The Pomp Podcast - #462: Josh Richards on Becoming an Entrepreneur

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

Josh Richards is one of the most famous TikTok stars in the world. He has recently started to spend most of his time as an investor and entrepreneur. This conversation unpacks the transition.  In this conversation, we discuss how Josh built his large audience, where his income comes from, why he is interested in building companies, and the types of businesses that he is looking to invest in.  ======================= OKCoin.com is the leading crypto exchange for both beginners and experienced users. You can fund your account in under 2 minutes, and get access to the most advanced trading engine, all while paying the lowest trading fees in the industry (0.1%). Visit www.okcoin.com/pomp and open your account today.  ======================= Own crypto in multiple exchanges and wallets? Sync them to CoinStats so you track and manage them from one place. Track 8000+ coins and 300+ exchanges all from the Coinstats platform. Try it for free or go to coinstats.app/pomp and get 40% off your premium subscription. ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 100,000 investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy to understand language, while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://www.pompletter.com =======================

What's up, everyone? This is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Let's kick this thing off. Josh Richards is one of the most famous TikTok stars in the world. He has recently started to spend most of his time as an investor and entrepreneur. This conversation unpacks that transition. In this conversation, we discuss how Josh built his large audience, where his income comes from, why he is interested in building companies, and the type of businesses that he is looking to invest in. I really enjoyed this conversation with Josh, and I think you'll enjoy it as well.

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so if you own crypto and it's anywhere hardware wallet mobile wallet exchange liquidity pool or somewhere else you gotta have coin stats would let you track everything all in one place across your iphone android apple watch or computer go to coin stats dot app slash pomp lastly don't forget that i write a daily letter to over 100 000 investors about business technology and finance i break down complex topics in easy to understand language while sharing my personal opinion on various aspects of each industry, you can subscribe at pompletter.com. Again, pompletter.com. All right, let's get in this episode with Josh. I hope you guys enjoy this one. Anthony Pompliano is a partner at Morgan Creek Digital. All opinions expressed by Pomp or his

guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Morgan Creek Digital or Morgan Creek Capital Management. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only. All right, guys. Bang, bang. I've got Josh Richards here. What's going on, man? Thank you for doing this. Hey, thank you for having me, man. You're like the king of podcasts. I feel like you've got like a million podcasts and are on everyone's podcast. No, yeah. I think that I've done

about a podcast a day for the last month. That's what it feels like. All right. How the hell did you get famous on the internet? What's your story? Yeah. So it's, it's kind of a weird one, but I started because my sister just threw me in a video. Uh, it was back in the musically days, four years ago. Uh, and it was at the start of the 2016 summer. And then the video blew up on her account. People started asking her like, yo, what's, what's his account. What's his at. And I didn't have one. So I was like, Oh, I'll make one. This will be fun. Right. And instantly I'm, I'm like, I'm an athlete and I'm very competitive, right? Like that's just, that's how I was raised. That's just in my blood

and it's everything I do, I have to be the best at. So for the social media, I instantly turned it into like a goal, like a bunch of goals, a bunch of numbers I had to hit. And it was like, if I don't hit 10,000 followers by the end of this summer, I'm quitting, I'm done. Didn't work out for me. So I started working really hard, instantly like hired my sister, put her on a 15% salary-based commission was like treating it exactly like a business. Um, and then slowly, but surely just started building myself up. Like I was focusing a lot on the live stream, uh, part of musically because no one was really touching like that part of the app. They were just focusing on the videos and there were only like three top live streamers. So I didn't have as much

competition if I was going there. And I was a small creator. I only had 60,000 followers at this point. Right. And that was like a whole next year, 2017. And so I got my sister to go to every single leaderboard that was on the live stream app. If that was the top gifters, top likers, whatever it is. So I was going right to these fans, right? I had like the access of the customer right in front of me. And they were the highest spending customers too, because I actually had the leaderboard. So this way I'm reaching the most important people. I became one of the most like top paid, um, live streamers on the app actually with only a hundred thousand followers when I was going up against these accounts with like 10 million, 12 million followers.

