Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Into the Costcoverse with AJ Befumo

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Over the past few months, a father-son duo known as the Costco guys has become inescapable online. Their family-friendly videos about the grocery chain's chicken bakes and double-chunk chocolate cookies have earned them over 62 million likes on TikTok. This week, AJ Befumo joins Taylor to discuss how he went from former pro wrestler to king of the Costcoverse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Over the past few months, a father-son duo known as the Costco Guys has become inescapable online. We're Costco Guys. Of course we go shopping while eating a chicken bake. We're Costco Guys. Of course we have to try the new double-chunk chocolate cookie. Their videos about how much they love the grocery chains, double-chunk chocolate cookies, and chicken bakes have earned them over 62 million likes on TikTok alone. They're also well-known for rating food items with their signature boom or doom scale. That is the best Habachi ever. That gets five big. The duo consists of A.J. Buffumo and his son Big Justice, but the Costco Guys' extended world isn't just limited to those two. There's Mama to Big Justice, sister Ashley, cousin Angelo, and a rotating

cast of non-family members. The Rizzler, an adorable eight-year-old in New Jersey, who frequently collaborates with the Costco Guys, has become the undeniable breakout star. I sat down with AJ to discuss his pro wrestling history, the evolution of the Costco Guys, and how he's built an entire cinematic universe around his content. AJ, welcome to Power User. Thank you. All right, I feel like most people know you as one of the Costco guys. Tell me a little bit about your journey into content creation. Where did this Costco guys originate from? And how did you get into this whole game? Well, the Costco guy thing, it really started out as a joke. And Big Justice and I started going to Costco to kind of take some of the pressure at the house off Mama Justice. So we were going to

Costco, we were having fun with it, throwing stuff around, just doing all boofy things. And then one day we said, all right, let's do a video and let's have our audience guess if our order at Costco is going to be over or under, I think it was $350. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. So we started the video. We're going to the Costco. Guess of our order is going to be over or under $350. So we did our whole order and, you know, we got oranges.

We got meat. We got turkey. We had Brist and whatever it was that we got. and the comments started going wild. Everyone was guessing over, under, and that was our, really our second viral video. That was our second viral video, and it was just crazy.

I think that video made up to like five, six million views. So then we followed it up with another video where we did that whole trend where we said, we're father and son. He's at all my baseball games. We're father and son. I work out my biceps and my triceps three times a week.

And we then said, hey, you know what, let's bring this over to Costco and let's say, we're Costco guys and talking about all the crazy things we do at Costco, and that video just went wild. There was this clip that went viral of you on Twitter a, I don't know, a few weeks ago. It was actually an old clip. It was you and the grocery store, I think, with your son, Big Justice. And it was such a peek into a different, I feel like, version of you guys. It was from years ago. So you've been in the content game for a while. Tell me about how you got into this whole industry. It's just always been fun.

Now that we're almost a year into it, now I can, your eyes open up. So you do see, you have a good idea of what's going to be a viral video and what everyone's going to love. And it was always because we were fun. We were just recording for fun. There was so much that we did. I mean, there's some crazy videos that people are pulling up. I mean, snow days where we opened up the window and threw snow into the bathtub and

Mother's Day videos that we made for Mama Justice. So, yeah, we've just like always been creating. and, you know, for a long time, it was always for us. And then the whole Costco thing took off. So, you know, it's taking a little bit of a different turn. But we love it. I mean, Big Justice wakes up every morning with a microphone in a camera to sand with another idea. And now Ashley and Mama Justice were about to launch their channel.

So it's just something we all do together and we love. So give me a rundown of the Costco Guys universe because I feel like maybe people that have never heard of you before. Like, there's so many extended characters here. But give me the core group. All right. So it starts off with Big Justice, my 11-year-old son, one of the Costco guys, one of the co-founders of the whole thing, Big Justice and I, we founded this whole thing together. Then, of course, we have Ashley, my daughter who's 14, Mama Justice. And wow, I mean, they're from there. The list goes on and on. I mean, of course, we got to start with the Rizzler. Of course. Who is not your son? I think a lot of people think that he is your son online. No, and it's an awesome story because what happens? happened was, have you seen the Rizzler's video of the Rizzler in the Black Panther costume?

