I Lost $65 Million In One Day… And It Changed Everything- Dan Fleyshman

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "I Lost $65 Million In One Day… And It Changed Everything"

Podcast: Earn Your Leisure
Hosts: Rashad Bilal & Troy Millings
Guest: Dan Fleyshman
Release Date: January 23, 2026
Duration (excluding ads): ~1 hr 24 min

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Episode Overview

This episode features serial entrepreneur, investor, author, and philanthropist Dan Fleyshman, famed as the youngest founder to take a company public. The conversation dives deep into his entrepreneurial journey—from launching the “Who’s Your Daddy” clothing and energy drink brands, building a global online poker business, and weathering a catastrophic $65 million loss, to his present-day focus on investing, social media strategy, philanthropy, and hosting major events. The episode is loaded with practical lessons on risk, resilience, creative marketing, capital raising, and extracting lasting value for entrepreneurs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Dan’s Early Entrepreneurial Roots and Going Public

• Hustling From Day One

  • Dan began working three jobs in high school to save $43,000 for college, only to invest it in launching the “Who’s Your Daddy” brand at the Magic clothing convention at age 17, among industry giants like FUBU and Sean John.
  • Quote (Dan): “I spent my $43,000 thinking I’m gonna be a rock star. […] I did over a million dollars in orders. 17 years old.” [03:06]

• Trademarking and Licensing

  • Aggressively trademarked “Who’s Your Daddy” across 16 classes and 300+ products globally by 18.
  • Landed a $9.5M licensing deal with Starter Apparel at 19, setting the financial foundation for early ups and downs.

• Taking the Company Public

  • Went public at 23, a record for youngest founder.
  • Hard Realities: The IPO process took 2 years and $2 million in legal/accounting fees [07:54].
  • Used stock for creative sponsorships (e.g., NASCAR) and trade deals, emphasizing the “power of leverage and credibility” that comes with being a public company.

• Downsides of Being Public

  • Crushing paperwork, legal risk, and regulatory burden were a constant stress:
    • “I still have PTSD… If you’re wrong, you go to jail.” [07:54–09:59]
  • Going public was never originally the goal; a mentor’s sudden death and serendipity opened that path.

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Reinventing After Major Losses

• Transition to Online Poker

  • After stepping away from “Who’s Your Daddy,” Dan pivoted to online poker, recruiting personalities like Dan Bilzerian and Steve Aoki and moving operations to Malta.

• The $65 Million Overnight Loss

  • On April 15, 2011, U.S. authorities shut down online poker, freezing his business.
  • Quote (Dan): “April 15, I lose $65 million. That moment changed the rest of my life. That loss was the best thing that ever happened for my career.” [18:08, 21:00]
  • Personally ensured players were paid back—manually processed 41,000 participant refunds.

• Lesson: Don’t Put All Eggs in One Basket

  • The catastrophic loss taught Dan to diversify revenue streams.
  • Launched live events, a social media agency, a charity, and began angel investing:
    • “Everything I started then… all stemmed from losing it all.” [21:03]

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Creative Marketing and Competing Against Giants

• Thinking Creatively About Partnerships

  • NASCAR Example: Used stock as payment and negotiated distribution deals with Circle K to support racing sponsorships (tied drink orders to sponsorship).
  • State Fair Example: Out-maneuvered Coca-Cola by driving store traffic (retailers bought in via promo ticket bundles), proving that “creative marketing beats big budgets.” [22:11]

• Strategic Takeaway:

  • “How do you fight with 800-pound gorillas? You can’t outspend them… you have to get creative.” [22:11]

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Capital, Scaling, and Financial Discipline

• Don’t Overleverage—Raise When You Can

  • Cash flow is the #1 reason companies fail, especially product businesses with large purchase orders and slow receivables. [35:06]
  • “When you can raise capital… please, by all means, get it. You don’t have to use it, but get it.” [35:06]
  • Friends, Family & Fools are critical at the very beginning.

• Financial Strategy: 40/40/20 Rule

  • Dan divides investments:
    • 40% low risk (steady, boring returns)
    • 40% medium risk (real estate, stocks, cash-flowing businesses)
    • 20% high risk (crypto, early-stage angel deals)
  • “If it wasn’t for 40/40/20, I’d be so all in on the high risk because I don’t care about being broke.” [58:21]

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Social Media Mastery and Influence

• Built Agency From the Ground Up

  • “I was driving Fashion Nova dresses to Kylie’s house and Kim’s house… I would sit at Blac Chyna’s house and make sure the post. I would take the picture if I had to.” [45:00–47:46]
  • Invested early in influencer marketing—before the word “influencer” existed.
  • Created viral growth hacks like “tag a friend” contests.

• Evolving to Personal Branding & Scaling

  • Hired an experienced CEO, allowing Dan to grow the agency from $18 million to $60 million in a year, focus on his brand, and throw major events. [55:17–57:47]

• Tactics for Monetization & Community Building

  • “Most people’s content is for themselves, not their audience… you gotta teach us, make us laugh, show us something interesting.” [65:31]
  • Build omnipresence: “You have to be on all six major platforms.”
  • Use one-pagers when pitching brands; actively reach out—don’t wait for deals to show up.
  • “Waiting and hoping is not a strategy.” [60:57]
  • Make purchasing simple; “Above the fold” call to action on every site.

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Angel Investing & Events

• Investing Philosophy

  • No longer invests in raw startups—focuses deals on businesses doing $2–$20 million in revenue:
    • “Failure rate is much less when someone’s doing $9 million than less than a million.” [52:29]

• Events as a Magnet

  • Runs 42 events yearly across price tiers:
    • “Elevator Night” (Free); Aspire Tours ($100–$500); Affordable Bootcamps/Masterminds ($2K–$20K); “Holy Shit” category—$100K, 100-member mastermind. [77:16]
  • Live events = future “true commodity” as people crave in-person connections in a digital era.

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Candid Views on Gambling and the Industry

• House Always Wins
  • Explains the math behind casino odds: “Over the course of time, you literally cannot win at sports betting. You have no chance… it’s just math.” [27:49–31:36]
  • Expresses concern for “18-year-old kids” getting sucked into sports betting—the system is mathematically rigged against individuals.
  • Impact of regulatory change: What was once felony-level illegal is now mainstream and billion-dollar.

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Philanthropy & Community Impact

• Largest Toy Drive in the World
  • Dan self-funds a massive annual campaign distributing over 210,000 toys in 10 cities—donating both directly and supplying other community initiatives. [81:16]
  • Motivated by the emotional impact on both children and parents.
  • Quote (Dan): “My true obsession is charity.” [81:18]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |-----------|-------|---------| | 03:06 | “I spent my $43,000 thinking I’m gonna be a rock star. […] I did over a million dollars in orders. 17 years old.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 07:54 | “I still have PTSD… If you’re wrong, you go to jail.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 18:08 | “Dan Bilzerian… I installed social media on his phone and he made it his own.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 21:00 | “April 15, I lose $65 million. That moment changed the rest of my life…that loss was the best thing that ever happened for my career.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 22:11 | “How do you fight with 800-pound gorillas? You can’t outspend them… you have to get creative.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 35:06 | “Far and away, hands down, the number one reason that companies fail is they run out of money.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 60:57 | “Waiting and hoping is not a strategy. It does not work.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 65:31 | “Most people’s content is for themselves, not their audience.” | Dan Fleyshman | | 81:18 | “My true obsession is charity… I self-fund the world’s largest toy drive.” | Dan Fleyshman |

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Timestamps for Key Topics

• 00:47 – 05:55 | Early hustling; “Who’s Your Daddy” brand and first tradeshow
• 05:55 – 09:42 | Taking the company public: hurdles and PTSD from paperwork
• 13:25 – 15:29 | Navigating business as a young CEO
• 17:23 – 18:08 | Building a poker site; the Bilzerian social media pivot
• 18:08 – 21:37 | DOJ/FBI poker crackdown; overnight loss of $65 million
• 22:11 – 24:38 | Creative marketing tactics vs. larger competitors
• 25:07 – 27:21 | Diversification and eggs-in-one-basket lesson
• 27:49 – 34:36 | The gambling industry, odds, and societal risks
• 35:06 – 38:58 | Raising capital; solving the cash flow crunch
• 45:00 – 48:46 | Social media agency beginnings; early influencer playbook
• 55:17 – 57:47 | Hiring a CEO; skyrocketing growth through partnership
• 58:21 – 60:17 | Financial discipline; the 40/40/20 investing rule
• 60:57 – 65:01 | Practical advice for influencers & brand deals—being proactive
• 65:31 – 68:31 | Content & captions—focusing on the audience
• 77:02 – 79:29 | Events: scaling, strategy, and the future of in-person gatherings
• 81:16 – 83:09 | Philanthropy: world’s largest toy drive

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Flow and Tone

The dialogue is fast-paced, rich in personal anecdote, and alternates between candid lessons, inside industry stories, and direct tactical advice. Dan is self-deprecating, practical, and unafraid to own both scars and triumphs. The hosts match his energy, frequently summarizing for clarity and exploring the mindset shifts required of entrepreneurs at scale.

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Summary Takeaways

• Resilience through Loss: Catastrophic setbacks are springboards if you process the lessons deeply—Dan’s post-poker pivot shaped everything after.
• Creative Leverage: Out-think, not out-spend. Build partnerships and craft original brand alignments.
• Diversify, But Do It Smart: Don’t self-sabotage—build your foundation before spreading yourself too thin; always bring on strong operators.
• Go Beyond Your Ego on Social: Serve, educate, entertain—don’t just self-promote.
• Capital is King: Secure sources of liquidity while you’re succeeding, not when you’re already desperate.
• Be Relentless in Outreach: No one will chase you—reach out, continually, and creatively.
• Community and Charity Matter: Impact multiplies. Giving back and convening real communities is a force-multiplier for your business and your legacy.

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For listeners, this episode is a masterclass in entrepreneurial adaptability and tenacity, packed with actionable gems for brand builders, investors, creators, and anyone playing in an unpredictable world.

