Digital Social Hour - The $20 FedEx Secret to LANDING Any Job! | Randall Kaplan DSH #641
Episode Date: August 17, 2024🌟 Discover the game-changing $20 FedEx Secret to landing any job with the Digital Social Hour's Sean Kelly! 🚀 This episode is packed with valuable insights as Sean dives deep with the most AED m...an in the world, Randall Kaplan. 🤯 Tune in now and uncover how a simple FedEx overnight thank you letter can set you apart from the competition and etch your name in the minds of potential employers. 📝✨ Join the conversation as Randall shares his personal journey, from overcoming career challenges to building a billion-dollar company. 🌊💼 Plus, get a sneak peek into his life-changing intern program and his mission to tackle LA's homelessness crisis. 🌍 Don't miss out on these insider secrets and inspiring stories! Watch now and subscribe for more eye-opening conversations on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more exclusive insights on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and right here on YouTube! 🎧💡 #PersonalConnections #InterviewPreparation #SuccessfulInterviews #UniqueJobApplication #DigitalSocialHourPodcast CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:29 - Most Prepared Man in the World 04:59 - Babbel Language Learning 06:13 - Research and Taking Action 13:06 - Luck vs. Preparation Debate 15:08 - First Impressions and Perceptions 17:45 - Managing Mental Load 19:40 - Childhood Experiences and Impact 22:03 - Intern Program Benefits 30:24 - Addressing Homelessness in LA 32:27 - Importance of College Education 37:05 - Influencing Kids' Friends and Partners 39:40 - Randall’s Podcast and Book Insights 40:39 - Thanks for Watching APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: Jenna@DigitalSocialHour.com GUEST: Randall Kaplan https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplan https://sandee.com/ www.youtube.com/@insearchofexcellence SPONSORS: 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)
What's the one thing you can do to stand out that nobody else has done?
Right hand, right note.
Right.
Regular mail?
Fuck no.
FedEx, man.
You send a FedEx overnight thank you letter.
It's the greatest thing you can do.
Think about what your time is worth.
If you really prepared four hours, five hours, ten hours, if you really want that job, what's ten hours worth?
Right?
Two dollars?
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah. you really want that job what's 10 hours worth right two dollars you know yeah all right guys we got the most prepared man in the world randall kaplan thanks for coming on man
appreciate you having me of course your show was really fun man thanks for doing that i can't wait
to hear that yeah some great stuff in there yeah you're really good at diving deep you do you said
you did 12 hours of research on that and usually it's more but this thing just came down the pike i think last week and i had dana white who i did yesterday
to our show with him i was on vacation when i got the news hey we're doing the show so that
meant late nights on the weekend told my wife uh not gonna see you very much this weekend yeah so
sunday was i think started at 6 30 in the morning and had dinner and lunch with my kids.
And then I think I ended around 2.15 in the morning.
Make sure I got my prep done.
Then I had prep time for you on Monday.
You were Sean Kelly Monday, and it was Dana White Tuesday.
Full day.
I'm honored, man.
Full day.
And you're a nine-figure man, so a full day for you is worth a lot of money.
So I appreciate that.
Personal relationships are everything in life.
So I never think about it that way.
Wow.
Time for everybody.
You really value your time and your connections then.
I value my relationships and I never forget where I came from and always want to give back and always want to spend time on things that I care for.
Very important for me to be on your show.
Someone mentioned your show to me around six months ago.
So you were on the list.
And then when it came time, Dylan said, oh, yeah oh yeah i know sean i'm actually texting with him right now i said i want sean on my show and it's just
amazing how relationships matter and here we are i'm psyched to be here here we are man and uh
dylan's a great dude also yeah dylan vaness shout out to him shout out dylan um but seriously
dedicating a full day i mean there's hosts that don't do any prep and i feel like your show is
really gonna excel because of that i think that's your competitive edge. I appreciate that.
Every guest I've ever had from the CEO of Goldman Sachs to David Rubenstein has all said, I'm the
most prepared person in the room. And that's been one of the secrets to my success over my career.
My goal is always to be the most prepared person to walk into any room.
And people don't do it.
It's just shocking to me.
It is shocking.
You need at least some awareness, right?
You spend 19 years of schooling from kindergarten through college,
over 25,000 hours of studying.
It's a colossal investment of time and money.
Most people also graduate with a huge amount of student debt.
So why wouldn't you
spend an extra 40 hours preparing for that interview? 40 hours to land that job amongst
stiff competition. It's a no-brainer. Nobody does it. You should know your interviewer, right? You
should know your interviewer. People will come into my office and I'll just lop in right away.
