Trading Secrets - 209. Caleb Simpson: From asking family for rent to grossing million$ in apartment tour videos! BTS of going viral in different genres, building a massive following, and living in the dream

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

This week, Jason is joined by content creator and TikTok YouTube star, most commonly known as the apartment guy, Caleb Simpson Caleb and his content creation hit the jackpot with this man on the street style videos in which he takes his viewers along on tours of the often intriguing and impressive homes of his new friends with a combined 12.3 million followers across his social media channels. Caleb has created what some compare to the modern day, off the cuff MTV Cribs, having collaborated with celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Barbara Corcoran, Jared Leto, Drew Barrymore, Jada Smith, and more.  Caleb dives into his history of rent in New York, his financial perspective on the current state of renting, how he was able to get in front of celebrities who have come on his show, the business behind getting the celebrities on the show with the idea of mutually building more of a following, filming on a single phone, how he differentiates from other creators, and how he is able to monetize. Caleb also reveals how he is aware that the money is not reliable, why he charges a lot for brand sponsorships, how he got involved with NFT Now, the hard moment of calling family to help pay for rent, reaching out to creators to start generating ideas and then executing it, wanting to be able to retire at 42, and what a day in the life looks like. Who was the first celebrity to DM him to view their apartment? What is his 10 year plan?  Caleb reveals all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!                                                     Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guests: Caleb Simpson Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals! BetterHelp: If you’re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It’s entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Take off the mask, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/tradingsecrets today to get 10% off your first month. Trading Secrets is sponsored by BetterHelp Indeed: If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform, with over 350 Million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates FAST. To get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com/secrets Cornbread: If you’re looking for a healthier way to enjoy a carefree moment, you have to give Cornbread Hemp a try! They've created the first-ever USDA Organic THC gummy that’s 100% legal. To get 30% off your first order, visit cornbreadhemp.com/TRADINGSECRETS and use promo code “TRADINGSECRETS” at checkout. Titan: Click here to try Titan and get one month free using code JASONT Geico: One of the best ways to get the most value out of your insurance is to bundle your policies—and that’s where our sponsor, GEICO, can really help you out. With GEICO, you can manage all your policies in one place. That means both your car and homeowners’ insurance together, and you’ll even get a discount on your vehicle insurance for bundling. It’s a win-win! And it doesn’t stop there. GEICO has options to cover whatever you call home—whether it’s homeowners, renters, or condo insurance. They’ll help you find the right coverage at a great price through their trusted partners, making sure you’re well-protected without the stress of endless shopping. So if you’re ready to get more from your insurance and maybe even save a bit, check out GEICO.com and explore how bundling can help you get more with GEICO! Click HERE get a quote for Home insurance  

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tardick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment. We'll me tell you a little bit about what you can expect from our guest. One big update and something going on in my personal life. If you haven't, please subscribe to the podcast. And make sure to give us five stars. The best way you can support this show is giving us five stars. stars now this episode is one that it just different honestly it's just different this is an individual

who is an artist by trait is a creative but also has this like algorithmithic genius to him and so where he's so special is he was able to kind of crack the code with social media but doing it through business things that we think about all the time like apartments so he started going around New York City and asking people, tell me about your apartment. How many square fit is it? How much you pay for it? Things like that. And he started doing it with celebrities and big, big names you're going to hear about. And if you're curious what those big names are paying for either their mortgage, their condo, or their apartment in New York City, you're going to get those answers today. But what I find more fascinating is how he talks about that he came from a family where

they didn't really have much. And he went to them with a business plan and said, I have cracked the code to social media. I have cracked the code to real estate, apartments, meets bringing this information to life to the masses. Here's the answer, invest in it. And his family did. They did. And you're going to hear all about that. A little update from the market. There's so much to talk about right now. So much is changing. We obviously know that a new administration is going into effect for 2025. And as a result of that, there's going to be big changes that already baked in the market. of the big things you're seeing right now is cryptocurrency is off the charts. It's off the charts because the administration is very pro-crypto. And a lot of the things that I'm reading about

what this administration is saying is that they believe that cryptocurrency, digital currency, is here to stay. And I guess their philosophy is built on the fact that if it's going to be here to stay, we want it to be housed in the United States. We want United States to be the epicenter of it. And as a result of it, it has just gone off the charts. Bitcoin crossed over $90,000 in the last week. Bitcoin in general, this year is up over 100% outperforming all global stocks. And as I'm recording this right now, one Bitcoin is trading at $90,220, right? I mean, it's just a, It's a wild phenomenon. I'm still going to tell you my position on it is that it's extremely volatile and it feels

like it's something that we need to be paying even more attention to now, but also something that I recommend if you're going to proceed with it as an investment, just make sure that you have the risk tolerance to do so. Another thing I want to put out there is a huge learning just from just my life this last week. I mean, this was a crazy, crazy week for me. and the fact that I randomly, if you follow me on social media, I just went outside to take a phone call.

And I never do that. I never go and take a phone call in my front driveway. And as a result of that phone call, I saw my next door neighbor who was lying on the ground what had been an hour. And if I didn't go out there, especially someone who's travels all the time, I don't know that he makes it off that driveway.

And I was able to get him into an ambulance at a hospital. And then I learned he doesn't really have things. family, and then I learned all about the hospital system. And first and foremost, if you are dealing with any type of health care struggles or any hospital questions, I have learned this past week, there are so many non-for-profits out there that can help you do just that. And also, what I learned, because what happened was he went to the hospital, I was thinking about it. I'm like, I wonder if his family knows. I went to go see him, and he said, he doesn't have any family. And then the next day I got a call, because I left him my number and name, I said, if you need anything, call me.

and the next day the doctors called me asking if I was his family and I said no they said they didn't have any luck tracking his family down and they had to move forward with a procedure but he wasn't in a mental capacity to make that decision or consent so there's a couple things that I learned from this situation which also ties to to business and finance a little bit first and foremost every hospital has a social worker and the social worker in this case was like a mini FBI investigator trying to figure out exactly exactly where my next-door neighbor's family was and who was extended. And I mean, she had a whole diagram going. She was walking me through how she did it. And they did end up finding a long-lost uncle, which was awesome. Uncle Bob. And Uncle Bob came through and picked up the phone and was willing to consent on behalf of Burt. So every hospital has a social worker, should you ever need it. Another thing is like making sure that your loved ones have consideration to P-OAs and D&Rs. Now, with a P-O-A, a power of attorney, if you give someone power of attorney, they have the right to pretty much do anything on your behalf. And while this situation, a POA was necessary,

I also this past week heard about a POA situation in which the POA took full advantage of someone. So you want to be very careful with the POA that you go with. Now, the last thing I'll tell you is one thing I learned through this situation is that there's something called two physicians consent where if the patient cannot consent for themselves and they cannot find someone legally that can consent for them, two physicians can independently look at the situation, make the best recommendation on behalf of the patient. And if they feel as though it's in the patient's best interest and they both consent independently agree what the steps forward are, the physicians can make the consent to move forward with the procedure. So all this was learning from this

situation with my next door neighbor. I've checked in on him daily. I've gone to see him. I'm traveling right now. So I've been calling in and he went through his procedure and my understanding is he's doing well. And next time I'm in Nashville, I'm going to see him. And, yeah, I mean, there's just so many takeaways, like making sure that your loved ones are prepared for whatever is to come, making sure that you're prepared for whatever is to come. And also, I think, like, one of the big takeaways I've learned from it is you go through life. And even on this podcast, right, we're always trying to better ourselves and become better and learn new things and maybe earn more or feel better. And at the end of the day, like,

if you have your loved ones, you have everything. You truly do. You have it all. so hopefully there's some learning lessons in that and then this past week it was literally like it was just such a special week we did the amazon party which our company supported other talent that was there and then also i had an opportunity to work with amazon which is great and then friday we had some work with celsius so we were out the jake paul event and then i podcasted with tyler cameron and his new girlfriend tate wait for this podcast unbelievable that's coming out soon. And then was in New York for the UFC fight with Titan, a really cool financial investment company on New York City. I'll be talking more about them, but Titan financial investment's

really cool. We watched the John Jones fight. And then I went to Buffalo, to watch the Buffalo bills play the Kansas City Chiefs, and they won. So it was a big sports weekend. November's crazy for me right now. I'm going to be playing a celebrity poker tournament in Vegas on Wednesday. and it'll be out there for F1 with the Venetian and J.D. Sports. And then I think from that point on, pretty much packing it in for the year. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to Jason Tells All this year, because there's a lot to reflect on. And, you know, I saw a quote recently, and I just loved it.

