Steph Smith: “This opportunity is totally overlooked”

Summary

My First Million (Hubspot Media)

Episode: Steph Smith: “This opportunity is totally overlooked”

Date: April 14, 2026
Hosts: Sam Parr, Shaan Puri
Guest: Steph Smith

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Episode Overview

This episode brings back trendspotter and data enthusiast Steph Smith for a high-velocity brainstorm on overlooked business opportunities and generational trends. The hosts and Steph rapidly pull data-driven insights from aging demographics, the business of elderly care, fast-growing sports, quirky consumer products, and internet subcultures. Along the way, Steph shares her “Digits Database”—a compilation of surprising and actionable statistics—as raw material for new business ideas. The conversation is rich with spur-of-the-moment ideation, memorable stats, market maps, and a good dose of contagious laughter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Steph’s Superpower: Trendspotting with Data

• Steph’s Approach: Rather than just spotting a single “nugget,” Steph finds entire “gold mines” of trend data.
• Quote [00:05]:

  "Some people just come back and show you a little piece of gold. Steph shows you where the mine is." — Shaan Puri

• Steph’s Resource: She has compiled 100+ generational-defining stats in her “Digits Database.”
• Implication: Building high-leverage business ideas by spotting multi-year tailwinds and interpreting overlooked data.

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2. The Aging Population & Elder Care Opportunity

Nursing Homes & Silver Tsunami

• Stats:
  • Nursing projected as fastest-growing US occupation, with 275,000 new jobs (2020–30).
  • In Japan, nursing homes rose 50% over the past decade [01:12].
• Japan as Case Study: Aging far ahead of the rest of the world. Social factors contribute to properties being abandoned—so-called "akiya" (vacant houses), sometimes given away or sold at nominal prices by the government [01:48].
• Unexpected Insight: Many Japanese people don’t claim inherited houses for social status reasons.

Assisted Living Business Economics

• Stats:
  • Median annual assisted living price up 31% faster than inflation since 2004; now $54,000/year on average [05:00].
  • 80% of facilities for-profit; half report 20%+ annual return on investment.
  • US: 31,000 facilities, 850,000 residents.
• Steph’s Point: Assisted living is highly profitable, but quality often “really sucks.” Premium/luxury solutions are lacking [06:24].
• Quote [07:24]:

  “Wouldn’t you pay five times that to send your loved one to something a lot better?” — Steph Smith

Macro Trends: One-Chart Businesses

• Visual: Population charts showing elderly (65+) as the only strongly growing cohort globally—from under 1B to projected 2.5B [12:44].
• Quote [14:26]:

  “If you’re building anything in elder care you’re going to own for 10, 20 years, you have this immense tailwind behind you.” — Shaan Puri

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3. Surprising Sports Trends & “Suburban Triathlon”

Fastest-Growing Sports in America

• Research Source: SFIA reports and state-of-the-industry sports data.
• Surprises:
  • #1: Pickleball
  • #2: Alpine touring (backcountry skiing)
  • #3+: Winter fat biking (mountain bikes with exceptionally broad tires), off-course golf, trail running [09:04].
• Consumer Insight: Rapid growth in “approachable” or “quirky” sports.
• Business Idea:
  • “Suburban Triathlon” — a tongue-in-cheek event for non-athletes (e.g. walk to bar, chug beers, play nine holes of golf) [10:00–11:42].
• Quote [10:59]:

  “If you brand this as the non-fit person triathlon, and it’s got to have some eating and drinking, that’s the next Tough Mudder.” — Shaun Puri

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4. Goldmine Resources for Idea Generation

Our World in Data – The Ultimate Chart Trove

• Resource: Thousands of charts covering global trends in economics, climate, population, etc [11:42].
• Examples:
  • Elderly population explosion vs. declining youth rates
  • Per capita savings by country
  • Niche data (e.g. peak cherry tree blossoming in Kyoto)
• Quote [12:44]:

  “Literally thousands of different charts... you could see these huge trends that are going to be very hard to reverse.” — Shaan Puri

Lithium, Air Pollution & Product Inspiration

• Lithium Production: Concentrated in a few countries; signals supply-chain risk/opportunity.
• Air Pollution Data: PM2.5 exposure affects billions globally; leads to lower GDP, poor health, cognitive impairment [14:29–16:00].
  • India’s capital AQI sometimes ~450 (equivalent to 30 cigarettes/day) [16:45].
• Consumer Opportunity: Devices like air quality monitors and purifiers surging in demand [18:03–19:05].
  • Air filter market: $17–$40M/month estimates via Jungle Scout.
• Quote [20:56]:

  “It’s not obvious...most people would be surprised at what’s in the air and how it affects you. There’s a gap—a company could give people that ‘aha’ moment.” — Steph Smith

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5. Health, Ergonomics & "Nerdneck"

The Forward Head Posture Epidemic

• Steph: “I’ve got a bad case, hopefully improving, of nerdneck...” (sitting hunched over computers). [21:49]
• Products/Trends:
  • Posture-correcting devices like “Better Back”
  • “Form” posture sports bra (worn by Taylor Swift); other muscle/ergonomics methods (e.g. Tim Ferriss's Egoscue).
  • Culturally-ingrained postural awareness (TED Talk: “Why Sitting Down Destroys You” by Roger Frampton) [24:06].
• Actions: Small disciplines—muscle exercises, posture-coaching, daily practice.
• Quote [25:58]:

  “Imagine you got a little penny in your butt cheeks that you’re trying to keep from falling. You squeeze your butt together when you’re standing. That’s the proper way to stand.” — Sean

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6. Bio-Inspired Innovation & The “Ask Nature” Resource

