Speaker 1: I guess what, Well, what's that? So? I was reading
Speaker 1: up on facts about instruments and music this week and
Speaker 1: I stumbled into this old fact I had totally forgotten.
Speaker 1: Did you realize that Lyndon Johnson used to own a
Speaker 1: music franchise? Actually I do vaguely remember that, but I
Speaker 1: don't remember the full story. So what was it? So
Speaker 1: this is the part I didn't remember. Apparently, when Eisenhower
Speaker 1: was president, Johnson sold a contract for music to be
Speaker 1: played into the White House. How weird is that? So
Speaker 1: there used to actually be like elevator music just pumping
Speaker 1: through the White House walls. And weirdly that wasn't the
Speaker 1: only incidents of music and politics. Yeah, when Nixon was
Speaker 1: sworn in as president, and this is according to the
Speaker 1: American Conservative magazine, music was blared across the Washington Mall.
Speaker 1: And to me, it is literally the weirdest thing that
Speaker 1: the one thing that both sides of the political aisle
Speaker 1: can agree on is music. But back to LBJ. He
Speaker 1: loved music so much that he hung speakers from his
Speaker 1: trees outside of his ranch just so he could listen
Speaker 1: while he worked. And he actually made some good money
Speaker 1: off the ventuare of course, when he actually became president,
Speaker 1: he sold a franchise so that he didn't have any
Speaker 1: entanglements while in office. But hearing about lbj's love of
Speaker 1: music made us wonder, what are some other ways that
Speaker 1: famous people have made money? And that's what we're covering
Speaker 1: in today's Nine Things. Let's dig in h a their podcast. Listeners,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend man Guesh Ticketer
Speaker 1: and sitting behind the soundproof glass looking up pyramids schemes.
Speaker 1: And here's the weird thing, my go we weren't talking
Speaker 1: about like Ponzi schemes. Tristan is actually looking up ways
Speaker 1: he can put money into actual pyramids. He wants to
Speaker 1: bring them back into vogue. Is like I guess townhouses
Speaker 1: and strip mall restaurants. Anyway, that's our friend than producer
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil, and he has such a shrewd business mind,
Speaker 1: he really does. I didn't realize that until more recently.
Speaker 1: So we kick this off with the story about l VJ,
Speaker 1: because it's stunning to me that you could be a
Speaker 1: politician and super active like LVJ had this reputation for
Speaker 1: being this operator this line of the Senate, but to
Speaker 1: also have time to play with the business on the
Speaker 1: side and help it thrive is just so baffling to me.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I was thinking about, and
Speaker 1: this is such a weird story, but it's that time
Speaker 1: we met Victoria Jackson from SNL. Everything about that story
Speaker 1: was weird, but this was almost two decades ago. But
Speaker 1: she was telling us that her dad had told her
Speaker 1: she needed a backup job because her dad didn't think
Speaker 1: she could make it as a comedian, so she decided
Speaker 1: that to pay the bills, she'd become a poet as well.
Speaker 1: Just makes the world. I mean, it's funny, but it
Speaker 1: is also interesting to see when actors have backup plans
Speaker 1: like that. You know. I always think about Nick Offerman
Speaker 1: from Parks and rec He's a carpenter, as many people know,
Speaker 1: and has this shop on the side and actually takes
Speaker 1: missions for things like canoes and mustache combes and other
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But I was listening to this interview
Speaker 1: with him on Fresh Air. Did you happen to hear
Speaker 1: this interview? But he was talking about what a relief
Speaker 1: it was like, not just financially but also spiritually. You know,
Speaker 1: he'd go to this audition for a pilot or something
Speaker 1: like that, and you have all this nervous energy after
Speaker 1: the opera, But instead of drinking, he could actually go
Speaker 1: and make something and channel that energy into sanding or
Speaker 1: planing wood. And there's just something wonderful about all Right, Well,
Speaker 1: you kick this off with a story about lb J.
