The Koerner Office - Business Ideas and Deep Dives with Chris Koerner - Analyzing Business Ideas from Viral Instagram Reels⏐Holdco Bros Discuss! Ep. #119

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

HoldCo Bros are back! In this episode, Nik and I are discussing "IGenius," a segment where we analyze business ideas found on Instagram, focusing on how to turn viral trends into real-world opportunities. We brainstormed various ideas, including experiential businesses, such as a coffee shop with a sandbox, a kids' play area with a high-end parent area, and a live fish vending machine. We also explored mobile businesses like a mobile bookstore, and the importance of being "indistractable" in the physical world. Additionally, we considered unique product businesses such as a wart removal kit, and the business potential of the microplastics trend. We also discussed frameworks for creating businesses that capture attention, and ways to make it harder for parents to say no to their kids when making purchases.Learn more about Nik here: http://linktr.ee/cofoundersnikTimestamps below. Enjoy!---Watch this on YouTube instead here: tkopod.co/p-ytAsk me a question on or off the show here: http://tkopod.co/p-askLearn more about me: http://tkopod.co/p-cjkLearn about my company: http://tkopod.co/p-cofFollow me on Twitter here: http://tkopod.co/p-xFree weekly business ideas newsletter: http://tkopod.co/p-nlShare this podcast: http://tkopod.co/p-allScrape small business data: http://tkopod.co/p-os---00:00 Introduction to the New Episode Format00:55 Evaluating Instagram Business Ideas01:36 Sandbox Coffee Shop Concept03:32 Experiential Business Models08:46 Cold Wet Socks Therapy10:46 Marketing and Monetizing Simple Ideas16:33 Micro Peas and Immaturity16:38 Live Fish Vending Machine19:07 Business Ideas for Kids22:14 Mobile Bookstore Concept27:00 Jerry Springer and Attention Economy31:46 Parenting and Technology

How do you make the experience so great that it makes it even harder for the parent to say no? The middle is messy. So either be the lowest cost option and just be the Chucky Cheese or go up market and be the expensive option. All you got to do is put on a cold sock and lose 80 pounds. Like just come on. But this thing has like 10 million views here. You could also start a business that just sets these up for existing businesses. If you're going to do it, do it well.

Don't half a yet. It's made better by the fact that it's new and unique and fresh. All right. So let's do a new. type of episode today. I'm going to call this I genius as in genius things I saw on Instagram. Okay. Okay. Okay. I. G. Yes. Yes. I love that. Should we buy the domain? I genius. Why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't we? I don't go. Spoiler alert. I've had it for five years. Always have. I think the focus change on the camera when you do that. That's pretty good.

All right. So if you're listening, I'm going to explain what we're watching. And if you're watching on YouTube, you're going to see it on my screen. So I'm going to pull up a couple Instagram reels and we're going to talk about what they are and how we'd improve it, what we like about it, what we don't like about it. Like about it from what perspective to like get it more views or if it's a business? No, no, no, like from a business perspective. Because these are all business ideas, basically. These are all business ideas. These are reels of business ideas. And so we're looking at them evaluating. Some of them are not business ideas, but as I like to say, any good idea could be a good business idea. So it's very true. That's the idea. Like religion. Yeah.

All right, let's see. Here we go. Look at this freaking thing right here. New trend alert, new trend alert. This is blowing up around the world in two different concepts. This is day eight of showing you my favorite 2025 business ideas. So follow up for more. One for kids.

Take a boring old coffee shop. The coffee might not even be that great. You put a sandbox in the middle of it, which encourages kids to encourage their parents to go to that coffee shop instead of the other one. How much does a sandbox with remote control of toys cost next to nothing? The second concept is the thing for adults for dads. Because guess what? I'm 37 years old and I would love to go to the shop and play with remote control. I don't drink coffee.

So you can watch this video and think, oh, man, that's a brilliant idea. So I need to do something about that and then never do anything about it. And then in a couple of years, you're going to see someone else do it in your area and you're going to say, oh, I had that idea. I could have done that. Or you can actually do something about it with this whole business plan right here. All right. We're playing our social media clips now. Okay, hold on a second.

I got something. This is all a ploy to get like four more Instagram followers. to the ones of people listening who don't already follow you on those platforms. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So for those just listening, we just watched a video of this coffee shop in Dubai that has a huge sandbox in the middle of it. And you've got kids and adults, like just playing with RC excavators and toys in the sandbox.

