#89: Adam Faris — From NBA 2K to Content Empire

I really feel like content creators, well, specifically, I would say more so media companies, like you'll see a lot of these major media companies to put it bluntly, they're just like aggregators. They just aggregate the most viral content, whether or not it fits their category. And I, that's not a, that's, that's, that doesn't work. They should think more like a, like a television channel. It's like when you go to MTV, you go to TNT, you kind of largely know what you're going to get. And so when you're like, you know, some large media company that's in sports, You should have 7 series that people come back to, know exactly what they're going to get, rather than just like reposting the most viral shit. Who cares?

100%.

Let's blow up the internet from the basement to the higher net. Scrolling, tapping, man, we ain't done yet. Let's blow up the internet.

What was your first viral Instagram or TikTok reel?

My first viral video was on TikTok, and It was during COVID 'cause that's kinda when I started making videos. And I remember freaking out. Can I cuss on this, by the way?

Yeah, yeah.

I remember flipping my shit.

Yeah, yeah.

'Cause I was like, I didn't understand the reality of what short-form video could do. And so my first video was, you know how you ever played NBA 2K?

Yeah, yeah.

You know how you can simulate teams against each other?

Yes.

So I did like the '96-'97 Bulls versus like the championship Warriors team. And I basically like commentated that and then placed these like dollar bets with my friends and we just did like reactions. And the first one, blew up and we were like, I was like, what the fuck?

How many views?

Um, probably a little over 2 million, I think, something like that, from like a stupid simulated NBA 2K game that we were like theoretically betting on with like literal, literal dollars. Like, I'll take 95 or 96, 97 Bulls, you know. That was the first one.

I should have made a video about that. My little brother and I used to play a lot of 2K and I lost a bet one time and had to eat an avocado peel, like the skin. Like, that was our bet. So I was like super overconfident about it. He's so much better and I would just like screw with him. Um, and yeah, it does not taste good. Just a bite.

Yeah, at least it wasn't the whole thing, you know.

Yeah, it could have been worse.

Um, could have been way worse.

So what happened next from there?

What happened next?

I— and for, for the readers or audience as well, like, how long were you making content for when that started picking up?

I guess to be super honest, I probably like maybe 2 or 3 weeks before.

Yeah, that's— I mean, that's pretty normal on short form, especially with like TikTok early days, like COVID. Oh yeah. Like that was a normal thing.

Totally. Yeah. I, let's see, 2 or 3 weeks before. Yeah. I was just like, I was super enamored by the platform. And so I started posting, to be honest, like Snapchat memories. Yeah. You know, like goofy stuff that my friends and I had in the, in the bank of Snapchat. That's smart. And like we had a couple, I had a couple, but like then at the same time, like when it hits, like how are you, I mean, how are you supposed to continue past that? You know, it was, I mean, I guess you could like keep being goofy and stuff, but I didn't think about that at the time. And so I did this one video. And so it was a really easy, you know, um, expansion of content. I just basically did more unique teams versus each other. And in 2K at the time, 2K, this is probably 2K19, maybe 2K20, but you probably still do this. You could do like 1v1s or 3v3s. So I'd do like goofy ones that people would ask for in the comments, like Manute Bol versus Muggsy Bogues, you know?

Yeah.

Like just crazy 1v1s and like comment over it. And sometimes I'd be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna bet that Mugsy Boggs will pull it out somehow against Manu Bull. So that's kind of what I did.

And were you posting about like one a day or a little—

Dude, I was posting like probably 4 or 5 a day. It was absurd. Yeah, because I was like, it was, it was during COVID You were in college? I was, I was a senior in college at the time.

And you're just vibing. Yeah, I didn't have anything to do. So funny.

Yeah. So I was like, there's no— I just took full advantage of it and just was like, I'm just gonna go all in on this because I had traction early.

I, I was in school, COVID. I was like, TikToks pop and I'm like, oh, this dumb music app. Yeah. So I lost that one, but, uh, you know, ended up on Twitter. So it's all good.

There you go. Yeah, that's what I haven't figured out yet.

So yeah, Twitter's weird, man. Twitter's really weird. It's— I like to tell people it's like the worst app, but like the best network. Like it's literally broken half of it. And like part of it comes from Elon buying X or whatever, buying Twitter. But like some of the product just straight up doesn't work. Like you can't upload long videos on mobile like you have to do on web. Like you can't tag people in videos on web, but you could tag them on mobile. Like it's, it's literally unfinished. It's like an MVP, yet it's like has a giant network and smart people. So it's weird. Like there's a lot of weird things about Twitter. Yeah.

There's no doubt the, the reach that it has. Yeah, of course. I've got, like, I feel like I, so I use Threads or I try to use Threads and, but it's different because like when stuff goes viral there, it's more like TikTok relative than it is. Like X versus like it doesn't, at least in my, maybe you have a better experience, but like if I post a, like you could literally repost a video that does really well on like Instagram, you know, and post it and I can, I can provide more nuance here and like post on Threads and like if it does well, it'll like reach random people, right? But they're not gonna follow you versus on Twitter, like if you have like a substantive thread or a substantive post or even like post a viral video, at least for me, I get like 10 views and nobody, like it doesn't, nobody, it's not shown to anybody.

Yeah, Twitter a lot in the beginning. It doesn't have that same algorithm. It's a lot about replies in the beginning. Like when you're under 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 followers, it's all about just reply, reply, reply to big accounts and like smart, funny memes. That's why memes stand out. Like I do a lot of face swaps of replies. So like Palmer Luckey, right? Big tech icon has, you know, 300,000 followers. So I'll drop a meme of him face swapped onto something when he says something, right? And it like gets 100,000 views, you know, some amount go follow me from it, right? So stuff like that to get attention, even like Dude, even my account, like I have 35K, even my friends with 200, 300K, they're still reply guy-ing Elon or whatever, right? This whole reply guy strategy, like everybody has a reply guy, right? Except for Elon, I guess he is the ultimate, you know, top, top dog.

Yeah, maybe that's the— maybe I should try that out.

