bet David and talk about how he grew valuetainment to over a million plus YouTube subscribers and how he's grown PHP agency. But real quick, I wanted to put this intro before the audio because I've recorded this podcast while I was traveling. I was actually in a hotel lobby in Los Angeles and during this podcast I did it online and the audio quality is not the best. So I just wanted to send you a fair warning because I did whatever it took to make this happen. I was literally running all over the hotel thinking I could get a conference room. They didn't have the keys, they couldn't let me get into the conference room so it would be quiet. So you may hear some background noise on this episode. But just know I made it happen for you guys. I made it happen for all of the Rise of the Young listeners. So that being said, thank you so much for tuning in to the Rise of the Young podcast. Make sure you subscribe, make sure you share this with a friend. On this episode, we talk about building businesses, we talk about culture, we talk about Huawei and and much, much more. So that being said, make sure you tune in. I'll talk to you guys soon. What's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode, I am excited to announce that we have someone that I've been really looking forward to having on, and that is Mr. Patrick David. Thanks so much for coming on.

It's good to be on with you. J.C. yeah.

So I mean, first off, I know that you not only put out a lot of content and I've been seeing you on Instagram and YouTube from Valuetainment for a while now. But to really kick off this podcast, I really want to start by asking you, number one, what do you define as an entrepreneur? Because I know you put out a lot of content to help entrepreneurs, to help them with their business and just everything that they're doing as a independent individual. So I first want you to answer that question to really set the tone for the interview moving forward.

Yeah. So what I visualize what I see of an entrepreneur. First of all, the definition is somebody that starts a business or businesses and takes on greater risk than they can take. So it's a risk you're taking to possibly for a bigger reward. Nowadays, the word entrepreneur and investor is usually very freely. It's almost like the word love. You know how people go around telling everybody, I love you, I love you, I love you. And you know, you don't love the person because love is 100% adjective, like guys do with girls all the time. I'm guilty of it when I was younger. But the word entrepreneur is somebody that creates businesses, takes risks, constantly growing, is doing it full time, that pays for their expenses, that's their main source of income that they build. A person at that level is what I consider an entrepreneur.

Got it. And for everyone that may not know, Patrick, I know that your platform valuetainment, I first want to touch on that before we get into the story of how you've become such a successful entrepreneur. But what would you define valuetainment as? And when did you start that?

That's a good question. So I ran. I run a financial firm even till today. We just had our convention two weeks ago in Las Vegas. We had nearly 10,000 people. Our guests were Kobe Bryant, Jordan Peterson, Billy Bean, and President Bush Braddock.

Wow.

Pretty solid event. We have many investment bankers. They're some of the biggest financial firms in the world where they're at our event. And so professionally, I started an insurance company after leaving Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Transamerica. October 09, we became official and we started off with 66 agents. Today we have 11,000 agents, agents in 49 states, 100 plus offices nationwide, including Puerto Rico. That's what I do professionally. So I used to make content privately just for our company. It was exclusively to them. So it was private, it was unlisted. We have a channel that's very private. It's not something that we did publicly. And then one day I started watching what was going on with the marketplace. And I wasn't somebody that got onto YouTube early a lot of guys got on YouTube early in 2004, they got onto Facebook, Twitter. I was a very private guy. I was the guy that didn't believe people will share their kid pictures on Facebook. And who the hell on the right mind's going to share a picture of their kids on Facebook? You're out of your mind. And then I saw a man named Ron Paul changed the game. He ran for office to be a president. And in 2004, the guy raised $6 million in 24 hours on MySpace. Casey, I don't know if you.

Yes, yes, for sure.

$6 million. And you know, a one term senator watched this man, his name is Barack Obama, and said, if this Guy can raise 6 million on MySpace, I'm going to raise billions and I'm going to be a two term president. That's exactly what Barack Obama did. And then fast forward today, if you take Twitter out, President Trump is not a president today. Let me say that one more time. If Jack Dorsey does not invent Twitter, President Trump's not a president. Yes, Twitter was a big powerhouse to help them become a president. So I'm watching all these things that are taking place and I'm in a, in an industry, financial industry, extremely regulated. Everything's got to be interviews, documented signatures, fingerprints. It's such a regulated through the Department of Insurance or the SEC or the finra, all these things. They're not fans of social media. So I looked at, I said, okay, you're seeing the direction the marketplaces are going. The best way to learn what to do Next, whether you're 40, 50, 60, is to study 14 year olds. There's nothing more educational than studying 14 year olds. Because whenever I go to an event like this, in two days I'm taking 2, 300 people to Cancun, okay? And whenever I go there, guess who the first people I look for?

The young people, I say, hey, where.

Your kids at, man? Bring them here now.

Interesting.

