BigDeal - The Secret to Turning Failure Into Success | Dhar Mann

Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. am I ever going to become a millionaire when I don't even have a thousand bucks? I would say it's

Starting point is 00:00:34 harder to make that first thousand than it is that million. As you start to become more successful, you start to identify the patterns that help make you more successful. And that's because success beget success. My guest is Darman, one of the most watch creators on the internet. Now, we're going to break down how he makes more than $65 million a year, how to actually conquer your fear of failure, and how to turn probably the worst chapters of your story into the reason you win. It's a me 100 videos to go viral. What if I quit on number 99? I put all my money together that I possibly could through all my friends and family, bury myself deep in debt, put it in one video, that one video would have failed. Consistency matters more than anything. What advice do you have for

Starting point is 00:01:15 somebody today who wants to be successful and win? You have to do these three things. Number one is Star. Dar, you're the number two creator in the world, according to Forbes, $65 million last year on YouTube and online in earnings. But that doesn't tell your full story. I think the most interesting part is that you also, not that many years ago in 2013, you had lost almost everything. And so I guess my question for you is, for people listening, what is the number one piece of advice you have if you're struggling so that they can reach the summit that you have? You know, if I can go back and tell myself one thing when I was lost and struggling and thought that my life was on over, it would be that failure is a chapter of your story. It doesn't mean that it's the entire

Starting point is 00:02:08 book. And so in order to get to that learning, I found myself at 30 years old, entering a new decade. And that's a milestone birthday. You know, you want to think of your 30s as a time that your life is coming together. Maybe you're in that steady relationship. Maybe you bought your first home. Maybe you're in a career that's thriving. For me, it was a total opposite. Everything in my life was falling apart. I was going through a really bad breakup. I was six, I was four weeks away from getting, I'm sorry, I was two weeks away from getting evicted from my apartments. And I was, you know, broke, depressed. I thought that, honestly, my life was over. And at that time, what I started to do was read inspirational stories. I realized that external success starts with

Starting point is 00:02:56 internal success. And so I wanted to sharpen my brain. And I started listening to stories about successful people out there that had encountered tremendous failure on their way to success. So I read stories about how like Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team, became one of the greatest athletes of all time. J.K. Rowling was denied by dozens of publishers before, you know, writing Harry Potter. And then even Walt Disney, he went bankrupt about a hundred different times on his way to starting Disneyland. And what I realized was that failure was not the opposite of success for them. It was actually just a part of their success. It's realizing one more way that didn't work in order to get you to the actual way that worked. And so I would say start thinking about your relationship

Starting point is 00:03:44 with failure in a completely different way. If your life has not worked out yet, maybe that's life just redirecting you to a way that is actually working. And the hard part is it's a psychological aspects of failure. For me, as a 30-year-old Indian man, I was looking at it as like, my family is ashamed of me. My culture, I'm letting down. I should have my life figured out according to all these standards and expectations of where society is. But if you strip all those things away, right. I'm alive. I'm breathing. I get to wake up again and try again. Right. So I would say just that mindset is everything. What was like the moment that that changed for you? Was there a trigger that you were like, oh, wait a second. I saw this book and I saw this quote and then I made the change. I would love to

Starting point is 00:04:39 think of it as a moment. And sure, there was a lot of breakthroughs. But in reality, it's a process. I think everyone wants that, what is that one pill I can take? Right? Like you can't go to the gym, do this one workout and suddenly you're ripped. So, you know, there's something called a Stockdale principle where the people that survived the longest in war or when they were actually prisoners of war are not the ones that said, oh, I'm going to be released this Christmas or this Easter or this Thanksgiving. It's the ones that thought that, hey, you know what? As long as it takes, I'm going to still keep. fighting. I'm still going to keep pushing forward. Because if you set your mind to, oh, this Christmas, I'm going to have everything figured out, what happens when that Christmas comes and goes? And your life isn't figured out. Suddenly you get demoralized. So the best thing is when you're at rock bottom, just accept that you're there, that you're going to be there for as long as it takes for you to get out. Don't put a time frame on it. Don't think that there's some sort of get, you know, rich, quick scheme that is going to pull you out of it because I promise you that's only going to get you into a lot more.

Starting point is 00:05:45 So, you know, first is sort of accepting where you are and realizing that it's going to take time. And then, yeah, you know, I like to say that your struggle becomes your greatest superpower. Your greatest struggle becomes your greatest superpower. If I was to dig down deep into your story, I bet there's aspects that troubled you, either growing up as a kid or failures that you had that all. ultimately somehow shaped you into the successful woman that you are today. And so if you look back and you realize like, gosh, if that breakup never happened, if I never got fired from that job, if I never hit rock bottom and promise myself that I would learn how to save money better or invest money, right, I never would have actually built the

Starting point is 00:06:37 business that I am today. So think about really your failures as lessons. And if you think about it from that standpoint, you are so much stronger today. And so really, you're not starting from zero. You're starting from experience, right? You've learned all these things about yourself that are now going to help make you a better individual and more equipped to succeed. And so for me, you know, it was realizing that I, because I failed, I could empathize

Starting point is 00:07:10 with other people who are going through hard times in their life. Like there's this quote by the Dalai Lama where he says, the height of your, the depth of your suffering defines the height of your joy. And because I had gone through so much suffering and failure, when someone came to me and said, Dar, I'm going through a hard time or I'm broke or I'm broken or whatever it is,

Starting point is 00:07:35 I could relate to that person because I'd been through such hard times in my, my life and ultimately being able to connect with people became the inspiration for my content because I tell inspirational stories about underdogs who go through tough times and they somehow come out on top. If anyone has ever seen a darn man story, that's typically how that formula goes. And the reason I'm able to tell those stories so authentically is because I am that underdog. And had I never been, I would not be able to connect with people the same way possible. So whatever it is that you're going through in some way or another, it's going to later help you in life. It's just

Starting point is 00:08:16 hard to see in that moment. Such a good reminder. The Stockdale paradox is such an interesting one because I remember the first time somebody asked me that question. Like, what do you think leads to more success for people who are prisoners of war, which really means people who are struggling? Is it the optimist, actually, or is it the pessimist? And I was like, oh, it's the optimist. Of course it is. that's what we all think. Yeah. But it turns out it was actually, they don't use the word pessimist. They say the word like rationalist.

Starting point is 00:08:43 Yeah, realist. Yeah. And so the realist was actually the one that says, no, it's unlikely I'm going to get out of here. Right. But I'm going to be okay with that. I have this analogy that I use. So I have a podcast called What Happens Next that just came out. And the whole philosophy is based on the Japanese art form Kintzugi.

Starting point is 00:08:58 So as individuals, we like to think of ourselves often, especially in this world of social media, that we want to show the perfect version of ourselves. And we think that's what's going to make us beautiful, right? Look how glamorous my life is. Look how I've got everything figured out. And Instagram has put that all on steroids. But the Japanese art form Kinsugi, the philosophy is you take a clay pot, you drop it, you break it, and then you put gold glitter in order to put it back together.