Transcript

[Dan Fleischman]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Podcast Sponsor/Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring. And sure, they definitely can be. But understanding a professional's routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little, day after day. It's like banking with PNC Bank. It might seem boring to save, plan, and make calculated decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps you live a more happily fulfilled life. PNC bank, brilliantly boring since 1865 brilliantly boring since 1865 is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. PNC Bank National association member, FDIC when.

[Co-host 1]

I did the podcast with you all.

[Dan Fleischman]

I was telling you probably the most.

[Co-host 1]

Impactful interview I've done in my career.

[Dan Fleischman]

Heroes now, like real heroes.

[Co-host 2]

Heard Rashad Detroit talk about the tax.

[Co-host 1]

L. We talk about finance, but we talk in a language that is common to the people. That's from the communities that we grew up in.

[Co-host 2]

You all are the bright spot. Thank you.

[Dan Fleischman]

Real estate.

[Co-host 2]

Thank you. And entrepreneurship for black Americans.

[Co-host 1]

This is the knowledge that actually matters. I applaud both of you for this.

[Dan Fleischman]

Thank you.

[Co-host 1]

Literacy isn't a country issue. It's not an American issue. It's a world issue.

[Co-host 2]

He came to earn our leisure. All right, guys, welcome back.

[Podcast Sponsor/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

Special episode got our guy Dan Fleischman in the building.

[Co-host 1]

Long overdue joining us.

[Dan Fleischman]

So happy to be here.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah.

[Dan Fleischman]

It's a pleasure.

[Co-host 2]

If you're not familiar, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, philanthropist. You were the youngest founder to take up a company public on the stock market.

[Co-host 1]

Y.

[Co-host 2]

That's correct.

[Dan Fleischman]

20 years ago.

[Co-host 2]

Okay. At 23 years old.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yep.

[Co-host 2]

Okay. Made history and invested in over 40 companies and really big. I guess people in. In online world might know you for what you've been doing on the branding and social media and kind of really, you know, trailblazing that. That space as far as online marketing and funnels and different things of that nature. So we got a lot to talk about here as far as the world of entrepreneurship, your journey, what's happening now with social media, online marketing. But first and foremost, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

[Dan Fleischman]

It's a pleasure.

[Co-host 1]

Did we. Did we leave anything out? I feel like the love for animals, the events, father a lot of moving parts, a lot of things going on, man. Happy to have you here.

[Dan Fleischman]

Thank you. Thank you. It's fun. Life is short, so I'm trying to do as much as I can while I'm still here.

[Co-host 2]

Why not? So, okay, so where does this journey Start. Like I said, you. You took a company public 20 years ago. You said 23 years old and was the youngest. Is that still a record?

[Dan Fleischman]

Yep.

[Co-host 2]

The youngest ever to take a company public.

[Dan Fleischman]

Michael Dell was 24, so he beat me by 8 billion, but I got him by like 8 months.

[Co-host 2]

So talk about that. Talk about where you started and specifically that journey of taking the company public so young.

[Dan Fleischman]

So high school. I was working three jobs to save up money because we didn't have any money.

[Co-host 2]

Where are you from?

[Dan Fleischman]

I was born in Riga, Latvia. Move. When I was six months old, and I grew up in Long beach, and my brother was going to Poly High. I was just saving money to go to college, and instead I ended up using that 43,000 I saved during those three years. So it was like 12 grand, 15 grand a year. Save that money. And I put in to go to Magic clothing convention Vegas, and I thought it was gonna be big time. I got 20ft instead of 10ft, and on my left is this brand called Fubu, and on my right is a brand called Sean John. That was their debut 1999. So the million dollar booth. Million dollar booth. I spent my 43,000 thinking I'm gonna be a rock star. But I got lucky because. Hello, Cool J and Damon. Everyone's walking by. There's a line waiting to go into his booth. Sean John's got a line waiting to go in their booth. The line was in front of my booth. And so I did over a million dollars in orders. 17 years old.

[Co-host 2]

And close.

[Dan Fleischman]

And close. And I just owned the catchphrase. Who's your daddy? Like the slogan, who's your daddy?

[Co-host 2]

Oh, that was you. You came up with that?

[Co-host 1]

This is after Pedro or before Pedro?

[Dan Fleischman]

No, I sued them.

[Co-host 2]

So you started with your daddy?

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah. So there was the. The catchphrase was out there. I just marked it. Okay, so 1999, 16 classes of trademarks, 300 products all over the world. And for, you know, at what age this is when I be was 17 and a half. Wow. And then I became 18. I became big boy. And that's when I really got. Luckily, magic was when I was 18. And so that's where the journey started. At 19. We did a deal with Starter Apparel for 9.5 million. A licensing deal. They gave us that deal for three years. So that helped fund the ups and downs of an entrepreneur. We keep making some money, losing it, getting screwed over on our samples. We open up an office here, Empire State Building with. We had the FUBU ladies brand in there. We had Kevin Garnett's brand in their official block family. We had Rough Riders in there. So we were doing the Rough Riders clothing brand. This is the year 2000. And it was just like all six brands were all in one office here in New York. And then I wanted to do an energy drink because there was 900 drinks, but they all tasted like cough syrup. That thick taste because of one ingredient called taurine makes that thick taste. So we turned down the taurine, turned up sucralose and some other ingredients to make it taste good. We won flavor of the year out of 900 drinks on the COVID of Devnet magazine. And I just carried that magazine everywhere I went.

[Co-host 1]

Is that the who's your daddy energy?

[Dan Fleischman]

And so that's the company I took public. So we had the clothing as licensing, and energy drink was the main core product. Went public on April 1, 2005. And for four years, I didn't sleep. I just sold 43 distributors, 55,000 retail stores. And I just took that magazine and said, we're the best tasting drink. And I carry the drink everywhere. And that's where it all started from.

[Co-host 1]

Okay, that 18 years old multimillionaire, where are you getting that? I mean, when you even talking about trademarking and suing, like at that age, I mean, that's not even in my lexicon at that point. Like, how are you managing that? And how did you even become familiar with that type of jargon at such a young age?

[Dan Fleischman]

I wasn't familiar with it at all. I just, you know, there was no cell phones. I didn't pager. You know, I started. I think a cell phone started coming out around that time, but there's definitely no smartphones yet. And so I was just surrounding myself with people that were like, some were taking advantage of me and some were really helpful. So like one guy made us sweaters. He made $36,000 of sweaters for 12 of them. So he stole most of our money. The guy we met because of him ended up doing the $9.5 million deal. So the bad guy got me to the good guy. Does that make sense? And so the mentors around me, some screwed me over, some helped me a lot. And the journey happened because of certain guys. There was one named Christopher Wicks. He owned Fender guitars, English Laundry, Hang 10, Ocean Pacific and Body Glove and LA Gear. He owned the licenses to all these brands back then. And he was the one that helped us with the manufacturing and dealing with all the retailers. And then we met a guy named Elliot Levine who was Running FUBU Ladies and buying. He was the CEO of Jordache, and he was running all these big brands back then. And he was also the CEO of Donna Karen for, like a few years. That guy helped us a lot to get into a lot of these retailers. He ended up getting into a lot of trouble with Steve Madden, that whole Wolf of Wall street situation. So there's a lot of interesting dynamics that happened during that time, which would take hours to get into. But those guys, the good guys and the bad guys are what helped me learn the jargon, learn and understand what.

[Co-host 2]

Was going on as far as. So, okay, you take the company public, right? What was the journey after it went public? Like, how did that actually impact the business, you as a CEO? What was the journey of being a CEO of a publicly traded company?

[Dan Fleischman]

So it takes about two years and $2 million to go public. The accounting and legal fees back then. Now there's things that are faster and slower based on regulations. But this is 2003 to 2005. It took us two years, 2 million. The day we went public, we got in 3.75 million. So it helped us a lot with cash flow. And we had now access to do deals. Because you have a public company, our market cap was small at the beginning, like 30, 40 million. Got to like 65 million, 70 million. And we were able to do trades and deals with our stock. And so I do sponsorship deals with nascar. I could never afford it with cash. I would give them stock. I would do a deal with the Utah State Fair. Well, Coca Cola was called the Coca Cola State Fair. I went there with stock. So I did a lot of deals with my stock, which helped us a lot to do trades and deals. But the worst part was I was hours and hours and hours and hours and hours a week dealing with the 10Qs and the 8K filings. And those were torturous. Like, I still have PTSD, like, how many hours you have to go through it. If you're wrong, you go to jail. And I don't really know it. I'm depending on my CFO to know what's right. I'm depending on accountants to tell me what's right. But I'm the CEO of the company, of a public company. I'm the one that would get in trouble ultimately. And so the hard parts of being publicly traded is the paperwork part, because it is a nightmare, especially back then. The good parts is you can use it for assets, you can use it for strength, you can use it for leverage and credibility. And Being one the only publicly traded company at the time for beverages, it helped us a lot. I don't regret going public, but it's also, I still have fear of going public now just because of the memories of how many hours go into the legal and accounting process. But I will say the power of being public is, it's monumental. You can do so many deals with your stock.

[Co-host 1]

I wanted to like twofold question at the time. This is your 18, 19, obviously 23, the youngest is still to do it. Was going public a goal? And the second part of it was obviously you said ptsd. So what are the ugly parts that people don't talk about.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah.

[Co-host 1]

That are giving you that angst.

[Dan Fleischman]

So it wasn't the goal. We were actually going to go public. When I was 21 there was a gentleman named James Morris. He was like the legend of penny stocks back then and legend of that, that world living on yachts with 19 year old girls in his 70s like he was this icon that knew all the guys in the public markets. He was going to take us public. And on the day that it happened, I never told the story before. We're in Malibu at the old Red Bull office and he was in that office in this meeting with us and we're literally about to sign. We've been working on this paperwork for seven months with these guys are taking us public. He's got the paperwork out and as we're about to sign I still have it in my head that's part of the ptsd. He falls over and has a heart attack. We are laughing because it feels like an actual joke, like he full fledged has a heart attack. We've been seven months in preparation. He's a funny guy. So we are actually laughing as he's on the floor having a heart attack, thinking that it's a joke. We realize it's not a joke. We get him over to Cedars Sinai Hospital and he passed away that night. Those guys obviously don't want to move forward. Like they're, they're out. And so I didn't think I was going to go public. I wasn't. I didn't know what going public really meant. And then other investment bankers that were friends with him because he was my mentor in this whole scenario, they came to us and made us an offer to go public. And so going public was never the goal. The only PTSD real true part of being public is the paperwork. It is torturous because you do your accounting to give to an auditor. The auditor gets audited by an Auditor, The SEC audits the auditor. The auditor audits your auditor, who audits your auditor. I'm not exaggerating. And every single one of them, if there's one change, you're talking about a month or two of just waiting around, especially remember this is back then, 20 years ago. It's not like the Internet was the same. It wasn't like you just group chat. There was no group chat. There was no smartphones. And so things were much different there. And slow and frustrating. And so there was no software programs and platforms that you can use now to do things quickly. And so I never planned to go public. I've now I sit on some public boards, but I don't, I don't plan to go public again just because I still think about all those moments.