They come and then we have dinner together with their parents. And I say, so tell me, in high school, what app are you using? How much are you using? Snapchat? Is that dead already? Do you still use Instagram? Are you back on Instagram or is Instagram not cool for you? Oh, we'll never use Facebook. Do you like YouTube? How do you consume content? How much Netflix are you watching? What do you think about Tick Tock? What do you think about every musically? Is it dead already? Is it still there? What are you guys using? Consuming? And that's when I said we got to create Content. So I started off the channel calling it Patrick B. David.

My name. Yep.

And then two and a half years later, I said, we're not going to call it Patrick B. Because I feel the message is so big that we need other talent to be creating content within a valuetainment concept. So I said, what do we stand for? We bring value, we entertain, and it's becoming a movement. Let's call it valuetainment. And at that time, when I named it valuetainment, Casey, I thought I came up with the idea and nobody else had come out. So I go online. I said, guys, let's buy the domain. Valuetainment.com Yep, go online. Valuetainment was a publicly traded company in Germany. And I contacted the CEO Dirk, and we spoke and then eventually I told him, I said, I want to buy your domain. He says, I'm not selling my domain to you. It's a publicly traded company. I said, well, we'll talk later. Yeah, three and a half years later, we bought his domain. Six months ago, we own the domain by taemin.com and now valuetainment grew from 0 to 1.45 million subscribers. A few billion minutes watched, and it's viewed on YouTube as a number one channel for entrepreneurs. So there was a transition to how it got started to work out today.

Got it. No, that makes absolute sense. And I know one thing too, when it comes to valuetainment and like the content model. I know that's like you said, you used to make privately private content and now it's the public content. And one thing I want to touch on, because I know there's a lot of my main audience is 18 to 25 and you know, like content itself is one thing, but actually managing and operating a company and building a team and being accountable, that's something I want to really take take away today and really have you instill into the listeners when it comes to the leadership that you've been able to build, to have, what'd you say, over 100 plus offices nationwide. So really, to pivot from the content angle of valuetainment to the actual business model of holding your team accountable and holding the people that you're necessarily have ownership of, how would you go about keeping your team accountable in 2019? As an entrepreneur that's getting started in this space, that's building a team that's growing their company, what would be one of the most important things to know from your experience to really build and hold a team accountable?

So purely an accountability question is what you're asking yes. Okay, got it. Okay. So for me, it's a very good question because accountability is a boring topic. Most people don't like to talk about accountability because try to see how many accountability videos on YouTube have over a million abuse. It's not going to be a lot.

Of it because totally.

Number one, the thing with accountability, nobody likes it. No one likes it. Accountability is not attractive. I am today probably more accountable myself. The lower the level I was, the lesser, less accountability I was, the higher I am today. I have to be more accountable today to investors, to carriers, to employees, to my, my executive team, to boards, to Department of Insurance, to FINRA, to NASD, to FINRA, to all of these regulatory outlets, to guidelines on YouTube, on guidelines on social media, guidelines on marketing. There's so many things to be accountable for. So the first thing somebody has to do when they're looking at accountability, they don't want to do accountability. You have to realize the highest level of accountability in the world today is the President of United States. Very simple, okay? The most hated entrepreneur in the world who keeps getting his tail handed to him is Elon Musk. Why is that? Because all the eyes are on him. He's running Tesla, he's running all these companies. He's got all this credibility, he's got all this following. People are listening to what he has. The smallest thing he says, smoke sweet on Joe Rogan. They may get 20 something million views, but at the same time, the stock takes a hit. But if you want to be Elon Musk, you have to understand it comes with a level of accountability. So the whole thing with accountability is to understand how big is your vision. Somebody may say massive. Well, guess what? You got to be more accountable if it's bigger. It's not. This whole thing about, well, you know, I give the vision and somebody else deals with the minutiae. That stuff may make sense for a book to write and sell to a bunch of amateur people who. I've never ran a vision business before, but if you say that to a CEO that's sitting on a chairman, that's the chairman of the board, having responsibility to investors and shareholders to say, I just cast a vision and you guys better do the rest, people will laugh at you if you say something like that. So that's the first thing you got to do anytime you want a group or people you're working with to understand the concept is you got to explain what the word accountability means and why there are benefits to be in that account. So that's the first thing so, Casey, first thing, I explained it. Okay. Second thing, today it's all about tools. You have so many tools that you first use that you don't need to buy yet. For example, when we first got started, we used group as a method of accountability. Then we went to WhatsApp as a method of accountability. Then we invested a few million dollars and we have our own app today. I'm looking at it right now.

Wow.

This app that's been created as a method of accountability allows me to send a message within a five mile radius of any office, 200 miles to 200 miles. Have this message last an hour, three hours, six hours, eight times eight hours to the point where you got to look at the message or else it's going to disappear. So it creates a certain level of urgency.

Got it.

