WEBVTT - JAMES DUMOULIN - School of Hard Chicks 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.800 Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating Wild Broke. 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:06.240 I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:11.720 special guests School of Hard Knocks. James Dumoulin is in 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:13.080 the building. Did I say that right? 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:14.160 That's correct? That works? 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.440 I did? Okay, okay. I don't know if you're being 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.560 super nice to me or not. So we are all 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:24.680 the way here in Austin, Texas. I literally been like, 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.120 do not miss a follow up when it comes to 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.440 getting you, and you're very responsive and I'm super thankful. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.280 I watch your show School of Hard Knocks, and I 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.960 love that you really make the show about the content. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:41.960 But then you're always curious about like who's James? You know, well, 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:43.919 at least for me, I'm like, who is he? And 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.879 you I felt like when I watch the show, you're 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.920 almost so hidden. It's like you have to like really 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.559 stalk to find out who you are. So I'm excited 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:55.560 to be able to have you on Eating While Broke. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.600 Before we get into all about James, I would like 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.320 to know what you're gonna have me eat today. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.480 Absolutely well, thank you so much for having me on. 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.080 I love the concept of your show. I'm a media 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.080 the media mogal that's what I like to call it. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.240 But I love interesting concepts, and I thought that this 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:12.240 was a fascinating concept. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:13.640 For a podcast, so I really liked it. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.199 But we're going to be actually having a twelve count 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:20.000 Chick fil A nugget meal with fries and our sweet teas. 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:20.880 That's a classic. 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.320 It's something that I've ever since I was a young kid, 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.000 grew up eating, and still to this day sometimes I indulge. 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.000 Well, let's go ahead and try. I'm not a huge 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.080 Chick fil ayer, even though in LA it's like the 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.360 most popping' you know that in in and out. But 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.080 I've had this before. My favorite thing at Chick fil 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.320 A is the cross fries. But you said fries, and 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.880 this is all they gave us. They don't have regular fries. 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:46.120 I thought, they know this is that's what they had. 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:46.880 The waffle fries. 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.240 Oh okay, And great job on the sauceage to barbecue 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:50.600 and Chick fil A tho, those are the go to 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:51.840 And I didn't even say that, so. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.200 Oh yeah, yeah, okay, perfect, So take me back. I mean, 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.720 we've all had it. Shout out to the listeners. You know, 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.480 a good Chick fil A meal the sauce is definitely 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:06.080 the best. Let's go ahead, now, when was the last 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:07.919 time you ate Chick fil A? 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.800 I want to say, maybe like a month or so, okay, 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:12.640 a little bit of time. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.960 Okay, Well take me back to the nostalgia of Chick 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:18.200 fil A. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:22.080 Absolutely so. My first job ever, I actually worked at 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.640 Chick fil A. So for like ten months when I 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.480 was a sophomore in high school, was making seven twenty 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:28.519 five working at Chick fil A. 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.240 Seven Jesus seven twenty five an hours. 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.440 Crazy, but you almost kind of have to, in my opinion, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:39.320 experienced that in any capacity. So maybe it's working in 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:43.000 the food industry, you know, as somebody who's taking orders 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.000 and stuff like that, to kind of realize that, hey, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:46.800 this isn't what I want to be doing forever. And 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.600 then my second job was actually construction. So I worked 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.639 construction for two years my junior and senior year. 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:53.000 Of high school. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:54.800 Paid a little bit better, but still was again one 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.680 of those things where it's like, hey, this was this 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.079 was cool, you know, made a little money doing it, 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.040 was smart with it, it saved it, but just wasn't 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:03.880 something that I wanted to be doing forever. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.120 Yeah, I did a fast food shout outs to McDonald's. 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.400 But I realized very early on that as crazy as 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.040 this may sound, I thought that job was really really hard, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.520 the fast pace of it, the just I honestly said. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.600 I tried fast food and I tried waitressing, and both 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.200 were absolutely like colling two jobs that you could never 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.880 have for the rest of your life. Braining, it's draining. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:29.799 You have to be like real positive. What if you're 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.360 having a bad day or you know, if I'm anxious, 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:38.360 I can't remember anything. So I learned, you're right, this 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.600 is two careers. And I tell my friends all the time, like, 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.320 I can't be a waitress and I can't work in 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.640 fast food. Absolutely would stuck at it. And I respect 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.960 everyone that does those jobs absolutely bit more. