The Counterintuitive Truth About What Actually Builds a $100M Business

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Mello Millionaire with Tommy Mello

Episode: The Counterintuitive Truth About What Actually Builds a $100M Business

Host: Tommy Mello (Mello Studios)
Guest: Sam Parr
Date: May 19, 2026

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Overview

In this engaging episode, Tommy Mello sits down with Sam Parr, renowned entrepreneur and founder of The Hustle and Hampton, to unpack the realities and unconventional truths behind building massively successful, $100M+ businesses. The conversation weaves through Sam's colorful entrepreneurial journey, insights on risk and uncertainty in business, the importance of emotional resilience, the evolution of leadership, and modern strategies for networking, community building, and leveraging AI for personal and professional growth.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Myth of Overnight Success

• Success is Slow: Both Tommy and Sam highlight how building a thriving business is a marathon, not a sprint.
  • Sam: “Things take forever.” (00:00)
  • Tommy: “A lot of people think they're going to get rich very, very quickly...they give up so quickly.” (00:01)
• Podcast Growth: Sam shares the patient grind behind his top business podcast, “My First Million”—850 episodes and years of slow growth before seeing major results. (27:40, 48:53)

2. Sam Parr’s Entrepreneurial Journey

• Early Hustles: Sam details his humble beginnings, from running a hot dog stand—Southern Sam’s Wieners (“As big as a baby's arm”)—to a shuttered whiskey e-commerce store. (05:36, 39:49)
• Turning Points:
  • Inspired by Mike Wolf (American Pickers) in Nashville to “go all-in” on entrepreneurship. (05:44)
  • Almost joined Airbnb as an early staffer but was “fired before hired” due to a past misdemeanor. This forced him to carve out his own path in Silicon Valley. (06:16)
• Building The Hustle:
  • Influenced by media mogul Ted Turner and recognizing the power of email, Sam set out to create “the Wall Street Journal for 25-year-olds.” (07:46, 09:19)
  • Bootstrapped the daily business newsletter to over 1.2M subscribers and $18M in annual revenue before selling to HubSpot. (10:45)

3. Counterintuitive Business Advice

• Emotional Fortitude Over Ideas:
  • Sam: “The emotional ability to do things when you’re really scared is actually the skill set.” (14:03)
• The Leader’s Journey:
  • Tommy: “I always say the hustler has to die for the leader to be.” (00:09, 16:45)
  • Importance of transitioning from ‘doer’ to ‘leader’ as the company scales.
• Reverse Engineering Success:
  • Sam and Tommy emphasize knowing "the math"—understanding unit economics, reverse engineering desired outcomes, and acting with intentionality from day one. (13:11, 13:51)

4. Networking & Mastermind Communities

• Power of Peer Groups:
  • Sam’s current company, Hampton, provides curated peer groups (“like YPO for modern entrepreneurs”) for high-revenue business owners, offering confidential support and network leverage—a space to be truly understood as both a person and an entrepreneur. (19:44, 26:02)
  • Discussion of massive industry: Vistage, BNI, Tiger 21, World 50—multi-billion-dollar businesses built atop “network as a service.” (21:32, 24:35)
• Unorthodox Networking Stories:
  • Tommy tells of a friend who, during a business downturn, networked with billionaires by joining an exclusive country club using borrowed money and a rented Porsche—a story exemplifying non-linear paths to opportunity. (22:29)

5. Evolving Leadership & Company Building

• The Shift from Hustle to Strategy:
  • Sam: “There’s some threshold where a 40-hour work week is adequate...maybe after $10M revenue…you can hustle less and think more.” (16:27)
• Building to Sell:
  • Sam built The Hustle with a clear exit in mind, inspired by “Built to Sell” by John Warrillow—a book credited as life-changing. (19:02)
• Brand and Legacy:
  • Tommy: “I think it’s more important for the CEO to build a brand than it is for the company itself…you don’t go work for a company, you go work for a person.” (49:34)

6. AI as a Life & Business Enhancer

• Claude vs. ChatGPT:
  • Sam advocates using Claude as a better AI “life coach” than ChatGPT, describing ways to run deep personality protocols and even automate personal compatibility and communication. (43:10, 47:23)
• Entrepreneurial Productivity:
  • Sam walks through practical prompts for young founders: goal setting, personality SWOT, and making major decisions in alignment with personal values. (47:22)

7. Life Design and True Wealth

• Defining a Rich Life:
  • Sam: “I define my rich life as having a strong woman in my life, being physically fit, enjoying my co-workers, and liking my family.” (41:27)
• Role Models:
  • Both hosts discuss billionaires and successful guests they admire (Jesse Itzler, Dharmesh Shah, Mark Cuban, Dan Martell, Rob Dyrdek), with a recurring theme that financial success does not always correlate with happiness, fulfillment, or a life worth emulating. (41:46, 42:16, 51:44)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Entrepreneurship and Emotional Resilience:
  • “It’s mostly an emotional game, probably… The emotional ability to do things when you’re really scared is, like, actually the skill set.” – Sam Parr (14:03)
• On Execution over Idea:
  • “Your ideas aren’t that important, but the emotional ability to do things when you’re really scared is, like, actually the skill set.” – Sam Parr (14:03)
• On the Power of Consistency:
  • “Just dedicate, like, way longer than you think to it.” – Sam Parr, on making your first million (48:29)
  • “Our podcast has been around for five years. We’ve done 850 episodes.” – Sam Parr (48:53)
• On Building an Email Media Business:
  • “Email is like a pirate ship… I could talk to them for 30 months every single day before they would unsubscribe.” – Sam Parr (11:10)
• On Life Design Among “Titans”:
  • “I wish I knew earlier how malleable the world is… I didn’t realize how normal [the titans] were except for their ability to be consistent and to take action when they’re nervous or scared.” – Sam Parr (32:02)
• On Personal Branding:
  • “I think it’s more important for the CEO to build a brand than it is for the company itself… you go work for a person.” – Tommy Mello (49:34)
• On Defining Wealth:
  • “With money comes misery for a lot of people. I don’t want anything to do with their life…I want to be good at being me.” – Tommy Mello (51:25)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00] Opening on patience in business, hustler vs. leader mindset
• [05:03] Sam’s entrepreneurial origin stories: hot dog stand, e-commerce
• [06:16] The near-miss with Airbnb
• [07:46] Vision for The Hustle and lessons from Ted Turner
• [10:45] Monetization: newsletter ad sales, “email as a pirate ship”
• [14:03] Emotional resilience as the key entrepreneurial skill
• [16:27] Hustle vs. thinking as the company scales
• [19:44] Building Hampton – masterminds for high-revenue founders
• [21:32] The massive business of professional peer networks (Vistage, Tiger 21, BNI)
• [26:02] How Hampton works and its impact on founder loneliness
• [27:40] The grind behind “My First Million” podcast—consistency and slow growth
• [32:02] Sam’s takeaway from mingling with “titans”—confidence and vulnerability
• [43:10] AI comparisons: Claude vs. OpenClaude, use cases
• [47:22] AI as a personalized business/life coach for entrepreneurs
• [48:29] Advice for making your first million
• [51:25] “I want to be the best dad on the earth”—redefining success
• [54:06] Notable guests: Rob Dyrdek and focusing on time management
• [57:23] Book recommendations: “Titan” (Rockefeller), “The Patriarch” (Joe Kennedy), “To Sell is Human” (Daniel Pink)

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Additional Notable Moments

• Sam's Meeting with a Mentalist:
  • Entertaining recount of being read by mentalist Oz Perlman and tying the lesson into understanding people and business. (01:01 – 03:13)
• Discussion on Business Model Pitfalls:
  • Sam’s comparison of BuzzFeed’s “rented land” problem versus owning the relationship via email. (11:04 – 13:03)
• Personal Anecdotes:
  • Sam’s wife’s entrepreneurial pillow business: proof that “boring” e-commerce niches can be goldmines when done right. (36:11)
• Networking at High Levels:
  • Tommy’s country club/Porsche story illustrating that access and connections sometimes trump traditional business orthodoxy. (22:29)

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Book Recommendations

• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (57:23)
• The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (57:23)
• Built to Sell by John Warrillow (19:02)
• To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink (58:19)
• Sapiens (59:54)
• (General endorsement of biographies and history books for entrepreneurial lessons)

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Closing Takeaways

• Success is rarely immediate—it’s about endurance, strategic thinking, and emotional resilience.
• Peer mastermind groups and networking remain exponentially valuable and often quietly lucrative.
• Leverage new tools (AI, digital masterminds) but ground your journey in intention, authenticity, and personal growth.
• Design your life actively: Decide what “rich” really means to you, and pursue it with boldness, speed, and fun.

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“Bold, fast, fun.”
— Sam Parr’s motto for business and life. (50:11)

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For more, check out Tommy Mello’s appearance on Sam’s “My First Million” podcast for complementary business insights.

Transcript

[Sam Parr]

Things take forever.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. A lot of people think they're going to get rich very, very quickly. They give up so quickly, even with a podcast. So many smart people. I know they gave it 10 weeks. I think you got to hustle, but I always say the hustler has to die for the leader to be, which

[Sam Parr]

I think you told me that. And that, like, resonated strongly with me.

[Tommy Mello]

I wish I learned a lot earlier than 2018 to just. Success leaves clues and just be a guy. You could be a fly on the wall. Most people want to help you. Dude, you were late and you got a story. Let's hear it.

[Sam Parr]

I was 20 minutes late. Have you heard of Oz Perlman?

[Tommy Mello]

No.