And this was like an insanely viral video. The one that I copied had like 30 million views on it. So we think there's something here. What do you think, Nick? I love that idea. So, again, I just talked to. to Craig Fuller from Freightwaves, he bought a model train museum that was going out of business, 80,000 square feet.

So big. He's bringing it back to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and he is going to build. Like the way he was talking about it, he's like, I want it to be an immersive experience. I want it to be like Disneyland, right, where you come in. And this isn't a model training museum like a Lego set where it's really small. He's like the buildings are 10 feet tall. Like you're in the middle of it. Like you feel like a giant, right?

Your Godzilla walking through it. it. I think this, I think what he's talking about, these immersive experiences, when we went through COVID, it fast forwarded what we thought was going to happen. Oh, we're all just going to go to remote work and we're all going to work at home and it's going to be amazing and people are going to buy online and we're going to get groceries delivered and Shopify is going to go crazy. All those things happened, but I think people realized, I don't like this. I like doing stuff. I like meeting other people. I like doing things. So the businesses that you just showed me, It's like, I'm out doing things.

Like, okay, I went to the coffee shop, but I'm also digging dirt. You know what I mean? It's not just sitting around drinking. It's experiential. And so I like the idea of coupling these businesses, traditional services businesses, with some type of an experiential component. So I really like it. You could also start a business that just sets these up for existing businesses, right?

It's like a sandbox as a service. It doesn't have to be a coffee shop. It could be a restaurant. It could be a trampoline park. It could be anything that. already has traffic that would fit this demographic. And you could just install it and manage it for them for a fee. Or you could go to the companies who are already doing that and say,

hey, you, you install this? Great. I'll bring you business. I just want 30% of whatever you, like whatever the number is that gets worked out, right? You become the sales channel and then start going and finding local businesses that you can implement this with. And then you don't even have to worry about the fulfillment or any of the work.

You're just essentially a distribution channel. Totally agree with like the experiential stuff. We're getting outdoors more. but just on a more base level. Like you've got a zillion coffee shops out there. They're all about the same. It just makes one extremely different for a very low additional cost. Right.

Like what's the downside of this? There are already places who do this and like food is a secondary experience. Dave and Busters is an example of that. Chucky Cheeses, if we want to go back to when we were kids. But like Dave and Buster's food isn't great. It's terrible actually. But the experience is fun, right? Because I get to go do stuff.

and it's an activity. So it's kind of flipping that paradigm, right? Food is the primary. The experience is secondary. I like that framework a lot. Well, there's another business idea that I hadn't planned about talking, planned on talking about that reminds me of this. So I'm friends with a guy named Sherman and he's in Utah.

And he found this business in Saratoga Springs, Utah. It's like a kids play area, right? Think like trampoline park. It's got all of the climbing stuff that you can play on very generic when it comes to that. It's very clean. It's kind of like a planet fitness model. 20 bucks unlimited play per month per kid, maybe even 10, very cheap.

But the differentiator is like upstairs. There's like this elevated platform where the parents can watch their kids. And they have like really good food, like very high quality food. It's like a we work up there. And it's like really fast Wi-Fi, leather couches, super nice. Like, you walk into a trampoline parking. It just feels gross. And it's just a bunch of gross kids.

It's like a very nice play area for kids. You know where else I'm seeing this is pickleball clubs. Mm-hmm. Where it's like there's a pickleball club and then they have a bar upstairs, but it's also also like a we work. You can get up there and actually work out of there. They have Wi-Fi and it's a really good experience. I also like this framework of deciding where you're going to go.

The middle is messy. So either be the lowest cost option and just be the Chuck E. Own it. Just own it. or go up market and be the expensive option. So it's like, yeah, yeah, we do cost 50% more than the competitor and we're way better. Just own it. Otherwise, you're like in this weird game where you're trying to compete on price,

but then you're also trying to compete on quality. And that's a really difficult place to be. So with these experiential places, these ideas in particular, if you're going to do it, do it well. Don't half a it. Don't make like, oh, this is a homemade sandbox and you can still see the particle board on the side. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very obvious. It's very obvious. So do it well. Or, hey, bring your own excavator if you want. We got a freaking ditch in the back. You know what I mean? Like those are the two options. Pick one of those. Don't go in the middle. Well, this place in Utah is slammed, by the way. It's their first location. They just opened it. And they are crushing it. Crushing it. Yeah. So we should open one of these. There have been talks. No, no, I'm sorry.

