Trading Secrets - 57: 3 Betches built Betches from a college dorm! The strategy, growth and money behind “Betches” empire

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

Check out The Restart Roadmap: Rewire and Reset Your Career now!   In this week’s episode, Jason is joined by two of the founders of Betches Media, Sami Sage and Jordana Abraham, who along with their best friend Aleen Dreksler started a blog in a college apartment that ended up going viral back in 2011. Since then, Betches has gone on to become wildly successful with twelve unique brands, podcasts, best-selling books and the list goes on. Sami and Jordana reveal the secrets behind starting and running a successful company with friends and keeping it that way, staying true to your brand, and expanding into the canned cocktail market. How much money did each of them invest into the company initially? What do they look for when interviewing someone to join the Betches team? How did they make their first dollar as a company? Where can you find their new canned cocktails Faux Pas? Jordana and Sami answer all of that and more in another episode you can’t afford to miss.   Follow Trading Secrets Podcast on Instagram here. Zencastr promo code JASON for 30% off your first three months.   Sponsors: LinkedIn.com/SECRETS to post your job for free! Shopify.com/secrets for a free 14-day trial   Host: Jason Tartick Voice of Viewer: David Arduin Executive Producer: Evan Sahr   Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Betches. Fetches began in a college apartment at Cornell University in 2011, when three lifelong friends, Aileen Dressclare, Jordana Abraham, I just screwed that up. No, I got it right. Jordana.

You got mine right. Guys, this is what I like to do. I like to guys give you insight. We just had a whole story on how I screw up names. Jordana, we nailed it. And Sammy Stage started an anonymous blog meant to comment on a type of woman called The Betch through genius satire. Ever since Betches, media has evolved far beyond the website in a New York Times bestselling,

books to an audience of millions on social media, a full slate of podcasts. Betches is a female founded in lead media and entertainment brand that provides a space for all women to get real about life. Funny, honest, and all unfiltered content, 48 million plus audience with their 12 unique brands, including 13 million social followers, a network of 12 original and highly popular podcast is focusing on a subjects ranging from wedding planning to real housewives to true crime, a successful e-commerce store with the funniest wearable shit out there, best-selling books, virtual and live experiences, a website that reads by millions of readers, a newsletter that has gotten so many subscribers. I can keep going on and on. It's like as I'm reading this intro,

I'm just blown away by what you guys have done and the fact that it all started in college together. we have the founders with us, Sammy and Jord Anna Abraham with us. Thank you guys so much for being on this episode, During Secrets. Thank you for having us. For sure. So I got to rewire and start from where this start. I mean, Cornell University, obviously, you guys are pretty smart just to get into Cornell. But tell me a little bit about what your majors were, what your professional outlook was,

and how this idea of that just came about. Yes. In college, I majored in something called industrial labor. which is kind of like learning about labor unions. Like that is essentially what you're learning about. But there's a little more to it. But, you know, I thought I was going to be a lawyer for a time. But then when I had to go to LSAT class, I was like, I can barely make it through this class that I don't know how I'm going to become a lawyer.

So that, then I started to reexamine. I was like, I realized, oh, actually, I just want to be a lawyer because of L Woods and runaway jury. And actually, being a lawyer means a lot of really boring reading. Yeah, I mean, going into, like, senior year of college, I didn't really know, like, what I was going to do yet. And then, you know, Jordana can speak to, you know, herself. But we ultimately ended up pursuing betches. And that was, it was really a combination of luck, timing, work,

and just generally the overall situation. turn out i'll let you take your your personal your your end of that betches really just came around us just kind of like wanting to make fun of these sort of absurdities of the world around us like we were living you know we were in college living in a very different lifestyle of like partying and sororities and things like that and we really just wanted to sort of like make sense of the world around us but in a way that was like funny what was like critical but not hatery and we sort of adapted this like satirical fun little blog that we did really just like thought it would just be for us. We just thought it would be like a fun little project. And it wound up going

viral. And then now it's 11 years later and turned into a whole company. And so when did you make your first dollar, like your first monetization moment off of this like fun idea to just have some like goofy discussions and blogs based on what you're seeing and living in college? When we were in college, when the blog was picking up, we had an agent. that approached us from one of the agencies and she was like this could be a good book and so like we as college seniors like started

speaking to someone and then that summer after we graduated started writing the proposal for what would be this book and then somehow we were like oh my god someone Simon and Chuster wants to give us money to write a book like we must know everything but it was also like nowhere near enough

to pay like one person's rent let alone three so it was also I mean, it took us a long time before we, you know, we're monetizing, you know, a race. But he asked about the first dollar. We also, like, put, like, ads on the site at one point and we're making, like, you know, a few hundred dollars. I think the advance was our first dollar, which was not that big, but it was exciting for us. So the advance of the first book is, like, the first, like, let's say, bigger dollar over than a couple hundred bucks.

Did you guys graduate at this point? Are you still working? Are you, like, considering maybe getting a full-time job? before you get your advance. We graduated before we got the advance, and then we had started meeting with publishers and agents, and we had to write a proposal. Jordana and I both worked, you know, for,

I worked fairly briefly for a few weeks. I was trying to be a headhunter. Really was not good at that whatsoever. I quit after about six weeks, but, you know, I was living, I was living, you know, at home. So it was, you know, it wasn't, I was really just trying to. to earn money at that point.

