Digital Social Hour - Digital Marketing's Dark Secret: How Ads Drain Your Profits | Kasim Aslam DSH #734
Episode Date: September 18, 2024🎥 Ready to uncover digital marketing's dark secret? Join Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour as he dives into the hidden world of how ads might be draining your profits! 💸 This episode is pack...ed with valuable insights, featuring eye-opening discussions about the algorithms behind Google and Meta, and how they're built to eat your margins. 🚨 Don't miss out on this captivating conversation that challenges the status quo! Our guest shares personal journeys and unexpected revelations, from spiritual awakenings with psychedelics to the hidden truths in digital marketing. 🌍 It's a rollercoaster of emotions and knowledge that you don't want to miss! Tune in now and join the conversation. Click that subscribe button and stay tuned for more insider secrets on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Watch now and be part of the revolution! 📺 #HrTechnology #WhatAreTheStagesOfSpiritualAwakening #DarkNightOfTheSoul #ArtificialIntelligence #AiTalentAcquisition CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 01:18 - The Trap of Success 02:39 - Pursuing Spiritual Awakening 07:50 - Time Management 12:12 - Importance of Hard Conversations 16:00 - Understanding Racism 20:20 - Path to Prison: Family Impact 23:20 - The Power of Forgiveness 25:20 - Dealing with Regrets 28:52 - International Hiring Strategies 32:22 - Measuring Work Output Effectively 35:30 - Google and Meta's Market Impact 40:07 - Jason's Passions and Interests APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: Jenna@DigitalSocialHour.com GUEST: Kasim Aslam https://www.instagram.com/kasimaslam https://kasim.me/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasimaslam/ https://kasimaslam.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@solutionseight SPONSORS: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/social Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
So you did mushrooms 12 times?
It was interesting, it was softer.
It was far more masculine in temperament, but softer.
And then the second one was feminine in temperament,
but kind of harsh, like kind of, it sort of was like teasing.
I had the most healing experience of my life the first time.
Every iteration of me from the age of, from a newborn to 19.
And then I thought I stopped there,
but then it kept going.
And then I met myself in the future.
All right, guys, we got Kossum here
coming off an injury.
Yeah, but I'm back.
Yeah, he's back, guys.
And he just said it was an eye-opening moment.
It was fun to be in pain.
Is that weird to say?
Dude, this isn't a cry for help. I don't need therapy.
But I'm 40 years old. We're on 39.
I've got two little boys and
your days just get so routine.
I went head over the
handlebars on my bike
and like, bad.
And I got up and I was like,
that was awesome.
All of a sudden, because you don't realize what it takes to bring you into your body.
Right.
And obviously I don't want to go run around and hurt myself,
but I would like to just position my existence so that I feel.
You know, like you don't realize how much you're not feeling.
Yeah, we're getting deep off the bat.
Right out of the gate.
No, but that's deep from you because you sold the company,
you've amassed massive wealth, so you're kind of lost, right?
And you're kind of looking for that purpose.
Isn't that funny the way that works?
Yeah.
I was reading Richard Rohr, who's really a Franciscan monk type.
And he was talking about the trap of success.
And he said that getting caught in success is getting caught in your false self.
Because then people talk to you about, oh, you made an exit. And that's who you are now. And you have to kind of
take that and swallow it. And it's so easy to do because you're rewarded for that behavior.
And the projection that other people make ends up being your identity. And it's such a gilded cage.
Wow.
So how do you break that?
And I don't know.
I'm not here with answers,
so I'm here with questions.
But yeah, I was terror-stricken as a child.
I was raised in poverty, right?
Like American poverty.
Yeah, yeah.
And I always thought money would solve all my problems.
And what's interesting is it's not the reverse
because a lot of people that make a bunch of money are like,
oh, I was wrong.
The safety is beautiful.
Love that. And I love feeling safe. And I love, I was wrong. The safety is beautiful. Love that.
And I love feeling safe.
And I love knowing I'm never going to have to worry about that again.
But it isn't the answer.
There's no purpose to money standalone.
It's what money can do for you.
And that's been a really fun journey too.
Just figuring out like, oh, wow, look at the options available to me.
Have you pursued the spiritual awakening?
Psychedelic stuff.
Yeah.
I have. I've gone on two
this is funny i haven't talked about this at all so let's give i've i've done two journeys
i've never touched anything uh mood altering before in my life not even weed no like i'm
doing i think i smoked weed twice in high school okay and then just got scared of it because i was
like i know i like this but but i don I also don't like not being in control.
And I've done two journeys back to back, guided. Like I did it the right way. You know, like you do the integration before, the integration after. There's a person who, you know, helps,
she sources it from a community that actually, they grow it as though it's a prayer.
Wow.
Which, I mean, you know, it's not just like, oh, this strain is the most powerful, whatever,
whatever. Like it's very, it's adherent to the idea that there's religiosity embedded in that which would connect us to the divine.
And I've done two journeys, and they've been the most profound experience of my life.
And I know that's obnoxious to say, because if you've done it, you're like, of course.