[Co-host 2]

Okay, so, and then the company, did the company stay on the stock exchange? Did it get delisted at some point? Like how did the story end with the company?

[Dan Fleischman]

So on the 10 year anniversary, 5 22, 2009 is when I resigned. I started 5 22, 1999. I only know because that's what we put on our hats and our shirts. The date on the 10 year anniversary I resigned. I want to put another feather in my cap. And I'd done the same thing. I was the Hoosier daddy guy for a decade. And when I left, it went from 55,000 stores to 18,000 stores to 4,500 stores to gone. Because I was the driving force. I was the crazy guy flying around to every single Costco, Ralph's, Albertson, 7 11. I went to every headquarters. I knew Johnny and Jennifer by name, like I knew everyone. I was there in the streets to all 43 distributors, all of them. I was training the reps. We had Budweiser, Coors, Miller and Pepsi Distributing for us. I was there with them. And so once I left, there was still a sales team. It's just much different. Especially again back then.

[Co-host 2]

You sold your, your shares when you left.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

What was the price of the shares when you sold it?

[Dan Fleischman]

A dollar? A dollar? Six. A dollar six?

[Co-host 2]

Yeah.

[Co-host 1]

I'm thinking now like there's a couple things running through my mind. It's really interesting. So in this world, right, we see young people having success and they're kind of figuring out, but your success is different at a young age. Like I wonder, in the world that you were living in at that time, did age work to your benefit or was it a detriment? Right? Like because in the business, especially going public and taking a public company, you have to have a certain level of credibility. Your mentor has just passed. How did you navigate that as at a young age? Did it work against you?

[Dan Fleischman]

So in some rooms it was like a novelty, right? Like the retailers liked it, the people I'd work with liked it. Some investors loved it, others would never touch me, right. Because I'm wouldn't come to me because they didn't Trust in a 23 year old, 25 year old, 26 year old running a public company. And so I would always reference the fact that I had 40, 50, 60, 70 year olds helping run the company. I hired CFOs, I hired a president, I hired a national sales manager, I hired executives. So I would reference them to the people that I couldn't get past, the fact that I was young. And so I would use it for the novelty that it was with some things and the ones that gave me pushback or when talked to me, it didn't matter because there's so many other deals to do, there's so many other retailers to go to, there's so many other investors to go to. I just brushed it off. I literally don't remember someone saying no. Out of the 43 distributors, 55,000 stores, you could put me on a lie detector test 30 times a month. I don't remember someone saying no. Whether that's delusion or passion, I don't know. But I went to every distributor and said, we're the best tasting magazine. We're already in Costco. 7 11. How many would you like to order? I didn't say would you like to order? How much? Like how many do you want to order? You have to have us was what is in my mind. And so the youngest thing, the youngest guy thing, that was my, that was my shtick. That's what I used to go out there, confidence.

[Co-host 2]

So once you.

[Dan Fleischman]

Once you both.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah, once that ended, what'd you do next after that?

[Dan Fleischman]

So I liked poker a lot. I was playing a lot of poker and so I started an online poker site. I was looking for voids in the market. Whether when I created hoverboards or energy drinks or poker sites, I would find something that wasn't working. So in Poker There was 550 sites, but Bo Dog was the only cool brand and they just left to focus on sports. So I said, okay, I'm never going to be the biggest energy drink or the biggest poker site, but I can get a niche, I can carve out a niche. And so I went and signed. This is 2009, the cool guys in poker. And then I brought in other characters that were not necessarily considered poker players, but liked poker. Dan Bilzerian, Steve Aoki, bunch of Playboy Playmates. So I took Bazerian, Steve Aoki and Playboy Playmates, put them into a poker site, got professional poker players that were young, like young hotshots, and placed them all on television because I couldn't afford to go against full tilt poker and poker stars. They were doing 4 million a day and 8 million a day in revenue. I started the whole company with 2.4 million. I didn't raise money, I just put in 2.4. Started this company again out of delusion. It's a fight with two companies that do 4 million, 8 million a day. The way I was going to combat it was I have all the cool kids. I'm going to take this dj, an interesting character in Bilzerian, make them more famous, and add in the hot models and Playboy Playmates and make this a global brand. Within 10 weeks, we were live. I moved to a place called Malta. Never even heard of Malta. Put on a backpack and moved to Malta. Literally. Just booked a hotel room for a week, ended up staying for two and a half years and got my gaming license within 10 months. We're the fifth biggest site in the world. I'm doing six figures a week net in revenue with five employees making five grand a month each. Nothing else. And no office, no other stuff.

[Co-host 2]

And that's how online gambling.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes.

[Co-host 2]

Earlier. Online gambling.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes.

[Co-host 1]

This is, you know what, you're saying this now. And for years I'm trying to figure out, where did we know Dan from? Like, he just kind of appeared. He was the cool guy. He had a lot of women around, and we just could not figure it out.

[Dan Fleischman]

We were living at Panorama Towers in Vegas. He went and rented the biggest penthouse there. I lived in the townhouse by the pool, and every Friday night he would literally have 40 girls. That was a real thing.

[Co-host 2]

Damn. Brazil.

[Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

So you, you, you found. We didn't find him, but you, you kind of made him.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah, I didn't invent him, but I installed social media on his phone and he made it his own.

[Co-host 1]

It went crazy.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah, but that made him a social media thing.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes.

[Co-host 2]

He was already living that life off the grid.

[Dan Fleischman]

Correct.

[Co-host 2]

And you, you made it the social media thing.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes. And he made. And he made it humongous, obviously. We did the first thing called a tag. A friend. Yeah. Or tag three friends. We put 30 Xboxes on a table and said, whoever tags the most friends wins the 30 Xboxes. And that got like hundreds of thousands of comments. We then did a charity thing where he said, I'm gonna give 10 families $10,000 each secretly. He actually ended up giving dozens of families extra $10,000 each. Tag your friends. It was like 116,000 comments. We were going through all these applications, and so his page, he grew virally from those initial things. And then making that content was unreal. What I did was I was placing him on YouTube videos and Twitter. We didn't have Instagram back then. It was just getting started. And that content helped us go viral because we were getting YouTube videos with him and hot girls. But then also we had poker videos of them playing these big poker hands. I was playing on TV poker. They were playing on TV poker. We had a Playboy playmate go win a Fox television show. Like, there's all this different action. But it was like 10 seconds later, basically like, I think it was a year and a half, was April 15, 2011. I lost the $65 million in one morning. Online poker got shut down by the federal government in America on April 15. I was living in Malta, but I was at the Bellagio. I get a phone call from Bill Zarian at 10, 10 in the morning. I'll never forget, where are you? At the Bellagio. Where are you? And he's asking me, why aren't you in Malta? Poker got just shut down. Just got shut down by the FBI. If you go look at full tilt poker, poker stars, absolute poker, go look at their websites. The COVID of the website says property of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I go to my website. Luckily it was just my website. Nothing had happened. And I found out what they were doing was miscoding merchant transactions. So let's say you deposit a thousand dollars on poker stars. It would say PS3. You deposited three grand on poker stars. It would say mattresses biz on your credit card statement. Mine, I had one bank account at Wells Fargo, KPMG accounting, and one merchant account. So I never got in trouble. But April 19, four days later, I was supposed to get in $3.5 million deposit at a 65 million valuation for the company. I just rented out the Gaia resort in Costa Rica. I was flying in models and playmates and poker pros. And we're all flying to Costa Rica April 19th to do this huge photo shoot campaign. April 15th, I lose $65 million. That moment changed the rest of my life. I manually paid back 41,000 players. We had hundreds of thousand players withdraw 41,000. That didn't withdraw, so we had to manually pay them back. And that loss, that $65 million loss, was the best thing that ever happened for my career.

[Co-host 2]

Why?

[Co-host 1]

Yeah, there.

[Dan Fleischman]

Everything started from then. I'm never going to have all my eggs in one basket again. I started my live events, I started my charity, I started angel investing, I started my social media agency. Everything that I started then, I still have to this day, all stemmed from losing it all. I don't know if I would have become the poker guy or been whatever, still doing poker many, many years later, I have no idea. But that moment changed how I invest, how I think, because I ran one company for 10 years and I thought I was going to run this company for 10 years, but after a year and a half, I lose everything overnight.

[Co-host 1]

That's, that's a lot. But there's still lessons that are there, right? Because even with, with the dance situation in Nyoko, in the world of marketing, right? Is there's a line of making things look good and having things that convert. And I feel like you kind of mastered that and blended it, but it's carried on through your career. Talk about that process, right? Because people are attracted to the things that they see, right? But we got to figure out how we can get those people to become customers at a certain point. How did you become a master of that?

