Published October 2022 on YouTube
This Guy Went From $0 to Billionaire By Starting A Toy Factory In China (#372)
1. Intro
Two brothers embark on a journey to start a toy factory in Hong Kong, with the younger brother sleeping in a bush on their first night. Their persistence and determination paid off, leading to a successful entrepreneurial venture.+
2. Billy of the Week
Billionaire Hot Air Balloon:Nick, a university dropout from New Zealand, became a billionaire by creating a hot air balloon modeling kit that he sold door to door. He and his brother started their toy factory in Hong Kong when he was 18 years old.+
From $13,000 to Billionaires:Shaan shares the inspiring story of Nick and Mat, who started their toy company, Zuru, with only $13,000 and lived in their factory for eight years. They hustled and made their money stretch, eating off the dollar menu at McDonald's and creating toys like robofish. Today, Zuru does a billion dollars a year in sales, and Nick is a self-made billionaire.+
Viral Toy Empire:Shaan and Sam discuss the story of two brothers who created a viral toy empire by knocking off other toys and then creating their own original toys. They discuss how they brute forced their way into retail stores and how they focused on automating their manufacturing process to make it ten times cheaper than their competitors.+
Billionaire Toy Maker:Shaan talks about the story of a family-owned toy business that expanded into other products like diapers, hair care, pet food, and collagen. They partnered with YouTube sensation Cocoa Melon for their diaper brand and are now trying to create a factory that can build houses using robots with their new venture, Zuru Tech.+
Robot-built Homes:Shaan and Sam discuss the new venture called Zoo Tech, which aims to use robots to build homes by using architecture software with a gaming engine. They also talk about the founder's tips for success, including rethinking vocabulary and calling team members instead of employees.+
Work and Innovation:Shaan and Sam discuss the importance of working with others as partners, firing bullets before cannonballs, breaking the rules, and not being shaken by competition. Shaan shares his experience of moving to China and how it was a blessing in disguise, while also emphasizing the importance of innovation in the journey towards success.+
Learning from Failure:Shaan and Sam discuss a failed deal with David Beckham that left them with half the product and a loss of $200,000. They learned from their mistake and vowed to never have a losing month again, leading to continued profitability.+
3. Marketing Insights
Breaking Points Insights:Shaan shares insights from his experience on a panel with Sagar from Breaking Points, a political talk show that covers stories the mainstream media is not covering or is spinning for their own agenda. They aim to call it like they see it and stick to their values of telling the truth.+
Joe Rogan's Endorsement:Shaan Puri shares how the hosts of a YouTube show received a huge boost in popularity after Joe Rogan became a fan and invited them onto his podcast. The hosts used smart marketing tactics to position themselves as an enemy of the mainstream media, which helped them gain a loyal following.+
First 10k Subscribers:Shaan shares an interesting insight on how a popular account on social media can help gain your first 10k subscribers. By creating content that the top 1% of popular accounts already love, you can get them to share and endorse it, leading to a bunch of growth right away of the right audience.+
4. Winning Content Strategies
Growing an Audience:Shaan Puri advises against growing an audience for the sake of it, but rather creating content out of curiosity or interest. He shares his hack of using a podcast as an excuse to meet and learn from interesting people. Sam Parr suggests being an interesting person and sharing your experiences publicly to build an audience.+
Being Interesting:Shaan and Sam discuss the importance of personal branding and content creation. They emphasize the need to lead an interesting life and share only 10% of it. They also share tips on how to be interesting and create content that people will consume.+
Winning Content Strategies:Shaan and Sam discuss different playstyles for creating winning content, including being a time saver, a remixer, an original content creator, or a lifestyle influencer. They recommend living an interesting life and sharing 10% of it as the most valuable and unique strategy. They also mention examples like the Sriracha guy and the importance of packaging content in a concise way.+
Finding Your Niche:Shaan shares a story about his trainer who found success by focusing on his niche and catering to customers who love what he does. He didn't conform to what the market wanted and instead stayed true to his unique approach, which ultimately led to his success.+