And if you haven't done it, you're like, you're a druggie. But for those that are on the fence, all I'll say is I was pushed in that direction because there were people that I respected that pursued that.
And if I can be one data point in the direction of, man, it's worth trying.
Interesting.
I've never experienced anything like that.
Somebody told me that mushrooms specifically, your brain creates grooves because of the patterns that you execute on a daily basis,
and the grooves become deeper. And so maybe you have repetitive thought patterns or
positive and negative habits. That kind of habituated action ends up creating grooves
in your brain, and all mushrooms do is smooth out the grooves. So you come out of it not like
a changed person per se, but with the ability to change because you now are a little bit
more of a blank slate you can still run those scripts but then there's other scripts are
available and accessible to you and that's been amazing and that makes a lot of sense because
they're doing studies on depression and how mushrooms are actually fixing it so if these
people have the grooves in their brain yeah because of being depressed yeah so it's just
leveling it out and then people can reset right right wow that makes That makes a ton of sense. So you did mushrooms both times?
Both times.
Yeah.
Two different strains.
And she explained to me, well, she's very intentional about what strain she gives me.
Like the first one was much softer.
It was interesting.
It was softer.
It was far more masculine in temperament, but softer.
And then the second one was feminine in temperament.
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the place to be. But kind of harsh, like kind of, it sort of was like teasing. And then I had the
most healing experience of my life. first time. I met every iteration
of me from the age of, from a newborn to 19, which is where I, for some reason, housed most of my
traumas when I made the biggest mistake of my life. And I actually got to meet those people.
And then I thought I stopped there, but then it kept going, and then I met myself in the future.
Whoa.
And he was cool, man.
He was to be admired.
Like I was, it's a vision to live into to see this person that you could be
and then feel like you're called to something greater.
And again, if you haven't done it, I know it sounds a little like whatever it is.
These are some intense mushrooms because I've done mushrooms, but I wasn't done it, I know it sounds a little like whatever it is. These are some intense mushrooms
because I've done mushrooms,
but I wasn't hallucinating on that level.
Oh, dude.
So what she has me do is,
first of all, I did the hero's dose both times.
I did five the first time.
Was it five grams or would it be five milligrams?
Five grams.
So I did five grams the first time
and six the second,
and I'm wearing an eye mask the entire time.
Oh, wow.
And I'm in a bed,
and she makes a cocoon with a weighted blanket.
Holy crap.
And we do like prayer, meditation, and stretching beforehand.
You set an intention.
And it's because, you know, the experience isn't just the chemical, right?
Like you have to be accessible to it.
You're fasting three days prior to.
You consume no animal products.
Like she's amazing.
Okay.
Yeah, I didn't do any of that prep work.
So that makes sense.
It's unbelievable.
It's worth doing.
Yeah.
Whatever that's worth.
I might have to text you about that.
You had a couple of interesting Facebook posts I want to dive into.
Yeah.
I went through your Facebook.
I love how raw you are on Facebook.
You said as you got older, you feel the cost of wasted time more and more.
That's deep.
We don't have time.
Right?
Like that's the one thing you don't have
and i feel the pressure of the gift that we're being given
and even now like i'm like you know the pregnant pauses and all the things that you would
you'd be able to do with this moment like the the people you could talk to other than me. Like I'm taking from you, I'm taking your life.
Time is all you have from a life perspective.
If you look at like, like if this were SimCity, right?
The bar at the top would be how much time does Sean have left?
And here's Kostum just swallowing up Sean's time
with like horseshit philosophy.
That's one way of looking at it.
Or, or maybe I could be giving to you.
And then what I love about a platform like what you have is it's scale.
So the cost is at scale, but the benefit is at scale too.
And the way that you scaled up specifically, not to pander to,
but I went down the Sean Kelly rabbit hole.
I knew I was going to be on the show.
And it's amazing to see, and you're not the only one,
but I think you're a really good shining light of it.
It's amazing to see how a message offered at scale,
the impact that that has.
Dude, from an anthropological perspective,
this has never, ever, ever, ever, ever happened before.
Like we had the printing press and that was a revolution.
Modern Christianity exists because of the printing press.
Wow.
Because of its ability to scale. But look what you can do. Like, you post one video
and instantly hundreds of thousands, millions of people have seen that and they've been impacted
by it. There's this really fun, I'm going to evoke somebody that I hope I don't get nailed for,
but I'm obsessed with Jordan Peterson. I call my digital dad. I'm so sorry if that offends people.
And he has this seven minute video online that's the most important message I've ever been exposed
to in my entire life. He said that there's two ways to conceptualize yourself the first way is that
you're one speck of dust among billions in which case who gives a shit it doesn't matter nothing
matters life is meaningless fine that doesn't do you any good the second way to conceptualize
yourself is that you're a node in a network and you know a thousand people and they know a thousand
people which means that you're one person away from a million people and two people away from
a billion people and if you think about the redundancy in those thousand people, that actually amplifies
who you are as a node. And then somebody like you, your node, dude, if you think about the amount of
people you have the ability to impact, the responsibility tied to that is insane. And it's
all tied to time, how you use your time. Like we were talking before we started
recording, you're pounding these interviews out because you're being so productive with your time.