And different groups that we have on here. So if I want to communicate to different groups whether it's a certain leadership level, so that level of accountability, I don't need to communicate. Say you and I are partners and there's two other people. Maybe we have a group just for the four of us. But say we have, you know, eight executives, then it's the four of us plus the eight. Say we have 22 directors. It's the four of us and the eight and the 22 directors combined. Say if I have sales leaders and it's 19 sales leaders, it's these sales leaders. Then if we have salespeople, is these 200, if it's licensed. So you've got to create a level of accountability that takes place on that part. Right. Like just prior to me sitting down with you, I had, we had a meeting this morning, 8:30, that's to kick off the staff and all our employees were here. Then we have a meeting with our production team that went for an hour and 15 minutes right before meeting with you to see what happened last week, our numbers last week. We had our biggest subscribership last week. What video did well, but the video didn't do well. Are the new ideas that we came out with. Good. What do we want to do next, who we're going after next? So that's the accountability with all team members of this department. Then I'm having lunch with a group of people. Then right after you, I'm having a call with my investor at 11:15 my time. And then right after the 11:15 call, I'm having to call the Ticketmaster because I was on DC on Friday and I looked at multiple different hotels that we're going to do our Vault 2020 conference. So if I can view the. And Ticketmaster or Shopify and all this stuff, because Ticketmaster may be technical. So everything is all accountability.

Yep.

And systems and tool you use for it. And what you'll realize is the people that you can lock onto and develop as future leaders of your company or your running mates are typically the ones that are very comfortable being held accountable. And matter of fact, they want to be put into positions, allocated accountability. Because eventually when you're sitting around saying, I can count on that guy, I can count on her, I can count on them. I can never count on those seven guys.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Is built on the backs of the people that can be held accountable. So again, I explain it, then I create systems, then I use tools and I get the tools to be tighter. I gather data, we look at data, we track that and we drive that. That's what we do.

Got it? That makes sense. And I know one thing too as well. When it to comes comes to just your accountability, your accountability system, I'm sure when you started it was a learning experience. And I want you to take us back because I know your story and what you emphasize a lot is you've been an entrepreneur since 10 years old. Right. And your story and where you come from, like that is a core part of who you are today. And I know from the content that I've seen of yours, I know that is something that is very important. So I'd love for you, for the people that may have just tuned into this podcast that may not know the backstory of how you got started as an entrepreneur, how you started to hold yourself accountable in your life to then get to where you are. I'd love for you to bring us back to that 10 year old Patrick bet David, that is just getting started as an entrepreneur that has these goals and ambitions and walk us through that journey of where you're from so that people can paint the picture to really understand where you come from.

You got it. So, you know, for me, the first time, a lot of people, as they ask me, they say, pat, I think anybody can be an entrepreneur. I tell them, I said, you got to go back a thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, everybody was an entrepreneur. Everybody was an entrepreneur. You had no choice. The reason why not everybody's an entrepreneur today is because we all have a choice. Well, what do you mean, Pat, let me explain to you. So a thousand years ago, There was no 401k plan, there was no benefit plan, there was no health insurance. It was not like if you work for me, I'm going to you give. Give you an annuity or a retirement plan or a profit sharing or a defined benefit plan. No, you have to figure out a way to make money. And the way you did it was, look, I got a cow. I got two of them here. I can give you milk, but, Casey, I know you got a bunch of chickens. How about we do this much milk for your three dozen eggs and we swap? Okay, great. Then, hey, then, look, I got milk here. And if you want to buy it, here's how much we're selling it for. And our cows are good cows because we take care of them. And here's our milk, babe. We got to go sell. You do the cow stuff. I'm going to go sell it, son. You come with me, right? And we went and sold it. We got a farm. Here's how much land that we have. We got to get up early if it rains, man. We got to kind of figure out what the timing of the rain. And you don't have the Internet to go check. Weather app. You kind of have to assume based on some of the metrics used back in the days, but you got it from whoever you did. Everybody was an entrepreneur now. Today, Today. So for me, when I became an entrepreneur at 10 years old, I was living at Germany at a refugee camp. My parents got a divorce, and I had a new super Nintendo that was coming out. The Super Nintendo with Super Mario Brothers blue cover. And it was a girl on our campus. Her name was Katarina, and she was drop dead gorgeous. I was 11, she was 10. Man, I wanted to hook up with this girl.

Yep.

And her brother's name was Jan. And Jan. I said, jan, man, I like your sister, man. She's very pretty. He said, stay away from my sister. Because he was a few years older than me. He's 14 or 15 years old at the time. But I noticed Jan started talking about how much he loves the new Super Nintendo. Oh, my gosh. Have you heard about this new game coming out? It's sick, you know, it's Super Mario. It's times 10. It's so much better. I said, how bad you want to play the game? He says, very bad. I said, okay, no problem. Here's what I'm going to do. I went to a local swimming pool, and in Germany, everybody drinks beer. Beer is like water. It's a very interesting place. So I went to the pool owner and I asked the guy, I said, look, you got a lot of beer bottles here. If I bring them to you, what Will you give me. He said, I'll give you five penny, which is like five pennies per beer bottle you bring in. I said, no problem. So I did the Math. I need 5,000 beer bottles to bring in times five. Benny his 250 marks. The Super Mario Brothers was 249 at Cowpob. Kaobo is like the German series. So I went and it took me 30 days to collect all the beer bottles. I brought them back. I was the only guy with Super Mario Brothers at our refugee camp. Jan came in no way with the Super Mario Brothers. And I went and played with his sister. That's what happens. We're in contact. We lost contact for 19 years. Nineteen years later, they messaged me on Facebook. It's a whole different story. I met up with them in Madrid to have a reunion. But that's all. The moral of the story is this. I had no choice because my mom and dad got a divorce. And we're not from a rich family. We escaped Iran. I've never in my life, Casey, lived in a house before, ever. I've never lived in a house.

