Use Ryan Serhant’s Brand Strategy: The Millionaire Real Estate Tycoon

five years ago I believed you had to be

a jack of all trades if you wanted to be

successful you had to understand all the

individual pieces of the widget right

you had to know everything about

something and something about

everything um and I still think that's

fine today given the advancements in

technology given the efficiencies that

have now been created through AI which

have reduced you know engineer and legal

workforces for the Better or Worse um uh

given the Innovation and the global

Marketplace we have I'm actually a much

bigger believer today in just being

uniquely qualified to doing what you do

best and going all in like we talked

about an hour ago going all in on what

you are uniquely qualified to do um and

then

diversifying and leveraging yourself out

amongst people who are way more

qualified than you are at those

individual things um because I would

rather

be everything to someone than than

nothing to no

[Music]

one I'm Ryan sirant founder and CEO of

surand and power real estate broker

located in New York City and author of

brandit like sirant and you are on

behind the brand with Brian

Elliot that was almost too perfect oh

okay yeah yeah I love it what on brand

on brand hey everyone welcome to another

episode of the show Ryan welcome or Ryan

thank you for having us to your world

world headquarters yes in an un H

undisclosed location in SoHo yeah I just

yeah it's kind of hard to miss actually

when you're here there's only a gigantic

s in the uh Lobby yes blue yeah you got

to create that attention man match the

brand we're talking about all things sir

H today thanks uh congrats on the new

book thank you um I want to understand

how Ryan suran understands brand the

series is called behind the brand we

talk about brand constantly yeah uh I've

talked to the foremost experts on brand

and branding yeah but I want to hear it

from your perspective mhm is a Brand

break it down break it down in my mind

uh and I had to do this myself because I

was very unaware really of what brand

was I think if you ask a lot of people

hey what's a brand they're going to

point to a drink some logo or you know

their shoes like yeah those I wear those

Sho that's the brand um uh and what it

took me a while to figure out is that

probably couldn't be further from the

truth those logos are only there once

the brand has already been established

so how do you get to that point and I

meet with so many people independent

contractors gig workers creators and

they all think hey I need to establish a

brand so let me work on that visual

identity when when that is it's

definitely an important step right how

to structure your Instagram reals your

YouTube all that stuff there those are

important steps I put them all into the

book I mean it is so tactical um but for

me the simple math is everything starts

with your core identity what do you

believe

is your value proposition in your core

if we're talking about a personal brand

as a products brand who is that product

not what is that product who is the

product okay but kind of going back to

the the building of a personal brand

it's your core

identity and if you believe everything

so strongly in your core when you go and

text people type emails go out in person

meet people everything that leaves your

lips is your core identity now out to

the world right which creates a

perception that the world then has of

You Ah that's what she looks like that's

what he wears that's how they talk oh

that's what they said interesting

interesting interesting then you leave

the room and that perception becomes

reputation and that reputation as it

ferments as you do um becomes brand

right at that point with that reputation

you can create visual identity right you

can create that logo you can create that

consistent content and you know I I I

only think about this so much um maybe

because I'm a nerd about it but also

because uh I had to learn it the wrong

way the hard way like I screwed up so

many times thinking I had a brand but I

I definitely didn't you know I had a I

had a purple logo like I had I had a I

had like a cool bio but it was not brand

because there was nothing consistently

simple about the awareness that I was

creating for myself or or for the

product and that that foundationally is

how I think about brand I think you're

spot on and you're in good company

because a lot of the smartest people who

have talked a lot about brand have said

the same exact thing a brand is a

shorthand for what you represent and the

experience right and oftentimes the

brand doesn't really live in US it lands

and lives in the people with whom you

have experiences or touch points so you

know uh for For Better or For Worse that

can be your Frontline employees that can

be you know the people who you know uh

this is a touch point you know the new

book or could be one of your um reps or

your you know team members out there in

the field if whoever's wearing the

sirant you know badge y people have an