Starting point is 00:09:29 So the whole philosophy is the imperfections are not meant to be hidden. they're actually meant to be more beautiful because that's what makes something unique. And so if you were to look at all these clay pots that all looked somewhat similar, but one was broken and had this gold silver lining, it would just make you stop and think, like, wow, there's something special about that.

Starting point is 00:09:53 And humans are the same way. If I was to tell you that, hey, you know what? I never failed in life. Everything I did always worked out. I found the girl right outside of high school. I bought my dream home. I had kids. We never had any hardships. You'd be like, that's boring. That's not relatable at all. Right. So humans work the same way as broken clay pots that are put together. When you actually look at the pieces that have been brought is what makes someone so special and what makes someone so unique. You actually have this business that is a new age in many ways version of a production company. And I think I saw that you have like 80 building. million lifetime views of telling inspirational stories. And I was curious. One of the things you mentioned

Starting point is 00:10:41 is that you understand this empathy and inspiration. And so you're able to connect with people and tell these stories. It gets millions of views every week. What do you think are the repeatable ways to catch people's attention and keep it in 2026? Yeah, that's a great question. So first off, I'll just start with, it's easy to look at somebody and say, oh, you have billion. of views or you have millions of dollars, of course you have it all figured out. But one thing I will say is that it is much harder to make $100,000 than it is to make a million dollars. And in that same vein, it's much harder to make $10,000 than it is $100,000 or your first $100,000 versus your first $1,000. And that's because success beget success. As you start to become more success,

Starting point is 00:11:33 You start to identify the patterns that help make you more successful. And then you build the systems and you have the teams. And then you also have the credibility. When Darman was starting out like in my small studio apartments, I couldn't go to the bank to get $100 from them if I told them what my goal is. But now that we're established business, it's much easier for us to get access to capital and debt. And so for anyone that is ever discouraged looking at,

Starting point is 00:12:00 well, hey, how am I ever going to become a millionaire? when I don't even have a thousand bucks, I would say it's harder to make that first thousand than it is that million. So always focus on the milestone that's right in front of you. But, you know, in today's world, to answer your question, I would say more than ever, we're looking for relatability. We're looking for emotional connection. And sure, like, you can have big dopamine spikes by showing spectacle constantly on camera. But storytelling, being able to have the audience actually see themselves in your content makes for a much more memorable experience. So 75% of our audience says that they feel compelled to take some sort of positive action

Starting point is 00:12:44 in their life after watching a Darmann video. That might mean calling their mom. That might mean going for a walk. That might be trying to squash whatever relationship issues that they're having with their spouse. So our content creates real world action. Even if we don't get maybe as many views as somebody else. who is a spectacle-based creator, ours are more meaningful views,

Starting point is 00:13:05 and I would say there's a difference there. And one of the things that is important, I think of retention as emotion, right? That really the retention graph of a video is an emotional connection graph as to how invested you are into the actual story. And I like to use this example that if you think about Mission Impossible,

Starting point is 00:13:28 have you seen it? Yep. tell me the plot line of the last video you saw. It's hard, right? Because it's all explosions and action, action, action. Sure, a lot of people see it. But you didn't actually have a deep emotional resonance in your heart. But if I ask you about a video that you might not have seen for like 20 years, the Lion King.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Have you seen it? When's the last time you saw it? Yeah, probably 20 years ago. Do you remember the storyline? Yeah, of course. Because you had a connection. You might have seen yourself as Simba, right? as somebody who was trying to figure out this world all on your own or whatever else. And you know

Starting point is 00:14:02 the journey that that person went on. So I would say for anyone that's looking to create content, forget about all the vanity metrics, which is like views and this and that. I would focus on creating an emotional connection with your audience. And that one view might be worth more than somebody else's thousand views because that one view actually created some sort of impact in that viewers' life that they're always going to remember you for. And by the way, as I talk to brands, and they tell me about who some of their most successful sales affiliates are, it's not the people that get millions of views, right? Because those people are often an inch deep, but a mile wide. It's the people that might have a thousand views, but have such an engaged audience where they're

Starting point is 00:14:46 an inch wide and a mile deep. So I would say, don't focus so much on the views and focus on having that emotional connection with your audience, and the rest will come over time. time. That's such a good point because sales is really storytelling in any sense the word. And you're selling somebody's time if you have a piece of content. You know, you're selling yourself if you want to date, you know, and you're selling the product if you want to get a brand deal or if you want to sell, you know, something in your business. So I guess what if you had to turn it into a framework? So let's say you had to say, okay, here's the framework for getting a million views on YouTube. Is there a framework, a system, a calculation that you use? And if so, what? And if so,

Starting point is 00:15:26 What is it? Well, first on a philosophical level, I like to use a word acronym heart. So H is honor your audience. You always have to create content that resonates with your audience first, once you figure out who that is. And that's fine for you to test a lot of different content formats to see which one actually resonates. E is earn their trust. Once you actually have your audience, don't do things that are going to make you sell out or seem authentic to that. If I started as a purpose-driven filmmaker and then suddenly started doing things just because it got more views or because a brand deal was paying me to do so, suddenly I've alienated myself from the audience. So you always have to stay true to that. A is architect a system, which we'll talk more about during this podcast.

Starting point is 00:16:16 No content creator is successful simply because they stumble. upon virality. They might have a video or two like that, but anyone who's very successful, they actually have a system. We have a system for testing content before it ever goes live. If you were to come on my podcast, we probably would have done a hundred different tests to see what we should actually title the video that you're going to be in, which we know ahead of time, and then I formulated my questions based on what audiences want to perceive. And you can create these tests actually very inexpensively, which we'll get to soon. But architect a system where you're not just creating content, but you're actually creating a company.

Starting point is 00:17:02 And then R is reach hearts. And that's when you go back to emotional connection. If you could move people emotionally, that's what gets them to actually hit the share button. The number one comment that I get in my videos is that I love is this video made me, cry because I know if I move someone, then I'm much more likely to become memorable for them and for them to associate our brand with some sort of positive emotional resonance. And then T is just turn views into impact. As you become more successful, you got to think about how can you make the world a better place than when you started. And so I don't just create views for

Starting point is 00:17:43 views. I really care about the impact that we're making. So that's the philosophical framework that can actually not just work for creating content, but for any product that you want to go into. Then there's a more tactical one. In order to succeed as a content creator, you have to think about four peas. And it used to be three, but I added one. So the three peas used to be packaging, pitch, and post-production. But then as I really thought about what our system is and how it's evolved, I added to the first step is pre-testing. So pre-testing, it goes back to if I was to do a podcast with you instead of just kind of having

Starting point is 00:18:29 you in the room and saying, hey, let's see where this conversation goes. The first thing I'm going to do is, who's Cody's audience? Okay, well, you know, you described it to me a little bit. earlier, but based on my own research, I'm somewhat familiar that you said it's people in their late 20s, early 30s that might be looking for some sort of career pivot. Okay, well, if that's the audience, then I can actually take different packaging concepts, right? I might come up with some different titles for what the podcast can be. Turn your life around in three steps, you know, take your life to the next level in your 30s. Here's the,