So that's where I all started. It was, it was always treated like a business. How much money were you making when you're the top, uh, live streamer on musically? Back then, four years ago, I was doing, I was probably doing like $2,000 a night going live. Okay. And you were going live every single night? Yeah. Okay. So you're making, so you're making what, like 50, $60,000 a month. Yeah. It was, it was probably the craziest thing for like a 16 year old. I mean, it was often on too, because I also was playing sports. So I wouldn't say it was like 2k every night. Cause there were some nights, sadly, like I would be like, I had a hockey game or I had this,

right. And it's like, so I wasn't able to focus on my social media, but yeah, that's about what it was like every time i was going live it was just the craziest thing okay so how do you get from musically to the big tiktok audience uh so when musically went completely dead right like actually even when i started when i was 14 it was on the down it was on the decline right uh so it was like i the app had lasted another year or two and now tiktok came in and bought it everyone was pretty much saying like this app is over it's done like tiktok's gonna be a joke no one's gonna use this app. And I was actually live streaming. Cause like I said, like I was really focused on being a live streamer. And that was part of like my brand, I would say on TikTok slash musically,

I was streaming while they actually transferred it. The update was coming out at 12. I was live at the exact same time. I wanted to see if like the app crashed, if everyone's accounts restarted and nothing happened, literally not one thing. I was live, everything stayed the same. So I was like, what the heck? Waited 10 more minutes, got off, updated the app. And it was just the exact same thing with a different logo on it. Right. And then I noticed the one difference, this crazy difference was the for you page. And I knew that had to be special because that's like this random change to the scrolling feature. Like I'm seeing all these videos of people I didn't follow. I was confused. Right. And I studied it for the next two weeks. All I did was watch the videos that

were coming up, see what about those videos was unique compared to others, why those ones were doing the best. And I found out it all had to do with shares and comments. So then I was like, all right, what video is going to blow me up and blow up my account that is going to cause people to share it, save it, or like comment on it. So I was like, tutorials, easy. Who doesn't save a tutorial, right? Like you want to have it for later. So when you are going to do it, it's right there in your saved videos. So I did a first tutorial video, 70 million views. What was it? were you getting the tutorial on it was a transition i used to do transitions on the app and i threw my hoodie and then like as the hoodie kind of falls it like it becomes me if you get

kind of like the video i'm giving um and i did a tutorial on how to make that video it was a quick 30 second video 70 million views my account went up probably 300 000 followers and maybe maybe more honestly maybe like 500 000 just from the one video and since that day i was like all right i fucking got it. Like I know what to do. I got the algorithm down. I started posting a tutorial every single week. And then I would also post the video, like the transition video or whatever the video was before it. And then I would be like, the caption would be like tutorial coming soon. So then it would get people excited. They would engage more with that video. That video would blow up. Then I would also get the blow up from the tutorial video. At what point do you go from

tutorials to dancing and singing and kind of all the things you guys do now? Yeah. I mean, that was one of the craziest parts about my career is like how many times I've had to pivot like and it's something that I think I've done quite well like I just found the right times to do it and it was actually the summer of 2019 before that was clashing with the manager at the time like awful relationship and I was like I gotta I gotta get out of this I have to leave So I left the management and I went on this tour that the manager had told me not to do. He was like not letting me sign on to the tour, all that. And I was like, fuck it.

Leaving the manager, doing this tour. I know I need to do it. Went on it. That was called the Lights Out Tour. The tour that actually blew me up and all my friends, like actually like half of the Sway, the original Sway House of Griffin, Quentin, I mean, Griffin, Jaden, and Anthony. And so when you're doing all of the tours and everything, at what point do you decide like, hey, we should go move to LA?

um so we end the tour I'm in LA and I only knew Jaden that was the only kid that was in LA that I knew and we didn't really hang out on the tour I went on um we maybe saw each other in like the meet and greet line like five times and just like we're like cordial with each other said what it's up um but then I was like I'll just reach out to him and be like yo you want to hang out I'm going to Bryce Hall's house so I was heading over to Bryce's I'd known him kind of like not well but just seen him at events. We were going to film content. Jaden came over and we all just like started hanging out that night. We partied that night, you know, that sway lifestyle, um, and instantly just all bonded. Like we became friends very, very quickly. And then I met Michael Gruen

at Bryce's house. That's when we started the conversation about talent X and how people were getting treated as fairly or not treated well. And we just came off the tour. So, uh, that's kind of where we actually got taken advantage of a lot of money stolen um when we started to realize and we could actually also make a lot of money off social media so it all kind of came together perfectly we were staying at bryce's at the time so we're like let's just move in together sway house talent x now we're here where'd you get the sway name from that's actually a funny ass story we were i i remember we were all texting each other in a group chat like all the boys and then michael um and we were putting out a new york times press release and it was going

up in 12 hours and we had no name not one name for the group we're all looking up names and like the first thing i think someone looked up was probably like a synonym for the word like clout or or like followers or something and i guess sway is one i had no idea but it's like a word that has to do with like, yeah, cloud. So no one liked the name. We all hated it. We were like, sway sounds stupid. Like it's like swaying, like what the hell? Like we're going to get mean. This is awful. But then no one came up with anything better. So we were like, fuck it. Let's just send sway. We're doing it. We're going with it. And then, uh, that's yeah. And then sway became sway way. I love it. I love it. Uh, when you think of kind of like

