2 Trends Hidden in Plain Sight (+ $1M ideas)

Summary

Podcast Title: My First Million
Host: Hubspot Media
Episode: 2 Trends Hidden in Plain Sight (+ $1M ideas)
Release Date: March 14, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 2 of "My First Million," hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri delve into emerging business trends that are flying under the radar but hold significant potential for substantial revenue generation. This episode focuses primarily on the resurgence and transformation of flea markets and the booming true crime podcasting industry. Through insightful discussions and real-world examples, the hosts explore how these seemingly traditional sectors are evolving in the modern marketplace.

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1. Flea Markets: A Hidden Goldmine

a. Challenging Traditional Perceptions

Sam Parr opens the conversation by shifting the focus from commonly discussed topics like RV parks and storage units to flea markets. He emphasizes his passion and prediction that flea markets will become a dominant business trend in the next five to ten years.

Sam Parr [00:00]: "We're going to be talking about flea markets. That's what I think is going to happen. I feel like I can rule the world."

b. Al Fargo's Marketplace: A Modern Take

The discussion takes a turn towards Al Fargo's Marketplace, a contemporary flea market in New York City organized by four young entrepreneurs. Unlike the traditional image of flea markets dominated by rural and "hillbilly" culture, Al Fargo's represents a high-end, trendy incarnation catering to urban millennials and Gen Z.

Sam Parr [03:15]: "It's a high end vintage flea market and it was packed. And I'm 35. I was the oldest person there."

c. Revenue Potential and Business Opportunities

Sean Puri and Sam Parr analyze the financial viability of such flea markets, estimating revenues in the millions. They discuss the scalability and fragmentation of the industry, suggesting that flea markets could become as lucrative and widespread as RV parks.

Sean Puri [08:49]: "So based on that, 20,000 visitors paying 12 bucks to enter. The vendors paying 150 bucks to be there. They're making 600 grand per flea market."

d. Gen Z's Appetite for Secondhand Fashion

The hosts highlight the surge in secondhand and vintage clothing among younger generations, citing platforms like Depop and Poshmark. This trend not only fuels the popularity of flea markets but also presents numerous business opportunities in the recommerce space.

Sam Parr [12:16]: "Have you heard of Depop, Sean? Do they have 80 million users? And then there's Poshmark and then there's Grail and like 10 other ones."

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2. Innovations Enhancing Flea Markets

a. Gamification and Enhanced Customer Experience

Sean Puri introduces an innovative idea inspired by the Indonesian food court model, where a wristband system allows patrons to collect and pay for their favorite items seamlessly. Applying a similar approach to flea markets could transform the shopping experience into a more engaging and social event.

Sean Puri [16:46]: "I wonder if somebody could do a similar thing with thrift or flea markets. ... It's basically a party."

Sam Parr [17:48]: "That's fantastic."

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3. True Crime Podcasts: An Ever-Growing Phenomenon

a. Crime Junkie: Setting the Standard

Transitioning from flea markets, the hosts discuss the meteoric rise of true crime podcasts, spotlighting "Crime Junkie" as a prime example. Ashley Flowers, the podcast's creator, has scaled her venture to achieve impressive financial success, illustrating the lucrative nature of this niche.

Sean Puri [21:21]: "It's actually Crime Junkie, a podcast that was started by a 36 year old podcaster."

Sam Parr [23:37]: "She's got a little three year old daughter. She has racked up 500 million plus downloads in the last five years. Just insane volume."

b. Identifying White Spaces and Opportunities

Sam and Sean brainstorm potential gaps in the true crime podcasting landscape, proposing ideas such as:

• YouTube-First Format: Leveraging the visual medium to enhance storytelling.

  Sean Puri [28:35]: "The first thing is go all in as a YouTube first podcast, even. Crime junkie started heavily in audio, then added video."

• Comedy-Infused True Crime: Introducing humor to differentiate from the typically serious tone of existing podcasts.

  Sean Puri [36:42]: "True crime, there's nobody funny in true crime. So if you're even moderately funny, you're the funniest true crime podcast."

• Diverse Perspectives: Focusing on underrepresented voices, such as Black true crime podcasters, to tap into a broader audience.

  Sean Puri [33:57]: "Black true crime. Not a lot of black podcasters doing true crime."

c. Personal Validation and Market Insight

The hosts reflect on their early recognition of the true crime trend, acknowledging how their insights align with industry successes, thereby validating their predictive prowess.

Sam Parr [45:24]: "It's my thesis, we deserve all the credit."

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4. Lessons from Market Observations

Throughout the episode, Sam and Sean emphasize the importance of identifying and capitalizing on emerging trends before they become mainstream. Their analysis of flea markets and true crime podcasts serves as a testament to the value of foresight and adaptability in business ventures.

Sean Puri [11:45]: "This is a good private equity roll-up thesis by you. Good job by you."

Sam Parr [28:03]: "True crime, it needs to be more authentic, less produced."

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5. Case Study: Fyre Festival 2 - What Not to Do

In a cautionary segment, the hosts discuss Billy McFarland’s failed attempt to replicate the infamous Fyre Festival, highlighting the pitfalls of overpromising and underdelivering. This serves as an illustrative example of why understanding and preparing for operational challenges is crucial in any business endeavor.

Sean Puri [47:15]: "So he's doing Fyre Festival 2."

Sam Parr [49:00]: "This is insane. I don't even know how he's allowed to leave the country."

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Conclusion

Episode 2 of "My First Million" offers a deep dive into the underrated yet promising sectors of flea markets and true crime podcasts. Through thoughtful analysis and creative brainstorming, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri uncover significant opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to innovate and tap into these evolving markets. Whether it's revolutionizing the flea market experience or pioneering new formats in true crime storytelling, the episode underscores the potential rewards of identifying and nurturing hidden trends.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Sam Parr [00:00]: "We're going to be talking about flea markets. That's what I think is going to happen."

• Sean Puri [16:46]: "I wonder if somebody could do a similar thing with thrift or flea markets. ... It's basically a party."

• Sean Puri [21:21]: "It's actually Crime Junkie, a podcast that was started by a 36 year old podcaster."

• Sam Parr [23:37]: "She's got a little three year old daughter. She has racked up 500 million plus downloads in the last five years. Just insane volume."

• Sean Puri [36:42]: "True crime, there's nobody funny in true crime."

• Sean Puri [47:15]: "So he's doing Fyre Festival 2."

• Sam Parr [49:00]: "This is insane. I don't even know how he's allowed to leave the country."

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Episode 2, offering listeners a clear and engaging overview of the key discussions and insights shared by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri.

Transcript

[Sam Parr]

Screw Nick Huber talking about RV parks and storage units. We're going to be talking about flea markets. That's what I think is going to happen. I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it. Like no days off on a road, less travel, never looking back. I want to talk to you about a topic and I think this is a topic. It's my passion, this topic. But it's also, I'm going to bring it up because I think it's a, a trend and that's what we're about. And B, I, it's sort of a prediction. I, I think I have a prediction here and it's going to be like, be interesting in the next five and ten years. Okay.

[Sean Puri]

Sweaters, denim, tobacco.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, you're in the ballpark.

[Sean Puri]

Media.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, we're in, we're in the zip code. We're definitely newspaper industry or we're in the, we're in the zip code. So years ago. This doesn't matter to you because you're not from the south. But if you're above the age of 30, a lot of people here probably remember this TV show, American Pickers. Did you ever even watch that show?

