#208 with Steph Smith - Why You Need a Chief Automation Officer

With Sam (@thesamparr) gone, Stu (@StuIverson) takes his place. Remember Ramon’s soap opera blog that he sold for $9M in cash? He did that through the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage. We’ve partnered up with them to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. Topics for today: Who is our guest Stu (0:14), Podcast studio is looking legit thanks to @henrybillings5 (1:33), Importance of building a community to be successful (2:51), Why you should still cold email (7:24), Investing in listeners startups (9:14), Religion isn't declining like you think - beautiful bibles, digital tithing, music & merchandising (15:38), Deciding whether to earn, learn or legacy (24:43), Uber driver revenue streams (30:06), Influencer based cloud kitchens (36:04), Tyson Fury fight (44:10) and App store for business templates (51:44)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

28 Feb 202056min

POR FAVOR: Sam is going on Gary V's podcast monday. It would be hilarious if hundreds of us tweeted @garyvee how lucky he is to have @thesamparr on his podcast. Topics for today: Debate a new canned water brand (Liquid Death) (1:31), The "Silicon Valley Clock" (8:03), Sam's crazy story meeting the founder of Silk Road who had $10B worth of Bitcoin (and then got arrested) (11:27), Boy scouts files for bankruptcy (20:13), The next big membership groups (26:30) and Dealing with rejection the right way (36:15).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

23 Feb 202043min

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Topics for today: Playboy for Snapchat generation & Patreon for Porn (1:49), Seven sin investing (6:44), Fast loading porn GIFS (8:26), Back to building NSFW brands (12:56), HQ Trivia and why it died (14:07), Limited edition food launches (17:12), Back to HQ Trivia and repurposing it for education (22:21), Children allowance apps and cards (24:51), Sleep products (25:52), DIY perfume (29:34), Auctions & Marketplaces (32:19), Shaan's career advice on which company to work for (41:00), Where would Sam and Shaan work at today if they were 21 again (47:29). Please if you can leave us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts and show your friends the pod!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

22 Feb 202052min

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. We've partnered once again with the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage, they want to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. Topics for today: Paying to lose weight (01:26), Private equity rollups in cleaning, dental & locksmiths (04:22), Buying nursing homes (08:47), Back to private equity talk (10:30), Baby locked in a room story (13:02), Public dental companies (14:26), Barstool's genius marketing with 'Zillion beers' campaign (17:58), Mr Beast & Content burn out (21.44), Rupert Murdoch's elite meeting at CES (This one's good, 26:14), Revenge against spam callers & robot lawyers (32:13), Charlie Munger thoughts on Elon Musk and if you'd hire a wildcard or someone prudent (37:02), Risky investing (41:31), Listener's chess tutoring biz and if he should continue (45:00), Restaurant refills & other boring but large businesses (50:05) and lastly the crazy world of auctions and collecting (53:10).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

20 Feb 20201h 4min

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Today Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) happened to drop by to talk investing and celebrity life. Join our FB group: facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Topics for today: Brandless.com shutting down (2:58), Buying dying businesses (7:53), Hybrid VC's (9:32), Launch of Ramp Capital (11:13), Corporate universities & online degrees (13:47), Lance Armstrong joins! (18:26), New beverage companies (21:07), Is investing boring? (22:47), Hotels offering more experiences (27:07), Are celebs on Cameo broke? (30:12) and Shaan's last minute meeting idea (33:35).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

15 Feb 202037min

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Today we’re joined by Furqan Rydhan (@FurqanR) who is a tech badass. He was paid $120K as a 15 year old programmer during the Dot Com Boom, made a million dollar e-com biz at 17 and was an early employee at Applovin that was valued last at $2 billion. Remember Ramon’s soap opera blog that he sold for $9M in cash? He did that through the online business broker Quiet Light Brokerage. We’ve partnered up with them to give you guys a FREE 25-point checklist to see how sellable your online business is. To receive this free guide, visit quietlightbrokerage.com/myfirstmillion. Topics for today: Our Guest’s @FurqanR Background (00:36), Funny Story about Vungle’s Jack Smith and Lance Armstrong (07:12), The Process of Brainstorming Ideas (09:36), VR/AR Experiences (10:16), Opportunities in Reviving Stale Franchises and Company Turnarounds (17:07), iPad Whiteboard Meeting Idea (22:44), Reinventing the Phone Call through Airpods (27:51), Furquan’s House Hackathon Ideas (29:49), Serialized Story Apps like Hooked (37:09), Drone Washing Windows on Big Buildings (38:38), Money Printing Mobile Apps (44:44) and What Furqan learnt being Applovin (50:20).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

14 Feb 202058min

Sam (@thesamparr) and Shaan (@shaanvp) are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. Dear all loyal listeners: 1) Please, please, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts!, 2) Screenshot your review and tweet it to Shaan and Sam, 3) They'll give you a present!. Also, if you're looking to promote your own podcast, visit castro.fm/promote - they push your podcast out to thousands of people. And last promo for the day... the way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Alright the topics for today: The first Hustle office was also Craiglist's office (01:43), Taking craiglist sections and turning them into unicorn startups + Sam's first startup (05:34), New email clients like Superhuman, Hey.com and Front (12:06), Pay to get a reply from influential people like Earn.com (21:23), Getting paid by the minute instead of bi-weekly (23:26), Donation business models (25:52), Taking on Wikipedia (29:39), Menstruation apps (32:01), Life schools (36:29), Prenups (38:49) and Negotiation tactics / How to keep your star players (43:12).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

10 Feb 202048min

Sam and Shaan are back talking news, trends, interesting products and businesses. The way to make a million is by surrounding yourself around other people who want it. Join our Facebook group where we share ideas and help each other out: www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion. Sam and his team happy about Twitter earnings (01:20), Long term stock exchange (03:11), NYSE bid to buy Ebay & direct listings (05:39), Commercial laundry businesses (07:39), Jessica Simpson's billion dollar clothing line & other influencer IP businesses (14:06), Secretive founders making the big money (17:12), Company universities (20:10), What would you do once you have all the money in the world (23:51), Remote Year (28:32), Shaan gives Sam a gift...(33:45), How to get your team to take bigger risks (36:35) and their book recommendations (45:20).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

8 Feb 202048min