your business or the business of Josh, what goes into that? Like, how do you think about the products that you have, the companies, how you make money? Just walk me through kind of like how you think of the things you do. Yeah. I mean, for us, we already have the customer, right? And we've actually talked about that a little bit before, but we have done it a complete different way than most people. Usually they build the product out, then they go acquire the customers. We have the customers just following us, liking our photos, listening to everything we say on a daily basis, which is crazy. So the best thing for us to do is listen to our audience. We got to listen to the customers. And that's what we did with the energy drink. And by we,

I mean, Bryce and I, we were shotgunning Red Bulls in every single YouTube video, just like consistently going. And we noticed these fans were doing the exact same. They started shotgunning energy drinks. They were sending us videos, challenging us to shotgun against them. And it was like building this trend, videos blowing up on the For You page on TikTok. And we were like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop it with the free promo for Red Bull. This is getting ridiculous. Like we got to figure something out. So that's kind of where we were like, let's create our own energy drink. Stop giving the branding away for free and start selling our own stuff. So yeah, it was just listening to the customer.

And so when you think about the things that you sell to them today, there's merchandise that you have there's uh energy drink is there other things um i mean there's definitely other things that are in the works and then sometimes they're more like charity angles for example unhide is a company i just teamed up with and they're obviously against you know the use of animal products and they're trying every single day to just keep improving their product to make it uh like greener and better for this earth so that's something that's awesome and also built off of another company called dog for dog. I got like, I'm a part of dog for dog. Uh, they give back a bag of dog food to a shelter every time someone buys one. Right. Yeah. It depends if it's either going to be a

passion project or something that I'm trying to make maybe a ton of money on, or I'm doing just for the sense of business, but yeah, definitely got to have a little bit of both. What happens in the house when people aren't there? Like, what are you guys doing? I think people think that you guys are like running around with your shirts off like getting hammered smoking weed and like i don't know like face plant in the pool or something like whatever but like what do you what are you guys doing when no one's there i mean the thing is is like there's usually never anyone here but us like it's this crazy thing that like all of a sudden sway just decided to change within the last like two months three months but everyone was just like all right i'm

gonna mentally mature by like three years i don't know what happened i don't know who talked to who or like what was put in the water at the sway house but we all just decided to chill out and i mean we're when we're all together like we're just hanging out like we're just boys right we're regular people a lot of times like people are trying to film inside our house or they're trying to like get into get into the sway house like break into our house which is like against law it's crazy that people think they can just do that because we're social media influencers but it's like what do you expect to see like we're not like up to some illuminati type shit in our house. Like we're regular people. Like we might be like playing Scrabble or like ping pong. You

know what I mean? Like watching a YouTube video, you're not going to get anything cool. Like when you come from, you're like, Oh, Oh, look at this. What are they doing? Like, we're going to be like, yo, could you leave? We're just like trying to watch family guy, like eat Doritos. Like, you know what I mean? We just do regular things. Who's the best at ping pong? Uh, we actually had a tournament yesterday. I saw, and I saw there was money on the line too. Oh, yeah. Well, you see, actually, I had a bad shoulder that day. So I was just taking it easy. I'll just say that to start it off. So like purposely got out first round. But one of the managers, Maxwell, actually took the dub, won it. And then Bryce lost to Blake. So Blake seems to be the number one in the house right now, even though like, I'm pretty sure I'm undefeated against him. but all right and then what's going on in terms of like when you guys go outside of the house i don't think people especially in like the business and investing community understand enough they

know you guys have big social followings but uh like if you go somewhere in los angeles or elsewhere and you've got a couple of your friends with you and let's say you guys go to a starbucks or you walk into a restaurant like do you guys just get mobbed or do people kind of just like hey they know who you are but they leave you guys alone um i mean it's it's getting crazier every day right and it's also hard to judge with like i feel like covid going on in the quarantine but i i remember like going out before covid and like we would get people that come up to us all the time and maybe they it would end up building up to a group of like 25 50 or whatever but if we're in like a mall that's different right like you're in a closed space of course people are eat like

