Arie Emmanuel is the guy who runs runs w me, which is what the show who's the the show entourage that based the character, Ari Gold, off of Ari Manuel. He says this hot shot agent or whatever. I've heard Ari Emmanuel in in a couple articles. They say that's what he does. He'll call someone every single day until he gets what he wants. And I think that's a I've been picking this up as a thing. Like,

I'll give you you an example of you. You you actually do this. When we were like, alright, we're gonna make, like, our own podcast studio.

It was like, yeah, cool idea at everybody kinda nods and Okay. What's one level better than that? Somebody's like, oh, you know, I'll take charge of it. I'll come up with the plan.

And then that person usually goes around asking what the budget should be like, you know, they kind of push the ball forward, nudge it forward with their toe. And then somebody else is like, okay, I'm gonna get this done, and I'm gonna get this done in two weeks, which seems like aggressive. Right? You go from no studio, to a fully functioning podcast studio.

No. I'm like, let's go Yeah. You were like, okay. What are you doing right now? And I was like, I'm on the phone with you. And you're like, cool. What are you gonna do? Like, right after this? You ready to go? I'll kick I'll pick you up. And I was like, what? I guess I could find a babysitter for my child. And, like, I guess I could. And so We and then all of a sudden, hour later, I'm in the car with you. We're driving to fucking IKEA,

and you walk in and you're like, hey, IKEA,

guy.

We need, like, a awesome

studio couch. And he's like, okay. Yeah. And you're like, here's five hundred dollars in cash. Where do I spend this, like, to get the couch? And they were like, what the fuck is going on? It's a different level of intensity and sure enough

by, like, the next day we had those two red couches that were like, you're like, I need you had a vision. You're like, I need a couch. Yeah. That's gonna pop in the thumbnail of a YouTube video. And so, like, I want it to look like this. And then we had it. And then you're like, cool.

You know, our accounting person is gonna paint the room today. And then, like, you know, this next person's gonna do this. And, like, all of a sudden, like, the world just bent to your will.

And I'll have another I'll give you another example. Me and my buddy, Julie, we invest in this company.

And I put fifty k in. He put so we put, like, a hundred k in. And so we were like, alright. Great.

Now a couple months go by and we're like,

did these guys, like, are they what are they doing? And so we, like, check-in with them, like, nine months later, and we're like, hey, what's the latest. And they were kind of, like, you know, doing their thing, but they they weren't they didn't have, like, a clear plan, and they wanted to raise money.

They were like asking us for intros, and we were like, cool. Send us your deck. And I sent this to the deck. It sucked. And we were like, hey, guys, this deck kinda sucks. Like, I don't wanna make intros. Like, let's work on your deck. And they're like, oh, thank you. We'd love some help. So we get on a call.

And we get on a call before we get on the call. Okay. Well, that was like they're like, let's do a call. You're what times are free for you next week? Silly goes,

I'm free in, like, forty five minutes. Can you get to, like, can you get to a computer by then? And they're like, yeah.

In the forty five minutes between then, he sent three emails

with, like, slide one, this sucks. Slide three, what is this picture? This is stupid. Side five, present it this way. Slide nine, and he just had it like, before the meeting, he'd done the meeting. Then we get into the meeting, and he's like, alright, guys. I sent you guys a bunch of stuff.

Like, let's open up PowerPoint right now and just fix it. And they were fixing it and he's like, okay. Cool.

There's, like, these three things that are missing.

Like, alright. Let's do a call, like, in four hours with the deck fixed with those three things that were missing.

And, let's do this call every morning and every afternoon. We're gonna do two calls a day for the next five days or until this deck is amazing.

And these guys were just like, what?

And I was also like, are they? What hurt?

What's the what's the result of that? Well, they've they've gone on to raise money. I though, honestly, the result of that was, I think, by day four. They were just sort of, like, I hate you. Like, like, we disagree or, like, you know, this is just too much for us. They kinda, like, backed off and we're just, like because by the end of that, we were, like, not only does your deck need to change. Your business strategy needs to change because, like, the deck can only just tell a great business story, but you don't actually have a great business story. So we need to fix that too. And, like, you know, and it was, like, we are are kind of, like, you know, the delivery wasn't the softest. So I I don't think they loved the calls. At first, it was, like, wow. This is really constructive feedback. By the end, I think they were just beaten down and, like,

whatever. Was Dan was

Dan Porter a guy who took it to a level twelve? That what you're saying now? How he pushed So he told me the stories of Ari doing it. He told me the story of Richard Branson doing it. And then he had stories of him doing it. He was like, because we were asking about the milk road. He reads the milk road every morning. And so we were like, alright. You know, what would you do about this and this and this? How did you do that early days of his latest project? So I should introduce that. So he

after the WME thing, he's like, he started this new company called overtime, which I don't know if you've Which has like taken over the world, but I don't even entirely know what it is. But, like, their social handles are all over the place. They're huge on social. So, basically, it's, like,

if you're into back it started with basketball. Now they have, like, football and other but I started with basketball. And, basically, what they did was

they just create, like, a media company, but instead of the way, like, okay, ESPN is a TV channel.