I'll throw in the throwaway question, what's my dog's name? People are like,
what? What's your dog's name? It's amazing. 50% of people don't get it. It's on my website. My
dog's name is Karma. I mean, you know, it's not like it's fluffy, right? And so it's a unique
name and people find this crazy, but I've had people walk in and walk out in 30 seconds.
Wow. So if they don't know the dog's walk out in 30 seconds. Wow.
So if they don't know the dog's name, bye.
Damn.
Bye.
So you got some high standards.
I mean, I'm busy and I think it's a respect thing as well.
I think you're coming in for a meeting.
They either want an investment from me,
they want a job or they want advice.
Yeah.
And my time is valuable.
They're asking me for something. So I want them to show me some level of preparation and respect that they actually took time to prepare before they
walk in the door. What percentage of investment pitches do you actually invest in, you'd say?
Less than 1%. Wow. That is very low. It's low. I mean, all my deals throughout the years have
come from people that I've known for years or from people that I respect and people that have very good track records.
When I started my company in 1999, our tech company had gone public,
Akamai Technologies, and you're kind of a thing, right?
At that point, you're part of this crazy thing that you read about,
you make all this money, supposedly.
I mean, it's paper wealth, so no one really knows what you're worth. And then people are saying, oh, I want you in the
cap chart because you're a co-founder of this company. But I always thought, all right, I'm
going to invest with high quality people with long track records. I want to get to know people.
And every deal we've ever done has come through a high quality referral source. We've almost done a couple of deals.
People reach out to me on LinkedIn, but now I've maxed out.
You can only have 30,000 connections.
I've got 29,963 right now.
Wow.
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I don't know what you call it.
Defriending people?
I hit that on Facebook.
Just, you know, just these random people who reach out to me years ago.
Yeah.
So that was impressive.
So yeah, I mean, I think it's important to know your partners, do your homework,
due diligence and preparation.
Even in the due diligence phase, it's just everything.
It's shocking to me how many high-quality investment firms don't do due diligence.
And one of the biggest mistakes that you can make when looking to put money behind something
is relying on someone else's due diligence.
You saw it happen with FTX. I thought so. when looking to put money behind something, is relying on someone else's due diligence.
You saw it happen with FTX.
I thought it.
So I was at the SALT conference,
Scaramucci's conference three years ago.
Crypto was all the thing.
He had all the crypto people there.
Mooch is a great guy.
The conference is amazing.
And Sam Bankman-Fried is there.
He's got the hoodie on.
I mean, everyone thought this guy was the king. You've got billionaires there.
You've got David Rubenstein there and Kevin O'Leary
and all these very successful people,
and they were all bowing down to Sam.
Wow.
I mean, the guy was worth, I don't know what he's worth on paper,
$25 billion at that point.
And it's a great example of people not doing due diligence.
Now, when there's fraud involved,
it's very hard sometimes to,
when the shit hits the fan,
that's when you can say, okay, I mean,
I get it now.
But sometimes it's just very,
it's very, very hard to learn what's going on.
But don't rely on people doing due diligence for you.
And on the flip side, my due diligence
has led me into some of the most successful deals that I've done.
And I like that you not only do the research, right, but you take action because a lot of
people read books and they analyze stuff for hours, but they don't do anything.
I mean, I've interviewed for jobs at Sun America, which is my big break, I was reading for my meeting with my boss, Eli Broad,
who was at the time one of only three people who started two Fortune 500 companies.
I prepared 40 hours for that interview.
Wow.
So I prepared a list of 20 questions that he was probably going to ask me,
and then I had 20 that I wanted to fire away.
And I mean, I mean, fire away against him.
And these questions included information
from the footnotes of the financial statements
regarding gap accounting principles
that I had no clue what they meant.
It took hours to understand what they meant.
Dang.
It's like when you pop someone with that question,
it's like, holy shit, where did that come from?
Yeah, and you're applying for an assistant role, right?
Well, it was a managing director role. That role was, holy shit, where did that come from? Yeah. And you're applying for an assistant role, right? Well, it was a managing director role. I mean, that role was, you know, you're meeting with
investment banks. So it's not, you're not getting coffee in that role. Assistant to the chairman
for a guy who had started two Fortune 500 companies. You're kind of the right hand person,
right? So you're creating 100 page financial models. I had no experience doing that. I was a lawyer. I had to learn, you know, in two weeks.
So it's a, it's a crazy, crazy job, but I did crazy things to, to get that job.
I love it. What type of lawyer were you?
I was a corporate and tax lawyer. I worked full-time my third year in law school i went to northwestern i did a i did very
very well there accepted a job in chicago worked basically full-time my third year was working with
people in la dating a girl in los angeles come out spring break went out met the people i was
working with come work here said okay la it's great didn't know anybody had three thousand
dollars in the bank didn't know anyone when I moved here.