Yes, I have. Okay. So, Big Jocelyn comes to me. I guess it's about six months ago now. And he's like, Dad, you got to see this kid. So we're watching this video. I'm like, my jaw is, like, this is the funniest kid I've ever seen. And as a Big Joclesman, we got to get you and this kid on the same screen. This is crazy. So I reach out through Messenger to Uncle Savasta, another member of the Costco versus Rizzler's father. And I said, listen, this is AJ and we got to get Big Justice and this guy on the same screen. Now, by the way, at this point, he wasn't the Rizzler.

He was Christian Joseph. Oh, my gosh. So I said, we got to get the Rizzler and Big Jocelyn. We got to get Christian and Big Jostis on the same screen. So we get back down to talking and he said, yeah, we love yourself. Can't wait to do it. And here's my number. So we have a call one night.

The call was great. We were both stars shrugging. Like, wow, it's AJ, big Johnson. Like, wow, it's Christian Joseph. This is awesome. They live in New Jersey. So we said, okay, great, we're going to be in New Jersey in June. First thing we're doing is we're meeting up.

We went to the American Dream Mall. We did the Toys R Us collab. And I got to tell you, tell her we've been family ever since. I mean, we talk every day. We probably see each other a couple times, you know, every few weeks. We're always doing something. We were at the Madison Square Garden game together. We're going to be, um,

on network television in a couple of weeks. So we're family now. Love it, love it. I want to talk about how you built this world. I know you have a background in professional wrestling, and I feel like there's a lot in the sort of Costco Guys universe that feels almost wrestling to me, not that you guys have, like, rivals,

but there's a lot of characters, right? And you all have your own brands. So tell me a little bit about your background and sort of what you were doing pre-Cosco Guys era, pre-s sort of internet fame era. Yeah, so I was a professional. wrestler, and there's great storytelling in professional wrestling. I learned a lot about the storytelling. I learned a lot about what's captivating in professional wrestling. And I really wish, you know,

and the Costcoverse thing kind of happened. I wish I had the comment because someone did name us the Costcoverse. I wish I could ever go back and find that comment of who was the first person to write the Costco versus keeps growing and growing. What is your relationship like with Costco itself? Do you have any sort of formal partnership? What is their reaction? to the Costcoverse? They refer to us as the Costco guys. And we have a really great relationship with Costco. So they basically have said to us, hey, you guys are doing nothing but positive and happy

things here at Costco. We're happy with you recording here. You know, as long as the GM is okay with it at the store and, you know, you're not bothering anybody. And, you know, there's a couple rules we have to follow. But other than that, I mean, couldn't ask for a better relationship with Costco. We absolutely love Costco. Tell me about, you know, you mentioned that it's been a year, which is,

So short, ultimately. But it seems like you've really professionalized a lot of your content. You've got, I think, like, an official podcast studio now that you record out sometimes. That is really nice looking. Do you have a team of editors that you work with? How do you produce all this content? Because I think you do almost daily content. Oh, no doubt.

Sometimes more than one time a day. And now we are starting up the Ashley Amama Justice channel. So right now on our team, we have a manager and five editors. Wow. How are you paying? for all of that. It's a business. It's a business. And, you know, if I, if I opened up a business, whatever it was, I would need employees and I would need support. And yeah, this is a very big operation that we're running and we absolutely love it. And we're just having more and more fun every

day. So we love our team. And I'm always checking in on our team, making sure everybody is happy, making sure that nobody's overworked, if they need a break. And, and, you know, we have, we have plenty of coverage there. I'm very happy and very grateful for all of them. Do you make most of your money through sort of sponsorships and partnerships, or do you guys have merch? Are you doing anything else? Like, what is your sort of monetization mix when you think about building that business? What areas do you rely on? And which areas would you like to grow? So it's a real combination of partnerships with brands, combination of rewards programs from the platforms. Cameo has been a great partner to us. We're consistently in the top five or ten in Cameo for a time.