Dude, I really think with some of the NBA stuff, some of the sports stuff, like you'd have a clear kind of advantage there. But anyway, so TikTok goes viral. And you jump on it with a series, which I think is smart as well, is like building a series around a similar theme. Mm-hmm. Um, where do you go from there? And then how do you make your first dollar from it?

Yeah, so I, let's see. So it was mainly, I was just doing all these 2K things and I wanted to expand out more than that. I also think it was funny because it was actually my friend's, um, PlayStation I was doing this on, so it wasn't even mine. And so at some point, obviously we graduated and I had to move outta there, so I was like, shit, I gotta like, what am I gonna do now? I don't really, I didn't wanna, at the time I didn't wanna like buy a console and like I didn't really take it. I still didn't really take it that seriously to be honest. But I saw that there was traction. So I pivoted slightly to doing like basketball content where I'd be like, oh, here are the top 5, you know, NBA star sons that are, that are in college or like in high school. And so like at the time it was like Bronny, you know, and like Scottie Pippen Jr. and all them, you know, so that stuff, cuz like at the time nobody was doing that. And so I kind of started doing a lot of stuff like that, lists or not even stories really, just like interesting things that were sort of like tangential to the sport. Like I wouldn't be like, oh, LeBron dropped 50 tonight. That's, I just found that, that was boring to me.

So I was like, yeah, exactly.

Just like news alerts. So people do that and they succeed that, but that, that wasn't what I wanted to do. And so I just was like, okay, I want to like talk about quirky random stuff. Cause I also just have fun like finding that stuff. And, um, That's what I did. And then like people really liked that. So I was like, all right, people like this for basketball, probably like the same thing like football. So I started doing football stuff and then I kind of kept expanding to different sports and kind of became like sports agnostic.

And then the first dollar.

The first dollar.

That's my favorite question to ask.

The first dollar. This was way before the, um, like nowadays you probably know there's like a creator rewards. Like you can kind of monetize sort of like YouTube a little bit. It's not as, it's not as good as YouTube, but, uh, nothing is.

That's just the name of YouTube.

100%. 100%.

Um, first dollar.

All right, first dollar. I'm pretty sure the very first dollar was with Overtime, the media company.

Okay.

All right, so they reached out. A guy named Jack— shout out Jack. Uh, I don't know if he's still there. He probably is. He's probably like super high up now because it was a long time ago. But Jack hit me up about Overtime, the Overtime app, I believe it was. At the time, this was like— hadn't even come out yet, and Again, I didn't really— I still like, I was being consistent, but I didn't really take it that seriously still. And so I think it was like $100 for like, you know, I maybe had, I don't even know, maybe like 30,000 followers on TikTok, something like that. And yeah, he just tossed me $100. He's like, hey, you want to like make a video about this? I was like, yeah. And to be honest, I don't— I can't remember if it did well. I don't know if it might have bombed, but that was about— I think that was the first promotion I ever did was with Overtime.

Dude, that's magic. I, You got it. Everybody's got to start somewhere. Like my Twitter, like my first dollar that I made from Twitter was just straight up like ghostwriting some, some blog for like $100, $50 maybe. And like from there it just built a portfolio and you're able to show that to more advertisers, you know. And now our show, like we have so much we could share.

Yeah.

And like, I don't know, take, take the money early.

Take it, you know, in terms of In terms of people, let me like phrase this question right. What was your wow moment that you realized when somebody unique saw your content or follows you?

Chainsmokers followed me.

That's pretty sick.

Yeah, that was cool. I haven't talked about it too much, but that was sick. Chainsmokers followed me. I was like, yo guys, like you need memes. And I sent them like a Chainsmokers roses meme. Uh, like, you know, the most important date in history. And then like, you know, pyramids, you know, fires invented and then like Chainsmokers drop roses.

Yeah.

And, you know, they liked it. They said they followed me for, for my memes, which is cool. Yeah, that's pretty dope. And I've been sending them the videos. I'm trying to get them in the show because they run a VC fund now, right?

That's right.

Yeah. So that would be perfect. So hopefully we make that happen. But that's awesome. Yeah, that was definitely a wow moment. And then I think that was the biggest one. And then weird ones were like anytime like Elon likes your tweet, that's always a weird feeling.

Has he liked your tweets?

Yeah.

What?

He's on there all the time. Like he is power user number one. Like he's liked my shit. He's replied like, like he's replied.

Yeah.

He's followed. He follows a lot of my friends. Like he comments on their shit. Like he's on there all the time. Like he is just straight up on there. Like that was, that's definitely a weird moment where it's like Oh, like he's just a— I mean, he's just on there like all the time. You think about it like he's just a dude. Yeah, he's just a dude. He's on his private jet, right? He's getting driven around like he's just scrolling Twitter like it's his product now. Yeah. And you want to be user number one of your product.

I mean, sponsor this man. How is he not getting sick on the plane or in the car?

Oh, man, he doesn't sleep. But it's— those, those were a couple. What about you?

Oh, man. I would say so. I have an automotive account. Bronny follows that.

Oh, I forgot about that. The auto— Bronny, Lil Bronny.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, he's buying some whips.

He is. Yeah, I think I probably— I think it might have been after I did a video on— he had a, like, a custom, uh, Charger, I think.

Okay.

Um, I think it was a Hellcat. Anyways, I think so. Yeah, he followed the Launch Mode TikTok. I was like, what the fuck? And then Man, there's been a lot of like interactions, like whether it's comments, likes, or whatever. But, um, really early on, uh, a couple of people stitched, like did like a stitch video, you know, on TikTok. Shaun White stitched a video of mine. That was pretty cool.

Snowboarder.

The snowboarder. And Jordan Belfort, like the real Jordan Belfort.

That's so funny.

Because I talked about his yacht and then he was like, oh yeah, that's like this. He was like confirming or saying like if certain stuff were false or crazy.

