financial-samurai-po_harry-and-sam_full-length-may-24-2023-002_composer-tlzm4e9ff_clip

00:00:00.000 | Hello, everybody.

00:00:01.720 | It's Sam from the Financial Samurai Podcast.

00:00:04.480 | And in this episode, I have a special guest with me, Harry Campbell from the RideShare

00:00:08.880 | guy.

00:00:09.880 | Say hello.

00:00:10.880 | Hey, Sam.

00:00:11.880 | How's it going?

00:00:12.880 | Thanks for having me on today.

00:00:13.880 | No worries.

00:00:14.880 | So we've known each other probably for almost 10 years from the personal finance space,

00:00:19.920 | but you were able to pivot to something new.

00:00:23.060 | So do you mind telling the listeners what you're up to, what was your background, and

00:00:27.680 | how did you make that pivot?

00:00:28.680 | Yeah, for sure.

00:00:29.680 | So, you know, like you mentioned, I got my start working online in the personal finance

00:00:35.120 | space.

00:00:36.120 | I started a few blogs in the personal finance space, several of which still exist today.

00:00:40.360 | That might be a fun challenge for any listeners.

00:00:42.560 | See, go out and see if they can find them.

00:00:44.360 | I'm not going to name them, but they do still exist and still bring in a little bit of revenue.

00:00:48.320 | But you know, I saw a lot of guys like you and Jim Wang from Bargaineering and some other

00:00:53.160 | early bloggers doing this blogging thing.

00:00:55.680 | And like, seemed like you guys were doing well and making money.

00:00:57.840 | And I thought to myself, like, why can't I do this?

00:01:00.560 | And so, you know, if these guys can do it, why can't I do it?

00:01:03.640 | And I think I was a little late to the personal finance space, didn't really quite ever hit

00:01:07.040 | my niche, but I saw the potential.

00:01:09.560 | And you know, all during this time, I guess you would say my former career, I was an aerospace

00:01:13.040 | engineer.

00:01:14.040 | So, you know, I was working for Boeing and United Technologies and companies like that.

00:01:18.160 | And I was doing a lot of this online work on the side.

00:01:21.440 | And so in 2014, I started driving for Uber and Lyft on the side just to try it out and

00:01:26.760 | check it out.

00:01:27.760 | And I think like yourself, like you did at one point, trying your Uber driving.

00:01:31.160 | And pretty quickly realized, you know, it's not rocket science, but it was a little harder

00:01:34.720 | than it looks.

00:01:35.720 | So I started a blog, then a podcast, and a YouTube channel all called The Rideshare Guy

00:01:41.040 | and really just detailed my experience as a driver, how much money I was making and

00:01:45.000 | what it was like, you know, interviews with people or drivers or people at the companies.

00:01:50.320 | And you know, that's sort of what, you know, we can get into the details, but I've basically

00:01:53.380 | grown that into my full time income and been doing that, you know, running that business

00:01:58.200 | full time, I guess, for about eight years.

00:02:00.720 | I quit my job pretty quickly into starting The Rideshare Guy and went all in working

00:02:04.840 | for myself and haven't looked back since.

00:02:07.120 | Yeah.

00:02:08.120 | So how old were you when you quit your job to focus on your side hustle full time?

00:02:15.680 | How old was I?

00:02:16.960 | Well, I guess I was, I'm 36 now.

00:02:21.820 | And so I was, you know, about nine years, eight years ago.

00:02:26.580 | So I was about 28.

00:02:27.580 | So I didn't have any kids yet.

00:02:30.680 | But you know, I was married and or just gotten married.

00:02:33.780 | And my wife and I, you know, we were starting to try for kids.

00:02:36.880 | So that was sort of that I had worked as an engineer for about seven years, I want to

00:02:41.300 | say.

00:02:42.300 | So you know, it was a job I enjoyed.

00:02:43.980 | I liked it.

00:02:44.980 | It was like my lifelong passion to be sitting there in a cubicle crunching numbers and looking

00:02:48.560 | at you know, 50,000 row Excel spreadsheets.

00:02:51.100 | So you know, it was fine for the time.

00:02:53.180 | But I sort of always felt like it would be cool to find something bigger and better.

00:02:58.260 | Now how did you get the confidence to quit your job?

00:03:01.820 | Because in my case, I worked for 13 years and I didn't quit my job.

00:03:04.540 | I negotiated severance because I had golden handcuffs, deferred compensation and stock.

00:03:10.580 | So what gave you the confidence to say, I'm out of my whatever?

00:03:14.540 | How much were you making back then?

00:03:15.540 | Yeah, well, I think that might be a big difference.

00:03:17.540 | I might have been making a lot less than you were at the time.

00:03:20.220 | You know, I mean, I was a, you know, engineer with whatever, six, seven years experience.

00:03:23.860 | So you know, you start off pretty well.

00:03:25.500 | I remember my first job out of school, I want to say I made around 60,000 bucks, you know,

00:03:29.980 | so going from college to basically a salary of 60,000.

00:03:32.420 | I was like, Whoa, this is an insane amount of money for me.

00:03:35.580 | That's actually why I started blogging about personal finance because I was like, Oh, wow,

00:03:38.940 | I have all this money.

00:03:39.940 | I don't want to screw it up.

00:03:41.580 | And so probably at the time, I might have been close to 80 or 90, 90,000 as an engineer

00:03:47.260 | with some experience.

00:03:48.260 | And so I mean, you know, it was definitely a lot.

00:03:51.120 | But I mean, I think relative to, you know, YouTubers, people that are out there making

00:03:55.620 | money, I mean, I was making a couple thousand bucks a month off my personal finance blogs

00:03:59.560 | at the time, just selling kind of cheesy, you know, sponsored posts for casino sites

00:04:03.660 | and stuff like that really totally selling out.

00:04:05.780 | Right.

00:04:06.780 | And so I'm like, Wow, if I've got, you know, this one site that, you know, is bringing

00:04:09.860 | in some income, like imagine the damage I could do with an actual business.

00:04:13.100 | And so, you know, when I left my job, my day job at Boeing to go full time on the ride

00:04:18.900 | share guy, I wasn't I was making some money, you know, maybe a thousand or two thousand

00:04:23.060 | bucks a month.

00:04:24.060 | I wasn't at the same level, but the trajectory I was on, you know, I was doing, you know,

00:04:28.500 | the site was growing and I was making more and more.

00:04:30.740 | And I was also thinking to myself, OK, right now I'm spending 20 to 30 hours a week, you

00:04:34.620 | know, on top of my day job.

00:04:35.940 | If I go 40, 50, 60 hours, you know, like 50, 60 hours a week on the ride share guy that

00:04:40.940 | should also grow it more and make more traffic.

00:04:43.100 | So, you know, I had money saved up.

00:04:45.060 | I didn't actually think it was that big of a leap, to be perfectly honest.

00:04:48.260 | Literally the day I quit, my boss was like, all right, well, if you want a job when you

00:04:51.060 | come back, just let me know.

00:04:52.060 | So it wasn't like a huge risk for me in my mind.

00:04:54.660 | OK, well, let me ask you this then.

00:04:57.140 | So when you left, were you married then or not married?

00:05:00.220 | Yeah, married.

00:05:01.460 | OK.

00:05:02.460 | And at that time, I know what your wife does.

00:05:04.260 | So was she in residency then or she?

00:05:06.740 | My wife was in the midst of medical school.

00:05:11.300 | And so she was racking up debt.

00:05:13.220 | And then she had four years of residency.

00:05:16.660 | And then, I mean, she literally only just started her actual, not her actual career,

00:05:20.380 | but started making real money in private practice about a year and a half ago.

00:05:23.540 | So it sort of shows you like in the third phase of my career and she's just getting

00:05:27.020 | started.

00:05:28.020 | So it's quite a journey for her.

00:05:29.700 | I ask because I think achieving financial independence and building wealth is easier

00:05:34.780 | with a partner.

00:05:35.780 | I think it's one of the most important decisions we can all make having a good life partner.

00:05:41.460 | And so let's say your wife wasn't going to be a doctor and make doctor money.

00:05:48.500 | Let's say she was a barista and who made $22 an hour.

00:05:54.360 | Would your calculus have changed in terms of leaving your job to do this entrepreneurial

00:05:58.340 | thing?

00:05:59.340 | I don't think so.

00:06:01.540 | I mean, to be honest, I think since the medical doctor journey is so long and winding, I wasn't

00:06:08.860 | even thinking about sort of her experience and sort of how much money she would make.

00:06:13.820 | I mean, honestly, it didn't even really until literally a year ago when she started working.

00:06:19.340 | That was the first time I ever thought to myself, "Wow, she's making good money.

00:06:23.060 | She's starting OB/GYN here in LA."

00:06:25.340 | Because if anything, it's the opposite, right?

00:06:27.820 | I mean, you're literally racking up debt for so long and then you work as a resident.

00:06:32.780 | I mean, she was literally working 70, 80 hours a week and making very little money.

00:06:37.340 | So it was like, you're still making some, but it wasn't like I was checking her bank

00:06:41.060 | account ever and she was not there a lot.

00:06:43.940 | So we had to hire more help and nannies and get family help.

00:06:46.180 | So it's almost like, not to put it too negatively, but it's tough for sure financially and all

00:06:52.860 | that.

00:06:53.860 | But for me, if anything, I would say transitioning into my own business and working for myself

00:07:00.980 | made it way easier because with her kind of going for medical school, I mean, there was

00:07:06.780 | a point where she was taking a medical school interview or residency interview in Albany,

00:07:12.300 | New York.

00:07:13.300 | I thought we were going to move to Albany.

00:07:14.300 | That was her med school.

00:07:15.300 | And then at the last second, she got in UC Irvine.

00:07:19.100 | So we got to stay in Southern California.

00:07:21.220 | And then residency, she had to apply all over again.

00:07:23.620 | And so it was kind of, for me, I was just sitting there working for myself.

00:07:26.780 | Like I don't want to go to Albany, but I could easily do it and run my business from there

00:07:30.540 | if we have to.

00:07:31.540 | Right, right, right.

00:07:32.540 | Yeah, it's always fascinating to bring lifestyle entrepreneurs on the podcast because I think

00:07:40.820 | most people, they focus on going to school, going to college, joining tech, consulting,

00:07:46.460 | finance, or any industry that pays and trying to save and invest as aggressively as possible.

00:07:52.140 | But to be frank, there are so many ways to make money now online.

00:07:57.620 | And so how do you view the importance of college and major and going into industry since you

00:08:04.580 | have two children yourself and you're an entrepreneur?

00:08:07.940 | Yeah, I mean, I think that since I've had a lot of success as an entrepreneur, it's

00:08:13.220 | probably no shock that I'm open to non-traditional paths, I guess you would say.

00:08:20.700 | To do what I'm doing right now, no one has ever asked me what school I went to as part

00:08:24.700 | of the ride share.