And it came from, came from Jay Shetty. And, well, it came from, Jay Shetty puts really good quotes on his Instagram. The quote was, you are the greatest project you'll ever work on, restart, reset, refocus as many times as you need. And I'll leave it at that. It's a little bit of a longer intro, and I hope you enjoyed it. And there might be some longer intros down the road here, because there's a lot going on and a lot to talk about.

But enough of that. Let's ring in the bell with really, truly, one of the most interesting humans I've ever spoken to, the apartment guy. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today, we are joined by content creator and TikTok YouTube star, most commonly known as the apartment guy, Caleb Simpson. Caleb and his content creation hit the jackpot with his man on the street style videos in which he takes his viewers along on tours of the often intriguing and impressive homes of

his new friends. With a combined 12.3 million followers across his social media channels, Caleb has created what some compare to the modern day off-the-cuff MTV Cribs having collaborated with celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Barbara Corcoran, Jared Leto, Drew Barrymore, Jada Smith, and more. Today we are going to pick the brain

of the guy who asks people how much do you pay for rent for living and ask him, how have you done it all? Caleb, thank you so much for joining us on Trading Secrets today. I paid 2875. 2875? Yeah. Okay, is that what you currently pay?

That's what I currently pet. Okay, wait a second. I thought I was on your Instagram, and I saw, I love that you just started with that because it's like you saw my script before I even gave it to you. I'm playing checkers. You're playing chess. I saw a video with Drew Barrymore. And first I was just like, oh, my God, Drew Barrymore is in his videos.

Drew Barrymore is holding his hand. But Drew Barrymore asked you if she could take a tour of your apartment, correct? Now, in that one, you said $6,500. Did it change? No, it is. The total amount is $6,500. I have roommates. That's just my portion.

So it just sounds better, you know, in the video. If you say $6,500, because that's the total amount, so that's kind of what I went with. And Drew Barrymore was probably like, okay, I'm not going to walk into like a studio at $6,500. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Just like a bedroom, like in a shack. I love it. Okay. And then you've been to New York for nine years. So you're paying $27.50 now. And you live where? I live in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. Brooklyn. Okay. I think people are, obviously, you know, people are intrigued by this. So let's talk a little bit about it. Before that, where in the city you live in, how much do you pay?

Oh, good question. Wow. Okay. This is a fascinating little story here. So I moved to Harlem when I first moved here. Okay. And I was managing a tennis club teaching tennis. And a woman that worked at the tennis club, her daughter just left for school. So she's like, you can stay in this room while you figure it out for three months, but you have to find a place. It's like, okay, cool. So I think I was paying like $500 a week. Wow. Which is super cheap for New York. And then I found a place in the West Village with an older guy who had like a spare room. and he had a rent control apartment, and he's like, you can stay here for 600 bucks a month. Wow. In the West Village, yeah. 600 bucks a month. How many square feet?

Oh, it was so small. Like, I had barely enough space for like pretty much just a mattress and a desk. Okay. Yeah, inside this little room. So as I was like finding my feet and figuring out what I wanted to do, I was just like living in this super tiny room. So you went 500 bucks a week in Harlem. You got 600 a month in West Village, which is insane. and then you went to Brooklyn for 2750?

Then I was paying about 1,200 bucks a month in Brooklyn and then went to, yeah, 2750. I'm not shocked that the apartment guy in New York City knows how to get some of the best deals in the apartment. What is just your overall take? You have talked to hundreds of people and how much they pay in rent in all different cities, but obviously a ton in New York.

Talk to me just a little bit about your perspective on rent. Do you often find that people are just way overpaying? do you have a perspective like, you know what? If you're in New York City, just eat it and pay as much as you can. Like, what's your financial perspective on rent, given how much research you've seen? Yeah, that's a good question. Recently, it's felt like everybody's paying a lot in rent. Like my cousin lives in Connecticut, and she actually moved back under their parents

because they're like trying to charge her 2K a month to live in a two bedroom in like the sticks of Connecticut. Yeah. I'm just like 2K a month, just have a little bit more space than someone who lives in New York City's kind of a wild take. and then North Carolina is kind of the same thing where a lot of my family lives. So I'm seeing like the prices are kind of similar, which I've noticed, you get a little bit more space. In New York specifically, I feel like if you see an apartment and you're paying like 7K a month, it's not going to be too much better than a place that's maybe like three grand a month. Maybe the area is a little bit better or maybe like the amenities are a little bit nicer,

but I don't really think it's like worth it because a lot of people I've noticed we'll have jobs where they're barely scraping it. they're making financial choices to pay a little bit more in rent and maybe they're cutting corners in other places in their life. And I just don't think that's worth it. Do you ever ask them how much they make? No, but I ask them what they do for a living and then you can kind of gauge it. We might have to tag team one of these. Yeah. We get the apartment costs. I'll get how much they make. We'll sit down to a whole financial review and we'll have some fun with that. I think we might have to do one of these. That's your new podcast. That's my new podcast. Well, this is trading secrets. We talk money here. So you know what I mean? I'll have them on. I'll be like, all right,

The apartment guy says, I got to ask you how much you make per rent on top of how much you make. So I think we're on to something here. One thing I want to ask you, though, is so that 3 to 7K range in New York, you said you see minor discrepancies. Talk to me about what is the dollar amount per month that you start to see like, oh, holy shit, this place is incredible? Is it like 10K a month? Like, you know, what is that dollar amount where you're just like blown away? Yeah.

It's hard to get blown away in New York. Interesting. It is hard. Like, I've gone into places that are like 12K a month. Yeah. And yeah, they have a nice balcony and windows. Typically, the higher the price amount goes, like, you get natural light, like a lot of it. But then you're like, wow, like you kind of have the same amount of space as me.

It's interesting. But you're paying $12,000 a month maybe because it's like a prime location, which might be like on the water in Williamsburg or really high up with your own private balcony. But I would say, yeah, the 15K range, like 15K and up, then I'm like, whoa. Yeah. Once you see that 15K and up, you're just blown away. Yeah, and obviously there's deals out there in places you can find that are unique. Okay. Interesting. I mean, I think the whole thing is just fascinating. I saw Ryan Sirhan right now is on his show, and he is trying to sell a 17,000 square foot condo in Central Park for $200 plus million. And it was crazy to just think someone would pay $200 million for $7,000.

17,000 square feet. It's tough to comprehend it. But his strategy and his thought just in that whole process of selling it on the show is he talks about the fact, listen, there's over 3,000 billionaires in this world. I just got to find one of them. So I find the whole real estate game interesting, especially when you collaborate it with people of all different levels and income and of course celebrities. And that's the transition I have for you. What I think is really interesting about your story is like you said, you lived in Harlem. You're a tennis instructor. You had an idea, you just started filming it. It's not like you had this huge platform from a big show, or you're this famous actor, and then you used your platform. You just started

from scratch, moving into Harlem, 500 bucks a week. All of a sudden, you go on your Instagram and your TikTok, and we see Christy Brinkley, we see Scarlett Johansson, we see Barbara Corcoran, Ryan Sirhan, who I just referred to, Steve Madden, Dwight Howard, Jared Letto, I saw you do the driving video with Drew Barrymore, Viniguanino. These are some big, big, big, names. How did you get in front of someone like Scarlett Johansson or Drew Barrymore to get them to come on to your show? Yeah, that's a good question. I'll thank all of you. First and foremost, thank all of you and anybody else who comes on. I appreciate all of you. You guys have changed my life. Well, I think it's about just creating as much value as possible for the guest and making

it as frictionless as possible. Ooh, I like that. Frictionless. I've had a lot of experience up into this series that I've made creating content. I picked up a camera when I first moved to New York and have just been grinding, figuring it out. I've worked in the celebrity space. I've worked with DJs, like, creating their profiles online and, like, making them famous online. Wait, you did this before?

Before. Yeah, before. Okay, we'll tap into that out because I want to get the answer to this question. We'll tap into that. So I've kind of, like, gone in and seeing what people want and what they need and how to make it easy and fun for them because I'd been in the space and just observed it.

