GSTAAD GUY: INSIDE THE MINDS OF THE ULTRA-RICH

Summary

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Great Company with Jamie Laing

Episode: GSTAAD GUY: INSIDE THE MINDS OF THE ULTRA-RICH
Date: September 16, 2025

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Overview

In this episode, Jamie Laing sits down with satirical social media sensation Gstaad Guy (aka Staad Guy), renowned for his incisive parody of the lifestyles of the ultra-wealthy. The conversation peels back the curtain on the rarefied world of generational privilege, explores why society is gripped by the spectacle of excess, and delves into Staad Guy's creative process, business ventures, and personal philosophy. Listeners are treated to jaw-dropping stories, candid career reflections, and honest musings about happiness, success, and the true drivers behind social fascination with the 0.0001%.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Who is Gstaad Guy? (05:37–11:04)

• Character Origins:
  Staad Guy’s persona ("Constance") is an exaggerated ambassador of ultra-high-net-worth culture, inspired by the Swiss billionaire enclave of Gstaad. Despite the specificity, the satire resonates globally.
• Social Media Satire:
  He creates content lampooning the bizarre priorities and customs among the über-rich, pointing out their obsession with 'excellence' in even the smallest minutiae—from watches and cars to grocery shopping.
• Dual Characters:
  Constance embodies tradition and iconic old money quirks; the cousin Colton (also Staad Guy's creation) is the Gen-Z, hyped-up, new money foil.

"I set out to make my character, Constance, this ambassador of all the values that a person in Staad would portray, of course by turning the dial a bit... obsessed with excellence in manners, ways of living, products."
— Staad Guy (08:32)

2. The Gstaad Lifestyle and "Punching Up" (11:04–17:03)

• Real-Life Inspirations:
  Many of Staad Guy’s traits stem from observing friends who, despite their privilege, complain about trivial inconveniences, inspiring viral content.
• Niche to Global:
  The character’s appeal transcends borders because, at its core, it’s a commentary on both the ridiculousness and allure of privilege.
• Punching Up:
  Staad Guy emphasizes satire aimed at those 'above' rather than marginalized groups, ensuring that those lampooned often feel flattered, not offended.

"Bullying up doesn't really exist normally. Bullying is only mean if there's something someone's insecure about… No one's insecure about having too much money."
— Staad Guy (21:24)

3. Unimaginable Wealth: Life in Gstaad (16:17–24:00)

• Everyday Excess:
  Gstaad's exclusivity means even minor purchases are staggeringly expensive: £45 burgers and hotel water bottles for £30.
• Absurd Anecdotes:
  COVID-era: Teens would book multi-week stays at £2,500/night hotels just to qualify for a pizza and burger—essentially £28,000 for a meal.

"They would get a hotel room for two weeks… just to get pizza… never even take the key from the reception."
— Staad Guy (23:24)

4. The World’s Obsession With Wealth (24:00–34:15)

• Material Aspiration:
  Jamie and Staad Guy reflect on how social media amplifies the myth that success equals material excess.
• Happiness & Contentment:
  The podcast explores the fleeting happiness attached to wealth and the far deeper contentment that comes from progress, problem-solving, and self-awareness.

"Money doesn’t buy happiness. The lack of money buys stress, anxiety, and difficulty… Once you pass the point of necessity, the ceiling gets higher every year, and it gets more and more ridiculous."
— Staad Guy (24:50)

• Philosophical Take:
  True happiness? Incremental progress and solving personal problems, not short-term pleasure or external milestones.

"Quick fixes make me feel pleasure, not happiness… Happiness lasts weeks and months. So solving problems that mean a lot to me makes me happy."
— Staad Guy (28:58)

5. Roots and Hustle: Staad Guy’s Backstory (36:00–41:06)

• Upbringing:
  Grew up in London with close family ties; middle child among two sisters.
• Entrepreneurial Spirit:
  Started selling sneakers at 13 to fund fun experiences, even paying for a trip to Disneyland as a uni student.
• On Failure and Grit:
  Early ventures failed (including a startup that went bankrupt), which Staad Guy credits for building resilience and understanding the value of grit.

"Grit is very important because nothing good gets handed to you easily...life can prescribe grit, and that’s probably the best prescription."
— Staad Guy (39:40)

6. Becoming a Creator: Risk, Rewards, and Going Viral (41:16–47:52)

• Transition from Corporate to Creator:
  Worked at Apple post-startup for stability, but eventually risked leaping into full-time content creation after his satirical videos and merchandise proved lucrative.
• The Power of Community:
  Sold out merch quickly despite a modest following, buoyed by highly affluent, engaged fans.

"My followers... are the highest concentration of high net worth followers in the world... Forbes a year later did an audit and realized I have the highest concentration of billionaires of any social media page globally."
— Staad Guy (46:57)

• Mentorship:
  Credits his boss Ashna at Apple for encouraging self-discovery via vision boards and supporting his risk-taking journey.

7. Debunking the All-In Entrepreneur Myth (48:23–50:10)

• Nuanced Advice:
  Both Jamie and Staad Guy refute online narratives urging everyone to quit their jobs and go ‘all in’—real success is iterative, risk-managed, and rarely extreme.
• Toxic Narratives:
  The mainstream glamorization of founder lifestyles can be misleading and harmful.

"Reality exists in nuance. Nothing is extreme.…there’s so much ‘founder porn’ online now that makes people think they should just drop everything and then they’ll get everything. But that’s not reality."
— Staad Guy (49:20)

8. Building a Brand: Poobel (50:10–52:49)

• Business Ventures:
  Staad Guy’s jewelry line, Poobel, features modular charm bracelets with motifs from "Staad Guy World"—jets, caviar, Pilates reformers, and more.
• Unique Collaborations:
  Loro Piana, highly exclusive even in the luxury world, collaborated with him for an instant sellout. Other fans include major celebrities like Lando Norris and Peggy Gou.

"We collaborated on an online exclusive shoe, and it sold out in like six hours… over 700 pairs at just under a thousand euros each."
— Staad Guy (52:28)

9. Staying Grounded and Future Plans (52:56–55:09)

• On Content Evolution:
  Staad Guy updates character profiles regularly by tracking real-world trends among the ultra-wealthy—paddle, cycling, luxury habits, etc.
• The Trendsetters:
  Observes that ultra-wealthy communities often set cultural trends because of their freedom and resources.

"A lot of trends actually end up starting with this ultra high net worth community of people who have a lot of free time on their hands to just chat and spread trends and buy random things."
— Staad Guy (55:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Ridiculousness of Wealth:
  "The cheapest burger you can get in Staad is like 50 francs… the only fast food in Staad."
  — Staad Guy (16:34)

• On His Characters’ Appeal:
  "People in this community rarely land as either character. On Sunday morning they're this poised, elegant Constance. Friday night they're this degenerate Colton. Angel and devil on the shoulders."
  — Staad Guy (10:50)

• On Happiness:
  "Solving problems that mean a lot to me makes me happy…incremental, not quick fixes."
  — Staad Guy (28:58)

• On Failure:
  "If you don't have that heartbreak…you think they come easy. Grit is very important because nothing good gets handed to you."
  — Staad Guy (39:40)

• On his Guinness World Record of Follower Net Worth:
  "Forbes a year later did an audit…highest concentration of billionaires...globally."
  — Staad Guy (46:57)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction to Gstaad Guy and Staad Satire: 05:37–11:04
• Life and Etiquette Among the Ultra-Rich: 11:04–17:03
• Stories from Gstaad—COVID, Pizza, and Privilege: 22:26–24:00
• Society’s Obsession with Wealth: 24:47–34:15
• Personal Philosophy on Happiness: 28:25–34:15
• Childhood, Hustle, and Early Failures: 36:00–41:06
• Quitting Corporate for Content Creation: 41:16–47:52
• Debunking the ‘All-In’ Entrepreneur Myth: 48:23–50:10
• Poobel Jewelry—Business and Branding: 50:10–52:49
• Trend Forecasting with Billionaires: 53:39–55:09
• Rapid Fire Closing Questions: 55:24–59:20

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Memorable Rapid-Fire Answers (55:24–59:20)

• On Gratitude:
  "A genuine sign of gratitude always makes me very happy."
  — Staad Guy (55:31)
• Guilty Pleasure:
  "Chocolate mousse." (58:12)
• On Harshness:
  "Sometimes I'm harsh…with people I love the most. I need to work on that." (56:32)
• Something He Can't Let Go Of:
  "My teddy bear...I hope to never get rid of him." (57:20)

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Recap and Reflections

Jamie and Jemima close by marveling at the sheer scale of the anecdotes (like the £28k pizza), discussing the public’s endless fascination with this unattainable world, and reinforcing the key theme: while the spectacle of wealth captivates, genuine happiness and meaning often stem from personal progress, connection, and gratitude.