We were the number one cameo in the world. And wow, cameo is. We've been to the Cameo building. They are just such a great partner. So merch, we've kind of dabbled in. We haven't found our stride yet in merch. But again, the partnerships, the rewards and bonus programs from the platforms and cameo. Those are the big avenues of moneymaking here in content creation for us. Yeah.

So as you mentioned, you know, a big justice, your 11-year-old son wakes up excited to film every day. It seems like he's having a great time with the content. But how do you think about boundaries and kind of maintaining those boundaries? I know he's in school also. And so do you have any sort of set filming schedule? There's been so many conversations lately about child influencers and child content creators and sort of the ethics around that. So how do you think about that?

There's a great balance. We have a great balance. Our family is always together. There's constant communication. When Big Justice needs time away, we take time away. So for instance, you brought up our stream. So we do that on Tuesday nights. Now, the stream is all big justice idea.

That's him leading the charge on that. He loves streaming, so he can't wait for that every week. He's very active in baseball, so he's currently playing on a Little League team and preparing for the Power Showcase Home Run Derby. So the back end stuff is very much on me, very much the uploading and the editing and the directing. And Ashley has actually played a really big role on that. She really has taken to that part of the business.

And Big Justice is focused a lot on creating. and a lot on recording. So we found plenty of time to balance it all and still let big justice do things that kids do. And is he part of the business itself? Like I know you said you're handling all the back end. There's been recent laws in different states. I don't think Florida trying to mandate that, you know,

content creators under the age of 18 that are part of content with their parents like have to receive a certain amount of income or a certain amount of money has to be put aside. Have you thought about any of that? I know you're only a year in, but have you thought about any of that. No, we have all out of the control. Yeah, we have. We have financial planning in place.

We have accounting in place. We have all that under control. Absolutely. So before you got into content, I think you were also in the mortgage business, the real estate world. Are you still in that? Or has this become like a full-time job for you? This is beyond the full-time job. I can't get to all the things we have to get to.

So, yeah, so I did have to tell my mortgage partners that, you know, I'm going to have to take a break right now. And I'm really following something that I really love. And I got to tell you, true teller, we can. and get to all the opportunities that have been presented to us. What's the craziest opportunity you had to turn down? Well, there are some things that we've been offered that aren't in our wheelhouse. So there are some crazy opportunities.

I'll give you one, a reality television show. We've been approached about a reality television show. That's just not our wheelhouse. That's just not something that we want to do. There's been some gambling sites that have reached out to us. That's just, you know, not in our wheelhouse. Then there's just been a couple of opportunities with some huge creative. that the timing just didn't come together.

Like, we couldn't get there a certain time or we had a partnership in another time, but we're still very much in conversations with them. And hopefully we can make it happen very soon. There's been a bunch of partnerships lately between political candidates and influencers. You mentioned the Nalk Boys earlier. Trump has partnered with them. Kamala Harris has her whole creators for Kamala program. Would you do any sort of content with either of the political candidates?

Have any of those campaigns approached you? Yes, they have. I would be happy to. bring them into our world, you know, come on out and have some double-chum chalga cookies and let's do a dance. The political part of it is just not in our wheelhouse, but they would ever want to discuss family with us, discuss happiness with us. Yeah, it's something that we're open to. And you said that they've reached out? They've reached out. We responded with what we were willing to do, and we haven't heard back.

What other kind of creators would you love to partner with? Is there any sort of dream person that you're dying to work with that you haven't had the chance to connect with? Well, of course, Mr. Beasts is always on the top of the list. There have been some conversation, so we'll see if that could ever happen. Do they sell Lunchley at Costco? I don't know. I think Feastables are coming. I don't know if Lunchley is going to be in there.