[Dan Fleischman]

Each category I'm fighting with 800 pound gorillas. I can't outspend these guys. It's no chance. You can't outspend in the clothing industry, energy drink business, poker business. How are you going to outspend these brands? I can't. And so each time I try to figure out creative marketing tricks. The NASCAR example, it was 3.2 million to do the NASCAR. I was using stock, but I also did a deal with Circle K. Circle K, if you look at my nascar, if you look at the pictures, you'll see my energy drink name on it and the side said Circle K. Why? They bought 3.2 million of drinks per year for three years as the base minimum. That means I was making around half. So 1.6 million. That's what I use as cash and stock to nascar. How am I going to go fight with Red Bull Monster rockstar who have 5, 10, 20 NASCARs that they just write a check for? I had to get creative. The Utah State Fair example, that that deal was $2 million per year for two years. I made Smith's grocery store buy $4 million of drinks. So I made around 2 million, which was my cost basis. The People of Utah could buy their drinks from Smith's grocery store. If you bought a four pack or a 24 pack, you got four tickets for five bucks each. The normal ticket is $18 each. So you were literally printing money, making free money. If you bought my drinks, you got free tickets for your kids. You're already gonna go anyways. Smith loved it because it was bringing all these people to buy the drinks and buy other stuff while they're there. As the loss leader. The fair was like, holy shit. We just went from normally having 80,000 guests to 104,000 guests. You brought us 24,000 extra guests. I'm ecstatic because I'm getting a free sponsorship all over the state. Like how can I fight with Coca Cola for 16 years? It's the Coca Cola State Fair. I had to get creative of making the fair want me because from the fair's perspective, Coca Cola just cuts a check. I said, I'll bring you more people. I'm gonna get the streets to come out, I'm gonna get people to show up, I'm gonna get them to buy the drinks, show up, bring the can. I'm gonna do cross marketing billboards all over town. And so I've done that my whole life. When I again hoverboards, energy drinks, clothing, it's all the same game of how do you fight with these guys that are 800 pound gorillas? Whether you're a brand new artist, how do you fight with the household names that are getting all the radio play? You have to do creative marketing. And so that's been my whole life.

[Co-host 2]

So you said if your philosophy on business changed and you'll never put all your eggs in one basket. So just talk about that. As far as like even advice for entrepreneurs, most people say like you should hyper focus on one particular thing, right? Even Warren Buffett said diversification for people that don't know what they're doing. So talk about your philosophy as far as like anti, like focusing on one particular thing.

[Dan Fleischman]

So in the beginning you have to focus on the one thing to, to build a base. Once you hit a certain point, whether that's 100,000, a million, 5 million, 10 million, it's all relative to your situation or your type of industry. There's only so much you can invest cash wise back into the business. Not just diminishing returns, but it's just you're not as good as the original you, meaning the 27 year old. When you're 32, it's a different person. You don't necessarily know how to go from 10 million to 100 million. And you shouldn't be putting all your cash in. That's why you should be raising capital, that's why you should be doing leverage. That's why you should be getting loans, credit, debt, facilities, etc. To go the next chapter, not you putting your own money in. I'm not saying you necessarily have to go start 1, 2, 3, 4 other companies. You have to either be the time wise, be able to do that, the teamwork to actually go do that and the distraction sometimes can actually hurt your core business. However, when I say I don't want all my eggs in one basket is I don't go run the other companies, I bring on a quarterback to run it. So if you guys said hey let's start a vodka brand today if we didn't have a CEO for it and you said and you guys were going to put up 15 million to do it, I still wouldn't say yes unless there's me someone to run it. And so when I talk about diversification, I don't mean necessarily I'm going to go do the other thing. I want to put my money, a little bit of time and capital into the thing, but I don't necessarily want to go run something else because it'll hurt your core business. The hyper focus has to happen the first year or two, but at some point you need other executives or partners or staff to help you run that thing because you're not gonna be able to scale it fully yourself. But my PTSD also comes from I had a company for 10 years and then as soon as I left it went away. I had a poker site that was doing great. It's on television, it's on Fox Sports, Travel Channel, every espn and now it's illegal all of a sudden, like I couldn't even, how could I account for that? And so in any industry we just have, we just saw it happen to solar. We know hundreds of thousand people working in solar. The big beautiful bill just changed the whole thing. And so I don't ever want to be all in on a solar company in case something were to happen. So the long, the long winded answer is once you have some extra capital or some extra time, you should have something else to bring in extra capital for you.

[Co-host 1]

I wonder when you look at the landscape of gambling now, it's wild, right? Like you obviously you early, you look at, I mean predictive markets, I mean fanduel flutters, it's all DraftKings. How do you, I mean when you first saw this happening over the past. I feel like during the pandemic, it really spiked in your mind. Are you like, I can't believe this.

[Dan Fleischman]

Or like, fathom it? For a couple reasons. One, I would have gone to federal prison if I did sports betting during my poker site days. The same reason that cannabis was so illegal back then. And now it's on every street corner and every billboard. Sports betting was so illegal that Calvin Air, the guy that owns Bodog, the brand I mentioned, wouldn't fly over America just in case he needed to stop. Because they would. The FBI would have arrested him. That's how bad sports betting has been in my mind, because that's what it was. Literally, people wouldn't fly over the guys that were bringing in that deal for me that put up the 3.5 million. Those guys had like 100 charges against them in America. If they ever come to America, they're all going to jail. Like, sports betting was demonized in America and it kind of should be because no one can win sports betting. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how good you are. There's a reason that the Wynn Casino has encore. There's the reason that the Venetian Casino has three three towers. Gambling, by definition is a 53% to 47% game. Doesn't sound like a lot. That little 3%, 4%, 5%, 6% difference when you're playing blackjack, sports betting, etc, on sports betting, they're taking a 5 to 10% for every transaction that you do. How can you fade that in a game that's supposed to be 50? 50? The house has 5% advantage. Again, 5% doesn't sound like a lot, but let's say that three of us were playing coin flipping. You get 56 quarters and you get 54 quarters and I get 44 quarters. Can I beat you on some flips? Of course I can. But if you and I flipped for the next 10 hours, it's literally impossible because you've got 56 quarters and I have 44. You've got 53 quarters, I have 44. I can't beat you over the course of time. And so people that are sports betting and these prediction markets are literally going to bankrupt so many people in our society, they're going to be in massive debt. They cannot win. In sports betting, it's not.

[Co-host 2]

Talk about what do you explain this? The difference between the 54 and.

[Dan Fleischman]

So when you go to the casinos in Las Vegas and you play blackjack or you play craps, or roulette. Most of these games don't have that big of an edge if you play perfect, by the way, if you don't know how to play blackjack, they obviously are going to terrorize you. But when you're playing these slot machines, blackjack, roulette, et cetera, they really only have 2, 3, 4% advantage. That's also why if you want to get your free hotel rooms or free comps, you have to play four hours. Because over four hours you can't beat them. You're flipping quarters with them for four hours. They've got 54 quarters, you've got 46 quarters. You play that game, they've got 55 quarters, you have 45 quarters. You can win any blackjack hand, you can win any roulette hand, you can win any sports bet. But over the course of four hours, over the course of a thousand bets, if you've got 550quarters and I've got 450quarters, how can I beat your coin flipping? That little 5% edge, 3% edge, 4% edge is why they have multiple towers at these casinos. It's why Caesar's palace has multiple towers. That's why mgm, like all these major properties have so many towers. You can't win at gambling. It is not possible over time. It's just math. I don't care if you're a wizard, a genius, doesn't matter if you're the smartest blackjack player in the world and you're counting cards. If you're counting cards, they still have an advantage, they just have less of an advantage. And so it's hard for me to watch on the sports betting side because you, you think about 18 year old kids that are just like watching these, their friends bet and they're like, I want a three parlay and a five thing parlay. That is a once in a while situation. And you can win anything once in a while. But over the course of time, you literally cannot win at sports betting. You have no chance at blackjack, you have no chance at craps. This isn't an emotional thing, it's just math. Let's just all grab a thousand quarters and play. If you have 550quarters and I have 450quarters, how can I beat you over the course of time? Not possible.

[Co-host 1]

That's the reason why they want to keep you there longer.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes. Yeah.

[Co-host 1]

So I, I, as you're watching this table turn, is there an emotional reaction from you?

[Dan Fleischman]

Sure.

[Co-host 1]

Is it like middle finger to these people? I can't like what's that? What's that time like for you?

[Dan Fleischman]

Well, we're seeing it happen across the board again. I grew up with Ricky Williams living with me and then watching him lose his whole career. I grew up with Daryl Russell who passed away. The people that had drug situations back then lost their careers over it.

[Co-host 2]

Ricky Williams lived with you?

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah. In Vegas, in San Diego.

[Co-host 2]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Fleischman]

We went to Patrick Henry High School together.

[Co-host 1]

Okay.

[Co-host 2]

Why did he live with you?

[Dan Fleischman]

We lived on the same street. And then when I was 18, I got apartment right by the stadium. And so him and Dar Russell were both staying with me for months at a time. And I remember he left the Ferrari Medina Spider, year 2000, which is like an impossible car. He left it in my garage for like five months and I couldn't get out. And he, at that time, that was like around the same time he was signing with Master P and he was doing these different deals. He liked to smoke a lot. And he ended up losing $8.8 million he had to pay back to the Miami Dolphins. Like I. So for me, when I watch what happens with cannabis or I watch what's happened with sports betting and now everything is flipped, I do have an emotional reaction to it because I watched it ruin Darryl Russell, who was my roommate, pass away, you know, number two guy on the Raiders. And now he's gone and watch Ricky Williams, who would have broke every NFL record possible the way he broke every college record. He doesn't have the same career that he would have had simply over cannabis. And now look how big it is. And so I'm seeing that happen in sports betting where people are going to lose everything. They cannot win at sports bet. It is a mathematical impossibility. I don't care how smart you are, I don't care how sharp you are, you, you cannot win over the course of time because you're paying 5 to 10%. So even if you're really good, you still have to pay the House draftkings and Kalshee and all these different poly market, et cetera, they take a percentage of every single bet, as they should. It's a huge operation for them. They spend tens of millions of dollars in regulation. They need to make a ton of money. But the 18 year olds and the 26 year olds and the 7 year olds that think that they can win at betting, it's not physically possible, not mathematically possible. It is not possible. Over the course of time, anybody can win one or two or three bets. Last night in the the Jake Paul Anthony Joshua fight, You could bet on, are they going to mention Logan Paul? The commentators you could bet on, are they going to mention the word YouTube or YouTuber? You could bet on Jake Paul by knockout, Jake Paul by decision. Over $100 million will bet on just one platform, on Jake Paul. He can't beat Anthony Joshua outside of a lucky punch. Think about the massive amount of people that bet last night. Their hundred dollars is never coming back. And the people that won, it's even worse because the people that won think that they know how to win, how to bet now and they're gonna go do it again and again. It's just like when you see slot machines. Someone wins a slot machine, they win a 600 jackpot, they end up losing thousands of dollars because they have, they remember the time that they won.

