The #1 Thing That Separates Successful Entrepreneurs From The Rest

Ari Emanuel is the guy who runs, runs, uh, WME, which is what the show— who's the show Entourage— they based the character Ari Gold off of Ari Emanuel. So he's like this hotshot agent or whatever.

I've heard Ari Emanuel in, in a couple articles, they say that's what he does. He'll call someone every single day until he gets what he wants.

And I think that's a— I've been picking this up as a thing. Like when— I'll give you an example of you. You, you actually do this when when we were like, all right, we're gonna make like our own podcast studio. It was like, yeah, cool idea. And everybody kind of nods and okay, what's one level better than that? Somebody's like, oh, you know, I'll take charge of it. I'll come up with a plan. And then that person usually goes around asking what the budget should be. Like, you know, they kind of push the ball forward, nudge it forward with their toe. And then somebody else is like, okay, I'm gonna get this done and I'm gonna get this done in 2 weeks, which seems like aggressive, right? You go from no studio to a fully functioning podcast studio.

No, I'm like, let's go.

Yeah, you were like, okay, 'What are you doing right now?' And I was like, 'I'm on the phone with you.' And you're like, 'Cool, what are you gonna do like right after this? You ready to go? I'll pick you up.' And I was like, 'What? Uh, I guess I could find a babysitter for my child and like I guess I could.' And so we— and then all of a sudden, hour later, I'm in the car with you, we're driving to fucking IKEA, and you walk in and you're like, 'Hey, um, IKEA guy, we need like an awesome studio couch.' And he's like, 'Okay, yeah.' And you're like, 'Um, here's $500 in cash, where do I spend this like to get the couch?' And they were like, 'What the fuck is Oh my God, it's a different level of intensity. And sure enough, by like the next day we had those two red couches that were like, you're like, I need a couch. You had a vision. You're like, I need a couch.

Yeah.

That's gonna pop in the thumbnail of a YouTube video. And so like, I want it to look like this. And then we had it and then you were like, cool, you know, our accounting person is gonna paint the room today. And then like, you know, this next person's gonna do this. And like all of a sudden, like the world just bent to your will. And I'll give you another example. Me and my buddy Sully, we invested in this company and I put $50K in, Sully put like $100K in. And so we were like, all right, great. Now a couple months go by and we're like, dude, these guys, what are they doing? And so we check in with them and 9 months later and we're like, hey, what's the latest? And they were kind of doing their thing, but they didn't have a clear plan and they wanted to raise money. So they were like asking us for intros and we were like, cool, send us your deck. And they sent us the deck, it sucked. And we were like, hey guys, this deck kind of sucks. Like, I don't wanna make intros. Like, let's work on your deck. And they're like, oh, thank you. We'd love some help. So we get on a call and we get on a call before we get on the call. Okay. Well, that was like, they're like, let's do a call. You, what times are free for you next week? So he goes, I'm free in like 45 minutes. Can you get to, like, can you get to a computer by then? And they're like, uh, yeah. In the 45 minutes between then, he sent 3 emails with like, slide 1, this sucks. Slide 3, what is this picture? This is stupid. Slide 5, present it this way. Slide 9. And he just had it before, like before the meeting, he'd done the meeting. Then we get into the meeting and he's like, all right guys, I sent you guys a bunch of stuff. Uh, like let's open up PowerPoint right now and just fix it. And they were fixing it and he's like, okay, cool. Um, there's like these 3 things that are missing. Um, like, all right, let's do a call like in 4 hours. With the deck fixed with those 3 things that were missing. And, um, let's do this call every morning and every afternoon. We're going to do 2 calls a day for the next 5 days or until this deck is amazing. And these guys are just like, what?

And I was also like, what are they? What's the, what's the result of that?

Well, they've, they've gone on to raise money. Honestly, the result of that was I think by day 4, they were just sort of like, I hate you. Like, we disagree. Or like, you know, this is just too much for us. They kind of like backed off. And we're just like, because by the end of that we were like, not only does your deck need to change, your business strategy needs to change because like the deck can only just tell a great business story, but you don't actually have a great business story. So we need to fix that too. And like, you know, and it was like, we were our kind of like, you know, the delivery wasn't the softest. So I don't think they loved the calls at first. It was like, wow, this is really constructive feedback. And by the end, I think they were just beaten down and like, yeah, whatever.

Was Dan, was Dan Paul? Was Dan Porter a guy who took it to a level 12?

Yes.

Is that what you're saying? That how he pushed it up high?

So he told me the stories of Ari doing it. He told me the story of Richard Branson doing it. And then he had stories of him doing it. And he was like, 'cause we were asking about the Milk Road, he reads the Milk Road every morning. And so we were like, all right, you know, what would you do about this and this and this? How did you do that early days of his latest project? So I should introduce that. So he, after the WME thing, he's like, he started this new company called Overtime, which I don't know if you've, which has like taken over the world, but I don't even entirely know what it is.

But like their social handles are all over the place.