But I went back to doing Betches full-time. Got it. But one of the cool things, and that's where I'm going with this, is that you guys literally, you graduated, you need full-time jobs, you still haven't really monetized it at this point,

trying to figure it out, try to be a HUD hunter, head-hunter, completely break that, and you go back to Betches and you get your first advance. I've talked a ton about my book, the pennies behind what I've made,

what my advance was, and all the ins and outs. Your first advance, like, can I take a stab and can you tell, tell me if I'm close for the advance? 50,000? Yeah. That's you're close. You're very close. Very close. All right. So what is curious to me, though, is you even said the word agent. And so I think people listening in this is they're like thinking, maybe I would start something. I could start a blog.

One of the hardest things to do, especially in this world, 2022, is to get an agent's attention. What was it that an agent reached out to these girls that just start this batches blog? Right. What was it that even got the agent's attention? Well, it's so interesting because I feel like the landscape of social media and influencer culture has changed so much since 2011. But I do feel like that was almost the start of like things going viral. Do you know what I mean? And we had this blog in 2011, which no one would have a blog anymore that would go viral because no one's reading blocks. But we had this blog that like people were reading and we would like sit there like refreshing the blog and all the numbers would go up and it would be like so exciting.

And I think that they were, I mean, just now I feel like. like there's probably a whole department for that that's like looking on the internet to see like who's big, who's growing, who's got an audience. But at the time, there was no Instagram. There was really just Facebook. None of, no one had any followers, us or anyone else, really. There were people who had books and stuff. But I think that this blog got around and that was really how this agent had heard of us.

Got it. And so you got the blog. You then get the book advance. And you're still probably considering what to do. because as people know that listen, with the book, it takes like a year or two to get a book out. At that point, once you have the advance, and even the advances, depending on what it is, right,

you guys know it's paid at different times. What are you doing to try and monetize this or to get cash in the door so you don't have to go back to being a headhunter or working your full-time job and you can keep the betches dream alive? Well, even when I was being a headhunter very briefly, I was still working.

you know, we were still working on betches daily. So it's not like that was something that ever ceased at any point. It was just a matter of if I was like also trying to do something else. But, you know, throughout that time, we were writing every day. We were, you know, posting every day. We had started our first iteration, iteration. We'd start our first iteration of our e-com arm, which was called Shop B-S-C-B, which we redid later on and is now shop-betches. But basically, yeah, we were trying to monetize. Clearly not at scale, though, at that point. Gotcha. Interesting. It's so fascinating to me that the idea of college comes to instantly Simon Chuster, a huge publisher. You get it up, you get it running, and then this

becomes an absolute monster 10 years later. When you look back at where you guys are today, versus where you were then, 48 plus million following. And this is the community you guys built. What do you attest? Because everyone, small businesses, businesses down the street here in Nashville, two massive businesses like SportsCenter, Nike, and anyone above, are trying to get the attention and build a community and build the following. What do you attest to that type of growth?

Really remaining consistent that we speak to women the way that they speak to each other. And when we were 21, we were speaking to those women as 21-year-olds, like in a voice that felt really authentic, that didn't feel like it was like cheesy or watered down that felt like we would speak to our friends. And that's something that we still bring to every audience that we start, every vertical we start, whether it's betches brides or betches moms or not another true crime podcast or there's a, you know, or the betches sup. Like everything we do, we keep that voice consistent. is why I think our audience trusts us, and that's, I think, allowed us to stay the test of time so far. That is pretty cool. Of all those areas, though, you've built the community, what are those areas, like within social media, the blog, the podcast? Have you had the, like, quickest acceleration and growth? I would say probably earliest in Instagram was probably a very quick time.

And then, I mean, in terms of our podcast, they have been massively successful. I think we, We were one of the earlier companies, I think, to get into podcasts, especially in women's media. So those have been, those, I mean, to this day are still our, you know, our biggest platforms. That's really cool. Now, we have had so many different perspectives about this as it comes to starting up a company. We have had the Mark Randolph, he founded Netflix. His whole thing was OPM, other people's money. Then I had a guy like Mark Laurie who owns Minnesota Timberwolves with A-Rod.

And he's a billionaire, and he is like, no, every penny of mine is going into these businesses. Because if they go into these businesses, I have no other option but to drive them and find success. For you guys, as you're continuing to build, like, think about the early days, 2011, 12, 13, 14, 15. At any point did you have to get investment from other people or pour in your own money to the company? And what's overall from like a business perspective, your philosophy on that with batches? Yeah, I mean, we started as, you know, as soon as we decided to make this into a company, like literally opening a bank account, we each put in $1,500. Again, we're 21, 22 at the time. And we are very, like, proud of ourselves to say that we are still fully, like, we still own the entirety of our business, the three of us. And that's something that I think has helped really, like, maintain that consistent voice that I've been, that I mentioned earlier, just allowed us to be really authentic and allow us. to really like make those decisions at the top and not have to cut through any red tape and really like bring our audience what we just know inherently they will enjoy and love and