Lost my job five and a half weeks after moving here. Wow. What'd you do? Layoffs. Yeah, exactly.
Right. Did you steal or do something around the company? Layoffs. So I remember I got an email,
which is brand new then, from the library in Chicago saying, please turn in your library books before you go home today. Like, holy shit. So I'm now walking around the law firm. All the
doors are closed. You got the silent treatment. Then you get the summons down to the conference
room and my boss and the managers sitting there and here you go. Wow. Brutal. So you moved there
and now you had no plan. Well, I had no plan and the legal market wasn't good. So I got a job
in Costa Mesa, Orange County. Had never heard of Orange County. I mean, I know that sounds crazy.
Grew up in Detroit, living in Chicago.
And I said, okay, well, I was weeks away from waiting tables.
My money was running out.
So I drove three hours each day there to and from work on the 405 freeway, which is brutal.
Some days it took me three hours to get there three hours to come home
but every morning i'd leave at 5 30 and i go to the bagel store right hot bagels yeah open the 5 30
it was me and suge knight coming three mornings a week he was there he had a four bronco open
it was like he was broadcasting a concert the music was so loud no one's gonna fuck with him
right because he's suge and he had some other dude next to him who's even bigger than he was and so after a while
suge and i about after around six months had a nodding relationship okay like hey hey that is
pretty legendary dude so this was before the he blew up or oh yeah no i mean he he was big i mean
you know clearly had a lot of problems later on yeah but i mean, he was big. I mean, you know, clearly had a lot of problems later on.
Yeah, yeah.
But, I mean, Suge was big and, you know, was the kind of guy where you look with and, you know, at first you didn't even want to look at him.
He was scary.
But, yeah, I mean, finally Suge was my nodding friend.
Did you ever talk?
No.
Like, hey, man, what's up?
Hey, man, what's up?
Just respect.
They were rolling in from the night and I'm rolling out going to work. For the day. Yeah, for the day. So then I had that job,
six months. I hated it. Didn't have any friends here. Went to the managing partner of the big
firm in Los Angeles, said, I want to move. He said, no, if you want to move, you got to go down
to Costa Mesa. I said, I'm not doing that. So I'm now looking for my third job in eight months.
Wow. Brutal. I own, I think the worst, the number one worst record for the start of a legal career at a good school ever.
Yeah.
But, man, it helped make me who I am today.
Wow.
So Northwestern is one of the best for legal?
Yeah, Northwestern, I think it's ranked top 10 law school.
And Michigan is where I went beforehand, University of Michigan.
I graduated top 1% of my
class. And for me, my grades were a ticket to my future. I thought, all right, you know,
I didn't have a lot of money growing up. I remember there was this girl I liked at Michigan,
Wendy Weiss. And I don't know if you're out there and I don't know what your married name is today,
but you know, I finally had the courage, ask her out and said okay great i'm so
excited i took her a little caesar's pizza kitchen and we sat at the counter well it was what i could
afford and that was one and done yeah so not a good first impression uh i just don't think she
liked that either she didn't like the pizza or she didn't like her didn't like what i was doing
with her i don't know i think she wanted a wanted a nice dinner. So that's how it goes.
Yeah. So let's talk about the importance of luck because you did all the right things. You got a
law degree. On paper, you should have been making six figures a year.
Well, back then, $70,000 a year from a top law school.
Got it. So $70,000 and you're not making that. So would you consider that bad luck?
Well, I am making that, right? Because that was my salary coming to Los Angeles at the big firm.
I said, all right, I'm going to live next to the Jack in the Box, which I did.
And I was going to save hopefully $20,000 a year.
Because ultimately, I sold t-shirts in college.
I knew I wanted to have my own business.
I had the gene.
But I didn't have the idea or the confidence to go out and start my own company.
So my plan was save money, go to work at a big firm,
save $20,000 a year, whatever it would be.
And I mean, you're living cheaply
when you're making $70,000 a year
and you want to save $20,000.
So to save up enough money to bet on myself.
Got it.
But so much of our career success is based on luck.
I mean, it's just, I think so many things are the timing,
but I do think, I mean, people say this, you create your own luck. And my thing is preparation.
And what I tell people is, oh, no one's hiring or no, you know, it's a bad time to get a job.