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.320 Yeah, and it does hold you some skills as well, 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:53.240 you know, like with Chick fil A, one of the 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.440 things that you know how their structure is is they 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.080 kind of instilling you to like treat people with kindness 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.720 and have that customer service, which you can take with 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:02.280 you in a lot of ways, depending on what type 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.080 of business you go into. If you're selling, because there's 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:06.440 a lot of nose, there's a lot of people that 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.240 are rude. I've experienced it a ton, especially when we were, 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.640 you know, coming up starting our channel, going up to 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:16.040 random people. I was told know in every possible way 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.720 that you can kind of hear, but also remembering sometimes 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.039 like when you're working that fast food, working at a 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:22.920 place like Chick fil A, you get treated like shit 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:24.640 behind the counter, and you kind of just have to 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:26.560 learn to keep a smile on your face and just 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:28.960 keep going, and you can't let that ruin your day, 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:30.760 you know. I always think about it this way. It's like, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.160 there's twenty four hours in a day. Why let one 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.719 second or one minute ruin the entire day. So I 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.360 think that's something as well, you know, because anybody that's 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.680 worked in that position, I'm sure, like you said, working 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.479 you know, fast food in mcdonaldge, you probably have some 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.520 people that were super rude, and oftentimes most people just 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.880 kind of let that ruin their days, which is very understandable. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.160 But the minute you can kind of realize to kind 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:53.800 of just take it as hey, it is what it is, 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:55.920 on to the next one will be okay, the better 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:56.240 you'll be. 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.280 I have to steal that logic because that is impressible. 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.159 I never even thought usually even when something bad, so 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.480 I have to be like, just this moment, just isolated 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.320 right now. I try to imagine how you got the 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.840 skill set of walking up to people. I imagine that 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.160 you had this sales background, but to hear you were 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.480 in McDonald's in construction prior to starting your channel, what 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:25.120 part of those experience led you to seems like as 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.120 a fan of your show, it seems like you respect 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.960 and love entrepreneurship absolutely. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.520 So what's interesting is that I don't attribute any of 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.000 my interpersonal skills of being able to go and talk 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.040 to people from working at Chick fil A and working construction. 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.080 Obviously it's more of like a trait, like a hard 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.920 hands on skill. But I actually like to say this 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.760 because from six to ten, I lived in South Korea, 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.040 so I lived overseas. My dad he ran the largest 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.880 overseas military base in the entire world, so he was 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.000 a garrison commander, so I was from a military family. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.720 I lived in three different cities in South Korea, eventually 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.440 said back into the DC area before moving to Austin 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.760 five years ago. But when I was living in South Korea, 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.920 I was watching my dad speak and lead in front 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.120 of tens of thousands of troops, people from Korea, even 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.440 the American soldiers that were over there, and I was 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.919 constantly used to people coming up to him, coming up 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.159 to our family, and just learning how to communicate with 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.320 people with elders, people who were way older, some of 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.800 these people who were, you know, in significant positions of 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.320 power in the military and the government over there. So 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.159 I had to learn from an early age how to 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.039 act professional, how to carry yourself in a confident demeanor, 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:35.800 in the right way when you're meeting these people, with 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.120 these heads of states, you know, the top people in 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.800 the military. And so I took that with me from 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.840 an early age to every aspect of my life to 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.039 going into I was in boy Scouts. I became an 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.279 Eagle Scout, and all of my you know, Scout masters 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.159 were all elder people ex Marines. But again it's you know, 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:56.960 always having those kind of like mentors to kind of 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.880 conversate with and be able to guide you. It instilled 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.560 I feel like that ability and me to conversate with 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.239 people who are older, maybe from a business or financial 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.280 standpoint that maybe they're a little bit more like superior, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.880 more experienced, and I think a lot of it I 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.320 do attribute to being from overseas or at least living 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.840 there for a couple of years, traveling all the time. 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:18.440 You know, we lived in three different cities in South Korea, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.920 but we also went to a ton of countries like China, Cambodia, Australia, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.720 and so I always say to me, there's two things 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.720 that will teach you more about yourself than anything else. 