Starting point is 00:19:08 one thing that you need to know that can take you from failure to success. I might have all these different titles that I think that that person in your audience is interested in. I will design a thumbnail based on that hypothesis and what I know about your audience. I will actually publish these titles, these different thumbnails on Facebook as images and I will run a paid test. And by the way, it might sound intimidating, but it's actually very simple to do. And you only need about $10 or so to get accurate information on the test. And what I'm looking for is what is the click rate? How many people are actually going to click that photo? How many people are going to like it? How many people are going to comment in it? And especially once I start to build that relationship

Starting point is 00:19:52 with my audience where they know that I'm testing different concepts, they'll say I actually really like this one more than the other one. So I'll do about a hundred different title tests to see what my audience is interested in learning from you and what overlaps with your audience. And I can create a look, I can create test for my audience or I can create lookalike audience test, which means I take who your audience is and Facebook will actually serve my ad to similar audiences to see how they interact. And based on that result, I will then decide what my title for the podcast episode is going to be. So when you come on my show, I'm going to angle everything based on that. Then you go into actual packaging.

Starting point is 00:20:38 I know my packaging is going to be, here's the one thing that you need to do to go from failure to success in a show that you come on, you know, my podcast to do. What's the first question I'm going to ask you? That question. Because people's attention spans are so quick. So whatever, when you figured out your packaging, the next thing you need to do. So you've pre-tested, you've determined your packaging, deliver on that premise right away. And so right at the opening the audience should be like, oh, I'm here to get whatever I clicked for. Because if I was to start that podcast when someone clicks and says, hey, what is the one thing you need to do to go from failure to success? And I was just like, hey, Cody, tell me about your pregnancy journey or tell me about how living in Austin is.

Starting point is 00:21:26 It's like, wait a second, I clicked under this premise. And so YouTube or whatever the platform is, what do they care about? They care about returning viewers and new viewers. Your returning viewers are your core audience. That too, if Cody's name is on it, I'm going to watch it no matter what. I'm so in love with Cody. I know it's great. So you always want to cater to your returning viewers.

Starting point is 00:21:51 But if you're not appealing to new viewers, your content is not going to be pushed out into the algorithm. Because YouTube or whoever the platform is going to see that, hey, you know what? As soon as we go outside of Cody's core, we've noticed that, viewer will come, they'll click, they'll listen for the first like 10 seconds and they immediately click off because the opening did not deliver on whatever that packaging premise was. They're going to stop serving your content in the algorithm. And so as you look at your graphs, you'll wonder, why is my audience not growing? And that's because your content is not keeping them at a high retention level.

Starting point is 00:22:31 So pre-test everything to figure out what your best packaging is. When you figure out your packaging, deliver on that premise right away. And then I would say pitch. Pitch is something that I work on quite consistently. Like you would think that more time is spent in the actual production aspect of a creator or more time is spent in, you know, if you're a scripted content creator, like writing out the actual script. I would say the pitch. How can you describe this in 30 seconds, right?

Starting point is 00:23:02 It's just like the elevator pitch that. that any person that's like coming up with that has a startup idea is told to really perfect. The whole concept being if you're if you're a creator and you were being, you were in an elevator trying to get a viewer interested in watching your video. If you can't in 30 seconds clearly explain to them why they should watch your video, whatever that pitch is, you've lost their interest. And a lot of people I ask that are creators, they can't even explain it to themselves or their own team.

Starting point is 00:23:34 So really figure out what that pitch is to make that content interesting. And then the last piece being post-production. A lot of people think that the magic is in actual production, but it's really in post. We were talking about this right before the show. All the best creators that I know spend about three times more amount of effort in post than they actually do in production. And that's because that's where- really quick. Yeah, so post is like basically editing your video, right? So again, if you're a short form,

Starting point is 00:24:08 maybe you don't have to spend as much time on this, but believe it or not, even the short form creators I know could spend like a whole day on editing. And they're just trying to perfect every second. You have to think about every second of your video as you're constantly, you know, trying to get your viewers attention, especially if it's shorter form content, especially if you don't have a strong relationship with your audience. And so we analyze. every word to make sure like, hey, could this sentence be cut out? Does it work without this? Should we add music here to make it more interesting? Should we add some sort of graphic to visually capture somebody's interest? How can we, you know, just cut a little bit faster? How can we build

Starting point is 00:24:50 emotion, build a little bit of suspense because we know that something is going to get to this climax moment. So, yeah, those are the four things I would say. Really pay attention to. Pre-test as much you can to help you identify your packaging and then really refine that pitch so you can explain it in 30 seconds as to what that value proposition is. And then after you actually, you know, make the video, spend a lot of time in post-production editing it to make it as interesting as possible because ultimately that's what's going to determine the retention of the video. Interesting. Now, you know what also is fascinating to me about you is you put out a ton of. of content. So I would be curious on something. You know, there's that kind of famous saying

Starting point is 00:25:35 that quantity always beats quality, that you should just do more and maybe you don't have the life that you want because you're not doing as much as it takes to get there. What do you believe? Should someone, if they want to achieve greatness, is the answer that you just need to do more or is it you have to do more better things? It just depends on what your personal goal is, right? So take the Birken, right? Hermes, they sell a fraction of the amount of handbags that Chanel does or Louis Vuitton or Gucci, but their valuation is just as strong. And Burkins consistently go up in price every year.

Starting point is 00:26:16 And their whole philosophy is, sure, they could mass produce the Birken bag if they wanted to, but instead they hire hand tailors that specialize in this craft. and take so much time on each handbag that they care more about the quality. And so, right, it just depends on what your goal is. Do you want to be sort of this premier mom and pop steakhouse that is really well respected and you have a very comfortable living? Or do you want to be Mortons or do you want to be McDonald's, right? They all kind of sell a similar thing, but they have different kind of lifestyles and different

Starting point is 00:26:54 kind of prestige associated with them. For me, it really came down to my goal was to make impact. I wanted people to watch my videos and say, wow, that helped me get to a better place in my life or not give up on my dreams or help resolve, help me get out of depression or anxiety, right? So for me, it was really important to reach the masses because it's a mission-driven company. And so when I was starting, I was doing one three-minute video a week. And I remember we were on a group call. We were a four-person team at that time. And I said, guys, a day is going to come where we're doing two, three-minute videos a week.

Starting point is 00:27:36 And one of my producers was like, DART, are you crazy? Two videos a week? Like, do you care about quantity or do you care about quality? And I was like, I don't see them as trade-offs. Like, I think both are possible. And he ended up quitting because he thought that that whole idea was crazy by the, you know, within the next like six months, I would say, we didn't just go from one three minute video to two.