couldn't be able to mob you. But if you're just walking Melrose or if you're walking on sunset, like the difference from five months ago to now is insane. Like everywhere we go, there's people that know us now. And I think that it's because a lot of the things we do are now bigger than just ourselves. Like, it's not just about like me. It's not just about Bryce. It's not just about Griffin. It's not about sway. Like we're trying to make a difference and, and actually have an impact on people. So I think that's starting to happen with a lot of the press we're getting. Um, so yeah, I think it's, I, I, it feels so like douchey to say like, yeah, we get mobbed. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, I don't want to say that, but yeah,

we get a lot of people that come up to us and ask us for photos and it, it's awesome. Honestly, like feels, it feels good to be loved. Yeah. And I think part of what's so fascinating to me as i've gotten to know you guys is like the first time i saw i think it was either griffin or bryce i can't remember somebody tweeted and uh all of a sudden i saw people being like you know basically like notice me like like my tweet reply to my tweet i mean like just crazy i was like what planet are these guys living on like literally that's what people want and uh and then bryce was explaining to me like literally just liking somebody's tweet they go nuts they'll screenshot and i'll send it all their friends they'll like do all this kind of stuff and so like how do you

think about, you know, something that's like a low friction, like pretty low investment on your standpoint, or just like, if you'd like a tweet or you follow somebody back or you respond or whatever, but you can't sit there and do that all day long. But when you do do it, it means something to somebody. It's like, how do you think about engaging with fans online? Um, and how does that, do you think translate to like the fandom that you see in real life when they run up to you and all that? A hundred percent. I mean, that's actually why I went live. Like, that's why I started my career by going live. It was because I was able to be a lot more one-on-one with my, my supporters and my fans, because I'm constantly getting questions. I'm constantly being able to

answer them actually was able to memorize some people's usernames. It's like, if they came on the live a lot, like actually build like friendships with these, these fans. And that is probably like one of the most important things to do. If you want a dedicated fan base or like a cult type following, right. Where they will just follow you wherever you go. They're going to like take your word on everything. And I mean, engaging is a huge part of that. If that's like, sometimes I just go through my Twitter and I just go through my mentions and I just like go through and like when people are talking on my name and like, they're saying good things about me, I'm just liking tweets and like fans appreciate that. Or if I go through my tag photos on

Instagram and I posted something about people going and rating the podcast five stars, right? I'll go through and just make sure to engage with everyone. Cause they went and did that for me. And it's like, you know what? I want them to feel something a little extra special. Like it's just little things like that. I think that's important for creators to do, especially when like, dude, it takes five minutes. You could probably go through in like 150 people's posts

and then they're like, they've made their week. You know what I mean? Absolutely. And so when you think of like, if somebody's starting out today and trying to build these large audiences, is TikTok the place to do it? Is it Triller?

Is it Twitter, Instagram? Is it something I don't know about? like where do you think people today if they're starting should look at yeah i mean for me when i first started um i was i i just used musically because it was the one video platform like that's why i used it it was the one place where videos were able to go viral very easily the thing is is now every platform has that right every platform has like hopped on the tiktok wave where like these videos are an explore page and so it's like you can really start anywhere i mean it's going to be probably a lot harder to get traction on youtube off the bat it's going to

be a little bit harder for instagram as well but the thing is also is like when you build on those platforms that are a little harder like youtube or instagram and you build from nothing else not tiktok not trailer not you build a really really engaged platform or followers on that platform right? Because there's something about those apps like TikTok and Triller when it's such quick content. A lot of times people just like and follow you for your one video that you posted or for your content. They don't follow and like you for you. And that's the difference between YouTube is it's a long form con it's long form content. They see really who you are. They see what you like, what you care about, and then they get attached to that instead.

Is it fair to say that you guys put way more time and energy into the YouTube videos and the TikToks are more of like, Hey, there's those dances going viral or you just pull a song and listen, you know, and kind of sing along to it or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I think that also like people say like TikTok so easy. Right. And I, and like, I'll give it to them. Like, you know what I mean? Like putting a video in front of yourself or a camera in front of yourself, filming like 15 second videos, it's, it's not that hard, but the thing is, is knowing the difference, like being able to just look at a video and know instantly the difference between like, is this video going to go viral or is it not? Like, it's not important. Anyone can do it.