And then, like, bleacher report and others were websites. And then there were some newsletters. And these guys were, like, no. We're just gonna be, like, an Instagram account.

We're just gonna become the biggest Instagram account for basketball culture.

And, what does that mean? It's like

crazy dunks, like, high school prospects. That's really where they, like, found their foothold, was they were like, okay, forget the NBA. Like, a, like, hoops culture. They're really interested. Like, who are the next who's the next Lebron? And it turns out there was this kid Zion Williamson who was this, like, tank looking guy in South Carolina that people had heard of. He's got a cool name called Zion the guy's built like a fucking, you know, crunch bar. Right. And then he could fly. Like, he's like, you know, he's like a flying bus.

And so God crunch bar. Yeah. Like a double crunch crunch bar. I would

have thought, like, thicker than a snicker, but alright. We're gonna go crunch bar. That's not perfect. Okay.

So he so they started so they were like, okay. They put up a video of this guy, and it was, like, and immediately went viral. He's like, okay. Cool. People wanna know about Zion. ESPN, they're not sending a reporter down to, like, Greenville, South Carolina to, like, cover this guy's high school game against West Bishop Baptist, like, It's like, but we can do that. And so he he basically

and he said this thing when he would when I was talking to him. He's a very calm guy.

But he had that that level twelve intensity. I could tell it because he goes, he goes, I decided I was gonna do this, and then I just applied my will against it. And I was like, only somebody who is, like, knows they're a force of nature would even say something like that. He wasn't pitching me. He wasn't selling me. He was just I was trying to figure out how the fuck did you build this into, like, a household name in such a short period of time. And I've seen so many people talk to this.

And how do they make money? Do you know? They have a couple different ways. So they think they have, like, you know, probably, like, sponsors or whatever, but they now have their own basketball league. So he's, like, he basically created his own version of, like, a

like, instead of the NCAAAs, it's like you can come play in the overtime league. So right now he's, like, living in Atlanta where they're doing the season.

And, like and I told him, I was like, dude, you look like a high school science teacher?

Well, yeah. I so if you if you guys look up Dan order. When I hung out with him, he was like dressed cool and he looked like the cool guy, but he looked more he he is more similar to Malcolm Gladwell than he was a basketball fan.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's more of a gladwell than an ex. That's for sure.

Yeah. Like, you would never think. This is the guy that's like stealing, you know, street culture and who's culture at the grassroots level, but he is. He really is. Like, maybe he would have launched a poetry league over a basketball league. And I asked him. I was like, I'll let him know.

No. Actually, I love football. And I was like, what? And he's like, yeah. You know, like, he and so he told me about the approach that he took of, like, he's, like, I was at WME.

And,

he he's, like, you know, I I we heard these stats, which was basically, like, The full the NFL was really worried because they're, like, kids choose their favorite team and league

at, like, age ten or twelve.

And then that's, like, who they're a fan of for life is, like, that's my team. Or, like, that's my player. And then, like, they're they're a fan of them for, like, decades. And he's like, then we ask, like, how do you decide? Is it because of the city you're from or whatever? And they're like, no, Madon. Like, whoever's the most fun to play in Madon or, like, whoever's colors I like, And he's like, oh, shit. And NFL was also like, oh, shit. And the local sports owners were like, oh, shit. Because if if every kid in Philadelphia isn't growing up an Eagles fan, if they just like Michael Vic because he's fast

in the game of bad. And then, like, that's a fan we just didn't get. They're not gonna buy tickets, jerseys. They're not gonna, like, come to the games. Like, This is not gonna work. The model will break at that point. And then also, TV networks were like, yeah, kids aren't watching TV.

So,

Like, we gotta figure something else out. Like, what are they doing? They're playing video games. They're on social media. They're on Instagram. They're on TikTok. And so his theory was like, oh, okay. So we need to build

the sports media brand on those networks. And then we just have to find the thing that clicks and what clicked for them was these, like, young up and coming basketball players.

And then he, like, came up with the craziest, like, they would basically

he's like, alright. We need,

the clips, like, we need those clips faster than anybody else. And so they came up with a crazy idea, like, crazy ideas, which was like, they would find they would in their social media, they would just be like, Hey, who lives in, like, South Carolina.

We need a photographer. So, like, the number one Zion clip submitter to them. Clips that got millions and millions of views, basically built their brand, which is, like, a multi hundred million dollar brand now,

was done by a guy who was, like, I think, like, a plumber on, like, weekdays, and he would go to the games. And, like, the number two's clip submitter was a student at Zion School who had broke his leg. And because he was in a wheelchair, they put him, like, court side every game, like, instead of going up in the bleachers, so he had, like, the best spot. And so that guy was submitting, like, these amazing clips on his iPhone, and, like, that's what was going viral right away. And then He's like ESPN or whatever would hit us up and they'd be like, hey, like, can we license your videos? We'll pay you for this license. Like, he'll be like getty images. And he was like, fuck me, dude. I don't wanna build Getty. And he's like, how about this, ESPN? You can have it for free. You just have to tag us and put our watermark on it. And they're like, idiot?

Done. And so then they ended up promoting the shit out of overtime. Like, overtime was everywhere because of that. It was, like, seen as credible because it was on the span all the time.