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.080 It's traveling the world and fighting. Fighting will instill in 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.800 you a different level of humility because you know, you 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.000 can have no experience or a ton of experience, and 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:38.920 you can still go up against somebody and get your 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:40.840 ass beat, and that will teach you more about yourself 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.680 than anything else other than traveling. Because traveling you're experiencing 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.640 different cultures, different people, and in my opinion, it allows 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:48.160 you to look at the world from a much more 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.280 global lens as opposed to like a very narrow view 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.440 on things and not thinking outside of the box. So 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:55.920 I think that between traveling and just being around a 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.560 lot of older people taught me more about myself how 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:00.800 to communicate and handle those conversations. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.160 So take me back, So your parents are you come 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.880 from military background, They're affluent, middle class. 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.760 I was one hundred percent. Yeah, definitely middle class. You know, 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.160 my dad was military for thirty one years. He gets 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:15.800 out and is kind of just going to work in 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.080 DC as like a government contract or sort of thing. 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.280 The typical thing that a lot of the military guys 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.240 do is they're in the military, they get out and 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.640 they do the contracting things. So definitely middle class. However, 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:27.720 you know, my dad was a guy who was very 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.960 conservative with his money. He invested, you know, probably ended 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.080 up becoming a millionaire by the time he was in. 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:34.960 His like late forties or fifties. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.880 But regardless, did instill a lot of good money habits 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.000 within us, meaning he wasn't blowing money, he wasn't spending 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.960 money on dumb shit. If anything, he was teaching us 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:43.960 how to invest at an early age because with him, 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.480 you know, he didn't start investing until his thirties, whereas 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:48.559 my brother and I, you know, we grew up when 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:49.000 we were. 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.280 Working fast food. I was start working in construction. 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:52.880 I was taking a lot of that money and putting 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.000 it into the market, started to invest in stocks like 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.319 really early on, which you know, again it's everybody, every 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:00.640 millionaire and billionaire will tell you to start early, right 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.200 because a lot of them they don't start putting money away, 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:04.840 or they didn't start putting money away until they were 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.360 in their like thirties or forties, and so, you know, 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.440 starting early is something that's very important as well, that 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:10.440 was instilled in us. 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.640 It seems like your father had a lot of transparency 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:15.839 to even bring you to these places where you're meeting 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:17.719 these leaders and watching him interact. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:18.559 Absolutely. 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:20.840 So, did you guys spend more time with your dad 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:21.760 than your mom. 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.120 Or definitely more time with our mom, just because again, 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.040 you know, my dad was you know, very busy a 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.280 lot of the times he was deployed or he was 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.360 constantly going to different military bases, going to meet with 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.280 different head stags, different military leaders and stuff like that. 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.680 So for that reason, we definitely spend more time with 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.400 our mom. But he was still very present, especially you know, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.600 when he was finally done being deployed and came back 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.400 we were in the DC area, never missed a baseball game, 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.120 was always you know, there for his two sons. So 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.800 I was very blessed to have, you know, two great parents, 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.319 and they instilled a lot of great life lessons in us. 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.760 And it's it's interesting because you know when we first 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.600 started doing our channel that we have now, they were 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.640 very hesitant at first. They were very like unsure of 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.920 the idea because to them it's like it's a foreign concept, 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.240 like you can make money just by posting videos, whereas like, now, 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.520 you know, they're like our number one supporters. My mom's 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.600 always telling me, oh, I want you to interview this person. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.600 I want you to go and love and so yeah, 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:18.200 it's really cool to kind of see is it you 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.600 and your brother? It is it's me, my brother. And 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.400 then one of our childhood friends from the DC area 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.599 actually who was actually we met and we were in 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.319 the same boy Scout troupe all became Eagle Scouts a 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.360 little bit of a different age gap. So our good 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.600 friend Josh, who's our other co founder, he's twenty six 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:36.520 years old. My brother's twenty four, and I'm twenty two. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.760 So twenty two, oh my good, yeah, twenty two. 