So once I kind of like stumbled across this thing that was working really well, I realized like, oh, I just run in with a cell phone, it only takes 25 minutes. We can go in and out. And I know I'm going to get them 20 million views, 30 million views. And it's going to blow their life up for a moment and time. And it's not an easy, it's not a heavy ask for them. So once I got that first one with Barbara Corcoran, she actually DM'd me and was like, hey, come over to my apartment. This was like three months in. I realized like I was on to something. That does like 100 million views. And then I was like, Like, okay, case- That did a hundred million views. Across all platforms, yeah. Holy shit. So I was like, okay, I got an awesome case study here. Let's take all the information. Okay, she got about 200,000 followers from doing this video. She got 200,000.

Yeah, across her platforms. Yeah, and then, you know, she told me, like, I was walking down the street and everybody, I'm in Trader Joe's. Everyone's like, I love your apartment. I love your apartment. She's like, I've been on Shark Tank for 20 years and you only know me from my apartment now. Like, this is insane. And so I kind of like took all this information and to start pitching everybody else.

Then they're like, who else have you worked with? Like, yeah, you just worked with Barbara, but who else have you worked with? Because people don't want to risk their brand. Yeah, they want more credibility. Yeah, they want more credibility, risk your brand. So it's just like, I mean, working as hard as I can to get in front of people. You know, like Vinny, for example, I saw he's on TikTok. Anyone who jumps on TikTok who's a celebrity or a well-known person, I'm like, okay, they're playing the game.

And if they're playing the game, there's a chance to play with me. Interesting. But when you say this, just so people back at home can understand that, they're playing the game. What you're saying is the person's a celebrity. They got money. They have success. And they're willing to go on many platforms like TikTok,

even if it's not like cool or they're too old or whatever, to continue to grow social media. So you're seeing that from a business perspective is they clearly have a massive interest in growing this social media platform. Bingo. Okay, got it. Ding, ding, ding. So I saw Vinny jumped on, and I didn't even know he lived in New York.

So I just gave him a follow, and then he followed me back, and then I just shot him a DM over TikTok DMs, which is funny. Then he's like, yeah, let's do it. Same thing at Dwight Howard. I saw he jumped on. So I was like, let me message him. So I'm paying attention to who's jumping on the apps and then getting into them early because I know they're going to be overwhelmed with everybody trying to like make videos with them. of course, et cetera, et cetera. So that's just kind of started to like snowball and create a back catalog. And now it's easier, but it's still challenging. As you know, running a podcast,

it's like getting guests. It's always. Especially the big thing too is I think, you know, we're doing audio. Obviously there's video here, but the idea of like actually filming the everything with a celebrity, they only have so much time like a Dwight Howard and their time's extremely valuable like a Drew Barrymore. So you got to make it worthwhile. So your whole pitch to them is, hey, this is who I've had on. These are the followers. These are the views. We'll customize it to you. One word you said was frictionless. What does that exactly mean? And what do you do to make sure when you're with the Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, it's frictionless? Yeah, so it's really three steps and I'll fill them on a cell phone. So you see right now we have it's all filmed on one

cell phone. One cell phone, you know, we're on this podcast. I see four lights, three cameras. There's a man running it behind here. There's a whole screen. And we won't get 100 million views. I probably a set. Exactly. So this is a whole big setup when not 100 million views. Yeah. So I just show up with a cell phone. I'm like, we're going to do one walkthrough. Just talk to me like we're a friend. Yep. It's going to take 20 minutes. I'm going to do one pass just filming the rooms. And then we're going to run outside. I'm going to ask you one question one time, just answer it. And then that's it. Do you bring anyone else with you? I might have my assistant with me or maybe someone on my management team might come in. Yeah. So we just try to make it as quick and fun. And I want to make it

fun too like frictionless and fun so a lot of times people leave like that was just easy and fun it was like I was chatting with a friend and then have to like sit down and get miced up and all these different things so since I've been in media for a while I'm like what can I remove to make it more fun for them they're on these media tours all the time all the time so like how can we remove these layers to just make it more seamless I do like when I have someone who's just coming out like you know the Bachelorette Jen right now she's doing press everywhere Or when I have somebody who's an actor, comedian, they're on a Netflix special tour, I'm always like when I step in this interview, I got to make it different because it's cut and

repeat, cup and repeat. So I think that's a great strategy. One thing you said to the camera is joking around when I said all those names. You said, thank you. You changed my life. How did they change your life specifically, financially and personally? It's hard to correlate directly financially, but just the overarching brand in general. You know, it's like Drew Barrymore takes a chance on you, go.

and makes a video with you, no one gets access to her like that. You go on her show. You know what I mean? She brings you on her show. So it's just like every time someone gives you a chance and it's just like you just elevate your brand just a little bit more, just a little bit more.

And it's like people trust you a little bit more. And then they're like, we want to make videos with you a little bit more. And for me, that's always the game. I just want to play it for a really long time. So I'm like, okay, if we can get another guest and we have a good time and we get good results, then I'll be able to make a video with somebody.

else. Exactly. I love it. One thing I got to ask you, and I think people back home are listening are like, wait, okay, wait a second. You got a phone and you're doing these apartment views, asking what people make, I'm going to do it. So obviously, a huge differentiator for you is that you have this massive celebrity base, and you got 12-something million followers, 12 million plus across all platforms. Those are huge differentiators. But when you're going through this, obviously you're very strategic where you talked about making other people famous online. You obviously have some very good things that you can execute. But what do you do to differentiate so that it's like you're the apartment guy and it's not the next person who's the apartment

girl or guy? One thing is I've been making videos for almost 10 years in editing. And in short form videos before it was even in a thing, I was doing like vlog Instagram stories when Instagram stories rolled out and just storytelling in and of itself. In the short form media realm, I've done it for so many other people and in different genres, like I've done comedy and come up with like these crazy stories, like treasure hunt stories on TikTok, et cetera. I've like tried all these different avenues that have helped me tell a story.

So whenever I'm going into an edit, I might have two hours of footage that I just filmed with somebody and I'm chopping it down to like six minutes. If I get, I've tried to hire editors, you know what I mean? I give it to them and they can't do what I do. Yes. So that's one thing, competitive

advantage I have over most people. I've just been doing it so long and I have my flow and my style. That's like really hard to copy. It's crazy that you just said that because as, so I own a talent management company, we work with all different celebrities and public figures. And what I've noticed over the years are the people that are doing it the longest and the best, all differentiate through storytelling and editing, which you would never think. Anyone back home, you wouldn't think that but the editing process for great storytellers and people that were in video and any type of media before know their biggest issue and it's i've heard it literally 10 plus times from different people they cannot find anyone to cut the way they do and so when i talked to them i drilled down like

what do you mean it's just an edit they're like no like the exact second the exact tone is said and the storytelling in the first two seconds and then the seconds after that and then the talking overlap It is a talent that most people don't have, and I think you're exactly right about that. The other thing you said was it changed your life, and so I want to get into that. I know it's created a brand for you, but like the golden question, I know that Money Mafia is saying, like, cool, you got 12 million followers, you're meeting these cool people and you're doing hundreds of millions of views. How does that turn into dollars and cents? So how do you monetize this incredible idea and brand that you built off from a sales? simple concept of the apartment guy.

Yeah, there's kind of two ways you can monetize. Well, really three. But there's two, if you're just starting out, and that's one through all the platforms, like through views, they run paid ads on your videos. So let's start there. Like a video that you do 100 million views, how do you know how much you can make off that? Is it like a thousand bucks of you?

A hundred bucks of you? What is it? Is there an average? It depends on the platform. So, for example, on Facebook, which a lot of people don't know about this. I'm going to put you on game right now. Yeah, I want to hear it. Yeah, on Facebook, if you post, if you have a verified page and you post a three-minute video.

Three-minute, okay. Three-minute video for pretty much every million views you do, you make about $1,000. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. But three minutes is long, right? Three minutes is long, depending on what you're making. Okay, so three minutes, Facebook, on average, around $1,000 for each million views you get. A thousand bucks for each million.

Okay. Which is hard to do like 100 million views there. It's hard to do that anywhere. Yeah. Especially Caleb. It is true. Sometimes I forget that. Yeah, and that's what I tell people, too, because the TikTok creator fund, for example,

a lot of people ask me questions about it. Of course. They're like, oh, I'm trying to monetize it. You've got to make a video over one minute. How much do I get paid for a million views? I'm like, first of all, man, it's hard to get a million views. So hard. Yeah.