whether that's podcast again or like social media newsletter anything and I think that's been a big part of our success the fact that we haven't taken outside investment that's really cool yeah so you're aligned with the billionaire mark lorry that's a good person to be aligned with I love it what about we have a lot of listeners that will put in questions as relates to maybe starting a side hustle but one of the big things they think about is I have this idea with my friend and they've heard so many controversial issues about getting into business with your friends. You and your good friends, you guys run a monster business. What type of advice would you have for someone that's maybe thinking of starting a company

with their friends or getting into business with their friends for the good or for the bad? We always say this. It's kind of like we're married to each other. Like we've been with each other in this business longer than any of us have been married way longer actually. And it is like, you know what I mean? Like sometimes you guys are on the same page and you're like really excited to be doing what you're doing. And sometimes you are, you know, the other person's driving you crazy. And thankfully, you know, at this point in our in our business, we've definitely figured out each other's like quirks and the way that we all operate and what we're best at and, you know, how to specialize in that way. But I don't think that, I think a lot of people assume

that'll be obvious. And that was probably one of the biggest challenges of running a business with your friends is like figuring out how to do it just in the same way as you would a marriage. Yeah. I mean, that makes, I mean, so well said. Like you guys are married to each other and you're married to each other through the business. I'm sure contractually. And there's ups, there's downs, there's left, there's rights. You figure out what's good, what's not and how it works and how you continue to drive forward, which is pretty cool. When you think about innovation as you transition, obviously, you come out with faux pa and that's a great brand that you guys have come up with. But you also had made that comment about blogging. You're like, no one reads, no one reads

blogs anymore. For anyone that is listening to this that's looking to, like, expand their business or grow their personal brand, what forum do you think is the best way for someone trying to innovate themselves to grow at this point on the internet or social media? Where do you think the best place to do it would be? I think it really depends what your skill is. Honestly, Like, it's, there's every area, I think, that you can think of. You could argue that it is saturated or that there is no real way to stand out. But I don't really believe that that's necessarily true. I think, you know, obviously there are some more outdated modes than others and some platforms

where it's much more difficult to accumulate followers. But for example, someone who's young, you know, they're just starting out their career. Are they going to be unable to have a career because the, you know, main platforms are mostly saturated. I think it really comes down to sort of looking at what your personal skills are. So are you very good at communicating on Instagram? Are you sort of like a short form visual person that would do better on TikTok? Are you a long form writer?

Maybe you want to start a substack. And I think that kind of, you know, if you're very good, you know, if you're very well-spoken, a podcast. So I think it really depends what your skills are and who you're looking to serve. And obviously with other considerations, like what is costs? What does it cost to do these things? And yeah, I mean, I don't think it's really necessarily a one-size-fits-all answer. Got it. And we have had some guests also have this debate.

We talked a little about other people's money versus putting your own money in and running that way. We've had another debate with different guests and influencers and agents and all the above about the debate of like, What is easier to monetize TikTok or Instagram? And you guys having a big following on both. I'm curious what your opinion is. I mean, I think like Sammy said, it really depends what the sponsor is really looking for. I mean, it's interesting because we're just talking about Popa.

And like TikTok isn't really an avenue where you're going to be advertising alcohol, for example, because a lot, because a huge percent of that demographic is under 21. And so legally that's like, you know what I mean? So if you look at it on just that end, like that, you know, that will skew people more towards Instagram. But then it's also, again, like, does the product in question lend itself more to a TikTok video or is it something that's more on, that would do better on Instagram?

Or is it something that would, that needs a lot of brand education that would be better as a podcast read where you can really explain what's going on in a way that you can't really do on a 15 second Instagram slide or even a TikTok? Yeah. I mean, that makes perfect sense. I didn't even think about, obviously, the age demographic and thinking about how you're positioning products accordingly to the demographic, knowing that you guys have generated a lot of revenue from, obviously, advertising sales and now ownership of your own product like FOPA, what are some, and for anyone listening that's either an influencer in business thinking about either creating their own brand like you guys have done FOPA or taking ad revenue from other sources and agencies and things like that, how would you guys break down kind of the good, the bad, the ugly with each of those. Taking ad revenue from others versus like actually owning your product,

bringing it to market, having 100% equity. I hate to be, you know, that we keep saying sort of like, it depends. But I mean, it does. I mean, if you are someone who has money to invest at whatever stage of your life that you're in, putting, you know, your money into a product, it's really costly to, you know, have a product-based company. Because not only do you need to typically buy inventory, But you are probably maintaining an e-com site.

You probably are using money for marketing if you're not doing it completely organically on social media or through word of mouth. But you probably do require marketing budget. And then, you know, I think the advantage for a company that, you know, earns most of its dollars from advertisers is that if you're a good content creator, you can basically make that for free. and your margin is whatever time it took you to make that content. You know, especially at a lower level until you start scaling more.

But, you know, I mean, owning your own, if you have a really successful product and you have the money to invest in owning the full profit of that, then, you know, that's obviously a great business, especially if you know your audience and you know that you're selling something unique and you know that you really developed it with them in mind. Yeah, it is such a good point too. when you talk about some of the margins in this business, and even like this podcast, you guys have a bunch of them.

You have a microphone, an idea, you invest in some technology, and if you can monetize it through different ad revenue streams, the cost is so low. And that goes through content creation, too. It's something that's like so important. Well, I think that's why you see so many creators starting on, you know, starting on social media. They usually do start with brand and partnerships.