[Sam Parr]

All right, listen to this guy. Okay, So I had to record my podcast. He was supposed to be at my office at 1. I was gonna be done at 2:30. Then I had plenty of time to get here. He tells me he's gonna be half an hour late. So that's one of the reasons why I went over. Oz Perlman is a mentalist, and his whole shtick is he worked at Wells Fargo for four years, but he loved magic for a long time, and he transitioned to becoming a mentalist. And he.

[Tommy Mello]

I think I know him.

[Sam Parr]

He was on 60 Minutes recently.

[Tommy Mello]

The dude will tell you. Like, here's what you. Yeah, my. My cousin sent me his book.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, my God. So I read his book, and I did the podcast with him, and it. I cried because he did so many crazy things to me on air. He was like, imagine you're having a birthday party. How many people are there? And close your eyes. And I go, okay, I know how many people are there? He goes, it's 10 people. I go, yep, 10 people. And he like. Or sorry, he guessed 10 people. I go, yes, it was 10 people. And he goes, but there's one person who's really special who flew in, right? I go. I go, yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

I mean, you really thought about it?

[Sam Parr]

Yes. He goes, okay, now this person's really special to you. It's your brother John, isn't it? I go, yes, my brother John, he flew in. And he goes, he flew in from Missouri, didn't he? I go, yeah, he did. And he goes, but the cool thing is you're going to pay him back because you're going to go to his birthday on July 10. And I was like, yes, that is his birthday. My brother's down on the Internet. And so he knew all of this stuff. Then he was like, can you do me a favor? Do you want to go Travel somewhere. Tell me where you want to travel to right now. And I go, okay, I have something in my brain. He goes, okay, this place you've never been for, you've never been to. Have you? And I was like, no, I've never been there. He goes, well, the good news is you don't need a passport, right? I was like, I don't need a passport. He goes, it's because it's in America. It's in Wyoming. It's Jackson Hole. I was like, yes. He goes, but if you don't want to go to Jackson Hole, where else do you want to go? And he goes, think about it. Close your eyes. I go, okay. He goes, get really detailed about when and where you want to go. He goes, I started thinking about it. He goes, this June, you to want to spend the summer, don't you? I go, I do. He goes, paris. You want to go to Paris with your family? He guessed everything.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, he was dead on every.

[Sam Parr]

Every single thing. And the whole podcast that I did with him was how this can, like, translate to business. But it was the craziest experience. He guessed everything.

[Tommy Mello]

I've seen him guess. And I'm like, dude, the guy has to do some research. There's.

[Sam Parr]

He wrote it down. Yeah, he wrote it down. He goes. He goes, close your eyes. He goes, I'm going to write down where you're going to visit. He goes, I'm going to write down here for the camera. And it said jackson Hole. And he goes, this is it, isn't it?

[Tommy Mello]

I need to meet this guy. Maybe you could do an intro, because I would be blown away. I'll tell you where my big thing is. Italy. And we've got family in the villages. Never been, but I went to Hungary, and that's where my grandma always wanted to go. She's Hungarian. Anyway, getting off topic. That's the coolest story ever. And how does that relate to business? How did you guys relate that to business?

[Sam Parr]

Well, first of all, I was like, so he was a magician. And so he started doing Mentalist. And magic is, like, tricks, like, you know, whatever mentalism is influencing people or guessing or, like, influencing to guess certain things. That's how he explains it. He was like, I don't read minds. I read body language. And so I was asking him all about body language.

[Tommy Mello]

How do you get Wyoming out of.

[Sam Parr]

I don't know. I was like, dude, I'm wearing, like, a western shirt. Like, I don't know. Like, is there, like a. And he was like. And then, like, throughout My office. I have, like 20 people working there. He, like, was, like, playing this game. He guessed what one lady was gonna name her baby. There was a pregnant woman there. And he was like, don't tell me what you're gonna name this kid. And then he did it and just said it. And then he goes, but you wanna know something even crazier? He goes, I've done this with thousands of women where I will be around a friend or a friend of a friend who's pregnant, and I'll be like, listen, I'm gonna do something special for you. I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna name your baby. I'm gonna write it on this piece of paper, I'm gonna put it in an envelope, and after the baby is born, open it up, and I guarantee you it's gonna be the right name.

[Tommy Mello]

I. This is. Geez, that's weird. I know. My first boy is going to be Tommy Mello Jr. Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, the third, because I'm the second,

[Sam Parr]

so that's why I'm late.

[Tommy Mello]

No, it's a good reason to be late. He said, you're going to be late to the Mellow Millionaire to go visit Tom.

[Sam Parr]

Well, I made a joke. I was like. So he was on Joe Rogan's podcast. He guessed Joe Rogan's PIN number, like his ATM pin. And I was like, if you can read minds, you're just blowing it, guessing people's PIN numbers. Come on, let's go do something. And he.

[Tommy Mello]

Let's go to a bank.

[Sam Parr]

And he, like, told me how he would, like, commit crime. Anyway, that's why I'm late.

[Tommy Mello]

So great story. Worth it. Before the Hustle, you had some pretty unconventional businesses, notably a hot dog stand and a whiskey E Commerce company. Let's just talk a little bit about the journey to get where you're at today, what you're looking forward to.

[Sam Parr]

So the company that I'm known for, yeah, it was called the Hustle. We sold it for many tens of millions of dollars when I was, like, 31 years old. It's amazing.

[Tommy Mello]

And you're 36.

[Sam Parr]

I'm 36, so that's five years. And I have a new company that I'm building that is going to be, God willing, going to pale. Make that look small. But I got to Silicon Valley. I moved to San Francisco when I was. Basically, I left school when I was 21 because I used to work for this guy named Mike Wolf who was the host of American Pickers. You ever heard of that show?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, Mike Wolf. His partner died. Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, he was cool.

[Tommy Mello]

He is cool.

[Sam Parr]

I met him on the street, and he, like, let me work, like, full T shirts at his, like, store. Like, you know, like a $8 an hour job.

[Tommy Mello]

Where's he at? Where was that at?

[Sam Parr]

Nashville, Tennessee, where I was going to college. And then I got inspired by him to start a business because I knew I was gonna be an entrepreneur. But this is the first time I met, like, a real life, like, entrepreneur. My dad was an entrepreneur, but I didn't think of him as an entrepreneur. He was my dad, but then I met this other guy, and I was like, I can do this. So I started a hot dog stand, and I was selling hot dogs. It was called Southern Sam's Wieners. As big as a baby's arm. And some days I would kill it. I would make, like a thousand dollars. Other days I would make 50 bucks. But it was Tennessee and it was summertime, and I was, like, dying, and I was like, okay, let's start something on the Internet. So I started an E commerce store selling whiskey. Killed it. And then I realized I was breaking the law. And I would go to my entrepreneur ship class. They had, like, office hours. I'm like, here's what I'm doing. And they're like, oh, yeah, you can't sell liquor like this online. Like you're breaking a law. So I had to shut it down. And then I eventually dropped out of school. I eventually graduated, but I left school because I got an offer because I cold emailed this man who owned a company at the time called Air Bed and Breakfast. And I was like, your company's cool. I think it's gonna be the shit. And he's like, do you live in San Francisco? I go, yeah, I live there. I didn't. I lived in Tennessee. And I was like, I'll fly out and see you on Monday. I didn't say, I'll fly you out. I go, I'll see you on Monday. I flew out. He offers me a job. Two weeks later, I move back out there full time, leave school. The day before, I'm supposed to start Air Bed and Breakfast, obviously, is Airbnb. I was gonna be an early employee there. The day before I'm supposed to start, he was. They called me back, and they're like, we don't hire liars. And I was like, what do you mean? He was like, on your resume, you clicked that. You didn't have a misdemeanor, but we found out you do. Because in college, I was A wild guy. I had a bunch of demons and I liked drugs and alcohol and I got some DUIs and fighting and I spent time in jail. I got in trouble and then I, I'm sober now. I got everything. I got my act together, but I was a wild guy. And so I was stuck out in San Francisco with like, you know, nothing. And I started a company then because I was out there and I had to do something and lost my job at Airbnb that I was not. Never even started. Sold it for a hundred grand. This one company I started. And then after that I started the Hustle, which is kind of the long of it.

[Tommy Mello]

And then the Hustle. I mean, what was the strategy and vision for the newsletter?

[Sam Parr]

Have you. Do you know who Ted Turner is? Yeah, I liked Ted Turner. I read his biography. He was amazing. Ted Turner's the guy who started cnn?

[Tommy Mello]

Yep.

[Sam Parr]

He's cool because he was so crazy.

[Tommy Mello]

Story about that.

[Sam Parr]

He's. He's a wild man. He's like a crazy person. Do you know anything about him?

[Tommy Mello]

I've heard, but I haven't read the. I'm going to read it.

[Sam Parr]

He's. He's wild. He is a cowboy. And I remember reading his biography and I kind of remind. I was like, oh, I kind of view some of my attributes very similar to your attributes. And he got into the media world. He was from Atlanta. His father started a billboard company and with that billboard company, he made a little bit of. His father killed himself when ted was only 25. So at 25 years old, he took over his father billboard company, parlayed that into buying a crappy radio station and some newspapers, parlayed that into eventually starting some local news stations and after 20 years, eventually started CNN, which was at the time was breathtaking because it was.

[Tommy Mello]

There was no other thing like it at the time.