I know Prime is there. and from what I understand, peaceable's, it may be there or on the way. So, you know, that's a real possibility. Anyone else? Jack. I'd love to meet Shaq someday. Okay.

Interesting. Yeah. I mean, sports icon. The Rock. We'd love to meet the rock. Oh, yeah. Well, so many content creators that I've spoken to said that you are their dream collab. I feel like you guys have a lot of hype right now.

So I guess how do you vet your partnerships? Because it seems like everybody wants to partner with you. How do you decide who to collaborate with and who to let into your world? It's more the people that we're going to make a good collaboration with, more than we're going to make a good video. So I would rather make a really good quality and fun and heartwarming and happy video with a content creator that has a million followers rather than someone that's got 10 million followers and we're just on different pages.

We're just in different wheelhouses. So I really, when I make that decision, I kind of look at the content. I look very closely and I'd say, wow, How awesome would this be for us to be on the same screen? That's what I'm really looking for. I'm really looking for like what content creator is just going to kind of look like a family dinner. We're just going to be having the greatest time. Talk to me about your platform strategy because I feel like you guys blew up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, primarily on TikTok. Right. Right. On TikTok, yeah. Now TikTok, you know, is probably going to be banned. How are you planning for that? And how are you thinking about sort of what content or what platforms you invest most heavily in? What's on your radar?

We are all in on TikTok. We absolutely love TikTok. We blew up on TikTok. We are very, very grateful for TikTok. That's where our audience is. And our strategy always was, if you chase two rabbits, you catch none. So we wanted to go all in on building our TikTok. And then once we did build a TikTok over to a million, then at that point, we started to branch out onto YouTube, branch out onto Instagram, X, Snapchat.

And it was very well received. know, we did get there because it was very much as if those that are native to those platforms that were watching those platforms came and said, great, now we're here and now the Costco guys are here. Now, AJ and Big Justice are here. This is what we've been waiting for. So I very much believe in that strategy. If I was ever advising someone that's just getting started, I don't believe in trying to be everywhere all at once. I would say pick your platform, win on that platform, and then reach out to the other platforms. It seems like you're diversified enough now that if TikTok does go away in a couple months, it's not going to significantly affect you?

It would make an impact, sure. It would make an impact. But yes, we are, you know, we are growing everywhere. Talk to me about the dynamics of fame and how it's changed. I mean, I feel like you went from a pretty not super well-known person, you know, average guy to this celebrity, this internet celebrity overnight, almost. I mean, it happened very quickly in a matter of months. How has that affected your lives and especially like your family? When I was in professional, wrestling, my trainer, my mentor in the wrestling business, Iron Mike Sharp, he's no longer with us. He was a WWF superstar. And he always told us those that make it just become more of what they are. And, you know, there were some wrestlers that I came up with that I didn't really like them anymore after they made it.

My point to all this is right now, I have never been so grateful and so thankful. My favorite comment to ever read is, we made the right people famous. That is just so heartwarming. that means so much for me. And when I look at the chance that I get to, not that I have to, the chance that I get to stop and take pictures with people. I get to stop and take videos with people. And big justice is right there by my side.

I mean, we are so grateful for that. And the fact that we can make people happy, when people come to us with their phone with a big smile and say, I can't wait to see your videos every day because they make us so happy, can we get a picture with us? There's just no greater feeling in the world. Have you experienced any of the downsides to fame, though? I mean, being in the spotlight, you're also under insane scrutiny.