[Sean Puri]

Never watched it.

[Sam Parr]

Okay. Two guys who go and buy junk and they tell the story of the junk and then we're from storage containers.

[Sean Puri]

So that's a different show.

[Sam Parr]

That's a different show, but again, same ballpark. But basically they would drive around the south, they would knock on old people's homes and say, can I come and look in your barn? And they would find old cool stuff, tell the story of it, clean it up just a little bit, bring it back to the store where I worked and we would resell it. That's basically it. That was, that's all it is. But we would have lines out the door because at the time this show, we were. It was like David Letterman was number one and then like American Pickers was number two in terms of the most watched shows on tv. There'd be days where we would sell, I'm not exaggerating, $100,000 in American pickers T shirts. Because all these guys would come in and want to buy anything that was American Pickers related.

[Sean Puri]

How much revenue do you think that store did overall?

[Sam Parr]

I would imagine $10 million. One location.

[Sean Puri]

One location, big store or just like a normal shop.

[Sam Parr]

It was so small that we had a script to let people to. People would come in and be so disappointed at how small it was cuz they Would think it was like this big. Like cuz the cameras made it look huge.

[Sean Puri]

Sounds familiar to my life. I. I do had a script.

[Sam Parr]

So it was like a tidy store, but we killed it. But I experienced something that. But the thing was is that it was all like hillbillies. It was like redneck hillbillies from like Alabama. For some reason, the picking culture, it's all like hillbillies in like rural Alabama.

[Sean Puri]

Like how you said for some reason. I think. Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

I don't know, like, because they like old shit or they like to reuse stuff. I don't know. It's just part of the culture. But this, this weekend I experienced something that has totally changed my worldview on this topic. So there's this thing called Al Fargo's Marketplace and I went to it the other day. Click this photo that I'm highlighting right here. So it's based, the story of is basically it's these four guys and they're. They look like they're 24 years old. And they started organizing this flea market in New York City and they host it at this place called Newhouse, which is like the hipper version of WeWork. So it's this like weird combination of like urban New York stuff, but like flea markets which are historically like old people and Southern like heritage. Like it's. It's not like a New York cool kid thing. It is now though.

[Sean Puri]

All right, can I just describe what I'm seeing?

[Sam Parr]

Describe what? What you see and who you see.

[Sean Puri]

Every photo looks like it's taken with a Polaroid. Even though we have like 4K cameras. Everybody has a beard and a bald head. So a lot of hair on the face, no hair on top. I mean the style is eclectic. There's a dj. It looks like. Is this a party in a Goodwill shop? Is that what's happening?

[Sam Parr]

Dude? It's a high end vintage flea market and it was packed. And I'm 35. I was the oldest person there.

[Sean Puri]

All the guys are dressed as girls and all the girls address as guys.

[Sam Parr]

There's a lot of weird stuff going on and when you. And they're all wearing. It's all like 24 year old single guys wearing suits and ties. I went there with my daughter and it was just me and her. I was, I felt like I was the oldest person there. No one had children.

[Sean Puri]

Took your daughter to this.

[Sam Parr]

We were just like hanging out for the day and I like, I was like, let's go to the fudgeing flea market.

[Sean Puri]

And it was like Adam Sandler, big Daddy.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, we more. We wore a matching sweaters. We were, we were, we were the hit. We. We made the. The Instagram of these guys. But they built this flea market and it was packed. It was like, like, it was like I was like regretting bringing her because I was like, dude, this is way too packed and I can't even get around. So we didn't even stay for that long. But it kind of got me thinking about flea markets because I think that, like, have you noticed that by the way, that like, millennial hipsters have just disappeared? They're just gone. They're no longer a thing anymore. Hipsters. I've just like, where'd they go?

[Sean Puri]

Do you have a theory?

[Sam Parr]

These are the new hipsters. Young people who wear like nice clothing like this and are into vintage. This is the new version.

[Sean Puri]

Doing this. There's like a branding genius. Look at these posters. Just like, this is just so well done. Like, how do you turn this just shows you can make anything. Anything can be done anyway. You can make a sandwich gourmet, you can make a sandwich terrible. You can make a flea market cool. And you can make a cool thing feel like a flea market. Like, this is all. This is so well executed. As far as the branding goes, it's unbelievable. Like this thing. The Instagram looks like a magazine. This is unbelievable. Hey, quick message from our sponsor, HubSpot. You know, marketing in 2025 is wild. Customers can spot fake messages instantly. Privacy changes are making ad targeting a nightmare, and everybody needs more content than ever. That's why HubSpot has a new marketing trends report. It doesn't just show you what's changing, it shows you exactly how to deal with it. Everything is backed by research, and it's about marketing plays that you can use tomorrow. So if you're ready to turn your marketing challenges into Results, go to HubSpot.com marketing to download the report for free.

[Sam Parr]

But here's the thing. This is why I'm bringing this up. It isn't just these guys. So go to the Instagram. It's. If you're listening, it's called Al Fargo's Marketplace. And look at the photos of, of the. Whoever you see, that's a stylish young man, click their pro and their tag, click their profile. Tons of them, tons and tons of them have 100, 200, 300,000 followers. And it's these like young 23 year old guys showing off their outfits and the engagement on these Instagram handles. It's insane. So I'll give you an Example of one or do you see one right there?

[Sean Puri]

I'm trying to find it, but yeah, give me an example.

[Sam Parr]

So go to. The handle is Denny623. So I'll post it in here.

[Sean Puri]

Dude, what a big day for Denny. He had no idea this was going to happen for him.

[Sam Parr]

So look at Denny.

[Sean Puri]

All right, Denny, Wow. Cowboy hat, flare. Just. He's wearing Chris Saka shirt. But the rest is. Is fantastic. 112,000 followers. He's a digital creator, a menswear blogger, content creator since 08. Oh my God. He's been in the game. He's a creative director. Is this a What. What flag is this? The Philippines. What is that?

[Sam Parr]

I think it's Puerto Rican. But I bought this sweater from Denny. Denny was a vendor at Al Fargos.

[Sean Puri]

This sweater, that sweater from.

[Sam Parr]

I bought it from OBO because I want to be part of this trend. And so my point here is, amongst young people, this is a huge hit. And if you click around on these guys Instagram, you know, there's this joke about whatever the Silicon Valley nerds are doing in five or 10 years is going to be mainstream. This is the New York cool kid thing. This is like walking around soho and seeing what. What people are wearing. This is it and is happening right now. And I have two ways I think this is going to be a big business.

[Sean Puri]

Okay, Is your. Take that flea market? If I understand you correctly, you went to this cool flea market. You. You. I can't even call it a flea market. You went to a party in New York.

[Sam Parr]

No, it was a flea market.

[Sean Puri]

Okay? It was mostly a party, happened to have some goods.

[Sam Parr]

It was a flea market with the dj.

[Sean Puri]

You took your daughter. It's hilarious. You're saying flea markets are a bigger deal than most people realize, especially people like us who live on a computer. And then you're. Are you saying there's an opportunity here? Are you saying somebody's going to build the crumble cookie of flea markets?

[Sam Parr]

What's going to happen? I think two things are going to happen. I think that there's a massive, like, PE opportunity here. I think flea markets could potentially be the new RV park and you could purchase them at a real estate valuation. I also think that there's a huge amount of male. Well, female as well, but male, like fashion influencers. And that's like a hot trend. And I've spoke to like 10 or 20 of them and they're all fucking broke. All of them are like, I wish I could just pay my rent with this.