Second of all, you may make like a hundred bucks. So if you do, because I don't really, I'm still trying to figure it out because I feel like it's a moving component. And also with the talent we manage, we don't ever have a share of the content creator fund, they're paid. So we're also an incentivized to really understand it. So I really don't know much about it. But my understanding is it has to be a 60-second video on TikTok. And then if you get a million views, it could vary. I've had creators tell me, I might get $100,000. I might get $2,000. Is that accurate or what have you heard? I mean, that's been accurate for me.

Okay. Like, for example, I'll give you the Scarletor Hansen video. Yeah. What, 42 million views? Something like that on TikTok. Last time I checked, I made like $18 grand from that video. Interesting. But who's going to get 42 million views on TikTok? Yeah. Not that many people. So it's like I don't look at any of that income as reliable or something I'm going to get every month, even though I do get a good chunk of change every month, like anywhere from 20 grand to 50 grand, probably. Just from the views. Yeah, from all the platforms combined. So fascinating. But it's not reliable. Yeah,

because it just varies left, right and center. Yeah, exactly. And they're always changing it and trying new things. So I'm just paying attention and adjusting accordingly. Okay, so break down this with me. So we went through TikTok. That's really informative. Facebook. How about the other ones like YouTube, Instagram, how do they pay on those funds? Instagram does not really pay. They have the Instagram bonuses, but the last video I just posted, I'll tell you straight up, they started a new bonus thing. It's my biggest video on Instagram ever just hit 40 million views. Wow. On a six-minute video, which is insane. That's so long. It's crazy. And I just, looked at it and it was like 3,300 bucks for 40 million views on a six-minute long video.

That is insane. Which, for example, if that was on YouTube, that probably would have been like 100 grand or something. Here's another thing to think about, too. Like, if you just compare it to all you're doing is you're creating content that people consume. Let's compare it to what people back home know. Netflix. They have content. You consume it.

Think about when Netflix puts out a show. If they can get, how many people saw this video again? 40 million. If they get 40 million people to watch one of their whole shows, that is massive. And those shows have to spend so much money to create them. So to think that you're doing a show, essentially, 42 million viewers. And they're giving you $3,300 for that movie or that show. That is terrible for the economics.

Obviously back home. You're sitting at home, you make a video. I'm sure you're not complaining about $3,300. I don't want to be out of touch with reality. I don't want people to think that. But I also want people to see the economic picture here. You're creating 42 million eyeballs watching content for six fucking minutes, which is extremely long, probably 12 times longer than your average video, maybe even more.

And then the value to them is probably, it's probably, what do you think the value to them is? A couple million bucks? Oh, on Instagram for Meadow? For Instagram to get a six-minute video, easy, easy. That's a $3 million value to them all day. Yeah, yeah. And you're getting $3,300. Yeah, it's nuts.

That's wild. That's why on the flip side, we charge a lot for brand sponsorships. Yes. So that's where most of... So that's a second portion of income for it. Yeah, that's going to be where most of it can come in, where that's like, could be multiple six figures. I've had conversations around seven figures.

Wow. So it is like up there within conversations. Yeah. But also that's a new... It's always a moving market. It's kind of made up. Everyone's making it up as they go. people are starting to realize, just like you said, like, oh, Caleb just posted a home tour show on

Instagram, 40 million people saw it, the proof is in the analytics, and it was six minutes long. What's the difference between Netflix and that? Yeah. How much is this worth? Oh, wait. Yeah. What's interesting, especially being in the talent management game, and so like we're a boutique, we're an agency and talent management.

So we do both sides of the equation of like brokering deals direct, working directly with brands, but also managing talent. And so what's interesting is when you see new industries come along, you see efficiencies put in place, and then you usually see a squeeze, right? Like people are making less. And what's interesting is that the longer this industry is around, you're actually seeing the opposite of a squeeze.

You're seeing the talent and you're seeing people make much more and the deal sizes become greater and greater and greater. And I think one of the biggest things about content creation is that forever marketing and media was always B2B. Like, this business buys that billboard from that business. This business buys that magazine cover from this big media company. Now it's B2C, and they're seeing the value they're getting, and the consumer, of course, is getting smarter, which is changing.

A question I have for you, though, is I think about, like, my brand. It's all over the place, right? Like, I have money and finance and I have lifestyle, and, of course, I was on dating show, so a lot of my dating life, like, it's all over, which is good and bad. ad, but as a result of that, if I'm given almost any brand, and I believe in the brand and the price point makes sense, I can find a way to naturally organically place it into my life with an ad, assuming I endorse and support that brand. I'm thinking with your videos, though, it's so niche, how do you take paid advertising, like I've sponsored ad and bring it into an

apartment tour? Yeah, people ask me this question a lot, and then I flip it on them, and I say, how many products are in a home? How many services are? home every single one because that's where we reside. That's where we spend most of our time. So the answer is that. And that's what I always bring it back to when I talk with brands. I'm like every product or service is used inside a home. So then how do you, suppose you're looking at Jared Letto, you're doing Jared Letto's home and then you want to do an ad for, I don't know, I'm just making this up. Let's call it White Claw. Again, I'm making this up. This doesn't exist. You do the ad for White Claw. You open his fridge. There's White Claw.

there. Do you have to strategically, like, cut out a portion for Jared Lato, like when you work with other people and it's their apartment? Do you just give them a small fee? What's that breakdown? Great question. It depends on the deal. Number one. So far, any brand that I've worked with that has involved a celebrity, they've brought this celebrity in. So that brand's cutting the celebrity, whatever their cut is. I don't even see that side. I don't even know what they're making or anything like that. So real quick, just so people back home understand that. In this example, example, if White Claw is doing the deal with you, simultaneously, they're doing the deal, again, this is all made up, hypothetical. They're simultaneously doing the deal with Jared Leto,

and they say, Jared, here's the deal. It's White Claw. You're going to be working with the apartment guy. We're going to do this in tandem. So we'll do two separate deals. Caleb Simpson. Yeah, I keep saying the apartment. I love that. I love the apartment guy. Caleb Simpson, let's keep putting the name out there. So that's how it'll be structured. Totally. Okay. Gotcha. Interesting. So you said there's three ways to make money. There's obviously the creator fun, there's paid ads. What's the third way? The third way is that you can launch your own products like Prime with Logan Paul or countless examples, Mr. Beast with Feastables. Oh, yeah, it's nuts. That is something I've not jumped into yet, nor I probably won't for a while.

Okay. Interesting. But one thing you did jump into, I believe through the research I saw, was you had some type of involvement with the NFT startup world, and I think it was called NFT Now. How did that go? did you make a couple bucks off it? I know the NFT game has changed dramatically. There's been a lot of ups and downs and more downs as of lately, but what did that look like when you started? Everyone's going to think I'm a scammer now. Well, the good news for you is,

and I'm not trying to fend any of my audience back home, but a lot of my audience are still like, what the fuck are NFTs? What are NFTs? Well, non-fungible tokens, okay? So this is kidding. Well, so I was making TikTok videos during the pandemic. That's kind of when I was figuring.

now TikTok and making short form media. And this guy, I didn't like what I was making. And then this whole NFT thing rolled around. And my friend Sam, who was one of the founders of NFT now, was like, we're starting this NFT media company around NFTs. I was like, cool. I've always been curious about crypto. How can I get involved?

Sure. So they hired me on as basically the video director. So I handed all the social media content. I was the first hire at the startup. And then I didn't know anything about NFTs or crypto. So it was basically a crash course of about a year. and I helped build that startup. I learned a lot about NFTs in crypto.

I met most of everybody in the industry. It was actually one of the most valuable experiences of my life, like learning how to build a startup, how to network in a new industry, and learn a brand new industry and work at a startup. One of those things is hard, all of them on their own. It's extremely difficult. So then they fired me because the NFTs, you know,

crypto kind of crashed. And that's when I was like, oh I don't really have much money I didn't do that well in the in the crypto market and I had all this experience Did you lose a lot of money in crypto? I mean I actually made more than I lost Okay so that net you worked out

Yeah Okay Because you just said I don't have a lot of money Yeah I didn't have a lot of money at that time I was making like 80 grand a year Just like working at the startup I had maybe two months severance in my bank account

And were you not at all doing your own stuff at this point? I was on the side but it just hadn't picked up at the speed it is today, obviously. Yeah, it was totally different. I've been going viral on the Internet for years, but I'd never really found my niche or something I really enjoyed making. Interesting. If that makes sense.