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For fans of sharp satire, cultural commentary, and behind-the-scenes insights into influencer entrepreneurship, this episode is a must-listen.

Transcript

[Staad Guy]

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[Jamie Laing]

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[Staad Guy]

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[Staad Guy]

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[Staad Guy]

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[Jamie Laing]

We're Jamie and Sophie. You may remember us from Newlyweds and then Newlyweds.

[Jemima]

But now, guys, things are about to get even wilder as we take on our biggest adventure yet. Becoming parents.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, that's Newlyweds is now Nearly Parents. And we're bringing you the same honest, heartwarming takes on our journey to parenthood. I guess.

[Jemima]

Join us as we find out what it really means to become a family while trying not to kill each other.

[Jamie Laing]

Get ready for Nearly Parents, your favorite new podcast, Jemima. Before we start go on, I just want to mention that I have written a book.

[Jemima]

He's been beavering away with a quill.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, with a quill. It's called Boys Don't Cry. And it's an A to Z of everything that we don't cry talk about. And the reason I wrote this book is because I truly believe that as men, as individuals in this world, we're really not talking about our emotions. And being vulnerable is the most important thing that you can do in this world at the moment. So it's an A to Z of everything we don't talk about. A is for anxiety. B is for best friend. There's K is for kindness, L is for loneliness and I'm very honest and raw in it. It's not an autobiography. It's more of a self help book. And I truly believe that so many people will really enjoy this book and it can help so many people. So if you are someone who's listening to this right now, I think that's for you. You can pre order it. There's the link in our podcast bio. Go and click on it. Or you may have a friend or a sibling or a brother or a son who needs it. Please, please, please. If you think you are that person, go and get it. If it's not for you, totally understand it. But I really know it can help so many people. It's called Boys Don't Cry. You can pre order it now or it's out in October. Okay, you ready for the episode?

[Jemima]

I can't wait.

[Jamie Laing]

Here we go. Hello, everyone. My name is Jamie Laing and this is Great Company. Well, hello everybody, and welcome back to A Great Company.

[Jemima]

A great episode of Great Company.

[Jamie Laing]

A great episode of Great Company. An episode of greatness for Great Company.

[Jemima]

For the greatest of companions.

[Staad Guy]

You.

[Jamie Laing]

Today is a great day for a Great Company episode.

[Jemima]

Yeah, that's it.

[Jamie Laing]

Welcome back, everybody. Hey, listen, if you have returned to the show, thank you so much. It means you enjoy what we're creating. If you're new to Great Company, I am your host. My name is Jamie Lang and this is my producer, Jemima. Yes, Jemima. Jemima keeps me on track and I keep the show going.

[Jemima]

No, we dance hand in hand down the track of production.

[Jamie Laing]

That's quite a nice little insight. I like that. Sort of hand in hand is quite sweet. I like that.

[Jemima]

We skip.

[Jamie Laing]

We skip down. Today's guest, by the way, is really, really, really exciting. Today's guest is a friend of mine. He is a social media star. He has a really interesting outlook on the world of wealth.

[Jemima]

Yes, his name is Stard Guy, or as I like to call him, Gstard Guy, which is not how you say it. And I. Every time he said it, he looked at me like, that's not my name. And I've just plowed on.

[Jamie Laing]

Get rolling with it. Staad Guy. You may see him on social media. He kind of creates satire videos around the wealthy and the beyond wealthy and beyond rich. And what he really does, he always makes sure that he's always punching up. The reason that it's funny and it's enjoyable to watch is because he's making fun of people who live these ridiculous lives. Flying private jets, buying ridiculous clothes, living in the Most expensive places. And he makes his incredible videos surrounding it. You may have seen him, you may have heard of him, but if you haven't, this episode is going to be really interesting.

[Jemima]

And it's like another level of wealthy. I think, like, as. As lay people, we have an idea of wealth, and this is like. Like a whole other tier. Some of the stories he has to say today. Yeah, I like our jaw dropping.

[Jamie Laing]

And I think that's the big thing we're going to take away from this is like, what are you, the listener, going to take away from this episode? You're going to take a more understand. Understanding of that world, that we're gonna get the curtain pulled back to have a little intro into this incredible world of wealth. And so the topics that we're gonna be talking about today are the ridiculousness of that world and how unrelatable it is in so many different ways and revolting.

[Jemima]

I'm just gonna throw that in.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, lots of things is completely wild. We wanna talk about social media and the effect that social media has on you as a social media creator. So so many things to take from it, and we really, really hope you enjoy it. Remember, if you haven't subscribed to our show already, please do. If you enjoy what we're creating, it helps us keep the guests that we want. It takes one second. It's completely free. Okay, you ready for this?

[Jemima]

Okay.

[Jamie Laing]

Enjoy this episode of Great Company with Stad Guy.

[Staad Guy]

Hi, I'm the Stad Guy, and I am in Great company.

[Jamie Laing]

When people meet you, do they expect to meet Stard Guy?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah, for sure. First thing they say is, whoa, you're a lot taller than I thought you'd be. Yeah, I mean, I get a lot shorter. Oh, really? Yeah, I think you're taller counts. I think people say, well, you're a lot taller. They're like, oh, my God, you smile. Because my characters are always frowning. I used to get this, like, moment of shock with people who'd stopped me because they would nearly, like, act like my characters and start, like, yapping about just garbage. Like, oh, you have the chalet next to mine in Stad. I don't have a chalet in Stad. Oh, you have. Your boat was parked next to mine. I don't have a boat. Like, you went to school with my sister at Regents and never went to Regents. So they just make up these crazy things and just, like, they try to, like, I don't know, relate to you. Like, relate, but not relate in a cute and wholesome way. Relate in a I'm also a stud guy, like your character. And I can also buy into that lifestyle. So kind of like a macho.

[Jamie Laing]

Wow.

[Staad Guy]

A macho thing. And then I kind of don't react to it and ask them like a normal question. And then they kind of have to recalibrate for a second. It's like a system malfunction, you know.

[Jamie Laing]

It'S like picking up a Coke can when it's like empty and you think it's full. You're like, what is that exactly? Like a weird moment.

[Staad Guy]

Exactly, exactly. So I. I'm like the empty Coke can sometimes.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay, well just give me this. So. So explain to anyone who doesn't understand what a DOD guy, who is he? What does he do, what does he create? What does his social media look like for anyone who doesn't know?

[Staad Guy]

Okay, so Stad guy is a fictional character who's an ambassador of the world of ultra high net worth people, also known as Constance, that's the Stadt guy's name. He's someone who was born and raised in Stad. Stad is a small village in Switzerland which happens to be a hideaway for billionaires around the world. It's one of the most absurd places on earth. But also beautiful. It's absurd. In contrast, it's like this beautiful nature, like family owned farms and cattle and just middle of nowhere Switzerland. But then also incredibly luxurious hotels, very expensive restaurants, very expensive boutiques. A very prestigious boarding school is there as well, half the year, called Le Rose. And a lot of the students who go there, their parents visit them and stay in Stad. So you have this cluster that ends up congregating of very wealthy people.

[Jamie Laing]

Were you at that boarding school?

[Staad Guy]

I was not. I actually went to stud for the first time two years after creating the page.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah, I was invited there by an events company.

[Jamie Laing]

Are you serious?

[Staad Guy]

I made a song called Commercial Flight where my character talks about the horrors of flying commercial. Because my character only flies private, of course.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, of course.