[Co-host 1]

I can't wait for the college football today.

[Dan Fleischman]

It's confirmation bias, right? Yes.

[Co-host 2]

You talked about like at a certain point you should, you shouldn't use your own money anymore.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes.

[Co-host 2]

And you should be raising capital or getting leverage or loans. Explain that. Because capital is something that, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with and it bankrupts a lot of businesses because they don't know how to go about raising capital. They don't know what the different tools that's available to them. So talk about that.

[Dan Fleischman]

So far and away, hands down, the number one reason that companies fail is they run out of money. Point blank, end of story. There's a lot of great entrepreneurs, a lot of great ideas, a lot of great passion. But most restaurants that fail, run out of money. They might have two or three bad months. They don't have two or three months saved up. They're running a clothing brand, they crush it. They actually get a bunch of sales. They can't afford to factor, they can't afford to wait. I'll give you a real life example with the energy drink. I got an order from Costco and opening order was $1.8 million. Sounds great. I need around 900k to manufacture it. So let's say that the order, purchase order came in January 1st. That means you don't ship till March 1st or April 1st. That's when they're ordering for us three to four months out. Once they get the product, they pay you on net 30 or net 60. So let's say they pay net 30. That means by May 1, if I'm lucky and everything goes perfect, I get paid. But I put up the 900 grand January 1st. Let's say May 1st comes around. But my drinks did well. I actually Sold. Let's say we did, which is actually what happened. They made a new order for $5.5 million. I didn't get paid on the first order. I needed to scramble to try to figure out how do I get 2.7 million to fund the next order. I haven't been paid yet. At the same time, I had Ralph's, Albertsons, Savon, cvs, Walgreens, tens of thousands of liquor stores that were slow paying me. Think about how much capital I needed. Even though it looked successful, I needed capital at all times. This happens in clothing, happens in shoes. It happens in almost any physical product business. You need so much capital to be successful. That's why you see so many of these food and beverage brands and clothing brands, et cetera, raise capital all the time. It's literally waiting for money, the cash flow part of it. Nowadays there's a lot of options. You get an order from Costco, you can factor it. Factoring will pay. It's very expensive. They can charge you 1 to 2% per month, but they know they're getting paid because they're buying the paper is what they call it. They're buying the invoice from Costco or Walmart or Target. It helps you with your cash flow. Back then that that didn't happen. So you can factor the paper if you have sales. The second you have any good sales, you should be getting different credit cards and any type of loan from a bank. Not necessarily you have to draw down on that line of credit, not necessarily have to use those credit cards. But when you've got sales, when you've got revenue, is when everyone wants to give you money. When you need money and you don't have money and you're waiting around, your bank account has $600 in it, even though you got 200 grand orders, what banks are going to give you money? They're not. And so what I tell the entrepreneurs or what I tell the companies I invest into, when you can raise capital, when you can get debt, when you can get a line of credit, when you can get credit cards, please, by all means, get it. You don't have to use it, but get it. If you try to go raise capital when you've got the 600 bucks in your bank. Do you want to invest in my friend's company that has 600 in the bank? Probably not. If I told you that they've got 250 grand in the bank, a million dollars in orders, I could text you guys about investing, you wouldn't be that excited if I told you that. Well, they got 600 bucks. They actually can't make payroll on Friday, but they got a million dollars in orders. That's a gamble, right? That feels a bit sketchy. And so when you have capital is when you should try to get capital. Now clear that slate. If you're just starting up, the only true options are go get sales, leverage yourself. Which is it's a big gamble and most people don't want to do it. Or Friends, family and fools. The friends, family and fools are the only ones that are going to give you money in the beginning. You're not cutting a check for 100k into some guy's brand new clothing brand or brand new selling palm trees like their new thing. We're not cutting the first check because we're not in the friends, family and fools category. They have to go get money from friends, family and fools. When I first started the clothing brand, I was getting 25k checks and 50k earners.

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[NLP Podcast Narrator]

If mind control is real?

[Co-host 2]

If you could control the behavior of.

[Co-host 1]

Anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

[NLP Podcast Narrator]

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Dan Fleischman]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[NLP Podcast Narrator]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Dan Fleischman]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[NLP Podcast Narrator]

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Nlp, AKA Neuro linguistic programming, is, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

[Dan Fleischman]

It's about engineering consciousness.

[NLP Podcast Narrator]

Mind games is the story of nlp, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, nlp, might actually work. This is wild. Listen to mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, text.

[Dan Fleischman]

And my mom was making 2200amonth for a family of four. So for her to give me, the money she gave me was three grand. And I still hear about it today, like she still talks about it 26 years later, right? That was such a big deal for her. And it changed my life because that three grand helped get me that my first convention before magic. Like, the only way at the very beginning is to friends, family and fools. Credit cards. Go get sales because sales cures all. If you go get sales, you can get investors, you go get sales, you can get loans, you go get sales. People will flock to you, whether it's staff, executives, partnerships, deals. And so I focus my life in every business that we can talk about. I focus on getting sales. If I can make it famous, if I can get retailers to buy into me, people will then give me money. Other retailers want to buy from me and it goes across every category. And too often people just have an idea or a business plan and they don't go try to sell it first. If someone pitched us on a clothing brand that they had on a business plan, we're unlikely to invest. But that same guy came to us and said, hey, I went and met with 40 stores last week. 26 of them said yes. Six of them actually wrote me an order. I got 80 grand in sales, I'm down, I'll invest and maybe you guys will too. The difference is someone else just brings a business plan. We don't know that they're actually going to go try to sell it. And so there's a lot of ways to get capital now. And on top of that more than ever is grants. The grant industry is wild because so many of these major corporations funds, cities, et cetera, they have to deploy the capital. And so you see a lot of people that are doing grant writing as a whole business now because these grants are real. Like they are very, very real. And a lot of them are in Marcus's group and him500's group because I've met some of them and they're crushing it. Helping teach people how to go out there and get these grants. Grants are literally free money and it is prolific now because of how much capital has to be given away to certain categories. Whether you're a woman of different culture, different age group, different. There's so many different categories that you can go apply for different sections, different businesses, what county you live in, etc. Go. Applying for these grants is literally free money. You should have someone dedicating an hour a day just applying for grants. If it shows up, great. If it doesn't, you have no risk involved besides the time.

[Co-host 2]

Okay, and okay, now let's talk about social media. Yeah, let's navigate to that. How'd you, how'd you get involved in that? And let's talk about, let's start there because I have a multi level conversation with the social media. How did you get involved in social media?

[Dan Fleischman]

When I first started it was MySpace, right? And then Twitter. And I was just posting on social media, watching people post and I was trying to get my brands out there because it was free. The difference was, was after the Black Friday, which shut down online poker, I started angel investing in some companies and I wanted to help them get more famous. And so we went and paid different influencers to post and different. But the word influencer didn't exist. 2011, I would pay celebrities to post or I would drive like that. Refrigerator you have in the corner. I remember driving to Britney Spears house to bring my energy drink refrigerator. I used to drive to Omarion's house and bring the refrigerator there and I would go replenish it with drinks and I would drop off clothing. I would drive to music studios all over LA and put it in there. I'm like, I would just implement. Why? Because the social media was free and I just wanted to be around. I wanted them to wear my clothes, have my drinks. I would just implement it into them. So when I started paying people to post on things, I noticed how much for like a thousand bucks? Five grand? Ten grand. They could get millions and millions or tens of millions of views because it was the wild, wild west back then. And so I started a social media agency called 1 Penny Ad Agency. The concept was every penny was worth a hundred views back then. Now it's obviously tiny based on the algorithms. There was no real algorithm back then. And so for like 10 grand, 25 grand, I could get people millions of views. And so I started the agency and I was driving around Fashion Nova dresses to Kylie's house and Kim's house. I was dropping out Fitty and having Kim post about fitty for like 25 grand. 10 grand. Now it's half a million or a million dollars. And so I was just embedding myself and go to Tyga and Blac Chyna and drop, literally just drop off products. Hey, will you post about Fashion Nova? Hey, will you post about Fit T? Hey, Amber Rose, here's ten grand. I have so many stories in my mind of making her Rose full of cash to do her posts for fashion brands and then bringing her products to post about supplement companies, tea products, fashion brands, et cetera. And so I just was embedded into the space because 2011, 12, 13, 14, who was my competitor? No one. And so I was just making up prices and driving around brands, making my own random products. I was selling like curve control bras for girls. I was doing eight grand a day in sales selling bras. I don't know anything about bras. I just knew that if I post about bras on social media, we were averaging $8,000 a day in sales, spending 1,000, spend a thousand, do 8,000 sales. Our cost basis was four grand. We're netting three grand a day. That's a good business.

[Co-host 1]

Are you multitasking the. Well, diversifying the products? Because it's the drink, but then it's the merch. And now as you're seeing more things work, you're like, great we need more products.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes. And so because I was, I got experience as an agency owner. You get experience because you're spending other people's money. Right. If I'm spending money for Fashion Nova or I'm spending money for Fit Tea or I'm spending money for Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo and Nasty Gal, all these brands, if they gave me money, Ciroc Vodka. If I got money from Ciroc Vodka, I learned what would work. I learned what the engagement was be like. I learned what the caption should look like. So for the first nine years, I would write all the captions. For the first nine years, I would drop off the products to the people's houses. I was going to be out front of Tyga's house and make sure he got his. He got paid. I signed the contract. I give them the product. I was going to. I would sit at Black China's house and Amber Rose's house. Like I'm going to sit with them and make sure the post. I would take the picture if I had to back then. Because who was going to do it? There was no videographers, photographers back then. That wasn't a career. Back then. It wasn't a thing. And so that's why I got into is. I was living it. I was just there spending the money for these brands and I started to make my own products along the way.

[Co-host 2]

And then that involved. That evolved into you doing it for yourself.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yes.