Starting point is 00:28:00 We went from one to five. And then that next year, we were creating videos for Facebook. That next year, we went from, we started focusing on YouTube, so we went from one 22 minute video to five. And then we started a whole division that creates original content for Samsung TVs. Then we went into vertical dramas

Starting point is 00:28:21 where we're doing 40 films for Fox. And now, you know, we're going into a brand new division where we're going to be on, you know, some of the traditional platforms that most people watch. And we have a whole short form department. We have a branded content department. And so really, for me, it comes down to two piece. People and processes. Everything is scalable. Anytime I start to get into this limited belief mindset, I just remember, well, Walt Disney was just,

Starting point is 00:28:53 an individual who actually failed more times than probably anyone listening in this podcast, literally went bankrupt a hundred different times. Had his early version of Mickey Mouse, like the rabbit that he invented before Mickey Mouse, was stolen from him. Like his own, like, founding team members went to go work for his competition. Like, he had to borrow money from his brother and his spouse and so many other people. And now he, Disney puts out, you know, some of the most iconic feature films has theme parks around the world. It has so many different divisions. And that's all because someone didn't have limited belief. So when I start to think of what's possible for us, I just think, well, look at what Disney's doing. Why can't we get there?

Starting point is 00:29:40 In order to solve that problem, we either need more people. We need different types of people, or we need better processes. And I always try to start with processes because that's the easier fix. And so once you unlock that limited belief mindset, then really anything is possible. But I would say it all starts with what are your personal goals? Because I fall into the trap thinking that everybody has the same ambitions or mindset that I do. And so I would always try to anyone, anytime I had like someone that I was the manager of, I'd always try to motivate them in a way that got them to their highest potential. But then I realized that not everybody wants that.

Starting point is 00:30:24 Some people are comfortable. You know, they want to be able to clock out at 4 p.m. And they want to be able to have a nice dinner and watch the game and spend time with their spouse. And honestly, I kind of envy that. Like, that's nice. If that's what you're after, then, yeah, you don't need scale, right? But if you're like us.

Starting point is 00:30:44 Unhinged. Yeah. And you're just like, oh, my gosh, like, you have one life to live. there's so much potential. Look at all these people that are doing these incredible things. Why not me? Then yeah, then you got to go for it. Here's the thing about everything Dar walked us through. Vision and grit will only get you to the starting line. But Dar didn't build his brand just by believing in it. You heard him. He was executing relentlessly. And that takes resources. You can have the idea, a plan, the audience. At some point, it's actually growing the thing. And that means putting fuel behind it. Capital, I think, is what lets you do that best.

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Starting point is 00:32:03 Terms and conditions apply. This is a paid SOFi partnership. What do you think is the most unhinged thing you do to create like 300 to 400 to 400 pieces of content per month was the number I saw? What do you think you're like, God, people would be shocked. that we do this. I would love to say that there's a pill that you can take or some quick fix, right? But the reality is, is if you've ever trained for a race, okay, you're going to run a marathon. And I don't know what the average time is for somebody to run a marathon. What is that? Let's just say a mile. We'll keep this simpler. The math's simpler. Let's say that you want to run a

Starting point is 00:32:42 six-minute mile, okay? And the very first time you get on a treadmill, you barely break 15 minutes. You're like, man, that was 15 minutes. Like, how am I going to get to six? There's just no way. But you keep doing that. You keep running 15 minute miles, right? And then two weeks later, something interesting happens. You actually, the part where you're running at the two minute mark where you usually will start to hit the speed lower, so you start walking, you weren't as tired at that two minute mark. You actually didn't get tired until the two minute and 30 mark. So now your 15 minute mile became 13 minutes, without even really realizing it. You can't say what that one breakthrough was. All you know is that you've been

Starting point is 00:33:23 just running, right, for two weeks straight and you didn't stop. And then two weeks later, something interesting happens. At the two and a half minute mark, you suddenly weren't breathing as heavy. You might have felt the impulse to hit the speed down, but you didn't, you almost forgot that you're even at the two and a half minute mark. You just kept running. And when he looked at the time, it was at three minutes. And now you happen to get to a 10 minute mile, right? And then as you kept going, you kept going, eventually got to nine minutes and eight minutes and seven minutes. And then one day, before you know it's, you didn't even set out to try to break the record that day. This was just another day on the treadmill. And you happen to look at the time at the six minute mark and you can't believe

Starting point is 00:34:02 it. And you see how the distance you ran was 1.0. So what was that magical moment? It's really hard to say. So I would just say if you're to try to create 200 pieces of content a month, don't think of how can I go to one to 200. Think of it as how can I go to one to two? And then once you figure that out, it becomes easier to go from two to four, four to eight, eight to 16. And you just start to realize that the teams you build are different. In the beginning, you're hiring a lot of generalists, right? It's more of a family environment. And so, you know, I started off with my wife was the one that was giving me ideas and my brother-in-law was an actor, right? I was using my studio apartment. I was just using every resource I had. We were shooting on iPhones. I was teaching myself

Starting point is 00:34:53 how to edit. You know, I had a few hundred dollars in the bank and everybody was doing everything that was required. So naturally, you can only do so much when you're a four-person team. You're working in a limited space. But as we became successful, I started reinvesting. I hired more people. I got more space, got more equipment. Now all of a sudden we had two production teams and then four production teams and the type of people you hire are different. You have a CEO. Could you imagine having a CEO? There's no way. I couldn't imagine having a CEO. What do you think about if you had to like say it tactically? Like you started, when did you start, Darmann? Eight years ago. Eight years ago. So year one, how many employees did you have? One. Year two.

Starting point is 00:35:37 Probably three. your three about like 25 or so oh so big jump your four your four is when we got our studio so we probably went to about 75 five yeah um about a hundred 25 six um six we started a we capped out around like 200 or so and then now we kind of try to stay there so really every so you almost have minimum like doubling doubling doubling And then once you get till, let's call it, 152 or whatever, you kind of try to stay. And at some point, it's not just more people. Well, then you can start to outsource things, right? And you become more efficient at doing certain things.

Starting point is 00:36:22 And so, for instance, our vertical dramas with our deal with Fox, that we have a senior producer, a show runner. We have a, that's pretty much it. We have a two-person team. And the rest, we hire crews to come in and film that kind of content. Eventually, if that becomes successful enough, we might start to hire within. So that's also an interesting thing is like when do you outsource versus when you build something internally? And what I would say is when you know something is such an important part of your business, then don't outsource that thing. Do that internally.

Starting point is 00:37:00 Like, Hermes, I'm sure they can go say, hey, this factory, build us a bunch of Birkins. But they know that their whole brand exists because of the quality of their bags. And so they're never going to outsource that. They're always going to do that in-house. Caruso is a popular real estate developer in Los Angeles, Southern California. If you go to the Grove, have you been to the Grove? Yeah. Okay.

Starting point is 00:37:25 It's one of the malls that are like few malls, I would say in the country that are really thriving. Any time you go, it's a magical experience. If you go during Christmas, there's Santa Claus. You go during Easter, there's the Easter, Do you know who runs that programming? Caruso. When you go in valet park, the person is so nice. They're just like, hey, they're greeting you.