[Staad Guy]

And an events company took me to Staad to perform it live in front of an audience of like average age, I'd say was 60. And they were in the club singing the song. So I set out to make my character, Constance, this ambassador of all the values that a person in Staad would portray, of course, by turning the dial a bit. So he's absurd, he's stuck in his ways, but he's also obsessed with excellence. Excellence in manners, excellence in ways of living, but also excellence in the products. He loves the services he loves the hotels, he loves and he's a connoisseur. And a connoisseur, for lack of a better word, is someone who is, I think, obsessed with very few things. And it's very hard to change their mind about those things. They love certain wines, they love certain restaurants, they love certain clothing brands and they very rarely let new things in. And they're really obsessed on those things, often to a degree that is overkill. Like they buy the best of the best Porsche, but they only go to the grocery store. They buy the best of the best watch and they rarely change and adjust the time. They just wear it because they love the brand, they love the piece, or they buy the best of the best MacBook, but they're just checking their emails. Right? It's like this obsession with excellence that comes in this world of high net worth people where they become obsessed with the sort of thing. And Constance is the ambassador of that. His cousin Colton, who I also play, is the antithesis of Constance. He's everything hype, zero tradition, zero heritage. And he's like the voice of Gen Z. He's the generation of collabs. He loves vapes and he loves kind of music, he loves streetwear and you know, he's like the classic kids in this world, like this rich kid spoiled brat who's just consuming all the time. And Constance is like the voice of the parent who's like, you should be well mannered, you should be this, should be that. And people in this community who end up following me actually rarely land as either character. They're actually somewhere in the middle. On Sunday morning they're like this poise, elegant Constance. And on Friday night they're this degenerate Colton. So it's like the angel and devil on the shoulders. And my characters end up being emotions people align with or misalign with and talk about. And that's staat guy. It's two emotions really.

[Jamie Laing]

But there are so many questions, right, for this. Right? Because the first question is how you find that character. Like how do you find that online presence?

[Staad Guy]

Right.

[Jamie Laing]

Which is, you know, I've read and heard that supposedly you would make fun. And what you call which is great, you always punch up.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

Which is a really important thing because punching down is not good. But you always punch up, which is really important. But how did you find that character? How did that come to life?

[Staad Guy]

One of my best friends is a toned down version of Constance. He's the best, funniest guy, but he's one of these guys who Just exaggerate him. But he's. He's. He's actually toned down a lot now. But he is one of those people who. I'm sorry, dude, I'm sorry. But he's one of those people who. He has access to a lot of the beauties of the world and would sometimes complain about some of the silly things a little too much. And he would sound.

[Jamie Laing]

Give me an example.

[Staad Guy]

I was on the phone with him when he was in Stad once and he was complaining about his masseuse being delayed in his chalet in Stud. How dare she?

[Jamie Laing]

It's so unrelated. It's hilarious.

[Staad Guy]

Exactly. So I was, I was telling. I was like, you sound ridiculous.

[Jamie Laing]

And you say that. You say you sound ridiculous.

[Staad Guy]

He's one of my best friends. Of course, you know, you say anything to a best friend and he's like. And he knows he sounds ridiculous and it's actually part of the bit. He's like. He's like playing into it because he's like, oh.

[Jamie Laing]

And.

[Staad Guy]

You know, and. And when he laughs, he has this classic rich guy laugh where he's like. He'll slap his leg and do this and he'll kind of freeze. And he has this frown when he laughs and there's no noise. His mouth is just open. He just. He looks around the room and I'm like, this is just too good. He's too like. Even if the guy is naked in the room, you just know he's loaded. You know, it's like, it's like. It's like a body language thing. You can just tell, you know how.

[Jamie Laing]

When really rich, how do they have that body language? I don't know what.

[Staad Guy]

It's oozes power and wealth and generational wealth. I don't know. It's also like a body language thing. He, like, his shoulders are so laid back when he walks and his. His hips are first. It's like.

[Jamie Laing]

It's crazy.

[Staad Guy]

It's so nonchalant. His. He wears the nicest clothes, but it looks like he just threw them on.

[Jamie Laing]

It's like this quite slender as well, I imagine.

[Staad Guy]

Very slender.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, very slender. Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

Plays a lot of tennis.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, there you go. Like Federer. Like Federer body, almost.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. Like Federer is a bit more. I mean, now he's actually my friend's in great shape, so. Yeah. Kind of like Federer, you're right. And he has this monster chalet and staad. And I use the word monster intentionally because it's incredibly tasteful and it's beautiful, of course. But 12 guest bedrooms, 10 staff, three kitchens, movie theater. And it's like absurd because there's building laws on Stade where you can't build more than two, maybe three stories above ground. And everything has to look like a farm cottage on the outside, really. But what they do is we have a similar thing in London.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

It's like insane homes with crazy basements. So he has one of these crazy basement monster chalets and just quickly.

[Jamie Laing]

Stad is one of the highest. It's one of the richest places to live in terms of just buying properties. So what would a property like that cost if you had to guess?

[Staad Guy]

Probably like £80 million. 70. £80 million if I had to guess like that one. There's probably only like 5 or 10 there that are like that.

[Jamie Laing]

That is just wild.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. So if someone owns a property like that, every single person who works in the town knows the name of the property. Actually, everyone who works in the town knows the name of every property. So they'd be called, like, Chalet Jamie. Let's say I have Chalet Jamie. Instead, you walk into maybe after this.

[Jamie Laing]

Podcast, then we could be doing something together.

[Staad Guy]

Then we can make it happen. Exactly. But let's say you own Chalet Jamie.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

You walk into any restaurant in Gstaad and of course, immediately the manager. Ah, Jamie, Boniorno, the table's ready for you. Of course, they hug you, they kiss you. This whole spiel. And in stores, the same thing. In a luxury boutique where you can buy a beautiful cashmere sweater. They would know who you are. They know the chalet you're in. You'd never carry your own bags, you'd never even pay, you'd never touch your wallet. They would just send the bags to your home. And they just know that in the next few days someone who works for you will go clear the tab eventually.

[Jamie Laing]

There is no place like that in the world. It feels like.

[Staad Guy]

No, it's just Stadt. It's like this secret treasure. Some other resorts maybe have this sort of tab system. Like, maybe you see a bit of it in a place like Portofino or a bit of it in a place like Courchevel or Saint Moritz. But instad, it's like really on steroids. There's a few reasons for it. I think there's lots of location barriers to entry. It's like three hours away from the nearest airport, so it's very inconvenient to get to. So you get very few, like, random people stumbling upon Stad. You actually have to, like, decide to go there. And then once you get there, it's also very expensive to stay there. So you get some day visitors. But then once the train stops moving at night, you have to stay there. You have to get a hotel room or have a house just quickly before.

[Jamie Laing]

You go back to your friend. So just give me, give us an example of it. Because. And the big thing, because people just are going to be like, this is just. Feels like a crazy lap land, like total place. What does, what, what is like the expensive thing that you can buy in Stad that is here would just be cheap. Like what does water cost or anything like that?

[Staad Guy]

I mean, first of all, Switzerland is very expensive. So you have that first thing we have to acknowledge. And then stad is like 2 or 3x that. So the cheapest burger you can get in Stad is a place called Wally's, like a little shack. It's like the only fast food in Stad. I think the cheapest burger they have is like 50 francs. So like 45 pounds. It's really crazy.

[Jamie Laing]

I heard that a bottle of water is 30 francs.

[Staad Guy]

Yes, at a. At a hotel.

[Jamie Laing]

Are you serious?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

So, okay, going back to your friend. So your friend, he lives in this place and he. And he's invited you out there?

[Staad Guy]

No, he was there on the phone. My friend and I were on FaceTime. He was complaining about his masseuse. I had a laugh. And his mom was next to him. And of course, like any parents or privileged kids, they like to laugh at their kids. And we all have a laugh together. And I was saying, your son sounds ridiculous. And she's like, I know. Tell him how ridiculous he sounds. And I hang up on the phone with him and start filming a video poking fun at him, exaggerated, talking about the Loro Piana outfit he's always wearing Loro Piana head to toe. So I go into my dad's wardrobe, take a couple Loro Piana sweaters. For those who don't know, Loro Piana is this incredible Italian brand that is known for being very understated, but also known for being excellent in quality and therefore very pricey. And he's always wearing Loro piano. And I was having a laugh about him being overstated about being understated, which is that like ridiculous contrast. And I made this video talking the way he does about stadium. And he sent it to his friends, and they sent it to their friends and it went viral. I say this in quotes. Viral in this micro community, because it really is a micro community.