But it's interesting because you go to the trampoline parks and it's super expensive. You pay by the hour. And these guys are just like flat monthly fee come as much as you want. And then they make money on food. They make money on socks and all this other random stuff. But supposedly the owners have like not slept since opening it basically because they've just been slammed in a good way. Granted, Utah is like the perfect market for this.

But in a way, it should be like the most oversaturated market for stuff for kids to do. Dude, fly out. Let's go. Let's go do a video. I'm down. That'd be a great video. It'd be a great video. Let's do it. Okay. Fine. Do it tomorrow. Where's my ticket? You won't do it. You won't do it. Trying to put a chip on my shoulder. You won't do it. You won't do it. All right, here we go. Cold, wet socks before bed is magic. People also call them magic socks. Let me explain. So how does this work? When cold water is applied to the souls of the feet before bedtime, it causes the blood vessels and the feet that constrain. It warms the body. The body wants to shunt all of the blood to the feet, which in turn increases bodywide circulation, and increasing circulation brings oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the internal organs and the immune system.

This can help improve overall health and aid in the same blood. So let me show you. You need wool socks and you need some cotton socks. It's so easy. This could be done at home. All you have to do is take a pair of cotton socks, put them in cold water, ring them out, put them right on your child's feet before bed, then take your wool socks and cover those cotton socks with the wool socks. Now, by the end of this therapy, these cotton socks will be dry. The body will work hard to warm up those socks. And this is where the blood flow goes from the feet. Totally this body-wise affiliation that helps to warm up the cup and aid in the healing process. It's such an easy therapy and so effective. Tim Robertson Giff of him going,

Okay, so what we just watched was a woman holding up some socks, basically saying get socks wet, put them on your baby's feet, and then put wool socks over that, I'm assuming, so they don't get too cold. Put coldness on the feet and then put something on the feet so they're not cold. Sure, got it. Check. If they don't call this cotton-headed nitty muggins, I don't know what we're doing here. Okay. Anyone who's seen elf knows that reference, but like it's right there. It's on the tip of the tongue. It's right there. All right. So I don't know. don't want to bias you. I just want to know your your gut take right off the bat. What's in your head right now? I hate it. I'm like, I really do hate it. I'm like, are you kidding me? Are you, so I have four boys. You're telling me we got to go freaking let's get the socks wet, bring them out, put them on the baby, then put the wool over it. Like, yeah, my kid's not going to sit through that. And then they're probably going to take the socks off as they're going to bed.

What is the female version of bro science? I'm just so like done with these bro science like, all you got to do is put on a cold sock and lose 80 pounds. Like just come on. But this thing has like 10 million views here. So I think people people are so desperate. They're desperate. How do we monetize it, Nick? How do we monetize this? Oh, thirsty boy. Okay. Okay. So the reason it has 10 million views is because people are desperate to figure out. There's demand. There's some sort of demand. Even if entertainment demand. What was the problem in the beginning? It's that you don't have good circulation or does circulation help you sleep? She doesn't even say there's a there's a problem. She just says it helps with quote overall health. Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, I would make the problem clearer,

obviously, but in this for kids. It's not even for adults. Yeah. So maybe the idea is to like to to market this at adults. Like people buy much dumber stuff than this, right? Much dumber stuff. Oh yeah. Much dumber stuff. I would market this at adults. As a parent, I'm going to guess she doesn't have any kids. Or she has like one daughter who's just an angel. But, you know, anytime you layer two, three, four kids on top of it, I just, I don't know how you do that. It's like, this is my child's bedtime routine. Starting at 6 p.m. We read books. Then we take a bath. Then we take a walk. Then we watch then we journal. Then we do our gratitude. Oh, not done. And then we eat dinner. Then I yell at her father for 17 minutes. She takes notes. Then we change. Then we go to the bath. Then we do breath work. Then we do

breath work and then my 930. She's ready for bed. At 9.45 she wakes up. I go in there. It's like nobody has time for all that crap. So I would market this at adults. The problem with this is like there's no before and after. If it like removed a rash and it like clearly worked, you could see that it worked. It's like, okay, there's something here.