Wow.

I won't living in an apartment. So I don't know what it is to have a swimming pool in the backyard. I don't know what it is to have a car garage to be in. I don't know any of that stuff. The first time I bought a house, I got a house because I got a house, not because my parents own a house. I lived in apartments my entire life. Even when I went to the army, I lived in barracks. So that taught me that if you're clear on what you want, you know, your back's against the wall because your parents don't have any money. You can figure out a way to make money. That entire concept I kept using for the rest of my life till today.

Yeah.

So the difference today, why so many people are like, well, are entrepreneurs born or are they, you know, can you build them? Is it nurture versus nature? No, it's. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to go out there and sell. And today there's a lot of choices. People can go make money, you know, working for somebody. And nowadays, sometimes a better option is to not be an entrepreneur. Today, the better option is to go work for an entrepreneur. Look what the owner of the Clippers did. You know Steve Ballmer? He's worth 40 billion. He's never been an entrepreneur before. As a startup, he went and worked for Gates. He made his 40 billion, then he went and bought The Clippers. So he's more an intrapreneur than an entrepreneur. But the entire idea about entrepreneurship is a few backs against the wall and you have to feed your family, your kids and yourself. You going to figure out a way to make money?

I got it. And so what year or what age did you come to the US Cuz I know that you said born in Germany, refugee camp. I'm sure that was a massive transition in your life that opened up a lot of opportunities. So like, I just want to get some context. What point of your life did you come to the U.S. i was 12 years old. 12. Got it. And at what age, like, did you go to like a normal elementary, middle school, high school? What was that transition like? Because I'm sure for me, that really set the tone for your social skills and whether that you play sports or you don't and whatever comes from that environment. So what was your sort of education, school experience? Did you go to college? What was that like? And how did that set you along the path? Because the one thing I want to emphasize today, there's a lot of people that are listening that either a in high school and they're figuring out, all right, maybe they're running a company or they maybe don't want to go to college or they're in college and they want to continue down that path. And I want them to sort of learn from you and your experiences and have you give them some tactical advice for how you navigate it along your journey. But most importantly, why? Because obviously it's different. Different economical stats right now and there's so much different things happening. But I'd love you to walk us through that journey of your 12 to 18, 19 years old phase.

Sure. So when I came to the States, I went to Wilson Junior High School. I didn't speak a lick of English, nothing. And I, I was the guy that would say Gilligan's Island. I was the guy that would say government. I was day. So Wednesday, I'm like, why the hell, yeah, pronounce Wednesday the way you do. There's a D in there, but the D is silence. All these silent stuff I had to learn. I've never taken English 101. I always took ESL. And English was my fifth language. First one was Armenian, then Assyrian, then Farsi, then German, then English. So I took efl, not esl, second. It was fifth for me. And I didn't do too well in school. You know, the only subject that was easy for me was math, because in the Middle east they harp on math very, very early. So math came very easy to me and everything else did it. So by the way, I'm six' four, 240 right now.

Okay.

So a lot of people that when they watch the videos, they don't know how tall I am. They just kind of sit, well, probably a 5, 8 guy, 510 guy. You know, I'm 6' 4, 240. But Casey, I've never played organized sports. Here's why I'm organized sports. I know every stat about baseball from 1990 to 1997. 98 stats you shouldn't even remember. I remember some weird stats for baseball and I was a guy that was seven years and never missed a Laker game home. It doesn't matter what it was. I never once missed a Laker game. I was a die hard Lakers guy. So. And then all of a sudden when I'm 14 years old, I want to go out there and play sports. My mom can't afford to pay for a 13.50 membership to the YMC. I don't have any money. So at 14 years old I lied on my application and I told the owner of Haagen DAZS that I'm 16 because I was 6 1. I said I don't have an ID, but I telling him, so 16. She took my award for it, she hired me, I got it.

That's epic.