Yeah, I, um, Yeah, I got the Andrew Huberman follow. That was weird, from a meme. I posted a meme about Huberman and he ended up just seeing it. I've like DM'd with him before and like, yeah, it's always weird, man. It's a weird feeling because you realize like they're just normal people. They've just been doing it for a long time. Like whatever they do, like they wake up, they still check Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is. People are just normal people. Yeah, and there's— it's very empowering.

I will also say like there's been big people like I just mentioned that have interacted or followed, but honestly some of those people that are slightly smaller, I guess, to others, but are like big to you. Like when I was a kid, I grew up watching and loving Oregon Ducks, Oregon Ducks football, go Ducks. And my like idol was DeAnthony Thomas. Like I was, I don't know if you remember DeAnthony Thomas, but dude, he's one of the most exciting college football players in my opinion of all time. And so like, yeah, when he's interacted with stuff, like we follow each other on Instagram and you know, like I don't know if he understands the gravity of how much it means to me, but like, I'm like, this is a guy that I like, I grew up just like watching, idolizing, wanted to play football like. And it's just that was, that was really cool just to have that moment.

So yeah, that's a beautiful feeling when your heroes become your friends or mutuals. I've had, had that quite a lot and it's a, it's a pretty special feeling. It's cool.

Yeah.

And it happens only if you just like keep going with shit.

Totally. 100%.

Because that's what they did. They just kept going for a long ass time. Yeah. So let's talk adventures. Yeah, dude. If you guys don't follow Adam, you should. He posts some insane adventures. Like, every time I honestly, I see your stuff a lot on LinkedIn, which is like weird because it's not like your main platform, but I think it just stands out because it's so different than the normal person on LinkedIn, which is like I see him like posting up at some like beautiful basketball game, like roof, roof of Chicago. So let's talk some adventures. How do you get to go on all these crazy adventures and what are some fun ones?

Yeah, first off, very, very grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way because yeah, I— to reiterate what you said, I've been very, very fortunate to kind of experience some crazy things that maybe even like one of these moments would be super, you know, very, very meaningful for somebody.

Did you go bobsledding too? I did. Sorry to interrupt.

No, you're good.

That just hit my head. I was like, What the hell?

Well, also, I was like, literally yesterday or tomorrow I was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia, but I—

when's that?

Uh, what's that?

Are you still going?

No, no, no, no. It was supposed to be for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for Formula 1, but I was like, for the company I'm working with, they're like, we had to get a visa and it's just this whole thing. But also just like the flight time is like 12 hours. I'd have to be there for like 5 days. Anyway, so we're like, that's probably like a better use of time.

All right, hit the people with some adventures. What's been top 3, man?

Top 3. Um, Okay, so 2 years ago I went to Las Vegas Grand Prix. I went last year too, but 2 years ago went to Las Vegas Grand Prix. This was the inaugural race. And prior to going, we had an email conversation with the Aston Martin Formula 1 team and they wanted to kind of take me into their garage. And I don't— again, I'm not familiar with Formula 1. That's like such a rarity. I was— yeah, I was like, Why me? You know? Yeah.

Yeah.

And so myself and, uh, my sort of like colleague friend agent, his name's, um, Alex, we both, because he kind of facilitated it. Um, we both go down there and go through all the security and you're kind of walking through what's called the paddock, which is where, um, there's a lot of celebrities and kind of where a lot of, uh, you know, the Formula One teams are kind of running around and there's a bunch of craziness going on. So we get kind of ushered into the, Aston Martin garage.

Did you meet Lightning McQueen?

Close to it. And of course, it's really cool. Like, there's all, you know, they're like warming the tires. You have engineers running around, and I'm checking out the car, and I turn around and David Beckham is just right there, like, probably as close as, like, we are.

Yeah.

And of course, he's, he's probably been in a garage like a bajillion times, but I was like, what? Like, David Beckham. All of a sudden, Sofia Vergara walks in too, and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? You know? And so, yeah, along with like seeing a couple of the drivers, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, and also Lawrence Stroll, who owns the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. Yeah, it was just one of those moments where it's like, why the hell am I here?

Of all people, they're making videos, I assume.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just— I was grabbing some content. They were again very gracious enough to like allow us even to do that. And yeah, that was one of those things where I was like, what the heck? And then you go into the paddock club, which is like this like there's food from every—

so it's almost like a baseball diamond club, like the nicest kind of club.

Yeah, it was like— I've actually never experienced that, but like, that's just crazy, dude. This is— this is— this was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was insane. So that was pretty crazy. I did— I was— I used to— I, I worked with the US bobsled team.

And so this is the best pickup line ever. You got to try that.

I'm a taken man. I'm a taken man. Love my girlfriend. She's awesome. But yes, But yes, I worked with the US bobsled team. This is in Lake Placid. So, um, up aways, uh, and they have a test track up there. And, um, yeah, we did some content. They're like, Adam, you got to do the bobsled. They're like, Adam, do you want to do the skeleton? That's the one where you face forward, you know? And I was like, sure. And it's crazy because you, you have to tuck your chin. So literally you're basically just, you know, 5, 6 inches away from the ice. You're going probably 30, 40 miles per hour. So, you know, you can't see anything and you're just like, you know, in like a plank position trying to hold yourself.

Like, you're saying you're on your back, I assume, right?

No, you're on your stomach.

You're on your stomach. Yeah. Like a fucking penguin.

It's insane. You can't see anything because you're just looking straight at the ice. You have to tuck your chin because that's just— it's just better for— I actually don't know why.

You got sick videos of that?

Yeah, I got a whole video. Yeah, I guess I did pop off. Yeah, I did pretty well.

Yeah, that's crazy.

And then So that was pretty crazy. Then I did the bobsled. I did the, uh, um, geez, 4-man bobsled. 4-man bobsled. I should remember this. So there's a person in the front who's kind of the driver. There's a person in the second seat, which is called— I think it was the Cadillac seat, which is like the most comfortable, which is where I was sitting, thankfully. But it was rough still. And then somebody behind me, and then another person behind them who was like kind of uh, controlling the brakes. Um, so I think we went like— I can't remember— 60 or 70 miles per hour maybe. But you are flying. You got a helmet on, you're like shaking like this. The G's are just making it all after. Um, I can't— it would happen so fast. You're really cramped in there and like your head's banging around and clanging around.