And then you'll frequently see them launching merch or maybe, you know, maybe they are able to come out with their own product or an app or something that is sellable or even just subscription content. So I think that's why you see that a lot is that first people want to find an audience, monetize it and then knowing that they can monetize it, invest in something that they are taking the time to develop. Absolutely. It's one thing we've talked a lot about with TikTok too is just the revenue like with the creators. I was reading this morning that TikTok is now offering because the big thing is like with betches with all this it is an app right Instagram TikTok it's just an app if you think about it and the assets are you guys it's betches it's

the people putting content out without those content producers you don't have an app and so one of the issues where you think about with TikTok is how they grow if they're not going to be able to put money in the pockets of the creators you're going to have a vine issue where TikTok inevitably would go away because people aren't going to put the time and effort to do it and I guess just Today it was announced on TechCrunch, they're offering this revenue share, a new revenue share with creators that's called TikTok Pulse. It's a new contextual advertising solution that ensures brand ads are placed next to the top 4% of all videos on TikTok, one of the solutions to get more revenue generation to creators.

So it's a game that's changing at such a drastic speed. It's just, it's so fascinating. And I am sure with over your 11 plus years now doing this, you must have seen such drastic changes in consumer demand causing you guys to shift on the drop of a dime, I would assume. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I think that that is sort of one of the benefits that we didn't even realize at the time of bootstrapping the business is that we could pivot quickly because we were always operating, you know, fairly leanly and it, you know, never above the level that we were capable of managing made it, I think that was sort of an advantage, especially compared to

how we saw so many media companies go all in on certain things. And because we've always sort of walked this line between creator, brand, and company, I think that it has really allowed us to just pivot really, you know, as we see things changing. Amazing. One of the things I want to ask you with the podcast piece of Betches, you guys have all different industries, kind of topics you cover. What have you seen? And we think about it when we have this podcast and anyone that's in any form of marketing their business themselves are thinking about like, how do you create a bigger splash? Is it relevancy? Is a topic that people are talking about this second? Is it a certain industry like true crime of the podcast? What have you

seen either from a focus or a niche that has like been the most successful? I mean, again, we try to we started to start podcasts or start verticals based on the things that we think are missing in the industry as a whole and what can we what can we what voice can we bring to this topic that hasn't already been done before and i mean that's important now more than ever like we said like the content space is so saturated everyone is a content creator so before we start anything we always think like what new angle can we bring to this what what's what like signature betches voice is needed in this area and then i mean dating has always been a huge thing in our audience. Even, you know, from 2011, we used to answer, we call them Dear Bech advice columns where we would answer listener, like, listener emails. And I would say like 80% of them were probably about dating or relationships or something like that. So that was how we launched UOP, which is a podcast that I co-hosts. But then like there's, again, there's so many other topics that are our listeners are interested in. We have, you know, diet starts tomorrow, which is like an anti-wellness, wellness kind of platform.

We have the stuff, which is breaking down news in a way that's funny and, you know, digestible. And like, again, we try to bring that voice to everything we do. And we like to say we take you through like the Betches life cycle. So maybe you start on you up when you're dating and then you're getting married. You go to Betj's brides. And then you start having kids. You're going to Betches' moms. And then really any other interest you have along the way, like Bravo, The Bachelor.

I'm sure you're pulling your way. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you guys cover it A to Z. And I think the one thing, too, I want to give you guys credit for is the speed at which you move quickly, right? So people are always talking about The Bachelor, and they're talking about who's going to win. And so you guys implement the Bachelor, I forgot the name of it, but the Bachelor Fantasy Pool that over 13,000 people are then submitting. And then you're getting more traction in community. So it moves so quick.

It moves so fast. And it's timely. I think there's something to attribute to that. If someone, and most people, especially the listeners podcast, know about Betches, and they have the opportunity to sit down with either one of you, too, and they are trying to land a job at Betches as creators, founders, and leaders of the company, what are things that you want to see from individuals when they're interviewing with you? I mean, I think there's really, you know, kind of two components. and one is sort of, you know, just the general skill kind of, you know, like, do you have the skill that's required for the role you're applying for? A step up from that is sort of a unique take on how your experience will be able to fit seamlessly into the role or into something that they can

see is missing at Betches. And that, I think, belies the kind of the third thing, which is, you know, do you know the brand? Do you like the brand? You know, it's not like everyone needs to be our, you know, biggest fan girl to work for Betches, but, you know, is there, you know, and obviously it depends. You know, are you a content creator? Are you a, you know, are working in more operational role? So it, you know, it depends. And, you know, just sort of understanding what you're, you know, what you are applying for is obviously very important. And then, you know, the sort of basic, like, someone in an interview once pitched an idea that we had already done. Do your homework.