Here's an example. So when I was a teenager, 13, 14, I had warts all over my hands. Ew, dude. Yeah, it was gross. I hated it. I shake those hands. You do now. I had warts.

And it was super embarrassing. And I remember the desks at school that had like the cubby. You put like a notebook and I would like keep my hands under my desk because I was so insecure by people seeing them. I could see that. Yeah. And you will never believe what got rid of them. My mom was like, all right, we got to get them frozen off. And I'm like, nope, not doing needles, not doing pain, not doing hard things.

Washing them? Was that what that word of? Turns out there's something to that. It's so crazy. I washed my hands twice a day and all of a sudden they're gone. All those signs in the restroom have some truth to them. They're not just for employees, even though they say for employees. No, someone told me once, and this is like the most bro science of the 90s ever, but it was take vitamin E gel pills, right?

Just like from the grocery store. Vitamin E and pop them and rub the vitamin E gel. all over your hands before bed and then take two or three vitamin E pills before bed and then cover your hands with socks. Okay? To keep the moisture in, to keep them on your hands and then go to sleep, fall asleep with socks on your hands and do that for like two weeks every single night. And when you wake up, you take more vitamin E pills.

And I did that for two weeks and they completely disappeared. Really? Every single one of them. And I tried other things, like other home remedies, gone. And they never came back. So could you monetize something like that? I totally think you could monetize something like that. Here's a little warp.

You know, be rid of that little wharf. That little wharf shows up. You're like, what's that little war? A little froggy bumps. You're like, is that a bugger on my finger or a ward?

I don't know. It's been a hard winner. Anyways, I think like it's just human psychology in the S&B space. What's the sales pitch? You can buy a business for no money down. It's super easy. It's passive income.

We all want a silver bullet. We all want. It's the same thing. It's the same thing, right? Like, oh, you want better circulation? All you have to do is this one little trick or you want to lose 30 pounds. And you can't prove that your circulation is better. If we're strictly talking about marketing and packaging it, that's, I think that's a really good way to market and package something is to appeal to the, what's the one thing that's going to solve everything and then build out around there.

If I were to do something like that, water would be something right now like microplastics are a big deal. your family, you just bought a steel drum or I don't even know what it's called. We bought a we bought a burkey, but then we switched it out with a reverse osmosis under the same. With a furkey. I think something like that has to be something like you do this every day, that people are reading about microplastics. That might be a cool wholesale business that you start selling those types of units. So like three years ago, I bought a bunch of domain names related to microplastics. And I just got an offer for one of them because they're like listed on like a domain marketplace,

these passively, I usually don't get offers for anything. Yeah, yeah. But the domain that I got there that I got an offer for is never touched plastic.com. And I think there's a market or never touched plastic plastic. So like buying food or drinks that have never like not like not PVC, not a plastic bottle, nothing. What was the offer for? Oh, not very much. But just the fact that someone out there is looking for domain names around avoiding plastics.

You know, it's interesting. I, so I bought a domain in a couple years ago as a joke, but I got an email from another company as well. They're a plastic company. It's called microps.com and they want it because they're like, you know, no micro peas. And then the website is no micropee.com. We're moving on from this. All right. I'm going to show you another video. To the one guy on YouTube who said I'm too immature. I'm sorry. Hey, here's who he is. Warts and all.

You. You look like the cat who ate the canary. Oh. All right, here we go. All right, that's it. That's the whole video. What was that? I don't even know what that was.

All right. If you were watching this clip right now, you are watching this on YouTube. And if you are a fan of podcasts, please check on my podcast while you're at it because sometimes I have podcasts that aren't on YouTube and sometimes I have YouTube that aren't on podcast. So check out the Kernner Office on any podcast. platform or you can go to tkopod.com. Also my newsletter will throw that in there. There are no ads. It's weekly. It's different content than my podcast and YouTube. Newsletter.com. You'll see the

link and we'll see you there. It's clearly in Asia. It's a maybe a seven-year-old girl in front of like a claw machine vending machine. On the left side is an aquarium with live goldfish in there swimming around. And she has like this plastic scoop and she has a joystick and she scoops it down and then some fish swim above it. And she like catches a fish, a live fish in the scoop and then pulls it out above the water and then moves it over and then drops it in like a bin. And then we don't really know what happens to that poor fish. Is it like is a more interactive way of buying fish for your aquarium and you can pick them that way? They're really small fish. So you can't eat them.