[Sean Puri]

Right, right.

[Sam Parr]

I think this business is a beautiful business. And these Al Fargo Marketplace guys are a really good example of how it's done well. And I think that they're probably not savvy when it comes to business. They're more like artists and that there's something really interesting here.

[Sean Puri]

And so you're saying this Rose bowl Flea Market, 20,000 visitors, 2,500 vendors per month. All right, so basically based on that, 20,000 visitors paying 12 bucks to enter. The vendors paying 150 bucks to be there. They're making 600 grand per flea market, which happens, what, once a month?

[Sam Parr]

Once a month. But you're forgetting like so many other things like table rentals, chair rentals, things like that.

[Sean Puri]

So about 7 to 8 million in revenue you see on this from this one flea market.

[Sam Parr]

Basically, I think it's even more. And I also think the other point that I'm going to make is that it's pretty like it's obviously very old. So there's this one called Brimfield Antique Show. So do me a favor and go to their website. So Brimfield is a, is a flea market that gets a million people a year coming to this festival, which is huge, right? That's like, we're talking like Coachella, Coachella sized stuff. Scroll to the very bottom. So if you want to contact someone, you go to the, Go to the very bottom and look at where it's. Tell me what it says about Jody.

[Sean Puri]

Oh, Jody. Jmjytwool.com Just send her a note if.

[Sam Parr]

You want to learn. This is an event with 1 million customers. If you want to learn more about it, email jodyol.com that's what it says at the very bottom. Go to Jody's LinkedIn. I looked at, I looked her up on LinkedIn. Can you click Jody's LinkedIn?

[Sean Puri]

Where is it?

[Sam Parr]

It says, look at Jody. Jody's great. Jody's. Her name is Jody Young. She is the owner of this, of this business with 1 million customers. Jody looks lovely. Jody looks like a nice woman. Jody doesn't exactly look like what I think is going to be a younger generation of people who are interested in this topic.

[Sean Puri]

So you're saying the owner, the owner of this business. These types of businesses is going to look different in 10 years.

[Sam Parr]

And I would say that they're probably not the most.

[Sean Puri]

Choose your words wisely. Answer listening.

[Sam Parr]

The. They are probably not the most uptight operators. That's what I would say. They're probably very passionate about this. And sometimes when you're, when when passion leads, maybe you're leaving, you know, dollars on the table. That's what I'm saying. And I believe that in the next couple of years, screw the, Screw Nick Huber talking about RV parks and storage units. We're going to be talking about flea markets. That's what I think is going to happen.

[Sean Puri]

All right. Bold prediction. I really like this, by the way. This is a, this is a sample special. The sample special. Cool find on the trend. Cool find on the underrated business. Flea markets, how big they are. Wow. They're kind of stunning in terms of like the visitors that they get. I like how you wrote at the bottom and AI ain't gonna with this.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Sean Puri]

This is part of the thesis. This is a good, like private equity roll up thesis by you. Good job by you.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. And it's thank you. Thank you for that condescending, patronizing, good job for you. You like that?

[Sean Puri]

Good job by you. That's a real compliment.

[Sam Parr]

Amongst young people, do they buy a huge amount of vintage clothing? Something. Like I said, I saw some crazy stat where it was something like 80% of Gen Zers regularly shop for secondhand clothing. And so you have companies like Depop. Have you heard of Depop, Sean?

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, it's like a secondhand marketplace. Secondhand app.

[Sam Parr]

Do they have 80 million users? And then there's Poshmark and then there's Grail and then there's like 10 other ones. These young people are buying vintage and secondhand clothing at like alarming rates. Not alarming, but you know what I mean? Like surprisingly high rates. And have you ever seen like thrift hauls on TikTok? Have you seen that?

[Sean Puri]

I've seen a lot of things on TikTok. I've seen a lot of things. That's one of them. I've definitely seen that.

[Sam Parr]

It's a, it's a huge thing. If you like type in thrift halls on TikTok. I follow so many of these people on Instagram. It's like a really common thing. And so my whole point here being young people are buying this shit up, man. They're buying this, these secondhand clothing, this second hand clothing, like crazy.

[Sean Puri]

I'm just looking up Goodwill's numbers. So Goodwill's revenues last 10 years starts at 4.8 billion, 5.7, 5.9, 6.1, 6.377 billion. Pandemic goes back down to 5.5, then it goes 7 and a half billion. 8.2 billion and 9 billion projected for this year are for, for the last year.

[Sam Parr]

And if you go to what's it, is it called Goodwill Finds? So Goodwill Finds.com they have their own like online marketplace where they auction off like a handful of the like nicer things that Goodwill collects and people love it. I've bought a couple things from there. I think Ari said she buys stuff from there. It's getting really popular.

[Sean Puri]

I want to make sure I get this down. For the record, what are you saying is the, like someone could do or someone should do.

[Sam Parr]

So there's. So what I'm saying is that flea markets are a recession proof business in a highly fragmented industry and they last for many, many decades and they're hard to disrupt once they work well. And also that young people are buying vintage clothing and are into flea markets more than other generations. And then what I am saying is I think that there is a roll up opportunity or what I would do is I would work with some of these broke, like passionate fashion influencers. And I think I could create, if I, if that was my thing, a really awesome flea market business.

[Sean Puri]

Can I give you one other random idea? So I used to live in Indonesia. In Indonesia, they do this thing that I've never really seen here, but I really liked it. So you know at a mall when you go into a food court. So in America, you go to a mall, there's a food court. And the experience, what's the experience? You basically like the business model is you walk in, there's nobody there to like serve you. You just go, when you pick, do I want a slice from Sbaro, Do I want a sandwich? Do I want some fried chicken? What do I want? You go, you buy your one thing and you go, sit down. Right. Did I capture it accurately?

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. And it's like. And there's a guy handing samples. I'm gonna try out samples and we're gonna sit in kind of a nasty chair and just like eat this crap.

[Sean Puri]

So in Indonesia, the malls in general are a lot better. But the one thing that they do for their food court is a little bit different. When you walk in, they give you like a wristband, almost like it's a Coachella or something like that. And this wristband is basically your way to buy anything you want. And the way they design the flow, it's almost like an Ikea. You walk around and every booth has like cool stuff. And they're. And they're like, it's not super low quality food. It's still obviously faster. Right? But it is, Everything's like branded kind of. Well, the food like the people who are working there, like, you can tell it's like more. A little more upscale. And you pick and you basically start. You start with this tray and you just keep adding different little plates from the different vendors onto your one tray, right? So you have an empty tray and you're going to grab a small bowl or plate from all the different boots that you want to try something from. And at each one, you just tap your wristband so that the system knows what all your. You've picked up. But it doesn't feel like you're spending money. It feels like you're like opening a door. You're just having, here's my key, give me my thing. This is amazing. You sit down, you eat, and at the end when you leave, you put your tray down and you scan your badge and they tell you the damage and you pay for it on the way out.

[Sam Parr]

That's awesome.

[Sean Puri]

I've always thought that American food court should steal this model. You spend way more, and it's just a more fun experience. Like paying at the end once you've already, like, you know, had the little, like, you know, amusement park of food type of thing is pretty cool. I wonder if somebody could do a similar thing with thrift or flea markets. And so the thing I'm imagining here is like, remember, like, Spartan Race or Tough Mudder, how they turned this, like, thing that seemed like work and kind of hard into something that was fun, a bit of an Instagram opportunity.