Right. There's baseline. And when I say an idea we had already done, it wasn't just like a, you know, a minuscule thing you could have missed. It was like they pitched an existing vertical. Oh, God. Juerreta, any other thoughts as a leader? Like when you're interviewing, what advice you'd have for someone if they were to sit down with you or someone of this sort? Yeah, I mean, I think Sammy

sort of touched on this about just knowing what the company does extremely well. Like even if you're not, again, like a huge fan, at Betches are the voice that we have and the brand is our product. So if you don't have a sense of like what that is

or really understanding it, it's not just that like you're not going to get to work here. It's just that you should. It's also that you shouldn't work here because it wouldn't be like a match like part of working for and representing this brand and being part of it is sort of really understanding the voice and the tone of what we're doing. Got it. That makes perfect sense. I think that's good advice. The other thing people always ask for advice is is negotiating. So whether you were negotiating when you guys created faux pot and getting it into places like Primo or like working with

your online vendors or people are coming to you to negotiate, what tactics and tips would you provide our listeners as like some baseline dues and don'ts when negotiating either for yourself when creating a product like phopa or negotiating with your boss? I think understanding what your most key value is and then really leveraging that in your negotiation. Also sort of understanding maybe there's another solution that can get both parties to a place where they're happy. Maybe there's sort of a, I mean, this isn't groundbreaking advice, but maybe there is sort of a third solution. So I think demonstrating openness to be flexible to a certain extent without bending too far.

So I think it's really like knowing your value, knowing where your value lies, what your deal breakers are. And I also think not agreeing to something that you are not, that you are going to come to resent later. That's a good. I think that's a really good one. I think some people agree to something and then down the road because they did something. like a month or two later, they're still holding resentment for that. That's one that I don't think I've heard honestly ever, and I think that's such a really good one. How about you, Jordana, anything from your end on a negotiation standpoint? Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a great point.

And I think, like, the one thing I would highlight from what Sam even said is just the idea of like making your case in the sense of what you're bringing to the company and not anything personal or not anything that has nothing to do with that. I feel like I hear a lot like the cost of living in New York City is very expensive or like, you know what I mean? Or I would like to move to a different apartment. It's like I would make it more about the job and the value that you're going to be bringing to the job and how that's going to help the company, like have your salary that you're proposing be worth it to them and pay for itself almost. I love that. And I think, yeah, bringing in some of those personal dilemmas are more of controllable choices for the

individual that the company isn't maybe responsible for. Sammy J. have something? I was going to add from the employer or let's say the side with a peer, you know, that seemingly has more leverage. From the end of, from that person's end, I do think there is also sort of a benefit in if you, knowing how do you really want to end up sort of in a long-term relationship with this person or are you just negotiating to win the negotiation because at some point you can say actually maybe and maybe like Durana said earlier it's just not a match yeah i got one last question for you related to faux pop before we go into your trading secret and a trading secret we'll need to we'll need one from each of you so it's going to

be two total trading secrets it's something about either career management or financial management that you can't get in a textbook a classroom or anywhere on google that only two you two can offer given your experience and where you've been and what you've done. So we'll get to that in a second. The last question I have for you, though, is I know that Phopat actually developed, or at least I read that it developed a partnership with Spirit of Gallo. And what I know about Gallo is that they have had some big, big companies like High Noon and some massive exits as well. And we talk a little bit about business. The beverage space is amazing with the multiples that they can sell at. So when you guys, Fopas now, wow, just, like, just out.

What is your vision in working with like a Gallo or just the overall idea with what you guys want to do with Fopal? Our goal with Fopas is to make it the go-to drink for any, you know, any woman looking to enjoy cocktails with her friends. That is the precious ethos and that's what we wanted to bring to the cocktail space. In terms of working with Gallo, it's great to work with someone who, with the company that, has such expertise in, you know, things like distribution and things like production and things like that that they can bring to the table. And, you know, it's such a great partnership because obviously we have this law, this very large, really engaged audience. So together, you know, that's what we're looking to do in this market. It's just, I can't think of a go-to drink in the

ready-to drink cocktail market that you think of when you think of women going out, having fun with their friends. And that is, again, what we're, what we're all about. I love it. I love it. And that actually, I think Gallo also, we've had Paul Bissonette on talk about Pink Whitney. I think Pink Whitney is distributed through Gallo. And I think of that is like they pitch it hard to the guys that they, like, that there's their demo and those guys drink it like crazy. I don't, I can't think of one that's like that. So that's a unique space. That's awesome that you guys are working with them. We wish you all the best with Fopopop. We're going to try it out and talk a little bit about that. In the recap, looking forward to that. sexy and electric are the words I come to mind. I'll get David's words on what he thinks about the packaging. But that being said, we're going to wrap with one trading secret from each of you guys. So who's going to give us their trading secret first? I'll let you go, Sammy. Okay, I can start. I hope it's not mine. I don't feel like it's not. I don't think it will be. My trading secret is that so a lot of people

are really afraid of budgeting and they're really dread it. And I would encourage people to, I mean, I would encourage people to think of budgeting as a means of freedom for your spending and not a means of restriction for your spending because the budget is designed to help you feel secure in when you're spending on any given thing in any given category. So that is, I think, I mean, obviously I think this is more for like people who are maybe a little younger, but that has really helped me to have a more comfortable boundary relationship around money and spending and safe. I love it. It's a different approach than most people talk about. And it's like glass half full to budgeting. I don't know if you guys have like a finance

podcast in the women's space, but you should have like a total opposite. Like spend all you want podcast that fits perfect with the bench is playing. Just the thought. Just the thought. Sammy will run it. You run with it. All right. Well, let's hear it responsible for driving. like a whole generation into extreme credit card debt. That's awesome. I love it. All right, Jordana, what do you got? My trade secret is really about trying to not let like the noise of the internet distract

you or the comparison that is social media distract you or make you think that you're not doing well or getting out of this feeling that everything is a race. And so I mean, obviously I'm not the first person to say that social media is a highlight real. But that's also true for businesses, you know, and people are always talking about like the amazing deals they have and the amazing products that they have and us included. But what you don't really see behind that is like all of the things, like, you know, for everything that you see come to life on Instagram, there's like three or four failed projects usually behind that or things that didn't pan out. And I don't think people really see that. And so they assume when that happens to them that that's, I mean, you hear about this in like in the world of like, you know, physical attributes and looks and things like that. It's also true for business, and I think people forget that.