Everybody's hiring. Every single person in the world is hiring. If you're the kind of person
who writes a three-page tab,
single-space letter listing every job someone had ever had
that came with a plastic cover,
a quote someone that they had given at some point in their career
with letters, transcripts, interesting things that they've done,
comes in a spiral binder,
you're going to get a meeting with every single person,
which is what I did and which someone actually sent to me,
I think a week or two ago. I'm like, man that guy heard me on a podcast he heard me as a guest he heard my show and he pulled a randy kaplan on my show i'm like i like
but that's how you do it i love it you got to take that extra step right you you it's not an extra
step that that is not it it's a hundred extra steps do what nobody else has done. And that's been a hallmark of my career and it's part of my teaching and coaching.
So here's one for you.
It's simple.
One of the things that you think about is, okay, what kind of impression can I make?
What can I do differently than everybody else?
You go to a meeting with someone, interview, meeting, whatever the case may be.
Send a thank you letter, right?
So you're doing it on Zoom.
My daughter goes to Cornell, right?
It's a great school.
Ivy League, right?
What?
Ivy League.
Yeah.
You know, she does well.
I personally don't care how well my kids do in school.
I care they try their best, right?
She happens to be a very good student, obviously, and I think she has like something sick, like a 3.95 GPA there, which is crazy.
Hard worker.
And she's looking for jobs.
She goes into the career placement office and she says, yeah, you have two days to write
that.
Thank you.
That's the worst piece of fucking advice I've ever heard in my life.
It's ridiculous.
Right.
I think and people will send.
So that email should come out in 10 minutes,
right? I mean, think about it. You're the employer, right? Would you want to see an email
within 10 minutes or 12 hours later? 10 minutes. 10 minutes. Okay. What about one minute?
Even better. Okay. So here's one for you. Okay. You're on a Zoom, right? Would you rather receive
a handwritten note or an email?
Handwritten.
100% of the time.
How many people write handwritten notes?
Not many.
Less than 1%.
Maybe I've seen 1% to 3%, right?
People listen to my show.
They come in.
If they've done their homework on me, they're always sending me notes, okay?
So you're in coronavirus or whatever.
You're in New York.
You're doing a Zoom. What's
the one thing you can do to stand out that nobody else has done? Right handwritten note. Right.
Regular mail? Fuck no. FedEx, man. You send a FedEx overnight thank you letter. It's the greatest
thing you can do. So think about that. It costs you 20 bucks. Yeah. Right. Think about what your
time is worth. If you really prepared four hours, five hours, ten hours,
if you really want that job, what's ten hours worth?
Right?
$2?
Yeah.
60 minutes?
It's fucking crazy.
You send that thank you note.
That person is going to remember you for the rest of their life.
They're going to be teaching what you did to other people.
So I'm the master
of the fedex thank you letter and i coach that and people do it and the response is insane i bet
you gotta patent that man that's a million dollar idea well it's part of part of my coaching part
of my mentoring people are now paying me for my coaching you know dm me if you want some coaching
but this shit works i love that do you ever feel like it's too much mental load being overprepared?
Like, do you feel like you get in your own head at times? No, never. Okay. Right. Sometimes I'll
walk in. I mean, I still get nervous, right? We did a show this morning, 90 minutes. I mean,
I'm nervous coming in. You know, I did Dana White yesterday. I mean, you know, you're a big deal.
He's a big deal. You know, I get nervous, right? You mean, you know, you're a big deal. He's a big deal.
You know, I get nervous, right?
You sit down, and I'm very prepared, and then you're there.
I mean, Dana and I met last year at the SCAL conference,
this incredible conference in Vegas.
Kelly O'Connor put on the show, one of the best conferences ever.
Listened to my show.
We had met 14 years before, which I didn't really remember.
I recognized her name when she DMed me. listen to my show. We had met 14 years before, which I didn't really remember.
I recognized her name when she DM me.
And she said,
will you moderate just you two,
Dana White at the grand ballroom at the Bellagio live interview on stage?
No questions prepared.
Two weeks notice.
Oh,
two weeks notice. So I'm like,
fuck yeah,
I'll do that.
And holy shit,
I got a lot to prepare for that.
And I smoked it.
You crushed it.
That's why you went on your show, man.
Crushed it, yeah.
I mean, we had a great brawl and made him cry on my show.
Yep.
Made him cry in the grand ballroom.
And then he cried on my show again yesterday a couple times.
So did I, by the way.
I mean, this is a grown man running the UFC Fight League,
and he's crying on your show.
He's crying in front of 2,000 people. Yeah, live. Live. He said, this is a grown man running the UFC Fight League, and he's crying on your show. He's crying in front of 2,000 people.
Yeah, live.
Live.
He said, this is an Oprah moment.
I was not expecting this.
Yeah, you're good at evoking emotion out of people.
What do you think it is about how you present stuff?
You know, I think it's real.
I think being real with people.
I know a lot of people.
I listen to podcasts that he's done,
and everyone wants to talk about the fight business, right?