Biomimicry in Business

• Resource: AskNature.org — catalogues natural designs (e.g. bird feathers, camel fur) and their potential product applications [26:24].
• Examples:
  • African darter’s water-resistant feathers—ideas for outdoor gear.
  • Camel fur for clothing with adaptive insulation.
  • Otter fur for wetsuits.
  • “Gobstomper” sneakers: colored layers that change as you wear ([30:02]).
• Steph’s Story:
  • Galapagos birds’ foot color changes with diet. Wild idea: shoes that shift color based on biometric data (e.g. glucose or activity).
• Branding Insight:

  “You are learning from millions of years of evolution—these animals have become optimized for this purpose. What products could you make off of this?” — Steph Smith [29:34]

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7. Consumer Niche: Breakup Parties & Post-Relationship Spend

• Statistic: Average person spends $1,500 after a breakup (unclear provenance) [34:03].
• Business Ideas:
  • Divorce/breakup parties, “breakup cake” delivery, themed gift boxes or healing kits [34:40].
  • “Breakup Vodka” kit, “revenge body” program, voodoo doll merchandising.
• Viral Potential: Great fit for meme accounts or digital brands with strong, shareable imagery.
• Quote [36:06]:

  “You could see this doing $2–10 million a year—all organic—just because the product is so viral.” — Shaun Puri

• Minimalism Parody: “Empty” (EMPTI)—joke startup selling empty boxes for decluttering [36:35].

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8. The Power of Contagious Laughter: Why This Podcast Resonates

• Steph’s Theory: One secret to My First Million’s appeal is Sam’s “contagious” laugh, which creates authenticity and intimacy [37:47].
• Example: Popularity of r/contagiouslaughter subreddit (4.5M members)—people crave real, shared mirth [37:47–38:32].
• Quote [39:19]:

  “One of the funniest moments... was your Orlando Bloom story—Sam’s laughter layered onto that just made it honestly top 5 moments for me.” — Steph Smith

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• [00:05] “Some people just come back and show you a little piece of gold. Steph shows you where the mine is.” — Shaan Puri
• [01:12] “In the United States...nursing will be the fastest-growing occupation between 2020 and 2030, growing by 275,000 jobs. That's insane.” — Sean
• [05:00] “From 2004 to 2021, the median annual price of assisted living increased 31% faster than inflation and has hit $54,000 per year...Half of all the operators in the industry are clearing annual returns of 20% or more.” — Steph Smith (quoting Numlock)
• [14:26] “If you’re building anything that’s in elder care...you have this immense tailwind behind you.” — Shaan Puri
• [10:59] “If you make it...the non-fit person triathlon...that’s the next Tough Mudder. A massive trend.” — Shaun Puri
• [20:56] “It’s not obvious...most people would be surprised to be like, oh my gosh, I inhale all this stuff...But it’s not in your face.” — Steph Smith
• [25:58] “Imagine you got a little penny in your butt cheeks that you’re trying to keep from falling. That’s the proper way to stand.” — Sean
• [29:34] “You are learning from millions of years of evolution of these animals...What products could you make off of this?” — Steph Smith
• [36:06] “You could see this [breakup kits] doing $2–10 million a year, all organic.” — Shaun Puri
• [39:19] “One of the funniest moments was your Orlando Bloom story...Sam’s laughter layered onto that made it honestly top 5 moments...” — Steph Smith

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Quick Reference: Interesting Resources Mentioned

• Digits Database by Steph (free for MFM listeners)
• Numlock News — Walt Hickey’s stat-filled newsletter
• Our World in Data — Massive chart/data repository ([12:26])
• Ask Nature — Biomimicry/animal-inspired tech ideas ([26:24])
• Jungle Scout — Product/market analysis, used to spot air quality monitor sales ([19:05])
• r/contagiouslaughter — Popular subreddit for contagious laughter ([37:47])
• Internet Pipes — Steph’s resource course/book for finding online insight sources ([27:41])

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Summary Table: Key Opportunities Uncovered

| Trend & Insight | Data Point / Source | Opportunity Ideas | |-------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | Aging Population | 275K new nurses (US); 50% more nursing homes in Japan | Senior care, premium assisted living, elderly tech, real estate| | Air Quality Concerns | $40M/month air filter sales; 3.7B exposed to risky PM2.5 | Monitors, filters, education, premium “air” products | | Fast-Growing Sports | Pickleball/alpine touring/winter fat biking top US sport growth | Product brands, events, new sport “triathlons” | | Ergonomics/Posture | Rise of “nerdneck,” posture tech | Devices/apps, ergonomic furniture, coaching | | Biomimicry | Animal-inspired innovations (Ask Nature) | Apparel, gear, tech, marketing narratives | | Breakup Consumer Niche | $1,500 avg spend post-breakup | Cake/services, self-care kits, viral gift ideas |

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Tone & Style

• Spirited, rapid-fire brainstorming
• Heavy emphasis on real-world data and actionable insights
• Peppering of analogies, stories, and jokes
• Collaborative, “in the room” authenticity

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For Listeners: Takeaways

• Steph Smith’s resources (Digits Database, Internet Pipes) are goldmines for trend-savvy entrepreneurs.
• Look for "one-chart businesses": when a graph tells you everything about a market's trajectory.
• Opportunities abound in overlooked areas: elder care, ergonomic health, air quality, and even post-breakup spending.
• Never underestimate the stickiness of relatable authenticity and laughter in media.

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Transcript

[Sam Parr]

All right, Steph Smith's here.

[Shaun Puri]

Steph is back.

[Sam Parr]

And your whole thing is finding up and coming trends.

[Shaun Puri]

I call them gold mines. Some people just come back and show you a little piece of gold. Steph shows you where the mine is.

[Steph Smith]

We all run into these generation defining stats throughout our lives and most of us are just like, oh, that's cool. So I compiled 100 plus of these.

[Sean]

There's so many here.