Finding Your Customers:Shaan and Sam discuss the importance of doing what you love and finding customers who love it too, rather than taking a desperate approach to building a business or growing an audience. They share a story of a man who started a fitness group just for fun and ended up with a full roster of clients without ever doing any sales pitches.+
5. Living Costs
Twitter Handle Empire:Sam shares his research on a Twitter handle empire called Strongland Publishing, which owns several Twitter handles focused on taboo topics for men and sells related documents on Gum Road, potentially making between $500,000 to a million dollars a year in sales.+
Making Money Online:Shaan and Sam discuss the success of an anonymous financial blogger who is generating millions through his blog and courses. They also touch on the topic of taxes and how it affects where people choose to live.+
Living Costs:Sam and Shaan discuss the high living costs of New York City, including income taxes and rent prices, and how it compares to living in other states. They break down the numbers and discuss the financial trade-offs of living in a city like New York.+
Cost of Living:Shaan and Sam discuss the idea of optimizing cost of living by living in places with lower expenses. They talk about the various options available and the importance of balancing cost with quality of life.+
Tax Optimization:Shaan and Sam discuss the importance of tax optimization for the rich, but caution against making it the primary reason for moving. They emphasize the need to prioritize lifestyle and family over taxes, and suggest finding one decisive reason for where to live.+
Regretful Relocation:Sam expresses his regret about not choosing Florida or New York instead of Miami when he relocated. He explains that he would have preferred Florida's weather and New York's energy, but he ended up in Austin because of his friends and office.+
6. Dream Studio Course
Dream Studio Course:Sam and Shaan discuss the success of Kevin Shen's Dream Studio Course landing page, which effectively sells a transformation rather than just information. They highlight the importance of before and after examples and a clear call to action. Shaan mentions that he teaches different frames to sell products in his course.+
Effective Landing Pages:Shaan and Sam discuss the importance of landing pages as the 24/7 salesman for a product and how to effectively use them to sell a product by focusing on the pain points of the customers and presenting a solution.+
Landing Page Inspiration:Sam and Shaan discuss the challenge of creating landing pages that meet their high standards and share their methods for finding inspiration, including researching competitors and old articles. Shaan also reflects on past marketing mistakes, including a time when he let a random cold email divert his team's focus for 48 hours.+
Naming Struggles:Shaan and Sam discuss the unnecessary process of hiring a naming agency for their dating app and the importance of understanding customer stories and phrases when developing an app. They reflect on the wasted time and money spent on the naming agency and the insights gained from the experience.+
Brainstorming Process:Shaan and Sam discuss a brainstorming process that involves slowing down and figuring out the actual problem and pain points before coming up with a name. They emphasize the importance of using words that resonate with the target audience and explain the process of writing out the feelings that go through the mind of the person.+
Branding Insights:Shaan and Sam discuss the importance of branding and hiring the right people for the job. Sam shares his experience of hiring a branding agency and how it helped him do things right the first time.+
Branding Strategy:Shaan and Sam discuss their branding strategy for their startup, Milk Road. They debate whether investing in branding is necessary upfront and decide to focus on gaining subscribers before investing in the brand. They eventually reach 100,000 subscribers and hire a branding agency to create their Milkman character. Sam thinks the outcome was a win.+
Barefoot in Hawaii:Shaan tells the story of meeting a guy in Hawaii who doesn't wear shoes and keeps them in storage. Sam shares his own preference for going barefoot and the hosts discuss the idea of living a shoeless lifestyle.+
Hitler Thumbnail Controversy:Sam and Shaan discuss the controversy surrounding a YouTube thumbnail for an episode on Hitler, and the importance of being mindful of how content is presented.+
Investing and VR:Sam talks about his emotional investment in a YouTube channel and how he hopes to make his money back through relationships. Shaan shares his excitement for upcoming podcast topics, including one about the state of VR.+
VR Investments:Shaan discusses his recent investments in VR and his desire to gather more information from experts in the field. He shares his excitement about the potential for high returns and the tangible success he's experienced so far.+