Very few people are going into his background, his details.
I start with parents right away.
I want to know what people are made of.
I think parents influence how we grow up.
You and I talked about your parents.
So many of my guests, successful people,
had difficult childhoods for whatever reason.
Parents, bullied, I was, you were.
And I think it's really important to know
where people come from to set the stage
for their future. And then as we go through
and we talk about background,
career, education, ups,
downs, challenges, and then we get
into some of the nitty-gritty
questions, which is, you know, you lost your
job, but when people talk about their family
and their kids and charity in helping others, I mean, when I talk about my kids, I get choked up. I mean,
my team will tell you, I mean, I've cried on a bunch of shows. Love it. Yeah. Lay Lay Ponds
cried on my show. Kevin O'Leary cried on my show. Sharon Stone cried on my show. Um, yeah, we,
we've had some, you know, some, some good ones, but I. But I think the connection is very important with people,
and I think it's people being real, people showing their real side.
I think I'm a very genuine person,
and I want to bring out the best of people and who they are.
Right.
It's important to show that side of people
because it's something I think a lot of men suppressed,
trying to look a certain way.
100%. I mean, I used to be afraid to cry in front of people. it's something I think a lot of men suppressed trying to look a certain way. 100%.
I mean, I used to be afraid to cry in front of people.
I mean, I still am.
I mean, it's embarrassing to me, but it is who I am.
I mean, my kids say, you cried during American Idol, Dad,
and America's Got Talent.
I've cried in that show.
I do because it's the American dream. You're the American dream. I've cried to that show. I do.
Because it's the American dream.
You're the American dream.
I'm the American dream.
You see all these people that come from nowhere and they're just, I mean, look at who they
are today.
I think it's great.
Yeah, that's a great show.
That one and Shark Tank, definitely cried to both of those.
Yeah.
Mark Cuban was on my show, and he interviewed this woman.
I believe she was a black woman that made makeup for young black women,
and she was crushing it.
And people passed on the show.
People passed. Mark thought she was going to get another deal.
And Mark invested in it because he wanted this girl to mentor his two children.
Wow. And you could see him to mentor his two children. Wow.
And you could see him tearing up on the show.
Crazy.
As he talked about his kids.
So when he was on my show, I questioned him about that as I teared up thinking about that girl and his kids.
Because when I talk about my kids, it's the same thing.
It's very raw for me to talk about my kids.
Right.
Do you have mentors for your kids or are you the main mentor um it's interesting um i do and each child has a
different mentor you know my girls have uh different mentors um there's a kid that came to
me as a sophomore in college at ucla ricky horwitz we worked together for four and a half years
intern lead intern second summer come
back to manage a program the following year wow and then came and worked with me for two and a
half years he's a fucking rock star yeah and um he's gonna make millions and millions of dollars
he's doing all kinds of crazy things and he's now mentoring my son, Charlie, who's 20 years old, which is really,
really cool. Ricky is now my boy, my man, good friend. And he's mentoring my son,
which is incredible. In fact, my son now lobbies Ricky to lobby me for things that
Charlie, my son, wants me to do that I'm not going to do.
Yeah. Wow.
And it works.
Went from intern to your son's mentor wow
yeah i mean it makes me feel so good yeah that shows that you have good growth within the company
too we have yeah we have a small company i like to promote from within uh intern program has been a
central part of my professional life i created an intern program that i would have wanted when i was
younger it's life-changing.
It's a 12-week formal program, 8 to 6.
Do not show up at 8.01.
You won't get let in?
You won't get let in? It's not getting let in.
I'm going to ask in front of everyone, why are you late?
Right?
So it's been, and it happens the first time.
Oh, God.
We send a detailed memo to all the interns a month before.
These are all the things that
you should do. Matt Hickerson
is a key part of my team now.
My right-hand person
did a test drive
before the
internship, 90 minutes away.
You want to know how long it was going to take to get there.
It's great.
It's a 12-week formal program.
I spend 60 to 90 minutes per day with them, teaching them.
Speakers every week.
You said you were going to come in and do my show or do the program,
talk to the interns.
It's life-changing for them, and it's great.
So we hire the lead interns.
So we hire the best interns to be leads the following summer.
They do the interviewing and they do the hiring.
I think it's the only program in the country, maybe the world,
where you have 19-year-old kids interviewing, hiring, and managing their peers.
Yeah, I've never heard of that.
So I typically hire some of the lead interns if they're not going to work at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking, which a lot of them do.
I mean, these kids can go work wherever they want
because on their resume it looks incredible.
So it holds that much weight to intern?
To put it on their resume, what you've done,
and we have 4,000 applications this year for our program.
They look through 4,000 applications.