[Steph Smith]

I love this one. Breakup cake Nerdneck. The Dyson Mask. A search algorithm that was inspired by ants.

[Shaun Puri]

I need to write this down.

[Steph Smith]

If you want to go down the rabbit hole. I think there's a, there's a growing business here.

[Guest or Narrator]

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, let's travel. Never looking back.

[Sean]

We use this phrase, one chart businesses. Because you just see this chart and it like you said, well there, that thing's obvious. Just get into that industry. You have one here. You said in the, in the United States, the U.S. bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that nursing will be the fastest growing occupation between 2020 and 2030, growing in number by 275,000 jobs. That's insane. That's insane. Talk to me about this nursing thing.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, well, I mean, again, it's like a pretty clear trend that comes with a bunch of people getting, getting older. Like everyone's talking about AI and that's great, but what about the billions of people around the globe that are, you know, 65 plus that are just gonna need physical human support? So nursing's one area. Also the, the rest of that stat talks about in Japan, the number of nursing homes has risen nearly 50% over the last decade. And Japan is interesting because it's kind of like this early case study where they've hit this silver tsunami a little earlier than a lot of other countries.

[Sean]

Why Japan?

[Steph Smith]

I think they just hit the declining birth rate earlier than many other countries. And so, you know, another interesting, you could say it, opportunity, maybe just an interesting thing for individuals to explore. But because Japan hit the like silver tsunami a little earlier, they have this interesting thing where they're giving away free houses or super cheap houses, sometimes free. They're called a kias A K I Y A I was in Japan this summer and we did a walking tour and they took us around and they were showing us these houses and they're like, see this house? And it was like in the middle of Osaka. It was a little rundown for sure. But they were like, this. This house is free. And we were like, what do you. What do you mean? But because there's so many of these people who have grown old, unfortunately passed away. And then there's also some social aspects of the Ikeas, where in some cases not all. Because Japanese people really care about status. If, let's say, they grew up in a poor neighborhood, their parents passed away, and then they've moved into, you know, a different social strata, they don't want to claim the house because they're like, I don't want to be associated with that neighborhood. And there's over. There's tons of articles on this, over 8 million IKEA that are being given away by the government or again, sometimes for very cheap.

[Sean]

Well, have you heard the. The theory about Osaka and how a lot of people are lying about their age?

[Steph Smith]

Oh, yeah, the Blue Zones. And how.

[Sean]

Yeah, there's a book called the Blue Zones. And basically, like, I read it 10 years ago or something, and I was like, this is my bible for, like, living a long, healthy life. But the idea is that someone studied Osaka's population and they found that too many people claim to have the same birth date in Osaka to the point where the only way that this could be possibly true is if many of them committed fraud in order to say that they are of a certain age so they can start receiving Social Security and other, like, benefits that you get when you hit a certain age. And so it potentially puts a lot of, like, this idea of we study this particular population for old health or, you know, old people and, like, looking at, like, wow, they're so healthy when they're just liars, that they're actually a lot younger. They're a lot younger potentially than they've said they are. What are some other stats about those? I love, I love talking to you because you just have, like, you actually have the data and the stats instead of just, like, guessing.

[Steph Smith]

Okay, so we didn't really drill down as much on the. I mean, you talked about nursing homes and assisted living. So let me give you one more from numloc, which, by the way, is a great newsletter. Walt Hickey runs it. And people, I feel like MFM listeners would love it. It's great because you talk about these one chart businesses. I've done a thread on something similar. And I call them digits, but he calls them just numbers. Right. So basically every single day, actually, he sends a newsletter of maybe five or so different, just small paragraphs, and each paragraph has just, like, one statistic. And I like his. Because some of them are really important, like, you know, the silver tsunami and how that's going to impact things much greater than ourselves. But then sometimes it's like there's this random gerbil that it has infested homes in South Carolina or something like that.

[Sean]

This is awesome.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah. He sent this paragraph about assisted living. So let me just read this out. This is directly from Numlok. From 2004 to 2021, the median annual price of assisted L increased 31% faster than inflation and has hit $54,000 per year. This is the crazy stat to me. There are 31,000 assisted living facilities in the United States. Four out of every five are run as for profits. And half of all the operators in the industry are clearing annual returns of 20% or more than IT costs to operate. With 850,000 older Americans living within assisted living, rents are getting jacked up.

[Sean]

So I don't actually know how assisted living businesses are valued. Like, is it considered like a real estate valuation where it's just like a, a way to finance or pay for real estate, or is it considered like a proper operating business? Like, I guess, you know how like, hotels are classified as real estate? I. I would assume that's the. That's the case of which 20% is. Is fantastic. 20% were operating profit on a, On a proper, like, like Internet business, that's not that great. But if it's on real estate, that's really great. However, when I read this, I think, yeah, that's lucrative. I don't want to operate this. That sounds like the worst thing ever. You'd have a funeral a day. I would love to invest in a nursing home fund, but I would not want to operate a nursing home.

[Steph Smith]

Well, what I'll say is, I mean, my. I have parents that are getting older and there's also tons of assisted living for not just elderly. Right. People with mental illness or who need other support. And I think what I've seen from like exploring this space anecdotally is that most of the options really suck. As in, like, you. You don't really feel great about sending your parent or loved one to these places. And so I, I haven't explored this deeply enough. This might exist. So if, if folks are listening and they know of this, I would love to hear about it. But like, imagine the, the premium version of assisted living where you feel really, really good about sending your grandparent, your mom, your sister, whatever it is to one of these places. And obviously the, you know, the price would have to Go way up. But people are already like, this stat is saying they're spending $54,000 per year as the average. And so, you know, for the wealthy, like, wouldn't you pay five times that to send your loved one to something a lot better?

[Sean]

Yeah, and I think people do. Like, I, I know people who have people in nursing homes and they spend 20 or 30 thousand dollars a month. It's insane. It's absolutely insane.