And if there is a God, that's what God gave you. That's all God gave anybody. He gave us a body,
he gave us the form for action that is the world, and he gave us time. So it's X and Y and a Z-axis.
And it's the Z-axis that we waste, right? And even when you're dishonoring the other two axes,
you're doing it with the Z axis.
That's the weapon in your hand is time.
And we don't spend enough time
thinking about how we use our time.
That's why money is so important.
Money is a representation of time.
Money is a store of value.
That's why the Federal Reserve and fiat currencies,
a pernicious, evil, open-air conspiracy lie, because you're taking time from
people. When you take time from people, you kill them on a micro scale. It's micro murder.
And so wasting time is micro suicide. I'm not a fan of it. I get uncomfortable when I waste my
time, when people waste my time, for real. I feel it in my body, because I know we have a limited
amount. And to reach the impact I want to in this life, change the education system, accomplish my goals. I know time needs to be something I'm thinking about daily. Yeah. You
know, I'm not as extreme as who's that one guy that plans his day, but every five minutes,
Rob Dyrdek. I don't know. You don't know Rob Dyrdek? Oh, so he has a calendar every five
minutes is planned. Stop it. I don't want to live like that. No, that's neuroses. Yeah. Yeah. That's
actually a waste of time. I do not like having days full of calls though oh
no dude yeah i'm not a fan of that i like how alex becker approaches his his time how does he do it
no calls okay all texts or email and look at him he's running a nine-figure company yeah i got a
buddy that does that john vroman he runs front row dads which is a mastermind that i'm in and and
he's he's uh very big on open days and if you ask him if he has time, the answer is yes, maybe.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it depends on what I feel.
And he sets up those boundaries
and everybody adheres to it.
They just move around him.
It's beautiful.
I love that.
One other post on Facebook.
I didn't know about this,
but you said small fires are good for forests.
I don't remember where I learned this.
I wish I could offer proper citation. But a natural forest fire clears out the brush, the undergrowth.
And actually that soil, the post-fire soil is nutrient dense.
And so it helps the forests.
But what we as humans have done is we stop forest fires for a bunch of reasons,
especially if they're near city centers or any habitation. And by stopping
forest fires, the brush grows, but it grows so big and so high that when there is a fire that
we can't stop, now the fire has the ability to reach the tree canopy, which is where the big
trees are threatened because the small fires don't threaten big trees. Their trunks are well equipped and actually built for the fire. But when you stop the small fires, the brush grows so high
that when there's a fire that we can't stop, it reaches the tree canopy and then the whole forest
dies. And the metaphor that I used or the way I drew upon that was specifically in relationships,
especially as a young man, I avoided small fires. And I thought I was being mature. I
thought I was being altruistic. And all that happened was the brush grew and it grew and it
grew. And then the big fire was too much to handle. Yeah. And then I lost, dude, I've lost
friendships, really important, critical relationships. I've irreparably damaged some of my most important relationships
because I wouldn't just have that hard conversation.
Wow.
And I've gotten so good now.
I'm actually a little obnoxious.
I'm a tragic over-communicator.
But it'd be like, you know, hey, shut up.
It's not a big deal.
I'm sure you didn't mean it this way.
But when you said this, for some reason, I interpreted it as that.
I would love to, if you don't mind, if you have a moment, can we talk about it?
And then what happens, Jordan Peterson says,
to evoke him again, if you tell the truth,
what happens afterwards is the ideal outcome.
And so if I say that and you're like,
bro, you're sensitive, go, you know, like I'm dumb.
Now I know, hey, Sean's not for me.
We're just not, you're not my dude and that's okay.
Like I've set up this boundary
and I can't control how you respond to my boundaries,
but I can control how I respond to you responding to my boundaries.
Or you can be like, dude, I'm so sorry, and now we're actually closer.
And my personal experience has been most people,
when you take that approach, feel safer with you
because they're like, oh, I know if I do something,
Shani's going to tell me, so I can actually be myself with you.
Whereas in 99.9, no hyperbole, 99.99 of all social relationships were actually combatants in a way
because if i say the wrong thing to you right now i'm going to set you off and if you say the wrong
thing to me you're going to set me off and we don't even realize that and that's an anthropological
truth too because you know a hundred thousand years ago you and i have different racial
backgrounds same eye color different hair we're the same height, different skin tones.
We're probably going to fight, right?
A hundred thousand years ago, we're different tribes.
We're going to kill each other.
Wow.
And that's an epigenetic truth that hasn't left us yet.
So we've, we're now docile.
We're like trained chimpanzees, but at the root of it, in your reptilian mind, there's
still this really important standoff that's happening.
And I think the way to bring the
reptilian mind into the mammalian mind let's say if i can say words that i don't even understand
is to have those conversations it's those little fires yeah it's the little fight that stops the
big fight but then what it does is now we're connected like you and i aligned in a way that's
actually intimate and people are even afraid of that word they'd be afraid of the word intimacy
but into and especially between two men because, because that's a danger too.