It takes a ton of time. I don't touch the resumes
until the class is hired. So we have 36. I get a stack of 36 resumes, and then I'm going through
them. And that's it. And I get them two weeks before the program starts, which is mid-May.
And what was the reasoning you started this? I wanted to teach and promote and motivate kids
and teach them what you didn't learn in college
and make it life-changing for them.
We talk about my career, what I did.
We teach them about entrepreneurship,
venture capital, private equity, real estate.
All people come in and talk about it.
Our speaker program is incredible.
All of my guests are very well known from CEO of Dale Carnegie,
founders of the leading investment banks and private equity firms
and entrepreneurs and famous VCs.
But it's meant to be life-changing, and it is.
I can definitely believe that.
But it's boot camp.
I mean, the first day, people are saying,
holy shit, what did I get myself into?
And after a while, they think they're very intimidated by me.
But after a few weeks or a month, I think they settle down a bit.
I love it.
Has anyone dropped out? Of course.
Two per year.
That's not too bad. It's not two per year.
We don't want them anyway.
And we tell
them, by the way, they're
working on Sandy, which is my beaches company.
So we've created the largest beach resource in the
world, S-A-N-D-E-E.
It's basically a Yelp for beaches
for the $5 trillion a year beach tourism
business. So what we've done over the last eight years, we've cataloged more than 100 categories
of data for more than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries. So our trademark is Choose Your Beach.
Each beach is different. So we can say, what's your favorite beach? It doesn't matter what my
favorite beach is. Each beach is different. So,
for example, if you have young kids,
you want food,
bathroom,
and a shower.
If you want volleyball,
we have volleyball,
swimming,
surfing,
barbecue.
We have every category
of seven different kinds of sand,
seven different colors of sand.
So it's just like
a massive encyclopedia
of all the beaches in the world.
Yeah,
which you can filter.
It's beautiful.
It's laid out.
You go to sandy.com,
S-A-N-D-E-E dot com. And that's just a passion thing, right? Because you're not monetizing
that. Oh, no, we're going to create a billion dollar company. Oh, yeah, the beaches? Oh, yeah.
Wow. What's the roadmap for that? Revenue models, too. So we're each beach page has seven different
sections. Hotels, restaurants are in sections. We only have five. So when you go to Yelp,
they may have 300.
If you pay, you're on Yelp.
And you pay by the day, by the listing, different packages.
Us, we sell the listings on a yearly basis.
So it could be $250 to $995 per year for the listing for each page.
So our model is we've identified the 10,000 most popular beaches in the world. We very carefully select the restaurants that are listed on the page.
And then we go out and we sell the listings to the restaurants and hotels.
So we think we can achieve between $5,000 and $10,000 per page for the 10,000 most popular beaches in the world. So if you do the math, if we get $5,000 per page for 10,000 pages,
that's a $50 million recurring annual rev run rate.
And for certain beaches in Miami or Los Angeles,
we're going to get probably $20,000 per page.
Wow, I could see that.
I've never even heard of this industry.
So you seem to be the only big player in it right now.
That's one.
Number two is we are going to license our data
to government tourist boards and travel companies.
Got it.
And our data is second to none.
Yeah.
So you got to visit florida.com.
Florida does $91 billion a year in tourism revenue,
number one source of GDP.
You got to visit Florida website.
If you take the time to spend 20 hours going through every page,
which you're not going to do,
and you want to see information on individual beaches,
you'll find seven individual beach pages
with an average 5.3 categories of data.
There's actually 727 beaches in Florida, distinct beaches.
And we have over 100 categories of data for every single beach in Florida.
So they're missing 720 beaches.
They're missing a lot of beaches, as is every single country.
And I've met with tourism ministers in some of the largest beach countries in the world.
And I say to them, first question, do you know how many beaches you have?
It's the same
four words for every single one.
I have no idea.
Which is like the CEO of Marriott
not knowing how many rooms he has.
Because those are bringing in a ton of money
for the country, right?
A ton of money.
Some of them charge to even go on all the food
and alcohol.
It's crazy.
We're in our eighth year. We have a team now of 13 people. Our traffic is just, we haven't
focused on the traffic, but we started around six weeks ago, seven weeks ago. Our traffic has
almost tripled since that period of time. Can't wait to see that growth, man. Yeah, super pumped.
Yeah. Also on your website, you are trying to fix homelessness in LA.
We have.
I started a nonprofit function called the Imagine Ball for an organization that takes families in transitional homelessness and puts them in a permanent housing, food, shelter.
When we started the event, I think the nonprofit was doing seven families per year,
and I think now they're doing almost 100.
Wow, that's a lot.
So, yeah, my partner has a guy named John Terzian who owns nightclubs.