So I don't know what's going on here. But it gave me a good idea of something that could be going on here. Okay. Okay. It gave me an idea for a framework as well. Keep going. Okay. So this machine is being sold.

The Instagram account that posted it is. is some random Chinese company that sells these live fish vending machines. And you know we love vending machines around here, right? I love me a vending machine. I never met a vending machine I could refuse. Okay. That's good. I've never heard that one, actually.

So is it a new bit you're trying? It's a new bit. I'm trying it out. I like it a little bit. Okay. So you take that machine. On the left side is the fish tank with all the fish. And then on the right side,

You get like just a simple 10 gallon aquarium. You fill it with coral toys. It's crystal clear. It looks just like a fish paradise. And there's no fish in there. And on the left, you just have fish packed to the brim. Terrible living conditions. Okay.

The kids save the fish. Well, the left side looks like what we see in the video, right? It's just a bunch of fish, right? And the kids get to save them and put them in like fish paradise. They pay money to move them over. And then at the end of the night, when the business closes down, you just put those suckers right back with the other fish. What do we think? What do we think?

What if we started a business with dogs? They're all in the same nine by nine kennel. There's 400 of them stacked up. You come in. You look at the dogs. You're like, oh, that dog looks like he's in trouble. You could save the dog today. So you put them in the dog park.

But at the end of the day, we put the dogs back in the kennel, baby. I hate that, but I do like the idea of this framework, which is if you're a business that sells things to kids, how do you make it more attractive to the kid? And by this is what I mean, you've ever gone to the store and your favorite child really wants something? Every single time I go to the store every three seconds. Really, really wants something. When do you give in?

I don't. Okay. I give in. I'll give it every time, every other time. But you give in when you're like, oh, wow, yeah, Johnny has a hobby that does this, let's get that. Or like, oh, it's a color. He's been asking for this.

Okay, it's an impulse buy, whatever. Either way, it's hard for a parent to say no. So how do you make the experience for the kid such that it's so great that it makes it even harder for the parent to say no? Here's an example. If you're a dick sporting goods and you sell soccer balls, like leave some soccer. ball's like leave a little pitch let the kids play soccer with them i know that's not like 100 percent feasible but i'm just painting the idea here a lego store have legos out that the kids can play with with the actual lego set in a box and then after they played with it you know they want to buy it

so this is that on steroids right there's fish you scoop the fish out you move it and plop it down daddy i want the fish i just saved like how do you say no to the kid after they just saved a freaking goldfish in front of you okay yeah i guess let's get the freaking goldfish in front of you yeah i guess let's Get the freaking goldfish. You're right. You install these at like a pet smart. Exactly. You install them somewhere that people are going to make.

You make money on the vending machine, but it's really a big upsell ploy. They're paying you to be upsold. Exactly. Like going to an Alex Hormosey conference. 100%. Pay a lot of money to be upsold. You don't have a sales guy walking the floor to tell you all of the features.

Oh, this puppy's really good because they're a good breed and you can see what, blah, blah, blah. No, you let them go play with the freaking puppy for 20 minutes. or you let them scoop out the fish or like that's going to be a much better sale than anybody trying to convince them. So I like that framework if you own a children's business. Yeah. I like my idea too, though. I do. I do. I really do. You're a dirty dog, man. You're freaking crazy, bro. I don't think FEMA's like not even going to approve that, bro. FEMA? I don't know. Emergency management is like. I don't know. I'm just spitting. I'm just

spitting here. All right. I got another one for you. Oh, Kyle. All right. All right. Tell us what I'm going to say it from my coughing. Remember how I died when you started walking? That's my life. That's my life. I'm like the thread. Taking on my earrings.

But you know the vibe. But you know the feeling. But the night has me on your ceiling. That's your price. That's your price. That's your price. All right. Tell us what's going on here, Nick.

I don't know. Every cut is like half a second. I don't even know. I know there's dogs involved. and there's a car and that and it's like somehow mobile but I don't really know what their product is because it like wouldn't stay long enough on anyone thing is this is this because we're too ADHD or is this because they're an idiot it's probably a combo I mean we're idiots too right so what is this this is pink card you don't already know right what do we just watch a pink car

some type of pet grooming you wouldn't know what's happening here unless you read the caption So we just watched was this millennial woman that opened a mobile bookstore. It's this pink car that she put bookshelves on the back of. And she rolls up to events, farmers markets, conferences. And she specifically sells romance novels, like very niche. But supposedly she's doing really well. What's the name of her Instagram account? Good Girl Books Knox as in Knoxville.