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.320 So usually when I have a younger person on the 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.760 show and off camera we were talking about this, I 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.160 was like, oh, when we have a younger person, sometimes 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.120 I prefer older because I'm like, you know, I want 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.960 to know that you guys have hit enough failure to 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.600 like really entertain me because I believe failure is at 0:10:57.640 --> 0:10:59.400 the end of the day, that's the closest way to 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.520 get to success. And sometimes with a younger person, I'm like, 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.680 I don't know if they've hit their head enough. But 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.160 with you, I was just like, the wealth of knowledge 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.840 you have. I'm like, between your traveling, I assume I 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:13.840 have this fantasy of who you are so you can 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:15.880 feel free to pop all the bubbles. I'm like, man, 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.240 he must be well read, he must be pounding books 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.320 and all day long on top of these interviews. Am 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:22.280 I even closely right? 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.480 No, I've maybe read one book in my entire maybe 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:27.680 half a book in my entire life. I'm not a reader. 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.600 I mean I get knowledge in a lot of other 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.920 ways from these interviews. And maybe that's one thing that 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:33.920 I really do want to work on, is reading a 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:35.240 lot more, because I will say a lot of the 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.720 wealth these people, I know they're avid readers, but it's 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.560 just not my style of learning. I don't like sitting 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.280 still and reading a book. I'd much rather get it 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.640 from actually going to seek out other people and have 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.360 those conversations. I always like to say that mentorship is 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.679 like wisdom without the wounds, and so to. 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.160 Me, it's like I have I love that. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.040 It's great, right, And I always say mentorship is literally 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:57.920 the only way to sit, the only shortcut of success, 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.959 obviously learning from yourself from your failure. But the way 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.560 that you mitigate all that, like I said, is getting 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.720 that mentorship is getting around those types of people. But 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:08.760 you know how we say too. You know, I'm also 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.440 not a big person of like structure, Like I am 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.320 probably one of the worst people I know about keeping 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:14.040 a calendar and. 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:14.719 Sticking to it. 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.400 So but everybody has kind of those things that they're 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.120 great at and that they're not and I would say 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.200 that that's maybe one of my flaws is that. But 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.840 now I'm not a big reader. I just like am 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.439 obsessed about what we do, which is something that I've 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.520 also noticed among you know, and this is a great point, 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.719 is that a lot of younger people will ask, like, 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.120 how do I figure out what that thing is for me? 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.240 And at all points in life, because there's people in 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.000 their teams their twenties or thirty forties, fifties that are 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.320 still trying to figure it out. And like I was 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.160 asked that question the other day, and to me, the 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.600 way you kind of come up with that theme where 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.480 you know that this is what you need to be 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.000 doing is when you just can't stop thinking about it. 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.320 Is when you're genuinely obsessed. Like I will be up 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.679 at all hours of the day, all hours of the night, 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.600 depending on you know, the day, just constantly thinking about, 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:00.800 you know, what can I do? What can I do better? 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.600 You know, what can I you know, how do I 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.520 get more innovative? We just hit five million followers on 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.679 Instagram yesterday, and I'm like, I'm constantly thinking it's like, 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:12.680 you know, how do we get to ten million within 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:14.400 the next you know, year or two? You know, So 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.760 I'm always singing about that. But that's again, how I 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.320 know that what we're doing is what we should be doing, 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.160 because it's just the peer obsession with it. 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.400 I love that. Now, take me back. You graduated college 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.800 in Texas. When you were doing the fast food, you 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.439 were in high school, your parents were definitely taking care 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.400 of you, and then you were just taking the money 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:38.680 and investing. At what point does school of hard knocks 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:39.920 start to enter the picture? 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.960 Yeah, so you know I was So I'll first say this. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.640 I mentioned that I had those first two jobs, right, Well, 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.439 my senior year of high school. Actually this is the 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.280 year I was work in construction. It's about December twenty nineteen, 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.600 and you know, I start to hear about TikTok. It's 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:59.920 starting to get really popular. And now I think TikTok 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.240 had been on the App Store, like it had been 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.480 launched maybe late twenty eighteen, early twenty nineteen, but it 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.679 really started to hit its stride late twenty nineteen, and 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.360 then going into twenty twenty is when it just passed 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.320 Google as the number one search engine. And I was 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.440 just watching TikTok casually, but I started to notice, like, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.800 there's these kids out there who are my age, who 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.320 are younger than me, some older than me, and they're 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.680 making ridiculous amounts of money tens and hundreds of thousands 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.000 of dollars a month, just making content about stuff that 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.560 they were passionate about because they were able to build 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.000 an audience and monetize it. And I love the saying 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.840 that where attention goes, revenue flows, and to me, I 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.280 saw that in late twenty nineteen, and I just decided 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.840 to start posting on TikTok. I didn't have any clear 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:54.040 direction of how I wanted to take my brand or anything. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:55.760 I was just building my personal brand on there, just 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.920 a personal TikTok, and I just kept trying different things, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.840 hopping on different trends, and I would go viral, and 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.240 before I knew it, within about ten months on that account, 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.200 I had eight hundred thousand followers. Wow, So went from 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.520 zero to eight hundred thousand followers in about ten months. 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.120 So that was from like December twenty nineteen up until 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:14.600 August twenty twenty. 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.480 And it was it was different types of videotypes of content. 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.440 My first ever video that I posted that went viral, 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.480 So my first viral video was probably like my tenth 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.160 to fifteenth post somewhere around then. But I try to 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.360 tell people that it's like, look, most successful creators, I 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.680 would argue the majority of them, if you ask them, hey, 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:34.560 how many pieces of content did it take for you 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:36.800 to have one viral video? A lot of them it 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.800 wasn't until their fiftieth or one hundredth or three hundredth 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.320 video that it takes to go viral. And like most people, 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.520 they don't understand that, and therefore they get discouraged because 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:47.800 all you know, my first couple videos didn't go viral 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:48.640 so then they're just done. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:49.200 They give up. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.320 And it's like I try and remind people that, like, look, 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.800 some people, yes, does that you know happen overnight? Sure, 0:15:56.000 --> 0:16:00.240 it does a lot of the overnight stuff. Though where's 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:02.800 the longevity most people that go viral overnight? There isn't 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.240 any longevity for the most part. Whereas you know, people, 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.200 it's a long game media content creation. It is a 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.840 long game. And if you want to like actually have 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.080 be very successful and you have to be committed to 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:17.760 it for a long time. And so, like I said, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:19.880 ten to fifteen post was someone that went viral. It 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.960 was literally just me making a decision video on going 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:24.680 to the University of Texas. So like I had applied 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.520 to like three or four places and I was did 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:29.080 a video like showing all the places I got into 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:30.480 and then deciding to go to UT You got like 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.080 eight hundred thousand views. And I realized right then and there, 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.600 it's like, okay, I posted that video with I had 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.880 like maybe two hundred followers at the time, and I 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:40.960 overnight I got eight hundred thousand views, And I'm like, 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.400 wait a minute, So you can literally have like one 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.640 hundred followers and you can have hundreds of thousands to 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.080 a million people that see a piece of your video. 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.800 I'm like, count me in, Like this is crazy. I mean, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.560 obviously this has existed, but I hadn't seen it for myself. 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:00.680 And so, like I said, it did that once and 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.160 then was just posting a lot of miscellaneous contents. So 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.800 some of it was like me, you know, doing self 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.240 improvement advice or making like lists of like my top 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.360 favorite movies, my top favorite rappers, like stuff like that. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.920 But it wasn't anything where like I could have built 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.280 a brand out of it. So after those ten months, 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:18.719 I hit eight hundred K, but I kind of hit 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.399 a wall mentally with it where I was like, I 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:23.160 got to I gotta do something else. This isn't it. 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:25.720 And so I had connected with the child the childhood 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.080 friend my brother. We were at like a friend's house. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.320 This is right before I moved out from Virginia the 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.800 DC area to Austin, and we kind of just connected 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:35.879 on the fact that hey, we're all from the DC area. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.000 A lot you know a lot of us. If you 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.640 know anything about DC, it's a very structured city, very 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:46.560 federal like, we've centered around a lot of federal agencies. 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.959 Government jobs, contracting, defense, it's not entrepreneurial, so we kind 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.760