But for you and I to connect in a way
that will allow for my vulnerability
to enable you to better connect with me further
brought us closer to a degree
that without that investment could never exist.
Wow.
Little fires.
You just explained why people are racist.
That was crazy.
Dang.
So it's a reptilian mind from thousands of years ago.
I think, and again, this isn't me either,
but most racism is in group preference and novelty response.
I actually don't think most,
I was raised by Southern Baptists.
Oh yeah?
My mom's, you can't tell by looking at me,
but my mom's white.
My whole family's West Virginian Southern.
People you would characterize as racist. Good good people but they're conservative by nature and it's in group preference meaning
i just prefer people that are like me which by the way is a survival mechanism because when you're
like me i know how you're going to respond right when we have the same values the same virtues the
same principles and then something catches fire i know how you're going to prioritize that's really
important so in group preference and then just novelty response, I know how you're going to prioritize. That's really important. So in-group preference.
And then just novelty response.
People confuse.
You know, people come up to me all the time like,
where are you from?
What's your background?
That you could view as, well, that's racist, right?
But it's not.
It's just, you're a little different,
and I want to know why.
I'm actually taking an interest in you.
Sometimes the novelty response is done
with a lack of sophistication.
And I think we should have some grace for that.
But I don't think most of what we characterize as racist
actually is racist at its core.
I think it can become that,
especially if you only view it in the soundbite.
Richard Rohr says that things become pornographic
when you just view parts.
It's not pornographic if you're looking,
like two people making love isn't pornographic
if you're looking at the whole of what's happening, of what's actually taking place. It's pornographic if you're looking like two people making love isn't pornographic if you're looking at the whole of what's happening of what's actually taking place
it's pornographic when you're just looking at it for this particular sliver interesting and so i
don't i don't think things become racist until we start looking at just this angle i just want to
prove this point wow yeah i could see that yeah people just want to be feel safe right people
just want to be around people they could predict.
Dude, it's Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right?
Like, that's one of the very, very, that's the base.
Yeah.
And I need to make sure I feel safe around you,
and you need to make sure you feel safe around me.
And there are differences that could impact our ability to be safe to and for each other.
I mean, look at prisons.
That's a good example.
My little brother spent six years in a four-yard.
Your little brother?
My baby brother is the only non-white person
to ever hold the keys to the house
of an Aryan Brotherhood control yard.
Holy crap.
Bro, you want to talk about,
if he was born to a different family
in a different time, he'd be a general.
He's the hardest human I've ever known in my life.
He's brilliant.
He's got a 160 some odd IQ.
He just, damn, you know?
And that's what happens.
You could take me and my brother,
a blind single mother on social security disability
in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
and that's the route.
And so he, yeah, six years on a four-yard.
I asked my brother, I said,
how many people in a four-yard?
I keep saying that, by the way,
because that's as high as it goes.
Security four.
Yeah, 80% of the prison population
is in protective custody.
Only 20% of the prison population is actually real convicts.
Oh, wow.
And it's no joke in there.
And I asked him, I said, his name's Sammy.
Sammy, how many people in prison belong in prison?
And he said, nobody their first time.
Everybody their second time.
So all of, and it's always young men,
all of the young men that we put
in prison their first time are fragile broken hurting um generally addicts in some way even
if it's not a drug addiction and and then prison becomes an animal factory where we introduce them
to the network and the people and the institution that would be necessary
for them to become real convicts.
And we're the ones creating these prisoners.
And I saw it through what my brother went through.
It's inbuilt into the system.
The system perpetuates itself by creating inventory.
Prisoners are inventory. We have the largest prison population in the world holy crap um i didn't know that dude the u.s has the
largest prison population in the world i think both per capita and just in total i think something
like don't nobody quote me on this because i know there's fact checkers that watch but i think five
percent of the u.s population at some point will touch jail or prison. Holy crap. I mean, even I went to jail.
Dude, something insane.
I can see that.
Yeah.
And once you're in this system, it's so hard to get out.
It's near impossible.
If you ever want a good interview, dude, my little brother, he's got some story.
I don't know how many of them you can tell.
I'd love to.
I'm fascinated by the paths you two took because you grew up in the same household,
but two totally different paths.
Yeah.
That is crazy to me.
Was there like pivotal moments?
You look back on that.
I was 19 years old.
I mentioned in my journey,
the worst thing I ever did.
I was 19.
I was in Albuquerque.
I was play acting.
I wanted to be a thug
because that was the hierarchical structure
that where we were,
that was the top of the dominance hierarchy.
Got it.
But I'm a nine foot tall,
half Pakistani kid
who's nerdy as hell.
I wasn't going to be, you know what I mean?
Like nobody was going to let me play that role.
But I was pretending,
I was trying as hard as I could to do that.
And I was running around just doing kid stuff.
You know, like we were,
petty crime is how I'll characterize it.
But when I was given the opportunity to run away
and be a coward, I took it.
And I ran and I left my little brother who's four years younger than me. So I left when I was given the opportunity to run away and be a coward, I took it. And I ran and I left my little brother who's four years younger than me.