00:08:25.700 | I'm doing like analyst calls with investors that are paying me crazy amounts of money

00:08:29.900 | and they're not like, "Harry, where'd you go to college?"

00:08:32.980 | They're like, "Oh, Harry, you've been covering the industry day in, day out, talked to tens

00:08:36.580 | of thousands of drivers for nine years, interviewed the CEO of Uber.

00:08:40.420 | That's why they want to talk to me and pay me."

00:08:41.900 | So it's less about the pedigree and more about the body of work and the experience.

00:08:46.300 | So I kind of always joke that if my kids don't want to go to college, I wouldn't think that's

00:08:52.820 | the biggest deal in the world.

00:08:54.860 | But I think that's because I'm in a unique kind of work environment running my own business.

00:09:01.060 | I'm pretty sure if you ask my wife, she would probably say the exact opposite.

00:09:04.180 | And so we'll have to address that down the road.

00:09:07.220 | But I think college is a great, fun experience and I would recommend it to my kids.

00:09:13.380 | More for that and the relationships.

00:09:16.100 | I love visiting with my friends from college.

00:09:17.940 | I went to UC San Diego, so I didn't go to school.

00:09:21.100 | I did play volleyball at UC San Diego, but we didn't have the strong football, basketball,

00:09:25.780 | like Cal.

00:09:26.780 | So I don't meet up with my buddies every year for football.

00:09:28.860 | But I have friends that do and it seems really awesome.

00:09:31.580 | As far as the actual schooling though and the knowledge that's gained there, I'm quite

00:09:36.180 | skeptical on that part.

00:09:37.620 | So if my kids want to go take a gap year or travel the world or even start a business

00:09:42.640 | and not go to college, I'd probably be pretty supportive of that.

00:09:46.220 | I think as long as they're not like dicking around and just drinking and partying for

00:09:50.140 | five years.

00:09:51.140 | If they want to be an artist and that's what they're passionate about and I can help facilitate

00:09:55.060 | some of that, I probably wouldn't pay for everything, but enough to have them a comfortable

00:10:00.100 | living and they can pursue something they're really passionate about and get similar levels

00:10:04.020 | of achievement that I do through business, then I would be all for that.

00:10:07.540 | It is interesting because how old are your kids now?

00:10:11.580 | Three and five.

00:10:12.580 | So I have two boys, three and five years old.

00:10:15.300 | Right.

00:10:16.300 | So in what is that, 13 and 15 years from now.

00:10:20.500 | 13 and 15 years, yeah.

00:10:21.500 | I mean, your wife is probably going to be making more money.

00:10:24.740 | Yeah.

00:10:25.740 | I'm assuming hopefully you'll be making more money.

00:10:28.660 | Your net worth will grow even greater if you compound that at 7% rate of return, your net

00:10:33.740 | worth will more than double.

00:10:36.820 | And I just wonder how your children, our children, they'll be like, "Well, mom and dad seem to

00:10:42.660 | be doing really well.

00:10:43.660 | Do we have to do anything?"

00:10:44.660 | How do you think about that?

00:10:49.900 | I feel like you've done some good podcasts and blog posts where you've thought about

00:10:54.220 | that a lot more.

00:10:55.700 | I know it's an issue, but I feel like I'm almost like I'll address it when the time

00:10:59.900 | comes.

00:11:00.900 | Right.

00:11:01.900 | So I have three and five and my older son kind of jokes like, "Dad, you never work or

00:11:05.740 | you never do anything."

00:11:06.740 | Right.

00:11:07.740 | Because I don't go to an office and I'm not on call like my wife and I'm kind of always

00:11:10.020 | there to pick him up or take him to doctor appointments or whatever it might be.

00:11:13.580 | And right now it's kind of funny when he's five, right?

00:11:15.780 | Because he's not, it doesn't really affect his like how he works at school or how hardworking

00:11:20.180 | or lazy he is.

00:11:21.180 | But definitely when he gets to maybe middle school or high school, I think that is when

00:11:25.660 | it will have an impact and I'll kind of have to address it at that point.

00:11:30.940 | I feel like to me, I don't know.

00:11:34.300 | I haven't thought a ton about it.

00:11:36.020 | I'm not sure the best way, but it's definitely like something I know I'll have to address.

00:11:40.540 | Yeah.

00:11:41.540 | You know, so with your wife's hours, because you sound like you have pretty flexible hours

00:11:46.940 | and you work less than 30 hours a week, I'm assuming.

00:11:50.140 | I would say that I work probably 20 to 30 hours a week.

00:11:55.580 | You know, like when I say work though, like very hard focused work.

00:11:59.220 | I mean, some of it is, I mean, like even this podcast is probably less like on the work

00:12:03.340 | side and more for fun or pleasure, but you know, it sort of revolves around the things

00:12:06.580 | I do for business.

00:12:07.580 | I was just up in SF last week and, you know, kind of for a client of mine, but, you know,

00:12:12.100 | met with friends, met with other people.

00:12:13.620 | And so I try to honestly combine, you know, like in my typical week, I would say I work

00:12:18.420 | 20 to 30 hours a week, but you know, like I try to find trips, for example, where, you

00:12:22.740 | know, like I go to SF, I meet for business reasons, I meet friends, I take meetings,

00:12:26.420 | you know, I kind of do a mix of, you know, a few different things.

00:12:30.340 | So that's sort of my typical week though might be 20 to 30 hours of actual work.

00:12:33.820 | I mean, I try to, you know, be very focused and I'm sure everyone says that, but I feel

00:12:38.140 | like I, it may be a little atypical.

00:12:40.980 | Like I only check my email once a day.

00:12:42.740 | I don't have notifications on my phone.

00:12:45.220 | I don't take phone calls, you know, stuff like that.

00:12:48.180 | I don't do many meetings, you know, I'm all async email, you know, stuff like that.

00:12:53.580 | So I, you know, I think everyone says like, Oh, I'm really efficient when they work, but

00:12:57.860 | I try to be pretty damn efficient.

00:13:00.180 | You know, usually I drop my kids off around 9am, I'm home by 930, work, you know, 930

00:13:06.820 | to five ish, but obviously I'm only doing 20 to 30 hours a week.

00:13:09.380 | So, you know, I might go to the gym once or twice a week, play golf once a week, take

00:13:12.780 | them, you know, friends, lunch, happy hour, you know, so there's always things that kind

00:13:17.260 | of break up the day.

00:13:18.260 | So that's sort of my typical week.

00:13:20.580 | You know, I spent a lot of time with moms because I'm, I would consider myself a stay

00:13:24.860 | at home dad.

00:13:26.220 | How does your wife feel about you with flexible hours and her in the office?

00:13:30.940 | And I'm assuming she works more than 40 hours a week.

00:13:33.740 | Is she okay with that?

00:13:35.460 | I mean, I think she, you know, compared to her residency, she's probably very happy.

00:13:39.540 | And I feel like she's around all the time now compared to residency because you legitimately

00:13:43.260 | do work 70 to 80 hours a week, if not more.

00:13:47.740 | And you know, on call and all that.

00:13:49.540 | And so now, I mean, she's at a private practice where they do shared, you know, because babies,

00:13:53.620 | she's OBGYNs, the babies come all times of the day and night.

00:13:56.580 | So that makes it a little tougher.

00:13:57.940 | So she does a shared call.

00:13:59.140 | So she's basically on call to deliver babies once every six weekends.

00:14:04.260 | And then during the week, she might have to go out once a week, for example, like late

00:14:08.820 | night to deliver one of her own patients.

00:14:11.300 | And she probably works about 40 to 50 hours a week.

00:14:14.740 | So it's like a normal, probably hard job, but for her, you know, easier than what she

00:14:19.100 | used to be.

00:14:20.100 | And she's making more money.

00:14:21.100 | So yeah, and she's making more money.

00:14:23.100 | So it is definitely nice.

00:14:24.900 | You know, it's been a long while to get here.

00:14:27.060 | But now I think we're in a pretty good spot.

00:14:28.500 | But to answer your question directly, I mean, yeah, I think, you know, it is tough for her,

00:14:34.780 | you know, like, I don't want to put words in her mouth, but I definitely get the feeling

00:14:37.740 | that her or someone in her position, you know, she's probably not gonna listen to this podcast.

00:14:41.260 | So no words there, but you know, her or someone out, you know, someone of her friends is gonna

00:14:46.860 | listen and send it to her probably.

00:14:48.540 | But you know, her or someone in her position, right?

00:14:51.060 | Like, you know, tomorrow, I'm playing golf with two co founders of a company that I just

00:14:55.860 | invested in.

00:14:56.860 | And you know what I mean?

00:14:57.860 | It's like, you know, some of the work that I do, like, quote, unquote, work, you know,

00:15:01.260 | is pretty loosely defined work, you know, I'm kind of always out and about and have

00:15:06.180 | more flexibility.

00:15:07.620 | But I also think that, like, you know, from her perspective, I'm sure she's a little bit

00:15:12.140 | jealous at times.

00:15:13.140 | And, you know, I try not to rub it in her face, like, hey, I went out and played golf

00:15:15.940 | today.

00:15:16.940 | You know, if she asked me, of course, I would tell her.

00:15:18.820 | But you know, I try not to rub it in her or other people's faces.

00:15:22.340 | But also, I think it's always like, like certain types of people, this works well for and others,

00:15:28.060 | it doesn't.

00:15:29.060 | I have friends who work really hard and always have a lot of things going on.

00:15:32.100 | And, you know, I always try to convince them to do some of the stuff that I'm doing or,

00:15:35.700 | you know, work in similar ways as I or take on projects or, you know, when they're done

00:15:39.260 | with one startup, you know, to go into VC or something chill, you know, go be a product

00:15:43.260 | manager at Google.

00:15:44.260 | And it's like, I just know, though, deep down, like some people just love the grind.

00:15:48.940 | And you know, even though they always say that they may not say, they may say that they

00:15:52.900 | don't like I think it really is kind of like your, your, you know, certain people have

00:15:56.460 | different personalities.

00:15:57.460 | And so I don't know that, like, the way she works would work well for me and vice versa.

00:16:02.780 | Right.

00:16:03.780 | Let's talk a little bit more about the ride share guy.

00:16:06.700 | Sure.

00:16:07.700 | It's been going on for a while.

00:16:10.060 | And you know, you were early in recognizing the ride share movement, and then it went

00:16:14.060 | into food delivery and all that.

00:16:15.580 | And then micro mobility.

00:16:16.580 | I remember you were talking about bird and all those guys.

00:16:19.820 | Like, what's next?

00:16:21.300 | Now what's what's the focus of your site and you know, your genre?

00:16:26.140 | And what should investors be looking at?

00:16:28.540 | Yeah, well, I mean, I guess what I would say is I have, you know, spent nine years I mean,

00:16:34.380 | as the name of the site might, you know, impute ride share, you know, we cover Uber and Lyft.