opportunity to have an impression and

that's what lives insides the hearts and

minds of the people and so yeah I love

that you took us through that exercise

of you know talking about values and

establishing all that um so that said

what is the Ryan surand

brand so one of the exercises that I do

with people um because a lot of what the

book is isn't just me sitting around

thinking about brand it's it's the fact

that I've been working on my own

personal brand and then my company's

brand for 15 years so everything that

I've learned and building our Brands and

you know we started an education

business for

salespeople u based off my first book

which was s like sirant uh in 2018 and

we started that business in 2019 and

what a lot of people started coming to

us for was yeah we we want to learn how

to sell more but I also want to have a

brand I want to be the one who the one

who does acts I want more people to know

me because at the end of the day you can

have the greatest brand ever but if no

one knows what you're selling yeah

you're not going to make any money yeah

and so how do I generate lead flow you

know which is what it's all about how do

I create more customers how do I create

more content to create more potential

clients um and how do I do that in my

sleep so I don't have to sit there doing

outbound lead generation all day I can

have inbound I want to be stopped on the

street the coffee shop and I want to

wake up with leads in my inbox um uh and

so one of the exercises that we work

with people on which is part of kind of

our core identity phase one um and if

you go through the book uh we I what I

have in there is is what I call The Sur

Hamp brand strategy system and it's

separated into three phases which is

core identity consistent content and

amplification and kind of what I call

like shouting success from The

Mountaintop and it just and it's how to

do everything it's literally just a

tactical manual and so in that core

identity phase to answer your question

in a Long Way um uh there's an exercise

called your and to make things really

really simple right so you

are or I am you ask me about me I am

real estate and what like what is what

is my passion you've got to have an and

you can't just be real estate you can't

just be cats right you can't just be

your kids you can't just be Fitness like

it it it's what and what where what is

what is what is the Tactical product

that you're connecting yourself to and

then what is that passion that people

can emotionally relate to all right let

me push back on that a little bit

because just I'm curious um why do I

have to have an end why can't I just be

like uh you should ask me what do I

think the sirant brand is oh oh what do

you yeah what you think the suram brand

is I see you

as the king of real estate East Coast

okay full stop oh interesting okay is

that is that you know is that off is

that on is that accurate I think if you

sure I I'll take that thank you I

appreciate it I think if I if I'm

pitching us though because like when I

started the company I couldn't just rest

on the foundation

of I'm the best at real estate on the

East Coast because there's a lot of

competition on the east coast and so

what's my differentiator yeah um and my

differentiator was then media so we were

the first real estate company uh I guess

on the East Coast that then had an

in-house production company like

separate C Corp separate everything so

we had Studios that for free created

organic content for the agents the

properties and the developers to drive

that or lead flow across a large

platform and so the company was was

really put out as media and real estate

and so for me personally right I am

luxury real estate and media as a as a

differentiator yeah and if people if

people only see the real estate side no

problem a lot of people only see the

media side well I guess I'm looking at

it from well correct me if I'm wrong the

media side is

attractive only

to your team so if I'm an agent and I'm

looking for a home yeah I want to be

with sirant because he's the king of

real estate on the east coast and he can

help me build my personal brand I can be

a Proto of Ryan s and do media like he's

done it I don't think that really

applies you tell me how to clients who

want to come you know I want to buy a

$10 million apartment I don't care if

you have a media company so interesting

you say that um you know there's two

types of clients that we work with in

the sales space clients that buy things

and C that sell things and so on the buy

side they're appreciative of the media

because it can hopefully get us access

to more inventory that they wouldn't

ordinarily get access to yeah but then

for us a lot of times we get access to

that buyer through the media because

that guy's 12year old follows Us on

YouTube yeah right and says Dad if

you're going to go get an apartment or a

new house you need to work with sir yeah

so that's that's the buy side on the

sell side a lot of our clients now write

it into our exclusive contracts that

