If You're a Creator in 2026, Here's How I'd Build a Real Business — Transcript

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1. 0:00I'll say this. So, there's a big
2. 0:01difference between education businesses
3. 0:03and entertainment businesses. Totally
4. 0:05different monsters.
5. 0:07The benefit of education is that there's
6. 0:09a gazillion ways to monetize it.
7. 0:11The downside is it's much harder to grow
8. 0:13education cuz it's more niche. It's hard
9. 0:15to go abroad. Entertainment's the exact
10. 0:17opposite. It's like so easy to get
11. 0:18views. Everything's viral, tons of
12. 0:20subscribers, ton of awareness, but it's
13. 0:22really thin, right? And so, if you look
14. 0:24at the best people who monetize the
15. 0:26large entertainment audiences, like
16. 0:28taking it to his natural extreme is the
17. 0:30Mr. Beast, Logan Paul plays. So, then
18. 0:32it's looking at like if you look at I'm
19. 0:33sure you know
20. 0:35you know Dos Equis Equis with uh Bert
21. 0:37and um Tom Segura.
22. 0:39There's a reason that you know then then
23. 0:40then there's
24. 0:41Bodega Cat with more uh Moral and Mark
25. 0:44Normand. Like they usually go the boost
26. 0:46thing cuz it marries naturally with um
27. 0:50it it it marries naturally with comedy.
28. 0:51And so, it's typically some sort of
29. 0:53commoditized consumable that the highest
30. 0:55percentage of your audience consumes.
31. 0:58And if they're like,
32. 1:00uh well, if I'm going to buy one, I
33. 1:01might as well buy Zax. I like Zax. I
34. 1:04would definitely lean towards some sort
35. 1:05of consumable. Like there's a reason,
36. 1:08you know, Beast just went and did a
37. 1:09lunch lady, right? He just he's like,
38. 1:11okay, well, they're doing they're
39. 1:12printing 2 billion a year with a billion
40. 1:14in profits on this product, and here's
41. 1:17all the SKUs. I have distribution in
42. 1:19Walmart. I'm just going to [ __ ] put
43. 1:20mine right next to it and immediately go
44. 1:22to a billion a year.
45. 1:24And so, you have not Mr. Beast
46. 1:26recognition, but you have decent
47. 1:27recognition. So, the thing is is like
48. 1:29short term, you'll have to sell direct
49. 1:31to consumer and via affiliates and the
50. 1:32other people.
51. 1:33So, that's where like the tag team is
52. 1:35useful. I would structure a C corp and
53. 1:37then give uh shares. I'd say like put a
54. 1:3810% pool or something in, and then give
55. 1:40shares to other creators, so they get
56. 1:42commissions and some stock. Cuz they'll
57. 1:44usually like no one wants to just be
58. 1:47your affiliate. They want to be a
59. 1:49co-owner, but they usually don't need to
60. 1:51be
61. 1:53huge they don't need to be partners. So,
62. 1:55it's like just issue some shares, give
63. 1:57them their commission on top that so
64. 1:58you're getting paid and you're getting a
65. 1:59slug of the outside. That'll usually get
66. 2:01lots of people to lock in. And uh make
67. 2:03the agreements uh
68. 2:05that no one who is a part of the C Corp
69. 2:08can compete with customers who would
70. 2:09otherwise uh be customers of the C Corp.
71. 2:12And then that'll also lock them because
72. 2:14of the shares you gave them to not
73. 2:15marketing any other stuff.
74. 2:17>> So, it's really like you have two paths
75. 2:18at least that I'm hearing. It's like,
76. 2:20how do I monetize my audience? And then
77. 2:22how do I monetize my experience
78. 2:24monetizing my audience?
79. 2:25This one I love a lot. This one I would
80. 2:28want to go after some consumable.
81. 2:31Just in terms of talking strategy. And
82. 2:32if you had to pick one, which one do you
83. 2:34feel like you're better at?
84. 2:36If you feel like you've really well
85. 2:38monetized every aspect of your business
86. 2:39minus the cuz
87. 2:41they're not even necessarily mutually
88. 2:42exclusive because if you have a partner
89. 2:44who can do the the physical products
90. 2:46physical products aren't too tough to to
91. 2:47figure out once you have a good partner,
92. 2:49then that can just be another product
93. 2:51that you have in the suite that you can
94. 2:52get all of the people on the media side
95. 2:54to then then promote on the back end.
96. 2:56Cuz then it's like, not only are you
97. 2:57getting shares and I'll even get you
98. 2:58brand deals, I also have a couple of
99. 3:00SKUs that you'll get way better
100. 3:01commissions on than anything else.
101. 3:02The tough part is is like, do I want to
102. 3:04be Zach the businessman who owns the
103. 3:06media thing? Which long term that means
104. 3:08you just like depressed all the stuff
105. 3:09you're doing. Like look at Jay-Z, it's
106. 3:11like he doesn't put that much stuff out
107. 3:12now cuz he's got a label and he's got
108. 3:13all these other he's got all the horses
109. 3:14in the stalls for him. And so it's just
110. 3:16I think it's much more not a right path,
111. 3:18but which one's the right one for you?
112. 3:20Which is like, do you love being a
113. 3:21creator you want to do this forever? In
114. 3:22which case, be an artist, dude. Just go
115. 3:24to your art. If you feel like your art
116. 3:26is business, like for me, my art is
117. 3:28business. I do this content cuz it's
118. 3:30part of the game I'm playing in, but
119. 3:31business is my game.
120. 3:33So, that's where I'd be like, well, I
121. 3:35want to just get into being the media
122. 3:36mogul. And I I know that to replace my
123. 3:39income of my creatorship, I can go
124. 3:4180/20, keep 80% of my revenue with 20%
125. 3:44of the work, use the other 80% to then
126. 3:46build this empire just have enough that
127. 3:48I have proof that I know what I'm doing.
128. 3:50And that might be enough. If that's If
129. 3:51that's the life if you look at what my
130. 3:53daily activities are, if I like that
131. 3:55better, then that's how I pursue it. But
132. 3:56if you like making, then make. The
133. 3:58biggest regret I have in my life is that
134. 3:59I have one life.
135. 4:00>> Yes.
136. 4:01>> There's so many businesses that I want
137. 4:02to build that I'm like, "Oh my god, that
138. 4:04would be amazing." But it's like, once
139. 4:05you realize how much work it takes to
140. 4:06make anything really work and really go
141. 4:08big, you realize you only have like four
142. 4:10shots in your life.
143. 4:12It's like I got four
144. 4:14seven to 10-year cycles. That's it. And
145. 4:17so, it's like you just like You have the
146. 4:19punch card, you're like, "I got to make
147. 4:20sure I'm using it on the best way."