00:16:38.220 | And that's sort of what we're best known for.

00:16:40.060 | And, you know, I think that we built a lot of credibility as experts in Uber and Lyft,

00:16:45.420 | you know, especially from the driver's perspective.

00:16:47.420 | And honestly, like, I don't know, to me, it's kind of enough.

00:16:50.300 | Like, I kind of really lean into that.

00:16:52.540 | Okay.

00:16:53.540 | And I don't want people to think of me as like, an expert in scooters or an expert in last

00:16:57.100 | mile delivery and ride share.

00:16:58.300 | Like, I want to be literally like the top point 1% when people think about Uber, Lyft

00:17:03.500 | and the driver perspective.

00:17:04.500 | Okay.

00:17:05.500 | Right.

00:17:06.500 | And that's kind of to me, I think that market is big enough, you know, to be honest, I mean,

00:17:10.540 | millions of drivers out there.

00:17:12.620 | And, you know, there's plenty of opportunity, there's plenty of things we can do better

00:17:15.460 | within the business to dominate that category, you know, those search topics, those revenue

00:17:20.780 | streams.

00:17:21.780 | And then, you know, there are other opportunities that I think have sort of kind of fallen into

00:17:25.920 | my lap.

00:17:26.920 | Like you mentioned in 2018 and 19, scooters were huge.

00:17:30.140 | I started charging scooters here for Bird in Santa Monica, just for fun.

00:17:33.460 | I grew up in Santa Monica, you know, then in 2018 and 19, scooters was our most popular

00:17:39.180 | content.

00:17:40.180 | We are doing, you know, scooter reviews on YouTube and charging scooters and that kind

00:17:43.620 | of obviously faded.

00:17:45.380 | But the past three years has been a lot of last mile delivery stuff.

00:17:48.300 | So Uber Eats, DoorDash, Instacart, Amazon Flex, Walmart Spark, you know, the big ones

00:17:54.500 | kind of being DoorDash and Uber Eats and Instacart, kind of the big three in the delivery space.

00:17:59.240 | And so probably a majority of our traffic and revenue now comes from delivery services.

00:18:03.940 | But I definitely don't pretend to be, you know, like the number one expert in all things

00:18:08.300 | delivery.

00:18:09.300 | I know a lot and I know enough to be dangerous.

00:18:10.300 | You know, I can talk about it on an investor call or, you know, I definitely know more

00:18:13.460 | than the average person.

00:18:14.820 | But I don't, you know, try to market myself in the same way because I just feel like it

00:18:21.600 | might be spreading myself out a little too thin.

00:18:24.660 | Now, so for listeners who are not entrepreneurs, they're just day job workers.

00:18:29.460 | So they see, okay, the ride share guy, he's an entrepreneur, he makes money.

00:18:33.860 | But how do you make money and well, how would you break down the revenue as a percentage

00:18:38.820 | of different line items?

00:18:40.940 | Sure.

00:18:41.940 | So probably the number one way that we make money would be off of affiliates.

00:18:46.700 | So that would be Legion, so signing up new drivers for Uber, Uber Eats, Instacart, DoorDash

00:18:52.240 | are probably the top four.

00:18:54.080 | And then we have other affiliates, for example, you know, GetUpside is a cash back gas app.

00:18:59.840 | So that's a pretty good fit for Uber and Lyft drivers.

00:19:03.520 | There's other, you know, financial apps, banking apps.

00:19:06.200 | So that's affiliate is probably one category.

00:19:09.320 | And kind of, I would say not the easiest, but you know, as you know, with your business,

00:19:15.440 | like if you find the right affiliate, you can make a lot of money and not have to do

00:19:18.140 | a lot of work, I guess you would say.

00:19:20.500 | And then there's also direct advertising.

00:19:23.800 | So this would be, you know, we send out four emails every single week, you know, with new

00:19:27.720 | blog posts.

00:19:28.720 | Yeah, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday.

00:19:31.940 | So that includes an email about the blog post.

00:19:35.380 | So I mean, we're kind of revamping things, but the gist is we've always traditionally

00:19:40.020 | for nine years, we've sent out at least four emails a week.

00:19:43.340 | And that would be, you know, either one really good blog post or a few blog posts we've done

00:19:47.060 | over the past couple of days, because I have a number of contributors on the YouTube channel

00:19:51.980 | and blog.

00:19:52.980 | And so we've got multiple contributors.

00:19:55.420 | And you know, at the top and bottom of each newsletter, we sell an ad spot.

00:19:58.900 | So like right now we're advertising a company called Wallet.

00:20:02.140 | And it's like a financial, you know, app or a banking account or something like that.

00:20:06.200 | And it's cool one for gig workers.

00:20:07.940 | So we're advertising that and you know, that is right above the fold gets clicked a lot.

00:20:11.180 | And you know, we do sponsored posts, sponsored videos, sponsored podcasts, you know, basically

00:20:16.980 | anything where someone's paying us more directly and hoping for results versus affiliate is

00:20:23.220 | where they pay you solely.

00:20:25.340 | You sign up one driver, we'll give you a hundred dollars.

00:20:28.060 | Right.

00:20:29.060 | So those are kind of the big two.

00:20:30.660 | And then, I mean, I also do consulting the past, you know, I think again, right.

00:20:33.860 | Because since we've established ourselves as such experts in Uber and Lyft and you know,

00:20:37.380 | quoted in the media, interviewing executives and all that were pretty visible and easy

00:20:41.700 | to find.

00:20:42.700 | So, you know, I have done a lot for some reason this month, I've done a lot of GLG expert

00:20:48.020 | network type calls.

00:20:49.020 | Gerson Lehman?

00:20:50.020 | The Gerson Lehman group?

00:20:51.020 | Yeah, the GLGs and the Alpha Insights.

00:20:52.020 | And I mean, I kind of charge kind of crazy amounts for these guys because they're a bit

00:20:59.700 | of a, you know, hassle to work with.

00:21:01.940 | Like you can book them one hour.

00:21:04.020 | Do you go directly with GLG and then they take a percentage of your hourly rate?

00:21:08.220 | Are you like a GLG person?

00:21:10.380 | Like how does that work?

00:21:11.380 | So basically, on my site, I kind of call this revenue source for us consulting.

00:21:16.540 | And basically on my site, you can book a one hour call with me for 750 bucks.

00:21:20.500 | And basically just over time, I started at 50, 100, 250, 500, 750 and just have gone

00:21:25.460 | up over time.

00:21:26.460 | And I mean, it's a lot but I also think it's reasonable if you've ever paid a lawyer, you

00:21:30.140 | know, like a decent lawyer costs 500 an hour.

00:21:32.380 | So I feel like a ride share industry expert can easily charge more than that.

00:21:36.660 | And then I have a profile on all of the networks like GLG and Alpha Insights.

00:21:42.500 | GLG and Alpha Insights and there might be one more probably the big three that I get

00:21:46.900 | calls from.

00:21:47.900 | And so I've got a profile on there.

00:21:49.260 | And I actually do a double rate.

00:21:50.260 | So I do 1500 an hour on GLG because there's a lot of well, there's two things.

00:21:55.860 | There's a lot of hassle in booking, you know, they call you, they always want to call you

00:21:59.340 | and like talk for five minutes.

00:22:00.660 | They're like, "Are you a good fit for this project on ride share?"

00:22:03.220 | I'm like, "Yeah, I wrote the book on ride share.

00:22:04.700 | I've interviewed Uber CEO three times.

00:22:05.940 | I've been covering the industry for 10 years.

00:22:07.500 | Like, yeah, I'm a good fit for this.

00:22:08.500 | I can look at my LinkedIn or do anything."

00:22:09.500 | You know, so it's like a little BS you have to deal with them.

00:22:13.940 | And then I also tell them I have a one hour minimum and a 48 hour cancellation policy.

00:22:18.700 | I always make them agree to that over email or text up front.

00:22:22.100 | And then, you know, so I've sort of gotten good at doing these calls.

00:22:24.940 | And, you know, I really only do Uber, Lyft, you know, expert driver type calls basically.

00:22:32.820 | And you know, so I charge them.

00:22:34.300 | And the other, I actually used to charge 750, but I bumped it up to 1500 when I think I

00:22:38.180 | saw this report about GLG that said their profit margin was like 70% on these expert

00:22:42.980 | network calls.

00:22:43.980 | And I was like, "Oh, shoot, I better jump better off my plate."

00:22:46.900 | So, yeah.

00:22:47.900 | Wait, so, but how does it work exactly?

00:22:48.900 | If you charge 1500, how much does GLG get out of the 1500?

00:22:52.100 | I don't know.

00:22:53.100 | I know that their average, most of the people on their network are more in the $200 to $300.

00:22:58.780 | Like literally, I think they're slighter.

00:23:00.540 | You can only set a 500 or 750.

00:23:02.260 | I always have to email them and say, "Hey, no, I'm going above your, you know, sort of

00:23:06.260 | asking rate."

00:23:07.260 | But, I mean, it kind of crystallized for me.

00:23:09.540 | Like I remember I did a call one time with some capital group, you know, and I looked

00:23:13.500 | them up and they had $4 billion invested in Uber.

00:23:16.100 | I'm like, "They'll probably pay a couple thousand bucks for some expert on drivers, right?"

00:23:20.420 | And so, you know, probably not everyone.

00:23:23.060 | Yeah, you know, not everyone can charge, you know, that much.

00:23:27.060 | But I think you'd be surprised.

00:23:28.060 | And, you know, I've been doing these over time.

00:23:29.860 | And I also don't rely on this income.

00:23:31.860 | So, you know, if it comes, great.

00:23:33.740 | If not, no worries.

00:23:34.740 | But, yeah, nothing easier than taking like a call at home, you know, for $200 for one

00:23:41.300 | hour.

00:23:42.300 | Well, so this is a lesson for listeners because if you can become an authority in a subject

00:23:47.300 | matter, you can be an expert in a subject matter, and you, the longer you exist and

00:23:51.820 | the longer you cover and the more you know, the more you can charge.

00:23:56.020 | People are looking for insights, whether it's competitors or investors.

00:24:01.900 | So it's something to think about, you know, when you're doing your day job, okay, you're

00:24:04.980 | an expert at whatever you're doing.

00:24:07.300 | But can that scale and can you earn other income as a consultant?

00:24:11.700 | And can you brand yourself online?

00:24:13.220 | These are things to think about that I've encouraged Financial Samurai listeners to

00:24:16.660 | think about and do for a long time.

00:24:19.220 | Because 10 years later, if you have 10 years on your belt, I would say you're an expert,

00:24:23.220 | right?

00:24:24.220 | I mean, honestly, a lot of the knowledge I feel like I have these days is not because

00:24:27.740 | I'm some genius.

00:24:28.740 | It's just because I've been doing it for 10 years, right?