Starting point is 00:37:46 They're in a nice uniform. Do you know who runs a valet parking? Caruso. So Caruso has decided that every aspect of the customer experience, he wants to control because his brand is family. He wants to be able to deliver on those strong family values in that positive customer experience, and that's the reason that he's thriving. So you figure out what is sort of the core product that you're developing and never outsource that thing.

Starting point is 00:38:15 If there's things that you're testing, especially as you get more resources, you're interested in this may be an opportunity or not, don't spend the time hiring a team because that's going to take you six months. Instead, if you can just get another team, like, you know, outsource it, get it fired up and get it going so you can learn as quickly as possible, see if it's, even viable, then you can decide, does it make sense for me to continue outsourcing that because it's not that meaningful, but I want to keep it going? Or is this something that didn't work? So I'm just going to scrap it? Or, oh, man, that hit. And now this has so much potential that I'm going to bring it in-house. You know, it's funny. So we model one of our businesses off of this

Starting point is 00:38:55 company called Vista Equity. And one of our friends was one of the co-founders of it. And it's a really big private equity company but based around technology. And they run everything on what's called the Vista Playbook. And so if you come into their world, not unlike Disney, Disney was obsessed with every single segment of this park, right? Vista is sort of the exact same way. You run the playbook the same way every time. Well, what is interesting is, you know, he taught me, his name is Brian and then a few of his employees that we've hired over the years, taught me that they have something called value engines. And sometimes they call them value engines, sometimes they call them revenue engines. But if I was to ask you right now, what is McKinsey's real business, like what you talked about, the core part of the business of what McKinsey sells, what would you say?

Starting point is 00:39:40 McKinsey, the consulting company, expertise. Yeah. That's what comes to mind. So I said their core value engine is probably making their customers more money. Like if they could drive revenue to their customers, McKinsey would win. I thought so. He's like, absolutely not. I'm like, really?

Starting point is 00:39:58 What is it? And he said, McKinsey is a partner factory. They know that if they can take a college kid from college over eight years and they're high performing and turn them into a partner, then that partner will over the course of 20 years drive so much revenue to the firm that they just keep creating partners again and again. And so everything else is ancillary actually to their recruiting, onboarding, training, retention. And I thought that was fascinating because it's not dissimilar to like McDonald's, which people would say it's the cheeseburger, but in a lot of ways it's the real estate. And if they're in the right location, then those golden arches will beck in. And so it's a really great point about, you know, how do you make magic in a business? If you're, you know, if Caruso's magic or value creation portion is this family component knowing that and executing on it. That's a great point. So Jim Collins, you know, one of my favorite authors you were asking earlier, has written many incredible books, but good to great is one of those. So he talks about how the greatest businesses, their product is not the thing that they sell, but it is their actual team. And it gives the example. So when Boeing started, do you know Boeing makes the greatest aircrafts and rockets and

Starting point is 00:41:15 do you know what their original business was? Oh, no. Selling lawn furniture. And so let's say that their business was, I'm going to sell lawn furniture. And they saw that as their product. When that product failed, if the business is the product, what happens? The business goes away. But instead, if you see the product as your team, right? My product is the team of engineers or consultants or creatives that I've hired. And I'm always trying to make that product better than regardless of whatever the output is, that can continue to change. The economy can change. The consumer interest can change, whatever it is. But you have this incredible team that is going to keep up with putting out new amazing outputs that is always going to evolve and make you better than that's how you succeed

Starting point is 00:42:08 in the long run. That's a really good point. So where do you think you failed early on in business that if you were standing in front of Young Dar, you'd say, please dear God, don't do this. Ray Dalio in his book Principles, he describes failure as you're in this video game and you're collecting gems, right? It's kind of going back to that Popeye spinach example. And every time you collect a gem, it makes you somewhat stronger because again, you've learned one more thing that doesn't work. And so it's natural to say, oh, I really regret that relationship. I really regret that co-founder. I should have never partnered with that person. I should have never went it into that industry and it should have never rented that office or storefront or

Starting point is 00:42:51 started that product. But in reality, you had to do that as painful as it is. And I'm sorry, I know that some people might be listening to this to say, Darrow, like, I am backed up in credit card debt because of that decision. How are you going to say, don't regret that? Well, the thing is, you can't make excuses to success. You can fail your way to success, but no excuse will take you to success. And the problem with excuses is if you don't see yourself as the problem, then you will never see yourself as the solution. So whatever bad has happened to you, the faster you can take ownership of it, learn from

Starting point is 00:43:39 it, the faster that you're actually going to grow. the best leader is in the world when something wrong happens they don't look out the window they look in the mirror because that's where all the personal growth happens yeah it's a good reminder yeah i heard the other day that um your excuse is somebody else's reason why and i'm like you need to remember that you know because half the time it is very easy to get stuck in your own little world and say here's all the reasons why I can't as opposed to these are all the reasons why I have to. I actually got my brother motivated to start going to the gym because he's like, Dar, I have three kids. I don't have time and go to the gym. And I'm like, they're the reason you need to go to

Starting point is 00:44:24 the gym because you want to be there for all their important milestones later on in life. So yeah, I love that analogy. Actually, it's interesting because your channel is all about these inspirational stories. And I saw this one, I wonder if it'd make a good, maybe you could tell me if this would make a good story or not. Okay. Let's hear the pitch. Okay, here's the pitch. Well, first, what's the packaging? Oh, shit. I don't know. Okay. Okay. I'm going to work on the pitch and totally mess up your four piece. But there's... If you want a $3,000 a month payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies. What do you feel free to upgrade and listen, ad free? Don't worry. We get it. Every $20 ticket could win you $3,000.

Starting point is 00:45:05 $1,000 a month for life and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret. Feel free to buy your payday for life ticket today. Raffle number 155-2194. Please play responsibly. There's a really jacked dad, basically. And, you know, he looks good. He's dressed well. And then there's like words on the screen.

Starting point is 00:45:29 And the screen basically says, like, you know, you care too much about what you look like. Like, why are you spending all this time? working out, something to that effect, probably a little pithier. And then it flashes to his daughter who is in a wheelchair. And he's like, this is the exact reason why I have the muscles that I do. And then he tells a beautiful story about how he carries her up the stairs every night. And when she first got in the accident, he wasn't in shape, actually. He couldn't carry her up the stairs. And so he's like, until my dying day, my gym is, my gym time is one of the most important things I do, because I will always carry that little girl up to stairs.

Starting point is 00:46:08 And I remember watching it and be like, you know, I need to go to the gym, which is sometimes how I feel when I watch your things. So I guess my question there for you would be, would I greenlight your story. Yeah, exactly. How much do we sell it to Fox? But like for that, maybe the question actually is, how do you know with all these stories out there in the world? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:28 That one is going to be an incredible story about. So A, like, I'm obsessed with a story, right? It's amazing. It's got a great pitch. It really does. A muscular dad gets judged for being fit. Turns out that, like for neglecting his kids because he cares so much about his fitness, turns out the reason he's fit is to actually care for his children.