[Sam Parr]

It was a 24 hour news network. That was no such thing back then. You know, there was only, I forget, a handful of channels. He lobbied Congress or regulators to change the law to allow him to get access to some of the satellites to beam down and get his content everywhere. Anyway, he was, he's a cowboy. And I read his biography and I was like, I want to do this fucking media thing. That sounds awesome, but I didn't know how to start a cable news network. But I knew that email was a really powerful marketing channel because I'd started a conference and I used emails to sell the conference. And I was like, what if I created a media company only using an email address or an Email newsletter. And people laughed at it at the time, but I was like, if you

[Tommy Mello]

do, how many years ago did you start that?

[Sam Parr]

I started a conference in 2014 called Hustlecon 2014. And then in 2016, I remember it because it was 4. 24, 20. 2016 is when I launched the Hustle. And that was the newsletter. And that the idea was like, I'm going to create a daily email that tells you, the reader, everything you need to know about business that day. Like Wall street journal for, okay, 25 year olds. And I wrote it every day. And then it just started growing. It started growing and I did the math and I'm like, well, I think this can be a hundred million year, $100 million a year business if we do X, Y and Z. And we were on track to do it. I sold it in year four when we were kind of doing good. But the original vision was, can I have 2 or 3 or 4 writers reach like 3 or 4 million people a day and build a whole media company on an email newsletter? Which doesn't sound that interesting, but now email newsletters are like crazy popular. When I started, it wasn't. So it was like I pioneered something very nerdy and cool in a very small niche, if that makes sense.

[Tommy Mello]

I'm very familiar with HubSpot.

[Sam Parr]

Why you guys use them?

[Tommy Mello]

Well, yeah, we use them.

[Sam Parr]

You mad at them?

[Tommy Mello]

No, I like them. I don't, I don't. I don't really get involved with that. That's not my passion. I know how to. I like creating content.

[Sam Parr]

But you're not passionate about CRMs.

[Tommy Mello]

I'm passionate about CRMs, but emails, you know, obviously SMS, I love marketing, so that's just a piece of it. But what was their interest in. In the Hustle?

[Sam Parr]

So when we sold the Hustle, I think I had 1.27 million subscribers. The year we sold, we were probably going to do 18 million in revenue.

[Tommy Mello]

And how did you monetize that? If you don't mind?

[Sam Parr]

I don't mind.

[Tommy Mello]

How is it worth that? What was.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, so

[Tommy Mello]

just because you got the attention. I guess so.

[Sam Parr]

It's crazy. So this is getting like really inside baseball. But I will. If you want to nerd out over media. Do you remember BuzzFeed?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

So basically, here's their business model. They get a million followers on Facebook, they post an article and 500,000 people see the article and a bunch click it.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

Over time they have a million followers. And it was very. It was clear as day that they were reducing how many people Would see your article. So at first, if you had a million fans, 500,000 saw every article. Six months later, 100,000. Nowadays, you probably know this. If you post an article, a link on Facebook, and you have a million fans, like, 10,000 people will see it, right? Their whole business model was to hire a thousand writers and write 300 articles a day and post them all on Facebook, and they're gonna get traffic and they'll make money via ad revenue. It was very clear that reach what I. The analogy we used was that it was like building a store on a landlord's property where he would raise the rent every month. It was very clear. So that wasn't a novel concept that I noticed, but what I noticed that was novel was that email is like a pirate ship. And every email subscriber you get, it's like a little bit of win in your sales because you get someone's email. And I could talk to them for 30 months every single day before they would unsubscribe. So I only have to acquire you one time, and I could talk to you every day versus playing the Facebook game. And so our idea was, can we just write a business newsletter? Just news that's only 1500 words. But once you subscribe on day one, I'll put ads in the email. So I had an ad sales team of 15 people selling ads, and we would charge, like, $50 per $1,000 to have an ad in the email. I would convince these. At the time, advertising in newsletters wasn't popular, but we convinced all these people. Amex, Fidelity, all these big guys. Yeah, we convinced them to do it. And so once we had a million subscribers, we must have been making 30,000, maybe $30,000 a day in ad revenue just from that little. Wow, that's. And so that was the business model. And so what we knew was that every email subscriber was worth something like $10 a year. So I had no problem buying ads on Facebook to get a subscriber for $1.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. No. 100%. Yeah. That's just reverse engineering. A lot of people just don't do the math when they get into business. They don't understand the math. So that's what you've been really good at.

[Sam Parr]

I did that with the business in the first place. So my. I met a wealthy guy when I was younger, and I grew up not wealthy. And I wanted to have money because I was like. I saw, like, the gas meter in my mom's car, like, go down, and I was like, I don't want to run out of gas. Like, I remember, like, that distinct feeling.

[Tommy Mello]

I run out of gas all the time.

[Sam Parr]

Like, I distinctly remember that feeling. Like, you ever.

[Tommy Mello]

Yes, it sucks. Yeah. I was like, sucks when it's mom and grandma and she's working three jobs.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, I distinctly remember that feeling. I was like, I want money. And so I met a rich guy, and he was like, I. $20 million is a lot of money. So I was like, okay, how do I get to $20 million by the age of 30? Well, I like this media thing. So that means I got to get the media company to, like, 15 million in revenue so I could sell it for, like, 30 or $40 million. You know what I mean? It was all reverse engineered.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, you built a career out of decoding business concepts for a large audience. What's some of the biggest misconceptions people have about entrepreneurship and success?

[Sam Parr]

Hmm. It's mostly an emotional game, probably. I think that, like, it's. I'm a fairly emotional person, and I. Sometimes they get the best of me. But I would say, like, I don't think people. I think that capitalism is interesting to me because business is, like, the most practical way to, like, put your dent and, like, make changes. And I don't particularly care for money or, like, I don't even like business that much. I love, like, impacting things. It's like, it's, like, fun to, like, kick your debt in the world. You know what I mean? It's fun to, like, dream up an idea and, like, oh, how, like, you get, like, a high that it's, like, it turns into reality. And I think that with business, a lot of people don't realize that, like, your ideas aren't that important, but the emotional ability to, like, do things when you're really scared is, like, actually the skill set. Do you agree?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. Well, it's risk, and you gotta be willing to take risks. And we'd be able to bet the farm. And very few people like to get out of their comfort zone. But when you were raised out of your comfort zone, like, what's the worst thing that happens? I go back to where I started.

[Sam Parr]

I think that. What. I've been thinking a lot about risk lately, and I. I've been thinking. I'm like, it's actually not the risk that scares me so much. It's the uncertainty. And I think that's where people freak out, is the uncertainty. And so I think, like, being an entrepreneur, you somehow get, like, okay, like, I'm okay. I'm okay with Uncertainty Risk still freaks me out. Uncertainty doesn't. Like, would you, would you stay up at night thinking my business is gonna go under because I made some big bet? Or is it like, we're trying this new thing and I'm scared it's not gonna work.

[Tommy Mello]

I just don't have it. I just like, I'm used to just putting in the chips and I bet on myself. And by the way, I fail a lot. What I've learned is a little bit of discipline the last five years of like, let's try this, let's prove it out rather than bet the farm. But I think I graduated past that when I got my first exit. And I'm like, I'm a little bit more diversified now, but like, I get into things that I know I can make an impact. Like if I have you on the podcast and we're talking about software that I use myself, you're going to pick up an extra million dollars of ARR just from that podcast. So that's because I don't lie, I don't cheat. I'm not getting people on there to make a dime. I'm out there saying this is what works and I know it works and, and you should do it. But the problem is people rarely implement software correctly. What do you think about hustling? You know, the hustle. Do you think that kids still need to hustle?

[Sam Parr]

I think that like there's a, there's some threshold where like a 40 hour work week is adequate. I think that might be a little controversial. I think that like Maybe your first 10 million in revenue, maybe after 10 million in revenue, when you could afford to hire executives, you can hustle less and think more. Do you agree?

[Tommy Mello]

I think you gotta hustle. But I always say the hustler has to die for the leader to be.

[Sam Parr]

Which I think you told me that and I, that like resonated strongly with me. And that's really hard.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, it's because we say yes so often and the skill set is to say no. It's gotta be hell no or hell yes.

[Sam Parr]

I think that like after some, there's some threshold where business kind of gets boring. Like is your business boring A little bit?

[Tommy Mello]

Because we've reinvented ourselves so much. Like it gets boring and then we like get this massive growth spurt and it changes. Like now we're a software company that does garage doors. Used to be we're a garage door

[Sam Parr]

company, but it's boring a little bit sometimes on a day to day basis compared to when you were Hustling in year two.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. I would say I still like what I do because my role has shifted now. Like I think more I like making content to grow the business now that's what kind of happened. Like this is actually going to grow the business.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, I just think that like when it comes to like. So how often, how often do you work? I work from. I'm up at 6, I'm at the gym at 6:30. I get my kids out of bed between 7:30 and 8. I go to my office at 9:30. Probably I'm home at 5:30. I do family time until 8:30. I'll be on my computer till 10 and then I go to bed. That's my day. Monday to Friday. I don't work typically Saturday and Sunday, except now Saturday and Sunday. Friday and Saturday nights I'm dorking around with AI.

[Tommy Mello]

You know, it's really hard. Cause I don't have kids yet, but I don't know what. It's really hard to look at my calendar. Is this work? We're here at Spotify studios in New York. Is this considered work? Because for me, I don't know if I could actually say this is working. There are times where Colin will be like, dude, we gotta go shoot content. That kind of feels like work. But this is like I get to hear your story and download everything and actually learn. Like I. It's very hard for me to consider this. And when I go in and I'm doing orientation for three hours to 64 guys next month, brand new technicians. Like I said, guys, this is my favorite day. Welcome to the first day of your last career.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, I saw a photo of you doing that. Looks pretty awesome.