Speaker 1: But how about we talk a little bit about a
Speaker 1: president who lost all his money and then needed to
Speaker 1: figure out how to make it back. So I'm curious
Speaker 1: which president this is, because I know there are a
Speaker 1: few that have gone to this, like, are you talking
Speaker 1: about Truman? No, I'm talking about Ulysses S. Grant in
Speaker 1: this case. So you know, it wasn't like Grant was
Speaker 1: broke actually, but he left office. He settled down in
Speaker 1: New York and he put a bunch of his cash
Speaker 1: into Wall Street. Now specifically, he'd put money into a
Speaker 1: firm where his on Buck was one of the grant
Speaker 1: Buck Grant and but Grant was not somebody that should
Speaker 1: have been trusted because, as it turns out, it was
Speaker 1: just a Ponzi scheme. This was something I looked up
Speaker 1: and found in Smithsonian. But they solicited investments from Grant's
Speaker 1: wealthy friends. Then they speculated with funds, cooked the books
Speaker 1: to cover the losses, and like so many of these cases,
Speaker 1: before long they went bussed with Grant's money. So what
Speaker 1: did Grant do after this? He wrote a book, which
Speaker 1: is something that you expect every former president to do now,
Speaker 1: but didn't exactly expect that then. But this was with
Speaker 1: the help of another author, and his name was Mark Twain.
Speaker 1: That idea, yeah, And so the dying Grant actually wrote
Speaker 1: a super readable memoir and his wife actually earned over
Speaker 1: half a million dollars in royalties after he passed away.
Speaker 1: And that's amazing. I mean, I I guess the lesson
Speaker 1: there is that if you're going broke, just get your
Speaker 1: friend Mark Twain. Help me out. Mark. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take it from here. I have an idea that should
Speaker 1: have made a celebrity a ton of money but hasn't
Speaker 1: because she refused a license for patent. And that's Jamie
Speaker 1: Lee Curtis. Is an amazing story. Apparently, in seven, Jamie
Speaker 1: Lee Curtis designed a diaper with a moisture proof pocket
Speaker 1: that would hold baby wipes in it. And the idea
Speaker 1: was that when you're on the go, you could just
Speaker 1: pull a wipe from the diaper with one hand as
Speaker 1: you're changing your baby. Like that, your baby becomes like
Speaker 1: a white dispenser as well. It's a great idea, made
Speaker 1: a killing on it. The patent was US zero seven
Speaker 1: zero one six eight three too, in case you want
Speaker 1: to look at always preferred, But she refused the license
Speaker 1: her idea unless a diaper company made this biodegradable version.
Speaker 1: But you know, now the idea is in the public domain,
Speaker 1: which is kind of amazing, so anyone can use it.
Speaker 1: But I love that she both had and protected this
Speaker 1: incredible idea, and also that she turned away money to
Speaker 1: maintain her ideals. It really is remarkably Also, this is aside,
Speaker 1: But as I was looking up Jamie Lee, I I
Speaker 1: learned that he's also a massive, massive World of Warcraft fan,
Speaker 1: Jamie Lee Curtill, and she'll often wear these elaborate disguises
Speaker 1: just so she can attend things like comic con or
Speaker 1: gaming conventions and go incognita. Oh that's pretty cool. Well,
Speaker 1: here's somebody who's made money in a more approachable way,
Speaker 1: and that's Jeremy Renner. Jeremy loves to flip houses. And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if this was inspired by Trading Spaces
Speaker 1: or any of those home improvement shows, But back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, he was just a struggling actor
Speaker 1: in Hollywood and he was getting a few guest spots
Speaker 1: on TV shows, landed in a few indie films, but
Speaker 1: actually was just scraping by. So he and his friend
Speaker 1: bought this tiny fixer upper, and the whole idea was
Speaker 1: really just to have a place to live, and they
Speaker 1: realized that to make it livable and not to be
Speaker 1: fighting all the time, they really needed to do a
Speaker 1: lot of work to the house, so they would do
Speaker 1: things like at another bathroom. But you know, as they
Speaker 1: fixed it up, somebody actually came along and offered them
Speaker 1: way more money than they had put into it, and
Speaker 1: they decided to go for it. But they actually enjoyed
Speaker 1: the process so much and putting the work in that
Speaker 1: they did it again and again, and since then they've
Speaker 1: actually made millions of dollars on flipping houses, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible. I do feel like I keep hearing people
Speaker 1: talk about flipping houses, and it's been going on since
Speaker 1: the two thousands. We should probably get into it. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that's the thing, is right, Like everyone does
Speaker 1: this and tends to lose money, but I like he
Speaker 1: gets so much joy out of working on the houses.