Starting point is 00:46:48 That in 10 seconds explains the story. But that's not the first step, right? That's actually the third step. The step before that is what is the packaging. Okay, well, a muscular dad, that's interesting, right? what is a title of that it's going to be very hard to describe the title in a few words muscular dad judged for his physical appearance or strong dad judge for his muscles that doesn't really create immediate intrigue weak men or bad fathers and it sucks because there's so

Starting point is 00:47:30 many times that I'll hear an amazing story idea. But if you can't figure out a way to make it an interesting thumbnail from anyone that's interested in creating content, a lot of times, you know, you'll have to kill the idea. And somebody will say like, well, what if it's a great story? And I'll say, well, if it's not great packaging, then by default, it can't be a great story. So that's going to suffer from not having the best packaging. But in terms of story structure, you have an interesting character, right? And this is for anyone that's interested in like storytelling or scripted content, which I know is not for everyone.

Starting point is 00:48:07 But it could work for podcasting. It could work for all kinds of different content. And I guess just packaging for goods as well. You have a muscular middle-aged person, which you don't see too often. And that could be somewhat appealing for a certain level of audience as well. It creates intrigue for some. And it could be appealing, right? And then you've got the relatable, right?

Starting point is 00:48:29 He's a dad. You've got the conflict of somebody saying, and I would imagine someone like who's not fit, kind of giving him a hard time. Yeah, I would be in the gym too all the time if I didn't care about my family, right? That's immediate intrigue right there. And then you've got the emotional backstory, right? You've got the part where it's actually like, well, the reason I have to train is because I have to carry my daughter up the stairs, you know, every single night and I want to be there. or because I want to make sure that I'm around for a long time to help support her.

Starting point is 00:49:01 So that's the part that's going to make you want to cry. And there's a clear lesson there, which is don't judge a book by its cover. Or you really never know what someone is going through. So don't make assumptions. So it has all the necessary elements of an amazing story. The packaging is where it's going to suffer. And then I would say also, you know, you really have to know who your audience is. So this would pertain more towards a middle age audience.

Starting point is 00:49:26 So for us, YouTube, our YouTube audience skews a lot younger. So it probably wouldn't be as relatable for a 10-year-old boy. And then for Facebook, that audience skews older. So I would say this would be a great video for Facebook. And so we have different, you know, types of content for different audiences. So you also want to think about where this could live. But if you want to test your first story, scripted story, and I'm happy to do this in collaboration with you, because like now that we've told our audience,

Starting point is 00:49:56 it might be interesting to see it come to live. I would love to do the story with you. How fun. And you could be that written long. But, oh, God, well, now I just identify as a frog lately. Like last night I was thinking about it, I just have my little belly. I put my hands on it. I just lay around.

Starting point is 00:50:10 But masterclass and taking an idea right there real time and breaking it down segment-wise. You can see that you've done your 10,000 hours really intensely. One of the things I was curious about here is you are basically green lighting. hundreds and well thousands I guess of stories a year how many what is the ratio how many ideas do you guys typically have to picking one story that's this is actually a great question we're right in the thick of this right now where we've actually developed a green lighting percentage ratio for every step in the process and so before found an amazing story just like what you said right now I would just go and develop it right away yeah right I would say oh this is moving forward and then

Starting point is 00:50:56 I'd wait to see what the actual results are. And then if it didn't meet my expectations, I'll be disappointed or come up for some reason that didn't work. Now it's a little bit more of a methodology where we have a certain percentage of ideas that start in packaging. So let's say that we have 10 ideas in packaging, where that is just a title is what we begin with, if it passes the title stage, then it goes into the actual thumbnail design. So you can do this very cost effectively. You can do this through AI. So we'll start with the title. Then we just imagine,

Starting point is 00:51:35 if that title gets approved, then we imagine what it's going to look like visually. If the title isn't improved, then it dies. So let's say out of 10 ideas, nine of them pass the title stage. Then we'll actually visualize it and we'll look at the thumb and say, ah, you know, this isn't, interesting enough to warrant someone clicking on it. If it isn't, then it's scrapped. If it is interesting enough, then it goes past the illustration phase into the actual design phase. You want me to break this down sort of more. So good. Okay. So once it gets past the illustration, right now we are adding a layer where now we will survey our audience. So every single week, we have a new Google form where our audience can go on and they can actually green light the next ideas that we're

Starting point is 00:52:25 going to produce. And so every step of this process, we'll ask them, which of these titles do you find interesting? Which of these illustrations do you find interesting? The next step is we will actually take a real design. We'll think of casting and then we'll create a real thumbnail and see what that looks like. Sometimes things work in illustration, but they don't work in practicality. And so once we actually see, all right, well, here's what an official final thumbnail would be. Then it moves forward to the actual pitch stage. So from there, now we're thinking about, hey, how do we explain this in 30 seconds? Has to be a page or less.

Starting point is 00:53:03 And it has to have all the most important parts of the story. We've got a muscular dad. We've got somebody. So he's a protagonist who's the antagonist. It's somebody who's judgmental. Their backstory is maybe they haven't gotten into the best of shape. They use their children as an excuse. They're kind of unhappy with how their life is.

Starting point is 00:53:22 Now, what is the interesting environment? Maybe someone is leaving a gym while the other person is leaving a restaurant. They happen to cross over, right? And I don't know. Maybe this guy, the overweight guy, dropped something heavy, is struggling to pick something up. And then the muscular guy comes in and says, oh, I can carry that for you. And now the not fit guy feels a little bit embarrassed because there has to be some sort of inciting incident. why is this guy upset? It just can't happen for no reason. The simplest thing is you're going to have

Starting point is 00:53:52 them bump into each other, right? So you have an inciting incident. Now, where is the conflict coming from? Now we're hearing this overweight guy shaming the muscular guy for being a bad parent because he's neglecting his kids because he's in the gym. What is the irony in that story? The irony is he's actually fit because he really cares about his children because he's taking care of his daughter. That's that's in a wheelchair. And then what is the resolution? The resolution is now the overweight person sees that he shouldn't be judgmental. They should, you know, think twice before they assume. So that's the moral lesson that can be shareable. So we know what the pitch is. All of that has to be contained in that one pager. So this idea would pass the pitch phase. But let's just say,

Starting point is 00:54:38 you know, you've got out of 10 titles, nine move forward to illustration, eight move forward to actually pitcher. And I would say maybe five move forward. forward to the actual pitch. Once the pitch is greenlit, and that could be by the audience, that could be by the showrunner, that could be based on your own gut instant. Now you go into the actual scripting. And the scripting is when you develop, you know, a full, however long the script is going to be. And by the way, every creator does this, regardless if you're a scripted creator, if you

Starting point is 00:55:10 are creating, you know, spectacle-based IRL videos, even podcasters generally have an outline as to where this interview is going to go. So that's what I consider the scripting phase. Out of that, you know, maybe out of the five, I would say three to four move forward. And then out of those remaining, usually one will get scrapped in post-production. Wow. After you've done everything. Even after we've shot everything and then we take a look at it or we decide it's meant

Starting point is 00:55:40 for a different platform or we have different channels like some for our highest bar content and then some for lower. but our content is produced much less expensively than how traditional is. So we have the ability to do that because we never want to alienate the audience experience by delivering something that we don't fully believe in. So I would say out of those 10 ideas, ultimately when you break it all down, you have about one that finally makes it to the YouTube page. I think it's nice to see.

