Episode of My First Million with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri.
Transcript
Note: This transcript was auto-generated from YouTube captions. It may contain errors and lacks speaker identification. A full Gemini audio transcript will replace this.
Kind: captions Language: en [Music] i feel like i can rule the world i know i could be what i want to i put my law in it like no days off on a road less travel never looking the current setup right now with your business what do you think is going to be the biggest revenue driver is sub stack do you think gonna drive you know this paid newsletter business is that going to drive a significant amount do you think it’s most going to come from bt sport from youtube ads what how’s your your business set up and where’s your head at in terms of where the opportunity is right now uh my my biggest revenue driver if if you want to put in those terms is uh is vox media they’re they’re paying me the most um and that was important to me because the mma hour was a show that i created and put a lot of time and effort and uh you know just i mean everything i poured everything into that show from 2009 all the way to 2018 and it was heartbreaking to see it end even though i was going to my dream job um that show just meant so much to me and i think it meant a lot to a lot of people and so that’s the biggest one and that’s a do you regard that as a youtube channel or or youtube and the and the the podcast does very well it’s on apple it’s on spotify it’s on google it’s on stitcher all those places as well and you own it i do not own it no i don’t own it they pay me to do that show uh so that’s what’s interesting about my situation is like some of the stuff i own some of the stuff i don’t own but everyone’s playing nicely together in this sandbox and i’m very appreciative it took some time to kind of figure out all the pieces that was the most interesting part of this like it back in in february so when i came to the conclusion that i was gonna go and leave espn and try to do things here and there obviously you have oh i’d like to do this and that like some people call it a chinese menu you know you kind of build your out your own thing but then the actual dance of getting everyone to play nice and be on board with all these little different things that i’m doing was the most interesting part of the whole process and i really lucked out and i found all these people like people who are okay with me having my own youtube channel that’s completely mine and the sub stack but also doing something for the ringer spotify and also doing something for vox and b so um it’s just it’s just been a really interesting um exercise in look i i like my friend uh pat mcafee here i am dropping uh names um he’s like oh well you’re not totally independent you don’t own everything i’m like okay fine if you want to get you know uh into that whole semantics game fine i don’t own everything but there’s an independent spirit to all of this where at the end of the day i feel like i’m partnering with other people as opposed to being a full-time employee with anyone i’m not i have an llc now and i’m able to pick and choose what i want to do um and so that’s that’s really important but to answer your question the biggest deal that i have at the moment is my deal with vox media you do you think long term that stays true or do you think cause some things are are some things pay off better immediately and then some things you say okay if i build i don’t know the newsletter if i build the the podcast or the ring or stuff if i build that up three years from now this picture might look a little different or do you you said you don’t really think too much about business do you not even care about that you just do your thing and see what happens are you trying to get me to reveal my five year plan my business plan right here are you that’s exactly what i’m trying to do i’m looking for 20 30 ariel where’s 20 30 ariel doing like the the what who’s the guy who started the ringer what’s his name again bill simmons yeah like you know he was in a similar position as you so the ringer probably netted 150 200 million dollars when he did that i mean is that gonna happen to to you uh that would be nice um i don’t know you know right now um obviously i’m i’m very happy with the situation i’m really excited and it’s kind of the thing that’s flying under the radar at the moment which i’m totally okay with that uh what i’m doing on my own youtube channel is giving me uh as i like to say a lot of nachas nachas is a yiddish word which means kind of like fulfillment and joy in my heart because uh every week for now every thursday i am posting an interview with someone outside of the mma world because i have been itching for a very long time and that was part of the reason why i went to espn um to show people that i’m more than just an mma guy that i can interview other athletes authors musicians comedians anyone it doesn’t matter if you’re in the sports world if you’re an actor if you’re a holocaust survivor if you’re interesting i want to talk to you because the thing that i derive the most enjoyment from are the interviews i love talking to people i could do a hunt i mean i do a four-hour show twice a week now and uh i i feel like i could do it every day it’s just a lot of uh fun for me and so i’ve i started that around a month and a half or so ago and uh it’s just my own little thing it’s it’s me and two producers an audio guy video guy and we’re posting these interviews and i don’t honestly care at this moment if a million people watch these interviews or three people watch the interviews for for me now i’m doing them to uh you know fulfill you know this this little you know passion of mine to talk to other people to scratch that itch but also to eventually show people the right kind of people that i could do this that i could be much more than just an mma guy and it’s actually the exact same thought process that i had when i got into all this back in 2007 in fact uh this past tuesday october 19th marked the 14-year anniversary of me launching my own site jerrypark.com it’s still up i was at spike tv in september of 2007 i got a job working at spike tv and spike tv was the home of the ufc and i was working in tv production i thought okay this is the best place for me tv production ufc uh they’re the home of the ufc it’s perfect after a week there i walked into my boss’s office and uh i quit and i said uh i i don’t really think this is the right fit for me i’m not i really like they didn’t do anything creative i’m a creative guy i like to think of ideas come up with things and they were just kind of the middlemen the ufc was producing all the content so i walked into his office i said i’m really sorry thank you for the opportunity but i don’t think this is the right fit and i’m the kind of guy who um when he’s 85 years old i i don’t want to wake up and say i could have done this i should have done this i should have zigged when i zagged all that stuff he was very upset he said you’re going to regret this for the rest of your life this is unprofessional no one’s ever done this blah blah blah and they made me stick around for a month and a half in my cubicle until they found someone to replace me and that was the crossroads of my life in fact our mutual friend john was a part of this process where you know i would we would go for lunch during this process i’m not doing anything and i’m telling him i’m going to start my own website and i’m going to start interviewing fighters because i really want to go into mma journalism i really want to show people that i could be the howard cosell the the max kellerman the whatever of mma and so i started to reach out to fighters via myspace and every morning i would post an interview with a fighter and i didn’t care if five people looked at the interviews or 500 000. i just wanted to use that to show people that i could do that 14 years later i’m doing the same thing on my youtube page and now i want to build this and grow it um and and use it as an opportunity to show people but for now it’s just like giving me so much joy to go back to those early days and just talk to people about things and then now i’m like last week i interviewed marty fish the former tennis player who’s been you know very open with his battles with anxiety and friends of mine who have never listened to my work watched my work ever who don’t care about mma are like wow dude you’re a really good interviewer i’m like yeah i’ve been doing this for 14 years at this point but it’s it’s opening me up to a whole new audience and i’m very excited about that