I think she's in Knoxville. Hey, Good Girl Books, Knox. You need to figure out. what you do. Okay? Because that video, I had no idea you sell fucking romance novels in a mobile unit.

I thought it was a dog grooming business that you could like read books to. I had no idea. Her dog was in it a lot. You had all summer to think about it. You need to figure out what you do with your marketing team. So many I think you should leave references today.

It's very good. That's a weird business. A mobile bookstore? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, like Apple bookstore? or Amazon? Physical books.

So I think this is interesting. What if, for instance, what if you had a mobile bookstore of business books and you rolled up to Main Street in Columbia, Missouri? And you parked right outside the evening. Gosh, that's a great idea. You think you wouldn't sell some books there? That's a good idea. Can I tell you something?

I know I've mentioned Craig, but it's just because I just interviewed him. I asked him. I was like, he buys all these media properties up. Magazines in particular. He focuses on magazines. I'm like, why do you keep the magazines? Everybody's getting rid of print. you're keeping the magazines and he's like there's something very interesting you are indistractable

when you're holding a book or a magazine in your hand think about that if you're on facebook if you're on Twitter if you're on your Instagram on your phone bling notification bling notify oh i got a like oh i got a text but you could be watching anything yeah but your attention yeah is not necessarily fully there you bring you bring up a book or a magazine or you know something that's such a good framework you're indestructible right isn't it freaking great even though i crapped on her video because I was just so confusing. I didn't know what the freak I was looking at. I think it's a great idea because you're bringing the book to them. They're indistractable and you have their attention. And now you've got to be careful and smart about how you use

their attention. But I really, gosh, dang it. I really like that idea because you're, it's almost like we've swung so hard towards digital that people are now willing to pay a premium for physical experiences. And this plays into that. It's a great idea. You could work with a major publisher like Penguin and buy their books at wholesale and just follow conferences around, like very niche conferences and only supply those types of books. CES is going on right now. Yeah. Consumer electronics. Show, show. Show. There we go. Park out there. They're like seeing all these digital products all day and then you just have a, you know, a book or whatever that comes out. Yeah, you're probably going to get a small percentage of people who are going to come and look at it.

But they're going to people will come and look at that stuff. That's a great idea. Conferences. business conferences in particular, man. That's a great idea. Any vending concept or mobile concept or like party bus concept or food truck concept that's on wheels and different and unique, people look at it with a positive confirmation bias because it's unique. It's like it turns heads. It's like, huh? Even if the idea itself is bad, it's made better by the fact that it's new and unique and fresh. It makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense. And you can do something I think, I think you'd want to do something that is unique. So this is what I mean by it.

Let's say they sell Lord of the Rings books because that's one of the books that I know. Could I buy a Lord of the Rings book on Amazon? Easily send it to me. Other than it's in person and you're going to like this mobile book, like what else could you do? Maybe there's a QR code with every single one of them that links to something. Maybe there's, I don't know, custom bookmarks. I just think there'd have to be something else that's like, oh, the mobile book place is coming. I know I could get this book on Amazon, but I like them because of X, Y, and Z.

Yeah. I love the word indestructible. I don't think I've ever heard that word. I made it up. Wow. He said the same thing. I'm dead serious. He said the same thing to me.

He's like, it's a really good word. You're indestructible. There's a documentary about Jerry Springer right now. And Jesse and I were watching the last night. Okay. Remember Jerry Springer? Hmm. Do I remember Jerry Springer?

I don't know. Is this your girlfriend's mom's brother that you had a f*** with? Ah, you kidding me? Of course I don't, Jay's Bernard. Yes. So his producer said something really interesting. You're going to like this. You're going to like this.