So I attribute to like an actor acts his whole life, and then he has a hit role. Yeah. And now he's famous, but he's like, I was in 40 other things. You guys just never hit. No one ever saw it, you know? So my back was kind of up against the wall. And I was like, I don't have much money,

but I know I have proven to myself over and over and over, building other people's profiles and like going viral for years that I can do it I know I can build something so that's kind of within 30 days I figured out the home tour series and like had gone viral and I was like I had been in the industry for so long I knew it was a moment and I was like just take it and run work as hard as you can at it and before you hit big there you get fired from the nft space you're making 80 grand a year and then you get two months of severance when you look at like your financial picture like how close like what did the dollars and cents look like did you have like a couple thousand bucks to your name.

Did you have like one more rent of New York City before you had to leave New York City? Like what did that look like when you're looking back on it? It looked like I was calling my family and saying, hey, can you send me rent money? I promise in six months I'll pay you back tenfold. Wow. You know what I mean? Because I had proven to myself like I had the thing happen. Like I'd gone viral and I was like, oh, I know this is like the thing.

Yeah. But I was like, I know it takes time to get paid out from platforms and the brand sponsorship side. I know it takes time to, like, gain trust and negotiations, 90-day payout, et cetera. So, yeah, I mean, that's where I was at. I was in complete panic. Wow. So did you actually, I know you referenced, did you actually have to make a call? Like, did you actually have to say, listen, I have the idea it's coming.

I need some money? Yeah, definitely. It was like the biggest, it was honestly great for me to be able to pick up the phone and be like, here's my proof, like I've done these things, but I need money. Yeah. You know, and I can get in chills from it because it was such a hard moment for me. Yeah. So I call up a family member.

And none of my family members are rich by any means. Like, none of them make over, like a few of them make over 100K, but most of them don't. Wow. So I'd like to take some of their resources to say, no, this is going to work and I'll pay you back. And it's all going to benefit our family in the next two years, I'm sure of it. And now looking back on it, holy shit, right? Yeah, I mean, oh, my God. Mom, dad, brother, sister, whoever it is must be like, damn, that was a good investment.

I love it. That's really cool. With the, so NFT goes out of business. You had said, though, that you have gone viral in the internet before. And then you would also have mentioned that you were working with DJ profiles to make them famous. I'm sure people are curious back home as I am too. Exactly what do you mean when you've gone viral on the internet before? What do you mean you help DJ profiles become famous?

So when I first picked up a camera in New York City when I moved here, I kind of didn't know how to make anything or what the internet really was. I was like, but I know I wanted to make viral videos on the internet. So I just started reaching out to people, what Gary V said, you know, if anyone knows Gary V. He's been on the show. Okay. And he's like, DM people and has to be like their interns or whatever. So that's why I did.

I reached out to YouTubers and was just like, let me come work for you. So I just started learning from people on the internet who are already doing it well. Then I suggested some ideas to them and some of their videos went viral. So it was like, oh, case study. I had an idea. Give me an example of one idea you can think about. There's this YouTuber Peter McKinnon who went really viral a couple years ago for all these like camera tricks and hacks, like top 10 camera tricks.

And then he would teach people photography. This was like a couple years ago when photography and videography was a little bit harder to get into and learn. And my friend was also in that same sort of space. So I was like, let's make fun of Peter McKinn and like act like him. Let's copy a lot of his things. So it's kind of like memeify him in like a fun way. Yeah.

And then that video did like 50,000 views on YouTube, which was really hard to do. It was like a case point for me where I had an idea, case study, and it worked. And it was just like time and time again. I reached out to Instagramers, YouTubers, and just went and worked with them and shot ideas around and tried making things. For a really long time, I was just behind the camera. And then I started working at a, it's called Knox Media. They worked with DJs and artists to build their online presence.

So I'd travel around and we just come up with ideas all day long. What can go viral? What would work? What's working on the internet right now? What can we convince artists to do? What are they willing to do? What's going to work with their personalities, et cetera? A lot of those guys worked at Vayner and then started their own company. So I took a lot of my own ethos from kind of VaynerMedia because it was a trickle-down effect. Sure, sure. Interesting. Yeah, and then I kind of did some of my own stuff. My first viral YouTube video, I recreated Mario Kart in real life. Yeah, I saw this, but yeah, I saw everything about it and how you did it. Like, what was the thought product? Like, what was the background before you did that? Just the concept.

It was an idea in my head for years, and I failed at doing it because of, like, I didn't know how to execute one. And then, like, financing it was hard. How much did that video cost? All in all is about five grand. Five grand to put it together. And for anyone that hasn't seen the video yet, explain it to them. If you've ever played Mario Kart, we basically went and bought Go-Carts, and we dressed

up as the characters, and then we drove around New York City and kind of filmed it, got reactions from people. We did it during COVID as well, so it's kind of a lighthearted, fun thing to share during a hard time. I had a feeling that idea would do well, but I think it really just goes back to trying an idea and executing an idea. Execution's the most important part. And then when TikTok rolled around, I was on it early, like 2019, trying so many ideas. And Josh Richards, you know, Charlie DeMilia only had like 200K followers. Yeah. So I was on there observing and trying so many ideas and went viral in about three months.

And then I would... With the Mario Kart? No, not with Mario Kart. I just did. I recreated an old Logan Paul video on Instagram. Okay. I was like, Logan Paul's not on here. What funny videos did he make?

Let me just go recreate some and see if they work. What was the video? It was like a silly cooking video that was out of control, ADHD cooking. Okay. Where I made a cake. Okay. Yeah. Then I was doing like mentos.

I feel like I could do that because I have ADHD and I can't bake. So I don't even know what the video is, but I feel like it'd be a shit show. Yeah. So really it was just any idea we could think of. The biggest takeaway from all of this was we went on the app and we would take the top 20 viral videos at the very beginning and we'd say, and we'd analyze all of them and think, why did they go viral? And let's like, let's break it down. So we'd write it out each video.

And then we'd go recreate it. try to 10x the idea. So we went and recreated all the viral videos and then tried to 10x their idea. Who's we? The company? No, just like me and some friends at the time. Interesting. Yeah. Do you collaborate with a lot of other creators often or do you do it all yourself now? Sometimes I do. I'll call them to discuss things now. But early days, you're looking for anyone who's down to make things. Just to do it. So I've been going on viral on TikTok since 2019, pretty much in a lot of different realms. Like comedy, I was teaching people, photography, tutorials. I could jump on trends. I'll do lip syncing stuff. So I'd just proven to myself,

I can go viral in any genre, but I didn't really enjoy any of those genres. I was like, how do I make something that I can sustain for 10 or 15 years? What do I enjoy doing? You know? You talk about 10 to 15 years. You've already mentioned like negotiating six figure and even like you've sniffed or seen at least what like seven figure structures looked like. We talk about the creator fund a little bit at the 20 to 50K all around just based on how things are performing. What is the 10 to 15 year plan? Like, do you have a goal like, I want to make $10 million or I want to retire by an age? Like when you look at the financial aspect of going from asking family for rent to then grossing millions of dollars, what is the big picture?

Like, what's the dream for you for Caleb? I'm inside the dream. I like that. One big reframe for me is like everyone says, well, what do you want to do? Yeah. Like, do you want to be an actor? Do you want to host a show? Do you want to work with celebrities?

Do you want to make millions of dollars? You want to make $100 million? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'm doing everything right now that will be applicable to all of that in the future. So I know that's a roundabout answer, but I don't really like to think about it in the sense of what am I going to be in a movie in 10 years

when I was, you know, in a movie three weeks ago. Yeah. To some capacity. Okay. I like it. I respect it. it's not linear. I think the instant response of living in the dream says a lot about you in a beautiful way. But like when you list off some of those things, like be an actor and stuff,

like are those things that are in your dream manifestation? Like do you want to be an actor or right now like you want to be what you are today? Like do you want to host a TV show? Do you want to build a movie? Like do you have these aspirations to do that? Or you're just like, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing today as best as I can do it. Well, social media is number one. Yeah. So doing what I'm doing right now, the best that I could do it is for sure number one and not get shiny object syndrome, which has happened to me time and time again.