[Sam Parr]

And almost like they turned like an individual rate, like a. When you race, you're by yourself, you're into like a group fun activity.

[Sean Puri]

Exactly. So a social fun event that you're planning. It's basically a party. I think you could do the same thing with the flea market. So I think what you could do is you could basically arrange it, whether it's a race or it's a. It's a one long path. And if you do the wristband thing or you basically, as soon as you join, you get 10 tickets, you get 20 tickets, 30 tickets, whatever it is, and you get to. And now you just have tickets you have to spend, right? So instead of the goodwill problem, which is you go and you're like, should I get this? Should I not blah, blah, like up front, you just make a commit, I'm going to find 10 things here. And then it's about just finding the most fun 10 things you could find at the event. And you go and you collect, you fill up your card. You could always get more tickets as you go. And then by the end, you walk out and you've got this new outfit. So, like, you literally would have a photo at the start and a photo at the end because you put it on and you basically do like a makeover on a Saturday afternoon with your friends and you all end up with this fun photo at the end of you guys dressed up.

[Sam Parr]

That's fantastic.

[Sean Puri]

Is that not a great experience?

[Sam Parr]

It's. It's a fantastic experience. And, and also just for some reason, scanning things at my wrist is for some reason, like, more fun than pulling out my credit card. Do you remember that? Didn't you invest in a company that was creating software so, like, Patagonia could sell secondhand coats or something?

[Sean Puri]

I didn't, I didn't end up getting to invest in it. I really wanted to. It's called.

[Sam Parr]

I think North Face uses it because I almost. It's doing well that I almost bought a North Face coat. And they call it, like, reworked, where you like, mail in your old coat and you get some type of credit and then they like, repair it. But it kind of looks funky and cool and like, guys like me could buy it.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, I think the way they call it, the term for this, like, movement is recommerce. So you have E commerce, but then you have recommerce, which is when you sell that secondhand thing. Again, I can't find the name of this thing. That's sad. I really wanted to use it. I think they're doing well, by the way. They've got a bunch of, like, big brands. So what, what they were doing was they're saying, hey, they would go to a brand like us, they'd say, hey, a lot of people are already reselling your items in on these other platforms and Facebook groups and wherever. And they, they actually sell sometimes at a markup or sometimes, you know, they just, they, you know, it's a, it's a slight discount, but they're, they're used goods. Why don't you just make a central place on your website for people to buy, you know, already loved items? And so what you would do is they. Customers could just upload a thing and you'd basically create your own little marketplace on your website. They power it with the software and when somebody. And then they don't have to wait for a buyer, so they could just put it on the thing and get basically store credit for it when somebody buys it. And so you could. You're giving store credit, which is going to get them to come back and the other person's getting the item which they were going to got by anyways off platform. Makes a lot of sense.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. I almost bought something the other day from. With someone using their software, but they didn't have my size. So that's my. That's my.

[Sean Puri]

The website was called Treat. The company was called Treat T R et. That was the name of the company that was doing this. I still wish I had invested this thing. This thing's great.

[Sam Parr]

It's awesome. This is great. So that's my big pitch on flea markets, I think. I think. Oh, and by the way, there are one or two PE guys in the space doing this. I think there's like United Flea Markets.com or something like that, but I think you're going to see more. So this is my prediction and also my opportunity. Spielberg.

[Sean Puri]

All right, let's take a quick break because as you know, we are on the HubSpot podcast network, but we're not the only ones. There's other podcasts on this network, too, and maybe you like them. Maybe you should check them out. One of them that I want to draw your attention to is called Nudge by Phil Agnew. And whether you're a marketer or a salesperson and you're looking for the small changes you could make, the new habits you could do, the small decisions you could make that will make a big difference, that's what that podcast is all about.

[Sam Parr]

Check it out.

[Sean Puri]

It's called Nudge, and you can get it wherever you get your podcasts. Okay. I like that you made a prediction, because the next thing I'm going to tell you about is a giant I told you so. But nobody likes hearing I told you so. In fact, there's a great tweet that went viral over the last week. This guy, Matt Lasky tweeted this out. He goes, my wife just taught me the professional way to say I told you so.

[Sam Parr]

I saw that. So funny.

[Sean Puri]

You say this was identified early on as a likely outcome. Yeah, I'm going to be using this a lot. So let me just say that me and Sam identified this early as a likely outcome. And what I'm talking about is true crime podcasts. Okay, so this doesn't sound like the sexiest thing, but do you know what the most popular podcast in the in. In America is?

[Sam Parr]

Joe Rogan. I would say.

[Sean Puri]

Correct. Do you know what the second most popular is?

[Sam Parr]

I would have guessed, like, call her daddy.

[Sean Puri]

Okay, great. Also would have thought it's some famous personality podcast, like the opposite of Joe.

[Sam Parr]

Like Joe Rogan for women.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah. Exactly. It's actually Crime Junkie, a podcast that was started by a 36 year old podcaster. And here's the headline. This 36 year old podcaster is making $45 million a year of profit. $45 million a year.

[Sam Parr]

It's insane. And where is she based? That's the crazy part.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah. So let me tell you the story here. So this woman, Ashley Flowers, she's working at a normal day job and she grew up loving like Agatha Christie stories, you know, like sort of these mystery crime stories growing up. In fact, so much so that she joined, maybe volunteered at this place called Crime Stoppers, a like local crime stopping, you know, organization for in her town. And it was supposed to, you know, just help people report crimes to one central place. Now to promote the organization, she volunteers and says, hey, we, what if I create a weekly radio show called Murder Monday? And she does it and she realizes like, hey, people kind of like this, like they like Murder Monday. This is working. And she's just doing this again for fun, volunteering on the side of her day job. And then she hears serial Podcast. It comes out and it serial becomes this phenomenon and she listens to it and she says, oh, that's cool. What if I do Murder Monday? Type of like my radio show that I'm just doing for my local org, but what if I did it as a podcast? And she jumps in. This is back in 2017, she records, she, you know, comes home from her day job, records her first episode, uploads it and off to the races. Now here we are later. She's got 65 employees. Her business just raised $40 million from Chernin, has valued the company at $250 million and it has a reported or a rumored $45 million of EBITDA per year, which honestly sounds a little high.

[Sam Parr]

Something's off, the valuation's off or.

[Sean Puri]

Exactly. It's only 5x EBITDAs. I don't think that's.

[Sam Parr]

And why would you raise money if you're making $45 million a year in profit?

[Sean Puri]

And the valuation is likely more true than the rumored profit number, but whatever, let's say I think, I think, I think 20 million would be a very real number at the low end here.

[Sam Parr]

Insane.

[Sean Puri]

She herself does to. She hosts two podcasts herself. She's the producer of the shows, she sells the ads, she closes the deal. She's touring all around the country, all around the world. She was working 15 hours a day, now down to 10 hours a day. She's got a little three year old daughter. She has racked up 500 million plus downloads in the last five years. Just insane volume.

[Sam Parr]

That's ridiculous. Do you listen to true crime?

[Sean Puri]

I listen to a bit of true crime. So, okay, here's the I told you so part of this. If you go to the MFM Vault, MFM Vault.com which is a place where you can go find old episodes and you could search. So I just went on to MFM Vault and I just searched true crime because I know we've been talking about this. Guess when. The first time we talked about this is just like guess the year.