[Sam Parr]

Okay, so you're eight minutes into this episode and you already can tell that Steph's superpower is spotting generational defining trends. She has spent hours pulling the most surprising under the radar stats and data, all for the purpose of basically uncovering interesting business ideas. She's put it all together in a thing called the digits database. And for you guys, the MFM audience, she has decided to give it away for free. And so if you want it, just click the link below and in the description and grab it. All right, back to the show.

[Steph Smith]

What do you guys want to do next?

[Shaun Puri]

Let's do the sports one. What's the sports data thing?

[Steph Smith]

Okay, so there's this website that aggregates a bunch of reports on sports which obviously people love. Americans love sports. So they have like a state of pickleball report, state of the industry report. I want you guys to guess what the fastest growing sports are. The 25 fastest growing sports, according to this SFIA research, which is the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. What do you guys think were the top fastest growing sports in America?

[Sean]

I already opened it and I could tell you I wouldn't have guessed one of them.

[Shaun Puri]

I already opened it as well, so the game is over. But I would have said pickleball and I would have said that game paddle. Isn't there like another game that's just like pickleball? That's what I would have guessed. It does seem like pickleball is number one. But number two, I would have never guessed Alpine touring. I don't even know what that really is.

[Steph Smith]

I think it's just like off. Off country skiing. And then I have never heard of what is winter fat biking.

[Sean]

It's awesome is what it is. It's like.

[Shaun Puri]

So I need to research.

[Sean]

So these fat tire bikes are, are really popular right now. So it's basically a bike with a. Just a really fat tire is what it is. And they, they are, they're sick looking.

[Steph Smith]

Is this a sport?

[Sean]

Yeah, it's just mountain bike riding, but the tire is particularly fat. That's all it is. You know, we, what do we say? We like Big and small things. Imagine a bicycle that could drive on a beach.

[Steph Smith]

Got it. Number four, off course golf. Interesting.

[Sean]

And then number seven is trail running. I could definitely see that. That is the. I, I've. I get so many videos on my Instagram of trail running.

[Shaun Puri]

Dude. I was at a dinner and somebody said something as a joke and I put up my finger to my lips and I said, I need to write this down because it was an incredible idea. The guy goes, you put your finger on his lips and then my own lips back and forth. And I was like, say no more. I need to. Don't. I don't want to lose this idea. Let me write this down. He said something. He goes, yeah, I do the suburban triathlon. And I go, what? And he goes, yeah, suburban triathlon. You walk a half mile to this bar, you drink two beers and then you go play nine holes of golf. And I was like, what? He's like, yeah, it's the suburban. I forgot. He said suburban Iron man or the suburban triathlon. And I was like, this has legs. And I really think that if somebody comes, created some kind of thing for, you know, out of shape middle aged guys to do, they'll do it. And I think if you make it, if you brand it almost like as the, the non fit person triathlon and it's got to have like some version of eating and drinking being one of the legs. Dude, that's the ne next tough mutter. I think that could be a massive, a massive trend that people start doing. This is, this is definitely something that I, I think would appeal to people. What do you guys think?

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Sean]

Yeah. And that's beautiful branding.

[Shaun Puri]

We're working backwards from the brand. We really don't even know actually what goes underneath. It's just the idea of the suburban triathlon. It's like you bike to the grocery store, you chug a beer and then you like, I don't know, run an errand. And that's the suburban triathlon. And you got to do it on Saturday mornings.

[Steph Smith]

Next Goldmine. So I love this one. Our world in data. So people have maybe heard of this website. It's a website that tries to aggregate data that is a reflection of what's really happening in the world. So it includes things like data on poverty, it includes really niche things. Like I found, I went through the website and there was a graph that related to the day of the year with peak cherry tree blossoms in Kyoto. Right. Like so random. But they're collecting data on this. And I checked this website a few years ago. And I want to say there was maybe 200 graphs on here. And if you go to their rworldindata.org charts page, I want to say there's thousands of different data points.

[Sean]

Now I just clicked on one. It's adjusted net savings per capita from 1970 to 2020. And you could see like how much per capita a variety of countries are saving. So like, it's just like literally thousands of like, different charts. You know, Sean talks about these, like one chart businesses.

[Shaun Puri]

One of them is this population of the world distribution. So basically this is a chart that is looking at how many of all the people in the world, how many are young right now, meaning under 15, how many are working age 15 to 65 and how many are elderly, 65 plus. And the shocking thing about this chart, this is a one chart. This is a one chart business right here, which is the elderly curve goes from today, right? Like kind of like the 2020, early 2020s, where it's under 1 billion. It's by far the smallest line to, it's going to cross over the young population and be at, you know, by the end of the, where this has it projected 2.5 billion. And so that's the biggest grower. The working, the working age one kind of flattens out. The young one kind of goes down and the elderly one has this huge spike. And so if you're building anything that's in the elder care that you're going to own for, let's say 10, 20 years, you have this immense tailwind behind you, which is just that the population of people who fit, you know, the customer base is going to grow dramatically. We're going to go from under 1 billion people to over 2 and a half billion people that are in that market. And so that's a, it's, you know, a case to say, you know, if you go there, let's say, let's say it's like real estate. Like if you owned senior living facilities or something like that, you would be able to just benefit from the fact that, oh, occupancy is going to go up over time in this, in this way. Now, of course, technology may completely upend things and AI and all that, but you could see these, like, huge trends that are going to be very hard to reverse. So it's hard to imagine a scenario that we change the direction of these lines. It would take like a whole societal shift, population level shift, to change where these lines are going.

[Sean]

There's so many here. Which ones stick out to you, Steph?