[Jamie Laing]

Viral Where? On WhatsApp.

[Staad Guy]

On WhatsApp. They just all forwarded it to each other on WhatsApp. And it went through all these stad group chats, which then ended up overlapping with Monaco group chats. And then went from Monaco to Saint Tropez and Saint Tropez to Aspen in the US and all these microcosms of mega wealth resorts started to circulate my video. And fast forward six weeks, I was in London and a lady stopped me on the street and said, oh my God, you're that guy from that video on WhatsApp. The guy from Staad. We loved your video. What's your name by the way? My friends and I just call you the Staad guy because we don't know your name. And I was like, Staad guy sounds really good. And also I had scrolled like any, any of us at least half an hour that day or one hour that day on a good day, just watching random garbage. And if you paid me on the spot to tell me about one video I had seen that day, I wouldn't be able to. We can't remember the stuff we watched. We watched too much. And the fact that I made one video six weeks prior and a lady could remember the video I thought was a big deal because I can't remember anything I watch when I'm scrolling, especially on WhatsApp around the videos. So I thought this means I should make more of these because I had some sort of cultural impact. So I made the account.

[Jamie Laing]

But okay, the big thing is this, right? Like having spoken all about that, you know, we live, we're talking and we're talking about the literal sort of 0.00001% of the population. The wealth these people have is just crazy. It's unrelatable in so many different ways. Why do you think it's popular and why do you think you're content resonates with people now?

[Staad Guy]

Now, in the first year or so, my content was very niche to people who could relate through experience. I talk about very focused on specific restaurants these people would go to or things they would say. And it was this very contained members club. I slowly, slowly started to expand the storytelling a bit beyond and talk about things like manners, ways of being, things my character disapproves of, and throws a la poubelle, which means to the trash in French. And those ended up expanding beyond this ultra niche Staad Monaco world because of people who were either curious to see what this world is really like, but also people who felt heard because I was finally poking Fun at their boss or their uncle or that person in school that they thought to be a snobbery. And the people who were snobs felt celebrated. So there's this strange balance where by bullying up, no one really felt bullied. People who I was bullying and poking fun at felt celebrated and heard because, like, oh, he actually notices these things. That's so funny. And the people who weren't in that position would feel heard because I was like, finally someone's pointing a finger at my boss that no one's made fun of before.

[Jamie Laing]

Because winning both sides.

[Staad Guy]

So I'm trying to win both sides.

[Jamie Laing]

Why do the people, when they're being punched up, why do you think they don't care?

[Staad Guy]

Imagine we're at dinner and you're known amongst your friends as the guy who just can't stop buying watches. It's like so ridiculous. You have so many Rolexes and audio and it's so ridiculous. And I'm like, you know Jamie, he just can't stop buying watches. And you're like, it's not a bad thing. You know, it's like, it's ridiculous and it's funny, but it's still a praise because you're in a position where you can buy lots of watches. So you're flatter than you're like, you're like bullied. But bullying up doesn't really exist normally. Bullying because you're up. Bullying is only mean if there's something someone's insecure about. No one's insecure about having too much money or something that you want to work on that you feel is a part of you possibly want to change. And if those things are being highlighted or poked fun at, that's what hurts people. That's why I think bullying up is barely bullying.

[Jamie Laing]

Tell me the most unbelievable thing you've seen since starting Starred Guy.

[Staad Guy]

I'm blessed that I've seen a lot of random, random things. During COVID there was a law in Switzerland that people had to stay in hotels for two weeks if they stayed at a hotel because of quarantine rules. So there's two week minimum stay. The students of that boarding school in Stadt Hold La Rose, most expensive boarding school in the world. Naturally, the kids there are quite spoiled because they come from very wealthy families. There's a beautiful hotel in Staad called the Alpina, one of the most beautiful hotels you see in your life. And they have a great burger and a great pizza. They have great food.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay?

[Staad Guy]

And during COVID only hotel guests could dine at the hotel. These students live on campus in their dorms, but they were craving the pizza and they couldn't go have the pizza and the burger because only for hotel guests.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

Average room per night starts at around two and a half thousand pounds. So they would get a hotel room for two weeks because two week minimum.

[Jamie Laing]

Stay just to get pizza.

[Staad Guy]

Never even take the key from the reception. Go get the pizza, get the burger.

[Jamie Laing]

It's ridiculous. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever met.

[Staad Guy]

Kids. These kids are like. And they're all like decked out in jewelry and crazy designer and that's 28.

[Jamie Laing]

000 pounds for a pizza.

[Staad Guy]

I don't think they know that. I don't think they care. I don't think their parents know. I think they just show up and the parents pay the tab, when they pay the tab and they don't know what was them and what was the kids and.

[Jamie Laing]

Wild.

[Staad Guy]

Whatever.

[Jamie Laing]

Why do you think we have this obsession with wealth? Because. And I have like a, I had a. Have a big thing about this sort of area, right, which is where, especially with social media and growing up, growing up, definitely you think success is about wealth, it's about material things. It's about, you know, everyone wants to have the aim to drive the Ferrari and have the house in the south of France. That's what you want. And then social media has amplified that. It's volumed it up right. In so many different ways. And so all we want to do is kind of be successful and have lots of money. But you know, probably better than me and I've seen it as well that wealth doesn't necessarily bring happiness. It brings freedom in lots of different ways, but it definitely doesn't bring happiness. So why do you think we have this obsession with it?

[Staad Guy]

I think it's a difficult question.

[Jamie Laing]

It's a really hard question. Try and answer it for me.

[Staad Guy]

I'll try. I think there's tears to the obsession. I think there's a strong desire to be wealthy mostly at a global level, to not struggle. I think that's like probably 99% of the world, right? It's like money doesn't buy happiness, but the lack of money does buy stress, anxiety and difficulty. It's undeniable that people who make money can solve problems more easily, can have more time spent with family, can do the things they want to do more and do the things they don't want to do less. I think the world can agree on that. Once you pass the point of necessity, people pass the point of taking care of the people they love and solving the problems that need solving, which I think is the biggest driver for making money, is actually problem solving. Globally you get to a point beyond necessity of luxury, doing the things you don't have to do, but that you want to do because they're cool or fun or whatever. And within that world of luxury, the ceiling is really high. And it gets higher every year where people get more and more and more ridiculous. And when people are struggling to solve simple problems in their life and they see people throwing money away on silly things, it can either anger them or inspire them or make them laugh because it is inherently ridiculous. And I think everyone, no matter their socioeconomic status or wealth gap, will agree that at a certain point spending a lot of money is ridiculous. Even the person spending it. Like you can talk to someone who spends ridiculous money and they don't take themselves that seriously. They know it's like what they're doing is ridiculous. They know they don't need that car. And the person who can't afford the car also knows they don't need it. So there is some ridicule there. And I think that's where the appeal of my page comes, where it's ridiculous and it's absurd so people can laugh at it. Back to your question of why are people obsessed with it? I think some people are obsessed with it because it's ridiculous. People having access to. To these insane amounts of money where they can do insane things is shocking. There's this shock factor that transcends language. Like you can people who don't even speak English and they, they see a stad guy video and they don't even know what I'm saying. But they see these absurd backgrounds. Of course they're like, oh my God, like they understand the frown. The frown transcends language. The body language transcends language. So I was saying earlier about if my friend walked into a room naked, he could also have his lips duct tape, but his duct taped. But like just his energy and his body language and the way he moves, you can tell the guy is like noble. You know, he like. And you could also throw him a thousand years in the past or 10,000 years in the past and he'd look like a count or like a duke. There's so. And I think that that is ridiculous because it's rare, it's absurd.

[Jamie Laing]

I get what you tell. So what do you think? What makes you happy then in life? Because if we're just. Because I want, like if we're. If as young kids, like, look at all this content online, right? And to see, like, okay, the way that we get happy is we have to drive a Lamborghini or we have to, you know, have a sudden job, or we have to be skiing in stard or whatever it is. That's like an unrealistic dream. So we kind of have to, like, change that and sort of say, okay, what actually brings happiness? And so for you, what makes you happy?