It takes practice. And like, it takes a few years, but like, that's a real thing, right? Like there's, there's a real part of it where it's like the creators, like, I think the Swayos has it really well. Well, they, they've just developed like a viral eye, right. Where they can just see a video and they'll be like, I know that's going to go big on TikTok. So it doesn't take us as long anymore. And we're able to focus on other platforms where we're not so, um, you know, like savvy, like YouTube, we were getting better, but we have only been doing YouTube for eight, nine months where TikTok's been four years. Yeah. And I also think it's just, you build muscle memory, right? It's like you have practice. You know, yeah, you know, it works and what

doesn't. Do you guys work together at all from a content distribution standpoint? Like, will you ever post a video and then send it to the other guys and they all engage with it to kind of drive it on whatever platform? Or is it kind of just now you guys have such big audiences, you don't need to do that stuff anymore. Each other's shit. Like you've got to do that, right? That's just a part of being like the boys. Like I, there's never one time I don't see like Jaden, for example, he posted a song promo today. He's coming out with a new song soon. Um, better off dead shout out to Jaden. Um, but he, I instantly just reposted that on my story. Like it wasn't like Jaden told me to, or I felt like I needed to, it just kind of our attitude towards each other.

Like I would feel less successful if Jaden wasn't successful. And I, I hope, and I know like the boys have that same mentality towards me or towards any of the boys you know yeah uh what's up with all the drama in terms of like you guys are 20 21 years old i feel like you are going through everything that 20 21 year olds go through in terms of girls and uh you know who's talking to who and all this kind of nonsense the only difference is that you're literally doing it with like the whole world watching basically yeah and you know and then you got dave asking you on a podcast like hey are you guys dating and all of that yeah what's that like um i mean it's it's kind of crazy because it definitely does make you like always think about what you're gonna say

right like two three years ago i was very more just outspoken and i wouldn't have really watched what i said and i got in trouble for it a lot i mean like in school i would get in trouble wherever I'd get in trouble. Cause I just like said what was on my mind. I was just like, fuck it. But the thing is, is like, you can't really do that in this industry. Like I can get as close to like the line as possible, or I can like even go over the line, which I do. And some people just look at it as like, Josh is an idiot. He's he's like, he's, you know, he just is intense. He's edgy, whatever. It's like, sometimes I want to push the line because I want to see how far I can go. Like people, people have become so soft now. It's just like, what? I don't, I don't even,

I just can't say anything. I feel like I can't say anything. I feel like, you know, it's like really hard to just be yourself nowadays too, because like no one lets you learn from your mistakes. No one's letting you build like, and if you look back at me six months ago, I was a, I was a shit like person compared to who I am now. Not because like, it's cause I was younger. I was 17 and I didn't really know what I was doing. It's just kind of like that. People grow and in this industry, they don't let them. Absolutely. Last question about content is you got the podcast BFF with Portnoy. What's your favorite thing about Dave and what's your least favorite thing about Dave? Okay. I think my favorite thing about Dave is that he doesn't let

there be a line, you know, he does not let there be a line. He doesn't care what people are going to say about them. And it, sometimes it gets them in a lot of trouble, but at the same time, it's like, I respect him for it. It's no, one's really doing it anymore. And people used to be able to do that all the time. That's how it was everywhere. Right. So I just, I just think that's absolutely baller. Um, and then, and by the way, you're not really doing anything if you're not pushing the line right if you're not trying to figure out where the lines are right so yeah no yeah like i would prefer to be polarizing than just be like on everyone's good side you know what i'm saying like because like if everyone's just like okay with me or they're like yeah that

guy's cool like i'm not sticking out in anyone's heads if i'm polarizing then there's gonna be people that fucking love me and then there's gonna be people that fucking hate me but i'm in both of their mouths all day long so keep bringing me like the paycheck right i hear you uh but for the the thing i like that or what i like least about dave um gosh i feel like this is about to be a bff's uh like segment next week he's gonna be like so josh um but anyways um well now i'm gonna send it to him so whatever you say he's definitely gonna listen yeah perfect um i i would just say like i don't even know if i have one like it's it's like a hard situation like i would say like it it doesn't really bug me because i love it for the show but him like calling me out on

the nest stuff or like the he really just doesn't let me like sometimes slide you know what i mean he never lets me slide like do you want him to let you slide that's the thing it's like it's a love hate thing you know it's like sometimes i'm like fuck you man like you really just did that like i'm trying to like bounce off that question obviously but then at the same time i'm like ah i know that's about to get a million likes on tiktok so why don't you ever ask him about his love life um i mean i think i'm just like waiting for the right moment to attack and just unleash like all this stuff about dave you know what i mean like i'm just bringing it up i'm getting an inventory stocking up and then it's just gonna be like merry fucking christmas do you have

inventory on them? I mean, I have a few things. I mean, like some of it's like public and he just like, that's the other thing is he just doesn't care. Like, it's so hard to get a guy that just is like, yeah, no, that happened. You're like, okay. And like, you don't know what to say. Just you get through every time. It's impossible. All right. Let's talk about the business and investing stuff. Why are you interested in building these companies and investing in them? Yeah. I mean, like, like I said, actually, even going back to the content stuff, like ever since I started, I treated it as a business. Um, I always knew I was going to do something like as a kid, I was going to do something more than just like the regular path of like going to college and going to school. Like I was seven years old being like, I'm not going to go to college. Right. Like I already knew that. And it wasn't because I wasn't smart or it wasn't because I didn't like school. I strive to be the best at school. Like, cause like I said, I'm competitive at everything. If there was one kid that got a higher mark than me on a test, I would get pissed. I was like, fuck that guy. Like I,