00:24:30.940 | Like there have literally been like cycles of people that came through all of these companies,

00:24:34.660 | you know, the first four or five years came and went, the early employees, and then the

00:24:38.340 | next site, like we're in like the third cycle of employees.

00:24:41.220 | So a lot of companies are like doing, you know, products that they tested before that

00:24:44.860 | they just didn't know about.

00:24:45.860 | And I'm like, Oh, yeah, I remember Uber tested this product like six years ago.

00:24:48.780 | You know what I mean?

00:24:49.780 | It's just like, I'm almost just like, I don't even have that great of a memory.

00:24:52.620 | It's just like, Oh, you know, I covered this six years ago, let me go back and look up

00:24:55.260 | the article or the video we did.

00:24:57.340 | And you know that I would honestly say that like in some of these people probably aren't

00:25:01.140 | hiring me for that.

00:25:02.460 | But in probably, you know, 30 to 50% of the calls or consulting calls that I do a lot

00:25:07.300 | of time, it's stuff like that people are asking me, or, you know, I'm connecting with people

00:25:12.100 | who have interviewed in the past or whatever it might be.

00:25:14.740 | So I do think that compounding knowledge is, you know, pretty valuable.

00:25:19.180 | And also to like going back to the type of personality, like, I'm the type of person

00:25:23.220 | like I don't really want to do like 500 bucks an hour is great.

00:25:26.540 | That's a lot of money, right?

00:25:27.540 | But like, I don't really want to do like 10 $500 an hour calls, I'd rather do, you know,

00:25:32.580 | two or three $1,000 an hour, you know, like, I'd rather make less money and do way less

00:25:37.420 | work if that makes sense.

00:25:38.700 | So whenever I can kind of find that type of opportunity, where maybe I'm, you know, being

00:25:42.700 | paid less overall, but I'm working a lot less, like, that's kind of the thing that I enjoy.

00:25:47.500 | Because also, at the end of the day, too, if I do 10 consulting calls with investors,

00:25:52.060 | you know, the third, basically the third one on, I'm gonna be talking about all the same

00:25:55.460 | stuff, right?

00:25:56.460 | Like one or two calls is pretty interesting and pretty fun.

00:25:58.940 | And, you know, actually, like, sometimes these are pretty valuable, they'll be asking me

00:26:01.700 | questions or topics that I haven't thought of yet.

00:26:04.260 | And so it sort of makes me think or go do research after the fact.

00:26:07.260 | But you know, I guess like I have a classic entrepreneur mind, I don't like doing the

00:26:11.260 | same stuff over and over, you know.

00:26:14.660 | I'm not like you, I can't crank out three blog posts a week for 13 years or however

00:26:18.740 | long you've done it.

00:26:19.740 | But it's not the same topic every time.

00:26:22.700 | That's true.

00:26:23.700 | So you're focused on the same topic or very similar topics.

00:26:27.460 | I try to increase the breadth.

00:26:29.700 | Maybe that's good, maybe that's bad, but that's life.

00:26:32.440 | So in terms of, given, you said Lyft is one of your main clients, what would you assign

00:26:39.740 | probability that Lyft will be around over the next 24 months?

00:26:43.900 | And who do you think would acquire them?

00:26:44.900 | Well, actually, Lyft isn't one of our clients.

00:26:47.060 | I don't think we make any money off of Lyft right now.

00:26:48.900 | Oh, really?

00:26:49.900 | We don't have any sort of driver referrals or affiliate.

00:26:51.940 | They probably should.

00:26:52.940 | So if anyone's listening from Lyft, they should probably get that signed up.

00:26:55.700 | Because in all of our Lyft articles, we tell people that, you know, at the bottom, the

00:26:58.540 | call to action is like, "Make sure you're signed up for Uber," right?

00:27:01.820 | Because we make money off of that.

00:27:04.380 | And yeah, so we cover them.

00:27:05.500 | I mean, so I guess, what was your question?

00:27:07.980 | Are we going to be around in 24 months?

00:27:09.620 | What do you think the probability is they'll be around in the next 24 months?

00:27:14.540 | I think they'll still be around.

00:27:15.940 | I mean, they've obviously, their stock price has been absolutely hammered.

00:27:18.860 | They've laid off thousands of people.

00:27:20.180 | And there's a lot of sort of doom, I don't know, doomsday or doom fearing, whatever the

00:27:25.420 | word is, you know, around the company.

00:27:27.140 | And you know, when I went to see us, that was probably in January, that was probably

00:27:30.140 | the number one question people asked me like, "Oh, is Lyft going to be out of business soon?"

00:27:33.800 | But if you actually look at the underlying numbers, like they're basically at 95% of

00:27:39.460 | the ride volume that they were at right before COVID, right?

00:27:43.060 | Where all these companies have been trying to recover to pre-COVID numbers.

00:27:45.580 | And so, I mean, they're still doing millions of rides every single day.

00:27:48.940 | You can still go out and get a Lyft in any major city.

00:27:51.580 | You know, maybe it's not, you know, five minutes, maybe it takes seven, eight minutes, right?

00:27:56.180 | And there's always still, there's just so much variability in the gig economy and the

00:28:00.020 | ride share industry that there are so many times, you know, the other day I needed a

00:28:02.900 | ride to the airport and I looked on Uber and it was 100 bucks.

00:28:06.180 | On Lyft, it was 50.

00:28:07.180 | Boom.

00:28:08.180 | Called Lyft, took a Lyft to the airport.

00:28:09.180 | It was a good ride.

00:28:10.180 | It was a good ride as a customer.

00:28:11.180 | As a driver, you probably want that Uber ride, right?

00:28:12.180 | Because you make more.

00:28:13.180 | But as a customer, you know, even at the exact same ride, at the exact same time, to the

00:28:17.340 | exact same starting and end point, there was a 2X price difference.

00:28:20.860 | Like, that's nuts.

00:28:21.860 | Well, that's why we need Lyft to survive.

00:28:24.540 | But it doesn't look like they're going to survive over the next 24 months.

00:28:28.540 | I don't know.

00:28:29.540 | I mean, I don't know if their profitability looks pretty good.

00:28:31.860 | If you look at their income statement and cash flow statement.

00:28:34.980 | And it's...

00:28:35.980 | Honestly, I feel like that's sort of beyond my...

00:28:39.500 | That's probably more of a question for the analysts, you know, or the sort of people

00:28:42.980 | that actually like, I barely know how to read a P&L.

00:28:45.340 | So I think to me, it's just more around like, wow, I think about it like the actual brand

00:28:52.340 | and the volume of rides and sort of the driver perception.

00:28:55.860 | Like right now, like drivers could care less.

00:28:57.620 | Like drivers have no idea.

00:28:58.620 | You know, I mean, maybe they know that stock price is in the tank.

00:29:01.340 | But if you ask them, like, what's their actual experience like now compared to a year ago,

00:29:06.100 | for example, on Lyft, like, no one's saying like, oh, my God, this company's in shambles.

00:29:09.860 | They're like, maybe I get a few less rides.

00:29:11.820 | It's about the same.

00:29:12.820 | You know what I mean?

00:29:13.820 | Like, I think there is for that individual driver, there's definitely quite a large disconnect

00:29:18.460 | with, you know, some of the sort of higher level or more macro things like stock price

00:29:23.260 | or, you know, balance sheet.

00:29:24.860 | Obviously if Lyft goes bankrupt, and there's no more rides for them, that would be a big

00:29:28.380 | effect.

00:29:29.380 | But a lot of times, the things that affect the front lines are actually pretty different

00:29:34.180 | than, you know, what's talked about in regards to Lyft stock price and, you know, internal

00:29:37.740 | this and that on CNBC.

00:29:39.740 | Yeah.

00:29:40.740 | Uber hasn't seemed to have returned a lot to shareholders since it went public.

00:29:46.060 | And so do you think the CEO deserves his mega pay as a result?

00:29:51.460 | I don't know how much he's getting paid.

00:29:52.860 | I think he has some package where he makes 200 million if they hit a certain stock price.

00:29:56.860 | I don't think they're there.

00:29:57.860 | But I want to say he makes, you know, I'm sure he makes 5, 10 million bucks a year at

00:30:01.020 | least if not more.

00:30:02.740 | And I'm sure he's doing quite well financially.

00:30:04.940 | You know, I mean, I've interviewed him a few times.

00:30:08.100 | Personally, I like him.

00:30:09.180 | I think he's very sharp.

00:30:10.180 | I was always really impressed with, you know, he's got a lot of different things going on.

00:30:13.860 | And I was always impressed with how well he knew the driver experience.

00:30:18.420 | Even once all the cameras were off at this in-person event, you know, he was taking driver

00:30:22.020 | questions and pulling up his product managers who had probably never even talked to him

00:30:25.620 | before.

00:30:26.620 | He was like, "I'm not going to do this issue."

00:30:27.620 | You know, so I think like genuinely I like him and I think he is a great person.

00:30:31.340 | I think it's also hard to argue with the performance of the stock price.

00:30:34.620 | It's done pretty poorly, you know, compared to relatively to tech and, you know, since

00:30:39.060 | their IPO and, you know, especially too before this latest market crash or whatever you would

00:30:44.140 | call it.

00:30:45.140 | Like, I mean, their stock price was doing terrible, you know, basically compared to

00:30:47.780 | tech, which had been booming.

00:30:49.580 | And so, yeah, I mean, I think if you're judging him based on stock price alone, he hasn't

00:30:52.820 | done very well.

00:30:53.820 | Yeah.

00:30:54.820 | I mean, it is always interesting, you know, I know a couple of CEOs myself.

00:30:58.460 | It seems like it's more of a job about image, about being an ambassador, being able to speak

00:31:04.980 | eloquently and deliver the message.

00:31:07.420 | And I do wonder how many of us can do that.

00:31:10.460 | I feel like many of us can do that job if we are an expert in the field and we can just

00:31:15.380 | be a normal people person and manage people.

00:31:17.760 | We too can make a hundred million a year and just do this and that.

00:31:21.580 | Oh, really?

00:31:22.580 | I don't think so.

00:31:23.580 | I think what I described as his skillset, I think is actually pretty unique.

00:31:29.260 | Like I think the ability to sort of tell that, right.

00:31:32.860 | Like I think like what you said is the perfect example, right.

00:31:35.460 | Like there are certain companies where, you know, it's sort of about, you know, I mean,

00:31:40.460 | obviously the underlying metrics and the numbers always matter.

00:31:42.820 | But like if you really trust the CEO and the vision and the investments that they're making

00:31:46.380 | and, you know, they sort of, you know, I mean, all of life is being a good salesperson,

00:31:50.540 | right.

00:31:51.540 | Like, you know, come on to my podcast.

00:31:53.700 | Here's why you should do it.

00:31:54.740 | Here's my audience, right.

00:31:55.940 | Or here, come advertise with us, right.