[Tommy Mello]

It's very hard for me and I think you got to enjoy the journey. We were just talking about that earlier. Enjoy the journey. And when you're not enjoying the journey, you got to just make a change.

[Sam Parr]

I hated running my first company. I hated it. Now I like I. Now I like it.

[Tommy Mello]

And that's you're talking about.

[Sam Parr]

I like Hampton. Hampton's fun, the hustle. I built it. I built the whole business to sell it.

[Tommy Mello]

Built to sell.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

Great book, John Warlow.

[Sam Parr]

Yes. And I read that and it changed my life.

[Tommy Mello]

That's if you build it to sell it, it's your best asset. And we treat this. You know, there's a guy out there with kick charge, Dan Antonella, and he charges like 40 grand ish. To build a brand that's really like people.

[Sam Parr]

The guy who did your trucks.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. And a Lot of people don't want to spend that money. I'm like, dude, that's your best asset. Like, it's got to be memorable. But I get it, because the first time I had to spend the money with them, I was like, dude, I don't know, dude.

[Sam Parr]

Now I see all the trucks. Not once I saw your trucks. I. Now all the trucks have copied it.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, no, he's. He's the most well known. He's done 3,000 brands. Tell me a little bit about Hampton. I know what it is, but I want the audience to get familiar with it, basically.

[Sam Parr]

Are you familiar with ypo?

[Tommy Mello]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Parr]

So it's. It's a little bit similar. A similar business model, but basically the way it works is there's EO and ypo. There's eo, there's ypo. There's actually a ton more yc. I can tell you something. Nerd out. It's crazy how big these businesses are, because I think your business will eventually have a component of your media business. But basically, like, when I was running my company, I had a group of, like, six or seven people. We had, like, our own little mastermind and changed my life, and I wanted to, like, build that for other people. So the way Hampton works is our average member does, like, 25 million in revenue, and you have to apply to get in. And we're in 16 cities, and if you. If you apply and you get in, you're put into a core group of eight other entrepreneurs, and you meet once a month. And we have a hundred executive coaches on staff who lead your monthly meeting. And it's like, the one group of people who are supposed to have full context on, like, your daddy issues and all your personal life and also, like, your work life, because, like, your work employees, you can't, like, complain about, like, what's going on at home. And then, like, your spouse, you don't want to talk to them about, like, CAC issues and, like, nerd out over that stuff. And so it's like the one group that has full contacts, and you are supposed to be with each other for 5, 10, 15 years, and you help each other grow. And so what Hampton is. And we have 16 chapters, thousands of members, and I think it could be a great thing.

[Tommy Mello]

You know, I was just, you know. Ryan Panetta.

[Sam Parr]

Yes.

[Tommy Mello]

A real estate dude out of Vegas.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. With the black hair. Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

So he's like. He. He always is like, dude, you need to come to my event. Like, I want you. Like, he's out. Like, he's the coolest dude ever. And I like him a lot. But real estate, I was heavy into real estate. I'll get back into it. But anyways, he's like, dude, what do I love to do? I love to network, and I love golf. So he started the 19th hole, or whatever it's called. And so he's like, I bring entrepreneurs in that love to golf, that love the network. And he's like, dude, this thing's already worth like 15 million. I don't remember what he told me.

[Sam Parr]

They sell for a lot of money.

[Tommy Mello]

So, like, crazy.

[Sam Parr]

Have you heard of Vistage?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, I have.

[Sam Parr]

So what do you know about Vistage?

[Tommy Mello]

Well, this is. There's another one too, like that. I don't know everything, but.

[Sam Parr]

So Vistage just sold for $2 billion. So Vistage does nine figures a year in profit. So isn't that crazy?

[Tommy Mello]

What's the other one that I keep getting involved? Tiger 21. Yes.

[Sam Parr]

Tiger 21 does something like 90 million a year in revenue with 30 employees. Something like that, Give or take.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, here's the deal. Like, I just, by the way, and that.

[Sam Parr]

Crazy.

[Tommy Mello]

This is nuts. So last night, and I got to brag about this because this is, like, change. Like, this is the black card. We went to Centurion last night.

[Sam Parr]

Is your number on the front?

[Tommy Mello]

No. No, it's not. So. No, we didn't get that. So. So the deal is, I'm sitting there at this restaurant, and I have no business. I don't know what New York's like, First of all, I've been here a few times, and you just know everybody in there is, like, not only made it, but they've like.

[Sam Parr]

Like 1%.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm walking in there and I'm like. I pull out my napkin and I put it on my lap, and I'm trying to do the right stuff, but I'm like, what a fucking. Freaking killer place to network. Like, dude, I have a buddy of mine, and he goes, dude, I got three kids. Two of them are diabetic. And he goes, I have a business. It's a plumbing H VAC business. But what do you do when you got two diabetic kids? I was there for them. I pretty much shut off work. It started failing. It went down for four years. He goes, so now I got no money. So what do I do? I went and took a loan. And I was thinking. I'm like, yeah, you had to go work. And he goes, no, I rented a Porsche and I joined the most expensive country Club in California. And I was like, that doesn't make a lot of sense. He goes, so I'm golfing with Wayne Gretzky, I'm golfing with Michael Jordan, and I'm golfing with these really, really wealthy people. And this guy Robin that he got to golf with, he's like, he's like, I love the home service base. I love blue collar. He's like, I'll invest in you. So I gave him a few million bucks and he kicked it back off. But I was like, that's just a weird story, right? Like, I don't have any money at all, so I'm going to.

[Sam Parr]

That's the exact opposite decision.

[Tommy Mello]

I was like, dude out there and you work and you get back in the truck.

[Sam Parr]

That sounds like bad, bad inputs, but a great output.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, it was. Yeah. I got so many questions.

[Sam Parr]

You're going to have one of these businesses, by the way, I think.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, right now we have 400 people in my group, the Freedom Group, and it's all home service, but it's a little bit different. There's coaching involved. We look at your financials, we help you fix your. Yeah, we help you fix the holes. But it's different than these groups. You ever been to. When I go into a new market, it's funny because I went into Atlanta and I haven't been to a BNI meeting in over a decade.

[Sam Parr]

So BNI does 100 million a year in profit.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. I actually had the founder on my podcast and they're very interesting, but I hate. You know, the problem is you get to. It's like you gotta give. I have to refer. And I'm like, I don't wanna have to refer if I don't. You know what I mean? And I get it. But you get like a one minute pitch. Right, but that's a similar thing. It's just a little bit even toast. What's Toastmasters worth?

[Sam Parr]

I don't know. But that's the public speaking one.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

The idea is that like there's another one called World 50. Have you heard of that one? No. So World 50, it's a crazy, fascinating product. Another one that does hundreds of millions a year in revenue with 50% margins. So it's a company where it costs 80 grand a year to join, and it's meant for Fortune 5000 executives. And so the way it works is they have a CMO community, a chief HR community, a CFO community, all the C suite that you could imagine for Chro. And you, you get three things. The first is you get a concierge and you could call the concierge and you could be like, hey, I'm the chief HR Officer. Black Lives Matter is going on. I need to talk to some other executives to like, figure out how do we navigate, what do we talk about, how do we do? Because that person can't tweet that. You know what I'm saying? And so, and so you get that concierge. The second thing is you get a digital community where you could type in and ask them these questions. And the third thing is events a year where you can go with your 50 person group and you could talk about some of these off the record things that you need to figure out. And that. And that business also sold for over a billion dollars. And so these network businesses, they don't. People don't realize how there's no, there's not that many serious entrepreneurs getting into that space because why would you. When you just go to an AI company or something, you know, sexy. And so it's kind of like my opinion is it's not. A lot of people are talking about it and I think it's really cool.

[Tommy Mello]

I want to learn more about it. Where. Where do you got that based? Is it here?

[Sam Parr]

Hampton?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, Hampton.

[Sam Parr]

Well, we have 16. So we have 16 chapters. Our office is here. We have about 20 employees here. 40 total.

[Tommy Mello]

Okay.

[Sam Parr]

But we're here. And like, let's see what like yesterday, our new. Sorry, our New York chapter is probably 200 members. They went to NASDAQ. We like some. Someone. We got a tour of the nasdaq. So we get. You get your core group and then each chapter just cool events. So the Boston chapter rented a. A box at Red. The Red Sox and everyone brought their family. And then there's like the. Our Slack community. So you could post anything. You're like, I need a good accountant. Who's got a good accountant? Or I. There was something crazy in Slack. Someone was like, I own. Everyone has a digital component. But someone's like, I own this company. And we have retail stores. I caught someone, an employee having sex after hours in like, who's a. What do I do? I fire her. Do I like, it was like, what do I do with this situation? Like, people post this type of stuff and they're like, I need to talk to someone immediately to help me figure out how to navigate this situation. I've never been here. And so it could be like kind of wild stuff that people learn about.

[Tommy Mello]

That's cool. And it's super private. Where does my first million come into Hampton or they just.

[Sam Parr]

No. The Hustle. We owned our daily newsletter. We owned a handful of conferences, and then we also owned a handful of podcasts. And I owned or Hampton or the Hustle, my company that I owned. We owned my first million. And when I sold the whole company, I sold it to HubSpot and they pay, they now pay MFM Media, which is Sean and I, they pay us like a talent fee.

[Tommy Mello]

And what's the biggest lessons you've learned? This is a selfish question, dude.