It happens everybody. Everyone back home has shiny object syndrome. It's like opportunity here. Let's go become that. And then you just want, there's never a definition for enough. And then you're lost. Right. So I just try to use other people as case studies like Joe Rogan.

did, you know, Fear Factor for so many years. I don't think people think about, remember that or think about that. And it's like, what was he building behind the scenes that no one saw or talks about? What was he working on behind the scenes? Yeah, I think about that all the time. But he's running his show. So I'm like, I have this super popular thing, and it's building a brand name for me. I'm getting to practice being a host and meeting people and building a brand and all this.

So I'm like, this is number one. Don't lose focus on this. Yeah. And then number two is just becoming a better entertainer in general, always, because I'm like, if I'm not improving as an entertainer, then I'm moving backwards. People are going to catch up and pass me. Yeah. Or everybody's on their own timeline, but I mean, every 17-year-old's gunning for me. Oh, 100%. Gen Alpha's coming in hot. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I'll tell you this, too, when we talk to these brands a lot, I am blown away at the way these brands are targeting Gen Alpha.

So when they're casting for new deals, big paid opportunities, like we need Gen Alpha following, Gen Alpha, Gen Alpha. So, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. And then I'm in this big stage where I'm playing a lot in different realms to like see what I really like. That was like the biggest thing for me on social media was I've gone down all these paths

and then turned around and came back. I was like, do I like sketch comedy on the internet? Not really because I don't like sitting at home all day in a dark room behind lights making up stories like that's not that fun for me so right now I'm running down different paths and seeing what's down there

like for example stand-up yeah like I've been doing some stand-up I've been writing jokes going to classes etc etc I just want to see what it's about I want to see what's standing on stage what's that about so I'm running down a lot of different paths behind the scenes to see what I enjoy the most

how many hours a week do you work all of them yeah I was going to say You seem like a, I didn't want to say workaholic, but it seems like works it. Yeah, it is it because I want to be, if I want to be done by the time I'm 42. Like you want to be retired? I just want, yeah, if I want to step away forever. Why, 42 is pretty random. It's just in 10 years.

Oh, okay. Got it. 10 years, you just want to be done. Yeah, if I want to be. Interesting. So, and when I first moved to New York City, I always told myself, I just want to come here so I can go home. I want to accomplish everything I want to accomplish so I can just go hang out with my family

Okay Spend time with my family and my friends So with that in mind I'm like, it's giving me chills thinking about it I'm like what do I need to do today To accomplish everything I've ever wanted to do Okay And just get it done

Just get go out there and get it done And then just like get back And hang out your fam Okay then just give me And we're wrapping up You'll have to get a trading secret from you in a minute here But give me like a day in the like an average day in the life what is an average workday?

It sounds like every day is a work day, but what does an average day in the life look like from waking up to what you do to go into bed? I'm so, this is so lame what I'm about to say. I know. I want to hear it, though. I'm curious. Yeah, so, well, I get up and I jump in my cold plunge. What time you wake up? It depends on where I'm at in time zones.

Typically, on average, you wake up at? It's 7 a.m. 7 a.m., cold plunge? That's the most influencer thing I've ever heard. Yeah, the most influencer thing in the world every day. You cold plunge every single day? day. Every day. Every day. For how long? It's been almost two and a half years. You haven't missed the day? I've definitely missed some days. But majority of the days, you're cold plunging.

Majority of the days I'm a cold-blusing. Yeah. Okay, so you cold plunge, then what? Then it's, I mean, it does depend on the day, but I do try to get outside an exercise. Just get outside an exercise. Yeah. And then I come back and it's immediately work on an edit to post that to get it live. Then I'm going to go film probably somewhere, whether it's this or I'm going to go film a home tour video or YouTube video, et cetera. Then there's a lot of meanings and phone calls. Most of my life is producing, to be honest, where I'm like, what's the next home we're getting into?

What's the next video we're going on? What am I going to film? What do I want to film? So like producing in advance? In advance, yeah, yeah. How many hours a day do you spend on that? That's most of my life. Like, there's always messages flying.

In between this, I'm messaging people who have hit me back from like six months ago. Or I'm following up with people like, hey, you said you wanted to do this. Is this a good time? Okay. You know what I mean? Do you have a team that helps you? I do have an assistant, yeah. That's it, but that's it.

Just you and an assistant. And my management team. Okay. And they help to some extent, but the biggest lesson I've learned in all this, no one's going to do anything for you. You got to do it all yourself. That's fucking true. So I'm like, oh, yeah, it doesn't matter who I hire.

Like, I've got to be on it. Yeah. So that's typically happening. Then the post goes live. Do you post every day? I haven't been every day recently. But it's maybe four to six times a week. And when do you go to bed?

11. And you're most of those hours in between 7 and 11 you're working? Yeah, because once it's nighttime, then I'm working on continuing education. So I might be in a class somewhere or working on something else. Wow. Yeah. What do you eat? Which is exhausting.

Do you have any weird diet things? I get all my meals sent to me. It's called thistle. It's like a vegan. Yeah. Are you vegan? I'm half vegan. Everybody hates when I say that.

Yeah. But most of my meals are vegan. and then I might like eat out one meal. Okay. Quickly. So every meal is meal prepped. They're all sent to you. You'll eat once a day or once a week you'll eat out.

And you're cold plunge every day. You're working all day. What do you do for fun? I like to play games. Okay. So like basketball, paddle. Okay. Go for a run.

Activities. Yeah, activities. I mean, I used to party a lot. Yeah. So that would be my quote unquote fun. But you're done with partying? For the most part, like two, three times a year now. You only part two or three times a year?

Yeah. Fascinating. In New York City, it's a big dating culture to party and stuff. How does that area your life work? Well, it was funny because when I was dating, I stopped going out for drinks. And then I realized anyone who wants to go out for a drink since I don't do that anymore does not align with my core values. So I don't want to go out to drinks with them anyway. Interesting. Why?

Because if that's their first gut reaction to a first date, then... That's their first gut reaction to any activity or excitement in their life. Can they think outside of the box to go do something exciting? Like, I'm going to go do something different that's going to get me, my gears grinding. Interesting. You know what I'm saying? So it's just like an easy, like, yeah, let's go get a drink. It's kind of boring.

Yeah, I think people that get to, like, do the drink thing, and it might be their stimuli. I'm just thinking right now, full speed. They're probably stimulated by conversation where you might be stimulated by the creative idea of, like, exertion in different areas. Yeah, or just a different activity in general. If every girl is going to get a drink, then there's like a standard format that happens every time. I've gone in a first date, and I've gone shopping for their groceries. And that's been a first date.

And that's been a first date. And it was awesome. It's hilarious because we're like, I'm figuring out what she likes. And then she's figuring out what I like. And she's in a realm of a habit of her life that's real and happens all the time. So you get to really see a real side of somebody right away, not this fake thing that's developed on a first date. It's harder to convince people to do these things.

I will say your success rate is going to be way lower. If you're like, let's go shopping for your groceries or do your laundry, they're going to go, ha, ha, ha, next. Yeah, yeah. Next guy. But the person that does. The person that does, you're probably going to have a lot more fun with. What's the most random idea that someone's asked you on a first date, like, to do?

Like you said you offered to go grocery shopping. What's like the most, let's just do this. other than grocery shopping, what's the most random, creative, first date you've ever done? That's a good question. I don't know. I met someone at the top of the Empire State Building. Yeah, it feels like rom-commy. It does.

It's like, oh, that's fun, you know? But I do have a girlfriend now, though. Oh, you do? I have a girlfriend, yeah. And so does that, does she mind that you work 24-7? She's a Broadway actress, so she works 287. Yeah, that's, what show? I mean, she was Glenda and Wicked.

Mackenzie Kurt's shout-out. Wow. Yeah, yeah. She just closed the show. That was the harder rock and roll. Wow, we'll have to have her on. I'm obsessed with Broadway. Interesting.