Like, like 30, 60 seconds, 2 minutes, or—

um, it was probably a little over a minute maybe. I can't remember.

That's wild.

It was crazy. Yeah, we, we started a little higher than when I started them. And did the skeleton run?

It is a pretty beautiful experience. If you could bring eyeballs to a company or a weird experience, you get to go places. Yeah, you get weird places. And like, I'm really excited, like being able to travel a little more for free, hopefully get flown places. I made a rule for myself last year. I was like, I'm not going to any more conferences unless I'm getting paid for. Yeah, you know, like, I'm not, I'm not, I ain't going places. I got, I, I got my own fucking, I got shit here to do, you know. It's like, let's go make some content, bring some eyeballs. And now with the show, we're going to be able to travel all over the place and film shit, which is fun.

Yeah, I love it.

What about Chicago?

Chicago?

Yeah, that one was crazy.

People, whenever I post the Chicago Sky basketball court, it's the dream.

It's incredible for a lot of people. Basketball court on the roof. I mean, right? Like, yeah, that shit was crazy.

No, it's literally— so it's, it's, um, it's technically part of— shoot, I should know this. I can't remember if it's an apartment. It's not an apartment unit. It's like a, uh, place where people work basically. Um, like an office? Uh, it's more like shared, I believe.

Okay.

More like a WeWork, but like a nice one. I think I haven't been in a couple years, so apologies. But yes, it's 167 Green Street. They, um, the guy who created and designed that is a guy named Jeff Shapek. Um, and he calls it the— shoot, what did he call it? He called it the— he didn't call it— he doesn't like to call it a basketball court. I think he likes to call it something like a mutual gathering spot. It's just like a place where like you can hang out and enjoy. It doesn't have have to be a basketball court. Maybe that's the default of it. But like he said, they've had weddings in there. There's, you know, they had celebrities just like hang out. Like, it's, it's crazy.

Have you ever heard about the underground comedy basketball scene in Brooklyn?

What?

Oh, this might be a cool video for you.

Yeah.

So a lot of comedians, just, uh, some of my friends who are down in that scene heavier, um, have kind of a pickup basketball league. And it's like very common. A lot of like the big comedians like pop out like SNL players or SNL stars and shit. Just like it's just the thing in like comedy. And also actually people like, like Adam Sandler will host it like at his place in LA or pop out in New York. It's like a weird kind of thing in the underground comedy and even the famous comedian world is like, you know, these— I mean, I can't ball, but I'll play.

We're going to see Jason's jump shot.

Come on now, man. It ain't good. It ain't pretty, dude. I tried playing basketball as a kid. I was always baseball.

Okay, there you go.

You know, that was fine. Yeah, I would love a good softball game. Yeah, I got to do that again.

Who's your— who's your favorite baseball player of all time?

Brian Howard back in the day, man.

Like, you know, Phillies.

Yeah, like that was— that was— yeah, dude, I was at the '08 World Series actually when the Phillies won. We got Diamond Club seats. My mom's boss, like, for whatever reason, like, knew that my mom loved the Phillies and my mom was like going through a divorce. It was a tough time, right? And so surprised her with tickets for me and her and Diamond Club. It sounds similar to Paddock, sort of where like you are right behind home plate. You got oysters, lobster, crab, and you got the best view. And it was a dream come true for me as a kid. That was a special moment. Yeah, it was. It was pretty cool.

I remember having a— I have a— I just remember so distinctly I've got maybe one or two Ryan Howard Sports Illustrated covers. I just remember like it was yesterday.

He was— he was the king back in the day. Yeah. Curious, what's on, what's left on your bucket list as a creator?

Ooh, that is such a good question. I, I feel like I'm always just surprised at what happens, you know? Um, and what comes about and to like what we just talked about, who the content reaches. I mean, even this morning I was at, um, have you heard of the House of Sound?

No, what is it?

So it's this, how do I describe it? This company called Sonos. They're like a, yeah, yeah.

The speaker.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're like, I, yeah, they're super high quality speaker company. It's Italian brand, and a lot of their speakers are in a lot of Italian cars. So like Maserati, Lamborghini, okay, etc. And so they were hosting this sort of joint pop-up, I guess, if you will, because the New York Auto Show is happening like this week and literally like right now. And they hosted this sort of pop-ups kind of a thing in the, in the House of Sound. But dude, it's this 5-story, you know, formerly owned by Lady Gaga place in Chelsea. It is the most ridiculous place I've like ever seen. It's insane. They had a Maserati in there. Like they had this $80,000 drink cabinet that was like mobile. The speaker system that they showed me was $750,000. It's taller than me. It's crazy. It's insane. It's like stuff like that. Like I just, you never know what's going to pop up. And so I don't know if having a bucket list is, is really in my, in my head. It's more of just like, wow, that's, that's really cool. I'm very fortunate that kind of opportunity came about. And it's like when I'm in the moment, I'm just in the moment there, you know?

Yeah. The serendipity of the internet is pretty beautiful. Like, I'm only sitting here because I got invited to Peter Thiel's conference in Miami. Yeah.

Yeah.

And Matt, the podcast producer here, was covering it or was, was doing all the recording and video because he works with Pirate Wires, which is media company. And so that was co-hosting. It was partly funded by Thiel. And so we only like, you know, I only ended up here with the podcast to you. And this is a main part of our show now. So the serendipity of the internet is insane. I mean, we met serendipitously. I don't even remember how one of us—

how did we meet?

DMing or introduction? I think LinkedIn. We met on LinkedIn.

We did. Okay.

We met on LinkedIn. I think we— one of us sent each other a message. I think I sent you a message. Because your thing was something at TikTok and then we started connecting.

Yeah.