[Co-host 2]

And you becoming an influencer. And talk about. So how did. Where'd you see the pivot from actually just doing it for other people, doing it for yourself and then doing it for yourself? Because even that, as far as business, that's something that came later on. As far as like a business influencer courses, click funnels, that. That wasn't always part of the online thing either.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yep. And I still regret. There's a lot of time I just didn't do it for myself. I'd be in a lot of rooms, a lot of situations, a lot of celebrities. And I didn't take the picture, I didn't do the video, I didn't post about it. I was doing for everyone else. And there was times where I was spending millions of dollars a month for brands like Bilzerians, Ignite brand. That campaign was 650,000amonth to pay influencers to post about it. The Fit Tea and Happy Tea and those brands, those are 300k, 500k a month. the same time, there was business guys that wanted to get famous. Tai Lopez, Grant Cardone, all the. A lot of those type of characters were spending six figures a month to get famous on social. Why? Because then they could leverage it to sell courses, products, books, raise capital. A lot of things would happen because they were able to get fame and personal brand. I started running contests. I started doing all these different things to help people build their personal brands. We did follower contests. Jake Paul is going to post the giveaway. Kim Kardashian, post a giveaway. Giving away purses or giving away prizes. All you have to do is go follow Ian, go follow Roy, Troy, go follow Rashad, go follow, earn your leisure. If you go follow that, you have a chance to win these purses. If you have a chance to win these cash prizes or a car. And so I was running it with Jake, I was running with Kim. I was running with these follower campaigns and I was watching what would happen when these guys got famous. Well, we've seen what happens. They become huge brands now. So the turning point for me was 2019. I finally hired a CEO that was eight years or nine years of running around with the social media agency. It was called One Painting Agency. I changed the elevator studio around 2015. This CEO had 30 years in the TV game. And so I didn't know that I could afford him. I didn't know I could bring him on. I was doing 18 million in the influencer space with Elevator Studio. He's mid six figures plus equity. And I never gave up any equity in Elevator Studio. I never raised any money because I was just doing influencer campaigns. That was the biggest turning point. This guy was the CEO for BU and Murray. So the first eight years, he created Real World, Simple Life, Road Rules, all those shows. He was the CEO for eight years. Bringing that CEO on changed everything. We went from 18 million to 60 million in one year. It allowed me start my mastermind group. It allowed me to start my personal brand. I started speaking at events, I started throwing events. Everything started when I brought on that CEO because I became unshackled from the office. I could finally leave the office, go out there and be on Stages Network, bring in clients. And everything changed from that moment. That's when I really started the personal brand. I had my social media out there the whole time, since 2011, 12, whatever. But it really didn't get big until 2019. That's when the turning point happened. Because throwing events, making content for myself, speaking other people's events, that's when it all changed.

[Co-host 1]

The powerful thing in that is it's kind of been the theme throughout your story thus far is that these relationships that you have are fostering new opportunities to you. Number one, from a working standpoint, working capital, but also from the standpoint of brand ambassadors. Right. And opportunities to invest. I know you said you invested in over 43 companies. Are you finding them at this time then saying, hey, this is a cool product? Not only do I want to be part of this campaign, how do I get equity, how do I get ownership? Are you doing that at this time as well?

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah. So some of the clients I tried to invest into are trade for equity. I was throwing an event called Elevator Night for free, which I still throw to this day 58 times. Free event. 300 to a thousand guests come there and pitch kind of like a shark tank for five minutes each. If you raise any capital here, I take nothing from it. So it's free to attend, free to present. I just wanted my excuse to get my investors to come there, get speakers to come there. So I've had Russell Simmons and Jake Paul and all these guys speak at the event for free because it was a free event and it was just good for the community. I would throw those events and I was cherry picking. I would find a food and beverage brand, I would find a clothing brand, I would find this new snack company, I would find a shoe brand, etc. From during these events. So the events would bring people to me. Everyone's posting about me and the companies there and posting about the Elevator Night brand. Elevator Studios, my agency, now they're posting about Elevator Night. And so the free events was what brought everyone to me. And then I would find these deals. There was a one called Dollar Beard Club, Monthly Box for Beards. They obviously got sued by Dollar Shave Club later, but we had 77,000 subscribers along the way paying 20 bucks a month. So it was a good business. I found that from an Elevator Night. I found a snack company, which I later put in 4 million into that brand because it started to crush it. I found them when they were this big from throwing the events. And so I like now only focus the last three years on companies doing 2 to 20 million revenue. The reason is 0 to 1 million is super hard. 1 million, 2 million are the same thing, but 1 million and 2 million is when I know that they have some processes. Two million to 20 million is when they're starting to get it together, right? Starting to find the right flow. The failure rate is much less when someone's doing 9 million than doing less than a million. So I don't invest in startups anymore. I just find companies that are doing 4 million, 8 million, 15 million, that range, I raised them 3 to 6 million dollars for the company and I've raised 56 million in the last two and a half years on this exact model. Finding companies doing that 2 to 20 million is my sweet spot. It's not that I wouldn't gamble on a startup company, it's that I wouldn't feel comfortable asking you guys to invest with me. And so I'm only finding companies that are doing over 2 million so that I can get smart friends, strategic investors to invest in the companies with me. If Dan wants to gamble throwing 100k onto a deal, I'm gambling. But I've never texted you guys like, hey, invest in the startup ever. Because if it doesn't work out, it's on me, right? If it come into 7 million and goes bankrupt, it's less likely you'll be mad at me because they had a real shot at it. They're a real business, they really went for it. If I brought you into a deal because my boy's starting a company, I try to avoid those situations because I had those situations in the past.

[Co-host 2]

When you said when you got the CEO, I went from 18 million to 60 million.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

What, what was the biggest difference without jumping that year?

[Dan Fleischman]

One, I was running the entire business myself. I literally wrote every caption, I literally did every contract. I literally drove the products to these celebrities and influencers houses. Like I shipped the product, I did everything. And so the biggest difference was I wasn't doing the little stuff anymore. I wasn't running the, the day to day operation. I was now being at events. And because I'm at events, I'm meeting clients. Because I'm speaking on stage, people are asking if they can do social media through me. When they ask about doing social media through me, I can pass them on to the CEO now. And so me being out and being the brand ambassador for Elevator Studio allowed me to bring in more clients and more deals. We ended up doing partnership deals with other agencies. So we started doing influencer marketing video content for BET Television 2019. That came from me speaking at events. Another big agency was doing other work for them for bet and boom. Oracle. Same agency was running Oracle, running one division of it, but they didn't do influencer marketing or video content. I got the Oracle exclusive for last half a decade because I was speaking events. Those guys were there. We ended up doing a deal together. They still did what they did. We did influencer video and all of A sudden we're getting all this work because I'm out there in the streets, I'm out there in the field, I'm out there on stages. Me being the social butterfly out there, allowed to bring in more clients while having a CEO run the operation. And so a lot of times people worry about doing partnership deals or having a partner. Your partner should be very different than you. If someone, if you have two partners that are same, that are either both introverts or both extroverts, or both love accounting or both love to be in sales, you need to have that counterbalance. And so I had a CEO that just loves doing, running the business. He doesn't want to be on stage. He doesn't, I didn't notice, I didn't mention his name here. He doesn't want to be known in that like he wants to be the guy running the show, running the operation. I want the name for the, not for the E ego part of it, the function part of it. I want to be famous for function, the same way Damon John needs to be famous for function. The more famous Damon John gets, the more famous I get, the more deals come in, the more partnerships come in, the more brands come in, the more clients come in, the more stages, the more speaking events. Everything happens from fame, from personal brand.

[Co-host 1]

It's a lot. I, I, I'm sitting here and I'm thinking, number one, Dan must have a photographic memory because he hasn't missed the details since 99. But I also wonder how financially disciplined or how did you get so financially disciplined? Because we're not talking about small sums of money. $65 million deal going in 2009, you're talking about, hey, we went from 18 million, obviously the company did, to 60 million. How are you managing money? Have you always been strategically disciplined when it came to it?

[Dan Fleischman]

So I'm disciplined. The sense that I, I have a intense value of money, but I'm also a gambler. I'm willing to take risk. And I know that if something doesn't work out, I'm going to figure it out how to make my comeback. I had, it would happen with online poker. Losing 65 million overnight didn't mean I had another 65 million. I mean I had nothing. And I started the agency and the, the deals and consulting like, and built myself back up. So I've discipline in the sense that I'm obsessed with investing. I have this one thing that I talk about at every event and every speech and podcast is called 40, 40, 20. I invest 40, low risk 40 medium risk, 20 high risk. I've talked about the same strategy my whole life because that's my only thing that keeps me balanced. If it wasn't for 40, 40, 20, I would be so all in on the high risk because I don't care about being broke. I don't care about making a comeback. I don't care, I have no emotion or ego about failures. I'm gonna have failures because I take a lot of shots. And so because of that, I would be so heavy investing in just high risk because I have such high risk tolerance. I've been through the hardest things in the world. I've lost millions. I've had people die. I've had all the things that, all the situation that can come from it. So I have no emotion to losing it all. So the 40, 40, 20 thing is I want 40% low risk. That does like 5 to 9% for the year. I want those things to be boring. I don't touch it. That's my discipline part. The medium risk is what most people like. 10 to 30% for the year. Real estate, stock market, cash flowing businesses. That's what I enjoy. That's what most people enjoy. That's investing things like that. Real estate, stock market, cash flowing businesses. The 20%, the reason it has to be 20% or lower is this is high risk, this is cryptocurrency, this is angel investing. I have passions for these things, but I would be very heavy into those if it wasn't for me having discipline over here.

[Co-host 1]

Very strategic.

[Co-host 2]

Okay, social media, back to social media. A lot of people may have followings. Everybody wants to be an influencer these days, but very few people really have figured out how to really, really make money online. A lot of people have followers or they are influencers and they, they have podcasts and they, they don't, they haven't figured it out, right. They're waiting for ad deals. That's then that's their way. Or they're trying to find how to get brand partnerships to do commercials. If you are advising somebody, somebody has a following, somebody's an influencer, break down, you know, a business model for them in 2026.