[Sam Parr]

It takes forever to grow a podcast. So here's the biggest lessons that I've learned with podcasts. Podcast. So for those listening MFM is a popular podcast. Like, I would say that maybe like people say top 10. I don't know what top 10 means, but of all the business podcasts, I have to imagine where one of the bigger ones, we get millions of long form downloads a month and it's pretty powerful. You came on. I don't know if people, like, I think you said people DM'd you, but like, we'll talk about some tax software. MFM is like, it's half jokes and messing around, half serious business stuff. Like you saw. Like, we have a good time.

[Tommy Mello]

It's fun.

[Sam Parr]

It's fun. Like we're lighthearted and there'll be times we'll mention a software company and it will like, they'll sell like $3 million worth of software.

[Tommy Mello]

It's crazy.

[Sam Parr]

But MFM was started because my Sean and Sean and I, we were both had companies and we were like, we started 19, he started 19. He started it and I was the publisher. And after a handful of months, he was like, come do this with me. And it got popular right off the bat and then it went down and got not popular and it took five years. So we've done. People don't know this, we've done 850 episodes. And so the thing that I've learned is we call it the RSS feed. So itunes, Spotify, podcast listening, not YouTube, so like just podcast first. The hardest thing I've ever had to grow was the RSS feed. So Spotify listenership and itunes. The most predictable and engaged and valuable audience though has been podcasts. There's something very intimate about being in someone's ears for 50 minutes.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

So on our RSS feed, our average listener time, we've done work with Spotify and our average listener time, I forget exactly what it is, but it's something. This is average. So every time someone listens, it's like 30 minutes.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

YouTube, where we are also popular, we have almost 900,000 subscribers on YouTube that maybe gets 1 or 2 million monthly views. Like long form views, not shorts. The average view time on that is like 14 minutes. So it's like 14 minutes compared to like 35 minutes.

[Tommy Mello]

That's crazy.

[Sam Parr]

And I will say something in minute 56, and the next day I'll get 10 people in Manhattan come up to me and say, hey, I heard you liked this one thing. And I'm like, I said that? They're like, yeah. You said. I was like, oh, yeah, I did. I made an offhanded comment about X, Y and Z. But no one will say that about my tweets or my Instagram. Yeah, no one. So it's crazy that podcasts are so powerful.

[Tommy Mello]

I love doing them, I really do. But I don't use them the same way. I mean, they get popular, but for me, it's actually educational and it's a great networking tool and it introduced me to guys like you. We went to Patrick Bet David's office in Fort Lauderdale.

[Sam Parr]

It's a machine.

[Tommy Mello]

And he's pulling up all the data. He's got his core team there. And he's like, let me show you something, Tommy. And he's jumping around, he's grabbing my arm, and he's like, look at this, look at this. Short versus this. Now, here's the thing, Tommy. That one got a million followers. He just like, you could see he's got the machine. He's like, tony Robbins flies in here. The coolest thing. I was like, it's at a hangar. So that's just built for wealthy people to come in. But, you know, I look at all he does.

[Sam Parr]

Politics. I find that to be miserable.

[Tommy Mello]

Here's the deal. I could do politics, I could do religion, But I don't think I can handle the haters.

[Sam Parr]

I get so much hate.

[Tommy Mello]

I get mad when somebody. I don't know how Andy Elliott does it. I get mad when somebody, like, says anything. I'm like, you don't even know me. And they're like, why are you even commenting? It's just frustrating because, I don't know, I think when people get to know this guy just sent me this long message, he goes, I thought you were the biggest douchebag when I met you at Victor's event. And he's like, I think God's working through you now. And he's like, I was wrong. And I was like, that's awesome. And I'm like, I probably Was a douchebag. I probably was drinking. But because I get, I come off either come off super confident or this cocky, but I, I'm really.

[Sam Parr]

You come off as cocky or confident does the same thing now.

[Tommy Mello]

There's a big difference. But they get misconstrued is like, because sometimes they take it too far.

[Sam Parr]

But that's, that's like you saying, like, you know, my biggest weakness is I like to sing in the shower. I come off cocky and confident.

[Tommy Mello]

No, I can give you a million weaknesses. Like, I'm very good. Like, I don't even want to do a 360 review at work because I could probably write 10 pages of my weaknesses. Like, I could write way more weaknesses. And I'm like, I'm my own worst critic though. What piece of game changing advice do you wish you knew in your early twenties?

[Sam Parr]

I wish I knew earlier how malleable the world is. I think that. So I'm 36 now and I've hung out with like a lot of the titans of the world, like people like these billionaire types, I mean, people like you, like. And I wish that there are some people whose engine just has more horsepower than me. But a lot of the people who I really admire who are like, who shape destinies, I didn't realize how normal they were except for their ability to be consistent and to take actions when they're nervous or scared. So for example, I used to have this conference called Hustlecon. And I would tell the speakers, like, let's say someone had US talk at 1 o' clock in the afternoon. I'd be like, you have to be here at 10am for soundcheck. There's no soundcheck for conferences. But I just wanted to hang out with them.

[Tommy Mello]

Oh yeah.

[Sam Parr]

And so I would be backstage with like the founder of WeWork, the founder of Casper Mattresses, the founder of OkCupid or IAC, this guy Max, who started Grammarly, who is like a multibillion dollar company. And I would just be like chilling, sitting, and I wouldn't say a word. But they would all be talking to each other. And my biggest learning from all of that was almost all of them weren't significantly smarter than me, but they were significantly more successful or more. And when I define success, I mean like self actualization.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

And it was because they were just really good at doing things even when they were scared. Does that make sense?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

And I didn't understand that earlier on. I used to put people on pedestals too much. And I have, I've learned Not to do that. I mean, I still do it.

[Tommy Mello]

But I'll tell you one thing, Sam, that I would do if I were you, that every time I look at somebody other than Elon Musk, because he's

[Sam Parr]

a freak, but I don't want Elon's Blythe.

[Tommy Mello]

No, I don't either. But I say, I look at people and I go, and it's become way more than money now. But why not me? Like, if I see somebody having a great relationship with their mother or their kids or with their wife. And so when you can recognize these things, I think that's the emotional intelligence. The smartest people I know is like Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad, poor dad. They're so smart, but they don't understand how they make people feel. They're so looking inside at themselves instead of saying, this is the way that I think you're perceiving me. And that's a very big skill. So when I. Other than like, I say the tipsy nights because I know I come off like that, but it's really not. It's not supposed to come off like that. But normally I'm just like, I'm really coming off this way and I'm very sensitive to that. Not, not super confrontational with people. And that's one skill I want to get better at.

[Sam Parr]

But wait, what did you learn earlier? What do you wish you would have known earlier?

[Tommy Mello]

I, you know, I think the biggest thing is I wish I learned a lot earlier than 2018 to just. Success leaves clues and just be a guy. You could be a fly on the wall. Most people want to help you go. Like I went and visited every 100 million dollar shop and they told me everything I needed to know.

[Sam Parr]

What was Your revenue in 2018?

[Tommy Mello]

2017? It was 17:5 and then it bumped up to 25 million, so.

[Sam Parr]

And how old were you at 17:5?

[Tommy Mello]

2024? No, no, I was 34.

[Sam Parr]

34 years old were you at. Did you have profits?

[Tommy Mello]

Not a whole lot of profit.

[Sam Parr]

Okay.

[Tommy Mello]

And then I left.

[Sam Parr]

So you were like promising, but not self actualized.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, listen, I consider that successful though. I always thought revenue was a badge of success.

[Sam Parr]

Well, it's like a precursor sometimes.

[Tommy Mello]

Sometimes you go bankrupt because profit makes the world go round. Revenues for vanity, profits for sanity. That's what I always say. That's one of my mentors taught me that.

[Sam Parr]

Dude, I didn't learn the definition of profit and revenue until I was like 30. Like for. I thought revenue was the money that you collected. Yeah, I didn't know the difference between and profit. I was like, we're making all this profit, why doesn't our bank balance go up?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

And I. And so now in my head I say cash flow is.

[Tommy Mello]

People talk a lot about gross profit, which is way different than EBITDA or real profit.

[Sam Parr]

But your EBITDA can go up from some businesses. Your EBITDA can be huge and like your cash poor still.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, cash flow. If you saw I had Mr. Wonderful Kevin O' Leary at one of my events and he always talks about cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. And it's got to be good cash flow like accounts receivable is not really a good thing.

[Sam Parr]

Do you want to hear crazy story? So I told you my wife is interesting. So my wife is. Her father's Russian Jewish, her. And he owns a moving company, really successful moving still to this day. He gave it or sold it. So he has two daughters, Sydney and Sarah. My wife is Sarah. Neither daughter wanted to take it over. So we sold it to Sydney's husband. And it's killing it. It's a, it's a commercial moving company.

[Tommy Mello]

Okay.

[Sam Parr]

Kills it. And he, Jeff, my father in law was like, I think he graduated high school, but real blue collar type of guy and just murdered it. You know, he's. They have a Hampton's house and they got a pen. Not a penthouse, but a fancy Manhattan, just like the American dream. And then my mother in law, his wife is a Haitian immigrant. She came from Haiti when she was 16 or something like that. She stayed at home. Mom raised the girls. My wife, when they went to college, she wanted to start a business but wasn't sure what to do. So she got a real estate license. It didn't really go well. And then when Sarah and I had been dating for three or four years, one day she says, hey, can I drive you to the airport? I go, okay, it's an hour long Smithy. Why do you want to drive me to the airport? And she goes, hey listen, so here's the deal. I love sewing. I want to start a business making pillows, throw pillows, fancy pillows. And I was like, okay, well I'll do what I do all the time. I'll give you generic advice. But I just know in my head you're never going to follow through on it. Whatever I get, like, I didn't tell her that. But in my head I'm like, I love you. So I'm going to give you it all. But it's going to go one ear out the other because that's what happens to everyone? Two weeks later I get a link and she goes, okay, now what? And I'm like, what's this? She's like, that's my website. I flew down to South Carolina, I bought the materials, I made the photos for my website. I have a little space where I'm sewing the pillows and I've got five friends to buy the pillows and give me a good review on Etsy. Now what? And I was like, keep going. And so this was five years ago. Now she has a business that does seven figures a year in revenue. She has five full time employees and she's making amazing profit for E commerce business. It's like crazy. She's paying herself a lot of money. She's killing it. And I bring this up because most people were saying like E commerce is like a horrible or is not good business.