But like so many of my best friends and so many weird experiences come from the internet, which is, which is pretty crazy. But you have to like keep putting shit out there. Like a lot of people, like they want these weird experiences or they want to go meet people, but they, they don't have— they haven't put anything out there yet, which is like you don't really want to talk to somebody You know, they're the— I don't know how to put it. You know what I'm saying? Like, uh, if you're applying for a job or if you want a job on Twitter, you know, I always say like send cold DMs, right? And part of that is having a good profile, having shit that you've made that is like, oh yeah, I'm interested in you. Do you know what I'm saying?

Totally.

If that makes sense.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know.

No, I get what you mean.

The point is like keep going with shit. Um, I guess, uh, well really quick, what's your bucket—

what's on your bucket list?

Oh dude, what's on my bucket list is, uh, a Netflix show, I think would be sick.

You know what? Sorry, I— me too. Specifically sports documentary. That's definitely on my bucket list. I will do it at some point. But yes, 100%.

Yeah. For me, it's getting a show on a Netflix, Hulu, FX kind of thing similar to like a Dave type show, I think would be the dream. Or I think that that's the number one thing. I don't really— I mean, that's been like a dream of mine since I was a little kid. And beyond that, like, there's not I mean, I'm going to write more books and stuff. You know, for me, it's not— I mean, meeting some, some of my heroes would be sick, like meeting Sandler or Donald Glover. I think that would be crazy. Meeting Rogan, I think, would be sick. I think those are probably the main things is, is, is meeting the heroes and working with them, hopefully, and getting, getting a show. So getting there, getting closer every day. So good stuff. Yeah, man. It's, it's a I think I'm also curious what, what kind of your thoughts are right now, state of short-form TikTok, Instagram, if you have any advice for creators just starting out around growing there, finding a niche and doubling down on it.

Super hard, especially right now when I feel like we're more saturated than ever, to be honest. But yeah, it's kind of what you said is like Pick your niche and then do something original in it, which is so hard to say. I, I mean, that's almost unrealistic because saying something has never been done before, like has. Um, but just picking a niche, finding a, creating a series that you can, that is obviously replicable, but something that's like at least original. Um, like, I mean, if I had a, you know, there's no, no shade to be thrown here because it's a great way to get into the space. That's how I did. But there is so many people in sports right now, create content creation that do like what happened to or where they now videos.

Yeah.

And I didn't start that. Did I do some super early on? Yes. But like I even look at Flemlow Raps, this guy on YouTube who started doing— who I think is like the godfather of what happened to sports figures. But my goodness, if I had a dollar for like every person that does that nowadays on short form, it's just like, yeah, it's everybody and it works. It does. It does really well. But like you're not really differentiating. And so I think, yeah, having a series that you can own. Perfect example is like, you know, Daniel Mac, who does What Do You Do for a Living? You know?

Oh yeah.

It's like, I totally understand that there's other people that do What Do You Do for a Living, but he has such a distinct style. There's Ted Tsar, does like the same thing, I think. But, you know, when you see his videos, each of their videos, it's different. It's a slightly different format, but they own it. It's like original. They, you know what you're going to get, but you could watch both people because it's a different style and they just have a different way of producing.

I think that's something that I'm figuring out really hard right now, especially with video. It's different for writing. I don't know why that the series isn't as important or whatever, but for video, like having Silly Valley Ventures, our show, like every episode, people are so excited. We have a similar format where we start here, we build the startup, pitch to a VC or find customers, launch it, and then we end out with like us freaking out or, you know, a Google Meet call of like a recap and just having that same series is so important. It gives like people something to look forward to. It gives them like excitement. So yeah, I think also something to think about too, if you're kind of a new person trying it, is like trying the series or trying something that's already been tried, putting your spin, like you only find your spin on it after years of trying shit. Yeah. Like you think about like so many singers, they start with covers like Everybody starts with covers, really. You start with— you starting with, you know, where are we now? And then you figure out your thing, but only from going forward. Like, it's like constantly making like new iterations of it.

Totally.

Weirdly, it's the same thing with software actually, is you start with an idea and you iterate and find your like your thing. I think, yeah, what I find so cool about the internet as well, like any niche you can make money in. For me, tech. For you, sports. Like making money. Like I know people making money off like fucking hamsters or mangoes or, you know, trucking. I have a friend who runs a 6-figure fucking meme page on fridges, bro. That's like dude fridges. Like, you know, it's whatever niche there is. If you're willing to like hustle and get eyeballs and have fun with it.

Totally. Yeah. I will say to your point, like even with the where then our like what happened to videos, if somebody were to go out tomorrow and like start doing those. Yeah, as long as you're right, as long as you have like your own style that is not just like copy and pasting somebody, um, then yeah, I think it works. Like, if people like that and they follow you for that, then that's— yeah.

And even like just a good way to get started with it, and then you figure out like your next thing, you know?

Totally.

Like, you start with the COVID and then you like iterate, iterate, and find your own way. Yeah.

But to answer your question, I really would say like find your niche, establish a series or multiple series, um, see which one or couple or few really work, and then keep expanding on those. You know, I, I really feel like content creat— well, specifically, I would say more so media companies. Like, you see a lot of these major—

excuse me—

media companies, and to put it bluntly, they're just like aggregators. You know, they just aggregate the most viral content whether or not it fits their category. And I— that's not a— that's, that's— that doesn't work. So like, they should think more like a, like a television channel, right? It's like when you go to MTV, you go to TNT, maybe it's a little bit more jumbled these days, but like you kind of largely know what you're going to get. And so when you're like, you know, some large media company that's in sports, you should have 7 series that people come back to, know exactly what they're going to get, rather than just like reposting the most viral shit.

Yes.

Who cares?

100%.

Plus you can't make money off that.

No, you can't.

You can't sell against aggregated content.

You can make a little bit of money from like the, you know, creator rewards or whatever. Maybe like you plug something under, but the real money comes from original content, which is like why I'm always trying to become the meme. Like I post these videos and then I become the meme that other people post, right? It's like you become the original. Like a lot of meme pages, it's hard to make money, uh, you know, when you're just aggregating. But if you make your own original silly meme content, yeah, it's a lot easier. You have such a bigger moat. You have such like a a unique perspective that people fall in love with your content.

Totally.