So I left when I was 19 years old.
So he was 15 years old.
And I left him in an environment that I created.
And I left him surrounded by people and performing acts that would ultimately lead to what caught him in prison.
And when I was play acting, he wasn't.
He was what I was trying to be.
And he's a lot different than I am.
You know, you look at me,
I'm kind of awkward.
I built like a tree.
I'm tall, but I'm not big.
Sammy's me perfected.
He looks like Adonis.
He's like broad.
And he's prison ripped.
Prison ripped is one standard deviation
more ripped than gay ripped.
Like he's just like,
and dude, like he can just throw down.
And he's always been that way. And so I him in the what would you call it i put him in the
the breeding environment for what happened next and what happened next is kind of exactly what
you thought he's entrepreneurial in nature and so when you're in that world and you're
entrepreneurial you don't start a business, right?
You find other approaches.
And this is all public record, too.
You can Google his name and see what he did.
So I'm not hiding anything.
That's interesting.
So you felt somewhat responsible for beating him? It was my fault, 100% with that question.
Yeah, that was me.
I did that.
Wow.
So no accountability to him, all on you.
Essentially, the Jesuits used to say,
give me until a child is six,
and you can have
him for the rest of his life my brother had me uh i was there to define what it was to be i was only
four years older than him but i'm the one that posited a value structure that got him in trouble
and i did it before he had left the stage in life where
you can even question what you're being taught so i mean of course he's responsible and accountable
and we all are to ourselves but how unfair it would imagine being three years old and your
father is a seven-year-old who's hateful vengeful wants to wants to hurt people, wants to steal.
You know what I mean?
And that's the person teaching you.
So is that fair to me?
No.
Is that what happened?
Yeah, that's what happened.
Dang, that's deep.
And, you know, that's just what is, man. And, like, that's the thing.
The thing, my new obsession is forgiveness.
I need to learn, Sean, what it means, how to do it, where it is, because forgiveness
feels like betrayal. Like if I were to forgive myself from betraying what I did to my brother,
but I know I need to, because I know that that eats, that'll... Was that what came up when you
were seeing your 19-year-old self? Yeah, that was, and my 19-year-old self, when I met him,
he was in this picture like Stonehenge, but way more stones and different heights and cavernous and and I and I didn't know where he was and when I saw him he
was so angry at me and he was like he was so betrayed because I had no grace for him he was
19 he was afraid he had no future and he and there was a there was an out that was given but I didn't
know my dad very well and my dad at one point found out that was given. But I didn't know my dad very well. And my dad,
at one point, found out that I was doing what I was doing. And he offered to let me come
live with him in Scottsdale. So I go from... Have you ever been to Albuquerque?
I haven't, actually.
Don't go. Have you seen Breaking Bad?
Yeah, yeah.
That's Albuquerque.
Oh, wow.
With way less white people. Breaking Bad has like 10 times as many Caucasians as Albuquerque
actually has, which is relevant, I think, because it gives you a sense as to the media mix, let's say, of that demographic compared to, I go to Scottsdale, Arizona,
and I move from little ghetto kid being raised by a blind woman on welfare to my dad had a rug store,
was pretending to be rich, but had kind of finally found a pocket of life where he could
be successful. So I switched, and dude i i bitched up quick
i started wearing dockers i changed the way that i spoke and i enunciated and i just i just flipped
it and and maybe that was an okay thing to do like maybe it was like oh you found the escape patch
but i've hated myself for it ever since and then meeting myself at 19 and and and there was an
embrace i got to hug
myself at 19 years old i got to apologize for putting everything that i've ever done wrong on
the shoulders of this 19 year old kid that didn't know any better and i can't say i've forgiven
myself fully but i've started the journey and it's so healing wow it's so so healing yeah i need to
look into that because there's some regrets i still have honestly yeah with people you know i think
it's important to forgive and let it go yeah regrets you have just previous friendships i
wish i handled differently yeah you know there's been a few really close friends that i've lost
touch with and i feel like i could have handled it better yeah are there people you'd want to
rekindle with or just just close the door better probably close the door better yeah you know i
think what's in the past i don't want to dwell on it too much longer i'm 27 now so some of these relationships
are from my childhood yeah yeah but that's that stuff eats at you i saw what happened with my dad
man because he ran away at 18 never forgave his parents never spoke to him again yeah and the day
the day his grandmother uh my grandmother his mother died she came to me in my dream
and was looking for my dad no way never rekindled and they had so much just
love for each other but they just never you know so i don't want that no he can never go back yeah
has he addressed that or is it i told him about it he just thought it was bs but he's not as
spiritual as i am it's a yeah it's a closed door for him. Yeah.
How old is he, do you mind me asking?
He passed away too,
but he was living with all that just for gratitude. Forever.
Yeah, forever.
Because his dad physically abused him his whole life,
so he was just so traumatized.
What was his name, your father?
Mike.
Mike.
Yeah.
Thanks for sharing that with me.
That's so hard.
I got his middle name, carrying on the legacy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's deep, man.
Everyone has their traumas, right?