[Dan Fleischman]

You said the perfect few words. They're waiting for ad deals. It's not just going to show up in their bank account. They're not just going to knock on the door from Coca Cola or Gatorade or Fiji Water. It doesn't just happen like that. Unless you're a big, big, big name to stand out as a social media influencer. A Podcaster or anyone that makes money from brands, you have to actively reach out to them. It is free to do. You have access to them through social media, LinkedIn, Twitter, email, carrier pigeon. I don't care how you get a hold of them. You actively reaching out as an influencer, you will make some money. You actively reach out because you want a podcast deal or you want people to endorse your podcast. You can get people to do that. I'm not saying you're gonna go get millions of dollars, but can you ask for 500 bucks an episode when you first start out? Yes. And you might get three or four people do that. Well, if you put up four podcasts a month, two grand episode, and you're making eight grand a month, that's 100 grand a year. And you're outpacing most people in our society to do a podcast an hour a week. People don't reach out in the influencer game. I've been preaching this for the last 15 years. If you want to get with a clothing brand, DM them, message them, tag them. If you want to get with the beverage brand, message them, DM them, tag them. It's easy to find the executives of every brand in the world. If you go to LinkedIn, go through Twitter, search online, you can get a hold of anybody you want. You can get a hold of any buyer, any brand, et cetera. Most people do exactly what you said. They're just waiting. They're waiting and expecting it to work out. It literally doesn't work like that. The influencers that go out and make money are the ones that just go after it. They go, they want to get a fashion deal. They go message 40 different fashion brands and four of them respond, how much does it cost you? Nothing. You just copy and paste it. If you want to go out there, I'll also say this very practically make a one page PDF about you. Here's your Instagram, your Facebook, your LinkedIn, your Twitter, your Snapchat, your TikTok, your YouTube. You put all your major platforms on one page. I've got 12,000 followers here, 100,000 followers here, 3,000 followers here. You put all your platforms, there a one paragraph about your story, your phone number, your email, how to get a hold of you and what your three rates are. One post, one month, one year. If you send out to brands and you send out to 50 brands, some of them will respond. If they don't, it costs you nothing. But what if they do? And I've watched it work so many times and if you just send those out on a daily basis. So the brands that you want and next thing I'll say is also practicality. Think of yourself, of what you eat, what you drink and what you wear, what you use on your phone. Those are the brands you should reach out to. You like certain brand of shoes, go get a hold of them. You like certain types of pants, there's eight brands that you like. Message those eight brands repeatedly. I'm not saying to annoy them every single day, but every single week or month. Keep messaging those brands and look at yourself as what you eat, drink and wear and use. That should be your categories. Try to get a hold of Cash app, Wells Fargo or Stripe. Try to get a hold of Gatorade, Fiji Water, etc. Try to get a hold of this brand, that brand or that brand. Try to get a hold of the brands of every category for sunglasses or earrings or hats or shoes or socks. You like to wear socks a lot. Everybody wears socks. Is there certain brands you like? Go get hold of the Bombas from Dayon John, Go get a hold of Nike, because you like Nike. Look at yourself at every category and try to get someone to sponsor your food, your beverage, your protein, your credit cards, whatever the things you use. You like Robinhood. Get a hold of Robinhood. You don't like Robinhood. You like Polymarket. Go message and tweet at Polymarket. The downside is zero. But what if two of those brands hit you up and say yes and they pay you two grand or five grand a month? Too often people are just waiting and hoping that it's going to come to them. Waiting and hoping is not a strategy. It's not work.

[Co-host 1]

You talked about. I mean, that's interesting, right? You talk about alignment, that's what I'm hearing. You talk about consistency and being optimistic, right? Having that idea like, yo, this could work. Waiting game obviously is something that's not going to work. What are some other things that the people who are doing the influencer marketing, what are they doing right that the others are doing wrong? Right. So like if I'm not getting this right right now, what are the things I should look inside myself, self reflect and say, oh, I gotta change that?

[Co-host 2]

Yes.

[Dan Fleischman]

Most people social media posts are about themselves, not about their fans, not about their audience. They're focused on their ego. They're posting the perfect look at me, I was working out. Not, hey, I lost 18 pounds because I took first form supplements. I did 75 hard. I drank water every single morning. I did this to Sleep not teaching them anything. They just showed them the I'm buff girl. Posting a hot, hot girl bikini picture doesn't say, oh, this is how I lost 11 pounds. This is how I keep my bikini body like this. This is the supplements I take. This is what I do. That post will do really, really well because you're making for your audience if you make it for yourself. We're not going to keep engaging. There's only so many times we're going to put the fire, fire, fire emoji. There's only so many times we're going to tell you how good you look or how hot you are. You got to teach us. You got to make us laugh. You got to show something interesting as your followers. Most people's content is for themselves, not for their audience. And they wonder why it goes down and down and down in engagement. Because what are we supposed to say on your seventh selfie? What about your 70th selfie? Because we're following you for a year or two. What about your 700 selfie? What do you want me to say? I'm not going to keep doing that over and over and over. Tell me where you bought that shirt from. Tell me why you did this. Tell me why you're going to this movie theater. Tell me why this funny thing's happening. Tell me why you thought Anthony Joshua was going to win. Tell me why you thought this happened in politics or government. Like, talk to us. Most people do it for themselves. Most people do it for their own ego. The other problem is their captions are way off. Captions are based on human psychology. If we cannot read the sentence or the paragraph, we're not going to read it at all. And so when people are tagging for here's the photographer, here's the makeup artist, here's this, here's that. I don't know to go follow Fashion Nova or Pretty Little Thing. I don't know to go buy from this product or brand. Because you tagged five of the things. If you're trying to get us to buy from you, like buy your course or buy your product or buy your personal training program. If you tag for the things, I'm not going to see that. If you give us too many options, we choose none. And so people's comments and Captions section, it's just bad because it's unreadable. They're putting in inside jokes or they're tagging multiple people in it. We are not going to read it. If we're not going to read it, we're not going to take an action. Instagram stories. If you wouldn't want to see it, don't post it. If you don't want to see someone's salad, don't post your salad. If you don't want to see someone posting the floor for six seconds before they pan up, don't post the floor for six seconds and then pan up. Because the human that's scrolling through makes a decision within three seconds if they're going to watch. So in the first three seconds we're going to make a decision. Why are you starting off with showing the floor before you show us the nightclub you're at or before you show us the office you're at, or before you show us New York City or Paris? Make your content about things you want to see. Make your content of what you want your audience to learn from you. Make it valuable and people will follow you.

[Co-host 2]

So as far as monetization, you talked about like from an influencer standpoint, reaching out to brands in our world. As far as like people that have businesses or like online business people. Right. Talk about that. As far as it's become very popular over the last six years. Click funnels and events and courses and ebooks.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yep.

[Co-host 2]

What is your advice to people? To galvanize a community and actually have some level of monetary compensation for value add.

[Dan Fleischman]

So you have to do what's called setup shop. You have to choose a platform like ClickFunnels or Go High Level. I use GoHighLevel now. You have to find a platform to be your back end, like fan basis or one of those brands. Set up shop so that you can accept money easily. Set up every single social media platform because you have to build what's called omnipresence. You know, people, if you love Twitter, you love Facebook and I like Instagram, that means that he needs to be on all those platforms because you don't know where your audience enjoys to take your content in. And I might follow you on multiple platforms but not see you on every platform because of the way the algorithm works. So you have to be on all six major platforms. You have to have your own website. So it's easy if I want to go down the rabbit hole. Cause I'm like, oh man, I really like your content. I really want to buy from Eyl University. I need to be able to go to that website, that landing page and make a decision. Your purchase order, the way to buy your add to cart has to be what's called above the fold. Meaning if I go to Eyo University, for example, on the top of the website, if I'm on my phone, it should be on the very first page. It's called above the fold. If I have to scroll even a little bit, your engagement's way down, your conversion rate's way down even to scroll, which takes me no effort besides doing this above the fold. So if you guys are building it, you need to have your website, your social media, your bio, your photo, everything seamless. Because we as a community have ADD and it's getting worse. The reason that vine and TikTok and short form video YouTube shorts. It's called YouTube Shorts for a reason. Because we have a short attention span. Because of that, you got to make it very simple. When someone sees your social media on every platform, they see your website or they see your checkout page, it has to be easy to buy from you. You can't have just one option. You need to have Apple pay or Bitcoin or cash app, any way that they can pay you. You should be able to accept money. Too often people have one way to check out. You've got to have multiple options for the payment processing different. That part is super, super important. If you have a high ticket like you're selling a course thousand dollars or more, you need to have something that allows you like a fan basis type company that allows you to do payments that allows you to for people to pay you 100 bucks a month instead of 1000 bucks up front, for example. You need these things to happen because you need to act as if they're going to buy from you. And we know if there's any friction, it's unlikely we're going to buy. What do you do when you go and you add to cart and there's some pop up and this happened? That happens, you exit, you leave. You have to have no friction for someone to purchase from you. And so this is super important. So when someone first sees you, it's easy to understand who you are. When they first see you, something's appealing about it. So your bio should have some highlights in it, what you've done or what you care about. When they actually take the step to go to your website or click your link or click on your stories and go to want to make a purchasing decision, they have to make a decision right away. If someone has come to your website to make a purchasing decision, you got to offer it right at the very beginning, above the fold, below that you're then justifying who you are, why they should buy from you. Buy my fitness course. Buy My stock trading course, buy my credit repair course, whatever that thing is. You got to explain all that below the option because a lot of people are going there ready to make a purchase. So the long winded answer is setting up shop, making it very easy to find you. Once they found you, make it easy to make a decision once they made a decision, make it really easy to pay you.

[Co-host 1]

This is a tricky part because.

[Dan Fleischman]

Before.

[Co-host 1]

That it's like you have to build a relationship, you have to build a community, but you don't want to always sound like it's transactional.

[Dan Fleischman]

No.

[Co-host 1]

So like how do, does one balance that?