[Staad Guy]

I think what makes me happy is solving problems that are bothering me. So if there's something in my life that needs solving and I can fix that, usually quite slowly and incrementally, I'm happy that I'm not facing that problem anymore.

[Jamie Laing]

Wow, that's a. That. I was not expecting that.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

Like what? Give me an example. That's a. That's a great thing to. That's a great answer. Because. Yeah, I just want to. Because most people don't think like that. What you're saying there is. You're. You're saying you want to better yourself.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. I think progress is a driver of happiness. But more than progress, I think slow and incremental progress. I think quick fixes make me feel pleasure, not happiness, which I think are two very different feelings, because I think you can feel pleasure between lunch and dinner. But I think happiness lasts weeks and months. So solving problems that mean a lot to me makes me happy. An example of a problem could be if I'm not happy with the way I look and I work hard at improving my health and fitness and then I achieve a goal, then I feel happy. Right. Or I don't like my living conditions because I want to live in a place that makes me happier. And I want to move out of my house and get a. Not share a bathroom with siblings and have my own bathroom and have my own personal space and have a place to live out with my girlfriend. Like, that also makes me happy. These are just examples.

[Jamie Laing]

So you have a girlfriend?

[Staad Guy]

I don't. I'm single.

[Jamie Laing]

Oh, okay. I was going to get a little bit.

[Staad Guy]

This was. This was a Straight in there.

[Jamie Laing]

I'm single. Okay.

[Staad Guy]

This was a.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay, well, buddy, I hear you. Okay.

[Staad Guy]

This is a state of mind that I was in in the past, but I think. I think problem solving makes people happy mostly because having problems people can't solve makes them unhappy. Right. So it's. It's just the inverse.

[Jamie Laing]

It's. You've totally nailed it.

[Staad Guy]

That.

[Jamie Laing]

You've completely nailed it. It's funny. We. We do. We think that. We think that Outside ourselves. Those are the things that are going to make us happy. We go on holiday, it's going to make us happy. We're going to get that new job, it's going to make us happy, maybe a new relationship, it's going to make us happy. But actually what truly makes us happy is making ourselves happier. And that's the hardest thing to realize. And it took me so long to realize that, that actually I was trying to get all these different things and I was like, well, why don't I feel that content? And actually feeling content is just being happy. So there's a. I watched this. Have you seen the movie Meet Joe Black?

[Staad Guy]

I haven't.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay, man. There's this great thing at the end where it's like Anti Hopkins, who plays the character, gets up at the end. He's very wealthy guy. But he says, he says, I feel very blessed because I realize in life I don't want anymore, I don't need any more. I feel content. And you're just like, that's what you want to get to in life. You want to get to a place of just feeling completely content. And that's kind of a hard place to get to.

[Staad Guy]

I think. It's very hard. And if you oversimplify it, you could go very Buddhist with it of like, expectations minus reality equals like your happiness. Right.

[Jamie Laing]

Explain that. Explain that to me.

[Staad Guy]

If your expectations are very high.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

And your reality is lower, then they'll never meet up and they'll never match. So you'll never be happy and you'll never feel satisfied with your work. But if your expectations are very low, you just want to like chill in the sun and be a monk, then you can be happier much more easily. Right. Because your reality and your expectations are matched. So really the mismatch where your expectations far exceed your reality is where people find unhappiness often. But I think it's difficult to generalize, reducing expectations because some people's expectations are fueled by necessity. For example, wanting a Lamborghini and thinking that will make you happy is ridiculous. But I think the norm is actually more problem based. Where people want money actually to fill holes of debt in their life or cover the divorce that they really want to go through with their partner or fix problems or like do this health thing or do this thing for themselves, that would really help them get into a different state of mind. And that actually might make them a lot happier because the burden of the problem is not there anymore. So I think a lot of happiness can unfortunately be bought. But Only unfortunately, if you can't buy it right. It's also fortunate because someone who has a huge debt issue, for example, that keeps them up all night, they have loads of student debt or medical debt or whatever it is. If they make a lot of money and they aspire to become wealthy and they get rid of that debt, they'll be a lot happier. They may not be hunky dory, the happiest people in the world, but I assure you they'll feel less stressed. And being less stressed does make you happy. So I think this question is really complex because what I was saying earlier about the tiers of wealth, it's like, yeah, if you get to the stad grade Lamborghini or Ferrari, it's like, of course, doesn't matter, but like 99% of the world is in a whole different headspace with a whole different set of issues and a whole different set of expectations. And the realities are like off offset. So that's why you can reduce your expectations. If you're this solitary monk with no dependence, if no one relies on you, you can just move to Thailand, smoke a joint and do Muay Thai all day. It will cost you like £20 a day and you'll be the happiest guy in the world. But most people have, you know, most people have a wife and kids and problems and their ex.

[Jamie Laing]

So you think responsibilities make us unhapp happy?

[Staad Guy]

I think complexities that we can't solve easily make us stressed and ultimately unhappy. I think problems we can solve and that we do solve make us happier.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, I never looked at it like that.

[Staad Guy]

AI.

[Jamie Laing]

Had the time of my life.

[Staad Guy]

Life.

[Jamie Laing]

Hey, I never felt this way before.

[Jemima]

From building timelines to assigning the right people and even spotting risks across dozens of projects, Monday Sidekick knows your business, thinks ahead, and takes action. One click on the star and consider it done.

[Jamie Laing]

And I owe it all to you.

[Jemima]

Try Monday Sidekick AI you'll love to use on Monday.com.

[Jamie Laing]

Hello, everyone. We're Jamie and Sophie. You may remember us from Nearlyweds and then Newlyweds.

[Jemima]

But now, guys, okay, Things are about to get even wilder as we take on our biggest adventure yet. Becoming parents.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, that's right. Newlyweds is now Nearly Parents. And we're bringing you the same honest, heartwarming takes on our journey to parenthood. I guess.

[Jemima]

Join us as we find out what it really means to become a family while trying not to kill each other.

[Jamie Laing]

Get ready for Nearly Parents, your favorite new podcast.

[Staad Guy]

Say hello to Mia.

[Jemima]

Hey there.

[Staad Guy]

Mia runs a pet Grooming service in Chicago. But getting new clients was rough until.

[Jemima]

I started using Acast. I recorded my ad, targeted pet owners in the area and let Acast do the rest. Now people all over the city know about my grooming services.

[Staad Guy]

Mia's business is looking sharp. What's your secret for happy pets and happy clients?

[Jemima]

A fresh cut, a friendly vibe and a well placed podcast ad.

[Staad Guy]

Get the word out about your business through AK Acast. Visit go.acast.com advertise to get started.

[Jamie Laing]

How much do you like sharing of your past?

[Staad Guy]

Let's see.

[Jamie Laing]

So where did you grow up?

[Staad Guy]

I grew up in London. You did? Born and raised.

[Jamie Laing]

School in London?

[Staad Guy]

Yes.

[Jamie Laing]

Parents together?

[Staad Guy]

Yes.

[Jamie Laing]

Touchwood. Brothers? Sisters?

[Staad Guy]

Two sisters only. Boy.

[Jamie Laing]

I like the straightforward answers. We're just getting through it. Two sisters?

[Staad Guy]

Yes.

[Jamie Laing]

Older? Younger?

[Staad Guy]

I'm in the middle.

[Jamie Laing]

You're in the middle?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

What do they think about your online presence?

[Staad Guy]

They're very supportive.

[Jamie Laing]

I like these answers. Okay, these are good. So you go to university and you study business administration.

[Staad Guy]

I went to university in the US I went to a business school called Babson College. It's very entrepreneurship focused. I've always been a let me try and make a business and make some money on the side and sell some things, which I think is very typical in our generation.

[Jamie Laing]

So what was your first hustle?

[Staad Guy]

I was like selling sneakers when I was 13. It's a classic.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Staad Guy]

I used to line up in front of Niketown on Regent street, buy some shoes, resell them. People will be so shocked because Stadt guy doesn't seem like a sneaker head. Lineup size.