they will get an infeed Instagram post

right right they'll do and they they

they're like well if I'm going to go

with you guys then I want to have all

the Firepower Absol and so we have to

work we have to figure out posting

schedules and our real estate deals now

you know and it's it's just it's part of

it and how it works yeah I love that so

it's an influencer deal but you're

working house yeah it's listen we are

sales people are are part of that that

gig economy like did I have a lot of

conversations during the day in the last

few minutes did we just talk about

Census Data at all or is that another

call I just had yeah another call so

okay R sorry that's my old age um you

know one of the reasons I did all this

and started the company especially going

so hard into education right which is

direct to Consumer but also B2B sales

training um is five years ago I saw a

stat that said 23% of all taxpayers in

the United States are gig

workers right or record at least a

portion of their income and record it in

a 1099 interesting it's like the 8020

rule so today yeah it's 36% okay by

2027 over

50% of the US economy will come in part

from gig workor which means that more

and more people are rejecting higher

education more and more people are

rejecting W2s and FES and more and more

people are figuring out that they just

want to work for maybe 10 people and

sell something whether they know they're

in sales or not yeah um uh uh and you

know one of our thesis is to really get

ahead of that of that kind of worker

Industrial Revolution that'll come

between now and 2030 so do you see this

Media Company expanding Beyond just

training agents like is this for other

gig economy people so the so Studios um

uh so far does you know brand deals

agent deals still relatively real estate

we do some car stuff random um uh uh but

sell it so the education side yeah I

mean we have you know 22,000 members now

in 126 countries um and some of them are

surgeons some of them are Formula E race

car drivers in South Korea some of them

are selling pianos Utah to other Mormons

like some of them are a lot of them are

real estate you know some insurance

mortgage like it's and it's uh uh and

it's growing uh much faster than we

anticipated so this is like a this is

like a uh masterclass Style video series

that you kind of it's more of like a

yeah it's more of like a um a a pelaton

for sales training okay right Salesforce

for sales training um on demand it's

modulized course curriculum you learn

how to S also so so yeah so it's so it's

what you would call and that's that kind

of part of the world it's you know

asynchronous so it's hey go learn how to

do this learn that you can do whatever

you want and then there's also cohort so

you would do it with a live instructor

so a lot of the B2B stuff is with live

instructors there's assessments like

it's it's real and it becomes Revenue

intelligence for companies outside of

just pure product intelligence where

they're like yeah I know how to sell the

software but do you and so we're able to

go there and do that and it's a lot of

the same muscle and you know part of our

our our founding is that listen we learn

how to sell real estate in the street of

New York City not having been here not

having grown up here with no leg up

figured out how to do this I'll help you

sell software you know and our people

will that we've trained it's the same

principles you know just you know yeah

slightly different music and musicians

yeah talking to someone in person uh

building your brand is is somewhat

different than working with like uh an

SDR at a software conglomerate trying to

you know increase their SQL like there's

a very um there's some Nuance there

but it's uh uh but it all kind of comes

down to uh um you know a core

understanding of the sales process in

the 2020s you know and our competitors

there's like two of them globally and

they are um uh uh you know they they're

built on an an economy from the 1990s

it's just different it's just different

world I love it what's the um what's the

typical misconception or misperception

when someone comes in let's say maybe

under your umbrella wants to build their

brand I mean I can tell you what happens

in our world cuz you know aside from

this I have a production company we

create you know film and commercial

stuff for clients yes and inevitably

we'll get the client that's like I want

to go viral yeah always and it's like

every wants overnight success uh so

talked about some of those like okay

here's what you're not going to get or

like here's the heavy lifting you have

to do before you can build your brand

like what are some of the building

blocks hindsight's 2020 right as a

success right you only realize you're

successful in hindsight you don't

realize you're successful now like I

didn't know that 2018 was all was like

an awesome year for me until it was over

you I didn't I I I didn't know um uh and

so you know we spent a lot of time

really training them on on having a

macro

Vision um that's built with like micro