Old enough. And she gave me the checks and I was getting paid and for $3.25. And then I went and worked at Bob's Big Boy and then I worked at Burger King and this is my way up coming up. But I was making my own money. So while everybody else was playing sports, I would go straight to Haagenhaz right after school. I mean I'm straight going to Haagen Dazs. And I would go to school with two different backpacks. One of them was books, the other backpack was filled with hats. I buy hats for 99 cents and I would sell them for 7 bucks in school or 2 for 10. And that was my way of making money. And late at night when my mom was asleep, I'd go recycle cans with 2 liter bottles and collect them with my buddy after 11 o'. Clock. So that's kind of how I made my money at that time. And then, you know, when I was about 16, 17 years old, I kind of knew college wasn't going to be the thing for me. So at 18 years old, I joined the army and it completely changed my life. Let me tell you, joining the army was probably one of the best decisions, if not the best decision I made at that time. And it's not for everybody, but for me it was because I didn't know what I was going to do next. So when I went into the army, I learned how to deal with people from Minnesota who have never met an Iranian before. You know, I met people from South Dakota that had never seen a new nose like this before, ears like this before. They would say, what the. But you look weird. Where are you from? I'm from Iran. The real Iran. Yeah, I'm really from Iran. How the hell are you in the US Army? I'm a spy, man. I'm trying to learn everything from your sister. I had fun with them, but the point is, you know, it wasn't the most the, the regular life, but for some of your 18 year olds watching this, you know, the 18 to 25 year olds watching this, you got to realize you have something in your hands today with social media that increases speed in ways that we didn't have a person. There are people that literally sit there at 14 years old, watch valuetainment videos from morning till night and by the time they're 15, they're starting a business and they're already making six figures by the time they're 16. And that was not possible for us coming up because we didn't have the access to, to that information for you to be able to get like this. So we don't have all these. How many salespeople on YouTube are creating content? Pick one of them, learn from them. You're going to learn how to sell. How many people out there are having access to Go watch some of Tony's videos. Go watch them. It's going to change your life. We didn't have TED talks, we didn't have tedxm, we didn't have all these debate formats and all these personalities. It's a complete different ball game, but still what doesn't change is the following. If a kid knows what he or she wants at 16, 17, 18, that kid is going to have an edge over everybody else. Who doesn't. Even though you have access to all these tools, step number one is for you to get clear on what you want to do next. Preferably your next 5, 10, 15 moves, the more moves you know what to do next, you'll be dominating the marketplace and people will look around seeing how the hell did this 18 year old guy all of a sudden start making $200,000? Your income very available today.

Wasn't back then Got it. And looking at, like, because one thing I wanted to touch on is just the social media space. You know, there's. There's so many different opinions and tactics and business opportunities out there. And I would like to say, as someone that has, like, you are dialed in on what you're doing, but maybe someone that's listening, you know, they hear about 20 different opportunities because there's such access to information today. What would you tell that young individual? Like you said, having. Getting clear on what you do is very important. And I know, I hear that all the time from young people. And if you were looking at 20, 19, and you're 18 years old, what would be your first steps right now with the understanding of, hey, there's a lot of different people that have different opinions that are talking about different things. How do I choose? And what would you give that young person Listening, listening advice on how to choose in a sense?

Very good question. Here's what I would tell you. I'm more from the school of thought of style. What I mean by style. For instance, are you a hip hop guy? You like?

Oh, yeah, for sure. Hip hop.

So if you look at hip hop, there's many. There are people that love Kanye, there are people that hate Kanye, right? There are people that love Kendrick Lamar, there are those who don't. There are people who love M. M's the greatest of all time. There are some. They say he's not as good as people think he is. There's some people that say Nas is incredible. Some people like mumble rap. You know, they like Tekashi. Some of them like this new stuff that's coming out, right?

You're hip, you're hip. I love it.

Some people like outkast, Some people like different style. But. But the most important thing, if you want to go and be a rapper and go into the hip hop world, you have to look around and say, I just. I'm sorry, I don't connect with Snoop. I just don't. I don't connect with Snoop. I don't connect with Tekashi. I can't do what Andre 3000 did. I just don't. But I connect with him or I connect with. Nah, I connect with the storytelling style of this guy. So find a style that you see matches that fits what you would like to do. The same goes with sales, for example. So if you look at a personality on social media, I'll give you names, I'll give you a skill set, and you tell me what you think about. Ready? When you think about who is the best on teaching sales online, who do you think about? Casey?

Grant Cardone.

Okay. When you think about leadership, what do you think about?

Tony Robbins.

Okay. When you think about motivation, what do you think about?

Gary V. When you think about social.

Media, what do you think about it?

Yeah. Gary Vee.

Okay. When you think about entrepreneurship, what do you think about it?

For me, Gary, and valuetainment, I think for you, you've instilled me a lot when it comes to entrepreneurship.

So watch what's happening here. Everybody is different, right, that you just mentioned as you're going through it. Okay. Regardless of it is the person watching this has to see, say I connect to this style. Okay. I see more like a Tony. I see more like a Gary. I see more like a whoever. Whatever style fits. You gravitate towards that and then obsess yourself with everything they're doing. Now let me give you the other side of it. Here's the second thing I'd be doing. I'd be looking at recruiting peers and running leads. What do I mean by that? Let me explain. So, Casey, I'm looking at your instagram. You got 221,000 followers. Followers. I've interviewed over 100 entrepreneurs. CEO build you'd empire. Build you'd empire has got one and a half million followers on Instagram. Right? Let's look at the content you're putting up there. Okay, so you got some stuff that's going on with build your empire. You know, these things range between a couple ousand likes to 10, 20,000 likes. You getting commentary and partner at Modi app that you have there as well. Your partner with grace. And then you got a few things that's going on there.

