In this conversational monologue, the speaker introduces the Adventure Book, a high‑quality scratch‑off activity book paired with a Polaroid‑style camera that prompts users to complete spontaneous challenges and capture the experience. The story traces the founder, a former skyscraper inspector and high‑school dropout, who conceived the idea, spent months prototyping the physical product, and launched a modest Kickstarter that fell short of its goal. After being fired and taking a sales job, he was urged to try paid advertising; a partnership with his former employer led to massive TikTok and Facebook ad campaigns that generated a 10x return on ad spend. This strategy propelled the company to roughly $85 million in annual revenue, about 2 million copies sold, and a valuation exceeding $100 million. The brand has since expanded its lineup to include couples, family, friends, and solo versions of the adventure book. The speaker conveys amazement at the rapid growth and highlights key lessons about product iteration, the power of paid social ads, and scaling through diversified product lines.
Chapters
This other thing I think is really interesting. So the Adventure Book, let me tell you about this story. Have you heard, do you know what this is, this product, the Adventure Book? I have no idea what it is. Ben, have you ever heard of this thing? Okay. All right. So you guys are also not on TikTok enough. This is like the number one ad on TikTok that I see. Uh, I don't know if I'm just in their market or they just run a shit ton of ads, but I've been seeing it for like a year. So basically it's a, it's kind of, it's a book you buy. And it's like a high-quality big book. And what it is is like, there's a bunch of, imagine like a scratch-off, like a lottery. So there's a bunch of things you could, a bunch of adventures that you could scratch off. So you open the book to a random adventure, you scratch it off, and it reveals a thing you're gonna go do. Like it might be, um, uh, like, I don't know, I, I've never bought the book, so like, you know, bad example, but like, you know, you're gonna go into a store today and you're giving out 10 compliments to people in the store, or, you're gonna go streaking around your neighborhood or whatever, like an adventure, a thing you can go do. And, um, so this idea, and, and, and they pair with it like a camera. So you, you're supposed to take a Polaroid of you doing it. So it becomes a scrapbook. So on one side it triggers you to go do something that you've never done or that's like, you know, get you outta your comfort zone. Uh, and then it gives you the ability to capture it and paste, you, you glue the photo in and it becomes this memory book of all your adventures. Like cool kind of novel idea. So I had seen this and I was like, ah, that's a cute idea. That's a novel idea. What I didn't realize is that this is a $100 million business that was created in the last like 2 years. So how do I know this? You know, like for the podcast, I don't know if you get these emails, but I definitely do. There's a bunch of people that have like booking agents and we get all these emails which is like, hey Sean, love My First Million. Have you thought about having, you know, Joe, Joe on? And you're like, you know, it's like, oh, first they're, they're complimenting me. So I like open it and I'm like, it's like, I don't wanna be a, a member of any club that will have me, you know? So it's like, that's how I feel about the guest thing. So normally I write all these off, but this one caught my eye, which was, they said, would you like to have Brian Ellis on? He is a high school dropout, now owns a $100 million business called the Adventure Challenge. And I was like, I was like, that, that adventure book thing. And he, and so I replied, I go, $100 million, no way. That sounds high. And she goes, yeah, like it's been incredible. They've grown blah, blah, blah. And I said, 100, I just like clarify, I'm like, $100 million cumulative revenue, annual revenue. What are you saying here? And, and so she goes, yeah, like the, the, the, they'll do $85 million in revenue this year. And they have a few big, bigger partnerships that distribution partnerships that will get them over $100. Like in the next year. And you know, so the business is valued over $100 million with $85 million in revenue. And I was like, what the fuck? And so I go and I start researching this. And so here's the story. So this guy Bryant, he's, so I couldn't confirm the high school dropout part. I don't know if that was just like some post-fact shit, like to make this sound better, but like let's assume it's true. So high school dropout, I think his job was, he had some job which was like, he was a skyscraper inspector. So he was like, you know, some low man on the totem pole doing a job job he didn't love and he's like, all right, I'm just doing this for the money. He wanted to make a business. Like he just, he's like, my whole life I just always been, I always have ideas and, and, um, you know, I wanted to come create a product. He's like, so I'm doing this job and I had this idea to do, um, to do this like adventure box. So his original idea was take a machine, uh, create a box like a machine and, um, you push a button and it's like, like prints out a receipt. The receipt is like the