[Steph Smith]

So I just linked another one that I think, again, is this like one chart business. This one's hard to get involved with, but I think it's. It's the lithium production. If you pull that up, I just linked it in the document and you can see that lithium production, which obviously is the core ingredient in many of our batteries, is concentrated in just a few countries. A lot of it's in China, a lot of it's in a few countries in South America. That's another example of. Just as you're browsing through a bunch of these charts, I think that one jumps out. But the one I wanted to dive into in depth is air pollution. So if you click the stat in here in our document that says air pollution is one of the world's leading risk factors for death, which maybe is obvious to some people, but to me, when I think about just like, what are, what are the key causes of death? What am I afraid of? Air pollution is not at the top of that list. However, I also stumbled upon Patrick Collison's pollution page. He's got a bunch of cool pages on his website. He's got a page with just a bunch of questions. One of them's on pollution and he says that the World bank indicates that 3.7 billion people, so about half the world's population are exposed to this metric of PM2.5. That. That has to do with like the size of particles in the air. They're exposed to around five times the. The unit of measure that he correlates with a bunch of things which include lower gdp. It includes stock market returns being lower, people making worse decisions, like chess players making mistakes, politicians using less, less complex speech. So those are just, you know, some fun facts. But I think what's, what's really important is obviously the, the health side of things. And there's another stat that I'll just quickly share, which is from a newsletter called Charter, which says that India's capital, this was recently breached the 450 mark on the air quality index, over four times the healthy level. And basically they're in this hazardous zone, which is akin to smoking 25 to 30 cigarettes a day. And obviously that is an outlier. But I wanted to call this out because I think air quality is something that is a problem in a lot of places, clearly some more than others. But it's something that I think people are going to be caring about a lot more. And maybe one product that came out in the last year or so that's indicative of that, that a lot of people made fun of was the Dyson mask headphones. So I'll stop there.

[Sean]

What were those?

[Shaun Puri]

Yeah, I never saw those.

[Steph Smith]

They are headphones that have a, basically a mask air purifier attached to them.

[Sean]

Wow. And they're expensive. They're a thousand dollars, I think. Right?

[Steph Smith]

They are $700 from what I can see.

[Sean]

And what this came out and people just made fun of them. Well, if you, if you Google images, it's like a white guy in like the New York subway wearing it. You know what I mean? Like, it's a little off on because you're talking about India and a few other countries, not maybe the New York subway. So it's kind of like a. It's kind of like a misleading ad they have. But that's pretty fascinating. Is this, Are these taking off?

[Steph Smith]

No, I think they're in that zone of a lot of people making fun of them. However, the reason I'm calling this out is because I think there is this understanding that, you know, it's just a New Delhi. It's not, you know, anywhere close to home. But I think. Have you guys ever used like an air quality index measure in your home or like a CO2 monitor?

[Shaun Puri]

Yeah, I have multiple times. And I bought like these air purifier things that also measure the air quality in my house. And I have them and it's like shocking. Whenever it'll like, it basically turns red and it's like, oh God, there's something going on. You know, we need to air this place out or whatever.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, air quality changes over time. And I don't know, I've been noticing more even in San Francisco a few days where people are like, oh, I'm wearing a mask at work not because of COVID but because like, oh gosh, like I. Have you checked the air quality? And a lot of people aren't doing this still today, but I think that'll change. And I think if you use some of these, like the CO2 monitor, for example, you literally, like, if you go to bed with your door closed and you wake up and you check that thing, it is wild how high it is. And you know, all you need to do is open a window or, you know, circulate the air in your home. But I think as the stuff, I guess is people are more educated on it. I think some of these devices, like the air quality monitors are going to take off. And you can see some of this data in Jungle Scout as well of just like the kinds of products that people are Buying.

[Shaun Puri]

Do you see? Would you see anything in Jungle Scout that stood out? Any product that stood out?

[Steph Smith]

Okay, so there's one product which is has to do with an AC furnace and an air filter. But guess how much this thing cells every single month.

[Sean]

What is it?

[Steph Smith]

It's an AC furnace, air filter and an air quality monitor. So I'm seeing four entries in Jungle Scout and they are 17 million, 12 million, 8 million and 8 million. So what is that all total? That's like over $40 million per month. This is what Jungle Scout is saying. So, you know, take it with a grain of salt. I'm not sure how they measure, but they tend to be pretty accurate. And so that's an example of, I think as people again, like try to understand the air quality around them. I think there's a, there's a growing business here. I feel like one missing gap with air quality readings and devices and all that is it's not obvious as in, I feel like most people would be surprised to be like, oh my gosh, I inhale all this stuff and it has these adverse effects and it's, you know, it ranks here on, you know, the, the likelihood of, of death. But it's not obvious. It's not in your face. Like, let's say like the GLP1s people see themselves every day and they're constantly trying to improve their image and how other people interpret them. So I think maybe one thing that if, if someone was going to go figure this out, you guys have talked about the air, the water filters. People go into your home, they're gonna bring that up. They say like, did you know like you're drinking like this much of, of like basically like rocks and other sediment and lead in your, your water. Can you believe it? And they show you. And so I feel like there's an element of that where as it's going to take a while for people to really care about the air quality stuff. But there may be some middle ground where some company is able to effectively give people that. Aha.

[Shaun Puri]

Yeah, I would put it differently. I don't think it's going to take a while. I think it's going to take a marketer for people to care. It's just going to take a marketer and a product design that puts it in your face and that educates you about this and kind of scares you about it. But, but then says don't worry, there's a solution and that's how a lot of things get done. Is, you know, a great marketer or Product designer figures out the way to put it in your face. Today's episode is brought to you by HubSpot. Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data? That's like reading a book but then tearing out 4/5 of the pages. Point is, you miss a lot. And unless you're using HubSpot, the customer platform that gives you access to the data you need to grow your business, the insights that are trapped in emails, call logic, transcripts, all that unstructured data makes all the difference. Because when you know more, you grow more. And so if you want to read the whole book instead of just reading part of it, visit HubSpot.com.