I know I could have gotten done better if I put like five more minutes of studying, right? Like that was just me. I was competitive everywhere. So I mean, like I did, I did the hockey business when I was like 13, I started a hockey shirt company. And then I did another one when I was like 14, just before the, the musically thing started with lacrosse. Like it was always just building and starting new projects. And I just love that. And then when I finally had the, like this tool, social media, this lightning in a bottle where I could actually start building things to a huge degree compared to selling t-shirts door to door and selling them at hockey tournaments. Like I was, I had to jump on the opportunity. Like I was so excited. And the

first one was TalentX. Like I saw that there was an issue. I saw that people weren't getting treated fairly in the industry. I saw that there were no managers really for social, like TikTok specifically. And I was like, there's a hole as an entrepreneur. Like I need to fill that hole. Like that's what, that's what entrepreneurs do. Like, and that's just how my brain works. It's like, how can I fix that problem? How can I fix this problem? So when we started doing Annie and then like going down the road with partnering with different companies, acquiring equity, the next big thing was like, all right, let's, let's start doing some investing. Like, why don't I put my money that I'm making into good use as well? Um, so that was like a journey

we started probably three and a half months ago, I would say, or three months ago, um, Michael and I, at least, and it was just the, the coolest thing to me at the start, because it was like, I was investing in my earlier self, if that makes sense. Like it gave me that feeling where it was like, I could have, I would have been one of those people if I didn't have social media. Like I would be one of those founders going to people asking for their money. If I didn't have social media and the money to build my companies on my own. So to like, get to listen to all these founders, like, and how passionate they are about their projects, getting to be a part of the future and be like me knowing like I could be investing in the next Uber,

the next Airbnb, the next big tech company. Like that is the coolest feeling in the world to know that I'm going to be a part of the future. How much money did you make last year? I did. Just ballpark. You don't have to tell us exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I did pretty good.

I'll just say what like the Forbes thing said. Like they said I did 1.5. So that gives you an idea. Ballpark accurate. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So does that, is your thought process like that's going to grow to three, four or $5 million over the next two or three years? Or do you think that kind of from an income standpoint, you'll stay, let's call it around a million and a half,

and then you can invest and that's how you're going to grow your wealth? I think that it will actually probably grow quite a bit this next year, 2021 for sure. I think like my actual uh income like getting cash revenue will definitely higher probably like three or four x actually um why do you think that uh i think that because i just know the different like series and um content ideas i'm gonna be rolling out next year there's like a lot of exciting stuff that i'm just working on behind the scenes that hasn't been announced um and we'll be working on for a while, but it's definitely going to be a crazy year next year if that stuff hits those deadlines. Got it. And when you think about the investing stuff, is this just kind of like the

long-term way? So like you keep optimizing for driving as much income as you can today, but then you're going to invest capital and that capital will grow kind of illiquidly for quite a long time. And then that's kind of the big home run. Or do you look at it as, hey, I'm going to need those investments because this income is going to dry up at some point and I might not want to keep doing the content or whatever? I mean, I think it's a little bit of the last one you said where it's like kind of hedging your bets, right? I mean, you got to be smart with your money, period. If I had less money than I do, then there would be different plays that I'd be making, right? And if I had more, then there'd be different plays I'd be making

in that sense. Like, it's just like knowing what you got and being the smartest you can with it. But at the same time, it's like, I know I'm making money right now. I know that I have, um, this like, like lightning in a bottle, like I said, but I don't know if I'm going to have it in 10 years, but what I can do for the next two, maybe three is get connected to every young founder, get connected with every billionaire, get connected to every company and get in with those companies, be a part of them. And then like, I'm sitting here being the future of the 10 years. You know what I mean? Like I am the future in 10 years because I put my money into everything or not everything, but the right companies. So that's why.