winds right you have to be a specific as

possible yes so don't come in and just

say I want a huge brand I want to go

viral I want to make a million dollars

great how yeah like literally what will

you do every day because you can't

control a year and you can't control a

dream what you can control is what you

do with the time during the year you

know and it's funny because um uh uh

last year Harvard Business School came

to me never heard of them and said we're

gonna yeah said we'd like to write a

case study on you and I said are you

sure like why what are you going to

write about like the company like we're

we're at that you know at that point we

were two years old you know real estate

TV what do you want to talk about like

no no no um we're going to write a case

study on you and time management and so

they wrote a whole case study and they

taught it at Harvard Business School

about Ryan sirant and time management

and I had no idea how interesting that

was for me um you know as I think about

it you are a very punctual guy I I'm

seven minutes late to this well but we

were in your house I mean I remember the

last couple times I've met you you were

like uh spoton the other thing I

remember and very quotable from the

first interview we did a couple of years

ago is you can't do six crunches and

expect six pack abs sure yeah I love

that quote it still sticks in my mind I

still like the quote that you put into

that article where you compared me I had

the the physical prowess of of gron was

a tight end um but with none of the

athleticism like my parents and my

brothers that was the best interview

they'd ever read about me and they still

bring that up all the time like man that

guy was the Brian Elliott from dude that

guy just understands

you I can just cut right through I just

it's kind of like my thing I can see see

through yes great anyway carry on then I

don't even know what we were just

talking about well you were telling me

about the uh time management I'm

impressed with that yeah oh yeah the

time management um uh ski so Harvard

Business School did the case study which

was which is fun but it um uh uh uh I

guess you know it really cut down to to

how I think about uh achieving goals

right and achieving success so that when

new Agents come in like you said or new

customers and they have really really

high expectations you know you can walk

them through what this process is so if

you want to do something big for the

year no problem how many minutes a day

are you going to put into it yeah um and

if you do that right then you can solve

a problem

literally one day at a time I I like

this I've heard James Clea talk about it

and write about it James wrote that book

Atomic habits that's the whole premise

of the book you know it's like tiny

little winds and a lot of people say

don't don't set your goals huge set them

like bite sizable y so you can just Yum

Yum Yum Yum Yum like little Pac-Man and

get them you know and then you could

grow from there but it's like start with

a little micro winds you're exactly yeah

it's accurate yeah yeah so it's so it's

right there and I've always also thought

about um uh time is money maybe it's

because I'm a commission salesperson

like I've never had a salary never had

benefits like I I I I just work all the

time until someone else is successful

and then hopefully maybe I take a small

percentage of that and so you know what

we call it on my side we call it boats

in the water sure we have a lot of boats

in the water they don't always all sail

at the same time but you got to have a

lot of boats in the water yep yep yep

and if you want to really really be

successful then you burn your boats

right ah yes burn the boats yes burn the

boats man you cut the net but I uh so I

so I created what was like what I called

my thousand minute rule like 10 years

ago um uh uh because I I spent a lot of

time

you know having a bad conversation with

someone or getting yelled at by a client

or I don't know like stepping in a p

like it's something would happen and it

would then quote unquote ruin my day

well this just ruined my day and it's

something if something really really bad

happens and in my world in the sales

World bad things happen on Mondays

because people have the weekend to think

about it then on Mondays they're like

well I'm not going to ruin his Sunday so

I'll call him on Monday yeah so every

Monday it's like what what's going to

happen today um it would then

potentially ruin your week yeah but as I

started to think about you know having

1440 minutes a day a thousand of them I

can be productive um uh uh if someone

ruins 15 of those I wouldn't throw out

$985 so every day I wake up as the CEO

of my own Bank of time and I go for it

and if I can buy some of that time back

holy moly yeah like the the the tech

that we' built on The Brokerage side

that we actually announced and showcased

for the first time ever at Inman

yesterday on stage was the first time

I've ever done that before totally

toally terrifying um uh does that you