Delilah's here in Vegas, nice guy, all kinds of cool venues.
He's the cool guy.
So he brings in people like Dave Chabelle.
Kendall Jenner has been to our function.
It's a very, very cool party.
I've heard the city has a lot of budget for it, but I don't see any results.
Have you heard about that?
Budget for the homelessness problem?
Yeah.
You know, it's one of the most serious problems in Los Angeles.
And I raise money for it.
I'm dedicated to help it.
But I don't know if the problem is solvable.
I mean, depending on the numbers you look at,
there's 40,000 to 80,000 homeless people in Los Angeles.
It's the homeless capital of the United States.
I mean, I don't know what amount of funding is going to fix this.
There's so many mental health issues.
You have mental health issues and you have physical locations.
You know, you've got to put people somewhere,
give them somewhere to live and give them food and shelter, education.
And a lot of them have medical problems
and many of them have mental health problems.
So you can't, it's, the treatment is very complicated.
It's very expensive.
I don't know if they threw billions of dollars at this
and they certainly spent a lot of money on this.
I'm not sure what the number is.
But, I mean, it's a hard problem.
So I think one person at a time is helpful.
For our program, every single kid has gone to college.
Nice.
And when you think about that, it's incredible.
You've changed the lineage and the path of that family and that child forever.
Yeah.
Are you big on college with your kids?
Is that something you want them to go to?
Yeah.
I want my kids to definitely go to college.
I think education is the most important investment in yourself that you can make.
Okay.
My parents taught me that.
I mean, there's so much information out there.
Is college worth it, right?
The average person today graduates college with $37,000 in student debt.
The average person, it takes, I think, 21 years to pay off their debt.
Wow.
So you got to really look at the numbers, and it's interesting.
You look at what a starting plumber makes these days, over $80,000 a year.
Starting truck driver, you can make up to $120,000 a year.
I'm not saying that you want to be a truck driver or a plumber, but there are a lot of trades where
you don't need to go to school. You got people like Peter Thiel, you know, basically paying
people, don't go to school and I'll fund you if you have something that I like. But for me,
I think it's important. I think it's important. Yeah, I'm not sure you learn a lot of practical
skills, but I think the development and the intellectual way of thinking, and most importantly, I think
the social part of college is critical. Being away from home, you know, making new friends.
I mean, you're 18 years old typically when you go to college. I went in one way. I came out a
different way. I was a shy, nerdy kid, stuttered a little bit, and then came out.
I was a little cooler.
When I graduated, I had a lot more friends.
Some facial hair.
I had fun.
Yeah, a little facial hair.
I love that.
I think there's pros and cons.
I agree with your take on the debt standpoint.
If you're paying $50K a year, maybe there's better options, right?
Yeah.
Because Harvard is like like and you mentioned the
ivy league your daughter goes through those are probably like 50k a year uh her tuition's 83
000 holy it's up to 80k yeah just uh 83 oh my with no housing and that includes food or no oh no
nothing no housing no food no no no i mean and you know you want i mean it's expensive i mean i
it's over 100 grand a year i spend for her go to school her sister
goes to wisconsin they're twins yeah uh good student as well phi beta kappa he does phi beta
kappa which is incredible um and i think her tuition's like 67 000 jeez you're dishing out
almost 200k just for two college oh more i've got a uh third son in college
yeah he goes to uh manila college up north and for a while i mean he's got the gene too i mean
he's flipping shoes and he got me in the shoes those are good shoes man thank you so much uh
street hawkers i i uh brought a bunch of shoes yeah you know my trip you know that's that's my
thing i think you know you want to be unique i I love shoes. I mean, I'm 55 years old.
My son says, Dad, you can't wear those shoes.
I'm wearing those shoes.
Shoes are my thing.
But for a while, I mean, he's making money on Supreme and flipping shoes.
He said, Dad, I'm not going to college.
He said, oh, really, Charlie?
Where are you going to live?
I'm going to start a business.
Did you kick your kids out at 18?
I love my kids.
I would never kick them out of anything in the world.
I mean, I would do anything for my kids.
You know, when I talk about my kids, I get teared up talking about my kids,
but I would never kick them out.
He came around on his own going to college, Yeah. And so I'm pumped he's there.
So he's made a lot of friends up there.
He's up in Menlo Park.
There's a big tech scene up there.
He's got a great summer job, AI company this summer.
So he's happy he went.
And I'm obviously happy he went.
But, yeah, I'm very big on college.
If you can afford it, I think the value is there.
I think if you take advantage of it, right? Because the networking, some people don't
take advantage of in college. Yeah. I mean, my son is a great networker. So he has friends who,
he's a skater, right? So he met all these kids at the park. And at some point, there were kids
who didn't have their own boards, right? You didn't, you could tell they wore the same clothes every day.