[Sam Parr]

I don't know, a year and a half ago.

[Sean Puri]

So that would be like 20, 23.

[Sam Parr]

23.

[Sean Puri]

No, 20, 25 years ago. And it was an episode where Lance Armstrong popped by the office, like literally popped into the podcast while we were recording. And you and Lance Armstrong are talking about your favorite type of podcast and you both love true crime and you guys are geeking out about true crime. Sam and Lance Armstrong, the greatest cyclist.

[Sam Parr]

Of all time, like Michael Jordan, Michael.

[Sean Puri]

Phelps, Geiger owns a bike. And Lance Armstrong, the greatest biker of all time, talking about how we. Same, same.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, like what do you like to get scared by? Like, that's the conversation.

[Sean Puri]

Exactly. And we started talking about true crime. Then we talked about it again in 2023. We talked about Parkast. You had brought up that this guy had created this true crime podcast network. 16 shows, and he sold it to Spotify for like $100 million. 50 million in cash, 50 million in the earnout.

[Sam Parr]

What was his name? Mac something something.

[Sean Puri]

And then we talked about. Then again we talked about it a few years ago. We talked about Law and crime, which was this media company that was dedicated to true crime stories as well as like just reporting on actual court cases that were going on. And it was also acquired for more than $100 million. And all along the way we've been talking about how like true crime is this thing where there's this underrated appetite, more than you would think for this. We had Mr. Ballin come on. Mr. Ballin comes on and he talks about how his content is all about telling strange, dark, mysterious stories. People just love this shit. And we've been talking about it and every year that we've been talking about it, it sounds like it's too late. And every year we talk about it, another nine figure company has essentially started or grown during that period of time. And so even now, now that this is still like, you know, super established, I still think there's A ton of opportunity here and I want to brainstorm this a little bit with you.

[Sam Parr]

I'm totally on board with this. I am a huge fan. My new one is the Law and crime network on YouTube. And whenever like the Diddler comes about or there's like a new crime, like P. Diddy's like lube stuff, I was watching that. Like, like, what's his. What's the Luigi? Luigi Mangiani. Like, this is like a gift from God for the, for the, for the true crime people. Like, I've been obsessed with all of this stuff. Like learning about freak off parties, learning about, you know, like, deny what is the Luigi.

[Sean Puri]

When LeBron James enters the draft, this is like, oh, we got a new hot prospect. We got Luigi.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Sean Puri]

Like, oh, Diddy is here. Oh my God. Going to have content for years.

[Sam Parr]

Dude. I listen to this stuff on my runs and I, and I, I'm all about it. So what do you want to brainstorm?

[Sean Puri]

You listen to it on your runs. Like you're just running away from the problem. Like, what are you doing?

[Sam Parr]

I think my, my hypothesis. So basically with the true crime stuff, it's basically me and 100 million women. It's like 80. It's like 80% women. I think you're into this and I think that women listen to this from the perspective of how would I, how would I get away? Like, how would I get out of the situation? And men listen to it from the perspective of like, how would I get away with this? That's like the perspective, I think that each of the genders listens to these things.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, exactly. It's like American kingpin. Yeah. My hero. My hero did this. Yeah. So by the way, already opportunity. So you know, when you run, I think most running apps or running like music playlist, they try to have a certain beats per minute to keep up. Keep like pace you during a run, right? They try to be up tempo.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Sean Puri]

True crime, 150 beats per minute, dude. Already innovation, white space. You know what I'm saying?

[Sam Parr]

For Zone 2 workouts, I only listen to solved murders by Parkast. Oh, I gotta go do a 60 minute run. Turn on Solve Murders. That's 60 minutes of like, we're gonna get through two 30 minute episodes and I'm gonna learn about some crazy kind of slow.

[Sean Puri]

Right? So like, what if somebody created a higher energy? All right, so here' Brainstormer. Can I give you some pitches on my, my brainstorm? This was my 5 minute brainstorm before the podcast. What would I do? Because it's one thing to say, there's an opportunity there.

[Sam Parr]

Great podcast already.

[Sean Puri]

How.

[Sam Parr]

How I would do it.

[Sean Puri]

But Sam, do we settle for great? I don't know about you, great doesn't get me out of bed in the morning.

[Sam Parr]

I mean, great's pretty good to be.

[Sean Puri]

Honestly, be a huge compliment. Be greatly flattered.

[Sam Parr]

I'd rest on those laurels, but.

[Sean Puri]

All right, here's the brainstorm. So white space in the true crime space right now. First, okay, the obvious one, this is not that fun of A1, but YouTube. So most of these that started, they were just audio only podcasts, like Serial. They were inspired by Serial. They were podcasts. And most people thought podcasts were all audio. YouTube came out recently and announced that a billion people a month watch podcast content on YouTube. So if you're a podcaster and you're not doing YouTube, where are you at? And if you're listening to this podcast and you're not subscribed to us on YouTube, where are you at? That's what I have to say. Go find my first one on YouTube. All right, but. So the first thing is go all in as a YouTube first podcast, even. Crime junkie. She started off heavily in audio, then started doing video just as kind of an add on. If you go watch their video, it's like, you know, started off really scrappy and now it looks a little bit better there she's now. And then when she raised this money, she's investing in like a full video studio to do this, like for real. But the format is actually pretty great. Have you ever listened to her podcast? It's basically she sits on a couch with her friend. But unlike most podcasts where it's two equal hosts or something, they're going back and forth. It's her explaining to one friend what's going on with the crime. And her friend is like active listening.

[Sam Parr]

She's like sitting there asking questions, nodding her.

[Sean Puri]

Mostly just nodding her head and be like, oh. And then like ask the clarifying question when the listener would have one. So smart, by the way, that little thing is so smart. Because most content gets better the more you narrow it to an audience of one. If you're writing, write to one person. If you're doing a podcast, like, this podcast works well. Cause we kind of do that too, where instead of saying, all right, listeners, we'd like to tell you about some great businesses. It's like, dude, Sam, have you seen this? You're like, no, what? I'm like, check this out. And it's that vibe that Actually, like, works well, the podcast. So that's a little bit of the secret sauce. All right. I gave you three of Colonel Sanders nine. Yeah, I was gonna say this there.

[Sam Parr]

That's last week, last episode. It was leveraged.

[Sean Puri]

I just broke your brain. What happened?

[Sam Parr]

It was leveraged to the tits. Now it's. I just gave you three of the Colonel's nine spices. That's fantastic.

[Sean Puri]

Gave you a quarter kernel there.

[Sam Parr]

I. I was gonna say something and you. That was great. Nuked your brain.

[Sean Puri]

All right, my bad.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, I was gonna say with this podcast, like, I did not know that you were going to bring this up, and you didn't know I was gonna bring the other thing up. So that's like a little bit. That's how it works.

[Sean Puri]

We surprise each other and intentionally. Right? We could say, let's share notes, let's do research. Let's be prepared. That makes for a word. Podcast. We surprise each other because the show is.

[Sam Parr]

You need a reaction.

[Sean Puri]

I want to tell you something. I want you to react, I want you to riff for real, and then I want you to surprise me. And that makes it fun for us to do. But. So she does the same thing. She basically tells the story to her friend. Her friend sits there active listening. She started off just taking existing shows and now has, like, a team of 10 journalists that do original reporting. She now has another show called the Deck, where she works with local cops and they give her access to evidence and they try to sol. Actually solve cold cases. Awesome. Isn't that insane?