They forget that, like, not everything works out. Everyone's just showing, like, their business moments that are really great. But success isn't linear. It's usually, like, up and then maybe a step back or two, and then you grow. It's like, we've been doing this 11 years. So I think that that's something that has made, that learning that has made me feel a lot more comfortable in just focusing on myself and just focusing on competing with myself instead of others in the same space. Yeah, that is so well said, especially because obviously everyone likes to showcase their trophies. And the interesting thing is there is not one person that has come on this podcast, not one,

that hasn't discussed some of their failures and attributed their success to their setbacks. Like that is an absolute 100% statement that is true in all businesses and all people. And just because all you see are people's trophies and their flexes and, you know, the highlight real, there are so many failures and fears that go behind that. and it's the people that are afraid to take the shot because of all the noise that really I feel like end up always wishing they did it and not like having it done. So I appreciate you sharing that. That's awesome. Guys, we thank you so much for coming on Trading Secrets. One more time, if we can go to each of you, where can people find you, where can they find Betches,

and one more time where they can find Foppa, the newest drinks you guys have out. So many places. They can find Betches at Betches on Instagram. We can find me. I'm on Instagram at Sammy. I'm on TikTok at Sammy Sage says. I host the morning announcement podcast, which comes out every single weekday. It's a five-minute rundown of the news headlines of the day with jokes and commentary and I script it and write it every day. So it is a labor of love. And Jordana has a whole bunch of places. You can find her tip. Sure. You can find me at Jordana Abraham. You can find I host the U-Up podcast and a new podcast that they've just launched called Oversharing both about interpersonal relationships in slightly different ways.

So you can find those anywhere you get at your podcast. And you can follow, if you want to learn more about faux pa, you can follow at Drink Phopa on Instagram, on Twitter. And yeah, I hope you guys get out and try them because honestly, like, they're just really good. They speak for themselves once you have a taste. I'm excited to hear what you think. I love it. Thank you guys so much for being on this episode, Traying Secret.

stay tuned to the recap. We're going to try faux pa. And thank you to the founders of Betches for coming on and trading all your secrets. Ding, ding, ding. We are closing in the bell to the founder of Betches podcast. That was a great one. And also in this recap, we got the full paw going, the canned tequila soda. David went to the store, literally got like over $50 worth. I'll let him tell you about it. But we'll be doing a taste test. And not only will we be doing a taste test, we'll be doing a review. And you could find that review, which I'm sure will be fun. if we're drinking $50 worth of canned tequila soda on the Trading Secrets Facebook page. Just go to the Trading Secrets Facebook page and you can follow along and we'll have tips,

tricks about the market and everything else, but you can come check out a review. And while you're doing it, don't forget to go follow us on Instagram. Trading Secrets Podcast is the page on podcast. We have great content. We have even better content coming because we're going to be doing trading secrets on the streets where I will be passing everyday individuals, I'll be asking them how much they make, how much they started to make in that industry, where they're projected to go, and more dollars and cents questions with everyday individuals just walk in the streets of cities

all over the country. But without further ado, let's bring on the one, the only, the curious Canadian, David Ardoin, full paw, founders of betches, the episode is complete. You're here for the recap. What do you got for me? It's Friday. It's sunny. I got $50 a full. paw in front of me it's not just tequila jay we got some vodka uh mule pear we got some vodka lemon in here i'm ready to crack these do a review uh hop on over to our facebook page check it out uh overall great episode um unbelievable success that they've had um but one thing i got to say about the episode that stuck out was they were talking about fopaw and one of the girls said that she couldn't think of a go-to drink in the ready to drink cocktail market that you think of when you think of woman

going out and have fun with her friends well i'm sorry but i was at the liquor store at nine a.m. this morning. And there was about 50 can cocktails ready to go to grab and drink. They're lucky that their packaging is electric, like you said, but I can't wait to crack them and try them out. I love the packaging, but I will agree with you. There are definitely a lot of players in the space. But something tells me that the power of their media and brand that they've created over all these years will bring FOPA to the top. We'll see what happens and we'll check it out in the review. Speaking of being at the top and Betches, one of the things that I would criticize this episode about was we couldn't get numbers. I couldn't. They were great. They're

insightful. They're impressive. Cornell. Look where they are today. This business is worth a ton. But man, I was trying every single angle to drill down and get numbers and they weren't giving them to me. But what I did get, we got a couple. We know that they started the company with $1,500 each. So self-started. We know they own 100% of the company. We know their first came from like small $100 ads online on their blog. But majority of their dollars, their first dollars came in from that book deal, which was a $50,000 deal. I'm glad I hit that now on the head because finally we got some numbers.