Right.

So if I'm looking at this and I look at Casey, I would want to recruit you. Casey, how old are you right now?

I'm 19.

Okay. I. You would be an ideal person for me to recruit as a peer or to get in your circle. If I'm an 18 year old, I'll be like, listen, man, how can I get closer to Casey? Okay. If your style matches what I want to do. But I'm recruiting at that age, I suppose, at Texas A and M. Very interesting story. Let me see if I got this. Okay, let me show you this.

Yep.

I spoke at Texas A and M and I met this guy Ryan. Ryan something. Ryan. Let me see his name. I got to give you his name. I'll give you his name here in a second. Ryan Drapella. Okay. I'm speaking at Texas A and M and they invited me to speak to their entrepreneurship program. Okay. This was three years ago. So I went, I spoke. It was great, great. Very impressed with the group. These are guys that are hungry. It's a big school, well known school. And he says. I said, so, Ryan, what do you do? He says, I make these clipboards. I said, cool. How well do you do? Well, part time. I made 60 grand last year, 18 years old. I said, that's great. I said, so what's next for you? So we spent a couple hours drawing out a strategy session for Ryan, right?

Yep.

The entire game plan was with Ryan's strategy was for him to recruit running mates. He today does $3 million a year selling these things. He made a table for me podcast value. Can he send it as a gift? It's a sick piece of item he made. But he went from being a student at Texas A and M making these for $60,000 per year, sold these for whatever price point it is.

Wow.

Put your name on the box.

Yeah, those are sick.

Logo on the back and put valuetainment up here.

Wow.

Nice thing that he does, right?

Yep.

He did 3 million last year. Now watch this. He was the number one wood gift sold on Father's Day on Etsy. On Etsy. Number one seller of any products for Father's Day gift. He was number one. It's 3 million a year. You take 30% on that, that's $900,000 your income.

Yep.

But point slow for him was he learned how to make money on his own making something like this. And he was capped at 60. He had to figure out a way to recruit running mates to take that to 3 million. And who knows what he's going to do next because he just graduated college a couple months ago. 30 million, 300 million. No one knows what's going to happen next with it. So going back to what you're asking, number one, find somebody's style that fits you. Where you say, I can be like him, I can be like her, I can be like them. 2 Be obsessed about putting the team together. Obsessed about recruiting a team together. The right team, the right style combined together, limitless. There's no limit to how they get to do it.

Got it. And one thing I do, I love that, by the way. And I want to jump back to what we started on in terms of you had an event recently, 10,000 people, Kobe Bryant, all these events, amazing people. And something that I've been doing for the past two years is having different masterminds. And we just had an event and next one we'll have Rob Dyrdek and a bunch of cool people there. But I personally want to learn from people that are having events and creating experiences because I know there's an art to it. So I personally want to ask you, when you're having an event with such a amount of people, 10,000 people, with some of the most amazing speakers, what is your mindset going into that? And how do you orchestrate such an experience that people remember that's impactful. But most importantly, people learn from the people that are there in a compelling way. I would just love to know your structure when having events and how you do it so well.

So I'll give you two different big events. One is that I told you about is the company I run, that's financial services insurance. So a big part of that is what we do very well behind closed doors, which helps a company grow. And we're the fastest growing insurance marketing organization in America today. We went from selling 50 policies a month to we'll sell 6,7000 insurance policies this month. Wow.

Wow.