And, you know, it's a great way to get started is aggregating. I think like you curate, you find cool shit, and then you make your own. But in the long run, like, you got to make your own stuff. Like, 100%. Yeah, it's, it's, it just doesn't work long term.

Yeah, it helps get you to scale. That's fine. But like, in order to properly monetize and get brands involved in your content, like, You got to have a series that's original. That's something they can quite literally buy into. You can't buy into, you know, 6 videos and 3 of them are like a dude falling off a ladder and then the next 3 are like, is like some guy falling off.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

It's like totally separate. That just, just, they just repost it because it's viral, you know?

Yeah. There's a lot of way to get eyeballs, but if you want to get like the right eyeballs and I don't know, like, um, the size of your audience, is very— it doesn't matter where, like, and it's not that it doesn't matter, but like, it obviously helps. But the passion, the loyalty, like the cult audience is like, can be a lot more powerful. Like, for example, I've written articles for Forbes and Business Insider, right? Shithole newspapers, but like good SEO, right? You know, and no sales, maybe 1 or 2 book sales, right? This is when I was pushing the book hard for sure. And then I write a guest post in my friend's newsletter around marketing. It only has 10,000 subscribers, right? Which sounds small, but then I get, you know, 10 to 100x more sales, right?

Totally.

It's like the passion of the audience matters so much more than like just some big curated bullshit content.

Also just how you frame it. Like, let me give you an example. Like, I've worked with a plethora of— I'm not going to call it— okay, I'm not going to be that specific. I've worked with quite a few. I've been fortunate to work with quite a few companies, and some companies are so strict And I understand they have to protect their brand. I totally get that. But they put the guardrails up. They're like, all right, we want you to make a post about this. It's a sponsored post. You have to do this, this, this, call this out. I'm like, okay, that's great, but I'm not getting creative autonomy. It's not really gonna match my content. You're saying it how you want it. So the likelihood of it doing well is gonna be, I don't know, say 20 or 30%. Like, it's not gonna hit that well. But if I have full control over something, I can guarantee, like, not guarantee you, but like there's an 80 or 90% chance it's gonna do at least decently well. And so to the prior point, like I've had brands that have put up the guardrails and been like so specific about certain— how I should phrase certain things or a call to action or, you know, go to the link in my bio, whatever. And it does shit. It just totally bombs. But like I did this one post about this, this arena football league team that there was somebody on BizBuySell, which I don't know if it's like a business sales site that was selling a— like selling their equity essentially. So I was selling a portion of the team. It was like maybe $8,000 or $9,000. And I made a video on that. And the guy reached out to me because it was totally, it was totally authentic. I was like, oh, it's kind of cool. You could own a portion of AFL team. Here's like some of the prior players. Here's some cool merch, blah, blah, blah. It got like probably around 2 million views. The guy got 1,000 email inquiries about a piece of this football team in like Texas, right? Like, like Amarillo, Texas or something like small little city. 1,000 emails inquiries. Yeah. And it was, I didn't even, it wasn't even a sponsor. Like I didn't even try. Should have been.

Yeah.

I know. I was like, I was like, wait a second. You should have got some equity. I know.

I know. I could have pushed it out.

Um, but Honestly, like, again, like it was, it was true to like my content. I thought it was interesting. I made a good, I like, I enjoyed making the post. I wasn't trying to like sell something genuinely. It was just more something I found interesting.

So that's the best feeling. We're working with a bunch of sponsors for the show for Silly Valley Ventures where I told them no boring ad reads, just product integrations. And so our show is all about us building silly startups, right? And so in our last one that came out last night about Palantir, right, we use Bolt.new, which is a text-to-app thing. You just type in an idea and it creates it. And like, we don't have like, sponsored by Bolt. It's just like, it comes up on the screen as we're building. It is part of the show, similar to how, you know, if this was, you know, a movie set and Coke was sponsoring us, it would just be here, right? And so that's really what I'm trying to think about of product integrations rather than just, you know, bullshit ad reads, right? You know, when a brand tries to push too hard on this needs to be an advertisement, like, okay, then you put money behind it and use it as an advertisement. That's not going to work on organic. Completely different. Completely different. And it also takes— and I'm sure you've done this— is saying no to sponsors, saying no to brands that just like don't fit or are way too strict and just like want full control. It's a hard feeling at first when you're starting out, saying no to like potential money when you don't have potential, buddy, is a scary feeling. Um, but, uh, it, it pays off, I think, generally.

Yeah. Knowing your value is so important these days, especially in the content creation space. I will say there, you know, there, unfortunately it's, it really seems like it's either, uh, you know, it's just, it's, it's one way or the other. Like either people really overvalue themselves or people like really undervalue themselves. It's, it is hard. It's like, because it's just it's, you know, the, the market of what companies are willing to put out, you know, pay in terms of promotions is kind of always changing.

Yeah.

And there's just— yeah, there's so many variables.

Speaking of cool brands that you worked with, Playboy. Oh yeah. You were telling me about that. Yes. They let you go pretty creative, have some fun, right?

Yeah. Well, props to kind of our, you know, Ryan Killeen, Kevin Galloway, and Connor Bussey. Connor and Ryan are my business partners. Kevin was a, was a guy that kind of came in and worked with us too. He's a photographer. But yes, we were very fortunate to work with Playboy at the, at the Super Bowl.

This great literature. Yeah, great articles.

Well, they're really trying to like be more of a lifestyle brand now, and that's kind of what they were. I mean, people forget that they had some of the most influential interviews ever.

We didn't talk about this when we were at coffee the other day, but I actually— I'm actually serious here. They do have great articles, like 100% Amazon. You could download specific just Playboy articles and interviews. Like Hugh Hefner even wrote one himself.

Oh yeah.

A very smart blog about— basically an early-day blog, a newspaper piece, uh, for Playboy about growing it and his experience and, like, all that shit. Like, interviews with some of the greatest authors of all time who were, like, you know, icons. Like, actors, uh, authors, whoever.

Like, he's interviewed Malcolm X. Like, it's crazy.