[Sam Parr]

It's the greatest.

[Sean Puri]

She is basically the Mr. Beast of True crime. Like, when you see how she just took a very simple idea and took it very seriously and she scaled it up, it's like, yeah, why not. Why not have her own journalist? Why not scour the country for stories? Why not partner with the cops? Why not build a studio? Why not have 100 employees? Why not turn this into a full on production company? She just kept going with the very simple idea, right? Mr. Beast is like, what if I gave away $1,000? What if I gave away 5? 10, 100? 1 million? $10 million? What if you stood in a tiny circle? What if you stood in a big circle? What if you didn't have to stand in the circle? What if you had to lay down? Like. It just keeps going with these, like, ideas and takes a very simple idea, but takes it more seriously than anybody else. So I feel like she's done that.

[Sam Parr]

She's coming to Radio City in New York in May. Should I go I would totally go to one of her live events.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, you should go. Why not?

[Sam Parr]

She has like a huge tour. She has a huge tour.

[Sean Puri]

You're going to become a very big fan of her. Let me. I found something that, when I found it, I go, oh, Sam's gonna love this. And I'm like the mama bird and you're the baby bird and I'm about to puke in your mouth with something you're going to love. Peter Chernin, when he met her, here's what, here's the quote he said about her. Because he invested 40. He, he met her at a part of a TV show pitch and then was like, just like, wow, this woman is really impressive. And told his guy, go find a way to invest. And he like flies to Indiana and like, like hounded her for this investment. So here's what Peter Chernon said. He said, I find her uniquely impressive.

[Sam Parr]

That's a good one.

[Sean Puri]

And he's good, right?

[Sam Parr]

He's been around everyone.

[Sean Puri]

I find her uniquely impressive. What a, what a subtle but like powerful compliment from a guy who's met so many interesting people.

[Sam Parr]

And I think her and Pat McAfee are both in Indianapolis. That's like, they're, they're like at a form like the Indianapolis podcasting, like mafia.

[Sean Puri]

Two dots make a line. So check this out. Okay, so here's the other white space here. Ready? Black true crime. Not a lot of black podcasters doing true crime.

[Sam Parr]

Are you a follower of black YouTube or black Twitter?

[Sean Puri]

I am a, I'm a card carrying member of black culture. So yeah, I'm a part of like.

[Sam Parr]

Is DJ Vlad the greatest YouTuber of all time?

[Sean Puri]

One of the greatest journalists of our time. Of our era.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. Getting the Wade brothers to like dish on like what it's like or like Club Shay Shay with Katt Williams. Dude, how about Club Shay shay getting like 100 mil? I think that was, I think before Trump on Rogan or maybe even including, I think Club Shay Shay and Katt Williams is the number one most downloaded YouTube video or YouTube interview of the year.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's insane.

[Sam Parr]

Are there not more of these, like, these like true crime shows geared towards that audience?

[Sean Puri]

There's only a couple. And the very first one was called like affirmative crime or something. Like, now that's a bad name. This is not right. Right. Like ye. Has happened in comedy podcasts. Like, comedy podcasts started with a lot of like white comedians in la, but now there's like so many really funny, you know, just two guys hanging out Two black comedians hanging out type of podcast, sports podcast, etc. Like, I think podcasting started off pretty homogeneously white and true crime, even just the way it comes across is a little bit like Midwestern woman, Right. Like, serial kind of was in that lineage. I think she used to work for npr, Right. Something like that. And so it just feels very produced.

[Sam Parr]

And almost like New York elitist.

[Sean Puri]

Exactly, exactly. And it needs to be more, you know, country grammar. It needs, like, somebody who listened to a lot of Nelly growing up.

[Sam Parr]

They all, like, a lot of those guys have, like, that Ira Glass, like, today's episode. Yeah. And this American Life. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

[Sean Puri]

That cadence is so good.

[Sam Parr]

That's a cool one.

[Sean Puri]

Well, by the way, world's worst impression to be good at. I read Glass. This was the only time that was ever going to land for you. All right, next one is Comedy Times True Crime. So I think a lot of the true crime podcasts are very serious. They're heavy. They're trying to be mysterious, creepy. Makes total sense. You get why I would do it that way. I think there's an opening for somebody to do true crime, but just with a comedy angle. And, you know, not to. Not to toot our own horn here, but, like, we did this a little bit in the business space. We, you know, a lot of the business podcasts, a lot of the interviews, a lot of the podcasts were. It was just an IQ contest. Everybody just wanted to be the bigger know it all than the other. It was very dry, informational. And, you know, me and you, this is kind of how we talk when we hang out. And we just didn't filter ourselves that way. And it's not that we're, like, compared to comedians, we're not funny, but compared to most VCs, we're pretty funny.

[Sam Parr]

And that, like, the bar is low.

[Sean Puri]

And so the bar is low also in true crime. There's nobody funny in true crime. So if you're even moderately funny, you're the funniest true crime podcast.

[Sam Parr]

Let me. As a. So. So am I talking out my ass?

[Sean Puri]

Are they actually.

[Sam Parr]

No. Well, you're not. You're not off, but you're actually right. And I'm going to give you one piece of evidence that you're right. So we are called mfm. I have gotten, like, hate mail from women who are like, you're not mfm. The real MFM is my favorite murder. So go to my favorite murder.com and read the headline.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, we're not even the most famous. We'll never be the most famous MFM podcast.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, it's my. Have you heard of my favorite murder? Have people like, said, like, you're not really.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, I've seen this. I've never listened to it though. Is it humorous? It looks like it.

[Sam Parr]

The. So go to the website. The headline is a true crime comedy podcast.

[Sean Puri]

Okay?

[Sam Parr]

And listen, it's hugely popular. It's hugely popular, but I actually have a bone to pick. Dude, they're talking about like Ted Bundy killing people. And they're like, isn't he hot? Like, they're talking about, you know what I mean? It's kind of weird. Like they're talking about wanting to like get with Ted Bundy.

[Sean Puri]

So basically, like, you know what you do? So we should have a coffee shop with wi fi. You're like, yeah, go to Starbucks. All right?

[Sam Parr]

But you're, you're right. Look, it's like, you know, had you developed the theory you had you developed the theory of relativity and never even heard of Albert Einstein, I would still say you're a genius.

[Sean Puri]

A few other possibilities here. True romance. So I think there's an opportunity to do a true crime style genre, but spin off into combine two very popular genres, true crime and romance. You've, we've talked a lot of the past about like how the most read books and the most voracious readers are reading Danielle Steele fifty Shades of Gray style romance novels. And I think somebody could do true romance as a podcast genre. All right, I got a public service announcement for all the tech founders that are listening to this. Listen, job number one for you is to get customers. And ideally the bigger the customers, the better. And I know when I was trying to do that, we would get somebody interested. Oh man, there's a big Fortune 500 company. Or it's a, it's a company that's raised hundreds of millions of dollars. They want to work with us. This is so exciting. And then we hit the wall. And the wall was the security and compliance team. And all of a sudden we could not land our biggest customers just because we were shooting ourselves in the foot by not being security ready and compliant. And so if you want to solve this, use Vanta. Vanta is an all in one solution. It helps you get audit ready. And it's quick, it's painless, it's easy. They're the number one guys at doing this. There are 8,000 companies that use them. YC companies use them, we use them. And so if you want Vanta to help simplify your security and Compliance program to help you streamline anything. Take all those manual security tasks and automate them. You should use Vanta. If you listen to this, you actually get a thousand dollars off Vanta too. So we got a deal for you. Go to vanta.commillion. that's V A N T A dot com million. Use Vanta. That's what all the cool kids are doing.