The biggest company for not being owned by anybody, for instance, New York Life is owned. Some of these companies are owned. This is private. I own majority with De La Hoya, a few other guys. So set that part aside. Let's talk about the Vault conference that we put up in May, which was our first one that we put up. And we had people show up on 43 different countries with value table. Now, a few things. One, if the valuetainment platform is not there, we're not gonna have 43 countries show up. So that's the first thing. So without that reach, it doesn't matter what else you got. You have to have a reputation and an audience creating. We didn't have a long time to advertise. We had two months to drive it. And I've never done. You know, we're not an ad company like our YouTube channel. We don't sell products. If you go on YouTube, you just consume the content. I'm not saying buy this program for $3,000. It's not our MO. I run a business. I don't need the money. I'm just creating the context. I'm playing long term with the media company I'm building. But the Vault conference we did because guys wanted to get together for three, four days. The one part that I will tell you, Casey, is a person asked me the other day saying, Pat, I'm 20 years old. How do I get 40 year olds to respect me? Let me ask that one more time. I'm 20 years old, how do I get 40 year olds to listen to me? I said, I got a question for you, 20 year old. He says, what's that? I said, you ever met an 8 year old kid that is better at piano than you? He says, of course. I said, when it comes on to the topic of piano, when you as a 20 year old talks to the 8 year old, who's the teacher, who's the student? He said, the eight year old is the teacher, the 20 year old is a student. I said, no one cares about age. Everybody cares about who has the most value to offer on a topic. So case one, pick a topic that you can, you're passionate about and you can learn a lot about and you know a lot about and go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper on that one topic. Too often people go this way. I know a lot about 50 topics, no one gives a shit. What are you an expert in? In one topic? Okay, so once you make that list and you say, you know Pat, I know a lot about sales, how much deeper can you go? Much deeper. Are there guys that are deeper than you? Yes. How can you get deeper than them? I got work to do. Great. What do you need to do next? I don't know. Maybe you got to go shadow 50 different salespeople in 50 different industries and kind of see the style of selling they do. Maybe you got to ask the top 50 best sales leaders in America and ask them if they're willing to allow you to walk into one of their sales meetings. And they watch and they say, oh shit this. I've never seen something like this before. But this guy's style is different than that guy's style than different this guy. And their approach was very nice, but these guys were crazy competitive. These guys were data. Those guys were about the product, these guys were more about the approach. Those guys were about work ethic. Then you're deep. So if you now are going to teach me, you say, look, I've been to 50 different sales conferences. One was pharmaceutical, was insurance, one was real estate, one was this. And I can tell you I spent days and days with these conferences. Here's what I can tell you that works with these guys, compensation structure, etc, etc. So to go back to what you're asking, I am all about value. When we started valuetainment, I told myself, if our value is real, genuine, effective and provides results, people will keep coming back. If it's not, we don't deserve the love and we don't deserve the growth. And if it's not, we will stop creating content. I was very open to it totally. Maybe what I'm teaching is only available and makes sense to the financial industry. Maybe I'm not going to be able to transfer that knowledge to Casey, who is in a completely different field. Maybe I cannot transfer the knowledge to a 72 year old or a 52 year old CEO that runs a $2 billion company. Once I saw that, it bleeds into because the emails when they started coming back, hey Pat, I'm the CEO of Sprint. Here's how much we did last year. There's only one person on YouTube that I watch the content 100% of the time. You win it. Hey Pat, I'm the CEO of this company. And then those emails led to the conference. Then I saw who came to our conference and they sat there for three days. They're running multibillion dollar companies. I say now we have a product, so go backwards. Value. If the value is real and legit, you'll be able to compete in Marketplace.

Got it. And I know we have a couple minutes here. I just want to make sure I'm respectful on time. But when it comes to like if people have never seen your videos, I know one of the videos that I watched recently was the one that you did on Huawei and like the attention to detail and the, the what you built from a factual standpoint was very impressive. And that's. Those are the type of videos that make me realize like how deep you guys go into the content development and I'll make sure to link it down below. But I'd love for you just briefly because I know this was a topic that I was really interested on and I know we have a couple minutes here, here. But Huawei in that video, I know there was a lot of traffic and eyeballs going towards it. What would you say that video and just that that context in which you spoke on where do you believe that current state of state of the trade war between Huawei and the US Is it still a thing? What's your thoughts on it? Because I know it was something that was really intriguing to me because I was in Hong Kong recently in Shenzhen and I got to see their office and give it a tour and when you put out that video, I was very curious in it. So I'd love for you to touch on that really briefly.

By the way, Casey, one thing on a side note, keep doing that kind of stuff because that's that that when you come from a language of saying I was at their headquarters. Yes, keep doing that. That's an edge. So you got to realize a big edge. So whatever you got the next thing to do, you keep pursuing those types of things.

I appreciate that.

So, but, but let me, let me give you a couple things based on what I see. So for me, when I look at politics today, whether it's msnbc, cnn, fox, when you look at all the, all that stuff, journalists are no longer journalists. Journalists today are more sharing their opinion with you. Like, everybody knows where Hannity stands. Everybody knows where Anderson Cooper stands. Everybody knows where Cuomo stands. Everybody knows where, you know, Jimmy Kimmel stands. Everybody knows where everybody stands. So even if it's the late night shows, the late late night, the Colbert and all these guys, you know where they stand. So you know, when you look at a magazine or you read an article and somebody says, on the same exact day, two different magazines can come out and one can say, is Donald Trump the greatest president of all time? Okay. Same day, another magazine will say, what is Barack Obama the greatest president of all time? And on the same day, someone's going to say, is Donald Trump the worst president of all time? And on the same day, is Barack Obama the worst president of all time? So you got to kind of sit there and say, who the hell is? Right? Who do I listen to? So if you are naive, you're going to only read selective hearing things that matches what you believe in, which is very naive. Which, by the way, 80% does that. So you got to know that part. 80% will only read what they agree with and they will not read what they don't agree with. For me, I think sometimes when some of these videos do well, like the China video, we didn't expect the China video to get a couple million views.

I mean, yeah, they went crazy.