You are a fascinating man. And if I had to summarize you in one way, it's like, this is the box, and you won't even fucking look at the box. You are thinking so far outside of it. Let's end this last question. I'll get your trading secret, especially being TikTok is a huge part of your life. It's a huge number one social media. You hear all the rumblings about the TikTok ban.

do you have an overall take on it if you have the crystal ball do you think it's banned what's your overall perspective my my take on the ticot ban is as follows to hear it if it gets banned you have more opportunity because all the attention and brand dollars are going to explode somewhere else and then there's your real opportunity to really have your moment if especially if you're a new creator so it's like the other platforms you should be focusing just as much on Yeah, I agree with that. All your years experience, your storytelling, you're editing, your focus, your research, your production. It doesn't matter what platform you'll find a way to do it. I completely agree. Do you think it will get banned, though? I think the world's a crazy place and it probably could. Yeah. And I would be interested to see what happens if it does more than if it didn't, just from my own personal, like, how will the world react? This would be interesting. Yeah, I think that my perspective on it is where there's too much money flowing.

in and too much attention, the powers to be will always get involved in some capacity. And there's just too much attention. There's too much money. And I think there's too much connection to the gen alphas and the people that will run this country here shortly, that if it's banned, it won't be banned for a while. Oh, yeah. Probably not going. There's just too much economics behind it. Businesses built, attention, entertainment. I just don't see it happening. But who knows? I don't have a crystal ball. If I did, I don't know. I probably actually still would be here because I too am in the dream. All right, Caleb, let's do this. Let's wrap with your trading secret. I mean, you've dropped about 75,000 of them here, but it's one

trading secret that no one can get other than your career experience. It could be a financial trading secret. It could be a life trading secret, a business navigation trading secret, literally anything. It's just unique to your experience where you've gone and where you are. I would say be as cringe as possible. That. I would expect no other trading secret but that. I can't let it end. Why?

Because over the cringe is everything you ever dreamed. And you in your own head will always be telling yourself, I'm bad. This isn't good. Oh, I'm terrible. I'm not funny. I'm not good looking, etc. And that's all in that cringe phase.

And maybe your friends will say the same thing. but just lean into that cringe because that's what makes you unique and then the most like diamond in the dust pieces of you will explode out of that cringe. I fucking love that trading secret. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people. I always like to play devil's advocate.

Say I suppose I'm at a dinner. And we're talking about business or what someone's doing and someone says that's cringe. Or that, I can't believe that person they're cringe. I will always jump down their throat because I often find more often than not people are saying that something's cringe are some, they have some kind of envy of that person,

whether they just don't have the chops to do it themselves or they kind of wish they had what that person's doing, I always challenge it because, yes, there are some things that are cringe, but I think majority of people judge, and I think the fear of someone thinking that you're cringe for doing something you're doing puts us all in those boxes, and clearly boxes are not your thing, and it's worked out for you. So, Caleb, where can people, if they haven't seen your content

and everything you have going on, where can they find everything you got? Yeah, everything online. If you just type in the apartment tour guy, you'll probably find me quicker than my handle, which is at Caleb W. Simpson on all socials. Caleb W. Simpson at the apartment guy, all the things. Go find him.

Caleb, thank you for one of the most unique interviews on Trading Secrets. Thanks for being on. The word unique's funny. Yeah, that's good. Ding, ding, ding. We are closing the bell to the apartment guy episode. We talked all things,

the cost of rent, his wild career track, and I have the one and only, the curious Canadian with me. And David, we got a big shout out, a big thank you to GEICO for sponsoring today's closing recap. Do you work with GEICO? GEICO works for me, I'd like to say, because I am bundled through GEICO, believe it or not, home insurance and car insurance, all bundled up under the GEICO umbrella. It's served me really well. And you know me. I don't like to get crazy with these things. Everything's always been taken care of. I've had my basement flooded, got taken care of. I'm a responsible driver. So thankfully, knock on wood, knock knock. I haven't had that taken care of. But I'm all bundled up through

the GEICO machine. I love it. Well, the GEICO insurance company will just do the shopping for you. So they'll find the right coverage at a great price, which of course, trading secrets listeners will like to hear that. And it's all through their trusted partners. So if you're thinking about looking at your insurance is the time to do it. You'll save time buying it, setting it up, and servicing your homeowners policy. It's easy online. You've done it before. You could do it over the phone or the mobile app. And I could speak to this. I actually have renters insurance in the place that I'm in. So whether it's home, renters, condo, Geico can help protect whatever you do call home. So get rewarded, how you protect your home with many options out there and make sure you're getting the best

price. And you could do that through Geico. So, David, I'm I'm glad you're set up through their bundle. I'm set up through their renters insurance and there are so many more insurance options out there. But while we're thankful for Guy Co for sponsoring this recap, we got to get into this recap because the apartment guy, I mean, a lot of action here. Talk about bundled. This guy has got a whole lot going on.

What do you think? I think a couple things. Number one, if you've seen the apartment guy and you saw that he was on and that's why you tuned in and your reason was. like this is it this is my shortcut this guy just finds people on the streets bring them to his apartment he's blown up he gets tens of millions of views on everything and that was your you thought you were going to get the secret the secret sauce a secret recipe uh-uh you're going to be very disappointed because let me tell you what this guy knows his shit um i don't know if i've

truly ever really felt someone who's such an expert or like knows how they got there more than this guy. I mean, this guy is sharp. I was not expecting that, Jason. And I could tell that you were very intrigued by every little detail about him, his business, his personal decision making, his viewpoints. You know, he was fascinating to me. Absolutely fascinating. I felt like he was a professor and I was a student and I was like, tell me everything. What I also think just really is fascinating is the fact that he pretty much had no money left, but he figured out like the, the, the calculation to like the cheat code and that's why I'm always so interested in this because everyone's trying to figure out what the cheat code is and no one really has or can but like

I guess he did and there are so many things about this episode I found that fascinating like even the prices of places in New York like the strike zone of where to go and what to go but to me I was like what do you mean you found the perfect equation like give me the cheat code what actually is it I wouldn't say it's the cheat code it's like the feeling it's like think of like a musical artist right they record a hundred songs in the studio right it's not like they record one it's a banger but sometimes they record that one and they get that feeling and you look around the studio and everyone's not on their head everyone's like did we just do it did we just do it this guy found that but in going viral in videos and

ideas because he had such experience doing it's not like he turned on his camera on his phone and said, I'm going to film a TikTok, oh, mom and dad, I need the money. This guy, he found that he got the feeling of years of work, years of work. And if you've been doing the research and you putting in the effort, that is the feeling that he got. And I think that's why his parents supported it. And like you said, good thing that they did because this guy's crushing it. I love the story. Everything about it is just inspiring. It's cool and it's different. But, you know, like you said, the word that just stuck out to me is research. Like, he's doing like case studies on stuff.

Case study. He said case study 50 times on this podcast. 50 times. And I don't know. It's just like, I don't know. I'm just, it's interesting. It's just the whole thing is interesting. Of all the stuff he talked about, because my gosh, there was a lot. Like, what to you maybe blew you away the most or you were most surprised by? I'm just going to kind of flip this. Like, were you surprised in his kind of like, you said, you know, what kind of blows him away the dollar amount? And he said really between $3,000 and $7,000 a rent, it's really not worth it. It's all one and the same. He's like saying, you might get a little better natural light. You might get this. Did that surprise you at all? Because just like the

musical artist's analogy, I got another analogy for something like this. That surprised the hell out of me because you're talking two X, right? So if you have an apartment that's renting at 3K a month, you're looking at what, 36k a year. And if you have a place that's at 4K a month, you're looking at 48K or even 6K. You're going to 72. So that could be like close to double. So I'm surprised in New York City, that apartment that's close to double really doesn't have much difference in pizzazz. And the big thing with New York, of course, renting is all the, you know, just the neighborhood will have a huge impact on what you're going to pay and then the size you're going to get. I look at this analogy this way. And this was why this did not surprise me.

I'm a believer, and I'd love your take on this. You make 100K or make 500K. You're living pretty much the same life. Your lifestyle is pretty much the same. So you have a $3,000 a month apartment, you have a $7,000 a month apartment. You're pretty much living the same lifestyle. Yes, one gets more natural light. Yes, maybe one countertops finish is nicer. But overall, you're living the same lifestyle. I've always felt that with salaries to $100,000, $500,000, the $500,000, you have a car, just like you do with the other one, but it's a little nicer car. And that $500,000 person, they do have the $7,000 rent apartment. You're still pretty much living the same lifestyle, doing things the same way. That's always been my take on it. It's at over 500,000. It's that million.