[Sam Parr]

One of my favorite true crime podcasts, they have a series called Killer Couples, and it's all about lovebirds who go out and commit murder.

[Sean Puri]

And maybe you should have done this brainstorming, because I don't really listen to true crime. I listened to two seasons of Serial and, like, fell asleep to a few.

[Sam Parr]

Cereal is like the JV team now compared to, you know, what's going on now. All right, I'm on board with Killer Couples. What else you got?

[Sean Puri]

I mean, I feel a little bit discouraged, but I'll just finish out because quitting is the only thing more embarrassing than what's happening. Hold on.

[Sam Parr]

Speaking of true crime, I do think that there is this weird, like, when I. We did this one, like, bit with the hustle about romance novels, and there was, like, these crazy, weird genres of, like, first of all, romance novels are, like, a massive hit. And then. But there's, like, women who want to, like a romance novel about a military guy. But there's like, take it a step further. There was, like, women who want to have sex with werewolves. Like, you know, the. What was the. What was that, Rob? That movie that called. What was that thing? The. Robert Patterson. The. The Twilight. Twilight. Like, there were some weird, like, undertones of, like, bestiality with all that stuff. Right. But so I think that there's always a niche for.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, but, you know, my. The bone. I have to pick with this.

[Sam Parr]

What?

[Sean Puri]

Nobody likes hairy dudes as a hairy dude out here. Where. Where's that? Where's the appeal? Why werewolves but not just hairy guys? Y.

[Sam Parr]

Could you get. You need to get re. Rebranded as a wolf.

[Sean Puri]

Excited when I heard that werewolves were a thing for women and then just did not translate whatsoever.

[Sam Parr]

Look, gray hair guys have rebranded to the Silver Foxes. You know, we got to do something for the hairy backs.

[Sean Puri]

I heard somebody say this the other day. They were like, oh, yeah, I had this, like, salt pepper thing going on. They're like, yeah, it's a lot of salt, though. That's the problem. Just salt. Okay, so last thing games do. They make games. So there's that one board game. Do you remember what it's called? It's Kind of a mystery like board game, subscription series, cat. Catch a murder, Catch a killer. Hunt a killer.

[Sam Parr]

Hunt a killer. I think when we talked about it, I think it was doing 30 million a year in revenue.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, Tens of millions a year in revenue. I think that this woman, instead of touring, she should be creating board games. She should be creating a game that's in Target, in Walmart, on the shelf. And it's a true crime card game or board game that people can basically solve these cases together, like cooperatively. Or it's some kind of like, you know, like mafia where like one person's the game master and the other people are trying to figure it out. I think a game, take a game mechanic like that, but apply these true crime things and use your brand as crime junkies. I think somebody should be partnering with True Crime Broadcast to build those out.

[Sam Parr]

Hunt a killer, I think it's called. My whole perspective on games got completely changed. We hung out with the guy Elon at.

[Sean Puri]

He's coming on the podcast, by the way.

[Sam Parr]

We're doing. What was it called? Killing kittens or something?

[Sean Puri]

Exploding kittens.

[Sam Parr]

Exploding kittens. A board or. It's a card game, but board game, I guess. And I don't know what. We'll wait to see if he's gonna reveal anything, but shockingly large, like, numbers are bananas.

[Sean Puri]

He's also like, yeah. Of the top five most popular games in the world, we make number one, two, four and five. Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

It was amazing how successful that is. And I was like, I should start a game company. He felt like a. He felt like a 12. Like he had the excitement of like a 12 year old. Like he was so into like games and making people smile via these games that I was like 100% this guy.

[Sean Puri]

That was my takeaway. I was like, oh my God, I wish I was doing this. This is so cool. I could do this. Yes. And then I saw how truly joyful he was about making the games, not, not being successful at it, but the doing part. And I was like, oh, that's different than me. I don't have that. I just want the. I want to have done it.

[Sam Parr]

He. Yeah, you want the result. He like was showing us this game and it was like half done and he had a pen that he had written in like different points on the cards. Like he was making the game as he was going and he was like, wouldn't this be cool? Let's like, let's change the game to this. Like he was doing it in real time and we were playing the game. It would be like, you know, playing poker. And he's like, did you see? We should come up with, like, an ace. An ace means this.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah. He was, like, rapid prototyping on us. Did you see what he pulled out of his pocket while we were playing that game, by the way? Just total side note. Unrelated. But it was so funny.

[Sam Parr]

What was it?

[Sean Puri]

He's trying to read a card and he can't read it. He needs his glasses. And so he whipped out a pair of glasses, but the glasses had no sticks. It was like a monocle but for two glasses. And he just rested it on the bridge of his nose and started reading it. And I completely couldn't pay attention to the rest of the game because I was just constantly trying to figure out, is it going to fall off his nose? And what are the physics of this? How does this work?

[Sam Parr]

I think they're called readers. He had readers on or something like that.

[Sean Puri]

Is that a thing? Is that a known thing? Like modern monocles?

[Sam Parr]

It's like you. It's like at Walgreens, you see them, like, next to the aisle, next to the checkout. You know what I mean? It's like. But they don't have sticks sometimes. Yes. Arms. Is that what they call.

[Sean Puri]

I've been sleeping on this dragon?

[Sam Parr]

I am do. I'm amazed that this woman is potentially doing $45 million a year. I don't know if I believe it, because that is so shocking, but we should see if. If anyone's listening can get us in touch with her. I would like to talk to that. Talk to her for the pod. That would be fun.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah. Ashley Flowers. Very, very impressive.

[Sam Parr]

How old is she?

[Sean Puri]

36.

[Sam Parr]

She's young. Wow. That's crazy, dude.

[Sean Puri]

That's crazy. I could be her, she could be me. We could trade.

[Sam Parr]

Isn't that crazy that, like, you know, it's. It's. Now we're like, yeah, that's obvious. But seven years ago, to be like, I'm going to start a crime podcast, and that's going to make me a billionaire. That's pretty wild to think because she potentially might be a billionaire after another, you know, five or 10 years because of this. That's absolutely wild. And we called it. So we're right. And we deserve all the credit.

[Sean Puri]

No, we didn't call it. It was identified early on by us as a likely outcome. All right, do we. I have a bunch more, but I think we're. We're. It's time to wrap, so maybe we call it.

[Sam Parr]

I think we should call it, by the way, what.

[Sean Puri]

Before we go, did you see Fyre Festival 2?

[Sam Parr]

He didn't listen to our advice.

[Sean Puri]

So Billy came on our podcast right after he got out of jail.

[Sam Parr]

Prison.

[Sean Puri]

Prison, yeah. He. I love that. Where that's like, you know, other people get, like, authors when they have their book tours. We get like, the post prison. We got Shkreli. We got Billy. We get them. We get them first right out of prison. And you told him. You. What did you tell him? You gave him some advice. He didn't listen.

[Sam Parr]

He basically was like, explaining all of these ideas for his. The business that he, like, he owes money, so he has to, like, earn. He has to earn money.