We can't end a podcast without giving you guys numbers. So I told David the one and only to do some research. David, I know numbers research aren't your thing, but did you end up getting any numbers as it correlates to the betches group? Anything online anywhere? Well, let's just say I disappoint the people with numbers a lot. I know crypto, the whole status of that comes to think about, but the internet's a big place and I did find some numbers.

I did find some relevant numbers related to betches and some money behind the scenes here. Love it. Well, let's go. Fire away. Bring it to me. Okay. So I got three big bullet points here. First one from Forbes magazine, ever heard of it.

In 2017, it was their third year of earning profit. So they started in 2011. That means three years they didn't earn profit. in their third year of earning profit, they earned more than $5 million in revenue. So $5 million in their third year of profit, six year of existence. Thoughts on that, quick hitter.

That's impressive. I would expect right now, I mean, it makes sense that it took them three years to get up and running. $5 million in year three makes sense. I would say right now, they're about 10 times that. Yeah, so that's a very good estimate.

My next number, nice transition parlay. It's like we're yin and yang here. We're feeling each other, David. It's because we got cocktails in front of us. net worth spot now we all know net worth online aren't really accurate but it's worth a guess here net worth predicts that betches media has a forecast net worth of between 32 and 51 million so that's a pretty good a pretty good range there obviously it matches your 10x prediction the last thing i want to say is one of the founders aline on comparably dot combs says the average

betches executive compensation is 169 000 a year the most compensated executive makes 385k annually and the lowest compensated makes 30KM. So some numbers, just throwing them out there, seeing how they stick. Let me know your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, if you're doing 385 for your top executives, you got some big bucks coming in. I'm thinking 50 million in revenue is definitely the place they are around, maybe a little bit less, but this sounds like a great company. The other thing, we saw that they both, all the founders made Forbes 30 under 30 in 2019. We found that out too. So obviously there's some big bucks behind this business. They've grown it so exceptionally.

Their brand is so strong. I mean, when we asked people, David, we asked the viewers who we should have on, and we had so many people saying someone from Betches. And the bunch of them said the founders. So I'm glad they were here. Great episode. Great insight.

David, one thing I got a follow up. Wow, I just remember this. I can't believe I remember this because I never remember this. Last episode, Ben Denton, that recap was fire and you said you had a Vegas story i'm not letting you get away with this like you got away with your crypto which i want to know by next week you got seven days to figure that out son of a bitch Vegas story what do you got all right well let's get this out of the way quick since we're talking about money we'll talk about the money in Vegas we were in there from our

bachelor party I was the only one who happened to win money thank you guys for taking me out there I won seven grand gambling so I had seven grand cash I'm gonna paint a picture for you last day of a bachelor party it's Sunday we've been to Vegas for four days days. Me and Ashley got married June 13th, or June 13th, 2019. We're supposed to have our wedding June 13th, 2020. COVID push it back. We're in Vegas, June 13th, flying home. So my two-year wedding anniversary and flying home, seven grand in a backpack with my laptop, with my AirPods, with watches, with sunglasses, everything. Okay? Me and Jay, we take a taxi, we get out of the taxi, we get to Delta check in. I can't check in. I don't have my wallet. I left my backpack with all

the stuff I just mentioned in the taxi. Long story short, about a panic attack and a lot of sweat later, and a very, very nice lady named Nancy, who I stopped in the taxi that the same company of the taxi we had took there, helped me track it out, help me track it down. We got the driver to drive back from New York, New York, just in time to make my flight. I tip the driver, the taxi driver, $500 when I got back

because I had $7K in my backpack. And legit, when you say like, oh, I ran to the gate, no, I like sprinted to the gate, like bully people out of the way. So I'm like sweating, thinking of it. but that's just a while time. I remember that. I mean, guys, think about this. Get out. Like, you already got

anxiety. Just, you're in Vegas. You've been drinking too much. You get in the airport. He doesn't have his backpack. And you leave a backpack with seven grand in a taxi. Your odds of getting that back in freaking Vegas are about 1%. I can't believe you got it back. And you made

your flight. You got any takeaways or lessons from that? Fuck up? If you have a backpack and you're on a four-day hangover, you should probably just wear it and don't put it on the ground of a taxi in the back seat when it's nine in the morning coming home from Vegas. I was good. I was going to say stuff that 7K in your pocket. Glue it to your fucking hip. Do not leave it in a backpack. All right. That is your Vegas story and a little trading secret takeaway for you. David, what else are you thinking as this podcast comes

at fruition? Yeah. Well, you said OPM in there. OPM, P.M., other people's money. I think you referenced wasn't Mark Lorry, but another, who would, who would you reference? So Mark Ler. Mark Lorry. So he used the word OPM. He is the billionaire that owns Minnesota Timberwolves, but also Mark Randolph, co-founder of Netflix, huge on OPM. So I was wondering, have you used OPM, other people's money, similar as I took the casinos money in Vegas? Have you used OPM in any of your business ventures so far? Or are you 100% self-funded, like the betches? All the businesses I own are self-funded. The agency, the talent agency, we're growing to a point that we might get some outsource investors at some point because it's

growing really fast. But what's interesting is I actually use other people's money to fund my businesses, right? So a lot of like material income comes in right now through influencing brand deals and speaking events. So like it's the other people's money and other businesses money that I'm paid for. That money is what I'll use to invest in the companies. But right now, none at this point. But I would highly suggest if you have anything capital intensive, none of mine is capital intensive. It's human capital intensive. So I need people, but I don't need to go invest in research and development in robots, in machinery, in real estate for the businesses I run. So that's why I haven't had to do it.