Starting point is 00:56:09 Like what I'm taking away from this is, like one, it does take a lot of quantity in many ways to get to. to the thing that you want at life. Right. Like you have so many reps that by now you are able to manufacture millions, but sometimes I think it's nice to see that and go, oh, it's not just that Dar's a genius, although he is, it's that, you know, Dar has muscle memory of this for over eight years running this playbook again and again until he gets to speak a language and seem almost fluent in it, because, you know, you've done it so long.

Starting point is 00:56:41 And so, you know, I think I got numbers for you, and I don't know if these are right. me, but that on average, it might take you 21 days to do from script all the way to even filming something or pre-production for one video or post-production. Script to screen 21 days, which is actually in many ways, it's crazy compared to Hollywood. They might take years. Right. But then compared to somebody who's just starting, it's like, okay, that's a lot of work, too. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:57:12 And so you can see sort of the progression of where you've been. I guess maybe a question there is like, did you ever have one that you put a ton of money, a ton of time into? You put it out. Total flop. Happens all the time. And there's ones that like we put the least effort into thought it would flop and ends up doing the best, right?

Starting point is 00:57:29 But that's why it's such an important numbers game, right? Consistency matters more than anything. Like imagine, it took me 100 videos to go viral. And you know what keeps me up at night sometimes? What if I quit on number 99? You never know how close you are to success unless you keep going. You could be one phone call, one door, one piece of viral content away from your whole life being completely different. So no matter what the most important thing you can do is not give up on yourself.

Starting point is 00:58:02 And so, yeah, I would say, you know, as time goes on, all that changes is that you become more methodical. And then you become a little bit better at having instincts as to what's going to work or not. Right. My 99 videos were a flop. But once I figured out that 100 successful one, my batting average was no longer one in 100, right? It might have been like one in five. And then after that, it was one of four, one in three. You just get better and better. Right. So even you as an entrepreneur, you have multiple businesses. I bet before having multiple businesses, you failed a lot. I'm guessing. I don't even know this is your story or not. Is that true? Oh, of course. Yeah. You have lots of ideas that never really worked. But now you're a lot smarter. You're a lot smarter. You're a lot. a lot more experience. You have a better team around you. You have systems in place. You get better opportunities vetted to you because you've built a name for yourself, right? So what is your chance? What is your hit right now? It's a lot higher. And guess what? Banks are also one to loan you. And so even if you fail, they can give you a lifeline for you to keep coin to give you more time to figure it out. So it's consistency that ultimately enables that success. So you can't quit in those first 99

Starting point is 00:59:12 videos or even, you know, however long it takes. But the key is to make it so fast and inexpensive that it allows you the runway to succeed. So when I started, I had $600 my bank count. Even if I went and I took every credit card that was available to me, every friends and family loan that was available to me and said, I really want to make a film and it looked it up online. And to make a film, it costs about a million bucks, which in reality costs far more than that, right? I put all my money together that I possibly could through all my friends and family, buried myself deep in debt, put it in one video, that one video would have failed. If I took half the money and made two, both of them would have failed. The only reason it worked was because my wife was a creative, my brother-in-law was the actor, I was filming everything on iPhones, my studio apartment was our set.

Starting point is 01:00:04 So you have to do things as scrappy as you possibly can, which gave me the runway to fill nice. 99 times until I finally got to that 100 time. We used to have it where the two actors that we'd have in our videos would show up and we'd all kind of sit around and on a paper, on a piece of paper, I would write, on a napkin, I would write, all right, well, wouldn't it be interesting if this happened or here's what happened to me last night while I was leaving the parking lot and someone judged me because of the broken down car that I had. Maybe there's an interesting storyline there because, right? Or, hey, I helped someone with jumper cables and then I had positive karma later. What if we did a video on like how karma can travel in some sort of positive change?

Starting point is 01:00:48 We'd come up with the concept right there. We'd shoot it and within like two hours it would go live. So 21 days is now we've gotten to a point where as in the beginning, everyone is again, a family environment, right? Your first, the first five, 10 people you have, they're passionate. They're answering your calls at midnight. They're burning the midnight oil with you. Everyone is doing everything. But as you start to scale, then that's not sustainable. You really have to create work-life balance. You have to provide certain types of benefits. At Darmann Studios now, we're releasing like an equity program where our actors, some of our longtime actors and employees actually have equity in the company. We have better 401K program rolling out than most traditional studios even do. So now we're really

Starting point is 01:01:36 really able to invest back in the team to provide them a more stable environment to really grow and build a career on, kind of going back to McKinsey is like, how do you get people to that partner level status? Our product is our team. We invest in that team. And so, yeah, what works now isn't what worked in the beginning. And so you have to be able to be scrappy to evolve fast, to put in those reps. And then once you finally get there, then you can build more sustainable systems. It's so good. What advice do you have for somebody today who wants to be successful and win? So if you want to be the first millionaire in your family, you have to do these three things. Number one is start saving money consistently. And it doesn't have to be a lot. You don't have to

Starting point is 01:02:23 listen to these online gurus to say you have to start with $10,000 or $25,000 or $100,000. I'm talking about $100 out of your paycheck. 50 bucks, $20, whatever it is, just save. up consistently and you'll be shocked as to how that money starts to compound over time. The second thing is, instead of asking whenever you receive a little bit of money, what can I buy? Ask yourself, what can I invest in? And the third thing I would say is the most important. And that's to cut out three time wasters in your life. And we all know what those are because your girlfriend has probably told you your spouse or your mother or that little internal voice inside of your head, replace those with learning two new skills.

Starting point is 01:03:08 And you'll be shocked six months from now as to how those new skills you've developed have turned into new income streams. So now that you have those three steps, if you follow them, you'll be amazed as to where your life can be a year from now. You're doing $65 million in revenue now. You have, you know, 200 employees, $150,000 or $150,000 square foot studio. But that's not. where you started. How did you get started? I don't think people realize how much better their life could be if they just start doing the things that they're already thinking about doing. I know it's scary. I know it's terrifying. But do you know what the only thing more scary is than doing that thing?

Starting point is 01:03:50 Is the thought of looking back at your life 10 years from now wondering what your life could have been if you just decided to take action? We're also burdened by all the things. things that we heard growing up, these limited beliefs that were placed on us. What if you fail? You're thinking too big. What will people think? But none of that actually matters. Just start taking action now and you'll be shocked as to how far your life can come if you just get started today. The Nike campaign, just do it. I still like it to this day. But do it's the best piece of advice you've been given when it comes to making money. Stop trying to look rich before you actually are rich. We spend so much of our time trying to impress people that are not even paying attention.