00:31:57.660 | Like, you know, come marry me.

00:31:58.940 | Like everything is sort of, you know, in essence, a form of sales in life, I believe.

00:32:03.940 | And so I think when it comes to being a CEO, I don't actually think that's a skill that

00:32:07.500 | many or most people have.

00:32:09.100 | Like I think Dara has done a great job despite the stock performance, you know, like I don't

00:32:14.700 | think the stock has done that well.

00:32:15.900 | I think someone else would have been fired long ago.

00:32:18.580 | Like I'm surprised that people aren't, you know, banging on the door like, hey, the stock

00:32:21.980 | price is doing terrible, for example, right.

00:32:23.780 | You know, there's a few critics, but I think for the most part, and, you know, also talking

00:32:28.900 | to him, you know, sort of one on one, I did get that sense like, I mean, he's got, you

00:32:34.300 | know, they've got all these different divisions and this and that.

00:32:37.060 | And like, I would say like he wasn't an expert on every little detail of drivers, but you

00:32:40.980 | could tell he was the type of person who could process a lot of information, remember a lot,

00:32:47.780 | considering that that's like a small part of his job.

00:32:50.820 | Right.

00:32:51.820 | I think the other, there's been a few people that I've met, you know, not celebrities,

00:32:54.380 | but, you know, like a few big names, like, I don't know a ton of important people, but

00:32:58.300 | another person that I met, we had a former LA mayor, Eric Garcetti, come and speak at

00:33:03.700 | a conference we put on in LA called CurbAvore.

00:33:06.580 | And I used to be a big fan of his.

00:33:08.340 | I thought he was really eloquent.

00:33:09.420 | I thought during the pandemic and COVID, he totally botched the whole situation.

00:33:12.460 | We don't need to get into all that, but just at a personal level, like I really, my feelings

00:33:17.740 | about him, like really dropped off a cliff.

00:33:19.820 | And then he came and spoke at our conference.

00:33:21.020 | I'm like, okay, I like this guy again.

00:33:22.460 | He was kind of like a little mini celebrity and everyone kind of mobbed him afterwards.

00:33:25.700 | And, you know, he obviously talked about transportation and mobility and, you know, dining, because

00:33:30.580 | this was sort of a conference around delivery and restaurant and retail.

00:33:34.500 | And I was thinking to myself, like for all the issues that this guy has going on, homeless,

00:33:38.940 | budget, you know, this, that, like he's got a million things.

00:33:42.100 | Like he was an amazing speaker.

00:33:44.180 | He was dropping stories and he was talking like with actual knowledge about, you know,

00:33:48.900 | like programs the city had done.

00:33:50.820 | And I'm like, you know, maybe he did a little prep work before this, but like, this is very,

00:33:54.620 | you know, speaking at CurbAvore conference, no shade to myself, is very low on his priority

00:33:59.660 | list, right?

00:34:00.660 | And I was really impressed actually with the actual speech that he gave.

00:34:05.100 | And it just kind of crystallized.

00:34:06.620 | Like I don't think many people, like if I was in his position, like I wouldn't have

00:34:09.860 | been able to give anything, you know, close to that.

00:34:12.940 | And you know, not only did it sound good, like the actual substance of the content and

00:34:16.700 | what he was talking about made sense too.

00:34:19.020 | And so I feel like there's been very few people in my life, you know, they're sort of in high,

00:34:23.220 | you know, I haven't met a lot, but you know, the few people in my life that I've met of

00:34:27.460 | like high, you know, stature or positions or CEOs or whatever, you know, Dara and Mayor

00:34:32.980 | Garcetti sort of stand out to me.

00:34:35.940 | I think what you're also telling me is that if more people can connect with other people

00:34:40.500 | in person and hear their story, I think there would be more harmony and understanding in

00:34:45.540 | this world.

00:34:46.540 | I think a lot of people, they'll see what they see on TV, the internet, whatever, and

00:34:50.820 | they'll just make judgment.

00:34:51.860 | But as soon as you start meeting someone, talking to them face to face, listening to

00:34:55.500 | their story and their background, I think it's inevitable that there will be some kind

00:34:59.460 | of more positive connection.

00:35:02.260 | I think also that working in the office creates that and working outside of the office at

00:35:07.700 | home, if you're like a junior person who's not established and all that, I think it's

00:35:12.580 | much better to go into the office.

00:35:14.220 | What do you think?

00:35:15.220 | Yeah.

00:35:16.220 | No, I think that, yeah, I don't know.

00:35:17.220 | I think it would be hard to argue with that.

00:35:18.860 | I think that's pretty obvious and that, you know, like obviously meeting, you know, it's

00:35:21.980 | a lot harder to talk crap, you know, in person than it is like the things that people say

00:35:25.820 | online, you know, very few people would say that to your face.

00:35:28.980 | I remember we actually had this commenter on the Ride Share Guy blog and he used to

00:35:32.500 | always be talking crap in the comments, but you could sort of tell he knew what he was

00:35:35.860 | talking about.

00:35:36.860 | Like he was like very negative and, you know, kind of a dick, but you know, he had like

00:35:40.980 | some really good insights and strategies, but you know, the way he would say it was

00:35:43.980 | like, you know, like very, very rude.

00:35:46.220 | And I actually like, I, a couple of times I was like, let's grab lunch, let's meet up.

00:35:49.380 | And I eventually met up and I basically tamed him and he's actually one of our top contributors

00:35:53.980 | now.

00:35:54.980 | Shout out to Sergio.

00:35:55.980 | He's the dick in the comments.

00:35:56.980 | He's actually literally like now our top contributor has a really popular weekly live show.

00:36:02.700 | Does all of our, most of our media, you know, appearances and stuff like that.

00:36:06.740 | Oh yeah, yeah.

00:36:07.740 | He probably too much to be honest, but yeah, I think he will.

00:36:11.460 | And you know, I think that like he, and you know, even him, he's like probably more, I

00:36:17.060 | think of him as like the old grizzled, you know, veteran driver persona.

00:36:20.740 | Like he's been around, he's, you know, definitely more skeptical or negative than, you know,

00:36:25.260 | someone like why fresh dough out off the streets.

00:36:27.340 | But still like, I always, I always kind of joke with him.

00:36:29.860 | Like I think back when he used to comment on our blog, like, wow, who would have ever

00:36:32.900 | thought that he would end up, you know, being one of our top contributors, like based off

00:36:35.940 | of those early comments.

00:36:36.940 | And you know, I think it definitely shows that, you know, you know, I think people are

00:36:41.140 | more real in person and yeah, you can obviously connect better.

00:36:45.540 | And I think, you know, just sort of like being more human, I guess you would say in person

00:36:51.220 | than online.

00:36:52.220 | Like online is, I don't know.

00:36:53.220 | That's why I don't, I'm not on social media.

00:36:54.940 | I don't, you know, I'm on Twitter, you know, but like other than that, I'm not, you know,

00:36:59.460 | posting on Instagram.

00:37:00.460 | I'm not a big social media person.

00:37:01.460 | I mean, we have all the business profiles set up because I want to make money, but you

00:37:05.300 | know, not for my personal enjoyment.

00:37:07.380 | Twitter is probably the only outlet that I actually enjoy, you know, stories and things

00:37:11.900 | people are sharing and stuff.

00:37:13.340 | Well, kudos to you for reaching out to your belligerent commenter or slash hater and then

00:37:19.180 | making lemonade out of it.

00:37:20.500 | I mean, the funny thing is like for those listening, you know, as a financial samurai

00:37:25.740 | generates probably around a million page views a month.

00:37:28.100 | So you know, even a 1% haters, that's a lot of hate for a lot of people.

00:37:32.220 | It's a lot of haters.

00:37:33.220 | 0.1%.

00:37:34.220 | So just be careful because if you want to create something, be careful what you wish

00:37:38.580 | for because as you grow, you're going to get more hate, even though you're not writing

00:37:42.940 | something that or saying something that's spiteful, but people will have their say in

00:37:47.740 | the world, whether you like it or not.

00:37:50.180 | Well, and also too, I mean, I think the most interesting content is usually somewhat opinionated

00:37:56.780 | or controversial, right?

00:37:58.460 | And you know, some people are going to agree, some people are going to disagree.

00:38:03.300 | And you know, I think for me, I kind of like the spot that I'm at in the, you know, the

00:38:08.900 | gig, like my sort of overall viewpoint is the gig economy is here to stay.

00:38:12.940 | There's millions of people driving for Uber and delivering food.

00:38:16.080 | That's not going to change regardless of what I say.

00:38:18.860 | So my sort of overarching theme has always been like, I want to help them do it better.

00:38:22.980 | I want to help them make more money.

00:38:24.580 | I'm happy, you know, we have the occasional article or sometimes more than the occasional

00:38:28.100 | article like, oh, this sucks about driving.

00:38:30.340 | Cause you know, like any job, there's like a lot of things.

00:38:32.260 | Like I could do an article, like a hundred things that suck about Uber driving.

00:38:35.460 | But as long, you know, like I think it's hard to argue with the fact that there's millions

00:38:38.900 | of people doing it.

00:38:39.900 | Obviously the positives outweigh the negatives.

00:38:40.900 | Right.

00:38:41.900 | And at the end of the day, like drivers care most about making money and having a good

00:38:44.860 | experience.

00:38:45.860 | So how can we help that while still giving them an outlet to complain or, you know, to

00:38:49.140 | highlight the things that can be improved or whatever it might be.

00:38:52.100 | And so I think that's kind of the lens that I've always had.

00:38:55.340 | And you know, I kind of, I wouldn't say I get hate from all sides, but like we definitely

00:38:59.060 | have, you know, Uber or Lyft or whoever will hit me up once in a while, like, oh, why'd

00:39:02.500 | you say this about us?

00:39:03.500 | Or Harry, you're wrong.

00:39:04.500 | We don't agree with that.

00:39:06.060 | They're pretty good.

00:39:07.060 | Like honestly, they don't bug me much.

00:39:08.060 | And then, you know, we get the drivers who are like, oh, Harry, you're such a sellout.

00:39:11.300 | You're a shill.

00:39:12.300 | You're just trying, you know, you just want to sign people up for Uber, you know, and

00:39:15.460 | this and that.

00:39:16.460 | And so it's like, to me, as long as I'm getting a little bit of hate from all sides, that's

00:39:20.460 | how I think I know I'm doing a good job.

00:39:23.140 | And you know, and also to balancing that with like my overarching, like it would be a bad

00:39:27.180 | business to start a blog and a YouTube channel about how much driving for Uber sucks.

00:39:31.700 | You get a partner come in and they're like, hey, we've got, you know, this great app for

00:39:35.220 | drivers and you're like, okay, one video, go quit driving for Uber.

00:39:38.220 | And the next one, by the way, if you're going to drive for Uber, use this product, you know,

00:39:40.820 | it just doesn't make sense.