[Steph Smith]

I spend way too much time online. I think a lot of people do too. So I've got a bad case, hopefully improving. Case of nerdneck. Some people call it forward head posture, but basically it's just because we're hunched over at a computer all day long. And I haven't done a ton here. Like, I'm kind of on the, like, very early part of this curve, but I have played around with. I'm not using it right now. Hold up. There's this thing. I don't know if I'd vouch for it or not yet, but this thing called Better Back.

[Sean]

I'm looking at it.

[Sam Parr]

I think any.

[Sean]

Anytime that you have to use one of these devices, I tend to get nervous that it's legit, but go ahead, what is it?

[Steph Smith]

Well, that's why. I don't know. So it has helped me set up more. Basically, like, it runs around your knees and your back, and I like it better than something. There's things you. You can put on your back that like, zap you and stuff. And I feel like that's really unnatural. But this actually, just because it's like fixated around your knees, you just sit up straighter.

[Sean]

So for. For those listening, it's basically like a strap that when you're sitting down, it wraps around your back and then attaches to your knees. And in doing that, it kind of forces you to sit up.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, exactly. There's other. For the women, your four female listeners, there is a sports bra that I haven't tried yet called form, which apparently, like, folks like Taylor Swift have used. If you look at her posture a decade ago is way, way worse. So there, like, there's a small part of me that believes that something like that works.

[Sean]

Can I use this?

[Steph Smith]

You can.

[Sean]

Like, you're telling me just like this, like, shirt that. I mean, for me, it would be a shirt that's gonna make me have better posture.

[Sam Parr]

What is this thing?

[Steph Smith]

I haven't tried it, but it's. It's a sports bra that people vouch helps your posture. But I think generally, as I've explored this a little bit, it is a function of your muscle, right? Like, if you have strength in your abdomen and your back, like, you're gonna sit up straighter. But there's a video I shared. We can include all this in the show notes. This is actually just like an email I sent or I'm going to send to the Internet pipes crew this month. But, like, it's a video from Brian Johnson around his posture. He worked with a posture coach for several months. And then Tim Ferriss has recommended something called the Ego Skew method, which I have not tried.

[Sean]

Um, and what's this Brian Johnson video? What's. How do I just make my posture better?

[Steph Smith]

There's three different exercises that he does every single day, and he shares them in this video that improved his posture.

[Sean]

And what's this Ego. Ego escu.

[Steph Smith]

It's a method that I think you need to, like, work with a practitioner for, which is why, again, I'm not. I don't. I don't think I'm vouching for this in any way, but it's just something that came up.

[Sean]

Dude, there's this great TED Talk that you should watch it. Why Sitting down destroys you. I think it's by Roger Frampton. I believe that's the one. But it's a TED Talk that has millions of views. And he basically goes through this idea of how he worked. I think he worked in. In the Amazon. He worked with some, like, indigenous tribe where they didn't have a. They didn't use, like, a lot of chairs or something like that. And what he found was that basically the people who. In. In today's age, we don't really do this, but we used to where if you stand a lot, you. You squeeze your ass. Like, imagine you got a. You got a little penny in your butt cheeks that you're trying to keep from falling down on the ground. That's basically what you do. You, like, squeeze your butt together when you're standing. And there's a reason why our glutes typically tend to be our largest muscle. It's because we were supposed to use them a lot and how. We don't really use them too much anymore. And so instead, when we stand, we kind of lean forward. And he was like, no, you should actually, when you stand, he was Like a lot of babies, actually, if you watch like a kid, you'll notice they, they do a good job of this. But you squeeze your butt together and, and, and, and you flex your abs as opposed to just falling forward. And if you work on it, you can actually hold that for like a fairly long time when you're standing. And that's the proper way to stand. And so it's not just sitting that will destroy you, but standing incorrectly.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, totally. Well, even in the video I did watch with Brian Johnson, he was talking about how most people, when they think they want good posture, they like tilt their head back and that's bad as well. Like they're kind of like, oh, I have good posture like this. And you really want to be more like head. The back of your neck should be absolutely straight. So.

[Sam Parr]

What's this Ask Nature thing?

[Steph Smith]

So if people want to go down the rabbit hole of exploring, kind of not just like, let me go look at pictures of animals, but understanding like how do animals produce color? What are the examples of technology being inspired by natural design? For example, like a search algorithm that was inspired by ants.

[Sam Parr]

This is so fascinating. So Ask Nature has this, they have this, like there's all stuff you can click on. So there's one about the African darter. Apparently that's a type of bird and it has a very special feather that is incredibly water resistant. And then it tells you like different applications that this potential feather or like inspiration of this feather could have. And it talks about like the strategy of how it works and like the potential for copying this feather.

[Sean]

This is amazing.

[Sam Parr]

How did you find this website? This is really cool.

[Steph Smith]

So someone shared it within Internet Pipes. We have this survey whenever people join which just asks like, what's your favorite tool? A lot of it ends up being what you expect. ChatGPT, Ahrefs, etc but there are a bunch of gems that come through like this.

[Sam Parr]

And so by the way is Internet Pipes. It's literally just tons of different resources

[Sean]

for finding these things.

[Steph Smith]

So what the product started as it was. I hate the term course, but it was a course that existed to say, call it a book.

[Sam Parr]

It was a book.

[Steph Smith]

It was a book. It exists in notion and there's videos and there's text and now there's a community and now there's things databases, like the digits database. But the origin was okay. The most common question I get asked is, you find all this cool stuff online. How do you find it? And so Internet Pipes was showing people how to find this information through a series of Tools. And that's why it's called Pipes, right? It's like use this tool to make sense of all of the purchases that are happening on Amazon, all of the pages that exist on Wikipedia, all of the searches that are happening on Google and you go down the line, this data exists. And by the way, we're at a unique period where it didn't quite exist 15 years ago. And 15 years from now, probably everyone will know it exists. And so it's like this Internet Pipes is a course, a book, whatever you want to call it, to learn how to do that.