Speaker 1: It also, to me, it just sounds like such a
Speaker 1: romantic idea, like farming or something. It's this idea like
Speaker 1: that you can work with your hands, you get to
Speaker 1: make all these repairs and like see the fruits of
Speaker 1: your labor. But I remember when one of our friends,
Speaker 1: who was an architect, decided to try to flip a
Speaker 1: house with his wife, and she was saying how awful
Speaker 1: it was that like every day after work that she'd
Speaker 1: go home and instead of being able to relax and
Speaker 1: watch TV, they always have like a big counter in
Speaker 1: their living room where they'd have to work on something.
Speaker 1: And just how draining that could be. I can imagine.
Speaker 1: It just sounds awful. But you know, speaking of hard workers,
Speaker 1: one celebrity who was a millionaire before he was a
Speaker 1: famous actor was Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this is when he
Speaker 1: was in his early twenties. He moved to the US
Speaker 1: to get deeper into bodybuilding, and he really didn't have
Speaker 1: much money at the time, but he and his friend
Speaker 1: decided to go into business as bricklayers, and basically they
Speaker 1: figured that in between their gym sessions, which were basically
Speaker 1: all day, they could do this active labor and keep
Speaker 1: working on their bodies. And initially they thought they'd win
Speaker 1: people over by undercutting the competition with these super cheap prices,
Speaker 1: but the business did not take off. So then they
Speaker 1: decided to go the opposite way, and Arnold had this
Speaker 1: brilliant idea to rebrand themselves as as European bricklayers and
Speaker 1: Mason re experts European. Yeah, it's bricklaying with an accent,
Speaker 1: and the whole idea was that you pay more for
Speaker 1: the European expertise. Anyway, they put this at in the
Speaker 1: l A Times, and between their own salesmanship and this
Speaker 1: devastation that happened around the same time from an earthquake,
Speaker 1: their business quickly quickly took off. And from there, I
Speaker 1: guess Schwarzenerger just diversified it into real estate and other ventures,
Speaker 1: and so he was like actually a millionaire before he
Speaker 1: was on the silver screen. I had never heard that story.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool, all right, Well, I think we've all
Speaker 1: heard about fifty cent and his fortune that he made
Speaker 1: from being an early investor in vitamin water. But he's
Speaker 1: actually also made some money in surprising ways on the
Speaker 1: side by taking a chance on a new currency. And
Speaker 1: of course i'm talking about bitcoin. We're going back to
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen. Fifty was one of the first artists
Speaker 1: to allow people to pay for his album in bitcoin.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're fifty cent and you're trying to
Speaker 1: sell an album in two thousand fourteen, I'm guessing you'll
Speaker 1: take any sort of money for that record you can get, right, Like,
Speaker 1: what was the album even called Hey Mago You don't
Speaker 1: remember two thousand and fourteen's Animal Ambition. Shame well, he
Speaker 1: raked in about seven hundred bitcoin and sales in addition
Speaker 1: to the traditional sales, which really wasn't bad. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it was something like four fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: at the time. But then he just left the money
Speaker 1: there and accidentally let it grow, and that same amount
Speaker 1: of money is currently worth over eight million dollars. Now,
Speaker 1: I love how for someone like eight million dollars probably
Speaker 1: isn't that much, but how that would obviously be life
Speaker 1: changing for any of so many pyramids. So, speaking of
Speaker 1: cryptocurrencies and hip hop artists that I don't think much
Speaker 1: about today. Quite quite the transition. I'm curious where this
Speaker 1: sentence goes. It ends with a con. I mean, have
Speaker 1: you thought about a con because I don't think about him.
Speaker 1: But The Independent had this article on him, and our
Speaker 1: researcher Eves found it for me. Um. But apparently he
Speaker 1: used to be a part owner in a diamond mind
Speaker 1: and according to the article, he said, when I went
Speaker 1: to South Africa, I ran to some guys who owned
Speaker 1: minds and they were like, Yo, we need a face,
Speaker 1: we need someone that we can partner with. I became
Speaker 1: an equal partner and so I guess he's been wholesaling
Speaker 1: diamonds to the US ever since. But it's crazy to
Speaker 1: me because obviously there are all sorts of labor complications
Speaker 1: with diamonds. But I do believe he's trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how to make the practice better. And apparently this
Speaker 1: isn't just like a fad firm. He's always looking at
Speaker 1: ways to give back to Africa while also make money.
Speaker 1: So he's of Senegalese descent and he was surprised that
Speaker 1: he couldn't tour parts of the country because of electricity issues.
