The Exchanges

Q I appreciate it. So on this podcast, we talk about different business ideas, um, and, and different niches and trends. You prepared a few, which I think are, are fascinating. Um, and I want to start with suffering as a service. What do you mean by that?

A Yeah. It's funny. Cause it's almost like SAS, right? It's like the same type of acronym. I just think normal life has gotten so soft and easy, you know, Uber eats to your apartment, go puff for deliveries. Um, and that's why you see all these people doing, you know, tough modders, Spartan races, ultra marathons. People are craving that type of discomfort. It actually makes them feel alive. Um, even like these dark retreats, like in the last year, I don't know about you, but like five people I know are like, oh yeah, I just sat in darkness for a week. To like find myself and like, you can position that however you want. That is suffering, like in some way. And it's like, I think you can get really creative with that. And I think it's a massive opportunity. Like you do have to imagine just normal life is just going to get easier and easier, right? We're going to have to do less and less. So people will need more things like that. And so like, honestly, it's a big part of what I'm doing. Like this run cult, I just started this run club. It's kind of like shared suffering. And I think that's why people like it.

AI assessment note: “People are craving that type of discomfort. It actually makes them feel alive.”

Q Yeah. Awareness and affinity. That's what, that's how I describe it. Shoreform is great for awareness and affinity is, uh, Is what you call it?

A Like the connection and, and yeah, like an analogy I used the other week, sorry to interrupt you, is like short form is like, short form is like passing someone on the street. Maybe say hi for a second, but it's a short interaction. And long form is like sitting down with them for dinner. It's like, oh, you're really getting to know them now. Um, Dylan, Dylan even had a better analogy with that. He's like Dylan Jordan. He's like, yeah, short form is, you know, on the street, you don't choose it. It just happens to you kind of like short form scrolling on a feed, but long form, you're choosing to meet someone you're clicking on a video. It's totally different.

AI assessment note: “short form is like passing someone on the street... long form is like sitting down”

Q I have a newsletter. I could easily Do podcasts, short form, long form, you know, long form, like a bunch of other platforms, you know, TikTok, Instagram, shorts at the same time. And it took some awareness to basically be like, no, like that, that's actually a bad idea. Like go what? Like, and I love that flexible with the format. Is that what you said? Flexible with the format?

A Well, yeah, that that's what I did last year to make it super tactical. Last year, I didn't have those videos, right? The animated videos that got hundreds of millions of views, and I didn't have obsession as a brand. So at the same time, I basically was like, all right, I'm going to commit to this one message, but I'm going to be super flexible with the medium that I use to get the message in front of more people. And that is like a thing that I don't think anyone does. And, and if you, most people don't do either, but when you do both, what it got me is a ton of new, new fans and a ton of actual true fans who will, you know, put obsession in their bio and come to my run cult. It's like, that's like one of my favorite ideas I've came up with that, like strict with the message, flexible with the medium.

AI assessment note: “Well, yeah, that that's what I did last year to make it super tactical.”

Q Yeah. How do you, how do you, uh, how do you come up with the name? A good one.

A You have to put out a ridiculous amount of stuff and wait until it's completely obvious. That's the only answer. I think you have to wait until it's obvious in that other people love it. You love it and no one else owns it. And then there's also the thin line of you want a name that is super, you know, unique that you can still own it, but rare enough that, um, sorry, unique enough that you can own it, but common enough that it's still in culture. Right. Like obsession is all over culture. It's behind all these guys, like, you know, Kobe and, um, all these people. So it's like that balance. So it's those three things. You love it. They love it. And no one else has it super hard. But when I felt it, it was obvious. I started like the obsession movement after a run. It just hit me like, oh my God, this is obvious. I need to tweet this. Like who is obsessed? Put a black flag. If you're obsessed, put a black flag in your bio and across Twitter and Instagram, like thousands of people did it. I didn't plan that. There was no planning. Yeah. I had like, I had follow obsession in my bio for like a year. So it was like, it was ruminating, but it was just, boom, obvious and did it. And it was a good choice. Um, so yeah, that's what I'd say. It's like start paying attention to the, I just said it like those three things.

AI assessment note: “You have to put out a ridiculous amount of stuff and wait until it's completely obvious.”

Q Like from the outside and I love following you from the outside. It looks like this guy has everything together. He's doing all the right things. He's building up these assets. He's building a category of one. He's in this cool friend group. You know, he's living in New York City. He's at the center of it. But what, what's really keeping you up at night? What do you fear?

A Um, it's definitely not that. Does it look like that? I guess it kind of looks like that. I've tried to be more open with how, like, reckless my life is, though. Like, I, I did, like, sleep in the office for, like, two weeks, um, because I had to. And, uh, what's actually keeping me up at night is YouTube, because I'm not sleeping that much because of it. I'm getting better now, though. That was, like, a rough two weeks. The fear for me is two things, I think. It's one, I choose the wrong opportunities to build first, right? Cause like now it's basically like, all right, what do I build first? That's really like the question. It's I choose the wrong opportunities and it messes up like what I'm building. That scares me. Um, I don't know. Number two is I guess I burn out. Cause like I, I genuinely unlocked like a new part of myself, like about four weeks ago, five weeks ago for a lot of reasons. And, uh, one was like starting the daily videos, just like committing to something extreme like that was like exactly what I needed. Like unlocked like a new part of me. So I think the fear is a fear of like burning out. It's like, I can't keep going. But I don't think that will happen. I feel like that's like, this is not obsession. You don't burn out. I don't know. It's just me being honest. I'm afraid of getting hurt. If I get hurt, I can't really do the running thing, which is going t…

AI assessment note: “The fear for me is two things, I think. It's one, I choose the wrong opportunities”

Q And what's the business of, of the cult? Like, how do you, do you plan on monetizing it?

A Yeah. So I plan on monetizing what I'm doing in the running space as a whole is like very partially money driven. Like I want to build real companies in the space and that is a hundred percent a part of my vision, but I'm not thinking about that yet. Really? Um, I think there's a lot of opportunities. Like I think getting, like I said, like 50 people totally aligned on a mission wearing all black in Manhattan is special. There's a lot of different ways to monetize that. But overall, it's more just like, it's a huge piece of the world, right? The world I'm trying to build. And, um, I don't know. I think there'll be really cool opportunities this year with that in terms of collaborations, obviously you could do products and merch, but I think, and we can talk about this more. I think the running space as a whole is massively wide open. And so that's where I think I'll make a lot of moves over the next year or two.

AI assessment note: “in terms of collaborations, obviously you could do products and merch”