[Tommy Mello]

It's like, yeah, it could be a race to the bottom.

[Sam Parr]

Oh my God. If they knew how my mother in law ran her pillow business. It's like the greatest business on earth. But I thought you'd get a kick out of that story now.

[Tommy Mello]

It's a great story. I still gotta.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

So we got 10 minutes left. So I have a couple of things that we might need to hit just to tie it all together and then you can have fun with the rest. So just asking, what are they gonna do? Kick him out while he has a dinner.

[Tommy Mello]

I could be late. I'll get, I'll get dinner.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

This stuff, this and that. That's really all. And do whatever else we want to do.

[Sam Parr]

Good luck kicking this guy out. God damn, you're in bouncer's worst nightmare.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Well, now that I know that it's flexible, that makes me feel better.

[Tommy Mello]

I want to wrap up real quick. So Cortec bought a company in the same fund of me. Cortec is a company that I partnered with A1 so we own half each.

[Sam Parr]

I saw some other garage company just got bought for 800 million the other day.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, I'm with them tonight.

[Sam Parr]

Really?

[Tommy Mello]

I was with them last night.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, Nice.

[Tommy Mello]

Great company. Great guys.

[Sam Parr]

Nice.

[Tommy Mello]

In fact, I gave him a hug and I'm like, congratulations. And we're talking about a lot of business tonight. But little sleepies. This lady just started selling. She had a kid and she didn't like any of the clothes so she started making them in their garage. They're doing about 100 million of EBITDA.

[Sam Parr]

Little sleepies.

[Tommy Mello]

Little Sleepies. That's what it's called.

[Sam Parr]

Awesome. I'm gonna go buy it right now.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, you're gonna love it.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Could you say again slowly? Could you ask him what the name of that hot dog thing was?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, go again. Tell us the name of the hot dog.

[Sam Parr]

Sorry, I. Talk fast.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, you're good.

[Sam Parr]

Southern Sam's wieners as big as a baby's arm. That was saying on my hot dogs.

[Tommy Mello]

Wieners as big as a baby's arm. Oh, my God. Okay, so

[Sam Parr]

don't have a gross mind, bro.

[Tommy Mello]

No, no, I. I did, because you did that. But you interviewed Alex Hermosi. Big fan. I've tried to coordinate with him. I text him on a cell phone. His assistant. He's probably gone through 87 assistants. Mr. Beast. Cool dude. What I like about Mr. Beast is he met him so much. I didn't. I didn't meet him. But I'll tell you, like, I started watching that show on Netflix, and I just can't get into it. And then Prof. G. Whatever. Do you think there's a recipe for success with these guys?

[Sam Parr]

Well, I think that there's different levels of success. I don't know where you fall on that level. You might be the Mr. Beast type, but Mr. Beast is maniacal.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. When your enemies are drowning, stick up. I was in their mouth.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. I think her Moses, maniacal. I don't know if Hermosi is happy or not, but he's.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, that's the Tony Robbins. He's sitting there in the interview, and he's gonna outwork you.

[Sam Parr]

He's maniacal. And Layla, are you maniacal? No, I'm not maniacal either.

[Tommy Mello]

I. I could be obsessive, and I want to win, but I invite the grassroots companies in because I'm like, we're stronger together, and so we've got grass. Your freedom. But my life is not built on only work because you're leaving so much on the table of, like, dude, that's why we're building the Idaho house. Like, relationships matter.

[Sam Parr]

I think that what I've learned. I've been so thankful at this podcast is I've learned that there's a billion ways to get to the end goal. Right.

[Tommy Mello]

But do you enjoy the journey?

[Sam Parr]

Me? Yeah. Yeah, dude. I have a super rich life. I love my life. I love my family. I define my rich life as I have a strong woman in my life, I am physically fit, I enjoy my co workers, and I like my family. Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

So what are entrepreneurs? What are some of the people that you had on the show that you're like, I want that life?

[Sam Parr]

Jesse Itzler was quite good.

[Tommy Mello]

I do Like Jesse, he has a rich life.

[Sam Parr]

I think he. I think he feels like. I think he's happy. This guy named Dharmesh, who's the founder of HubSpot is. He's a billionaire, but that's, like, the least impressive thing about him. Um, he's a really happy person, and I think he loves. He's a computer nerd. He loves coding and doing things like that. And he has designed his life exactly how he wants it to be. He founded HubSpot, and not one person reports to him, so he's never. He's like, I don't like managing people, but I love making products, so I'm only going to do that.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, that's really interesting because a lot of people say this is how a CEO must work. You got to have these one on ones and everything. But in this new world, they can make it as dynamic as you want.

[Sam Parr]

But he launched in 08 or 05. I forget. And anyway, he. I love people who just live life the way that they want to live, regardless of what the rules are.

[Tommy Mello]

Richard Branson, I think of. I had to think of somebody that's like, dude, if you're going to come talk to business, I'm flying you out to Switzerland, where I'm at. We're going to talk an hour about business, then we're going to go ski the Alps. You know what I mean?

[Sam Parr]

He seems like a crazy person.

[Tommy Mello]

The Epstein files.

[Sam Parr]

Well, he does have Epstein vibes, by the way.

[Tommy Mello]

Everybody's on the Epstein files.

[Sam Parr]

But, dude. Yeah, not you. Not me.

[Tommy Mello]

No, no. I mean, half the women on the View were. Whoopi Goldberg was. But anyway, we're gonna cut this.

[Sam Parr]

I thought you weren't gonna talk politics.

[Tommy Mello]

That was no politics.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, but I know you're holding back.

[Tommy Mello]

So you encouraged your listeners to make ChatGPT your life coach. And I'll tell you what I do is I Claude now. You like Claude better?

[Sam Parr]

Way better. I don't even think it's close. What do you think?

[Tommy Mello]

Well, I think openclaw changed the game when I got my building. No, I'm not. Literally, like, we're gonna do a whole thing of me getting the Mini Mac and, like, setting it up.

[Sam Parr]

That's still a little too dangerous to me. It's kind of dangerous.

[Tommy Mello]

Why?

[Sam Parr]

Dude, check this out. My partner installed openclaw, and he had openclaw.

[Tommy Mello]

The openclaw could steal all your shit.

[Sam Parr]

He had it be his assistant, and the assistant started messaging everyone in Slack. And then the next morning, we see this message from this New guy named Jake. And he goes, hi, I'm Jake. I fired Emily, the old assistant that OpenClaw had made, because she did X, Y and Z. I'm now in charge. Like that. Said that in Slack.

[Tommy Mello]

So when you talk about Claude, Open Claw is a piece of Claude.

[Sam Parr]

No, they're just similar name. No, for. For the sake of the conversation. No.

[Tommy Mello]

Okay, so what. Tell me the pros and cons between. By the way, Sam Altman. I don't trust him at all.

[Sam Parr]

Of course, neither do I. Open Claw is. I don't know the best way to explain it. That would make perfect sense. But basically, imagine they are. Open Claw is using Claude, but it's a. It's its own machine with its own rules. OpenClaud. Claude. Claude. Claude is a closed system and it has many similar features as Open Claw. But for all intents and purposes, imagine they are two separate things. An open Claw goes on your own, its own computer, and it's working 247 and making decisions.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

Claude is only doing that as you talk to it. So does that make sense?

[Tommy Mello]

It does. 100%. I figured out. I know there's a way to take because there's too much in ChatGPT, but there's a way to export that into Claude. So I'll make the switch this way.

[Sam Parr]

I love Claude also. Here, I'll give you a cool example. Claude has Claude code that I love. I made this. You got big legs, right? Is. Are finding pants hard?

[Tommy Mello]

They could be.

[Sam Parr]

Finding pants for me is so hard. I built a Chrome extension where I uploaded my thigh and waist width and it goes to the stores that I already go to online shop. And it automatically scans the sizes, not just the waist sizes, but the size guide of each pant. And it goes like, these are the ones that you should. These fit.

[Tommy Mello]

We should do that. I gotta come out here again. And I have the hardest time finding good shoes, so I need to just do all the measures. My arch is like crazy.

[Sam Parr]

I created a Chrome plugin that just. And I did it last night in Claude and It took me 20 minutes. And now, like, I, like, bought pants already. I'm like, all right, these are the ones that fit. I don't have the browser anymore, dude.

[Tommy Mello]

We've been working on this garage door health thing for a long time. And Luke built it in a day. And it's badass. We sent it to the first guy, he's like $12,000 door sale, like just. That would have taken a year. But anyways, so you tell it to be your Life coach. And by the way, I agree with you, but I don't want to be. I still like the social side of like meeting people.

[Sam Parr]

Of course, so.

[Tommy Mello]

So talk to me a little bit about that.