Speaker 1: So he invested in this company that installs solar street
Speaker 1: lamps and also creates these solar micro grids. It's called
Speaker 1: Acon Lighting Africa, and it's been so successful and created
Speaker 1: so many new jobs that they've actually moved from Senegal
Speaker 1: into all these other nations. That's super interesting. But you
Speaker 1: said something about cryptocurrency, right, Yeah, so that's another one
Speaker 1: of his initiatives. He's launching his own crypto in Africa
Speaker 1: and working with the Senegalese government to create a coin.
Speaker 1: And as you put it, quote, I think that blockchain
Speaker 1: and crypto could be the savior for Africa in many
Speaker 1: ways because it brings the power back to the people
Speaker 1: and does not allow government to do those things that
Speaker 1: are keeping them down. So he's obviously got a lot
Speaker 1: of faith in this. He's also working with the President
Speaker 1: of Senegal to develop two thousand acres of land. It's
Speaker 1: supposed to be the first crypto based city with a
Speaker 1: coins being used as the transactional currency. So it's really
Speaker 1: interesting experiment and it'll be interesting to see how it
Speaker 1: develops as well. Definitely. All right, Well, now we've got
Speaker 1: two facts to go, but before we get to those,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break, So we're talking about the
Speaker 1: unusual ways some famous people made their money. We got
Speaker 1: one fact left each, So what's your last fact of
Speaker 1: the day. So one thing I think is really fun
Speaker 1: to look at is how entrepreneurs are in their youth
Speaker 1: because they always seem to be entrepreneurs right, Like, they're
Speaker 1: always looking for opportunities, they're always just starting different things.
Speaker 1: And as I was looking for stories, I found this
Speaker 1: one in Fortune about Mark Cuban. I guess you know,
Speaker 1: he was absolutely the same as a kid, he wanted
Speaker 1: a new pair of sneakers, so to make money for that, he, uh,
Speaker 1: he started selling garbage bags door to door and he
Speaker 1: made the money for it. You know, he always had
Speaker 1: these side businesses. But my favorite one that I read
Speaker 1: about was that in college used to teach disco dancing
Speaker 1: in home to people. Like he'd go to people's homes
Speaker 1: just to teach them. So stiff, but apparently he's very
Speaker 1: loose on the dance floor. And here's his quote from
Speaker 1: the story. If you get asked by a bunch of
Speaker 1: stority girls to come to a sorority house to teach
Speaker 1: girls how to dance for twenty an hour, you do it.
Speaker 1: That is such a Mark Cuban quote if I've ever
Speaker 1: heard one, and I'm not sure how lucrative it really
Speaker 1: was for him, but I do like that he was
Speaker 1: in demand for his disco skills. All right, Well, my
Speaker 1: last fact of the day is going to be about
Speaker 1: Venus Williams, and you know, one of the many things
Speaker 1: I like about her now and obviously she's made a
Speaker 1: ton of money playing tennis, but actually if you read
Speaker 1: about her and Serena growing up on the courts and
Speaker 1: playing in Compton, it's pretty remarkable, like they used to
Speaker 1: have to dive on the pavement as drive byes happened.
Speaker 1: In fact, the courts had been paid for by Freeway.
Speaker 1: Rick Ross, you know, the cocaine kingpin, who also happened
Speaker 1: to be a tennis enthusiast. Was not the traditional country
Speaker 1: club way to grow up, of course, but Venis obviously
Speaker 1: grew up to be this insanely successful tennis star. And
Speaker 1: one of the things she's done with that is to
Speaker 1: launch an interior design company. It's called v Star. Now,
Speaker 1: the firm has this insane client list. They do everything
Speaker 1: from NFL and NBA players, homes, the tennis clubs, residential properties,
Speaker 1: but Williams comes by it all honestly. In fact, she
Speaker 1: has a degree and fashion design from the Art Institute
Speaker 1: of Fort Lauderdale, so it isn't just a place to
Speaker 1: park our money, but something she actually has this very
Speaker 1: real interest in. Oh, I really love that, and I
Speaker 1: you know, when you go for Venus Williams Sacks, you
Speaker 1: know you're going for my heart. I also love that
Speaker 1: you brought that Freeway Rick Ross story in because that's
Speaker 1: the story I really want to tell on the show,
Speaker 1: because it's so great. Is I do think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to give you the trophy this week? All right, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you and thank you guys for listening. Also thanks
Speaker 1: to Eve Jeff Code for coming up with so much
Speaker 1: of today's research. We'll be back with a full length
Speaker 1: episode tomorrow