All right. When we talk about like doing the right things with your money, I think I feel like I've gotten to know you, Bryce Griffin, enough where like you guys actually are very smart about what you do with your money um and you're obviously investing a lot you guys aren't doing kind of too crazy of things but what's the dumbest thing you've ever done with your money um i think for me it was probably buying that polaris that polaris was probably the dumbest purchase i ever made because one it only busted my hand open which was just like inconvenient and i think i've only drove it twice and it's only driven it twice yeah and it cost me like 12 grand okay this is gonna sound this is gonna sound crazy to people but like

that's not that bad like it's not like you went and bought a 250 000 ferrari and then crashed it a day later right no or like and i'm also not the guy to like buy a 60 000 watch right or like i like even like a watch period it's just like i'm not that guy like i'm the worst person to talk to when it comes to like bad expenses, because even that expense got paid off because it was a tax write-off for content by the players. Like, it's like, I don't really do those dumb purchases anymore. I would say when I started feeling like I was making money and I had like a hundred K in the bank, um, it was right after like lights out tour probably. Um, and I was like, I hadn't got my tour money yet, but I'd been making like a good amount of live stream money. And I was like

spending money on designer clothes. I was, I probably spent $20,000 during that summer just on clothing. And it was like, why? I don't wear any of it anymore. That's the best part. Like, I don't like that fashion. Like, that's just not me. I'm like a hoodie and jeans or like a hockey Jersey and pants. Like, it's like, I don't wear like that type of style. And it's also just like, it's so flashy and dude, it just sits in my closet. I hate that I spent the money on it. Like I spent $2,000 on a sweater and I haven't worn it in six months. What did your parents say the first time that you were like, like they like realized like, Oh shit, our kids like making like a good, decent amount of money. Yeah, it was, um, ninth grade was like coming to

an end. And I was starting to like, they started to see in their PayPal, like these like 500, $600 payments coming in all the time. And they were like, what the heck is going on? And I kept like being like, that's my money guys. Don't worry about it. Like, that's all I would say. I'd just be like, that's mine. Don't worry about it. So they probably thought I was out here like selling drugs. Like they, they straight thought I was just like chopping out of our basement. Um, but they, they came to me and they were like, so Josh, like we heard, like my dad heard about it at school that i was doing like social media that's how we like and like i guess he had seen me like making videos so he just like put it together and he was like like what is it what is musically like

what are you doing like how are you making this money and i was like you know like i go live i stream and they give me like money and he's like is this like porn like so confused right like my dad has no idea like he's hearing like a live stream donate it's weird right like so anyway um i ended up like kind of like showing him the app and everything like that but then they were instantly just like all right that's cool like heck yeah because they were already used to my like crazy business schemes and like ideas right like I destroyed their basement already with the lacrosse company because I was dying the mesh and the whole carpet in our basement was just like a tie-dye t-shirt and then um I had like tried to take the tub where I was like bending wood to

create skim boards like so that you could go on the beach and ride like I I always wrecked our stuff. And like, so when they finally saw that I was making money, they were probably like, heck yeah, now Josh can pay for this. Like, let's, let's go. And he's not going to screw up our house even better. Yeah, exactly. All he has to do is go on his phone. So we're safe. All right. What's your goal in terms of 10 or 20 years from now? What do you hope to kind of be able to say like, here's what I've accomplished? Um, I want to, I definitely want within the next 10 to 20 years for one of my companies to have a big exit. That's like just a goal of mine, right. To be able to sell one of my companies and kind

of just be able to say like, I did that. I built a company and like, that's, that's just the coolest feeling. I feel like, um, I would say keep investing. Like I w I want to have a fund. I want to be a part of a, I am a part of the remiss, uh, fund, which has been, is going to be a really cool experience, but I want to start my own as well. Not just come in, uh, like I did there. Um, and then just like continue with entertaining. Cause I love to entertain. Like I do love business more than anything, but at the same time, it's like, I've always been that outgoing loud kid that was either the class clown or disrupting assemblies or like, I did that, right? Like, that's what I like to do. So I would love to be known still in like this

entertainment world in 10 to 20 years. If that's just in a different way, that would be cool. you know what i mean all right and throughout this whole thing last question for you uh or actually i got a couple other questions but uh who's the craziest like coolest person you've met through all of this um i've met some like super insane people super crazy people but like some of the coolest people that i met like just like right off the bat when i started talking to them were probably uh sean rad was really cool when i met him like he just has always like been giving me advice has always uh just been a great mentor to me um and then also ashton kutcher i've got to talk to him a couple times and he's just like great greatest guy he's funny he's like he's