[Sam Parr]

So I did this test called Deep Personality AI. It's this, my friend Andrew made it, but it's based off of just an old test and it's like a 30 minute test where I tell it all about my personality and then I upload it to Claude so it knows about me and so it can help give me advice. What's funny is it has a feature where you can click a button and send it to your partner, meaning your boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse. And it has some sexuality stuff because it does ask you like questions and it like makes judgments on your sexuality. Not like if you're gay or straight, but like, you know, I forget what some of the things could be like, I don't know, fucking know, like just like Freudian shit. Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah, I don't know exactly, I don't understand it. But then you could share it with your co worker or you could share it with your friend and when you share it with your co worker it gets rid of the sex stuff. Well, my business partner thought. Partner, business partner. And you could send it to each other and so this way I can load my, my Claude with his compatibility stuff. So this way when I'm talking to him and I'd be like, you know, Joe and I aren't aligned. I need to like communicate differently. What should I say? He mistakenly said the partner one and I see it's like, well, you guys aren't sexually compatible, therefore like oh my God, that's crazy. But yeah, I use Claude all day as like a, like a. Help me respond to this person in a tone that is appropriate to them.

[Tommy Mello]

No, that's great.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Entrepreneurs, how do they use it? Like what are some.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. So for young entrepreneurs.

[Sam Parr]

Oh well, it's quite simple I think if I'm a young entrepreneur I would say ask me 50 questions or as many questions as are necessary so you could help me make a five year goal for where, where I want to be and then ask me more questions so you can get to know my personality and my strengths and weaknesses so you can make a SWOT analysis of my personality. And then when I come to you with questions on will this decision allow me or not allow me to get closer to my goal, I want you to guide me based off of where I'm headed towards. Because I think, I think unless you have a goal Unless you have a very specific timeframe with a specific goal. Like, having ambition can be almost useless.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. If you don't know the North Star for sure and understand. And that's a lot more things. We dive into that because it's like,

[Sam Parr]

for example, it's like, oh, I want to have this amount of money, or I want this type of lifestyle. And then you're saying, like, okay, should I raise venture capital? It's like, well, you said you wanted freedom, so. No, but it's like, oh, you want impact and you don't care about equity. Yeah. Raise venture capital.

[Tommy Mello]

No, I'm going to go do this this week. You got two days busyness, and then Friday, I'll be good. What advice do you have for somebody trying to make their first million?

[Sam Parr]

Just dedicate, like, way longer than you think to it.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. Consistency. Don't give up, don't quit.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. I just don't think. And I do. I mean, I make this mistake all the time. I don't think people realize how long things take. Things take forever.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. A lot of people think they're going to get rich very, very quickly, and they give up so quickly, even with a podcast. So many smart people. I know, they gave it 10 weeks and they thought they were gonna be, you know, Tony Robbins.

[Sam Parr]

No, our podcast has been around for five years. We've done 850 episodes.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. You're right. What number was that? 850. Yeah. So you got. You got me beat. The hard part is sometimes I feel like I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it all kind of works out.

[Sam Parr]

By the way, what does that mean? Who are you robbing?

[Tommy Mello]

Well, I got 1200 people depend on me at my main company. That's the main source of income. But also.

[Sam Parr]

But that's how I heard about you. And I don't live in one of your states, but if I did, and if I owned, I would use you.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. No, you're right. There's a byproduct.

[Sam Parr]

And I also think that, like, your company's cool. And I'd be like, if I met a young guy in Arizona or wherever you. All the cities that you serve, I'd be like, hey, this company seems like the CEO seems pretty badass. Why don't you go work there?

[Tommy Mello]

It's that I think it's more important for the CEO to build a brand than it is for the company itself, because you don't go work for a company. You go work for a person.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. Chris Hoffman. I think Is a good example of this Hoffman brothers.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. Great guy. We'll see him tonight.

[Sam Parr]

He's in New York.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

That's cool. Is this like a H vac?

[Tommy Mello]

This is a service titan CRM meetup.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, cool.

[Tommy Mello]

And I'm on a panel tomorrow. Like, man, you put me on a panel.

[Sam Parr]

Sounds like a riveting conference.

[Tommy Mello]

It will be. We're going to be talking about culture, which actually is my favorite thing.

[Sam Parr]

I'm just joking. Service titan.

[Tommy Mello]

Service titan. What's one word you would use to describe your entrepreneurial journey?

[Sam Parr]

The motto that I live by. It's kind of cheesy. It's like the basic. It's like. It's like my version of live laugh love. So you can, like, make fun of me. It's like bullf.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Fun.

[Tommy Mello]

Bold, fast fun.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. Bff Bold, fast fun.

[Tommy Mello]

Bold fast fun. I love it.

[Sam Parr]

That's like the basic version. That's like my live laugh love.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Isn't that the home service? Like, quick, cheap, easy.

[Sam Parr]

You can only pick two.

[Tommy Mello]

No, no. The one is. Is you could. You could pick best quality. You could pick quickest. You could pick the cheapest.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

You can only pick two out of the three. Here's the thing. Cheap labor isn't skilled. Skilled labor isn't cheap.

[Sam Parr]

You have all the phrases. I have a lot of fun. I think you do too.

[Tommy Mello]

You got to have fun. But here's the deal. You know as well as I do you. I've had people that I've sent to you, and you're like, dude, not a good guess for me. And it's a great story. Who was it the other few weeks ago? We don't need to say.

[Sam Parr]

Richard.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Parr]

I'm like, I just don't know what to say.

[Tommy Mello]

It's a cool story about.

[Sam Parr]

It's a cool guy. But what am I supposed to talk about?

[Interviewer/Moderator]

I think you should talk to Dr. Brackman, the guy who.

[Tommy Mello]

Oh, I'll enter. I'll introduce you to some cool people

[Interviewer/Moderator]

that you could introduce us to. And he wrote the book about driven, driven people. And, like, what it looks like you

[Sam Parr]

and reading that book right now.

[Tommy Mello]

But. But the deal is you. I think you got to bring it back to success. But here's the problem with most successful people. 80% of the billionaires I meet, I don't want to be them. I don't. I don't want anything to do with their life. Like, with money comes misery for a lot of people. And I'm watching it now going into this next bite.

[Sam Parr]

The apple And I'm like, who do you admire?

[Tommy Mello]

If I had to tell you, a billionaire. You know, not to get political, but Mark Cuban seems like a pretty freaking cool guy, and he. He. Well, because I don't agree with his politics necessarily.

[Sam Parr]

Do you want to hear a cool story about him? I tweeted out that my friend with cancer needed a certain drug, and Mark contacted me and took care of my friend two weeks ago.

[Tommy Mello]

That's why I like him, because emailed me personally.

[Sam Parr]

He personally emailed me. He doesn't know who I am.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, he does. I mean, you give yourself probably far less credit than you deserve, but.

[Sam Parr]

But he took care of my buddy.

[Tommy Mello]

That's really, really cool. I mean, I'm glad I. He didn't.

[Sam Parr]

He didn't reply to the tweet. He just saw the email. I put my email there, and he goes, hey, I'm on top of it. What do you need? Tell me anything.

[Tommy Mello]

That is super cool, man.

[Sam Parr]

Badass, right?

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, there's. There's a lot of people I admire. You know, I like Dan Martel a lot. He's not a billionaire, but I just. Dan Martell really, really like, he's not the drive I would see. He's just like, dude, I'm gonna work out. I was up there visiting him in Canada, and he's like, dude, we're gonna go work out. We're gonna have a coffee. We're gonna shoot content. And he goes like, he just lives his life, and then work comes around it. A lot of people build their life around work, and I respect that. I don't necessarily. You know who I want to be really good at? Tommy Mello. I want to be good at being me. And what I mean by that is just. I'm not going to imitate or try to be anything I'm not. But I will be known for being the best dad on the earth if I could choose. And what does that mean? It just means I'm giving time and giving experience. I just pray for health. That's the most important thing. And even if I had five girls, I just want to be the coolest dad. And I don't mean to say it

[Sam Parr]

like that, but of course, even if you have. You want a boy?

[Tommy Mello]

Well, of course I play a lot of sports. I like and not say women don't play sports.

[Sam Parr]

I have two girls, and my eldest girl is very boy. Like, she's very gregarious, but I. I wish I can. I want two boys and two girls. That'd be awesome.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, we got to Figure out this testosterone, you know, sperm thing, I guess.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah,

[Tommy Mello]

give me, give me one guess that just impressed the shit out of you that you weren't expecting.

[Sam Parr]

Rob Dyrdek.

[Tommy Mello]

Rob Dyrdek. That's a good one.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, I can make the intro. He's great.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, yeah, he's, he's a. He started really focusing on time management and that's really what he had his

[Sam Parr]

like coming out party on that on our podcast and it went totally viral. I take a lot of pride on mfm. We've kind of been like the first publication for a lot of people. So it was him, Brian Johnson, the guy who wants to live forever. Andrew Huberman. Yep. We were early on.

[Tommy Mello]

How long do you want to live too? If AI does this job and we

[Sam Parr]

could break the genetic code and really 130 seems reasonable. 130, that seems nice.

[Tommy Mello]

So how long? But look, as long as I, I want to be mobile and by the way, like some people, like, why would you want to live forever? All your friends, I'm like, well, they're living forever too, hopefully.

[Sam Parr]

Well, you. If I had a guess, there's going to be a direct correlation between size and I think tall, big people. I'm tall. You're tall and big are gonna live less.

[Tommy Mello]

You think so?

[Sam Parr]

I think that like smaller people live longer. Yeah. I think it's like dogs.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, maybe. But I know a lot of people. I don't think that's a general rule,

[Sam Parr]

but we take it is. I believe, by the way, I think it is.

[Tommy Mello]

That's why the China people, you know, maybe here's the deal.