[Jamie Laing]

It's like the complete opposite.

[Staad Guy]

I remember I had this girlfriend at uni and we went to Disneyland Orlando for our, for our two year. She really wanted to go to Disneyland. I was like, yeah, let's go to Disneyland. And I couldn't afford the trip and I sold the pair of Nikes and paid for the trip. I mean, there's a fun trip.

[Jamie Laing]

Every single person here just went, oh.

[Staad Guy]

Listen, I was as a very privileged kid. It's not like I was, I was using it for luxury, like a trip to Disney. I wasn't using it to pay for like a medical bill. So thank God it was still like a, a fun, funny thing.

[Jamie Laing]

Do you know what I did when I was at uni? I was at Leeds University and I went and took out a student overdraft from, from a bank. I didn't realize you had to pay it back. I thought it was free money. I thought it was Free cash. So I took my girlfriend at the time to New York on a trip and we stayed in the Gossip Girl hotel and we had this amazing time and I was like, I'm balling out of control. I got like two grand to my name. I was like, see ya. This is the best thing. Spent all my money, never ever thought about it.

[Staad Guy]

Oh God.

[Jamie Laing]

Never paid it back. Now. Yeah. Bay lifters turned off in my parents house because I had never paid it back. My credit rating when I was like 18 to 21 was so bad that I couldn't even go and get a SIM card from a car from warehouse because it was that bad, because I had no idea about it. But we never taught these things.

[Staad Guy]

No.

[Jamie Laing]

You had this entrepreneurial spirit from such a young age.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

Why, what was the obsession? The obsession must have been with cash.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. Honestly, I've always been a dreamer. You can read my report cards since I was like five. And every teacher will say, sweet kid. Okay. To below average in class and always daydreaming. I was always a big daydreamer.

[Jamie Laing]

You, you leave university, you go and work, you do a startup for a bit, right?

[Staad Guy]

Yes.

[Jamie Laing]

Which doesn't work out.

[Staad Guy]

It worked well for a while, then ended up going bankrupt. And then I filmed my first Odd Guy video right after the startup went bust.

[Jamie Laing]

So you've had failure.

[Staad Guy]

I have, yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

How do you, how do you react to failure? Do you think failure is a good thing?

[Staad Guy]

I mean, I can lie to you and say like, oh, it motivates me, but I was sad, like, yeah, of course I was like, oh my God. The world seems, feels over at that point when you're going through failure. But I'm so grateful for all those failures because here I am today.

[Jamie Laing]

What do you learn from it?

[Staad Guy]

I think failure teaches grit. And grit is very important because if you don't have that heartbreak with your relationship, you will think they come easy. And you think relationships don't require work. And the same thing for fitness. Same thing with work, life, career, anything. I think grit is very important because nothing good gets handed to you easily. And I think where a lot of very wealthy parents fail when raising their kids is they don't allow them to fail and they give them too many safety nets and their kids have no grit. And then when they got into the real world, maybe they're fine financially, but they'll struggle in their love lives. They'll have lots of divorces, they'll have lots of breakups because they weren't taught to fight for things they want because they always had the safety net of their parents and they'll have low grit. So I think grit is the main thing and life can prescribe grit and that's probably the best prescription. People who have a tough time as kids usually end up being tough adults. It's a beautiful thing with unfortunately not the ideal reasons to become tough, having a tough childhood, but they become tough people. And I think that parents of privileged kids sometimes fail to prescribe that toughness on their kids, which could be just by being strict parents, putting them through sports, putting them through some level of controlled hardship to teach them grit and to make them have grit.

[Jamie Laing]

The so when you're working at Apple, you have this stable job, right? It's a good job and there's a career path. It's, you know, one of the big businesses in the world. You start making your content on the side. I mean, for someone who's experienced failure, it's another risk to kind of leave that safety net to go over and start making content, which there is a huge amount of risk in making content. Everyone wants to be a content creator and be a YouTuber or be an influencer, whatever it is, but they don't understand the pressures of it when you're actually in it. Why did you decide to suddenly go run? I'm going to go and do that.

[Staad Guy]

Leaving. Yeah, Apple. The. A big part of why I joined Apple was because of the stress that I went through when the startup went bust. I just wanted security. I wanted to be locked into a job that could really keep me safe for years, that I could just show up to work, do a good job. And I knew that at the end of the month, end of the year, I'm good to go. But just like we learn in our relationships, the truth always comes out. You can pretend to be someone you're not and you can act the way that you think you could be, but really we all end up just being ourselves. The truth always comes back. And that's my entrepreneurial self. So I was in the Apple environment. I was working there. I loved it. I learned so much. Shout out to Ashna, my boss, who honestly changed my life. She was the coolest girl ever. She taught me so much and she always encouraged me. She's like, are you sure this is the real you? Like, I feel like you're a bigger risk taker. I feel like you should be doing more. You always talk about these big dreams. And she helped me create these vision boards at the beginning of every year where I'd. It's The Oprah Winfrey vision board where I'd have these quadrants and talk about my dreams in different categories. And I'd put it above my desk and just look at it every day.

[Jamie Laing]

It was on there.

[Staad Guy]

It's like four sections. You have corporate growth, personal growth, material growth, and things like words of wisdom, family.

[Jamie Laing]

I'm doing this at the moment. It's really interesting.

[Staad Guy]

Exactly. It was right above my desk because I'd be like annoyed at something at work and I'd look up and remember why I'm working. So it was literally right above.

[Jamie Laing]

That's a great piece of advice for anyone listening.

[Staad Guy]

Thank you.

[Jamie Laing]

It's so good. Do that, do that. Vision aboard. Above your bed, above your desk, above where you do your homework. So you look up every single time. You remember the reason behind it.

[Staad Guy]

Why, why? Why?

[Jamie Laing]

Why?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. Thanks, Ashna.

[Jamie Laing]

Ashna, whoever you are. Great. She's still at Apple.

[Staad Guy]

She's still at Apple.

[Jamie Laing]

She's still at Apple. She's crushing it at Apple.

[Staad Guy]

Crushing it. She's the best. She's a machine. Ashna's the best. So Ashna pushed me to continue to be true to myself and figure out who that is. And at the same time as working at Apple, I was making a lot of videos after work on weekends. The videos, they didn't realize very occasionally someone would notice and I'd see their eyes spark on a call or something because my career was mostly through Covid at Apple. So it was mostly calls, not face to face.

[Jamie Laing]

Wait, they would notice on the calls?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah, there'd be like a wider team call. And I'd see them like, I'd be like, shit. And I'd find their name and the directory message them being like, please don't say anything, we'll talk about this later. And I probably did this with like 12 people, 15 people. And would get on the call, I'd tell them, yeah, yes, I'm actually the stud guy, I work here, blah blah. They're like, but I thought you're a billionaire from Stud. I'm like, I've never been to Stud. I just, I make these videos so it's ridiculous. And I eventually started to make some money off the page.

[Jamie Laing]

This is brand deals, right?

[Staad Guy]

Brand deals. And became lucrative. Also had merch. I started selling merch. My merch was so badly done. It was horrific.

[Jamie Laing]

What was it?

[Staad Guy]

So my merch is actually part of the joke. So I remember I was sitting at my desk and I thought, how funny would it be if my self obsessed character has merch with his face on it. And if I sell two or three, great. Really, it's just a joke. So I went on YouTube and I searched how to make merch. And I found this tutorial on YouTube of how to integrate this production on demand service called Printful into Shopify. So you make a Shopify website, you integrate the Shopify app called Printful, and you start making clothes immediately.

[Jamie Laing]

You did all of this by yourself?

[Staad Guy]

I appreciate the question because it praises me and makes me sound really smart. It's so easy.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay. I wouldn't know where the fuck you.

[Staad Guy]

Watch this YouTube video and you just. It says like, step one, create account. It's like so simple. I'm not gonna sit here and take your praise. But I love it. I appreciate it.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, but your attention to detail. 50% of success is turning up. You went and did it.

[Staad Guy]

I appreciate that.

[Jamie Laing]

Big thing.