Yeah. Why is that video doing well? But, but the whole purpose of the China video was to take a completely different angle. Because what I can tell you, the number one reason Donald Trump will not get reelected, if Dow Jones is below 20,000 points, Donald Trump's not going to get reelected. Let me say this one more time. If Dow Jones goes under 20,000 points, Donald Trump will not get reelected. Why? Because what is Donald Trump's biggest ticket, biggest card he uses is the economy. Right? Okay, so now today, for anybody that's an investor, you know how I feel about market crash. I think market crash, rather than being afraid of it, you ought to be excited about it. Why? Because the people that think the market's going to do bad or, well, or whatever. You're being too tight emotionally to it. You just have to understand, divorces happen, breakups happen, people die. I mean, it's unfortunate, but if we sit on and say, how can you be so cold? What do you want me to do? I count how many weekends I have with my dad. My dad's 77 years old. He's had 13 heart attacks. I don't sit around and say, oh, my dad's going to live till 90, so let me take my time. No, no, I know my dad's coming to town tomorrow. I count the weekends with my dad. Right. You have to be emotional, but you also got to be a realist and have some logic behind it. Right? Okay. Today a market crash is tied to a few different things. Here's the things. Venezuela can cause a market crash. Brexit can cause a market crash. Why Brexit? Because the financial capital of the world today is New York City.

But.

But that was only in 2015. Prior to 2015, the financial capital of the world for 2000 years was London. London runs Europe. And if Brexit, Britain takes away from EU and out of the 28 nations, UK says I'm gone, changes everything. And this new guy that got elected, Boris Johnson is saying, no ifs, no buts, we're leaving October 31st. Meaning it's going to happen. That means he's going to do Brexit October 31st. When that does happen, market's going to be affected by. Because the number two city in the world, financial capital, the world, is London. So we have to know Venezuela has an impact on market crash. Brexit has a market effect on market crash. And the last one is China. Look at the protesting taking place in airports in China right now.

Yeah. In Hong Kong. It's insane.

It's absolutely scary when you look at it. You know, these guys are showing the American flag in the protesting. Meaning let's already settle, right? Let's already figure out a way to negotiate with us. And the part that most of us Americans don't realize is China doesn't have free press. What is what I mean by free press? Like, for instance, in America, you can go say anything you want about President Obama, Bush or Trump. And as long as you're not making life threats, you can stay on YouTube. As long as it's not like the racist comments happen. So you can stay on YouTube. Meaning America allows you to say what you want to say about some of these people. You cannot in China. So if China doesn't come to America and negotiate these tariffs, something's going to happen to China and U.S. and when that does, those three components, Venezuela, Brexit, China, can cause the market to go below 15,000, and if it below 20,000, and if it does, Trump's likelihood of getting reelected gets very small.

I really appreciate the insight because I know that video, it went crazy. I was seeing it all over. So I definitely appreciate the insight. And for everyone listening, if you haven't seen that video, I'll make sure to link it down below so that you can get some more context into what Patrick was referring to. Because I know it really caught my attention. And as someone that was there in Hong Kong and saw the protest, it's very intriguing because I know for someone like myself that's 19, just understanding everything you're talking about, you make it very practical and easy to understand. And I really appreciate that because that video really gave me context into what they're doing over there. But really, just to wrap it up, I know we have two minutes here before we have to take a call. Where is the number one place that people can learn more about you watch valuetainment content and where can they connect with you? Because I know social media. There's so much going on. Where's the place that people can go to?

Yeah, I mean, you go on YouTube, you type in valuetainment. That's the number one place to go because consume content. But on Instagram and Twitter, I will generally be able to respond back on those two platforms.

Got it.

Whether it's Twitter and Instagram, both of them is just my name, Patrick by David.

Got it. And Patrick, real quick, just to wrap it up, I know that you're a huge advocate in education and learning, and right behind you, you have your bookshelves for someone that's 18, 19 years old that's listening today, just to wrap it up, if you had to give them one book to check out today, that's maybe not one of the books that you hear often, like Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence People. What would be one of the books that would be more so something you'd want someone to check out that may not be one of these pop books that you hear a lot.

Blue Ocean Strategy, I think Blue Ocean. And the reason why I tell you Blue Ocean Strategy is because the Internet is so noisy today, you got to figure out a way to differentiate yourself. And this book sold nearly 5 million copies. And it gives you the formula on how you see everybody's chasing after the same thing. How can you differentiate and differentiate yourself and be unique than everybody else. Blue Ocean strategy, highly recommend.

Got it. I'll make sure to pick that one up as well. I have not checked it out. So, Patrick, just really to wrap it up, man, I just want to say thank you so much for hopping on the Rise Young podcast. I know this was something that a lot of my audience was wanting to make happen for a while, so I really appreciate it. Patrick, thanks so much.

I really enjoyed a great interview.

Thank you. Thanks so much, Patrick. Talk to you soon.

Take care.

Bye.

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