People say really vicious, hateful stuff. How has that affected you or Big Justice or Ashley? So I wouldn't write something like that about somebody. So if I saw something that, you know, whatever, I was in a fan of or I didn't like, okay, great, that's how someone wants to express themselves. That's how, that's what makes them happy. Let me, let me move on. I think somebody that is going to take the time to write,

something like that and write for us to go away or write something crazy about an 11-year-old boy or a 14-year-old girl, that's a reflection on them. That's not a reflection on us. We are very confident in who we are, that we are a very, very happy family that's Fred Happiness. If you look at our comments, Taylor, we have thousands of comments. There's a few that are that nonsense. There's another hundreds and thousands of happiness where anything my attention is going to go. Yeah. So I'm going to look at that comment. Oh, yeah, brain, right, this, this, this. Oh, this guy, I'm making him happy. Boom.

There it is. That's hard, though. I mean, that's, I feel like that's hard for, I guess it's not hard for you. I agree. But, I mean, what about for Ashley and Big Justice? Like, do they ever read the comments or do they mostly stay off of that stuff? They're confident. They're happy.

They're confident. They love what we're doing each and every day. That's amazing. Well, you got to lead a class on a teach more kids how to be dot resilient. I think it's amazing. I'd be very, very happy. And by the way, the master of that class is Gary Vee. And I had the absolute honor to meet Gary Vee about a month ago.

And, you know, I did forget that a moment ago. He said, who would we want to collaborate more than anyone? It was Gary Vee because I just wanted to go in there. And even if I got a minute with Gary V, I just wanted to say thank you. I want to say thank you for letting me know to not give a you know what and to go out there and be myself and spread happiness. So once again, thank you, Gary Vee. Bring the boom. You know, with attention to comes controversy. You guys are sort of known to be the least controversial

creators. Like, you've managed to somehow get really famous without getting involved in any sort of scandal. How have you managed to navigate that? Because I feel like no matter what you do online, there's going to be a bad faith reading and manufactured controversy that just comes with fame. So how have you successfully navigated that? It's just not our thing. We just don't pay attention. mention to it. We just don't buy into it. I mean, I guess a couple months ago, there was a video that came out where I was directing in Costco and telling, oh, wait, Eric, this is your line, this is my line, this is Jay's line. And, you know, people were making me out to be a monster. And then other people

were jumping in, like, what are you talking about? He said, that's your line. That's your line. That says he didn't get aggravated or raise his voice or anything. I mean, Taylor, look, I know who I am. It's like, I can't control what other people are going to think. But listen, I know who I am. I know I'm happy. I know I stand on my business. I know I take care of my kids. My family's happy. We live a great life. And that's, you know, that's where I am. Everything at the Costco food court. And we're going to give it a boom or a doom. Let's go. Tell me about the boom meter. How did you come up with that? We eat good food. Okay. Yes. That's a little bit of a challenge right now because we do hear a lot about you guys give everything a boom.

Well, then we do give out a lot of booms. We do, but I know some people, some may say that we're food critics, you know, Big Catherine Barsoot, Slat out said I'm a food critic. To me, it's more about the spirit. It's more about the happiness. So, listen, you know, food might taste better if you're in a place with good lighting and happiness and good music and smiles, then it would have somewhere where it's dark and unhappy. So, you know, the boom eater is very much a combination of, you know, how good the food.

Look, and I'm not Gordon-Ramcy. I'm not going out to eat and have a good time. So I'm looking for the good in everything. I mean, you know, it could be a matter of perception. I'm looking for what's good in there. So we brought out the boom meter so that we weren't just limited to boom or doom. So that, you know, if something was awesome, it's getting five big booms. And if something is somewhere in the middle, I might get three booms.

I noticed on your videos, you know, especially when you collaborate with people, too, everybody has their own little logo, like their own branding. How did you come up with that? And how do you think about branding? Because I feel like you guys are so good at sort of cultivating very specific personal brands. Yeah. It's a gift. It's a gift.