know um and it's really helping people

get their time back so they can invest

it back into the business or back into

having more life yeah okay so in recap

what you're saying is you need to manage

expectations or manage your own

expectations of being able to you know

grow to whatever volume You're Expecting

like manage those focus on micro winds

and then just start building Brick by

Brick yeah okay I love that yeah you're

not trying to your goal isn't to grow

muscle your goal is to pick up a heavier

weight next week more times than this

week that is something I can control

right as well as what you eat and what

you don't eat um uh same thing like what

you do you know with your time and how

you put that out there so you want to

build something viral you're not going

to do it once right you're going to do

consistent content so in the book we go

through core identity once you have that

then you build out consistent content

and then once you have that you have to

be your greatest champion no one's going

to talk about your successes if you

don't talk about your successes I love

that Snoop Dog speech have you heard it

I'm sure you have it's the uh Snoop Dog

Hollywood Walk of Fame speech where he's

thanking everyone and he famously says I

want to thank me yeah for all the hard

work I put in I want to thank me for

believing in me when everyone else

didn't I want to thank me you know what

for never giving up yeah you know the

the the spe that actually had real

influence on me um that I think a lot of

people made fun of was Matthew mcc's

Oscar speech for Dallas Buyers Club

where he got up there and everyone was

like oh Matthew mccon is crazy but he

got up there and he thanked himself in

the future yes right and his role model

is him in the future and I like I

remember watching that all those years

ago and it had a profound impact on how

I think about who I work for MH you know

and then I went on one of those those

face apps and I aged myself to like 80

old man Ryan and that guy's my boss

because I will be that guy before I know

it like I'm almost you know I I don't

know I I I moved to New York City

yesterday but that was now almost 20

years ago and now my back hurts and I'm

like [ __ ] like okay in the amount of

time I've now been in New York City I

okay so it's I'm gonna be 60 now before

I know it in the same blink of an eye

it's been since the day I got here it'll

be an even faster blink of an eye yeah

before I Turn 6 years old yeah and so I

want that guy's life to be great

everything I do today is for me in the

future you know future me that guy and

Matthew mccon probably yeah I'll build

on that idea that's like the one of my

favorite shows the office it's the very

end uh scene where they said I think it

was Andy who says I wish I would have

known that I was in the good old days

yeah when I was in the good old days

like we're in them right now and like

the irony is yeah and the irony is Ryan

like if you and I are not here right now

in the present all

in and like given everything we got to

this podcast right now it's like it's

it's a waste yeah and I think that's how

I approach you know if you talking about

brand or if I talk about you know U

making good use of time it's like every

single opportunity we have to be present

with whoever we want to be present with

could be our family could be client

could be friends you know whatever it's

like we have that chance and if we miss

it we miss it yeah and that's it's now

behind us yeah yeah man same thing like

I I think about a lot you know 10 years

from today you're going to wish you felt

this tired right right you're going to

wish your little back pain that you had

today remember when I had hair oh man

that was so great it's before before

like you're gonna you know I said I talk

about it to my wife all the time like we

look at photos of ourselves getting

married and we're like oh God we were so

young but I distinctly remember being

there being like Oh man we're getting

married so old you know it's all

relative you just and it's hard that's a

hard thing to teach I think you just

have to uh uh just go out there and have

as many experiences as you possibly can

and just know that the future is

creeping up on you yeah back to Brand so

what do people get wrong about brand uh

what what if they're not walk in the

talk I mean I'm looking at some of these

chapters you know like

um walk me through some of that yeah I

you know I I there's there's a lot of uh

things to to not do yeah no I know what

they are um uh um you know kind of going

back to what I what I said originally

like I I would say the the biggest thing

uh uh people make mistakes with is

really not understanding what a brand is

in the first place and thinking that

it's purely something visual right

thinking that's it's purely something

visual um on the product side okay what

I really really love and I learned this

uh uh from a lot of different people and

I I I also interview a lot of people in

the books the first book I've ever done

that before um how was that took a page