So he would give them a bunch of boards, which is, you know, super cool.
And then they'd come to the house, and we have a pipe at the house.
So they'd come over and skate.
And all these friends, you know, they had absolutely no money, I mean, whatsoever.
And then he's got friends that he's met who have, you know, he's got a couple of friends. I went to dinner with one of his friends and his, you know, very well-known dad who, according to Forbes, is worth, I think, $7 billion.
Wow.
And it's, you know, he's making great connections with people.
That's cool.
He's great with people.
And, you know, my kids are all very, very different.
But he's definitely got the gene.
One day maybe I'll be working for Charlie.
That's cool, man. Did you have a say in their friends and their dating partners growing up?
Or did you let them choose?
No, no, no, never. I mean, you know, you got to be hands off. The more you tell your kids
something, the more they're going to push back.
Helicopter parents, right?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was very hands on with my kids. Ex-wife was as well. And she did a great
job with them. We live very nicely. But we want to raise very humble kids in Los Angeles.
I mean, I've made a lot of money, and the kids live well.
I mean, we have a crazy, crazy house, but we don't have a jet.
I don't pay for first-class tickets.
We get upgraded.
I buy things on sale, and I'm conscious. Yeah. Not because I'm cheap,
because I value a dollar. I mean, here we are, we're in Las Vegas. If I spend $100 while I'm
here, it'll be shocking. Really? Yeah. Just because I grew up with without money and I value money
and I don't like gambling it. No, I like that, man. When you asked to borrow the car, I was like,
yeah, screw it, man. I'm about that yeah yeah so yeah just tell
people i mean uh today we're uh closing a deal we're uh selling a short-term rental property in
nashville and while i'm sitting here we got a message from someone you know you got to get this
paper notarized yeah and i said you know by when he said today and they're in nashville two hours
ahead like shit and i had a little break between my show and this show i said you can't borrow your By when? He said, today. And they're in Nashville two hours ahead. I'm like, shit.
And I had a little break between my show and this show.
I said, can I borrow your car?
And he said, sure.
So I took the keys.
Nice G-Wagon, by the way. Thank you.
Hugs you as you're turning.
Like, oh, what's going on here?
I think it's pretty sick.
The tax write-off.
I don't even like cars.
But last year was a good year, so I just bought it.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
You into cars?
No, I'm not. I didn't even know what a G-W year so i just bought it you know yeah so yeah you into cars or no i'm not
i didn't even know what a g wagon was so i bought it i literally went there and said i need a car
that's over 6 000 pounds yeah what do you got that was there yeah what do you think about them uh the
g wagon yeah i was great i mean i rode in one i don't know 10 years ago and the thing was very
rocky i mean you could feel every bump this was nice nice. Yeah. Really nice. I mean, I love how it hugs you as you're turning, you know, right around.
Did you do the seat massage?
I didn't want to touch the car.
So what we were saying in the car is, you know, you'll get a valet on the car.
It'll change the seat.
It'll change the mirror and change the settings.
So one thing, I think it's a respect issue.
So Matt and I were driving over, and I'm like, I'm not going to touch anything.
So I was a little close to the windshield.
But I just think it's a little disrespectful.
You just loaned me your car, which is crazy nice.
I appreciate it.
I'm not touching anything.
Turn up the volume, I think, a little bit on the radio.
And I think that was it.
I appreciate it.
You took care of him.
Dude, anything you want to promote or close off with?
This was really fun.
Yeah, I want to promote my podcast, In Search of Excellence.
It's blowing up right now. I've had some
amazing people on my show from Mike
Tyson, Dana White yesterday,
you, Lele Pons. I've had
David Rubenstein, Private
Equity Side, Mark Cuban,
Kevin O'Leary.
Kevin cried on my show as well.
That was great.
I'm writing a book called Extreme Preparation. I have a That was great. I'm going to watch that one. Yeah, so I'm writing a book
called Extreme Preparation.
I have a coffee table book.
I'm a drone photographer
of my beach drone photos.
It's been a bestseller.
Sold over 10,000 copies of that.
Wow.
And the most important thing
is for people to go to Sandy,
sandy.com.
We need the traffic,
and if you love the site,
just tell people about it.
You can find me on YouTube, my show in search of excellence on YouTube,
at Randall Kaplan on Instagram.
And that's it for right now.
All right, cool.
We'll link it all below.
Thanks for coming on, man.
Appreciate you.
Appreciate you.
Congratulations on all your success.
Thanks, man.
It means a lot.
Thanks for watching, guys.
See you tomorrow.