[Sam Parr]

And you've made a lot of money

[Sean]

off of it so far, haven't you?

[Steph Smith]

Yes.

[Sean]

That's pretty dope. When you answer just yes, that means I'm not going to ask how much,

[Steph Smith]

but that's pretty years. There's a pretty wide range of, you

[Sam Parr]

know, does the six figure include the dot zero zero? So it could really be like $1,000.00 dollars.

[Steph Smith]

It's eight figures now.

[Sean]

I got it. This is a really, really cool website.

[Sam Parr]

I could spend hours just looking at this. Like there's an article about like camel's fur and how it keeps people cool or it keeps camels cool in the desert but also warm at night and why that particular type of fur is special for this. The reason it's kind of interesting is like the, the two that I've named are clothing related. But like if you had a clothing related brand, like some type of like it's stealing the story for you. Like it's like. Or not stealing, it's giving you the hook.

[Steph Smith]

Exactly, exactly. And by the way, people in our world, in business tech are always talking about the lindy ness of something. How long has something existed for? And it's like you are learning from millions of years of evolution of these animals that have become purely optimized for this purpose. And to your point, I think the marketer in both of us is like what could, you know, what products could you make off of this?

[Sam Parr]

Like there's one like the otters where it's like it keeps heat in and cold water out. So otters. And I'm sure every single wetsuit company has like stolen this marketing for their branding or whatever. But like so it's like really fascinating.

[Sean]

Sorry, go ahead.

[Steph Smith]

Well, did you ever see, you know, Mischief, right?

[Sam Parr]

Mischief, the brand Mischief is the company that like weird projects like they did like a blood shoe for with Lil Nas X or something like that.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, yeah. So they've, they've done a ton of shoe collabs they did one, I think it was, I don't remember if it was with Jimmy Kimmel or they just announced it, but it was called the Gob Stomper. Did you ever see this?

[Sam Parr]

No. It's Jimmy Kimmel. Still a celebrity that one wants to collab with.

[Sean]

I didn't realize he was like booty.

[Steph Smith]

I don't know, maybe it was, maybe they just announced it there. But these gobstomper sneakers that mischief created, I thought they were kind of cool. They basically the bottom foundation of the of the sneaker comes gray at first and then as you wear it more basically like as your shoe wears away, it looks like a gobstopper. And it was just like which is

[Sam Parr]

the candy that you suck on in each shell. Layer of shell. It turns colors. Okay, cool.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, exactly. And so my like you might think this is the silliest idea ever, but when I went to the Galapagos and I saw these red footed and these blue footed boobies. And by the way, fun fact for the listeners, the reason that these, that these birds have different colored feet is because of what they eat. Which I just thought was like so strange and interesting. But imagine a sneaker brand that was again, stick with me here. This might be a really awful idea that's related to health in some way. So let's say you're wearing a CGM and on your shoes, your shoes change color in some way based on if you're in range or some other metric that you care about. But basically you're able to signal something in a way that changes through your feed. Like that awful idea.

[Sam Parr]

Well, it could be like if, you know, we could show your fertile or something.

[Steph Smith]

It's like those parties, right, where you wear like, what are they called? The stoplight parties where you wear red,

[Sam Parr]

yellow, red or green.

[Sean]

That's pretty cool.

[Steph Smith]

Stoplight shoes. Maybe that's a better version of the idea.

[Sam Parr]

This is for the folks out there who have a business that does at least $3 million a year in revenue. Because around this point, that's when you're able to look up after being heads down for years building your company. And you realize two things. One, you've done something great, but you're still a long way from your final destination. And two, you look around and you realize, I am all alone. I've outrun my peers. Which means you're now making $10 million decisions alone, by yourself. And that is when mediocrity can creep in. My company, Hampton, we solve this problem by giving you a room of Vetted peers of other entrepreneurs who are going to hold you accountable, call you out on your nonsense, and help show you the way. Because the fact is, is that there's only a tiny number of people in your town who know what you're going through and who have been there. And they're hard to find. And if you can find them, it's hard to have this explicit time, this explicit place where you sit down, where the rules are clear, that we are here to help each other and to be one another's board of directors. The biggest risk is not failing. You have a company and it's working. You're going to be fine. But the biggest risk is waking up 10 years from now and saying, shit, I barely grew in business and in life. And for people like you who are ambitious, wasted potential and regret is what we want to help you to avoid. We have made so many of these groups and we have a thousand plus members. And I know this stuff actually works, whether you work with Hampton or you get your own group on your own. But having a group like this, a group of people who you meet with in real life once a month, it can change your life. It changed mine. And I know it will change yours. So check it out. Joinhampton.com.