00:39:41.820 | Right.

00:39:42.820 | And so I think those are kind of like the two things that I balance.

00:39:45.300 | And honestly too, I think is it's really challenging and kind of like that.

00:39:49.500 | Those are sort of like the fun challenges that I like, like how do we balance keeping

00:39:54.000 | advertisers happy while still retaining enough or some of our credibility that, you know,

00:39:59.380 | the readers trust us.

00:40:00.440 | So I think like navigating and walking that fine line is kind of like, that's what I enjoy

00:40:04.060 | most about this type of business.

00:40:06.100 | That is tough.

00:40:07.100 | You've always been very industrious since I've known you.

00:40:10.980 | And maybe it's because you're younger or just your personality.

00:40:15.480 | And I mean, for example, you reaching out to the guy and then the hater, and then he's

00:40:19.220 | now your top contributor and you pay him.

00:40:22.140 | That's impressive because I have no time for that.

00:40:24.400 | I'm like overwhelmed with childcare and I feel like they're going to leave us and they're

00:40:29.200 | going to be adults sooner than we know it.

00:40:31.860 | How many employees and contractors do you manage and is there a limit for how many you

00:40:38.320 | want to manage?

00:40:39.320 | Because that takes work.

00:40:40.320 | I mean, managing people is tough.

00:40:41.880 | Yeah.

00:40:42.880 | I mean, I think that there was a pretty big step function change when I hired basically

00:40:48.440 | my first full time person to kind of handle a lot of that.

00:40:52.400 | We had one QuickBooks self-employed, it was one of our top advertisers and they wanted

00:40:56.120 | weekly meetings and reports and check-ins and a lot of, in my opinion, boring stuff

00:41:01.920 | that wasn't adding much value to signing up users.

00:41:04.800 | But obviously, they needed that to report or whatever.

00:41:07.200 | And I basically hired someone to handle that account and a few other advertisers.

00:41:10.840 | And I feel like I remember I was living in Long Beach at the time and I would go into

00:41:14.200 | a co-working space most days, didn't have kids yet.

00:41:17.280 | And when I hired that guy, it would be like 2, 3 p.m.

00:41:20.240 | I'm like, "Oh, I'm done with my work for the day.

00:41:22.320 | I don't have much else to do today."

00:41:25.800 | It really took a lot off my plate.

00:41:27.520 | And I really like the sort of team size, like hiring one, two, three, maybe four people.

00:41:34.160 | I really like that because hiring is insanely tough.

00:41:39.200 | But you can still, even like hiring a B player, you can still get a good ROI because it's

00:41:43.600 | so obvious if they're doing a good job or not.

00:41:46.640 | You hire someone to do ad sales for you, how much did they sell?

00:41:50.160 | That's the easiest KPI.

00:41:51.160 | If they sold $10,000 last month and you got to keep seven of that and they kept three

00:41:56.760 | and you didn't do anything for that seven, then you're probably pretty happy.

00:42:01.400 | And so I think certain...

00:42:03.960 | When you start having to do performance reviews and that, that's where you're starting to

00:42:07.920 | actually running a business and that's where it gets really tough.

00:42:10.320 | But do you do that?

00:42:12.240 | Well, I did that for a while and then I kind of got over it.

00:42:16.520 | And so now my team size, we've got a few...

00:42:20.080 | Well, it's a little different now, but I've sort of...

00:42:24.480 | Until, let's call it until last year, I usually had around four to five full-time people and

00:42:30.920 | then a number of contributors, contractors, small to medium, basically any tasks that

00:42:36.560 | I didn't want to do, I would try and hire someone.

00:42:39.520 | And so maybe right now I might have 50 people working for me.

00:42:44.000 | The smallest might be thumbnails on YouTube, a few of them a week, five bucks, 10 bucks

00:42:47.960 | or whatever each, pretty small, all the way up to editor or COO or whatever it might be.

00:42:54.280 | And then I actually brought on a new business partner last year who I've told you a bit

00:42:58.880 | about, but MMG Media.

00:43:01.920 | And basically they've sort of ended up taking over a lot of the roles and functions that

00:43:11.840 | I kind of didn't want to do or have hired people in the past to do.

00:43:14.800 | So it's sort of now, they're a business partner, so it depends how you qualify them as being

00:43:20.080 | on the team or not.

00:43:21.600 | Right.

00:43:22.600 | Yeah.

00:43:23.600 | Industrious.

00:43:24.600 | I mean, I'm very impressed.

00:43:25.600 | One of the reasons why I left my day job was because managing people was tough.

00:43:28.800 | If you manage someone, you got to motivate them, be polite, and you have to tell them

00:43:34.160 | what to do to get better.

00:43:35.800 | And then everybody wants to get paid and promoted.

00:43:38.320 | And so I said, "You know what?

00:43:39.320 | I'm going to keep Financial Samurai simple.

00:43:41.920 | Just my wife and me, and we're just going to...

00:43:44.840 | That's it.

00:43:45.840 | No, no, no, no, nobody else."

00:43:48.480 | Yeah.

00:43:49.480 | I definitely agree.

00:43:51.040 | I mean, managing people is kind of sucks and isn't that fun.

00:43:54.560 | I tried it and didn't have that much fun and then hired people to manage my people.

00:43:58.400 | Right.

00:43:59.400 | So it's sort of like, I think kind of where I have seen a good balance is where if you

00:44:06.200 | hire, for example, a full-time virtual assistant or someone who can just provide, who's not

00:44:12.120 | very expensive, doesn't require managing or full-time salesperson, something where the

00:44:16.240 | ROI is super clear and you don't need to...

00:44:20.840 | It's not like integral to your business.

00:44:22.680 | It's like you're the business, but they help you with a ton of different things, or you

00:44:25.520 | have two virtual assistants, so there's a little bit of redundancy.

00:44:29.040 | I think that's where I think it's kind of a good compromise.

00:44:34.280 | But even then, hiring virtual assistants, hiring people is tough.

00:44:38.560 | It's tough to even find good people.

00:44:41.560 | Yeah.

00:44:43.240 | So speaking of business, in your mind, how much is enough in terms of your income and

00:44:51.000 | net worth?

00:44:52.000 | Do you have a target net worth you're shooting for?

00:44:54.320 | You're still in your 30s, so you still got a long way to go.

00:44:58.040 | You got young kids.

00:44:59.880 | What is your ideal income range and your target net worth, or do you not have one?

00:45:06.480 | Yeah.

00:45:07.480 | I mean, I think probably from reading your articles, that's what's made me think most

00:45:12.680 | about net worth and the targets.

00:45:14.280 | I know you've got some good content on that.

00:45:16.640 | I don't know if I have a specific target in mind, but I mean, I do have two kids and I

00:45:23.240 | do live in LA and I do like nice things.

00:45:26.240 | So I would say that it probably has to be a lot.

00:45:30.320 | I think that as far as income level, I think if you're in LA, a single dude or a single

00:45:39.120 | female making $200,000, $300,000 a year, I think you can live a pretty good life.

00:45:44.240 | Once you start to have kids, I think you got to make more.

00:45:49.160 | I think there's sort of the active income, but then there's also investments.

00:45:54.080 | I've been pretty big into real estate.

00:45:55.680 | I have a condo in San Diego.

00:45:56.680 | I have a little house in Mississippi.

00:45:58.680 | I have the current house that I live in that's a nice three-bedroom, two-bed house in LA

00:46:03.840 | and a good neighborhood.

00:46:04.840 | I think I told you, I think we're building a new five-bedroom house in a nice neighborhood

00:46:09.560 | with a good school district right in the middle of LA.

00:46:12.080 | And so we're going to rent out this current house.

00:46:13.360 | So I'll have three rental properties basically.

00:46:16.520 | So I've been invested in real estate.

00:46:18.080 | I've got my business.

00:46:19.480 | I've been saving basically since I graduated school in 2009, but maxing out my retirement

00:46:25.640 | account.

00:46:26.640 | So I've got pretty good savings, pretty good investments.

00:46:29.200 | And so I feel like if you're making a few hundred thousand bucks income and then you've

00:46:34.080 | got real estate, you've got a spouse that's bringing in money, I don't know.

00:46:38.600 | I feel like that's plenty for me right now.

00:46:41.800 | And then as far as net worth goals, I mean, I definitely like nice things, like nice vacations.

00:46:48.040 | Having a nanny, all of that stuff.

00:46:50.000 | And so that kind of adds up.

00:46:51.880 | And so I don't know if there's a specific number in mind, but I don't know.

00:46:57.080 | 10 million, 20 million, 10 million, 20 million.

00:47:01.960 | Like those all sound good to me.

00:47:02.960 | - 10 million is the number that a lot of voters voted for 10 million as the ideal number to

00:47:11.680 | retire on Financial Samurai.

00:47:14.280 | - Actually, the number one vote getter was 5 million and then followed by 10 million.

00:47:18.200 | And so you can almost say that 5 million for non-coastal city, 10 million for coastal city.

00:47:23.240 | And that was a couple years ago too.

00:47:26.000 | - It obviously depends on the city you're living in and sort of the job.

00:47:29.640 | Like I actually really like what I'm doing.

00:47:31.080 | Like I literally only work on things that I want.

00:47:32.960 | So if I'm making, let's say, if I was making $300,000 a year right now, I would never retire,

00:47:39.160 | for example.

00:47:40.160 | I just keep doing what I'm doing.

00:47:41.160 | I'll do different projects and do things every year, but I only work on things that I enjoy

00:47:45.200 | anyways.

00:47:46.200 | So I feel like there's that path.

00:47:48.760 | And then when you get to 5 million, let's call it, if you're maybe a little aggressive,

00:47:54.760 | but let's say you're making 10% return on your 5 million, that's $500,000 a year.

00:47:59.600 | And especially when you start getting into real estate, like I'm a huge fan of real estate

00:48:03.640 | just because I think it's very interesting to me how you put, let's say you put 25% down

00:48:09.160 | payment.

00:48:10.160 | You're now 4X leverage, right?

00:48:12.160 | 3% return, just inflation.

00:48:14.160 | That's 12% return a year on real estate alone.

00:48:16.720 | I mean, the LA real estate, I've owned property in LA state.

00:48:19.440 | I've owned real estate in LA for many years.

00:48:22.720 | And there were a couple of recent years where it was like 20% appreciation, 10%, right?

00:48:27.160 | And so able to make kind of a lot of money in real estate.

00:48:31.160 | Yeah.

00:48:32.160 | Yeah, it's interesting.

00:48:33.160 | So it's interesting because you are in the mix right now where you're in the middle of

00:48:38.800 | the mix right now where you enjoy your job, which is great and you're making good money.

00:48:44.200 | And I always try to challenge listeners and readers to kind of forecast their future,

00:48:49.320 | forecast their misery.