They actually did have good literature. I say it as a joke, but, like, they did have good interviews.

Yeah, they had some of the most groundbreaking interviews at the time.

Ever.

That was like one of the things that people—

So you covered them, uh, for, for Super Bowl, right? Yes. Through the whole party.

So they had, they had not, so typically they're kind of known for their Super Bowl, yeah, party, if you will. And so they hadn't done that in, I wanna say maybe 4 or 5 years. Oh. And so they were bringing it back to New Orleans and we were very fortunate to, to be tasked with kind of helping create the content. And, and so we worked with, um, a lot of the Playmates and we worked with some of the NFL players that were involved and some of the brand sponsors. And it was an incredible experience.

Um, how'd your girlfriend feel about that one?

Well, it's funny because I was more high level, so I was kind of like helping from afar, if you will, versus whatever you say. No, I'm just— versus like Connor and the rest of the team were like, you know, working with the players. But like, it was a— I mean, it was— they're great to work with. There was mutual respect and it's just— it was like, hey, you, you, you guys are like, this is your profession and we take that seriously just as we take our profession seriously. Of course.

And you want to get that shit viral.

Yeah. Yeah, dude, it's crazy. They had a whole like security escort, like, because there's some There's some weird-ass people, weird-ass dudes. Like, they were filming in, um, the French Quarter.

Yeah.

And there were like weird people just being like, oh, like trying to come up, and the security's like, you need to fuck off.

Yeah, I'm sure. So yeah, that makes sense. Uh, damn, that's, that's got to be a cool brand to work with. I feel like— so I was, um, I really— let me, let me pitch you on this idea, okay? I think Red Bull should start sponsoring hackathons and techies in general. It is like the drink of startups, but they only sponsor athletes. And maybe that is because, you know, the techies want to be like the athletes. The athletes don't really want to be like the techies most of the time. And so it's like the, the reach. But I do think they should start sponsoring some fucking engineers, some meme lords like me, etc. But like, you know what I'm saying? Like, like that, they could be so smart. I think it'd be a good play.

I think it's a great play. Unfortunately, as you just mentioned, and I consider myself also like a techie kind of guy, but it's just not sexy enough for them. You know, that's just the reality. Like they want, they want to attach themselves to the, for example, the action sports space, jumping over a fucking— Yeah, because people are like, whoa, I want to be like that person. I want— if I drink a Red Bull, I'm going to be able to bungee jump, which is what you could do. But like, Careful what you think you can do when you drink a Red Bull. Because yeah, they do some crazy shit, like they, you know, world records. I mean, but it's like, that's, that's the whole brand, like cliff jumping, you know. It's like, that's— they want to push the boundary. Like, I remember the old GoPro video days, you know, where it's like you see it on YouTube and it's like GoPro, Red Bull. It's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah, I wanted to be— I literally got it.

It was mind-blowing, like 2009, 2012, whenever that was.

My GoPro—

the first GoPro videos were just—

dude, what the fuck happened to GoPro?

Like, I guess everybody has iPhones. I don't know. Or their branding just went—

I don't know, man. But like, they were such— like, seriously, they had a stranglehold on my— just everything I've watched on YouTube. I wanted to be like a GoPro athlete. I literally remember sending an email to GoPro being like, I'm like a 15-year-old kid or 14-year-old at the time. Like, here's my skiing videos. They were shit, by the way. They were terrible. But like, um, like, what can I do with you guys? I'll do anything for free because I just thought it was so cool. I thought it was such a cool brand. But like, then they started coming out with cameras and Every single camera they came out with, in my opinion, was— wasn't a huge— there wasn't that big of an upgrade for each camera, and yet the price was either stayed the same or got more expensive. Now, give them credit, they did come out with things, some more affordable options, but it just wasn't like— the product development was just shit, to be honest with you. Um, and that's not the background, that's not the bag on them, because like, I don't know the internal situation as it comes to, you know, the company leadership and stuff, but like I love that. I would do— I like, if you would ask 15 or 16-year-old me, like, what do you want to do? I'd be like, work for GoPro, hands down. That's what I wanted to do.

Their videos back in the day were insane. And maybe it's the fact that, like, we're all kind of used to those videos now. Like, that's true.

That's a good point.

They make crazy shit still.

They become a lot more— that's actually a really good point. They become a lot more, like, accessible, you know, in terms of how it was edited, the things that they're doing. They were still crazy, don't get me wrong. Of course, um, looking back now, it's still, like, crazy shit what they did. But, like, You're right. There's like, you could be like, you or I could go out there and like do some crazy shit and film it and be like not far off.

I think there is an opportunity though for energy drink or something like that, you know, for techies. Yeah, for sure. We were talking about earlier about Monster. I feel like meme lord coffee, dude.

Meme lord coffee. Yeah, I like that.

But yeah, I mean, Monster in that way as well. But like, you know, there's, there's this guy John Coogan, right? So he started something called Lucy Nicotine and the whole idea of that It was basically Zinn, but just tailored towards finance bros. And so it was like literally he sent me this whole case in a, in a, in a steel briefcase, right? And it said like, for your shareholder value, for increasing that, right? And so like, I think because of the size of the internet, because there's so many people out there, I think there are like, you don't have to be Red Bull sponsoring the world's greatest athletes. You could just make an energy drink for blank, or you could make a zin for blank or coffee for blank. And, and like, there's a lot of people out there who will end up seeing it in that sub-niche. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I'll test it. I'll see what happens.

Yeah, let me know. Let me know.

Yeah, yeah. The bags just came in the first—

really?

First batch of bags. Yeah, dude, that's— yeah, I'm excited. So jumping into— you're working with Playboy, stuff like that. You run an agency on top of your content empire, right? How does that work? How do you like split the time and manage all that?