just kind of like one of the boys i had great conversation with him and then shack shack was super cool to talk to he's just he's just he is a funny motherfucker dude i answer the phone with him and every time i answer the phone i just know i'm about to laugh every single time so what's he what's he call you about i mean sometimes it's just like nothing sometimes like one time we chatted and he was just like saying like yo you can call me anytime like i'm here if you if you ever need some advice never ever need me to ask or ask me anything so i was just like oh yeah Yeah. Oh, it's just like, yeah. So it's, you ever take them up on it and call? Oh yeah. I call, I was on a call with him the other day. We were just talking about like a

couple like business ideas I was thinking about and getting his advice on it. I mean, just like those types of relationships in the business world is so cool to have, like having those people that are kind of like your mentors or just like are nice enough to help you out when you need it. That's where I've met some of the coolest people. Yeah. I'll, I'll, uh, we'll hold my breath for a Shaq and Josh TikTok dance. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That, that needs to come. Maybe, maybe I, I do like a Shaq versus with him. I don't know if you ever seen his series where he was like going up against pro athletes. He comes up against a pro TikToker. All right. Ask the same two questions to everybody. First is what's the most important book you've ever read? Most important book I've

ever read um all right this is gonna sound super dumb but there's a there's a reason for it right i was a kid that hated to read when i was younger at the start i didn't want to read any single books so i don't know if this is the most important book i read but it's a book i'm most grateful for because it did start my like my my love for reading because i i love to read but it's, it's the diver wimpy kid. It's a funny answer. I know probably never got one like that on this podcast for sure. Cause I bet you every motherfucker is coming in here with like the smartest book that they've ever heard of. Right. And trying to act all like amazing, but it's diver wimpy kid because I didn't like reading. And that introduced me to reading in a way where

I was like, it was funny. And as like a little kid, right? Like it doesn't feel like I'm reading comic book almost. And then after that, I instantly went to like Percy Jackson. And then after that, I started reading all the Harry Potters. And like, that was like when I was probably in like third, fourth grade. So then I just started reading and reading and reading. And now I've read like so many books since I've been in LA. I don't think I've actually picked up one. Um, so I probably got to, but, uh, yeah. I love that. It's a great answer. All right. Second one's more fun. Uh, aliens. Are you a believer or not a believer? A hundred percent of believer. Yeah. Why? Because it's, it's like, there, there's just no way there can't be like, there has got to be,

it's so big. The universe is so big and it's just like, we're, we're such a small part of it. I, yeah, there's gotta be aliens. A hundred percent. Yeah. I'm with you. All right. You could ask me one question to finish up. What question you got for me? Ooh. All right. What am I going to ask? Let's see. Um, if, okay, this is a question I'm going to ask because I actually just want to know about it someone that has never like bought in crypto before because i have not at all like is there any other coins out there besides like bitcoin that i should be interested in or start looking in well here's the way i think about it is if you don't own any at all then you should start with bitcoin right and you don't need to buy a whole bitcoin

you can just buy a part of a bitcoin yeah like i can just put 400 bucks into it even like a dollar You put $10. Yeah, whatever. So it's like you start there. And then in my opinion, that's the thing that is going to take up majority of people's attention. It's going to take up majority of kind of the future returns. That's the thing that is like the most important. There's a whole bunch of other people you're going to talk to that will disagree with that. They'll say there's all this other stuff, right? there's other things that will accrue value um but but it's just like what do you want to focus on right what's your advantage um and kind of lean into that advantage so i think that for you it's like look if you own nothing just start with bitcoin right and like you can go figure out whatever you want to do but like bitcoin is kind of step one um and uh and i think you want to be able to just get started right like that's the hard part because it's what you're what 18 years old yeah 18 yeah so like my brothers i got four younger brothers right and like each one of them

they went a long time. They didn't have any, then they bought a little bit and they buy a little bit more and like, and then just slowly, like you learn more about it, whatever. And like, you kind of just build up your confidence level, um, you know, cause you're putting money in, right? So it's like, Hey, I don't want to go buy $20,000 Bitcoin and then be like, Oh shit, this is stupid. So you start small and then you just build it up. Makes sense. Thank you. All right. Like I told Griffin, uh, I would normally ask people where we can send them to find them on the internet, but you are everywhere. Uh, where do you want people to connect with you from like the business and uh an investing world if they want to reach

out um i mean i i have a linkedin now so josh richards on linkedin i did like dude i didn't even know that was still a thing until recently and then i was like i was told i was like dude who told you who told you to get a linkedin michael you need a linkedin josh everyone like and i was like all right i'll get well i'll get a linkedin and so i did so yeah everyone go check at the LinkedIn. If you guys want to connect, that'd be awesome. Michael's looking out for you guys, man. I know for real without Michael, I would not have a LinkedIn. So that's all right. Sounds good. We'll talk soon. Yep. Peace, man.