[Staad Guy]

I made this merch, threw my face on it. I swear, it took me maybe an hour and a half. Okay, maybe so on the second hour.

[Jamie Laing]

Shout out to anyone who wants to go and do it. It's that easy. YouTube it. You can go and find it. Okay, great.

[Staad Guy]

You can most things. YouTube can teach you how to raise a family. You can do the. The most difficult things in the world. YouTube is the best. You can do anything on YouTube. So I, I figured out how to make shops, raise a family. I was making X in my Apple salary, and an hour after launch, I made my Apple salary in one hour. In merch.

[Jamie Laing]

No ways.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. It was insane. I barely had any followers. I just posted it. People found my merch funny, and it was production on demand, so I had no inventory risk. Someone would place the order, the sweatshirt would get printed and produced, and they would show up to their house like 10 days later. And my merch is not like something people need for their friend's birthday on Friday. Now I have 1.3 million. Then max 20k. My followers at the time were and still are the highest concentration of high net worth followers in the world. So Forbes a year later did an audit of my followers and realized that I have the highest concentration of billionaires of any social media page globally.

[Jamie Laing]

That's a good bunch of people to have if you want to sell stuff.

[Staad Guy]

Luxury stuff.

[Jamie Laing]

Luxury stuff, yeah. Wow.

[Staad Guy]

It's a blessing.

[Jamie Laing]

So you make your salary in sales?

[Staad Guy]

Yes. And then like, so it's like what, 56? No, my salary, like my month wage.

[Jamie Laing]

Oh, it's a monthly wage.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. Like, I made my month salary in like a couple of hours in merch. And I Tell Ashna. And she's like, whoa, that's really cool. You should do whatever your heart desires. She was very free spirited and very cool about this.

[Jamie Laing]

I love Ash was your boss and paying you but also like supporting your side hustle. That's, that's amazing. I like that.

[Staad Guy]

That's like a secure person, you know.

[Jamie Laing]

It'S like I couldn't agree. I'm a huge believer. I say this to everyone who ever joins the team. It's like whatever your dream is, I want to help you achieve it. And if you want to help this along the way, great. That's just a bonus for me. But whatever you want to achieve is the most important thing.

[Staad Guy]

100%.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

And I remember telling my parents and they're like, there's a difference between the path of your life that you build slowly in the path of your life that you get lucky with. This merch thing sounds like a lucky thing. So take it slow, think about it. Whatever you do will support you regardless. But we don't think you should sell a couple T shirts and quit your job. It's a little crazy. And honestly, they're right. Like I worked my entire life to get a job at Apple. I made merch by accident on YouTube and made my month's salary. Who knows if that could last?

[Jamie Laing]

But that's a great example of not making sure that short term success isn't your long term goal. I mean the fact that you're making quick cash doesn't mean it's going to be in the future. And that's when people get mistaken.

[Staad Guy]

Yes, I do feel like now more than ever we have the tools to be able to test things out. On the tube ride home, you can literally open your phone and test out content. And there's so many tools to just do random things at random times, to just test and hedge risk and make slow calculated decisions versus rash emotion driven decisions where you're like, actually I'm gonna drop it all and I want to be a singer.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah. Because there's this big idea that you have to go all in. That's what you have to do. And, and I, I agree with you. It's weird, right? There's this whole narrative being spread right on social media which is like quit school, become an entrepreneur, don't work for anyone else, go all in on this. If you're not all in on this, then you're a failure, which is just total rubbish.

[Staad Guy]

Too much, it's nonsense. I don't think everyone should be anything. No, it's like if you want to do that, fine, go down that path. But like there's so much like founder porn online now, which is. Makes people think they should just drop everything and then they'll get everything. But that's the world. I think reality exists in nuance. Nothing is extreme. It's.

[Jamie Laing]

I agree with you. Right. And I find, I mean, I could go for hours about this, but this whole idea that if you're not an entrepreneur and you're not running your own business, that you're some sort of failure is just bizarre. And it's a really like toxic, I think, kind of narrative. Firstly, people running a business is. Is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It's non stop. It's all the time. You have to worry about money, people costs everything that's going on. So I think it's a real sort of problem that people are sort of pushing that narrative.

[Staad Guy]

Absolutely.

[Jamie Laing]

In terms of business right off the back of like your followers and everything you've. You've created Poobel, which is your jewelry business you're wearing right now.

[Staad Guy]

I am.

[Jamie Laing]

Which is a genius business.

[Staad Guy]

Thank you.

[Jamie Laing]

Explain it.

[Staad Guy]

It's a modular charm bracelet. The reason why I say modular is because the charms connect side by side. Charms historically dangle and jingle. When charms like dangle and jingle, they make this noise like a Christmas tree and they're a bit childish. I wanted a charm bracelet where the charms hang side by side. So it's just a bit more masculine, a bit more presentable. So I came up with this design where every single link opens and closes and you can connect charms side by side. And then each charm, at least in our initial launch, was very stad guy world. Private jets. Private jet. I have a jet here. I have a caviar, I have a dice. I have a passport. I have an Hermes Birkin. Sorry. I have a bag. I have a chess piece. I have a watermelon. I have a golf bag. I have a Pilates reformer. Pilates machine. That's a good one. I have a sauna bucket. You know all about the saunas, I'm sure.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, yeah.

[Staad Guy]

You look like a sauna cold plunger. Are you?

[Jamie Laing]

I. A little bit, yeah. Yeah.

[Staad Guy]

Young, successful white dude, he saunas and he cold plunges for sure. It's a big thing. Golf ball. So we have all these charms and we have over 100 charms and people can link them and create bracelets, create necklaces, create handbag chains. This great. You can do anything with them. And they're all sterling silver and Hand painted with enamel. Enamels, like this molten glass. It's all done by hand, so some of the charms take like 11 hours to make.

[Jamie Laing]

Who have you seen wearing it that you didn't know was a fan?

[Staad Guy]

Lando was wearing it recently.

[Jamie Laing]

I saw that.

[Staad Guy]

Great. I was very happy.

[Jamie Laing]

Love Lando.

[Staad Guy]

Lando's wearing it. Central Cee put it on his. On his bag recently. Peggy Goo wears them all the time, which makes me very happy. Yeah. A lot of cool people love the brand, which means a lot to me.

[Jamie Laing]

Very grateful because you make. You make the. Your brand yourself. But then also you have these incredible brands collaborating with you.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah.

[Jamie Laing]

And they never collaborate with anyone.

[Staad Guy]

Yes. I work with Laura Piano. I was their first ambassador.

[Jamie Laing]

Why?

[Staad Guy]

Just cool.

[Jamie Laing]

And apparently you made the shoes and you made a shoe with them and they sold out.

[Staad Guy]

Yes, we. When I had about 50,000 followers, we collaborated on an online exclusive of a shoe, and it sold out in like six hours.

[Jamie Laing]

What is a. What is a shoe retailer? What price?

[Staad Guy]

Just under a thousand euros. We sold like 700 pairs in a few hours.

[Jamie Laing]

It's just unbelievable.

[Staad Guy]

A long time ago. It was fun. Very fun.

[Jamie Laing]

So what's next for you? What do you think?

[Staad Guy]

I don't know. Lunch with you.

[Jamie Laing]

I would love that. This has been a long time coming because it. But it is. But it's like for you, you. It feels like you can kind of drift into sort of any sort of space at the moment, which must feel really exciting.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah, it's very exciting. What's next for me is. I'll answer that without joking. It's, I think, staying true to the archetypes. What I mean by that is who are my characters? And I. Every few months, I update these character profiles of who is Constance and who is Colton and what are the real versions of these people doing day to day? I have like 10 or 15 people that I'll check in with every few months and see if their habits have changed a bit, see if the trends have changed.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here. You do research?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah, I do a lot of research.

[Jamie Laing]

No, you don't.

[Staad Guy]

It's also like, it's not lab research. I'm not sitting there, like, studying. It's actually just having a conversation and asking a billionaire that I know, by the way, what have you done the past couple weeks? And now a big thing, for example, is cycling. That's a new thing. It was paddle a few months ago, but now a lot of my billionaire friends are really into cycling. They're buying the whole. The whole gear and the cool Helmets and the nice bikes.