Right. Even if you grow up in a nice-ass house's deep, man. Everyone has their traumas, right? Right.
Even if you grow up in a nice-ass house.
Well, maybe those people weren't anybody, you know,
because not being given permission to feel traumatized,
that's a trauma unto itself.
You know, like, and I know some people that are in that boat
to where they're like, hey, what I went through was hard too,
and I'm not even allowed to talk about it.
If you're blonde-haired, blue-eyed, male,
and born in middle or upper middle class society,
there's something about your opinion that doesn't matter. I think that's so wrong.
Yeah. Trust fund babies.
Yeah. I think that's so, and that's my kids now. My kids will be multimillionaires before they're
18 years old. I've got it all set up for them. And I worry about that because I'm like, they
still matter. They're still worthy. They're still relevant. And they both look white. One of my boys is, you know,
green eyed. Wow. And you would, you would hope that we don't punish them for the way they look.
Like why is racism acceptable that way? Yeah. Well, some of these kids that grow up in rich
environments have the worst mental issues. Oh, without question. Yeah. Dude, I live in Scottsdale.
I see that all the time. You want to talk about neglect. Like they're raised by the nanny or the au pair.
Yeah.
Yeah, you got to spend time with your family
no matter how wealthy you get, right?
Children spell love, T-I-M-E.
Yeah.
Yeah, because when you have all this money,
some people keep chasing it.
Right.
But I'm at the point now where like I could retire.
So now it's about purpose, passion.
I don't need more money.
I mean, I'd like it.
Money is how we keep score.
Yeah.
So that's just how I know I'm doing it right.
It's like, okay, that's profitable.
And I'll keep at that.
But I'm with, dude, I drive a 40-year-old Honda.
I live in a home that's two tax brackets
beneath my net worth level.
And that's not to, I hope I'm not virtue signaling.
That's just to say that I'm with you.
I want $100 million not to be after taxes.
That's my next goal.
Not because I want, I don't need a bigger house.
I don't need a bigger car.
I don't care. But it gets me in a room that I might not be in. It gives after taxes. That's my next goal. Not because I want, I don't need a bigger house. I don't need a bigger car. I don't care.
But it gets me in a room that I might not be in.
It gives me access.
It gives me time.
I can hire people I wouldn't be able to afford to hire otherwise.
I have access to experiences.
And then if I want to, I can give.
And that's what I want.
I want all of them.
After I get $100 million, I'm going to get a billion dollars.
After I get a billion dollars, as long as I do it within my buy box.
Like my buy box is I want to be a dad first.
I want my time.
I don't want a ton of meetings.
I never want to be on the org chart of an organization that i own ever do not call me that's i'm not i don't work here you know what i mean so yeah i
love that that perfect segue into hiring so right now you're hiring a lot offshores you're getting
c-level suite people for 2000 a month dude it's insane that's crazy yeah it's insane this is so
there's an and actually a friend of mine just sent me a podcast where somebody else has now That's crazy. lot of hope for them actually but their currency is devalued to the point of being worthless and yet the argentinians are they have one of the highest college educated populations that most
amount of economists produce per capita in the world brilliant phenomenal english proficiency
not that that matters it's not a hallmark of intelligence but it is a hallmark of education
in this society and like so my personal financial analyst when i made all my money the worst thing
to do to
poor people is give money because we think we're investors right my investment strategy is buy high
sell low so far not working so i have all these investments i've made all these deployments and
i've got all these like angel whatever and all these businesses and i'm i'm not managing it well
i hire this gentleman professional economist college professor 1500 a month full-time usd
brilliant he starts pumping out these reports,
looking at my investment portfolio. I've got a bunch of houses in foreign North Dakota.
And it turns out that actually my investment portfolio is perfectly profitable except one door,
one house is dragging everything down, but I never would have known that had he not done the
analysis. So all my friends start looking at some of the stuff he's sharing with me and they're
like, how are you doing this?
And he's not alone, dude.
And it's not all of Latin America per se,
but I really like Argentina, Colombia.
Venezuela is tough because the infrastructure there is so rough.
Power goes out a lot.
Internet goes out a lot.
But the population is well-educated, hardworking.
There are some nuances that you have to figure out., but man, making international talent accessible to Western companies, it's a passion of mine. I've placed,
I own a recruiting agency called Pareto Talent. I've placed 10 VAs so far. I want to place 100
by the end of this year, 1,000 by the end of next year, 10,000 by the year after that. And it's such
a win-win because the average Argentinian is making $300 USD a month. I pay my guys $1,500.
Five X. So imagine making five X your peers. it frees them up entirely instead when the guy told
you about he gets to stay at home he's with his kid he has a four-month-old son like i've changed
his life his words not mine and then he's changed mine so you take somebody you pay him five x what
they could make domestically you house them with an entrepreneur that's what overwhelmed overworked
doesn't know what to do doesn't know how to to do it. And you allow that symbiotic relationship to just spiral up,
win, win, win across the board. And then you keep doing that. And you can play the whole,
you're still in American jobs. But here's the thing, I've tried to hire domestically, I'm not.