And, you know, I look at someone and I see all the good in them and I see what they bring. And, you know, I just say this is what their logo should look like. Yeah. I feel like you've really developed a lot of serialized content, too, where you have these formats. I mean, I think you're developing what people will call IP for sure around kind of these different things like the boom meter or, you know, like your shows. Would you ever expand off of social media? You have so many contact creators now building out IP into streaming deals, other types of stuff. So I guess is that something that you'd eventually pursue?

Yeah. Yeah. So we are doing our stream right now. And we're going to put the work into that. And we're going to see where the stream goes. We're having a lot of fun with that. I would look into a talk. show format, like a late-night talk show format, I think I would like, something at a desk,

like a Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel-Syle, or I would also like a game show. I think a game show would be fun. The first-ever father and son hosted game show, I think that would be a lot of fun. I love that. How do you see your relationship evolving? I feel like, okay, Big Justice is 11, so that is before the teenage years, which are notoriously difficult for parents to navigate and also where, you know, kids generally rebel and sort of want to go against everything that they loved, like, growing up.

How do you plan to navigate that? And especially when you think about sort of the brands that you've built. Well, I believe in a lot of hugs. I believe in confidence, given our kids confidence, and I also believe in empowering our kids. So Big Justice has a lot of room to grow. And I think that a lot of that challenge, as you're saying, when kids are growing up and are being rebellious, I think that because there is a lot of headbutting going on between the kids and the parents. Big Justin has a lot of room to grow. Big Justice is a big part of deciding the direction of the channel. And, you know, we've had big justice out on sets with other creators who had teams and had scripts and had cameras and microphones and everything. And this is what we were going to do. And I've watched Big Justice sit there and say,

no, no, no, that doesn't make sense. Let's put the chicken bake here. Let's put the camera there. and like everybody's jaw dropping. So I do think that, you know, Big Justice has that empowerment and has that control that, I think is going to really carry our relationship through many, many years of good times. I don't know.

I've written about so many family channels over the years, though, and sometimes like, especially when kids get to teenage years and they have a lot of fame or they're making a lot of money, like it can affect the dynamics of a family. Do you notice any of that happening or do you have any sort of plans to not, like on how to deal with that? I think it's always going to happen. I don't think fame has any difference at all with it.

I mean, I have friends here at the local Little League who, you know, when we were in T-ball, the relationship was great. And now they're growing up and the son doesn't want to play the position the father wants him to plan. So that's family. That doesn't, that's not fame. Listen, we have to stand on our business and I got to be a good father and I got to listen to our kids. And, you know, whether we're famous or not, there's going to be challenges that we have to work together and overcome. What do you guys see next and what can people look out for in terms of your content and what you've got planned?

We've really hit our stride with music. So we have a lot of music. The song is so good. Thank you. I love the song. I'm going to, oh my God, I have to pull up my Spotify, but literally I listen to it, unironically. We bring the boom. We bring the boom.

Still bringing it was just released about a week ago. And you've got some remixes too, right? Oh, we have the We Bring the Boom remixes everywhere. We are going to have two paid partnership deals out very soon that are remixes of We Bring the Boom for very large brands. Our goal here, Taylor, was, look, over the next year, we don't want to just push out 12 songs to have 12 songs. We want to make 12 bangers.

So, you know, we don't want 36 songs. We want 12, like, bangers that everyone's going to remember. And, you know, we're going to start dance trends. are going to make people happy. So music is definitely, and I haven't know where we're going. The stream, we're going to see where the stream goes. AEW, of course, I'm wrestling for AEW. That matches right around the corner.

Wait, tell me a little bit more about the wrestling. Are you still engaged in that world? I am. I am. I am back. So I was a professional wrestler for about 10 years. And then an opportunity came up for us to appear backstage at AEW, all elite wrestling at their big fallout in Chicago.