from your book um fun right it was

interesting man like I'd never you know

cuz my first two books this is all part

of like a selling Trilogy so sell like

Siran is the sales tools big money

energy is the confidence to use those

tools and then branded like Siran is you

can't sell anything if no one knows what

you're selling so put that all together

build a great sales career and whatever

you want to sell um but in this one I

thought you know what I can't write a a

a great brand manual if I don't like

talk to other people you know from the

all the classics from like Gary

vaynerchuk to also you know Nick Sharma

from Sharma Brands who's just a genius

at this stuff to um uh like you know

Kenneth Cole you know talk about you

know how do you build a socially aware

brand and and everybody in between um uh

because I wanted to talk to people that

had actually done the work not people

who just had big Brands and it's just

sort of happened because did you learn

something new yeah so so so as far as

product goes you know because some

people don't want to have personal

Brands that's that's fine their personal

brand can be defined by the success of a

product you know they're building a

whatever the product might be yeah and

so he and we really go into in the book

and and and kind of dove in on what he

said um it's like one of the exercises

we do with our companies is with Brands

every brand is a who not a what kind of

like we said so we go okay this brand

who is she what does she look like okay

you want to sell a new brand of hammers

is that hammer Martha or is it Tom you

create a muse right exactly and you

build out that whole character study

Persona sometimes yeah you build out

that Persona that character now with AI

you can actually kind of do that right

and your brand can now have an identity

can have a can have a Persona can have a

voice um and most people just don't do

that at all like at all um I think in

part because they just don't want to do

the work or they don't know they haven't

done the clarity the other mistake a lot

of people make is they

believe in what they've already

internally ized so I think I'm awesome

right right I'm the greatest salesperson

of all time am the king right exactly

without actually like doing the survey

so another exercise that we'll do is you

go find a handful of people or one

person that you believe will be

completely honest with you and say

please define me without using my name

and see what happens MH so I did this a

long time ago to my friend Alex who's

kind of a dick but

um I appreciate it honest he's honest I

was like can you define me without using

my name he's like what do you mean just

like just how would you explain me to

somebody else if you're were going to

say hey I was just with the guy without

using my name how would you say it it's

like yeah you're kind of like the tall

lanky awkwardly grayhair guy who thinks

he's funny sometimes but most of the

time isn't um and you look at the ground

when you

walk and I was

like gross okay thanks so much that's it

that's all you would say he's like you I

don't know I was I you know he's he's

he's nice I'm like okay that doesn't

help me um and I kind of learned from

that to take the best and leave the rest

you know like I dyed my hair but I

didn't realize and I started asking a

lot of people like I I can't see my hair

when I'm walking around you know and you

get so used to it and so that's it's a

visual identity and a moniker that

people like really connect me to

interesting though he didn't use many

adjectives he didn't say like you know

um no smart funny

he said not as funny as I thought it was

yeah um looking at the ground was a

weird thing I was like really that's how

he like yeah yeah you're the guy that

does that I'm like I'm the guy who looks

at the ground when I walk it's like yeah

everyone says that I'm like what I

didn't even know that everyone does go

to the YouTube comments come on what and

then and so I did like a little bit of

internal Discovery I was like why do I

why do I do that and I dug back and I

dug deep and what it was was um uh when

I was growing up I had really really bad

skin so I had rash acne and I would get

embarrassed looking at people in the eye

because their eyes would move around my

face and so it was easier for me to walk

between classes high school and college

yeah without making eye contact so I

would just walk with my eyes at the

ground and even when my skin cleared up

and I got older I never actually broke

that muscle memory because it just

became like the way I walked yeah old

habits and but it set a perception

interes right as part of my brand math

that the world then had of me as

somebody who was unconfident someone who

then also was potentially ignorant

someone who didn't want to make eye

contact with because do you don't I

don't have acne anymore so people are

like oh that guy's not making eye

contact with me that guy's a jerk and I

I had no idea yeah yeah yeah very smart

I mean we're talking about sort of