They're huge on social. So basically it's like if you're into— it started with basketball, now they have like football and other things, but it started with basketball. And basically what they did was they just create like a media company, but instead of the way like, okay, ESPN is a TV channel and then like Bleacher Report and others were websites and then there were some newsletters and these guys were like, No, we're just going to be like an Instagram account, and we're just going to become the biggest Instagram account for basketball culture. And, uh, what does that mean? It's like crazy dunks, like high school prospects. That's really where they like found their foothold, was they were like, okay, forget the NBA, like a, like hoops culture, they're really interested, like, who are the next, who's the next LeBron? And it turns out there was this kid Zion Williamson who was this like tank-looking guy in South Carolina that people had heard of. He's got a cool name called Zion. The guy's built like a fucking, you know, Crunch Bar, right? And then he can fly. Like, he's like, you know, he's like a flying bus.

And so, God, Crunch Bar.

Yeah, like a double Crunch.

I would have thought, I would have thought like thicker than a Snickers, but all right, we're gonna go.

Okay. Um, so he, so they started, so they were like, okay, they put up a video of this guy and it was like, and immediately went viral. He's like, okay, cool. People want to know about Zion. ESPN, they're not sending a reporter down to like Greenville, South Carolina to like cover this guy's high school game against West Bishop Baptist. Like, it's like, but we can do that. And so he, he basically, and he said this thing when he would, when I was talking to him, he was a very calm guy, but he had that, that level 12 intensity. I could tell it because he goes, he goes, I decided I was going to do this and then I just applied my will against it. And I was like, only somebody who is like knows they're a force of nature would even say something like that. And he wasn't pitching me, wasn't selling me. He was just— I was trying to figure out how the fuck did you build this into like a household name in such a short period of time? And I've seen so many people try to do this.

And how do they make money? Do you know?

Uh, they have a couple different ways. So they— I think they have like, you know, probably like sponsors or whatever, but they now have their own basketball league. So he's like, he basically created his own version of like a— like a— instead of the NCAA, it's like you can come play in the Overtime League. So right now he's like living in Atlanta where they're doing the season and like, and I told him, I was like, dude, you look like a high school science teacher.

Well, yeah. So if you, if you guys look up Dan Porter, when I hung out with him, he was like dressed cool and he looked like the cool guy, but he looked more, he's more similar to Malcolm Gladwell than he was a basketball fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's more of a Gladwell than an ex, that's for sure.

Yeah. Like you would never think this is the guy that's like, steering, you know, street culture and hoops culture at the grassroots level. But he is, he really is.

Like, maybe he would've launched a poetry league over a basketball league. And I asked him, I was like, I was like, man, you like a crazy game.

He's like, no, actually I love football. And I was like, what? And he was like, yeah, you know, like, and so he told me about the approach that he took of like, he's like, I was at WME and, um, he's like, you know, I, I, we heard these stats, which was basically like, The NFL was really worried because they're like, kids choose their favorite team and league at like age 10 or 12. And then that's like who they're a fan of for life. It's like, that's my team. I think that's my player. And then like they're a fan of them for like decades. And he's like, then we asked like, how do you decide? Is it because of the city you're from or whatever? And they're like, no, Madden. Like whoever's the most fun to play in Madden or like whoever's colors I like. And he's like, oh shit. And the NFL was also like, oh shit. And the local sports owners were like, oh shit. Because if If every kid in Philadelphia isn't growing up an Eagles fan, if they just like Michael Vick because he's fast in the game of Madden, then like, that's a fan we just didn't get. They're not going to buy tickets, jerseys. They're not going to like come to the games. Like, this is not going to work. The model will break at that point. And then also TV networks were like, yeah, kids aren't watching TV. So like, we got to figure something else out. What are they doing? They're playing video games. They're on social media. They're on Instagram. They're on TikTok. And so his theory was like, oh, okay, so we need to build the sports media brand on those networks. And then we just have to find the thing that clicks. And what clicked for them was these young up-and-coming basketball players. And then he came up with the craziest, they would basically, he's like, all right, we need the clips. We need those clips faster than anybody else. And so they came up with crazy ideas, which was like they would find They would in their social media, they would just be like, hey, who lives in like South Carolina? We need a photographer. So like the number one Zion clip submitter to them, these clips that got millions and millions of views, basically built their brand, which is like a multi-hundred million dollar brand now, was done by a guy who was like, I think like a plumber on like weekdays. And he would go to the games and like the number two clip submitter was a student at Zion School who had broke his leg. And because he was in a wheelchair, they put him like courtside every game, like instead of going up in the bleachers. So he had like the best spot. And so that guy was submitting like these amazing clips on his iPhone and like, that's what was going viral right away. And then he's like, ESPN or whatever would hit us up and they'd be like, hey, um, like, can we license your videos? We'll pay you for this license. Like, it'll be like Getty Images. And he was like, fuck me, dude. I don't wanna build Getty. And he's like, how about this, ESPN? You can have it for free. You just have to tag us and put our watermark on it. And they're like, idiot. Done. And so then they ended up promoting the shit outta Overtime. Like, Overtime was everywhere because of that. It was like, seen as credible because it was on ESPN all the time.