[Sean Puri]

Not just a little bit of money. He owes a lot. He was like 27 or $30 million a lot.

[Sam Parr]

And he was like, I'm going to start this festival. We're going to do, like, this other festival. And we were just like, you know, maybe you. Maybe don't. Maybe you should. Maybe you should. Maybe. I think you shouldn't do that. I think that, like, maybe you can. There's a lot of things you can do because you're famous, but, you know, a Fyre Fest 2, maybe you shouldn't do that. And he's doing exactly that.

[Sean Puri]

So he's doing Fyre Festival 2.

[Sam Parr]

Is that what we said to him on the pod? Did we say anything else?

[Sean Puri]

We told him, you're crazy. And he was like. He just saw the potential. He was like, what if we did it right this time? So article came out today says Fyre Festival 2 is off to a rough start again. Days after the tickets go on sale, which is allegedly taking place on Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Mexico. The local tourism board claims they have no knowledge of this event. The director of the tourism board says, we have never had any contact with any person or company about this. For us, this is an event that does not exist. If you go to the location that they list for where it's going to take place. So I don't know if you have Google Maps, Andy, but if you open up 21 degrees, 12 degrees, 32, you do all that. Just here's where the event is taking place. Take a look at this. In the ocean, the location in the middle of the ocean where there's no land.

[Sam Parr]

Also, the most expensive tickets are $25,000. Like, he. You know how we've joked about entrepreneurs who have just taken what has worked, and they just, like, say, like, all right, you sold all this candy bars. Just do the same Thing now, but for a Reese's Peanut Butter cup style product. Right. He did that. So he must have exported the. The code for that old website and he just put a number two on it and now he's doing Fyre Fest 2. It's the same thing. What did that woman. What did that guy's wife say instead of I told you so? It was. This had a bunch of predictable outcomes. What did she. What's the. What's the line?

[Sean Puri]

This was identified early on as a likely outcome. Yeah, you called it.

[Sam Parr]

This was. This is insane. I. I don't even know how he's allowed to leave the country.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, it's not good. But, hey, listen, I'm an optimist. There's a chance. There's always a chance. Here's some other great quotes from this article, by the way.

[Sam Parr]

We tried.

[Sean Puri]

Billy took to Instagram to address the concerns. Here's what he said. Fire Fest. Fire 2 is real. We have incredible partners leading the festivals. They're in charge of all logistics, production, operations. There's no way they would ever take on a fake festival, right? No, he didn't say the right part. And then the next thing he says is the.

[Sam Parr]

The.

[Sean Puri]

The tourism board responded. The organizers did not even bother to approach the authorities. It's very strange because anyone who organizes events knows if you're going to hold an event, let alone a massive event, you need the municipal authorization. I think they thought they could just announce it, see if it got traction, and then ask for permits halfway down the path. It's a bit naive. McFarlane responds, we have accommodations.

[Sam Parr]

Is that really what he said? That's what he said before. Also, there's. You could. You could buy tickets on his website for up to $20,000. But like, there. There's a great way to accept his. Accept your money as a. As a user. But, like, they don't list any bands. It's a show, right?

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, so. So that's the other part here. At this point, no talent has been announced for the festival. However, McFarlane responds, We have talent. Artists, athletes, and other performers are on board. So did I ever tell you about the time my dad. I went on a trip with my dad and I learned the power of just being absolutely delusional.

[Sam Parr]

The negotiation, it wasn't even.

[Sean Puri]

Not even a full negotiation. It was. I mean, it wasn't even a negotiating situation. We were at the airport and my dad is cheap and so he doesn't want to pay to check luggage in.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Puri]

So he just like, bought the. He got his bag that's too big to check in and stuffed it. And then they're like, you want to check bags? He's like, yep, just that one, like, the free one. And then the lady, this, like, poor little lady from Singapore Airlines behind the desk was like, sir, like, you'll need to check that one, too. And he goes, no, no, I'm carrying that on. And she goes, sir, it's too big. And my dad responds, no, actually, it's too small. Not even. Not even though it's not. It's not too big. It's okay. He says, it's too small, which makes absolutely no sense to anyone in any situation. There's no such thing as it being too small. And by the way, she just kept saying, I think it's over the limit. And he goes, no, it's too small. I checked. It's too small. And it worked. She let him. The plane. And we got it on the plane, at the plane. They're like, sir, it's not going to fit. He's like, you need to check it up front here, because it's free to check when you're up there. And he got it for free. And he just kept doing this on the trip. We were trying to get into this. Like, he's like, oh, let's go to the Four Seasons. They have this, like, the. The New Year's festival. Like, they're doing this big celebration there. And we're, like, driving up. It's like all these signs, like, you must be a me. You must be a resident to attend. I'm like, dad says we have to be staying here.

[Sam Parr]

We're.

[Sean Puri]

We're definitely not staying at the Four Seasons. So, like, we can't do this. We should turn around. He's like, no, no, no, it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. And we're like, what do you. There's a guy at the front, like, the gate. He's checking everybody, like, what room? Give me your id all this stuff. And so, like, my dad just goes up, and he just pulls up and he goes, so, what do you need to see some ID or something? And the guy just goes, no, it's good. You're fine. Go ahead. We got in, and I was like, wow, somebody. I tweeted this out. He goes, delulu is the Salulu. And I've been saying that for the last two days. My kids, they know I'm just. The. Lulu is the solu. If you got a problem, I got a Salulu. For you is the Sulu who said that, who's like long thoughtful thing. And this guy just responded with that. Delulu is the Salulu. And I was like, this is amazing.

[Sam Parr]

That should be the new small boy stuff.

[Sean Puri]

I don't have any tattoos, but I did. It's up there. It's a contender. My kids names and that dude that.

[Sam Parr]

Seems like a cute thing like Gen Z woman would say on a true crime pod that just like we stole mfm, you know we're gonna steal that one too.

[Sean Puri]

Thank you.

[Sam Parr]

That is now ours.

[Sean Puri]

Yeah, sorry. I wish I could remember who said it. I don't know your name.

[Sam Parr]

This is a good podcast because I'm exhausted from laughing.

[Sean Puri]

That's how I know I had a really good time. Yeah, let's do it again sometime.

[Sam Parr]

All right, great show. See you all out there. Have a good night. That's it. That's the pod. I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it. Like no days off on the road. Let's travel. Never looking back.

[Sean Puri]

Hey, Sean, here. A quick break to tell you an Ev Williams stories. He started Twitter and before that he sold a company to Google for $100 million. And somebody asked him, they said, ev, what's the secret, man? How do you create these huge businesses, billion dollar businesses? And he says, well, I think the answer is that you take a human desire, preferably one that's been around for thousands of years, and then you just use modern technology to take out steps. Just remove the friction that exists between people getting what they want. And that is what my partner Mercury does. They took one of the most basic needs any entrepreneur has, managing your money and being able to do your finance or operations. And they've removed all the friction that has existed for decades. No more clunky interfaces, no more 10 tabs to get something done. No more having to drive to a bank, get out of your car just to send a wire transfer. They made it fast, they made it easy. You can actually just get back to running your business. You don't have to worry about the rest of it. I use it for not one, not two, but six of my companies right now. And it's used by also 200,000 other ambitious founders. So if you want to be like me, head to mercury.com, open an account in minutes. And remember, Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve bank and trust members. Fdic. All right, back to the episode.