non-verbal cues interpretations uh

that's relatable uh often times people

will come up to me and say are you okay

are you upset I have that RBF face

sometimes I'm in my head a lot yeah uh

so you're right I mean being conscious

of non-verbal cues is really important

to your brand sometimes you're

communicating the wrong thing but you

know like sometimes I'm really in my

head I'm very introverted actually Ryan

even though I you know turn the lights

on and I'm like you know fire plugged

it's like yeah you're like me in front

of the lights we are on lights off I'm

looking at the ground

yes um okay uh um it's you know it's

funny I did a I did a the only movie I

ever made was while we young Noah bomach

directed it with Ben Stiller and Adam

Driver and Amanda safreed and Naomi

Watts and um stuff and I I'd never been

around people like that and they cast me

as a guy named hedge fund Dave um and

she watch it it's funny and he uh uh uh

but anyway so I had all these scenes

with Ben um and I know I grew up

watching Ben Stiller yeah and Ben's loud

he's funny all the time when the

camera's on when the camera's off yes he

is silent he's pretty quiet he's super

quiet like in a

corner it was it was a it was a wild

experience for me um he got upset with

me actually when I was at Universal I

worked with him on Meet the Parents oh

really that movie with Jiro yeah yeah oh

I know it yeah yeah and I came in all

hot uh you know I was excited to meet

him cuz I thought he was funny and I was

like joshing around with him funny and

he just looked super dead pan and he was

he didn't really answer me and then the

his agent says um let's not talk to Mr

Stiller like that anymore you know like

what was your role what was your what

was your job then I was on the brand

strategy team helping with uh the

DVD uh after the movie came out

theatrical and we had showed him this

key art which was the cover of the art

and um maybe had slightly impart to do

that we had him a comp done like this

bunny like you ever see a Christmas

story where the K comes out in the bunny

suit so we put him in a bunny suit oh

good J and I was like this is hilarious

and he

goes no answer I was like oh guess he

doesn't like it uh did you use that no

no the agent said you know he's really

trying to lean more into leading man

role so we end up putting bunny slippers

on him in the comp and that's that's

what made the the cut but um no I get it

you got to be careful

DVDs wow got to be careful so let's go

back to what you learned from all these

experts you talk to all these people who

running Brands uh what was one of the

key

takeaways oh man there was there was so

many um uh I would say you know there's

amazing there's an amazing woman who

runs um a company called August which is

like period awareness okay yep um and

period power um uh and really kind of

taking away any shame or embarrassment

from periods because half the world has

them of course so uh she was so like I I

would in my interview with her I could

have stayed on there for 12 hours

um uh she never would have done that

because she's way too busy building a

rockstar company but she um uh uh she

talked a significant amount about uh the

creation of community and Community

awareness in brand building and how it's

not you know the the the kind of phrase

content to Commerce has been used for a

long long long time and so she's like

yeah we can create content that's funny

we can create you know brand aware

content about per you know tampons and

yeah pads and everything um uh uh and

then people will look at the content

they'll say ha and maybe they'll buy it

right buy it but um given what you can

do now on Tik Tok and snap and across

stories right every brand even if it's

tampons is is a character right it's a

person and that person needs to and your

customer has to connect with it and you

do it through community so that that

math that I talked to you about of it's

no longer content to Commerce it's

content to community to Commerce um uh

was was really really eye openening um

and that whole interview you know I

really didn't edit a whole lot from it

and is is in the book because I thought

it was super super super smart she had a

great way of really kind of building

Community awareness to create brand

attention to the benefit of a booming

business in a Marketplace that I don't

think a whole lot of people would say

hey let's go

disrupt feminine products you know um uh

uh uh uh and she has it was super cool

it's smart I mean disruption is the key

right you're trying to differentiate

yourself from all the other real estate

agents yeah you're a real estate agent

and a media company uh I think about

other uh like liquid death is one of my

favorites right now is disrupting water

it's like I remember when stance did it

with socks and liquid death do with

water it's like yeah it's cool where do

you see whites space like where's

where's the surand brand lasering Focus

now I I still think there's a lot and

we're working on some things um I I

still think that real estate is