00:48:50.320 | So like at age 45, you know, or whatever, in 10 years from now for you, do you think

00:48:56.440 | you'll still want to be really doing this?

00:48:58.960 | Well, what is this?

00:49:02.320 | Whatever it is you're doing, your ride share, your consultant.

00:49:05.720 | Well, it is what it is.

00:49:07.440 | Yeah, no.

00:49:08.440 | That's a good question.

00:49:09.440 | I think that they're one of the things I guess what I, Oh, the easy answer is that I will

00:49:15.440 | probably be doing something different, but I think the ride share guy, like honestly,

00:49:21.160 | I think I got so lucky starting the ride share guy in 2014 when Uber and Lyft were, you know,

00:49:26.520 | just getting started and just exploded.

00:49:28.360 | Like I think Uber was literally a once in a lifetime type company opportunity and I

00:49:32.400 | never worked at the company, but you know, I'm there, I was there covering it and involved

00:49:36.880 | and you know, new people and, you know, obviously like became like an expert for drivers.

00:49:41.960 | And I think because of that, like, I don't think I'll ever be able to start another ride

00:49:46.100 | share guy type business on my own.

00:49:49.260 | And so really what I do for the ride share guys, I just leverage it into things I want

00:49:52.840 | to work on.

00:49:53.840 | Like I mentioned my conference, like I'd never, I'd always done digital, never done in person.

00:49:57.380 | And so for the past two years we put on a big event, you know, had 750 registered people

00:50:02.380 | all come out in LA and, you know, put on this like awesome, fun event.

00:50:06.640 | Make a ton of money, made some money, but you know, I did it more because it was like

00:50:09.400 | a great experience, bring people together, good food, good speakers, good parties, like

00:50:13.640 | all the stuff I hate about conferences, just do the opposite at mine.

00:50:17.520 | We do it in an outdoor parking lot in downtown LA and luckily this year we had good weather

00:50:21.640 | somehow even though it rained all year and we somehow landed one day of good weather

00:50:25.560 | for the event since it's all outdoors.

00:50:28.000 | And you know, I've been doing a lot of angel investing over the past three, four years.

00:50:32.080 | I know you're invested in some VC funds and things like that.

00:50:35.640 | And you know, so obviously like working with all these tech companies, I was like, wow,

00:50:38.640 | all these people making money off of Uber, it'd be cool for me to, you know, invest in

00:50:41.960 | the next Uber.

00:50:42.960 | So I've been, you know, I've invested over $600,000 of my own money into startups and

00:50:47.880 | funds over the past three, four years.

00:50:51.120 | So kind of a lot.

00:50:52.120 | Yeah.

00:50:53.120 | It was about double what I wanted to initialize.

00:50:54.440 | I was like, Oh, I'll do about three, 300 K maybe 10% of my net worth or five, five to

00:50:58.960 | 10% of my net worth was the goal.

00:51:01.040 | And then ended up like, before I knew it, I was like, Oh crap, I'm at five, 600 K.

00:51:05.160 | And before it was like five, 600 K before I realized like, this is a really expensive

00:51:09.600 | but fun hobby.

00:51:11.520 | And luckily I kind of went into, uh, yeah, I mean it could pay out, but it's just tough

00:51:15.480 | because you know, you don't see any returns for seven to 10 years and it's hard to get

00:51:21.000 | into good deals with less than, you know, five, if you're only doing five to $10,000

00:51:26.280 | per investment that adds up pretty quickly and it's harder to get into deals, you know?

00:51:30.160 | So now I actually lucked into a little mini fund.

00:51:32.520 | So I have one LP that's, I have a $500,000 mini fund.

00:51:36.040 | So I'm basically investing their money now and now doing $25,000 angel checks.

00:51:39.960 | So sort of get to keep doing all the fun stuff about angels, angel and get 20% carry if it

00:51:44.880 | ever makes money and invest in other people's money.

00:51:47.320 | So I do 10%, I have like kind of a, they call it a 10% general partner commit, right?

00:51:52.120 | So I'm going to invest 50, they do 500 and you know, I've already written three checks,

00:51:56.960 | three 25 K checks from the fund.

00:51:58.960 | - That's what I love about your story is you're always doing stuff.

00:52:03.080 | - That's what I'm saying.

00:52:04.240 | Like that is sort of born out of the ride share guy.

00:52:06.680 | I mean, literally, so my one LP is Bloomberg Beta up in San Francisco and they invested

00:52:12.120 | in a startup that I was working with, a founder in SF and I ended up, you know, meeting their

00:52:19.480 | managing partner, Roy, because of this investment, he had heard about me through my work with

00:52:24.240 | the ride share guy.

00:52:25.560 | And then, you know, I sort of talked to him about my angel investing and basically the

00:52:28.240 | TLDR was I love angel investing, don't make enough money to keep doing it.

00:52:31.640 | And he was like, oh, we've got this cool program where we can help you, you know, kind of jump

00:52:34.480 | start your first fund.

00:52:35.480 | And I was like, oh, that sounds great.

00:52:37.120 | And, you know, obviously it took a while, but we got it all set up.

00:52:39.640 | And, you know, so I think it's sort of like has allowed me to sort of satiate that interest

00:52:45.480 | in investing.

00:52:46.480 | So as you might imagine, you know, I invest in mobility and logistics and, you know, stuff

00:52:51.040 | that I'm interested in around, you know, kind of like ride share adjacent, you know, like

00:52:54.800 | right now I'm really into last mile deliveries for companies in that space, maybe a little

00:52:58.560 | food tech, stuff like that.

00:53:01.560 | Who manages that fund?

00:53:02.560 | Like the administration of these funds?

00:53:06.160 | So that fund, it's funny, I kind of glossed over it, but it took, you know, at first we're

00:53:10.520 | like, oh, we, you know, we have this fund or this program where we can help you start

00:53:14.000 | a mini fund.

00:53:15.000 | And then when I had to figure it all out, basically the way that I actually structure

00:53:18.720 | it is that I do, I have a side letter with them where they've committed 500K capital

00:53:24.000 | for all of my venture investments going forward.

00:53:26.840 | And there's a few categories that we can't do the sort of typical alcohol, marijuana

00:53:30.360 | ones and I have to do 10% into each investment.

00:53:33.440 | And so it's, you know, I guess a side letter legally binding agreement.

00:53:36.680 | And then for each deal, like I just invested in a cool e-bike company in New York city.

00:53:42.480 | And for that deal, I basically put 25K in from Bloomberg, 2.5K of my own money.

00:53:48.280 | And then I syndicate it on a sidecar, which is kind of an angel list competitor that has

00:53:53.160 | lower fees.

00:53:54.400 | And so my 27.5K has 4.5K in fees.

00:53:58.040 | So the actual amount that the company receives is 23,000.

00:54:01.160 | And then, you know, if I can, you know, convince Sam, Hey, do you want to kick a couple thousand

00:54:05.200 | bucks into this investment?

00:54:06.200 | You know, I might do that.

00:54:07.720 | And so, but you know, that's not ideally that does happen, but you know, so it is either

00:54:13.400 | my money and then maybe someone else's.

00:54:15.640 | But what's really nice about that is that there's no, you know, updates that I need

00:54:19.600 | to send them.

00:54:20.600 | So I have all of the fun parts about investing and none of the hassle of running a fund or

00:54:25.600 | managing a backend or anything like that.

00:54:28.360 | Right, right.

00:54:29.400 | So as an industrious guy, who's very entrepreneurial, what would you do if you were running Financial

00:54:34.920 | Samurai?

00:54:35.920 | Hmm.

00:54:36.920 | Well, you know, I've, I've always joked with you that if I ever have a little free time,

00:54:41.160 | maybe I'll come and convince you to bring me on as a business partner.

00:54:44.680 | But I would say, I mean, I think like you seem like the type of person that really enjoys

00:54:50.380 | the grind.

00:54:51.380 | Like you always talk about how you get up early to write blog posts before this and

00:54:54.200 | your kids and that.

00:54:55.560 | Like I think kind of like lean into the parts that you enjoy.

00:54:59.920 | You know, if it's writing, keep writing.

00:55:01.840 | I don't think you need to necessarily hire people to grow.

00:55:06.000 | I don't think you need to hire people to cover topics if you're not that passionate or don't

00:55:10.120 | care about it.

00:55:11.120 | So I would really, I like my impression is that you enjoy the writing aspect.

00:55:15.760 | So if that's the part that you like, I would lean into that.

00:55:19.300 | And I think that also, because that also kind of makes your site stand out with a million

00:55:22.860 | page views a month there.

00:55:24.120 | I can't think of another site where the owner of a million page view a month site actually

00:55:29.960 | still writes most of the blog posts, if not all of the blog posts.

00:55:34.040 | So I think that's kind of what I would lean into is what you enjoy.

00:55:38.900 | Maybe the one area where I think you could do a lot more is leveraging across different

00:55:44.480 | platforms, right?

00:55:45.480 | So if you're doing one really big blog post a week, I mean, I think you sort of already

00:55:48.320 | do this.

00:55:49.320 | You might do a podcast on it.

00:55:50.920 | I would also do video.

00:55:52.520 | I would hire a short form editor.

00:55:54.840 | I've got a great guy.

00:55:55.840 | I just tested 10 different video editors.

00:55:56.840 | I could just send you to him.

00:55:58.400 | He's only 40 to 90 bucks a clip.

00:56:00.360 | And then he'll post, he'll watch your one hour interview and pull the however many you

00:56:05.680 | want, three to eight 60 second clips.

00:56:07.880 | You post those to TikTok, Instagram, Reels, and YouTube shorts where there's really great,

00:56:13.040 | we only have one or 2000 followers on Instagram, Reels, and TikTok shorts.

00:56:17.600 | But some of these videos will easily, most of our videos reach 2000 people and sometimes

00:56:22.520 | more.

00:56:23.520 | I mean, they're quick views on Instagram, right?

00:56:24.520 | People just scrolling through, but that's sort of, to me, I think leveraging, not doing

00:56:28.080 | more content, but maybe even less content, but leveraging it across different mediums

00:56:33.960 | might be the one area.

00:56:35.280 | Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't call it marketing.

00:56:37.680 | I would say you've built up a big presence so you don't have to market like other people

00:56:45.240 | might.

00:56:46.240 | They're just getting started.

00:56:47.240 | You've built up a big presence and credibility and following.

00:56:49.680 | So I think you can leverage it across other, like, you know, the people that are watching

00:56:53.960 | videos on TikTok about personal finance probably aren't reading, you know, a 1500 word article

00:56:59.060 | on your website.

00:57:00.060 | But the concepts and the principles can apply.

00:57:04.280 | They just need to be translated.

00:57:05.840 | Right, right.

00:57:06.960 | Yeah, my philosophy has been, I like to write, so I'll just write.

00:57:10.160 | It's efficient, it's easy, it's cathartic, it helps me think about things.

00:57:15.000 | And then I like to get feedback from different people around the world.

