Sam Parrr ( Private )

Started/sold some startups. Founder + president of Hampton @hamptonfounders. Host My First Million podcast on the side.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Looking at photos of my parent's christmas from 1956.

Looks straight out of A Christmas story.

Cowboy and indian costumes, a grumpy dad who's sick of his accounting job, tinsel tree, tin toys.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Codie Sanchez has such high content output. We've been buds since ~2016 and watching the rise has been awesome.

Congrats on the book launch!

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

https://t.co/yZSmfT8qIX

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Joe Hudson on MFM today.

We recorded last week. And I've thought about everything he talked about. It impacted me more than more every pod we've done in the past 6 months.

I can give a summary, but I suggest listening to it.

If you're ambitious, you need this.

https://t.co/1lM26D2ZBa

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Stuff I’ve consumed this week that's been pretty good:

George Carlin videos. My parents let me watch him as a kid even though he’s vulgar. If you’re interested in sharp, cutting language and how being witty help makes an argument interesting…watch old Carlin bits. I think he's the best.

Live From New York, the history of SNL. Started in the 70’s with a punk rock vibe. This is a great book if you manage creatives. Also hearing about the day to day work on what it takes to make content in teams. Very good book.

The Only Plane in the Sky. Book that interviews 100s of people on the ground during 9/11. Total page turner. Best book I’ve read that makes you feel the terror of the day. If you’re an American who wasn’t born when 9/11 happened, read this.

Untethered Soul. I never read self help books. But there was a post on reddit asking for a book that changed your life and this one was mentioned the most. ¼ of the way through so far. I see the potential.

The Prof G Storytelling Playbook. Scott Galloway writes in such a lyrical way and has huge output. His team did a blog post explaining how they make content. “More drama” is a thing they say often to make their writing better.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Moneywise is accepting new sponsors.

The pod: high net worth personal finance show.
The size: last 60 days ave episode downloads/views is ~30k.

We will be uptight about who we let sponsor so we don't look dumb.

But if you're interested: [email protected]

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

We were offered like $600k to sell our company data to Micro1. 100% not doing it.

But it does interest me like crazy.

What a crazy business model and idea.

If you don't know, here's all I know about them: they go to private companies. They ask for your slack, notion, email info. Offer you 6-7 figures. Somehow anonymize that data and sell it to Openai, etc.

Seems like Micro1 has grown to 9 figures in revenue very very fast.

What else am I missing here. I get the value of this. But doesn't seem right to me.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Boosie on 60 minutes.

I dig.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

I asked David Rubenstein how many years into Carlyle he finally felt financially stable.

"Maybe yesterday."

He's been building the firm since 1987.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

David Rubenstein owned a company with a list of every book in print. In the early days, Jeff Bezos came to rent that list to sell books online.

Bezos offered him 20% of Amazon for it. Rubenstein wanted cash, so they took $100k a year for 5 years instead.

He later got a little stock and sold it at the IPO. "That stock's probably worth $14b now."

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

David Rubenstein episode on MFM today.

Some takeaways:

- he's worth like $4 billion. He said he still fears it'll go to zero and talked about those emotions (my fav part).

- he talked about how in year 10, he wasn't certain Carlyle would be huge

- trends he's noticed among the super powerful

If you're a founder and you have doubt, listen to this episode.

Very cathartic.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

The phrase "rich life". I first heard it from @ramit. Not sure if he coined it, but he might have. I LOVE it.

It's a beautiful phrase because its not just money but an abundance of anything that brings you joy.

I say it all the time. On the pod, in Hampton, etc.

So, this is my official statement: I use this phrase often. I did not invent it. All credit goes to Ramit for teaching me about it!

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Lorne Michaels on creating SNL:

“We wanted to redefine comedy the way the Beatles redefined what being a pop star was. That required not pandering, and it also required removing neediness, the need to please. It was like, we’re only going to please those people who are like us. The presumption was there were a lot of people like us. And that turned out to be so.”

Applies to all creators.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Someone explain this scam to me.

I get these a lot.

Fake people saying they work at a publication and want to collab.

Do they say "pay me x" and I'll write an article on you and then ghost you?

Its so dumb. But I am curious.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

the scammer: https://t.co/KMYueKMrIM

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

The billion dollar business idea!*

*the business you love so much you wouldn't sell even for $1b dollars.

Heard from @FU_joehudson

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

A lot of newsletter companies will say "hey, we rock cuz we own our audience!"

No you don't. Google does. Gmail changes something and you're screwed.

But email is 100% a channel that's reliable. But you don't own it. They do.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

"People operations"

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Earth has been around for billions of years.

Humans...around 300,000.

Civilization 10,000.

Maybe I'm a buffoon (actually, yea I am).

But I just think its safe to say that humans or the world will not end while I'm alive. Predicting the end is near is a beloved pastime of humans.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Names, names, names:

"Dunn, North Carolina, is a small town about 40 miles south of Raleigh. It has 14,000 residents and its workforce is primarily blue-collar. The local diner is packed in the morning with people eating big breakfasts and drinking coffee. Waitresses call you "hon." All in all, Dunn is a pretty normal place, except for one fact: Almost everyone in Dunn reads the local paper, the Daily Record. As a matter of fact, more than everyone in Dunn reads the paper. The Daily Record's penetration in the Dunn community is 112 percent, which is the highest penetration of any newspaper in the country. What explains this remarkable success?

The Dunn Daily Record was founded in 1950 by Hoover Adams. Throughout his tenure as publisher, Adams has believed newspapers need to be relentlessly local in their coverage. In fact, asked why the Daily Record has been so successful, Adams replies: "It's because of three things: Names, names, and names." In 1978, frustrated by what he felt was an insufficient focus on local issues in the paper, he wrote a memo to his staff, explaining his views. "A local newspaper can never get enough local names. I'd happily hire two more typesetters and add two more pages in every edition if we had the names to fill them up."

Look at how Adams communicates his core message. He says he'd hire more typesetters if the reporters could generate enough names. This is forced prioritization: Local focus is more important than minimizing costs! He also speaks in clear, tangible language. Is there a staffer who won't understand what Adams means by "names"? Adams can't possibly be involved in the vast majority of decisions at the paper. But his employees don't suffer from decision paralysis, because Adams is clear: "names, names, and names." Do we run the inspiring human interest story from the wire service, or the boring city council meeting with public testimony on the roadway bond issue? The boring city council story. It has more names, so it wins."

Excerpt from Made to Stick.