The Wisdom Wall

23 quotable lessons, heuristics and mental models. Every one is playable at the moment it was said. No fortune cookies allowed.

Everyone Guy Raz (23)Marcia Kilgore (19)Eric Ryan (18)Mei Xu (16)Adam Grant (16)Tobias Lütke (15)Michael Dubin (15)Kenneth Cole (15)Whitney Wolfe Herd (14)Paul Orfalea (14)Katrina Lake (14)Sarah LaFleur (13)Randy Hetrick (13)Marc Lore (13) Best Newest Oldest

“I'm not convinced that eco-friendly and sustainable and better for the planet actually matter as much. I actually, I actually think right now, the, what matters to especially your kind of consumer is like the person who buys fewer things but better things. Like that's, in a lot of ways, that's the new luxury. To have…”

Guy Raz, May 21, 2026

“I don't believe in saturated markets. I believe in really good branding”

Guy Raz, May 29, 2025

“I think that, that the more it's used, the less actually authentic something or someone is. And you often see this on social media where people say, be your most authentic self. And I think to myself, You're standing in front of a camera, and you are acting, and so how are you actually authentic? So I guess, to me,…”

Guy Raz, Oct 17, 2024

“very few people bought Spanx because they loved Sarah Blakely. She's lovable and terrific, but that's not why people bought the product. They bought it because it was really effective. So, um, the, the, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether Allison is interesting or funny or, you know, it would, that's…”

Guy Raz, Oct 17, 2024

“a lot of brands, um, really push their social mission, and I'm not convinced that that sells product. I, I think, I think what sells a product is a good product.”

Guy Raz, Sep 30, 2024

“virality is borrowed attention, right? And so the question is, and it's a good question is how do you, it's not how do you maintain that momentum? You won't be able to get a hundred and ninety seven million views again and again and again. But it's how do you capture as much as you can and build a brand around the…”

Guy Raz, Sep 10, 2026

“when it comes to the knockoffs and the copycats, I mean, it's gonna happen. I would be really careful not to let it distract you and obsess you, because as we've seen on the show in the past, it can really damage Businesses. TRX, you know, that, that was, they fought copycats for so long, eventually it was okay, but it…”

Guy Raz, Sep 10, 2026

“and you can really only outsource once the variability of your product is low. You know, in other words, once you're like what people are ordering, the demand is predictable.”

Guy Raz, Feb 26, 2026

“their expansion strategy usually begins with one location within 45 miles. So within an hour or so drive.”

Guy Raz, Feb 19, 2026

“when it starts to feel like doing this part-time is riskier, that's when you know. When, when you start to say to yourself, actually, it's safer for me to jump into this full-time, you will know that.”

Guy Raz, Feb 19, 2026

“It's, it's actually critical to building a sustainable business, because down the road, you really want, you don't want a fifty-fifty, you want like 80% of your money coming in through the shop, because that's, you own that. You don't, YouTube owns the algorithm, right? You own the shop, and you own your customers, but…”

Guy Raz, Feb 12, 2026

“You go to a restaurant, it might be packed, but the margins are thin, and you go to a yoga studio, and it might be packed, but it's just, the capacity is limited. You can only fit a certain number of people in, and they're really hard businesses, unless it's a super efficient model. They're really hard businesses to…”

Guy Raz, Jan 19, 2026

“Method really broke the mold by making it cool and luxurious. Tesla did the same thing with electric cars. They didn't invent electric cars. They just made them so awesome for people that people went to them.”

Guy Raz, Nov 13, 2025

“consumers, they rarely champion a category unless there's a brand to rally behind, right?”

Guy Raz, Oct 16, 2025

“because to be an acquisition target, you're going to need to hit. Twenty million or more in sales, right?”

Guy Raz, Jun 12, 2025

“at the end of the day, the vast majority of consumers They just don't care about that. I mean, we wish they would care more, but they don't. They really want to know, what does this do for me?”

Guy Raz, Nov 7, 2024

“The people who really appreciate it, even if it might just be a thousand people or 500 people, those are your force multipliers. Those are the people who are really going to lean into what you're selling and tell other people about it.”

Guy Raz, Jul 11, 2024

“that mission, that two-year mission, that's like amazing practice to becoming an entrepreneur. Because you're basically getting a hundred people a day telling you, no, I'm not interested in hearing your message.”

Guy Raz, May 20, 2024

“Cause the majority of people are going to buy it cause they look good and they're functional, not cause they're recycled.”

Guy Raz, May 9, 2024

“having 3000 people Regularly coming to your podcast, your website, or whatever, that is massively powerful. That is a, that's, that's 3000 super fans. I mean, there are people who have 50 thousand fans or a 100,000 fans, and if they have 3000 super fans, those are the ones that really... Push out their, you know, their…”

Guy Raz, Oct 6, 2022

“Young Mormons who go on missions, I think, are very well prepared to become entrepreneurs, because you're knocking on a thousand doors a week, and 900 of them are just, like, slamming in your face, and you still have to be polite, right?”

Guy Raz, Dec 7, 2020

“Um, but I do think that if there's one thing I've seen in, in almost 700 episodes of how I built this is that virtually every entrepreneur on the show has figured out how to get over that and how to ask for help.”

Guy Raz, Oct 17, 2024

“Anybody wants to start a business should read about the bus boycotts. And how, how in the methodical, careful planning that went into that.”

Guy Raz, Nov 5, 2020
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