00:57:18.920 | And if one day I can no longer write or I have no interest in writing anymore, I'll

00:57:24.080 | just hire freelancers who embody the philosophy that I have, embrace the philosophy, and will

00:57:30.880 | write in a way that I deem to be appropriate for my audience.

00:57:34.480 | So when I burn out, I can always hire someone.

00:57:37.360 | So I figure I might as well just keep on going until I burn out and then do that.

00:57:42.240 | And that's sort of where I like your model.

00:57:44.000 | I think you've got enough of a following that you can kind of just do what you like and

00:57:48.360 | do what you're good at.

00:57:49.680 | And you could probably make, you know, 25 to 50% more if you hired writers and started

00:57:54.800 | adding more SEO or reviews of this service or that.

00:57:58.680 | But I feel like you can also just write three blog posts a week and have such a big following

00:58:04.240 | and do really well that people find you.

00:58:06.440 | Maybe you've got one or two or three big affiliates or revenue sources.

00:58:11.560 | And maybe you could double that, but how much work would it be to onboard?

00:58:14.520 | What if the company goes bankrupt?

00:58:15.520 | Just like always, maybe not one, but always have two to three good partners or affiliates

00:58:20.640 | or whatever it might be.

00:58:21.640 | And I feel like you could probably do pretty good damage that way and kind of like in a

00:58:25.480 | high ROI fashion.

00:58:26.480 | Yeah.

00:58:27.480 | I've just gotten to the point at my age and the more you make or the more you have, the

00:58:34.680 | less interesting it is, at least for me, to make more money.

00:58:37.880 | And for the podcast, I don't have any sponsors or whatever.

00:58:41.040 | I'm just doing it for fun and I want my kids to hear what their dad has said during the

00:58:44.880 | pandemic and stuff.

00:58:47.200 | So I'm always curious as to how much is enough.

00:58:50.360 | And maybe it doesn't really matter so long as you're doing what you enjoy doing.

00:58:54.240 | Everything kind of feels like gravy.

00:58:55.800 | Yeah.

00:58:56.800 | It's funny that you mentioned you do the podcast for fun because I don't do anything for fun.

00:59:00.720 | I always think that there's like, this is fun, but I'm thinking there's always some

00:59:07.520 | other ... I think of it as like ...

00:59:10.400 | I think there's like three things that I care about, right?

00:59:13.920 | Like business return or business opportunity, helping people and then working on something

00:59:19.320 | interesting, challenging or fun.

00:59:21.920 | Those are kind of like the three categories that I look to in any project.

00:59:25.040 | And I would never do anything just for one of those three.

00:59:28.160 | Like if someone that I absolutely hated wanted to talk about something, the most boring topic

00:59:33.240 | ever, I mean, for a thousand bucks, I probably wouldn't do that for an hour.

00:59:37.280 | I mean, obviously, I'll get a million dollars for an hour.

00:59:39.640 | Like, sure, I'll do that.

00:59:40.640 | There's probably some point that I would do it.

00:59:42.480 | But in general, within reason, I wouldn't do that.

00:59:45.160 | I always look for things like ... I mentioned my angel investing.

00:59:48.320 | So I started a podcast called Wannabe Angels and we've recorded actually close to 20 or

00:59:52.760 | 30 episodes right now.

00:59:53.760 | It's a weekly podcast with my co-host, Colin, and we interview up and coming angel investors

00:59:58.280 | or experienced or just investors in general.

01:00:00.920 | And the reason why I started that podcast were one, I'm obviously really interested

01:00:05.560 | in angel investing.

01:00:06.600 | I find it fun, exciting, challenging.

01:00:08.360 | It's kind of addicting.

01:00:09.360 | I love working with early stage startups because they're so creative and so optimistic and

01:00:14.000 | so hardworking.

01:00:15.520 | And you don't really have to do all that, but you get like a taste of that as an investor.

01:00:20.400 | So yeah, it's really addicting in that sense.

01:00:23.280 | Like intellectually, I find it really stimulating.

01:00:26.220 | And then number two, I think there is a good business opportunity.

01:00:29.280 | I mean, I told Colin, like, let's do this every week for a year and let's see if we

01:00:33.440 | ... I won't expect to make any money, but if we, after a year, maybe there's more people

01:00:37.920 | that want to join my syndicate, maybe we can get a sponsor or two.

01:00:40.600 | I mean, this is big money.

01:00:42.160 | Like anytime there's large transactions happening and you can interject yourself as a middleman

01:00:46.800 | into those large transactions, you have the opportunity to make a lot of money.

01:00:50.360 | Real estate agent being the perfect example, get two to 2.5% on a $5 million property for

01:00:56.000 | someone who finds it on Redfin.

01:00:57.000 | Okay, great deal.

01:00:58.000 | Right?

01:00:59.000 | And then the third thing is I think helping people.

01:01:02.320 | I'm not helping ... this isn't like I'm getting people that are sleeping on the streets into

01:01:06.840 | houses.

01:01:07.840 | I'm not like, "Hey, you're an angel.

01:01:08.840 | You've got to be making good money already.

01:01:09.840 | These are workers who are already doing pretty well."

01:01:12.240 | And so it's not like I'm revolutionizing their lives.

01:01:14.960 | I'm not that jaded, but I do think that there are a lot of people out there that want to

01:01:19.000 | learn about this, that are struggling or whatever, or interested.

01:01:22.360 | And so I think it's always cool to help people learn a new skill, learn a new topic.

01:01:27.200 | And it might be more impactful if you're teaching someone coding that's going to get them off

01:01:31.200 | the streets, but that's not really my area of expertise, or at least with this specific

01:01:36.520 | opportunity.

01:01:37.520 | But I think that that kind of helping people.

01:01:39.680 | So I think my new podcast, for example, hits all three maybe, I don't know about evenly,

01:01:46.240 | but maybe a little bit more in the first two categories than the third.

01:01:50.080 | But I built up Ride Share Guy for the past nine years.

01:01:52.960 | I think that's more so in the third category, helping Uber and Lyft drivers and gig workers

01:01:58.080 | who are making 15 to 25 bucks an hour.

01:02:00.000 | I think that's a cool subset of people to help and provide support and work with.

01:02:06.560 | Okay, that's good.

01:02:08.640 | Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate.

01:02:10.640 | You still have, it sounds like max enthusiasm, max energy to keep on grinding and to keep

01:02:16.320 | on doing what you love to do, which is great.

01:02:18.000 | And I think that's awesome.

01:02:20.320 | And cherish that feeling because I don't know if it'll last forever.

01:02:23.520 | Like, I felt like I had that in my 30s.

01:02:26.360 | And then at 40, I was like, "Eh."

01:02:29.120 | You know what, that might be the one piece of good advice you've given me recently is

01:02:34.520 | maybe to think about, right, that the feeling I have right now, it may not last.

01:02:41.800 | And sometimes maybe you can kind of pretend or tell yourself that, "Oh, you still enjoy

01:02:47.080 | this or that."

01:02:48.080 | But I do think it sometimes takes someone like you or a friend or someone who knows

01:02:51.920 | you really well to sort of reflect and say, "Hey, is this something you really enjoy?"

01:02:56.600 | And that's why, to me, I always think about what are my most important goals.

01:03:01.240 | My most important goals is not like someone sends me an email and I reply back to them

01:03:05.560 | within five minutes.

01:03:06.560 | Like, I don't care about that.

01:03:07.560 | Like, it's more about driving value, revenue to the business.

01:03:10.160 | And so it's like that's how I think about really any project or anyone that I'm working

01:03:14.280 | with or anyone that I'm helping.

01:03:15.960 | Like, what's the most important goal?

01:03:18.160 | Everything else in the middle is just noise.

01:03:19.560 | Like, how do we help you achieve your kind of ultimate goal?

01:03:23.400 | And so I think definitely, you know, that's kind of what's fun about an entrepreneur.

01:03:27.960 | It's good and bad, right?

01:03:28.960 | Like, I don't get paid to hop on phone calls or, you know, to like let people pick my brain

01:03:34.840 | or to go to conferences, right?

01:03:36.520 | I don't get paid directly, I guess you would say.

01:03:38.760 | So for me, I kind of have to figure out what's a good use of my time based off what I care

01:03:43.680 | about business-wise, personally.

01:03:45.680 | I mean, I spend a lot of time with my kids, you know, family.

01:03:50.280 | I mean, even me time, I like to golf, you know, work out, get a massage once a week,

01:03:54.200 | right?

01:03:55.200 | Like, I like all these different, you know, sort of things.

01:03:56.200 | So it's like, how do I prioritize and balance all these things within the context of, you

01:04:01.520 | know, like, what do I actually care about?

01:04:04.080 | Because even, you know, with business, right, like I still want to work on things that I

01:04:07.160 | actually, I mean, I like working, right?

01:04:08.720 | Like when I go on a week vacation and I don't work for a week and I come back on Monday,

01:04:13.080 | I usually feel pretty juiced and pretty amped, ready to get back to it.

01:04:16.480 | But I also completely disconnect for a week and, you know, I think you might have gotten

01:04:20.960 | my way message before.

01:04:21.960 | I tell people to, if it's urgent, to text or call me.

01:04:24.520 | You know, if you don't have my phone number, it's probably for a reason, so.

01:04:28.160 | All right, Harry.

01:04:29.720 | Well, it's been great speaking with you for the past hour.

01:04:33.280 | Where can listeners check you out if you want to repeat the information?

01:04:36.840 | All right.

01:04:37.840 | Well, if they are interested in the rideshare industry, maybe they want to book one of those

01:04:41.280 | consultant calls with me.

01:04:42.280 | Let's see if we can get something out of this podcast.

01:04:44.280 | They can find me at therideshareguy.com or really any box on the internet.

01:04:48.000 | If you type anything related to Uber or Lyft drivers, I've got a new podcast that I just

01:04:52.760 | launched called Wannabe Angels.

01:04:54.160 | It's pretty cool.

01:04:55.160 | We interview, like I mentioned, angel investors or really any kind of up and coming investors,

01:04:58.920 | especially in the venture world.

01:05:00.240 | And then I also have my Rideshare Guy podcast, which covers a lot of industry topics.

01:05:05.040 | So no shortage of content.

01:05:06.600 | I'm active on Twitter, too.

01:05:07.800 | So those are the best ways to find me.

01:05:09.160 | But the business and the team is all over the internet.

01:05:12.160 | So not too hard to find.

01:05:13.960 | All right, buddy.

01:05:15.760 | Well, next time you come up, give me more than a 24-hour heads up and we'll try to

01:05:20.440 | figure out some good food and drinks.

01:05:23.240 | make any guarantees. All right, take care. Thanks for listening.

financial-samurai-po_harry-and-sam_full-length-may-24-2023-002_composer-tlzm4e9ff_clip_2023-may-23-2033pm-utc-riverside