Anything else from the podcast that you're thinking, we got to bring up or that's top of mine? Yeah, I have to bring this up because it's not just relevant in the podcast that we just listened to, but it's relevant in the world. And you actually put something on the Trading Secrets, Instagram about what's happening in the world with inflation. And it's crazy. And you basically said there's three things that you need to be doing. And one of the things, I think it was the third point that you put out was budgeting.

And I just thought that the trading secret we heard in the episode was really good about budgeting. And basically, she just said to make her feel confident in her life and her spending, it was because of budgeting. It wasn't because she was making more money or because she had better projections. It was because she learned to budget and that helped her feel comfortable or spending. With where we're at right now, can you just touch on the, you know, economic status inflation and just like that third point on the post that you made on the Trading Secrets podcast, a little bit about budgeting and just where you need to be aware of higher spending right now.

David, right now I want you to take a guess. We'll play a little game. Fuel oil. A year ago, versus today, percentage-wise, how much do you think we've seen fuel oil increase in the last year? It feels like 100%. Okay. You're feeling and your intuition is bang on. It's 106% that our fuel oil has increased. Our energy prices, our energy prices have increased 35%. Our groceries have increased 12%. And inflation right now is 8.6%. It is the highest. It just can't. out for May, this is the highest we have seen since 1981. And there was a huge gap in a period of time in the 80s through the 60s after the world wars. It was called the Great Inflation. And from 65 to like

early 80s, inflation was out of control. And there are huge issues with oil. We haven't seen this in four decades. And the big thing I talk about budgeting, well, what's going to happen just so everyone knows is interest rates have to go up. We've been seeing the Fed talk about the fact that interest rates might go up just a little bit. We're going to try and do it the right way. Small amounts. There is no choice now. Interest rates are going to have to go up significantly. That's going to impact the market. It's going to severely, severely impact the real estate market, right? Because people aren't going to have the buying power they used to. Affordability is going to go down, and they're not going to be able to buy what they can and demand won't be as high and prices will go

down. What does it mean to you? It means you better be smart. with your budgeting because everything's got more expensive and earnings are becoming tougher and the market market is just out of control. So it is so important right now that we are all budgeting and that we're staying on top of it. What's your take on that, David? It's a great take because it's reality. I think for the people at home, is they're in their everyday lives like one, just like one or two takeaways? You say, hey, right now you need to be curbing your spending on this or X, Y, Z, or anything like that. I just, you know, one takeaway for the people at home,

they're like, they hear you, inflation, it's real. You know, I still have to draw my car. I still have to get to work. What's something that I can budget or do to actually, like, help myself? So my answer is going to be this. I'm an investor, right? I'm an investor in startups.

And the companies I'm staying away from right now are the nice to have for the middle class, right? So if you think about things that are nice to have, in the middle class, the things maybe during the stimulus period you bought, maybe when cash was doing great, you'll see those are the companies you and your head when you are listening at home. I don't care if you're middle class, upper class, lower house, but if you have the things that are nice to have, those can go away. And what you're seeing, if you're keeping those nice to have things, others aren't. I read an article this morning and it shows it's every single

e-commerce subscription. So you think about all the ones that are out there. During the stimulus, it went up big. Now they're coming down big. So if think about things that you're paying for that are nice to have, but they're really not making an impact in your life. Time to get rid of them. It's a bad time with gas and fuel and energy and food prices. It's a bad time to have a heated pool, a hot tub, and be a foodie like myself because everything I like doing is just I'm just getting crush on it. So I'm going to have to find a way to up the budgeting and awareness for sure. And just like to have happy hours at home. Like think about, you know, like even my brother and I were doing something for my dad and father's day. We'll all be in New York City. We're talking about

happy hour. We're like, wait, we're going to go somewhere. It's going to cost us 300 bucks. Like, let's just sit at home, make a couple cocktails and it will cost the price of the bottle, $2530. So those are the takeaways I have. Be smart with it. Budget, budget, budget. David, whether it's Vegas, it's your crypto, it's your life, or it's this episode. What else? You got anything you want to close us off with? Yeah, I'm staring at the spicy mango margarita. And I think that is the first one that I'm going to crack for this review.

That's what it's going to be. And then followed by the Volcano, the pear voicemule. Yeah. Full pa, we're about to crank him down. We're about to get hammed up. If you want to see us hammed up and jazzed up, you go check out that review on the trade. Trading Secrets Facebook group. David and I, you ready?

Here it goes. The first one is going down. Make sure you go follow us on Trading Secrets Facebook group. Go follow us on Trading Secrets Instagram. And thank you for tuning into another episode of Trading Secrets. One, hopefully, you can't afford to miss. We'll see you next Monday. Money, money, pay on me making that money, living that dream.