relatively pretty boring like the houses

are cool but no one has done for real

estate sales what liquid death has done

for water or Logan and KSI have done for

for drinks you know or um uh uh so I

think there's there's there's a lot of

things that we can do there I think

there's white space there um I think

there's white space and

Furniture um I think there's I think

Restoration Hardware is beautiful I

think it's super cool I think it's super

expensive um I think iea has been around

for a long long time and I think there

is a mass Market Changing of the Guard

that should be taken and I don't think

anyone is as far as I know I'm sure

there are people trying so I apologize

to anyone who's trying I just haven't

seen it yet personally um I think

there's a huge huge Marketplace because

all I know is all people did over the

last couple years is move and buy houses

and there is no furniture can't get it

sir Home Furnishings yeah yeah Siran

sleep Siran sofa Hey listen Ralph Lauren

did it yeah why not Ryan suran sure oh

my God one thing at a time yeah um uh

but I think that

that's a that's a good white space where

you could do a lot and people have

dabbled in furniture and it's always

hard but it's because they try to do too

much like you've got to start simple

right like if you look at liquid death

it's one can looks the same it's water

if you look at Prime right they start

with the one drink right if you look at

anything else they start with the one

thing what would you start with would it

be a sofa would it be a bed start with

no cuz I think there's there's I don't I

wouldn't want to compete right away with

with mattress companies right um or like

betting companies like I don't need to

go to battle with Casper or Serta or

yeah or like Brooklyn or any of those I

think I'm uh uh uh uh I don't know like

I I think like there should be like the

table and chairs yeah um well you know

stickly and some of those old like

they're 100y old Brands like these guys

are like yes I mean if you're not in a

Furniture you don't know what stickly is

but like would you reinvent that

category is that what you're saying yeah

I think so

I think there's a huge huge Marketplace

for it um but I I'm I'm very I'm very

much on the the mass Market side of the

business okay you know I think they're

um not you wouldn't go highend luxury

you'd go Mass I don't for for me I don't

think so um uh you know I like I like

doing things for a lot of people on the

real estate side you know me personally

I only operate in the luxury space

because there's only so much time but

the firm I me we sell everything you

know at all price points in all markets

you know I got to be in like South

Carolina on Friday I think we have like

uh National home builder you know

selling track land lots and then on that

Saturday I got to be in Savannah you

know these are relatively normal markets

yeah um uh which is cool it's all listen

it's all volume at the end of the day

let's wrap things up by maybe uh leaving

some uh words of wisdom some pieces of

advice yeah people building their brand

pull it right from the pages of the book

I

I I did not need to write a book right I

didn't I didn't need to write the first

two um but I H there's like I had such a

deep itch to put this out there um and

it really completes that flywheel for me

you know after the first two books and

they all they're all the I me they're

all me so they all operate together um

but I am just so so so so uh excited

about all the opportunities that people

have today to build something for

themselves even 5 years ago right it was

it was so much harder then to create

something new compared to what it is

today let me ask you about that too it's

like what is simply like a deeply held

belief you had 5 years ago about

business or about yourself or you know

that category that you no longer believe

things have

changed five years ago well that's a

loaded question um five 5 years ago I

believed you had to be a jack of all

trades if you wanted to be successful

you had to understand all the individual

pieces of the widget right you had to

know everything about something and

something about everything um and I

still think that's fine today given the

advancements in technology given the

efficiencies that have now been created

through AI which have reduced you know

engineer and legal workforces for the

better at word

um uh given the Innovation and the

global Marketplace we have I'm actually

a much bigger believer today in just

being uniquely qualified to doing what

you do best and going all in like we

talked about an hour ago going all in on

what you are uniquely qualified to do um

and then

diversifying and leveraging yourself out

amongst people who are way more

qualified than you are at those

individual things um because I would

rather

be everything to someone than than

nothing to No One mhm I mean we were

just sitting back you know chopping it

up reminising about the good old days

and all that you know tracking my roots

where I came from and where I'm

going