Because those people aren't available and accessible to me. His level of talent goes to
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook. I can't afford that. Even if I could afford the
salary, I don't have the conference room and the $12 croissants and the
cachet. So going internationally,
dude, smart people exist all over the damn world.
What humor is to think that
this is the only country that produces
exceptional talent? As a matter of fact, I
think we've maybe, the pendulum has swung
the other way. So yeah, I think
open yourself up to
international talent because when I sold my business
I sold it at
40% margins in an industry that aims at 15% margins.
And I did it because I had an international staff.
So you can't argue with the numbers.
Yeah, because if you hired domestically, it would have been 15% like everyone else.
Aiming at 15%, trying, grasping.
If I'd have got there, I would have had the most efficient agency in the world.
Yeah.
How are you measuring their work output?
Is there software to do that?
I don't track hours.
I don't screenshot desktops. I don't do anything.
None of it, bro.
So the point is to build businesses
that can be measured on exactly what you just said.
How are you measuring their output?
Why do I care that you work eight hours?
Why is that?
What an arbitrary measure, right?
Like, what does it matter?
Do you go watch Netflix for eight hours and 56 minutes as as long as in four minutes, you're able to do this. This is worth
what I paid you today. And you have your output structured based on output. I don't build
businesses where I can't do that. I don't build hourly. I build by output, which by the way,
you put anybody who builds hourly is on the wrong side of the fulcrum because the fulcrum is what
is leverageable. And think about the way AI is going to go. AI is going to on the wrong side of the fulcrum because the fulcrum is what is leverageable and think about the way ai is going to go ai is going to amplify the output of resources to a point to
where if you're billing hourly you're going to have to produce hundreds if not thousands of times
the output and still get paid on an hourly basis whereas if you're charging by output
you're on the right side of the fulcrum and ai just amplified what you made so no never ever ever
ever ever time for money.
Horrible trade.
Horrible trade.
There's no leverage to it,
which means I'm not going to pay that way either.
So like with my financial team,
it's, hey, you're doing, we're launching,
and poorly, by the way, this isn't a pitch.
What Stevan did for me, I want to do for other people.
So I'm launching a fractional CFO agency,
maybe playing with it.
But I'm not asking my financial, because you need a CPA and you need a bookkeeper and you need a client manager.
They don't have to invest a certain amount of time. They have to manage a certain number of
clients and we'll figure out what that looks like, but maybe it's 30 clients. Hey, if you keep the
books clean on 30 clients, not only do I not care what you do, I don't care if you do the work.
You outsource this shit. Good on you. That's entrepreneurial. You find a software that does
that. That's great. Train find a software that does that,
that's great.
Train me how to do it
so I can do that
with the other 15 people
and I'll reward you
for doing it.
But the output
should be the measure
upon which people are paid
and I charge.
And not doing so
is a massively inefficient
business model
and I'll fight to the death
anybody who disagrees with me.
I love it.
I mean,
most industries
would disagree with you,
but I'm a fan of work results.
You eat what you kill.
Right. You know? I was never a fan of disagree with you, but I'm a fan of work results. You eat what you kill. Right.
You know, I was never a fan of hourly.
I mean, dude, the best people aren't right.
Like if you want peak performers, if you want the best people in the world, pay them based
off of what they're able to produce and then watch them produce.
Because that's the other thing, too, is people are going to gamify the system.
Oh, you want me to work eight hours?
I'm going to do the least amount I can do in order not to get fired.
If you pay me based on my output, what you find is this massive Pareto distribution. And the nice
thing about the Pareto distribution is it's true at every level of analysis. So 20% of your
employees do 80% of the work. Fine. Take the 20%. 20% of those do 80% of the work. Fine. Take that
20%. 20% of those do 80% of the work. And it's because you're going to find those people that
continue to gamify. When I sold my Google Ads agency, one employee who became a business partner,
I gave him 10% equity because I couldn't afford to lose him.
One employee managed 54% of my revenue.
Wow.
Because he saw, oh, the more I do, the more I get paid.
Yes, please.
It's John Moran.
He's the best Google Ads mind in the world.
In the world.
Charges $2,500 an hour right now and gets it to manage Google Ads campaigns.
He's brilliant.
Crazy. And
I incentivized him in a way that allowed him to map his own destiny. Yeah. And that's a good
segue into my next topic. Cause you have a theory about meta and Google that they're built
algorithm algorithmically to eat all your margins. Dude, I can prove it. So I bought the largest
Google ads agency in the world, largest dedicated Google ads agency in the world. Um, had a hundred
million dollars in ad spend under management. I had 200 some odd clients.
More than that, but 200 like, I can't call them enterprise clients,
but we'll say full spectrum clients.
I can prove with data.
Dude, this is an antitrust suit.
This should happen.
If there's an attorney watching, somebody do something.
It's insane.
Their mechanism, imagine for a moment an auctioneer.