It's that extra where you're really living a totally different lifestyle. But I've always thought that your percentage of disposable income is always the same in that $500,000 to $500,000 levels. You're under the same stress, the same paycheck to paycheck, maybe not paycheck to paycheck, but like that same disposable income feeling. You're picking that up, are you putting that down, or what's you're feeling that? I mean, like, that's why I love the recap. You say things. I'm like, no David I mean here's the deal is it the same disposable income

I mean the answer is no right like the percentage wise I mean percentage wise percentage of what if your percentage of disposable income is the same from 100K to 500K you're feeling like you're living the same lifestyle you have the same types of stresses

you have the same type of payments I think that your disposable income percentage goes way up once you make more than that 500,000 thus the feeling back to feel the feeling of that lifestyle is a little bit different. I think there could be an intangible argument where you're not scrapping the numbers sense

and actually what's left over by saying the difference in lifestyle might not be as drastic as you would expect. I think that's a fair conclusion that you could make. I mean, if you look at the numbers, you'll obviously cash flow much greater at $500,000 and then if you're investing properly, that'll have a big impact. But I do think what's interesting

is that small personal finance decisions, whether you're making 100,000, 150, 200 could lead to the success and wealth of someone making $500,000 or even $2 million if it's done properly because there are people that at those levels I've seen them in my own eyes just don't have that ability and they're spending such a significant portion about what's coming in. But I also want to transition to this. You talk about rent. So I just looked up an article. visual capitalist and it's ranked the U.S. cities with the highest rent

in 2024. What do you think number one is, David? 2024 is probably got to be in L.A. New York. It's up 11.1% at $4,200. Second is Jersey City at 4.7%. Wow.

$3,3,330. Coming at third is San Francisco, California at $2,950. Boston, up 4.8% at 2,000. $830 in Miami is down 4.5% at 2,770. Now, I also want to share this one with you. Now, it's a little dated. It's from November, but the reason I wanted to share this article with you, David, is because November 2023, the least expensive large metros for renters. We have Cleveland is number one,

lived there. We have Buffalo at number seven, lived there. Rochester at number nine. That's where you live and I've lived there, which absolutely kills me. So Cleveland, the median rent in November 2023 is $1,203. Buffalo was at $1,277 in Rochester, New York, $1,365. I remember, dude, my last stop in Rochester. I lived in a three-bedroom apartment and my rent was $550. That was it. That was it. First one was $5.25 here, too. It was incredible. Nothing like the finance guy living in the three cheapest apartment rental cities in the in the country just making sure he gets a bang for his buck well that was back in 2010 when the banking crisis was a mess and it was like i'll take any job after the mortgage crisis and that's what brought me to rochester syracuse then cleveland

and then from cleveland back to rochester and rochester to seattle Seattle now in nashville and god knows what's next god knows what's next well you could be like the apartment guy next and you could moved to New York City, and you could do this. This is a fascinating thing that he said. He said, hey, how many hours do you work? He said, all of them. How about that? I thought that, but I thought that was intriguing.

Like, he then slowly backed it up with that he moved to New York City so we could eventually move home. Like, that to me struck a chord because it's like, that's a powerful statement. And then after saying that he's in the dream, which I thought was another great statement, he finally said, I want to be out of here when I'm 42. and that's 10 years from now. So here's a guy who's working all of them. He's shown the research.

He's shown the data. He's shown the case studies. He's committed to working all of the hours. It consumes his life 24-7. And he has a, his vision is to get out of the city that he's in in 10 years. I thought that was really just like, that was started when you got into the fascinating aspects of the episode. This is what really made it fascinating because this guy's a crazy cat. There was like, there was like business intrigue.

and then there was just like life intrigue. Like where he goes for where he used to go on dates. Like how we'd go to the grocery store? I was like, what? But his reasons are so smart. He's like, yeah, it's in the realm of, he goes, it's in the realm of her lifestyle. It's something that she does every day.

So if I'm going to try and date this girl, I want to see what she's like in her everyday habitat. I'm like, that's genius. Yeah. I mean, it's like the filter approach. like you're just like you're saying i'm going to like filter a nice dinner and drinks and all like the fluff and like let's just go i don't know let's go on a date like we're living together to see if it works i don't know it's not my style yeah yeah i guess yeah obviously my style's not

obviously who am i here to preach but like i don't know it's different i guess it's very different i would love to if i was i mean come on come on imagine like imagine like imagine you go on a date and you're like let's go grocery shopping like what i i think i would be electric i think it would be fun now i'd want to end it with like let's cook the food and like i should like try that i think you should yeah i think you should i think you should do something off the wall all right when i dip my toes back in the day and pool i will try the apartment guy's strategy and ask someone to go on a date to the groceries and we'll put some ideas some everyday life ideas in a hat and we'll pick one and that's what you're going to ask to do on the

date oh my god is this 2025 we're going to turn this into like a dating podcast that that's you know that's what i made for the mental the mental madness of dating at 36 that would i would i'd subscribe my blood pressure and i would love to i would love to host that i would love to co i would love to host that for you and just kind of you know you could you could use it as just a you know let's call research research all right well let's get back to business here we got a couple minutes left another big shout out to guy co for sponsoring this recap uh david what what else you think it without any other big business takeaways you got um i have a mindset takeaway okay let's hear it and that was his training secret which was anytime we get a unique training

secret on the show over 200 episodes it always sticks out to me and his to me was so relatable and he said be as cringe as possible he says when you get over the cringe phase everything you've ever dreamed of happens lean into the cringe it's so it makes a unique and i thought that that was so interesting because it was relatable because i know for me like everyone's always like do food videos do food videos ha ha ha like and then i video them and i send them to guys or i think about posting it and it's so cringe i like my neck is already tight and thinking about it and I can't get over the cringe but if I did

fuck those videos are funny and maybe you know then that's what he got and that's where he is so hearing him say that to me it was like I put I could put myself in a mind space of like exactly what he's trying to get through to you yeah and I think

yeah I actually really like that trading secret because I think what's happened is I don't know there was a idea of like what cringe was right like that was the thing where people would be like this is cringe I think it's become the most overrated thing now where just like everyone's like oh that's cringe that's cringe and it's I think what his trading secret was with cringe was everyone's judging and everyone's judging because of their

own fears or external resentment or internal longing and he's like if you're doing the things that people are judging like just keep doing them like ignore it like just do you and that I love yeah and you said it was it usually comes up a place of like envy like jealousy like oh that's cringe it's in deep down it's like fuck I wish I was just I didn't care enough to just do that to lean into it to whether you think you're funny or think you're not like you said like i that to me was such a such a great um trading secret it's like uh your hair right everyone wants to grow their hair i want to grow my hair i want to have jason tardic hair you got great hair but you know what i but you know what i don't do what i don't let it grow out because there's the cringe face right

everyone says oh that's the cringe that's like the what's the stage they call it like the in-between stage yeah yeah well if i get if i lean into the cringe and embrace it soon i'm I'm going to have nice, luscious locks like Jason Tardick, and I can throw it back and float a little bit. So cringe, I got to get over the cringe phase, and then I'll finally get the flow that I want. Get over the cringe phase. You'll get over the flow you want.

Apartments, New York City, 3 to 7K-ish. That's an interesting discussion on that point. And, you know, we had Ryan Surhant talk about Bad Bunny's apartment, 150K plus of rent. So a lot of rent talk here. And for me, and like, what's next? I got to figure out that. As you know, David, like I have literally nothing at this point anymore keeping me to Nashville.

And so I got to figure out what that's going to look like. So who knows? Maybe I'll be calling the apartment guy for a couple tours here sooner than later. But I don't know. We'll see. That would be a great little side business for him, too. Could just be a brokerage firm. Oh, yeah.

Seriously, at this point. Right, there you go. I did like your guys's idea that you talked about where he asked how much they pay for rent and you, and then you like pop out of the woods. You're like, and how much do you make? Oh, yeah. Just do a one-two punch. Just do a one-two punch.

I thought that was phenomenal. I love it. You already have the Barbara Corcoran connection, so to see. I mean, you know, she's big fans of both years. She's been on the pod twice. She got 100 million views on her show there on her episode with him. She gained 200,000 followers and crazy. Crazy stuff.

Crazy world we live in. It's a crazy world. If you're renting right now, you already heard it. You got California, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, some areas in Florida. And of course, New York, those are some of the most expensive places to be rented. right now. So make sure you're checking in with the apartment guy. The content is great. The information is unbelievable. And just another shout out to GEICO for sponsoring this recap. And David, you got anything else before we wrap? Nope. Shout out to GEICO. And all this rent talk,

it does make me misrenting. Because home owning, it's just, it's just tough. You always want what you can't have. That's our trading secret today. Hopefully this was another episode. Trades you It's one you couldn't afford to miss.