Starting point is 01:04:38 So we spend all of our money on that nice watch or that pair of shoes or that handbag or that designer outfit, which actually takes us further away from our goals. Instead, real wealth is built quietly. And if you focus on taking all the necessary steps versus showing it, you'll actually get to a true place of building wealth. And the ironic part is when you actually have real success, you'll not want to show it because you just become a bigger target in everyone's eyes anyway. So I would say build wealth quietly and put in the hard work in silence. I get neither of us of fancy watches on today. No, no, I don't have one.

Starting point is 01:05:19 I got my aura ring. I know. What do you think has been the biggest sacrifice you've ever had to make in your business? The biggest sacrifice I've ever had to make in my business was the toll it took on my relationship when I was just starting out. I just thought that because I was trying to improve the life of my wife and my kids, that that made every decision okay. So I skipped out on the date nights. I skipped out on the dinners. I skipped out on the school plays. And then I came to realize that what is success if I can't even spend time with my own family? And so even though I may not take

Starting point is 01:05:58 100% of the opportunities that I get today, even if I can go for 80% of them or 70%, but still have a life and show up for my wife and kids, to me, that's worthwhile. And I'll tell you a quick story as to what helped me realize that there was a day I was working in my office and my five-year-old daughter came in and said, Daddy, play with me. And I said, Daddy's busy working right now. And so my daughter left. She went into the kitchen. I could just tell from the look on her face that she was really disappointed. So that guilt was eating at me. Eventually, I get up. I go to the kitchen. I say, sweetheart, you see this big house that we live in? And she says, yeah. I said, well, that's why daddy has to work so hard. Okay. She nodded her head. I could tell she wasn't really

Starting point is 01:06:44 happy with that answer. So I go back to my office. I start working again. And a couple minutes later, my daughter comes in, knocks on the door. And she goes, Daddy, I said, yeah. She said, I don't want to have a big house anymore. It's like the thing that I valued that I thought that I was delivering on as a dad to help make everyone else's lives better or dreams come true was actually not even the thing that they really wanted. They really just wanted me to be there. That mattered more than anything. So I'd say trying to find that balance between presence and presence. You're going to make me cry on this one.

Starting point is 01:07:24 So. It's the pregnancy hormone. Yeah, actually, that's very true. I could cry at anything. It's not really you. So let's say somebody here is young and starting out in their business. What do you wish you had known as a 20-year-old business owner that you now know? Like, what did you think was true back then that now you realize that is not true at all?

Starting point is 01:07:43 People's opinions don't matter. We get so hung up on what if I put out this video, what is that person going to think of me? What if I try and this doesn't work out and I fail? how is my family going to judge that? People are going to judge regardless. And the people that are judging are the ones that were too afraid to go after their own dreams in the first place.

Starting point is 01:08:05 I promise you that if you just get started, the people that are questioning why you're doing something are the same ones that are going to ask you how you did it. And remember, because the people that were with you during your struggle, they're the ones that deserve to be with you

Starting point is 01:08:21 during your success. Do you think that most people quit too early in business? I think there's two ways to look at that. The obvious answer is yes, but it really depends on your purpose alignment. If you know that this is the one thing that you were meant to do, it keeps you up at night because God has put these big dreams in your head and you know that your life will never feel complete.

Starting point is 01:08:48 If you are not this thing, then I would say try as long as you possibly. can. Like if your dreams be a pro athlete and you're 45 years old and you've not made it, then I would say move on, right? But if you still have the ability to achieve that dream and that's the thing that really feels your soul, then no matter what it takes, keep going after that thing. But on the converse, even if you are successful at something, even if you are making a lot of money, but it no longer aligns with your purpose, then I would say at some point you are going to start to feel really empty and create a void that no amount of money can ever fill so it might be time to try something else. Last question. Have you ever had a dark night of the soul in business where

Starting point is 01:09:37 you thought this isn't going to work out? I'm not going to cut it. I'm not going to make it. If so, it happened. Always listen to your gut. God has put in some sort of ability for us to know whether something is for us or not for us. And every time we turn off that compass, that's saying, like, I feel it in my skin. I get goosebumps when I talk about it. Something's not right about this. But you know what? Maybe I'm being irrational and reasonable. I'm just going to move forward. Those always end up being terrible decision. So whether it's some opportunity, whether it's a person, whatever it is, if something doesn't feel right instinctively inside of your gut, listen to, to that. And you know what? Even if it seems like it was a bad decision at first, like,

Starting point is 01:10:23 oh my gosh, look at that person is succeeding, a day will come where you'll realize my instinct was right. I'm glad I didn't listen to that. That's so true. We've had that. Darmann, this was amazing. Thanks, Cody. This is amazing. Okay, so new podcast is called What Happens Next. What Happens Next? Darmann on all the YouTube's, socials, Instagram. if they had to start with one place with you, where would you tell somebody to go and follow you today or go and watch? The Coensantias podcast.

Starting point is 01:10:55 I would say, you know, to learn more about me is definitely my podcast, but if you're interested in inspirational stories that truly will help move your life forward in a positive way, there are scripted content on YouTube or Samsung, Facebook, we're on all the different platforms. It's a great place to get some inspiration

Starting point is 01:11:15 and kind of get you out of a rut. I love it. Well, I found this podcast so helpful. I'm literally, you know, you know, too, probably from doing these podcasts. There are some that I go back and listen to a lot. And there are some that they're like, okay, that was amazing. It wasn't for me. It was for this person that was listening. Who are the ones that you felt that you're not going to go back to? I can't tell that one. I can't because that I'd be a jerk. But this one, I'm going to go back to and I'm going to have the team listen to too, too. I think the parts on failure, the parts on how to build a business tactically, it's kind of rare. that you can listen to something where you can walk away with, here is a 15-step process, here is a four-step process. And simultaneously, I feel fired up. You know, David Gaggins is just like, go fucking run, but you're like, how? He's like, shut up, run, you know?

Starting point is 01:12:00 And this is a unique mix of both. And so thank you for sharing it with us today. Thanks. Oh, it's such an honor. I really appreciate it. Just me being the creator and thinking about retention, you might want to cut some of that out, as sweet as it is.

Starting point is 01:12:12 And I'll just share a story that if you want to place earlier in the podcast, feel free. But when I actually met Cody, I was a fan of your content first. And we're at the Rosewood Hotel. And I think I approached you as probably like some crazy fan coming up to you at like 9 o'clock in the morning or whatever it was. And I was like, hey, we have mutual friends. And I'm going to launch a podcast and this and that. So it's just so cool to see things come full circle probably a year later or so.

Starting point is 01:12:35 And what an honor to be on your podcast. Well, thanks. I can't wait to come see your studio. Get on the podcast. Yeah. And if you have questions for Dart, hit me in the YouTube comments. And I will actually bring them direct to you next time. And the muscular dad story.

Starting point is 01:12:47 Yeah. If you want to see that happen. Do you? No, for real. I don't even know how to script something like that. Okay. That's why I'm here. Let's do it.

Starting point is 01:12:54 I know I got to see you do it in 30 seconds. That was insanity.

BigDeal - The Secret to Turning Failure Into Success | Dhar Mann

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