adventure you're gonna go on. So you get like a random adventure that comes out. Cool idea, right? And, and so that was the original idea. And he's like, ah, just tells a couple people about it. They're like, oh yeah, that seems, that's cool. And he is like, great. But he's, he's doing his job and he hasn't really, you know, figured out exactly how to do it or whatever. And he's like, he's like, okay, what he, he's, he's, he, everything's like on hold until he gets fired from his job. And he like, he, he makes a mistake. They think he committed fraud. His boss is like, no, no, no, this honest mistake. But either way he gets fired. He's like, all right, shit. what do I wanna do? So he decides, I wanna go to acting school. So he is like, I'm gonna go to acting school, but I need to pay for life. So he's like, I need to create a side hustle that's gonna make me $2,000 a month. That's my goal. And he's like, he's like, what about that Adventure Box Challenge thing? And he's like, the idea over the course of a few months had, had like evolved. And he's like, all right, what if it was actually like a book that you could scratch off the adventure? Um, and so he tells a couple people about it and they're like, that's actually a cool, really cool idea. You should do it. And so he goes to Hobby Lobby and he buys some paper, some of the scratch-off material, and he, and he's like, buys a, goes to a different store, buys a camera, and he's like, starts coming up with this idea. And he basically spends 6 to 8 months prototyping this idea. 'Cause nobody had really done a, like, kind of like, um, an adventure style scratch-off book before. So he's like creating an actual physical product. And so he's like, um, he has this idea and he, um, he just keeps telling people about it. And so he, um, he gets to the point where he's prototyped the idea several times and there's videos I found online of like he's creating a vlog while he's doing, he is like, all right, it's, uh, 11:00 PM April 1st. Uh, I just cut this really cool material for the scratch-off. I really like this one, but I'm having trouble with the bindings, you know? And he is like, so maybe I'll try this other thing tomorrow. And then like he has the next video, you know, a week later he is like, okay, I figured out the bindings part and now I need to figure out this other thing. I love seeing the, the start, the early stages of these ideas. So he creates a Kickstarter. He is like, I'm gonna do a Kickstarter. It's gonna be great. I wanna raise $10,000 for this book. And, uh, Kickstarter goes live. He makes $1,300 the first day and he's like, fuck yeah, I'm the man. He, you know, goes to a coffee shop. He's strutting in. He is like, I made $1,300 today. I don't know about you guys. I'll take, you know, your best, gimme your finest coffee. And, uh, he's like, all right, we're, you know, we're already 13% of the way to the goal. Let's keep going. But day 2, $400. Day 3, $0. And like the Kickstarter like runs outta steam and he is like, shit, I was kind of just banking on this going viral and now it's not viral. So what now? And so he is like, all right, basically he's gonna throw in the towel. 'Cause he's like, for, for, for only $1,700, I can't even get the quality of book made that I want. Uh, maybe I'll just quit. So he is like, I need to get a job to pay for life. Um, "You know, like I'm out of money." And so he's like, "Oh, maybe I'll contact my buddy," and I forgot his name, like Ben, "my buddy Ben to get a sales job. He has like this company I can do sales." So he calls him up, he gets a sales job. He's like, "I wanna do a sales job. I wanna do it for 1 year and I'm just saving up money so I can go back out there and build a product." And the guy's like, "All right, cool, that's fine. Like you're upfront about it, like I'm down with that, let's do it." So he gets a sales job there and while he's there, he's telling people at work this idea. He can't shut up about the idea. And the guy there was like, you know, have you tried ads? He's like, oh dude, nobody clicks ads. Like ads, like ads, like ads are scams basically. Like that was his mentality at the time. And the guy's like, no, like that's how we grow our business. Like, you know, you should try. So he puts a little money into ads. He's like, I don't know if it worked or not, but like, you know, I got this like 10x ROAS. And the guy's like, what? Like no way. And he's like, yeah, like people really like the ad or whatever. And so the guy, he partners with his buddy, the guy who hired him, and he, so I'm fast forwarding some parts of the story, but basically he ends up leaving. That guy partners with him. That guy's like, look, we're gonna grow this thing through ads. And, and they basically run a shit ton of TikTok ads, Facebook ads, whatever. And they've grown this thing to now 85, if this is true, $85 million in sales. They've sold about 2 million copies of this book. It's like a $40 book, which is like, you know, something, 70-something million dollars in sales if you do the math. And, And yeah, what an adventure. And now they have like a couples book. So you're like 50 fun adventures to go on with your date. They have a, a family book. Here's some things to do with your family, a friends book, and then a by yourself book. And, um, yeah, it's kind of amazing.