You go to an auction you've been
to auctions i imagine estate auctions uh uh you go to an auction but imagine the auctioneer is
actually the one that profits they're not a third party not only do they profit but they can see
everybody who's going to bid on every piece of inventory not only can they see what everybody's
going to bid they can see how much they're willing to bid not only can they see how much they're
willing to bid they can see how much they're going to make on it after the fact.
How could you not build it in algorithmically
to maximize the profit potential of your inventory
so that every person bidding on the auction
is bidding at the maximum that they'd be willing to pay
so that they're making one penny more
than they need to make before they cancel?
And what's interesting about it,
and you'll notice that this happens in both Google and Meta campaigns,
when the campaigns start to perform,
your CPCs and your CPM go up.
You don't know what that means?
It's your cost per click and your cost per milli,
which is Latin for 1,000, cost per view.
The cost of your traffic increases
as soon as your campaigns start to perform.
Here's the hack.
Check this shit out.
It's insane.
Don't track conversions,
which is the worst advice any media buyer
has ever given you in the history of the world. But if you're a business owner and you're running traffic, don't tell Google, don't tell conversions which is that's the worst advice any media buyer has ever given you in the history that in the history of the world but if you're a business owner and you're running traffic
don't tell google don't tell meta when you're successful guess what happens as long as you
have good creative going to a good audience you trust your creative you trust your audience what
else is there you're good creative to a good audience with a good offer is going to result
in conversions but you don't tell meta and you don't tell google that people are converting
meaning you don't track conversions on page you don't tell Google that people are converting. You don't track conversions on page. You don't allow them
to track any of your data.
You capture all that stuff
first party.
And you'll notice
that Parapassu,
those two things
split test against each other.
Where I'm tracking conversions
and I'm not tracking conversions,
my cost per traffic
will be fractions.
Wow.
When I'm not tracking,
like a 10th,
a 50th,
a 100th.
Holy crap.
What's even worse
is they're taking your traffic
and they're using it
to build audiences.
I wear Cuts shirts.
I like them.
They have a nice fit.
They don't wrinkle.
Blah, blah, blah.
Cuts commercials.
Who cares?
There's four Cuts competitors.
Cuts is a brand.
C-U-T-S.
There's four Cuts competitors.
Try this.
If you go to Cuts' website right now today,
Cuts has the Facebook pixel on their website.
You get pixeled.
You'll start seeing ads for Cuts shirts.
If you don't buy a Cuts shirt in roughly 14 to 21 days, you'll start seeing ads for Cuts competitors.
No way.
Meta used Cuts traffic and media spend to build an audience that they sold to Cuts competitors.
That's insane.
Wow.
Because what are you going to do? Use the other Facebook? So they're stealing your audiences.
They're stealing all of your margin. It used to be that we could run ads and make money on the
front end, right? So I'm selling this thing for 30 bucks and I ran ads and it cost me $3 to acquire
a customer. So it used to be that I could actually run ads, make money. Then it was, I run ads and I
break even on the product, but I make money on the order bump or the upsell. Then it was, I run ads
and I break even on the upsell, but I make money on the next month, let's say, the rebuy. And then it was, well, I break even on the rebuy,
but I make money on the lifetime value of the customer. They keep moving the line of demarcation
for profitability in their favor. We are in a traffic bubble. There are so many industries,
before I sold my agency, I'd never touched residential realty. I'd never trust general
dentistry. I won't touch non-consumable e-commerce at all.
I can't touch SaaS.
Salesforce is banking off
a 30-year lifetime value of a customer.
30 years.
They're willing to spend how much it takes them.
They're willing to spend how much they make
up to 29 years and 364 days.
How do you compete with that?
You can't.
And Google and Meta have algorithmically optimized the situation
in their favor obviously because how could you not i'm not a software engineer bring a software
engineer in here and explain to me how they could build it any other way it'd be impossible
that you can't pretend there could be no chinese curtain that tells you like oh i can see all this
but i'm not going to use it it's impossible and so we're just spending into this ecosystem and we're looking at a traffic bubble that it's stealing all entrepreneurial profitability.
And it's going to be really interesting to see
because I actually think the bubble is going to burst.
And I think there's a huge opportunity
on the other end of that.
I'm glad you brought light to this
because this isn't really talked about.
Dude, again, anti-trust.
Like somebody needs to sue somebody.
Yeah, someone needs to look into that data man that is crazy well man uh i guess what do you got
coming up next what are you passionate about what are you excited about this i like employing
emerging people in emerging nations i own a mastermind that's fun you did a bunch of mastermind
stuff what's yours called driven driven i've heard about that's with perry belcher yeah
oh is that with damon john or no yeah no that's's Damon's is a, that's a good one too.
That's Rise Nation.
Okay.
That's Damon, Ryan and Roland.
I like those guys.
What else do I do?
That's it.
I just, I'm trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
And I appreciate this feels so, just being able to talk.
Like I have that sad, pathetic personality that enjoys attention.
So for whatever it's worth, I really appreciate you having me having me on this is awesome i think we all do deep down
right yeah i want to be heard i think we all do yeah for real well yeah that was great man thanks
for coming i'll link your socials below that's great yeah thanks for watching guys as always
see you tomorrow appreciate y'all