[Dan Fleischman]

Yep. So the famous Gary Vee line, the jab, jab, jab, right hook. That book, that concept is very good. The jab, jab, jab, right hook concept is. Monday you're posting fitness. Tuesday you're posting with your dogs. Wednesday you're posting fitness and with your kids. Thursday, by the way, I have this program. I can help you lose 15 pounds in six months by my course. Friday you're posting with your friends, going out to the club. Saturday you're posting hiking and yoga. Sunday, by the way, guys, guess what? I have a 50% off by my course. Posting from church at 1pm, have your Sunday night, blah blah. Monday you're posting the jab, jab, jab is. You're posting your content, teaching them, making them laugh, showing your lifestyle, making them buy into you. Because there's hundreds of thousand people selling the same exact type of fitness course. Hundreds of thousand people can offer how to lose 15 pounds in six months. Lots of options for that. They are buying into you. And the way to build you is to make people want to listen to you. They want to watch you. The reason we buy from certain characters and the reason we buy certain products or programs is we like that person, that storyline. We have this in our minds. Something about their story. Us as humans remember stories. We all know 50 Cent got shot nine times. Why we all know Lil Wayne's greatest rapper alive. They tow us it in the songs on Social that's burned into our minds. There's a storyline to them. And because of that we want to buy their products. And the product is fungible. It could be anything. Whether they're selling vitamin water, whether they're selling products or they're selling movies and TV shows like Power. We think of 50 Cent for different parts of his brand. But we all remember this famous thing from 25 years ago about him getting shot nine times. That is a story that we are bought into. And so when you think about certain characters. You have to build that brand up. The way that you build community is that you are teaching them, making them laugh, showing them something interesting, or showing them something timely. It's four things. Funny, interesting, something timely, or something also in their. In their space. Meaning, can it be something that's going to help them in their life? If it's not, they might refer you to someone. They're never going to buy from you. If you teach them something, they'll afford it to their friends. They'll repost you. They will buy into you. If you make things about yourself, they will not think about you in the community because they think of you as selfish. If you are teaching people and making them laugh, you guys obviously are teaching people, Invest Fest, University, et cetera. Because of that, you have very passionate people that will buy from you. Very passionate. Because day after day you're teaching them about stock market, how to invest, how to trade. You're showing them other characters through your podcast. You guys are the perfect example. That's why I'm always so passionate about your brand. Over these years, I've been obsessed with what you guys are doing. You're throwing these live events, you're teaching people, and the butterfly effect is far greater than you'll ever know. When you teach people and they go out there and make their own money, or they build their own business and they open up their four restaurants in their community, that creates jobs, that creates things in their community, in their city, to me, it's almost like a form of charity. What you guys are doing almost has a form of charity to it because you're creating people to make their own money far greater than you'll ever know. 25,000 people go to invest fest. 600 of them go out and create businesses, make partnerships and deals. 200 of them start dating and creating babies and get married there. The butterfly effect of live events and teaching is why you have such a strong, passionate community. That's also why I've been one of your biggest fans watching you guys, because of the butterfly effect of what it does. Everything I just said, think about the emotion of how I said it. It's because I am a follower of you guys. I've been learning from you guys. I have watched what you guys do. And so I'm the perfect example of I would buy from you because I've watched what you do for other people and I've watched what you taught me. Anyone that's listening can create that same thing. Only if they're actually really good at it you have to be really good at real estate. To teach real estate, you have to be really good at fitness and helping someone lose 15 pounds because you actually know how to do it. Competence leads to confidence. If you get really smart and really granular and get really good at a topic, whether it's stock trading, credit, repair, fitness, health, etc. People will believe you and people will buy from you. But you have to get really good at it. You cannot fake it till you make it. You have to actually go get good at it.

[Co-host 2]

Before we leave, talk about events. Talk about your events. I know you do, Vince.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

You recently just did an event, right?

[Dan Fleischman]

Oh yeah.

[Co-host 2]

So talk about that as far as how you got into the event space, how you've scaled that and your. Your thought process around doing events.

[Dan Fleischman]

So I throw 42 events a year and I call it free, cheap, affordable. Holy shit. So free is elevator night. Totally free. Throwing it 58 times 300 to a thousand guests. It's a pop up event. So we don't tell anybody until a few days before it goes. Because free cheap is aspire tours like a hundred bucks to five hundred bucks. Those events are twelve times around the country. I have what's called the man in the arena tour. It's an all men's event. We get a couple thousand men in there one day. Intense experience. We bring in David Goggins and bring in very intense to help men get better and stronger for their households and communities. 100 bucks to 500 bucks. So that's the cheap, affordable type. Affordable on the mastermind side is we do like 2k to 5k boot camps. We do a 20k mastermind like things that are affordable to help people really grow their business. That are already doing a million, 2 million, 5 million. Holy shit. Is I have one called the 100 million mastermind experience. It's $100,000 per person. It's 100 people. They have to do 10 million or more in revenue though. That's my seventh year. Coming up in January is my seventh year of throwing that event. That also started back in that story of the hiring the CEO. I started it right after I hired the CEO. $100,000 per person. I sold 100 spots in two months. That's $10 million in revenue. So I thought it was too expensive to hire that CEO, but it changed my life because I created this mastermind from finally having more time. The live events to me is something I'll be doing for many, many years. And live events will be more important than ever. You heard recently, the owner of Endeavor and Gary Vee keep talking about it and Elon Musk. Live events will be the only true commodity soon. Because if people don't have to work as much or people their jobs give them more time, they're going to go to live events more than ever. If they're scrolling through and dealing with AI and social media, too much in person becomes the true commodity. People are going to go to events more than ever. So I've quadrupled down on events. I partnered with Events.com, it's a huge company at San Diego. I'm throwing these 42 events a year, as often as I can, because I truly believe that people need this. They need to come together, they need to come to Invest Fest, they need to come to these events. And so I'm going to keep doing these events for the rest of my life.

[Co-host 1]

Incredible. You talked about before the who's your daddy? Thing.

[Dan Fleischman]

Yeah.

[Co-host 1]

So as a Yankee guy, we know 2003, Pedro says that just for shit to get. How did that come.

[Dan Fleischman]

It was interesting scenario because I loved it, right? It was on the COVID of every newspaper, magazine, television. It was like chanting, who's your daddy? Like, it was great. And. But I do own the trademarks and I do own the clothing, the brands. I own it for barbecue sets and physical products, greeting cards, paper, everything. Sixteen different classes, 300 products. And so I went to the MLB. I'm like, I want you to do this. This is great. But I'm at your stadium and you're selling the shirts. You can't do that, right? Unless you give me a percentage. And they're basically told me to buzz off, like I'm just a little kid. I came back, I'm like, no, no, really, like we're doing tens of millions dollars in sales. I wasn't public yet. It was a couple years before I went public. You were actually impacting our business. You're actually hurting us. You can't do that. And so they ended up selling. So it worked out okay. But it. I basically said, whatever you're selling, we want 6% of gross sales. They're already such an expensive product that we kind of fit into their model. They changed their shirts from like, back then it was $26. They changed it to 29 to basically afford us. And that's all that ended up happening is that I. They were basically saying they were going to sue us. It would take two or three years and they're going to crush us. I said, I don't mind spending millions of dollars to fight you because I know how important this is and I don't know if this is going to be a brand. For years I knew my brand was me around. For many years I didn't know if they were going to keep doing this. And if I didn't stop them, they could just keep selling it year after year which could have truly hurt the business. And so luckily they ended up selling and it worked out okay.

[Co-host 1]

And then we lost to the Red Sox in 2004. Yeah, we weren't their daddies anymore.

[Co-host 2]

What about the philanthropy part?

[Dan Fleischman]

That's my true obsession. So I throw the world's largest toy drive. That's happening right the second. This is our 12th year. I self fund the whole thing because it's my passion. I do one on one coaching people wired to charity instead of wired to me so I can get even more capital to put into the toy drives. This year we're doing almost a quarter of a million toys. We're at 210,000 right now. Three cities to go. I fly around like a psychopath to 10 cities in 17 days. And I try to find partners or big venues to host these toy drives. And so we got Allen Iverson in Virginia. We did Raiders stadium, Miami Heat Arena. Like we're getting these big venues to do these toy drives. And my goal is to get other people to host their own toy drives. I don't really post like donate to us or rent. Go buy your own toys, Go give out toys in your own community. You can replicate the same way we're doing it. When I first started, there were 12 years ago, there was just eight of us on the floor wrapping toys. Now we get a thousand, two thousand, three thousand families per city to come pick up toys. And then we donate to the boys and girls club or the city of Watts. Black Sam just did an event. We just donated a couple thousand toys to him. Like I give it to the communities, to other people's toy drives. So someone's doing it in their community. So we'll donate to five or 10 toy drives. We're doing it for Tony Tunjis, the coaches, his charity. He's throwing a big toy drive. I just find people that are throwing their own toy drives and then we'll give it to them to go give out. So boys and girls clubs, churches, other toy drives or people can come to us in person. I keep doing 10 cities because I'm obsessed with it. When you see the reaction from these children, also the relief on the parents to get toys that they don't have to buy now. That's why I'm putting in so much, you know, three weeks of my life every year to go out and physically go in person to do these.

[Co-host 1]

Love it.

[Co-host 2]

Appreciate you, appreciate you taking your time. A lot of gems, a lot of information. Definitely any last words or your social and any, any, you know, thing that you want to leave the audience with.

[Dan Fleischman]

I mean, the main thing I'll say is just get started. You have access to the world now from your cell phone. The platforms are all free and cheap social media is free to do. You've got the power of the world on your phone. Creating content is very real. I've watched it change lives. And when you're listening and learning from guys like you, like, it's just you're getting the fast forward button to success, not just of what to do, but of what not to do and the things that you can help people avoid. And that's why again, so passionate about you guys and your brand is like you were literally changing lives and you don't even realize the, the mass effect. You might know the stories that are in your head and you're like, dan, no, I know. You don't realize how big it actually is because when you change a household, you change a community, you help someone go make 100, 200 grand a year, it literally changes that ecosystem. It changes their kids going to college or not. It changes how they live, how they eat, how they breathe, do their kids go to school, like the things that happen in those communities. And so to me, investing in knowledge and teaching, like those things that I do and the things that you guys do on a grand scale, that's my passion. Like listening to this will change people's lives.

[Co-host 2]

Appreciate it. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. We'll see you guys next week.

[Co-host 1]

Peace earners.

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[Co-host 1]

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[Podcast Sponsor/Announcer]

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[Dan Fleischman]

This is an Iheart podcast.

[Co-host 2]

Guaranteed human.