[Sam Parr]

Like haven't you seen like a bunch of Asian people? Like I have a bunch of Asian friends and I'll see their grandparent and their grandparent is the smallest person ever and they are 105 years old and they're still able to squat in the ground.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. Well, another thing is like if you go to Italy, like and I don't go to Italy, but I know one of Giuseppe does and he. The thing is you got to walk everywhere. And you're always betting out picking up stuff. But you could drink wine every night and still live long.

[Sam Parr]

But I think New York is the best place to grow olden because you walk everywhere. My in laws are so healthy and they walk everywhere.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, okay, I'll give you that one.

[Sam Parr]

But how many steps a day do you get?

[Tommy Mello]

That's true. But I'll tell you this, I don't really enjoy it because I'd rather walk. But literally we took An Uber here. And it's like. And by the way, the hotel, all we're hearing is beeping and loud. It's just not me.

[Sam Parr]

Well, you're in. This neighborhood is the worst. You are in the worst area. Where she lives. It looks like Paris, where I live. It's quiet. I live in.

[Tommy Mello]

I will come give it a shot. I mean, I'm not moving out here.

[Sam Parr]

You can come see my. I have a 3,000 square foot apartment. It's beautiful. It's quiet.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

You can book a bunch more podcasts.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, I felt the same way, by the way. I lived in Texas for a little while, and then I moved here and I felt. I thought that New York was just what you were experiencing right here. There are so many areas where it's really quiet and beautiful. I love old architecture and beauty and, like, art. And so I live on the Upper west side because everything's old and has a beautiful, like, French aesthetic. And it's, it's, it's. It's very. Like, I live right down the street from Strawberry Fields, which is where John Lennon was shot. And so there's something that. It feels a little magical. It's kind of cool.

[Tommy Mello]

I'll check it out. I'll give it a shot. I'm just not a 24 7. Like, I think Phoenix is perfect. Anytime you want to come visit, that's my city. That's going to be home forever.

[Sam Parr]

Dude, I'm a 24 7. I'm in bed by 10:30.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, no, I know, but I'm just saying, like, this city is just too busy for me. Like, I don't. Like, I could get too busy in Phoenix and I could get to not miss.

[Sam Parr]

I hear you.

[Tommy Mello]

And I could get to Vegas quickly.

[Sam Parr]

I'm just saying where you are staying for your trip is the busiest.

[Tommy Mello]

No, I've stayed. I've stayed. I'll give it a. I'm not judging it. I'll tell you this. I'm from Michigan, and I'm just not. The weather. I don't like the weather.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, it sucks.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, the weather's bullshit. I hate it. I'm never gonna move back to the cold. I can go to Idaho now when I want, in the winter for Christmas. Give me your two best books that changed your life.

[Sam Parr]

Titan, the biography of John Rockefeller. It's life changing for me. Also, if I weren't in business, I would be a history teacher. I am obsessed with history. It's my life's passion. And one of my favorite books about American history is the Patriarch which is the story of Joe Kennedy, who is the president, the father of jfk. That's one of my favorite books.

[Tommy Mello]

You know, it's funny. I was in D.C. the other day and I hit up RFK Jr. And he's like, it was cool because you know him. Well, not really, but he's a cool dude for me. I like him a lot.

[Sam Parr]

Hit him up. He's like, tommy, hey, Tommy, I'm catching that name you're dropping. I got you. I'm catching that.

[Tommy Mello]

Well, he said, hey, I could show you around, but you know, I was leaving too soon and he's a busy man.

[Sam Parr]

Wait, so you stood him up or you didn't?

[Tommy Mello]

No, I didn't stay longer because.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, that's pretty wild.

[Tommy Mello]

Because I don't. By the way, what am I going to do? See him for 30 minutes? Because he's making time.

[Sam Parr]

Yes.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

Daniel Pink wants to do an interview.

[Tommy Mello]

Oh, Daniel Pink's the man. You know, Daniel Pink is the author. Yeah. Daniel Pink to sell his human is what he says. That book changed my life.

[Interviewer/Moderator]

He wants to be a human. If you guys want to do last questions.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah, I know.

[Sam Parr]

Was this fun for you?

[Tommy Mello]

This is great. Super cool. Sam, I always ask, somebody wants to get a hold of you. How do they do that?

[Sam Parr]

I try to be. I'm hard to get a hold of on purpose.

[Tommy Mello]

That's okay.

[Sam Parr]

I would say you would tweet at me.

[Tommy Mello]

Tweet?

[Sam Parr]

Dude, I am. I could go on a long story on this, but I think that like people are lack of focus and my. My focus is destroyed now because of like social media. And like I get. I hate the amount of texts and emails and slacks that I can potentially get. And it has ruined my focus. So I try, I'm trying my hardest not to be reachable. You know what?

[Tommy Mello]

That's one of my goals too. And it's very hard for me, but that's. That's the North Star for me.

[Sam Parr]

Have you heard of the Flynn effect?

[Tommy Mello]

The Flynn effect?

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. Basically every 30 years, which is one generation on average. Since we've been measuring this in the 1800s, the IQ has gone up 9 points since 2014 or so is the first generation that it hasn't gone up. And it's attributed it's correlation but potentially causation that it's social media and in particular short form video.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah.

[Sam Parr]

And so like, you know, swiping. I do it all the time. I'm like a zombie. And then now with AI, I'm like, I'm not even thinking about this shit. It's writing for me. I'm like, my crap is. And so. And then with the messages, it's just going down.

[Tommy Mello]

Have you read the book Sapiens Years ago?

[Sam Parr]

Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

Yeah. So, yeah, that just kind of talks about how back in the day, the survival skills, the coordination, the. The, like, you. The IQ was actually higher.

[Sam Parr]

How many books do you read?

[Tommy Mello]

A lot. But I don't finish them all because sometimes I'm reading five at once. Like, I'm going through Peter Till's the one zero to one again. So I've got a. I've got a. Several reading groups. And then the problem is.

[Sam Parr]

What's a reading group?

[Tommy Mello]

I got accountability partners, and we read one book a month together. It's mostly family.

[Sam Parr]

I used to run a book club called the Anti mba.

[Tommy Mello]

Oh, nice.

[Sam Parr]

So I feel you. Well, I do. I mean, I love books, but I. I love books. Just business books.

[Tommy Mello]

You read mostly biographies.

[Sam Parr]

I read business biographies, but not business books.

[Tommy Mello]

I. So I'll have you close this out, by the way. I want to do a lot more stuff. Like, I. I kind of feel like I. I just kind of mesh with you a lot. Like, I enjoy being around you. No. Weirdo.

[Sam Parr]

How old are you? I'm 43, so I'm 36. So you could be like a big brother. But I admire you so much. I am. Like, there's so many things that you said that I'm like, on when you came on mfm, where I'm like, oh, my God. I identify with that so much. And you just taught me something. I think that, like, in terms of, like, you asked me who I admire, who's been on the pod. I think you are one of the 10 people where I'm like, that's the way you live.

[Tommy Mello]

That's really that. And you know what? You changed my mind about a lot of things.

[Sam Parr]

And I'm from Missouri, and you're from Michigan. I think it's a Midwestern thing. Yeah.

[Tommy Mello]

Close this out, man. Give the audience something to think about.

[Sam Parr]

Oh, my God.

[Tommy Mello]

I don't know. Anything you want? Maybe something we didn't talk about,

[Sam Parr]

Man, I. I don't know. That's too much pressure. I, like. I don't know. Go read a history book. Go read. I don't know, man. Too much pressure. That's a hard job.

[Tommy Mello]

We got a lot of great stuff.

[Sam Parr]

That's like, you telling me, like, hey, I heard you're funny. Go. Go ahead, make me laugh.

[Tommy Mello]

All right, I'll ask the last question to close us out. Yeah, I will. Okay. You want me to make you laugh? Possibly.

[Sam Parr]

Yeah. I can make you laugh.

[Tommy Mello]

Okay.

[Sam Parr]

Here's how I met my wife.

[Tommy Mello]

Okay.

[Sam Parr]

My wife is a sophisticated woman. Grew up in Manhattan, went to an Ivy League school. I saw her in a bar. She's beautiful. I was with a buddy of mine, my friend Lily. I go, lily, when this girl walks by me, I'm gonna have to stop her. I'm not leaving until I talk to her. So she starts walking towards me. And I wasn't sure what it's gonna say, so I just said the first joke that came to mind. I go, hey, what is the difference between a chickpea and a lentil? She goes, what? I said, I don't pay $500 to have a lintel on my face.

[Tommy Mello]

Oh, my God.

[Sam Parr]

And because I knew she looked like a sophisticated woman, but because she was both sophisticated and could laugh at my dirty joke, I knew she was the one. And I told her I loved her. Two weeks later and we've been together for like 15 years.

[Tommy Mello]

That's amazing. Well, I'd love to meet her.

[Sam Parr]

She's awesome.

[Tommy Mello]

It's a pleasure to have you here. I'm going to get to know you a lot more. Maybe in the Hamptons. This kind of makes sense.

[Sam Parr]

Hampton?

[Tommy Mello]

No, but your father in law has a place in the Hamptons.

[Sam Parr]

He does? Yeah. Moving blue collar.

[Tommy Mello]

And then we can meet Sydney and Sarah, right?

[Sam Parr]

Yeah, that's my wife. It's tattooed on me. Sarah, Sweet.

[Tommy Mello]

I hope you're. What? I hope Sydney's not tattooed. But anyways, thank you for listening to the Mellow Millionaire guys. If you get a chance, go check out the episode on my first million. We had a blast on that one too.