He said, we wanted something to be happening on the screen at all times to where if you're flipping channels with the sound off, you would stop. And like their craziest episode ever, which you probably never heard about because they aired it. They aired everything in New York City first. But then this was so crazy that they stopped airing it. It was a guy that divorced. his wife and married his donkey and brought his donkey on the show with him and like was french

kissing the donkey on the show and the still image of that was a guy was a guy sitting next to his donkey and it said you marry your donkey like you can't tell me if you're because like flipping channels back in the day is the same thing as swiping on social media yeah every platform just wants us to stop swiping or stop scrolling and to stay on their app it's the same principle it's first principles. And did you realize that he was rated higher than Oprah for a time? I'm not surprised. I didn't know that, but yeah, I'm not surprised. Back then, the ratings were like, if you had two million views per episode, you were solid. So back in the day, there were like 20 talk shows. This is like late 90s, I believe, mid to late 90s. And to get a rating of two, as in two million viewers,

that was like pretty solid. Like it just meant you weren't going to get canceled. Wasn't amazing, but solid. Oprah was at 16. 16 million viewers per episode. Jerry Springer, his first show was like one, one and a half million viewers per episode. It was like okay. And it was just like he would like reunite people that hadn't seen each other for 30 years. It was kind of like a heartwarming show, which I had no idea he started as that. And then someone had the idea to just go off the rails.

And no one had ever done that before. And they described it as like the gladiate, the television version of gladiator, like the modern day gladiator. Because it was just people fighting like on the stage. Right. Yeah. And he after after that donkey episode, his ratings were higher than Oprah's for a time, which is like to think that like two million is solid. Oprah was at 16 million. Jerry was at 17, 18 million. It's insane. It's crazy. If you're on like TikTok or Instagram and you're swiping, you will see that principle in action where because like 30% of people that look at short form video have their sound off. Right. So you'll see crazy hooks that have 100 million views like this one comment. And the common hook is a guy standing in the middle of a road with a rope tied around his neck and arm. And the other end of the rope is tied to a car. And the car will be speeding away from him. And like so the, the assumption is this guy's about to get thrown backwards because he's tied to the car.

And you will not scroll past that if you see it. And so people are just doing more and more outlandish things to stop the scroll. And it's just that's humans. It's first principles. I actually didn't make up the word industry. But I thought that was a really interesting framework that he gave, which is like, I'm like, he's not going to go away from the magazine because people are indistractable. Like they're, they're 100% focused on it.

So somehow bringing these types of businesses into the real world, whether it's through a community, whether it's a product that kind of floats around, I, I really like it. Or like you said, it could be like all signed copies, like something unique about the book, like a limited print or first edition or something that would be even better. You know who Scott Galloway is. I heard him talking recently about, and maybe it wasn't Scott Galloway. I don't know. They all run together.

But he was talking about that our economy is an addiction economy. He's like, look at the biggest companies of all time. You've got pharmaceutical companies, tobacco companies. Apple. They're selling cigarettes. Well, that was his point. It's like Google, Facebook, Apple, they are trying to get your attention. They're trying to keep you addicted to the product.

Like we're an addiction economy. And in this instance, your attention is what they're trying to capture, right? And I think it's interesting to think about ways to bring people off platform, ways to get people to focus on you and be, you know, to not be distracted. The first idea that we talked about, whether the Tonka trucks that are digging in the sand, you're indestructible, right? Like, you're focused, laser focused 100% on digging that hole or whatever. So creating environments where you can be laser focused and not distracted, I think, is a good framework to think about for businesses that are bringing people in to their product. I saw something online where someone was talking crap about parents like you and I, frankly, that I mean, any parent is on their phone around their kids occasionally, right? Some of us more than others.

And I try to be conscious about it when my kids are with me around me. I try to be off my phone less, very hard. But it's tough and it's an addiction. But I was reading like back in the 50s, 60, 70s, it was the same thing. It was just the newspaper. Like the dad would get home from work. He would sit in the armchair. He would open the newspaper.

Dad, look what I did at school today. And he's just in like, it's first principles. We're humans. We're creatures of habit where we get addicted to stuff. So I spent two hours wrestling with my kids last night. And I've been, I mean, it's stupid, but I've been trying to when I get home, put my phone away and just wrestle. Because it's like they're only going to be young for a small period of time. And I don't want them to make like to do an imitation of me looking at my phone or on my phone or like whatever that is.

So I do try to make time to mess around with them. But I was sweating, dude. It was a freaking workout. My kids are getting big. It's a problem. All right. What did you think? Please share it with a friend.

And we'll see you next time on the Kerner office.