So we were backstage and we did some content backstage and the response was overwhelming. When's Big AJ stepping back in the ring? We have things worked out with ADW. I am signed to a one match contract and I put out what it's going to take. So there is an AEW wrestler QT Marshall. QT. Marshall had a problem with me stepping back in the ring and he said that he wants to take on Big Boom, AJ one-on-one. And I came back to QT Marshall, and I said,

all right, on November 23rd at AEW's next paper view, at full gear up at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, where I was born and raised, you step in the ring with me and your challenge is accepted. So I haven't heard anything yet, so we'll see, Taylor, but I might be coming to AEW to bring the boom. Okay, wait, I am so happy to hear you say you're from New Jersey because I think you guys, somebody posted a tweet a while ago,

but you have the most New York tri-state area energy ever, I think, of any content creators. But you live in Florida, correct? We did. In 2021, we made a trip to Boker-Ritome, Florida to visit a friend and a business partner. And the kids said, this is where we want to live. We absolutely love it here. So we came back to New Jersey. I was in May. We listed the house. We sold the house. We were living in Florida by July. That was July 2021. So we've been here over three years now. Wow. Do you miss the tri-state area? You must go back a lot.

I mean, that's where, like, the Rizzler is. Yeah, I have two homes. I really, I really look at it that we have two homes. I mean, we're all over. Have you always been this much of, like, an earnest person? I feel like part of what makes your content pop is the sort of, I don't want to say, like, lack of self-awareness, but like lack of, like, you're so positive and so, like, you keep it so consistent. Do you ever have moments where you get down? Or, like, have you always had this energy?

No. Mm-mm. What if you? crack one day, AJ? I can't. I can't. It's mindset. You live your life from here out.

You do not live your life from here in. If you live your life from out here in, you're going to crack. If you live your life from in here, what's in your heart. If you live your life from here out, you will not crack. I feel like I could see you doing motivational speeches, perhaps. It would be very real. it would be very, very real and I would really make it so a fifth grader

could understand it because I do think that that is a challenge in the motivational field right now is a lot of it is tough to understand. But if I ever did do that, and I would love to do it, it would be very, very real. While we're touching on this, I do want to touch on my four pillars, my four pillars

of success and happiness. Oh, let's hear of. If I ever am breaking down, if there ever is something that isn't being successful. So if there's something that's not working in my life, I go back to my four pillars, and I look at which one I'm not doing, and I know as soon as I fix that, everything's together. What are they? Number one, pillar number one, zero. Again, zero negative thoughts. Negative thoughts do not serve us.

If a negative thought gets in your head, get it out. Get it out. Get it out. Shut the door. Do not let it back in. Negative thoughts do not belong in our vans. Number two, eliminate mistakes to maximize time. Time is our most valuable resource. We're never, this half hour we spent, we're never getting back. happy that this one's very productive for both of us. Elimining mistakes to maximize time, whether it's in business, whether it's in relationships. Get that nonsense. Get that garbage out of your life and use your time wisely. Number three, take massive action. Okay, so you want to make it on TikTok. You want to make it on YouTube. Whatever it is you want to make it in. Do not let the world hold you back. Take that massive action. Watch the scene from Rocky. You know what you're

worth. Go out and get. Number four, replace X-Fex, Facebook. with appreciation. Don't expect a million people to watch your video, but appreciate it to the end of the world when they do. And there you go. Those are my four pillars of success and happiness. And if ever something's not going right, I look at that. I see which one I'm not doing right. And I fix it. Amazing. I feel like this is the beginnings of a great book, perhaps, a self-help book or something. There's a lot we can do. You never know. All right, AJ, well, thank you so much for joining Power User. This was such a treat. This was not big. Boom. Wow. How many booms did this interview get on the boom meter, AJ? Five big booms. Oh. Boom.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. That's the show. You can watch full episodes of Power User on my YouTube channel at Taylor Lorenz. Power User is produced by Travis Larchuk and Jolani Carter. Our executive producer is Zach Mack.

Power User is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. If you like our show, give us a rating a review on Apple Podcasts. Spotify or wherever you listen. In the meantime, check out my newsletter, usermag.com on Substack. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of Power User.