It's a good question. Yeah. So yeah, they kind of go hand in hand. We've got a small but super nimble team and every person on our team is very, very skilled in what they do and that's very purposeful. Connor, my business partner, kudos to him because he, him and Ryan Colleen, who's also kind of our, who is also our business partner, he's like the head editor and just tech wizard. So those two guys have done most of the hiring slash management of people, I would say. And yeah, so we have, you know, people, editors and people that work on my media stuff, but also that work on client stuff. And it's not, it's not all that far off from different from each other, even if it's like a total brand and like a totally different sector. Just the whole process is pretty, pretty similar. But yeah, you know, we— I would say that's just the biggest thing is like we purposely put this— we put this team together in a very purposeful way. It's like people are so, so good at what they do. And I fully trust the editors. I fully trust, you know, our, you know, our project manager.

So best feeling like my team is all killers in their own weird, unique ways, like probably unemployable to everyone else. And they know that. My one of my employees who's watching this, Jovian, who's our podcast recorder. He's like, dude, I better make $1 million with you because I am unemployable now everywhere else from the memes that I post. And, you know, like everybody is a killer in their own weird, unique way, which is amazing. And I love it. Other thing that I love about the team. So I was 3— flashback like 2, 3 years ago. I remember telling my wife, like, basically, like, never want to hire people, just me and my laptop. It's like I had a really hard time, like, trusting other people with my work, with I was always the one with ideas pushing forward, right? And then I found this team, Jovian, Shiv Raj, the whole squad where they are coming up with ideas themselves and just running with it. And boom, it's just the best feeling in the world. Blows my mind, the shit. All of a sudden they're just sending me weird stuff and I'm just, what the hell is going on? This is amazing. And Things that I never thought of, like podcast thumbnails. I wanted to do them myself for so long and I was like, Jovian could probably do better. And he did. And launch videos, Jovian does better. Let me work on the software stuff, delegate my time. For me, finding a team that is, what's the word? Self, not self-sufficient, but coming up with all the ideas themselves since he takes the initiative. Yeah, it takes initiative. Yeah, like it's so important and so rare, but like, ah, it makes such a difference. It changes everything.

It makes everybody better, honestly, because you know exactly who to go to when— if you need something done that made you— to your point, that maybe you're not as proficient in, and somebody on the team's really, really proficient, that's their main job. Like, yeah, you know exactly.

I'm sure people are probably wondering how they find those employees. For me, I don't have good advice. Yeah, put Cool content that is uniquely you out there. I guess that's my advice. And they will come to you. All of my employees came to me. Yeah. And I don't know if the same, like literally just put your weird shit out there and like people who love memes, who love tech, like they came to me. Like Jovian was already writing a tech satire blog, right?

Mm-hmm.

It's like perfect fit, right? Um, that would be my number one way. And like, like the, the best people that will come to you, I guess. I don't know.

Yeah, no, I guess my two cents is I'd have to have Connor on the show because he does all the hiring.

He does all the hiring.

Yeah. Him and Ryan. And I, I don't, cuz again, again, like I, in terms of like a good, in terms of like a good potential employee, like I, you know, I just like nice people so that, that doesn't necessarily mean a good employee. So, oh, 100%. So yeah, they're really good at kind of, you know, helping find, and I will say that it, it came from, you know, when you ask, you get good references typically from your network. Um, And so I will also, yeah, definitely say that that played a major factor is like getting references for two really good people.

I also think there's an underrated thing about passion in general.

Mm-hmm.

Um, like your team, they were passionate about sports, automotive beforehand, right?

Certain people. Yeah.

Yeah. Not everyone.

Some, some just love what they do and they can apply that to multiple areas.

That's fair. That's fair. That's really interesting, actually.

I like— sorry, let me just put it this way. Like, you know, I've told you about one of our clients, Titan Caskets. Titan Casket, which is a casket company.

Okay, that's fair. That's fair.

Yeah. You know, they've done millions of views from some of the videos that we've helped them produce. And it's like—

Maybe that's the right way for him. It's just a pure love of the game. Like Jovian, you know, employee, like he can make a silly video about a podcast. It could be a sketch, whatever. Just a pure love of making silly shit is what I need, right? Pure love of storytelling, pure love of whatever can be applied to Caskets, a client of yours, or it could be applied to sports or Playboy. Yeah, 100%. Whatever it is. I think love of the game is underrated. Agreed. What do you think? All right, before we go, last thing is Timothée Chalamet's speech. All right. Do you remember this? Did you see this?

Yes. When he—

I know this is kind of random tidbit, but I think we need to normalize that shit.

Yeah, me too.

Right, right. The— I'm not trying to be humble here. I'm trying to be one of the greatest.

Yeah. I love that.

That's some athlete shit.

That's actually crazy that you mentioned that. I have that saved because like, you know, TikTok edits, those like 15-year-olds that like edit the crazy sports and like they're so skilled. But there's a couple edits and I was like, it like gives you goosebumps. You're like, holy shit, I feel that same way. So I just, I saved that. Yeah. Cause like, that's, I love that he said that. I agree.

More people gotta just be upfront about that. You know, I used to be so scared to tell people my dreams of like, comedy, whatever. And then like I just started saying them and like obviously working at the same time. But then it's like, I want to be one of the guys.

People get intimidated.

I want to, I want to do this shit. Like, fuck it. Like, let's go.

It's part of your DNA as it is with mine, is to be ambitious, to have, you know, those dreams, those, those goals set, set them high because, but yeah, you're right. People that don't think like that get intimidated or scared. It's like, that's unrealistic. It's like, well, who's to say it's unrealistic when it It could happen, you know, if it—

if somebody else did it, why can't you?

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, thank you, Timothée Chalamet. Jack, one of my previous podcast guests, or the co-star of the show, he thinks he looks like a sexy centaur. Oh yeah, I would say that's about right.

Chalamet, he actually— actually, I didn't meet him, but I saw him pretty up close and personal.

He looked like a sexy centaur when you say it.

Yeah, he kind of looks like a sexy Mr. Tumnus from like Narnia, you know? Remember that guy?

All right, let's say that.

Yeah.

Make sure like and subscribe, drop some comments if you enjoyed, and go follow Adam everywhere for his insane adventures. I always look forward to seeing them.

So thanks for having me.

All right. Appreciate it.

Cool.