[Jamie Laing]

Are you serious?

[Staad Guy]

The whole thing? Yeah. And they take them on their boats, they put the bike in the plane, they do the whole thing and that's a new thing. So maybe I'll make videos about cycling.

[Jamie Laing]

Now so you can see where trends go. Almost.

[Staad Guy]

I mean, maybe I just talk to people who I think are often leading a lot of these trends because.

[Jamie Laing]

Because they're bringing the wealth to these.

[Staad Guy]

Places, they're bringing the wealth to the places, they're bringing the wealth to the interest. And a lot of the times the biggest spenders move the trend because the brands follow the biggest spender in a lot of ways. So I think like also the biggest spenders have the luxury of time, so they have more time to do things in their free time, which means they have more time to test and see what they like and don't like. Whereas someone who's working 10 hour days, they can't play paddle every day, they can't wear the full kit of paddle, they can't go shop for random trinkets to attach their handbags, they're busy, like working and raising families and doing all these things. So I think a lot of trends actually end up starting with this ultra high net worth community of people who have a lot of free time on their hands to just chat and spread trends and buy random things.

[Jamie Laing]

Dude, I've really enjoyed this.

[Staad Guy]

Me too.

[Jamie Laing]

I've been trying to get you on for so long and to finally sort of somewhat get the sort of the real person behind the Persona is super interesting. We like to end the podcast with eight questions. You ready for this?

[Staad Guy]

Yes. Let's do it.

[Jamie Laing]

What's the saying or phrase that makes you smile, that cheers you up?

[Staad Guy]

I love gratitude. So when someone says they appreciate something, even like, I appreciate you. Thank you. But a genuine sign of gratitude I think always makes me very happy if someone says, by the way, that thing you did last week, that was really sweet of you. I appreciate it. Just that moment of introspection that people have to call out an action, ideally sometime in the past, so you realize people are thinking about things you're doing. Makes me very happy.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, I have one where whenever I do this thing now, whenever I'm talking about someone with someone, I always send that person a message saying, hey, just talking about how great you are, that's.

[Staad Guy]

Such a nice thing.

[Jamie Laing]

I do that all the time. And so when you receive that message, feels so good. You're like, this is the greatest thing ever.

[Staad Guy]

It really goes a long way.

[Jamie Laing]

It goes such A long way. Which leads nicely on the question 2. Best compliment anyone's ever given you.

[Staad Guy]

I think today when you said that, I really think about things a lot. I think it's a nice compliment considered.

[Jamie Laing]

It's a great way to be. What scares you most about yourself?

[Staad Guy]

Sometimes I'm harsh.

[Jamie Laing]

Really?

[Staad Guy]

Yeah. With people I love the most. I don't sugarcoat things very often and I'm scared that sometimes I'm too harsh and I hurt people's feelings because I. I think I'm like most people probably I'm like most considerate with people I don't know and the least considerate with people I know very well. And I'm just like filterless and I just say things the way they are. Yeah, it's true.

[Jamie Laing]

I never thought of it like that.

[Staad Guy]

Christmas dinner cutthroat. You think it's going to be the soft, cute, wholesome moment. Usually people are just like, I hate you. You know, I've never told you before, but I hate you. They're not that far, but it's like, you know, I think I can be harsh and I need to work on that.

[Jamie Laing]

When was the last time you cried?

[Staad Guy]

I have no idea. No, keep those emotions in years ago.

[Jamie Laing]

All right. Okay, good. What's something you can't let go of?

[Staad Guy]

My teddy bear.

[Jamie Laing]

Get out of here.

[Staad Guy]

Yeah, my parents gave me this bear from Gap when I was born and they gave me a matching outfit. It's like, it's denim overalls and my bear had these denim overalls and I used to travel with him as a kid. So when I went to military camp when I was like 14 and I brought my teddy bear with me. So you can just imagine, you know, And I don't, I don't sleep with him. He's at my parents house but he's. I like that. I call him he.

[Jamie Laing]

What's his name?

[Staad Guy]

I called him Barry when I was like, I don't know, two. I don't know.

[Jamie Laing]

When you were 12?

[Staad Guy]

When I was 19. But yeah. He's at my parents house and I hope to never get rid of him. Hopefully my kids can meet him one day.

[Jamie Laing]

Do you still wear the outfit?

[Staad Guy]

I don't. It's literally this big. It's tiny.

[Jamie Laing]

What's your guilty pleasure?

[Staad Guy]

Chocolate mousse.

[Jamie Laing]

What turns you off?

[Staad Guy]

A few things to be honest.

[Jamie Laing]

Hit me.

[Staad Guy]

One of them is yapping.

[Jamie Laing]

Okay.

[Staad Guy]

Loud yapping.

[Jamie Laing]

That's kind of me.

[Staad Guy]

No, no, you're good. I think you're careful with your words. I just don't like I don't like high volume over dinner. Like, it's just not for me.

[Jamie Laing]

What turns you on?

[Staad Guy]

Honestly, people are very, like, soft spoken and kind. I think kindness, but not just like, oh, he's a nice person, whatever. But it's like, if everyone who crosses this person's path can say, oh, that is a very kind person. I love that about them. As a friend, most things I look for in close friends are things I would look for in a relationship as well, to be honest. So, like, in close friends, I want someone to be like, kind and mindful. And everyone from a waiter to a doorman to their own family would say, they're above all, they're kind.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah. It's the most important thing. I love that last one. What's Constance favorite? Sweat. Way to curse. Thank you so much, man. I really appreciate. Dude, you've been amazing. Go listen to your podcast. Go and check everything. You're amazing, man. I appreciate it. That's amazing. Thank you so much.

[Staad Guy]

Thank you.

[Jamie Laing]

What do you think?

[Jemima]

So fascinating.

[Jamie Laing]

Wild, right?

[Jemima]

Absolutely wild. The story about the. Those teenagers at that school, that really posh school. Oh, my God, how much money they would spend for a pizza.

[Jamie Laing]

Like, did that upset you or.

[Jemima]

I. I can't comprehend it. Like, it's like, it's at a level where my brain, like, it doesn't make sense in my brain.

[Jamie Laing]

It's like thinking about space.

[Jemima]

Yeah, a little bit. And time. For me, time.

[Jamie Laing]

But it was interesting and, you know, it's. Yeah. Peeling back the curtain to that. Incredible.

[Jemima]

Why are we so fascinated by it?

[Jamie Laing]

Because it's. It's sort of unattainable and it's unrealistic. It's the 0.0001% of the world. I mean, so no one really has that wealth. And so to understand what having that wealth is, like, is kind of interesting to know. We really, really hope you enjoyed it. We hope you liked the episode. We'll be back next week for another episode of Great Company. As always, stay in touch with us. Okay, so subscribe to the show. If you haven't already, get in touch via Instagram @GreatCompany podcast. Or you can send us an email. Greatcompanyamproductions.co.uk and of course, we'll be out next week for another episode of Great Company. Hello, everyone. We're Jamie and Sophie. You may remember us from Newlyweds and then Newlyweds.

[Jemima]

But now, guys, things are about to get even wilder as we take on our biggest adventure yet. Becoming parents.

[Jamie Laing]

Yeah, that's Right Newlyweds is now Nearly Parents and we're bringing you the same honest, heartwarming takes on our journey to parenthood. I guess.

[Jemima]

Join us as we find out what it really means to become a family while trying not to kill each other.

[Jamie Laing]

Get ready for Nearly Parents, your favorite new podcast.

[Staad Guy]

Say hello to Samantha. Hi there. Samantha built a SaaS platform that helps small businesses manage their workplace flow, but she needed a smarter way to reach decision makers.

[Jemima]

That's where Acast came in.

[Staad Guy]

They helped me produce a professional audio ad which played to business owners and.

[Jemima]

Ops leads using their audience attributes targeting tools. Suddenly my platform was showing up in the ears of the exact people I needed to reach.

[Staad Guy]

Now that's streamlined marketing. Samantha, what's your tip for scaling smart?

[Jemima]

Solve a real problem and make sure the right people hear about it.

[Jamie Laing]

Promote your business with podcast ads on Acast.

[Staad Guy]

Get [e-mail] advertise.