[Steph Smith]

Okay, let's do a quick one, which is. I actually saw this in the Trends newsletter a while ago. I didn't write this, but it was this stat, which is the average person spends one and a half thousand dollars after a breakup. I have no idea where the stat came from, but definitely got the wheel spinning. And they came up with a bunch of different ideas, which I think actually are getting some traction. Divorce party ideas is something that gets search volume, breakup cake, people throwing their own breakup parties. And I was just like, huh. I don't know if there's, you know, specific brands that are taking this on, but I was like, huh, that's. That one and a half thousand dollars. Don't know where it came from, but

[Shaun Puri]

there's something there that's like, if I'm fjerry, you know, that like, Instagram account, and they have these, like, they built a kind of like a little media empire. They have a bunch of other accounts, but they also have products they make. Like they made that card game. I think they make some products. Now, if I was. If I was one of those accounts, I would be jumping on this. I would basically say, all right, it's already viral. It's meme worthy. It's. It's remarkable. People are going to talk about this. So how do I make, you know, like the best breakup cake delivery service or like, you know, like the revenge body kit. And it's like, you know, we send you this like seven day detox or we send you like a healing crystal, we send you like a juice cleanse and whatever else to like, you know, get that person out of your, out of your life. So, you know, get the bad juju, you know, away. And I'd be like, you know, this is called bad juju or whatever. And I would just try to create like a viral product through that because I think it's on brand and I think it has like enough demand where there's, you could see this doing, you know, two to $10 million a year, all organic. Just because the product is so viral, you know, it's probably not going to be enormous, but there's a, there's enough of a niche there. Especially if you're one of these accounts because you already got distribution or you're somebody who goes to those accounts and partners with them and says, hey, I got the right product for you guys, let's do some kind of profit share and I'll run this business and you guys just help me promote this. The Breakup Vodka. And it's like, this is the breakup Vodka kit or whatever the thing is.

[Steph Smith]

Yeah, I mean, I'm imagining all the tropes of someone gets broken up with and they become super fit and they get a PhD and they just become the best version of themselves after the breakup. Doesn't always happen. But you could imagine something like that

[Shaun Puri]

or something that's even less work. It's like, what's those, what are those? Like voodoo dolls where you like poke it and you're like, you're sending like ill will towards them. You could just like upload a photo of your person. We print you a doll that looks, you know, like close enough like them and like you can do that.

[Steph Smith]

That reminds me of. Did you see that startup empty? It was fake. Did you hear about this? No, I think it was, you know, it had the silly spelling too. It was like E, M, P, T I or something. And it was a fake startup that people thought was real. And basically they sent people these empty boxes. And the whole idea was like, look, we send you these empty boxes and there's some motivational quote from Buddha in it. And it's like, rid yourself of all the things you don't need in your life. And the idea is that people are supposed to take all their junk, put it in these boxes and send it to this company for free, but they pay this company to send them these boxes. But it was a fake startup, and all these people are writing about it, and they're like, oh, this is so smart. What a cool company.

[Shaun Puri]

Minimalism.

[Steph Smith]

And it was just. Yeah, exactly. It was a joke.

[Shaun Puri]

But, yeah, actually, you could do that with this, too. You could send them the breakup box. It's like, put all their crap in this. All their crap they've left in your house that reminds you of them. Put it in this, send it to us, and we will send you a video of us burning this box in this epic way. And you get to have that at the end. Those are the types of ideas you could do with this.

[Steph Smith]

Nice.

[Shaun Puri]

So right before we started recording, you were starting to tell me, here's my theory of why people like this podcast. So what is your theory?

[Steph Smith]

Okay, so there are many reasons to love my first million. I think there's something that you guys have done, especially recently, when you and Sam just go back and forth and you tell a really funny joke, and then Sam just starts laughing hysterically in a contagious way that most people would hold back, maybe on a podcast. But it's literally, as people say, like, you're in the room with him. And it reminded me of this subreddit I found recently called R contagiouslaughter. 4.5 million people subscribe to this, and it's one of, I think, the top hundred subreddits out there. And it's literally just a feed of people laughing. And there's dozens of posts every day. And I was just. As I went down it, I was like, there's gotta be a post of Sam and Sean posting here.

[Shaun Puri]

Well, okay, let me tell you a couple interesting things about this. First, I think this must. I think this subreddit must be kind of like almost like new or growing faster recently, right? Because I hadn't heard of this subreddit before, and I kind of keep an eye on the top lines. Maybe I just missed it, but I've also seen this trend on TikTok. I don't know if you've seen it. Somebody will be like, I'm a clinical psychologist and I can make you happier. In the next 10 seconds, repeat after me. Ha. And there's like a duet. So that guy's like, ha. She's like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And you're just like, okay, I see where this is going. And then she just gets like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And like, by the end, both people are Just cracking up like. Cause it's like 10 deep and you can't help yourself. The body will just start genuinely laughing just from making the sound. It goes both ways. It's not like something funny happens. Therefore I break out laughing.

[Steph Smith]

Totally. One of the funniest moments on my first million was your Orlando Bloom story, which I think if I just heard you telling it by yourself, I'd be like, yeah, that's pretty funny. But Sam's laughter layered onto that where he was. You could just tell he was dying as you were telling that story. Just made it honestly top 5 moments on my first million history for me. But that's why I think this subreddit is so great, even in their rules or their community guidelines. You know how someone posts something and there's typically a bot that says, hey, report this if X, Y and Z on that subreddit, it's like, report this. If you're laughing at a joke or some sort of incident and not the laughter specifically. They're like, we only want you to be on here to hear other people laughing. So I don't know, I just thought that was a fun, a fun thing and reminded me of why I think some people love my first million. It's just so authentic.

[Shaun Puri]

That's just Sam being Sam. And you're like, whoa, okay. And I just get to be that. That's awesome.

[Steph Smith]

That is awesome.

[Guest or Narrator]

I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to put my all in it. Like no days off on a road, let's travel, never looking back.

[Sam Parr]

If you made it this far, then you're going to love what I'm about to tell you. So there's this amazing entrepreneur, his name is Neil Patel. He's been on mfm. He's one of our favorite guests and he has a podcast. It's called Marketing School and it's brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. Marketing School brings you daily actionable digital marketing lessons learned from years and years of being in the trenches. They have over 100 million downloads and over 2,500 episodes. Marketing School gives you bite sized marketing wisdom that you can implement immediately. Whether you have a new website or you already have this huge established business. You're going to learn about the latest SEO, content marketing, social media, email marketing, conversion optimization and general online marketing strategies that work today. You can get Marketing School wherever you get your podcasts.